To not be able to food shop for cheaper?

[cheesetriangles]

I’ve tried all the supermarkets possible but can’t manage to get our weekly food shop for less than £100.

(£100 is inclusive of all food, toiletries, cleaning products, detergent, vitamins, kitchen/loo roll, tin foil etc)

It’s only two adults eating but we do have to buy some free from products in that. We don’t buy alcohol. I’ve been to all the supermarkets and just can’t do it for cheaper at any. We eat very little meat, maybe the weekly shop includes two meat products that’s it. I wish I could save on this but maybe that’s just not practical with the cost of living? AIBU?

Yes, this. I used to shop in Lidl all the time but it's not convenient now we've moved and I'm spending more shopping elsewhere. You don't have to shop in the middle aisle.
The fruit and veg are great, there's less choice of meat and fish than in somewhere like Tesco, but absolutely nothing wrong with what they sell, I'd shop there now if I could.
If you cook from scratch you can eat GF for a relatively normal price.

Yes I agree Clary, there are only two of us living here now and if I make a meat sauce with that much mince it would probably do us for 3 meals in different forms. Usually we eat it twice and freeze enough for a meal another day.

Oh yes that’s difficult 😞 especially if you need to shop in the Free From aisle .
However, many things are naturally gluten free / dairy free , plus it’s surprising what is in the regular aisles that would be suitable for your diet if you can take the time to first read the labels on everything.
Once you know what’s what it will make your next shop easier .
We stopped buying crisps , chocolate 🍫 and too many snacks .
might buy corn tortilla chips if I’m making Mexican dinner ?
We don’t drink so no alcohol in the weekly shop .
I use too much kitchen roll because who wants to use a cloth to clean up if pet has had an accident ( incontinence mildly ) .
I also buy good teas as that’s essential for us , some own brands just aren’t as nice .

How on earth does a roll of tin foil last you years? Actually i suppose if you don't really use it then it can.

I use it daily and sparingly but, years!?

I do use my common sense, which is why I use foil under a grill!!
Aldi & Lidl veg is rubbish always old!!

@Bertiesmum3 , You don't need to though. You could wash the grill. Who wants to wrap their food in aluminium for cooking. Aluminium is a finite resource and some of it is not recyclable.
You could wash and reuse the foil you use for sandwiches.

I've never had any problem with Lidl & Aldi veg. It seems no better or worse than the other supermarkets.

I also buy foil about once a year, mostly just for Christmas now I think about it.

I use re-usable containers with lids to store anything, packed food also go into lunch boxes. I have used it to clean rust off a chair, and to line my gas bbq. Apart from that, just a turkey. I did used to wrap a jacket potato (lets not go there again as I still have a hankering 😂), but I just finish them off in the air fryer now.

I looked at some the other day as December is nigh, it is another item that is just silly pricey too now imo.

I use it more than that (wrap the families lunches etc daily in it and other things).

TBH - the foil isn't breaking the bank with us, it's all the other food stuff!

Why are bothering to wrap sandwiches or whatever in foil every day? when you could just put them in a box?

our Aldi veg lasts ages! Carrots going strong a week later etc.

maybe you store them differently?

I spend £100-£120 but that’s for four of us – me, hubby (who is coeliac) and two teenage daughters. About 18 months ago I was spending around £80 per week. We do have a couple of cheap meals a week like jacket potatoes and beans or pasta with pesto, or omelette. I never buy ready meals and if I buy pizza, I buy a FreeFrom one for hubby but my daughters and I share a pizza and have a couple of pieces of garlic bread each, which is cheaper than buying a second pizza. If I make something like chilli, curry or bolognaise, there is usually some left over that I freeze. We don’t eat pudding but I do buy one bottle of wine a week and all shopping is done at Aldi or Lidl apart from the FreeFrom pasta and bread – normally buy a couple of loaves a week at £1.90 each from Sainsburys and I buy corn cakes which are cheaper than FreeFrom crackers.

