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

Those used to Waitrose and marks will struggle with Aldi and Lidl

I know I did! Yes of course some won’t. Majority will.

For me the saving wasn’t worth it. If I’d needed to make the saving, then yes - I would have done. However the saving was a nice to have rather a necessity and so I went back to Waitrose and marks (and Sainsbury’s sometimes too)

And breathed a big sigh of relief (and did my family!)

i think all my ideas have been said. we are 6 adults [4young] and i cook for 2 old neighbours.
i have a spreadsheet with meals planned on. i keep it and add to the bottom, just printing the weeks bit to put up in the kitchen. that way i can see meals that we haven't had for ages.
we have a fb message group for what they want to order. we buy cheapest. if you want brand you have to give me the difference. they can order fizz and snacks but its the 50p fizz x2 for the week and a packet of biscuits or one pringles etc not a snack for every day. i buy multibuy crisps and everyone collects 7 packets from the order. that's stopped the eating of 48 packs of crisps by a ghost!
if you dont tell me what you need by saturday morning its too late. And if you dont help unpack and put away you dont get what you asked for- it goes back with the driver! needless to say i get help! [we are all in, normally if you are at work its ok to be absent of course]
i shop with morrisons as we are sheilding so theres no option of Aldi where stuff is cheaper.
our shop varies from £140 to £200 per week. but there are 9 of us.
meals include
meatballs and spaghetti
sausage and mash
home made pie
fish cakes
home made salmon pie
we have roast every sunday
we mostly have fresh veg and i buy apples/satsumas every week plus one other depending on whats been left from last week.
hope my wittering helps

Thank you for posting that EmpressoftheMundane

It’s so true. I used to eat a pizza or a Chinese or a pasta dish - completely stuffed then half an hour later peckish even though there was physically no more space for more food.

Now I have meat/ fish with veg and I’m satiated. I’d be looking carefully at the carbs used to bulk out the dishes, lentils and chickpeas are one thing bread, pasta even white rice quite another.

Do you live anywhere near a Morrison's? I have successfully converted a number of Aldi/ Lidl shoppers, as if you go at the right time they do bulk reductions by about 80% -90% (in my case it's around 6.30/ 7pm). Most fresh food that can be frozen is about 20p, and can be put straight in the freezer when you get home.

I'm saving for a family and bigger mortgage and it has been an absolute lifesaver.

(I know you talked about wanting fresh local food, but I got a large chicken in there last week, reduced to 52p)

I've taken everything on board and just completed a menu for the week:
Sunday - chicken roast dinner
Monday - BLT and homemade wedges.
Tuesday- bakes potato and cheese/ beans, tuna for me.
Wednesday- spaghetti Bolognese, lots of added peppers mushroom to bulk etc.
Thursday - Chicken curry , will buy fewer breasts and again bulk with other things.
Friday - fish cakes and new potatoes, salad

I have also delegated a meal per person so I'm not doing all the cooking.

I'm defrosting the freezer and will freeze spare milk and bread to avoid quick essential shops.

I don't buy smoothies etc. Will get bread and porridge for breakfast. They can buy their own treats.

One trip to butchers and fruit stall then I am going to drive to a different Aldi to the one I've tried and didn't like for everything else.

Fingers crossed this works, wish me luck!!

If you do end up buying treats then divvying them out into treat boxes/bags helps regulate the cost.

I've found it's helped us (me mostly) eat more heathily as well. No more having chocolate or crisps because someone else is.

Once your bag/box is empty then that's it until the next shopping day.

Good luck op!

If you want cheap pudding

Jelly - always goes down well!
Rice pudding (make your own)
Banana cake - left over bananas
Sponge pudding

I’ve recently made sesame chicken with rice - tasted lovely
Kids also like bacon and chicken pasta
Fry onions and add chilli flakes, garlic and paprika, add chicken and back on bits, when cooked add cream and cheese - thrown on top of pasta - it’s filling and tasty
Jackie potatoes with scrambled eggs and beans - alway a good choice
Omelette

Have you actually tried Aldi?

The quality is much much better than Asda, it sounds like you haven't properly tried it.

I was snobbish about it too to start with, until I have it a proper shot and I was well and truly sold.

