To do a cheaper, crappier food shop some weeks?

[Greatexpectations77]

To afford other things?
Does anyone else do this/have to do this?
This upcoming week for example (I do the main food shop on a Monday for the week) we’re fairly low on weekly cash, it’s pouring down tomorrow where we are and we have a (very) active 3 year old to entertain. When the weather’s ok, we can get out for free activities-playground, beach, long dog walks, picnics etc.
We’re thinking of the cinema & lunch, therefore my plan is to buy *Less good food in the food shop-enough for two portions of fruit a day for Dd, basics like butter, bread, milk eggs etc, but simple, cheaper meals like pasta with veg, cheesy beans on toast and so on.
Last week I spent a fair bit more on *Better meals for the family-homemade pie & veg, fish, chicken dishes, lasagna etc -all still fairly basic, but more expensive.

Does anyone else do this? Cut back on food to enjoy/pay for other things? It does give me an element of guilt that I’m not feeding Dd properly

@londonmummy1966 thank you will try that this week.

my middle name is literally "cheaper, crappier food shop". (check ma passport).

the only meat i eat is yellow stickered. plenty of variety. i decant it all into freezer bags so it's literally russian roulette as to what we're having for dinner.
meal planning would be falling on deaf ears with me
so there's nothing wrong with a CC shop and they're the best and i wouldn't have eaten some stuff it it wasn't yellow stickers so i'm on your side.

errr. no. you're not being unreasonable.

I shop different places weekly - so one week I will do an Ocado and buy some posher stuff that we really like/branded items.

Then I'll do Aldi or Lidl the next week. I've also started doing an Iceland shop after being a bit snobby previously about it. I don't really buy meat from there but for stock items like pop and oven chips etc you can't beat it.

We eat lots of veggie meals - I don't really eat meat anyway but my husband and son do but they're quite happy with veggie too. We've said lately that we will have a cheaper meals - omelette, something on toast, jackets etc a bit more of often - food is so expensive at the mo.

You sound thoughtful and sensible, OP.

I do this often though my son likes pretty basic meals anyway it’s mostly me who likes the nicer stuff but can’t do that every week.

Nope. I don't cut back on quality of certain foods but will go budget range where quality doesn't differ much (like having smart price pasta/rice). Most veg I buy frozen. I've cut back on fruit in general, it's not as great for you think (I think it's more of a treat). We'd rather do cheap trips out, take a picnic for kids. We do intermittent fasting so only tend to have 1 big meal a day, protein bars/shakes and a snack/treat.

i tend to do plenty of vegetarian options which are far cheaper than meat - beans and lentils, cauliflower, pasta meals

We’ve always had two meals a week which are relatively cheap, something like a pasta and veg bake and a tortilla. I conformably off but just think it’s a healthy and sensible thing to do.

YANBU! we've recently decided to stick to the same meal.plan each week, bit boring but we know how much Ch our food shop is going to be. Beans on toast is a once a week staple here! Usually on a day we are all at work/childminders and aren't back til late! Definitely get that on your meal plan. We do a mixture of both 'good' meals and cheap ones throughout the week, we cut down on meat last year and it's saved a fortune, a curry with a tin of chickpeas and a bag of spinach is loads cheaper than meat, or cottage pie/Bolognese with half meat topped up with lentils. We also swear by frozen veg, which I know isn't for everyone but it's cheap and stops things being thrown out.

I plan 2 or 3 cheaper meals each week- jacket potatoes with beans, pasta with sauce and cheese, scrambled egg on toast, veggie curry or chilli (cauliflower, potatoes, tinned beans all cheap ingredients) and buy frozen veg (frozen onions, peppers, spinach, sweetcorn, butternut, broccoli, cauliflower- anything really!) and whatever fresh fruit is on offer- we also buy tinned peaches and pears to bulk out fruit salads.