weekly food shop cost saving to offset higher mortgage

[concernedalot]

I've just had a new quote for my mortgage which has gone up by £190 per month - so i'm looking at cutting back on food costs. I currently mainly shop at Morrisons and do an occasional top up at Tesco. on average I am paying about 670 for monthly food and wine, which based on a 4 week month is costing me about 167.50 per week. I'm a single parent with 1 hungry teenager. I need to get these costs down to around 120 per week so am planning on generally being more frugal, cooking from scratch, and probably shopping mainly at Aldi. Is this doable do you think?

What do you spend on average per week for a 2 person household and do you have any tips on how I could get the cost down please? I know a lot of us are in a difficult position right now, but was hoping for some inspiration that i'm not facing a disaster with my increased mortgage and of course, the dreaded fuel bills. Thankyou

What so you buy😳
We buy loads of beer, meat and veg and it's still less.

Just DH & I, we spend between £70-£90 depending on things like wash powder, cleaning stuff etc, Ive started writing a list and sticking to it!.

I have to say I've found Morrisons to be very expensive compared to Asda / Tescos so shopping at Aldi should be cheaper for a start.

Very doable, particularly if you ditch the wine. Family of four here (kids get main meal at nursery four days out of seven so we save there) and 120 per week is our budget.

£167 per week just on food/ wine is a lot for just two of you. I don't spend anywhere near that and we are three adults (and three fussy cats!). Can't comment re Aldi but I'm a regular at my local Lidl which is much cheaper than the nearby Morrisons and Tesco.

An average of £80 per week. Sometimes less.

That seems very high, what does your average shopping basket look like?

What are you buying? We aren’t careful with food but that’s bloody loads!

Thanks for the replies so far. I do spend quite a lot on cat food, (she's elderly and a lot gets wasted) and probably more than I should on wine. To be fair i've never been careful with the food shopping, because I rarely go out or spend my money on other things, so i've never really carefully budgeted it (what other pleasures are there in life!). It's clear I spend far too much, which is a good thing, as it means there is wriggle room to cut back on it.

Definitely doable I do things like buy the bigger packets of meat and cook double 1 for now 1 for later. Nothing groundbreaking but saves money and time and even electricity for using the cooker less

I’m on my own and spend about £50-£60 a week in Lidl (including Tesco top ups). A bit more if I need gin. Since wine is the most expensive thing and I assume yours is just for one, you should easily be able to get away with double that without denying yourself. Meal planning is the key I think.

I think I'm pretty profligate and we don't spend anywhere near that much! We probably spend about £400 a month made up of one big Ocado shop and top ups for fresh food. I don't buy a lot of wine though, just the odd bottle.

Work out what you spend on food, not cat food and not wine.
Could you halve your intake of wine?

£167 for two! What are you buying?
DH and I spend £70 - £80 per week for us and the cat. That includes meat and fish (we are not vegatarian), cleaning products and the odd other item eg birthday card or handcream.

We shop at Tesco and Aldi, cook from scratch and dont use convenience foods.

We don't really budget on the food shop, and are usually under 140 for 2 adults and 2 teens. That includes all alcohol and cleaning and vathroom bits. Except for the week we tried morrisions, where is was closer to 170.

So, I'd suggest trying a full shop at Tesco, and see what it comes to. Then look at cutting down what you buy.

Totally.
And you don't have to go the other side of extreme either.

Quick question about the cat food. Is it soft food which gets wasted because cat can't eat whole portion?or is it that it gets splattered everywhere?

We are a family of 4 so I doubt our bills compare. But I too have been trying to cut back on groceries and we’ve pretty much stopped eating out too.

Do you meal plan?

we’ve been focusing on good nutrition so everyone feels full rather than empty / cheap calories

I started reducing our bills by cutting out all of the stuff we def don’t need - juice, squash etc - we now have milk, water, tea, coffee, wine and a box of fizzy drinks. Dds can have one each on Friday, so this lasts ages.

No expensive packaged snacks or puddings. Fruit, rice cakes, cheese, hummus, yogurt, veg sticks etc

cheap dinners - BBC have dinner recipes that cost less than £1 per head on the website

So, we’ve been having pasta bake, dhal, fish pie, shepherds pie, noodles, toad in the hole and any leftovers get eaten for lunch.

breakfast - porridge, yogurt or eggs

good luck!

Don't buy Lurpak

I just paid the same price in Marks And Spencers as I paid in Aldi last week for 4 pints of semiskimmed milk the fruits is the same price as well for some things but the difference is it isn’t going off before you’ve even got it out of the boot. I would definitely cut back for sure but I don’t know whether I would switch supermarkets for everything

Definitely doable. Two adults and 3 boys here including two hungry teenagers, and a dog, ours is about £140 a week

typical week:
baked spuds with beans cheese and salad
veggie fajitas
egg fried rice
veggie bolognaise or veggie lasagne with peas or salad and garlic bread
fish and chips
bangers or veggie bangers and mash
pie night
roast dinner

They also all have packed lunches for school. I make my own sweet bits for that (flapjack, cakes or biscuits) they also have a sandwich or roll, fruit and chopped veggies

breakfasts are whole grain cereal or brown toast, sometimes eggs

We spend a lot but that's insane for
Two of you. What are you buying?

According to the Lidl app I spent £160 there last month for 2 adults & 1 10yo 😱 plus probably another £50 max on the stuff I can't get from there.

We don't buy alcohol regularly but even if we did I genuinely don't know how you can consume so much food.

M&S is cheaper for butter than Aldi.
Cheaper than most supermarkets for ground coffee too.. it's ridiculous.

We spend between 50 & 70 a week depending on the week. There's no wine in that though but lots of meat

A lot of cat food gets wasted as it goes dry or she won't eat it because she's got no appetite. I mainly feed her soups and Pate's but put out small amounts on a saucer at a time. Even then I'm still ending up having to give her fresh as she'll leave it and then it dries out. She's elderly, has kidney failure and is pretty much near end of life so I can't just switch brands or mess about with things as they are right now

Haha no definitely not. I don't buy that