Desperately need tips to reduce almost £800 per mth food bill.

[Mumof3almost4]

I am stressing about mat leave pay and how low it is.
Just going through my income/outgoings and my main drain is on food. We are a family of 5, two adults, DC 18, 15, 13.
I am spending between £700-£800 a month on food. Is this ridiculous?!
I do cook mostly from scratch but will use a few pasta jars etc. I shop at local market for fruit and veg and the butchers for meat. We all like a big evening meal usually with meat or chicken and I always make sure there's salad or veg on the plate. I shop at home bargains and Asda for cupboard stuff, mainly use the freezer for left overs and don't like to waste anything.
I do try and plan meals but I think I've got in a habit of not doing this properly and then money gets frittered nipping to the shop. I then spend £30 easily feather than just getting what I need.

Reading this back I know I need to get much much better organised but really need your tips on how??
How do you plan meals without getting bored of it being repetitive?
We all eat well, no fussy eaters apart from a dislike of cheese and eggs.
Any advice for me to save a massive chunk of money please??

Also I hate Aldi. I'd never get a full shop in there

You don't need :

Smoothies
Granola bars
Fancy cheeses
Imported anything

Eat local cook from scratch, eatless meat. Buy full fat dairy. Fills you up more.

Keep a food diary for 2 weeks, this will help you pinpoint exactly where your money is going.

Meal plan. Get the family at the table each week and plan it together getting different ideas for meals and rotating.

As for Aldi: stop right there. You absolutely can get everything you need there and actually it's a good place to shop because you cannot buy all the "extras" you pick up in other supermarkets because that's where your money goes and actually, if you are popping to the shop for stuff you are clearly not buying everything you need at Asda..... you're just kidding yourself there.

I NEVER go to the local shops and I go food shopping once a week, I never have to go back.

I think you need to take a long hard look at what you're buying because for a family of 8 and a dog I never spent more than £100 per week and normally it was less than that, around £80.

I suspect your food bill is so high because you rely too heavily on branded goods and treats.

Time for some tough love and searing honesty about what you are REALLY buying.

@managedmis I take issue with the fancy cheese. I’ll live on lentils but I’ll never give up the nice cheese

Fancy cheese is far more affordable at Aldi.

Also I hate Aldi. I'd never get a full shop in there

Transl. - don't ask me to stop shopping at Waitrose, that's not going to happen

You seem to be doing your shopping right. Remember that if something isn’t on offer at Asda when you go- it’ll be on offer at Tesco, Sainburys or Morrisons. That’s how they rotate. If you’re tired with being pregnant, you don’t have to go to different shops, but buy a few of your regular items when they’re at their lowest. And only buy them then. People don’t need a big hunk of meat or chicken on their plate- chicken enchiladas, chilli with 1/4 mince/ kidney beans, chicken chilli, stews, casseroles, fish pie, home made pizza, chunky soups, all use minimal amounts of meat, fish, and won’t do anyone any harm. Cooking bacon is cheap too. Put bread and butter out with the evening meal, make puddings- crumble, bread and butter pudding, are easy, cheap, delicious and filling. Milk lasts ages longer than you think, get some with long dates, buy extra, and then you’ve no reason to be going to the shops for top ups

My top tips:

I keep a list of tried and tested recipes to consult with when I am meal planning. Most weeks 5-6 evening meals come off the list of approx 50 recipes. The other 1-2 are either eating out or trying a new recipe. Saves me feeling stuck in a rut.

Use your slow / pressure cooker. Cheaper cuts of meat can become delicious and it can help mid week when you're pushed for time. Am thinking: beef cheek, pork cheek, oxtail, beef brisket etc

I buy 2kg mince at a time and cook it with: onions, celery, red pepper, chopped tomatoes, mushrooms and a tin of beans (most often haricot or kidney) I then divide into portions and freeze so I've got 1/2 a meal ready to go midweek. This mix can easily become: shepherds pie; chilli; bolognese; tacos. Yeah - it's not authentic so sue me.

I also cook a slow cookers worth of pulses (overnight) and freeze in portions. The liquid they cooked in I freeze separately and use as stock.

I am a champion chicken chopper. I never buy pieces of chicken - only whole ones.

Learn what can be easily frozen. Caramalised onions make loads of casseroles taste amazing (freeze in muffin tins and then put portions into a ziplock bag).

Most meals require 20% more effort to double and freeze. Always helpful to have a ready made meal that's made from scratch.

Learn about other flavour bombs that can take your dinner from so-so to yummy. Eg a teaspoon of: Marmite. Umami paste (Waitrose) Porcini paste (Sainsburys) Miso paste (many)

Will add more if I think of anything. For what its worth I currently cater for two foodie adults. We rarely break £50 a week and eat amazingly.

When people talk about their food shop do they mean just food? Or 'the supermarket shop' including toiletries/ cleaning etc???

That's makes a massive difference - if it's just food that's a lot!!!! But if it includes essentials too- probably not so much.

