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?

Where you shopping Harrods? Your spending over £14 a day that's £7+ each every day,I think you need to look at your shopping habits and change them,your spending far too much!

That’s a stupid amount of money to spend on food. I actually don’t no how anyone could even manage that much.

So, approx, you are spending £15pp per day.

That sounds a lot.

Breakfast- porridge? With frozen berries (Unless you are diagnosed coeliac, oats are low in gluten.)

Lunch- tinned sardines (50p) on toast, or with jacket spuds, jacket spuds with cheese , some salad, fruit

Dinner - a £6 chicken would last you two main meals and then the carcass for stock- make risotto. A pack of mince would make two meals.

That leaves a reasonable amount for yoghurt, milk, fruit and veg.

Own brand laundry liquid- you get 28 washes for about a £fiver.
Loo rolls
Washing up liquid- can use for cleaning baths, sinks, work tops.

I meant £15 a day for two people.

It's too much.

Eggs, pasta, mince, a chicken, tinned fish, rice, tinned beans, tinned tomatoes, (chick peas etc) - you can make loads of meals .

If you are buying bought cakes, biscuits, crisps, sweets, etc that's a sheer waste of money.

I'm gf and this week's shop for 2 adults and 2 children (2 and 5) came to £75 (£50 at aldi and £25 at morrisons) but I would say that was a smaller shop. I think if it was just 2 adults I could do under £100, but things are much more expensive now. For gf things I mainly only really buy bread and pasta from the free from ranges, everything else I buy from the normal section and just check the ingredients, do you do this? As they do sell things like free from pesto or pasta sauces, but you can buy that normally.

I would say meal planning helps before the shop.

When my adult DD was buying her first house and on a budget, her weekly food bill was around £35, including lunches.
She'd batch cook a lot of meals, taking a portion to work for lunch.
This was healthy eating, with lots of fresh food, veg, fruit etc.

OP's gone.

This thread is almost a week old.

That's amazing if you can buy all food needed for a week for << £50/person. DS is at Uni & managing for about £30/week but he eats a really boring diet.

£100 for 2 people should be achievable.

Unless you post your weekly shop, I am afraid you will just get very general advice

There are only two of us and we spend the same OP. I have no desire to wash and re-use tin foil!

General advice will also include
*Cooking from scratch
*Batch cooking
*Frozen and tinned ingredients
*Own label products - particularly household and health and beauty products
*Only buy brands when they are cheaper than the alternative and they are a good deal for you.

Many people use far too many cleaning products or too much of it.

I chop everything on a board that goes in the dishwasher, I just use washing up liquid on a cloth to wash my counter tops. Unless you have pets that jump on counters and wear muddy shoes in the house you just need more elbow grease and less product.

We spend around £6 per person per day but we do have a lot of meals from scratch and but what’s on offer, I actually think meal planning can be more expensive as rigid.

Buying dry beans in bulk is cheaper. Although you’ll run into the issue of gas / electricity due to longer cooking times.

rice dishes and curries.
stews.

if you’re comfortable eating the same thing a few evenings in a row (let’s say stew) you’ll be able to cook in larger batches.
that is cheaper IME (especially if you preder to include fresh produce, which I do)

are you buying lactose free products or milk replacements? I do as well. But cutting those out is cheaper tbh…

These threads always go the same way- there's always someone eating like £12 a week.

Wiping and reusing foil? Unless you are using about 10 tolls a week that's really not going to be the thing that makes or breaks the budget!

I used to do a weekly shop at Lidl for £60-70 per week for 2 adults and three children, with one meat dish per day during lockdown, so all meals were bought in, and now it is more like £80= 85. We buy oat milk, too.

However, I buy for example tinned fish, seasoned beautifully with rice and frozen veg thats been steamed. The fish probably costs £3, the rice £1, the veg, £1. My kids eat a lot of fruit, so say a 5 bananas a day as I love them (£1), a pack of 6 apples (£2). Toast for breakfast with an egg (50p each?). Lunch might be pasta and cheese (£2?) Some sort of carb snack in the day (crackers and cheese for eg, around £1.50). Milk and water and tea bags for me to drink throughout the day (£1).

Per day that is 3 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 2 + 0.5 + 1.5 + 1 + 2 = 13 x 7 = £. 91. Then detergent, treats for kids like croissants etc. I think that is around £100. But I often buy chicken for dinner for example, and it'll cost £4 but last two days. So yes £100 does me. I often spend less because around two days per week I serve what I froze from a previous night or I make something from my freezer that I bought in a great sale or offer.

Then I get rewards etc.

I went to Iceland the other day for a browse. Ended up doing a big shop that will probably last me 3 weeks maybe. Plenty of treats as I didn’t have a list. Also picked up a few cleaning products. I didn’t get any meat as I go to the local
butchers. I spent £109.

There is just me and my partner is our flat and we spend £45-60 per week. We never buy alcohol and don't need to buy any free from items. Amount depends on how much we already have in the freezer and if we need cleaning products or toiletries that week. We tend to batch cook and use frozen veg where we can. We shop at Tesco.
Admittedly we maybe don't go through as much lunch type food as others as we probably both buy lunch a couple of times a week when at work.

I spend about £130 / wk - family of six - 2 adults, 2 teens, 5 yr old and toddler. No free from items but we do buy alcohol. I could easily feed my husband and I for a lot less. I get shopping delivered from Asda but could go cheaper if I made time to go to Lidl. We don’t eat a huge amount of meat and I suppose cook fairly simple meals from scratch but I think we eat pretty well.

I shop in Lidl for myself and 4 kids and spend easily 100 a week but that does include stuff for packed lunches for 2 out of those 4 kids. I try to get the meat when its on the xxl offer as can make more meals out of it. I do have a fussy 9year old too who doesn't eat much of a variety of food. Probably spend a little more if i need cleaning products and toiletries too

You don’t need foil or kitchen roll. What would you do if these items were unavailable?
They’re only 2 cleaning products you need washing up liquid and bleach. A squirt of each in an old container, topped up with water, job done.
Cut down on soap powder, you need far less than what’s recommended.
Buy toilet rolls on Amazon Black Fridays. It’s a very good buy.
I could go on but it’s gets boring 😂

I could go on but it’s gets boring

@Fingeronthebutton Please do go on. I think ideas to save money are a pretty interesting subject. x

I don't see how every week you need to buy some of those items.

Toothpaste lasts absolutely ages as does shampoo, conditioner and shower gel. I was my hair every day but a bottle of shampoo (around £1) lasts a good few months.

A large Fairy liquid lasts weeks. Also best to buy toilet roll in bulk. I buy from Who Gives a Crap and 44 rolls last me and DH around 7 to 8 months.

Do lunches come from that budget?

It's all very well to say eat cheaply, but you also need nutritious food.

The only hacks I can suggest are to buy double length toilet rolls, the cheap supermarket laundry liquid for clothes, towels etc that just need freshened up, cheap tea bags are okay, frozen veg instead of fresh, and to eat porridge most mornings if you're not intolerant to it, not clear whether you are or not.

Cut out tinfoil use, kitchen roll, expensive cleaning products (just use washing up liquid, or bleach).

No premade foods, cook from scratch.

I get my vitamins from Amazon. A years supply of vit D is about £7. Same with B12.