@00100001 , convenience probably. I remember a colleague shuddering when I said I washed the polythene bag and reused it. It was reusable and it said so on the packaging.

Try not doing it - save yourself some time effort and a few pennies :D

@00100001 , no. It's convenient, leakproof, doesn't take much time to wash it.
I tend to use clipboxes though - OK they're plastic but they last years.

It was the horror at reusing a reusable sandwich bag that surprised me.

ISTAD Resealable bag, patterned/black yellow, 1/0.4 l - IKEA

Because i make all the kids and us adults lunch the night before. so i wouldn't just put a sandwich in a box without something round it to protect it from drying out overnight. I also (shock horror) - put the foil wrapped sandwiches into a lunchbox.

But, lets be clear - foil isn't the issue here. I was just surprised that a roll gets people through a year. I probably use a 3 metre roll of it every 3 weeks.

My roll of foil is probably about 15 yrs old, from when I had a lodger. Last used it to clean a piece of metal.

Obviously you have no need for tin foil then if you haven't used it for 15 years. Everyone is different - i haven't purchased meat, fish, leather, anything that contains gelatine for over 40 years.

@Bellaboo01 , me neither, other than leather.

I think Aldi and Lidl vary from store to store. Where I used to live there were 3 Aldi's and they all had terrible fruit and veg. Where I live now there are 2 nearby and 1 is terrible and the other not so bad.

Most Lidl's seem ok but I have known a couple that were terrible. The one closest to us now is not too bad but you have to check the fruit and veg carefully which I don't have to do in Waitrose, M&S or Sainsbury's

That doesn't seem unreasonable. I spend about £50 a week on food and I'm single. I meal prep everything and eat healthily. I could probably make savings if I ate junk.

Me and my partner spend on average £50-£60 on our weekly shop. I’m veggie and some of those items are higher in price. We often make larger meals which last us 2 nights (eg we are both having a toad in the hole over 2 nights each). We look at the price per g on the label as ‘special offers’ are not always that great economically, we also sift through the reduced section and stock the freezer if we can. We also check the cupboards so we don’t buy stuff unnecessarily and think of meals with it. This includes cat food as well! As other people have said an idea of what you are buying would help. We don’t tend to snack during the week which helps! Another way we’ve saved is buying own brand coke (65p) instead of paying £2.75 for Pepsi! We often shop at Tesco if that helps.

I'm confused.
Is it just you are your other half?

Our weekly shop costs us about £110-120 and we are 2 adults 3 children shopping at Morrisons, so yes if you're spending £100 a week I would be questioning what you're buying. We always buy own brand tinned toms, pasta and beans, biscuits etc. Our meals are usually made from scratch, I do a kiddy meal (nuggets etc) once, maybe twice a week and we always have a mince meal (Bolognese etc) once a week and there's usually enough leftover for a second dinner for the kids and a roast once a week.

The only thing that isn't usually included in that (unless there's an offer on) is our laundry tabs, which I get in B&M.

Yes! We have compostable sponges that are more expensive than plastic ones, but I wash them in the washing machine rather than throwing out. We have bathroom cleaner and generic spray, that’s it. Laundry needs washing powder - no need for fabric softener. Supermarket own brand washing powder and stain remover. You can easily wear clothes 2-3 times in winter before they need washing and lots of clothes get over washed anyway. We’re 2 people and usually do 2 loads of laundry a week. Supermarket own toothpaste etc. Soap rather than shower gel which people often waste.

Tin foil is something that you can cut out though, it’s not exactly necessary. Once a month maybe for something in the oven, but you can wrap food in a beeswax wrap or a Tupperware rather than tin foil. Can’t think of much else use for it. We normally go through a roll a year and cook and bake A LOT.

You can get reusable wraps for the same purpose. Once you’ve bought them, you just wash after use and use again. They’re beeswax and excellent - no need for foil or plastic bags.