With washing tablets/ dishwasher tabs/ nappies and wipes if you have kids for eg could be an extra 50 per month.

Use chicken thighs instead of breasts, they are juicier and cheaper.
Add lentils and chopped veg to things like chilli and bolognese to bulk them out (passatta is also cheaper than jars of tomato sauce)
Replace a couple of meat meals with veggie ones. Roast veg lasagne is lovely, as are veggie enchiladas with added beans for protein (you can literally chop up any veg you have and bung it in)
Menu plan for every day, this is the most important I think. I always spend more when I'm winging it!

Similar food bill here. I think the most of the money goes on fruit and meat. Maybe buy bigger pieces of meat cut to size and freeze. I've done in the past. Bought good quality beef at Smithfield market and froze. Even though frozen was better than supermarket beef. Also dishes such as casseroles, stir fry, etc don't cost a lot.

I don’t have anything to add only to say that I am exactly the same. What I have noticed is that since the pandemic started food prices have gone up and there are less deals on food like 3 for 2 etc. I think the supermarkets have profited massively from the pandemic!

We spend around 200 for 2 adults and one child. We do it by sticking to Aldi for almost all shop trips. (With top ups from Sainsbury’s).We are mainly meat free and have a lot of eggs instead. We have yoghurt and fruit for most puddings and buy few snacks or lunch box treats. We eat really well and do do the odd ready meal.

Where do you shop

I popped into Asda today and was shocked how costy some stuff was compared to Aldi

Yes you can’t get names brands in Aldi tho they do have offers down middle aisle and sometimes henzi beans do appear

Maybe write down a weeks menu for us

Thing is, for those who say they don’t want to shop in Aldi or give up x brand etc that’s obviously fine, but that is how the total adds up.

Shopping in waitrose is all very well if you have £££ to spend, £100 in waitrose would probably be somewhere between £25/30 in Aldi, so you would have a saving right there, so not making that saving is a choice.

I spend less than that without meal planning but I stretch a lot of the more expensive ingredients to be far less than 1 portion per person -for example I buy smoked salmon trimmings for salmon and tomato pasta sauce. If you make steak....slice it finely and layer on mash with onion chutney....built up a thai green curry with extra coconut milk and water chestnuts in the place of extra chicken. Cassoulet I use chippolatas cut in half and several different types of beans. But I am a foodie....I do a lot of experimental cooking and find it fun to use ingredients that are on offer in innovative ways. My cupboard is full of bulking items... pasta...tinned unusual beans etc.

I wouldn’t stop using local butcher. A good bit of meat adds flavour. And better for welfare for animals etc. You can bulk up the meal with lentils, tofu, tinned beans - all cheap - to make it go a lot further. Also. Keep chunks of ginger, chillis etc to boost taste of meal.

I cant geteverything from Aldi/asda/lidl but I am very specific about what I need from waitrose (dill tops/saffron etc) and would never buy staples from there.

We have a large family, the older children/young adults plan and cook once a week. We use recipe books for new ideas and reduce meat, so this week we are only have meat 2 days. Online shopping is a good way to save with meal planning. My husband also picks a meal each wk, so the mental load is spread as well.

That doesn't sound too bad to me. £40/per person/week is not outrageous.

I too actually don’t think that’s too bad Either,....£170 a week here, three adults. Non meat eaters, all fish and vegetarian. One supermarket shop A week only. There are very few offers since Covid, prices have definitely gone up. We eat healthily, most from scratch and that includes all cleaning products, wine and other goods. We buy from Tesco or Morrison’s.

Keep all your receipts for a month then use them to make lists of what you need to buy as monthly items and also as weekly items. Do you waste a lot? Once you have lists to follow you can get.all your shopping in on go and won t need to go to shops more than once a week.

I find meat cheaper than quorn in the quantities you need. E.g large chicken or whole pork shoulder around £5 each.

I noticed a huge food bill reduction when I went vegan.
I now spend £30 a week feeding 2/3 of us, so around £120 a month

That's only £200 a week which is about right for 5. I don't shop at market but shop in high end supermarkets. I spend £200-250 for 3 people.

We are a family of five ( 2 adults and three DS 18, 15 and thirteen. The oldest towers over both of us and the youngest is as tall as my husband with size 8 feet. The middle is between the both of them. So we essentially have five adults 😱). We aim to spend about £100 a week plus I have a £60 a month ‘emergency’ fund. If anything of that doesn’t get used it is saved and I use it to do a bulk buy at the middle eastern shop and the Asian shop of herbs and spices.

I bought a cheap sandwich maker and stock up on ys bread, cheap cheese (grated and put in freezer bags in the freezer) and cheap ham and cheap chocolate spread. The DSs can then have snacks when ever they want them.

I also post on the Grocery Challenge thread on the Oldstyle Moneysaving board of Moneysaving Expert forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6183515/september-2020-grocery-challenge