Meat from the butchers and veg from the market will be extortionate.

That and three teenagers who no doubt eat non-stop!

I am not an organised person but due to lockdown I finally got the meal planning down! If you have a terrible memory like me, then it’s worth writing down all the different meals you ever have, so we have a list of about 30 different meals, some are simple like jacket potatoes and some are summer/winter dependant like salads/stews. Then I got really geeky and organised my list so that I could see where I had ingredients overlapping, so say I have feta in one meal but not a whole block, I can plan another meal that week to use the block up. I then did another list whereby I could see which meals used seasonal ingredients as these will be cheaper if you eat them in season. It then gets easier to break down and decide what to eat when, pick one or 2 you all fancy that are in season and plan out from there so all the ingredients get used. I appreciate with 5 of you you prob don’t have left over anything! But doing proper meal planning and not doing top up shops has saved us a fortune so it’s worth finding a way that works for you.

I'm back! I decided to just get everything in one place whilst I was there, it has cost £69 for quite an impressive amount.

I do wonder why the chicken is so cheap, I hope it's not caged hens? I couldn't get all I needed but reckon it'll be about £10 to finish off at another shop.

Hope it lasts the week! I'll keep a list of what I got this week and the receipt for future.

It is bizarre how fast they launch the shopping at you at the tills not an unpleasant experience, the one I've been to in the past was horrible but this one was much better. I may be a convert!!

What are buying, golden flakes to sprinkle on your Cheerios!? Crikey!!

So you went from £200 to £69 possibly £79

I really like Aldi and Lidl. I just buy basics there: fresh meat, fresh produce, nuts, seeds, bread.
For branded or processed stuff I do a top up shop at Waitrose. There are treats my husband won’t compromise on.

Hope so!! Let's see if it lasts the week and I can avoid midweek top ups!

Well done op. Aldi chicken is red tractor and they sell free range too.
You get used to the tills and I find the staff far nicer than at other supermarkets. I take stuff trolley bags(from Morrison’s) and put my stuff straight in at the till so no packing at the back.

Stiff trolley bags

@Benjispruce2 thank you! I will give that a try next week.

Go vegetarian you will save a fortune and be much healthier shop at Aldi should be no more that 70 a week for family of five if you plan your meals no problem.

@Skyla2005 we are aiming to reduce the amount of meat we eat but none of us want to go vegetarian

I rebranded the meat free meals as our ‘environmental eating’. Kids are fully onboard with that.

In the interests of looking at the difference, I went to our local butcher this morning.

I bought a pack of chicken breasts, a pack of bacon, and three pieces of sirloin steak. With the steak would have been slightly extravagant anyway but it cost me £19.68.

Then I came home and put the same food into a basket on sainsburys and Tesco, and it came to £16.30. if I was buying all my meat there, I have 0 doubt that the cost would be about 20/25% higher than buying from the supermarket.

This meat was an extra, partly because I wasn’t sure what to cook for dinner tonight as Tesco were delivering late today, so I first thought chicken schnitzel and then asked about steak so bought that and had that instead. The chicken will keep for another day so I won’t have to buy chicken next week when I shop.

My Tesco order came to £57 and that included all meat and other ingredients for a whole week’s meals.

@Mumof3almost4 I honestly have saved loads at Aldi.. there will be bits you don’t like (my two don’t like their peperamis or crisps), but we try stuff and if they don’t like it I don’t but again. My aldi has a b and m next door so I go there for crisps, chocolate etc, there’s only 3 of us but mine was £55 today, for what I got would’ve been at least £80 at Tesco..

Their frozen range is really good. The kids love the 67p pizzas which I use for a quick snack before dance/football. Once you’ve got your freezer sorted that too will save you loads and gives you lots of quick options if you’re short on time.

Also, they do a lovely frozen chicken keebab, it’s £4.99 but there’s so much of it, we have that on a Friday/Saturday night with flatbreads, salad etc it’s lovely!

I’ll shut up now l but let us know how you go xx

[quote Mumof3almost4]@Skyla2005 we are aiming to reduce the amount of meat we eat but none of us want to go vegetarian [/quote]
That’s totally fair, it’s not for everyone. Even just reducing your meat consumption makes a big difference.