Weekly food shop… AIBU or is it still costing more?

[Foodshopthoughts]

Can’t get it under £100 for two of us. We shop at one of the cheapest supermarkets. That does include every meal though, and all toiletries etc. I don’t eat meat and DH rarely. Family of 3 but baby won’t be adding to the cost us for a while due to breastfeeding. I thought prices were supposed to be coming down yet it seems to be going up and up?!

We are beginning to see the consequences of the rampant capitalism, where decisions were not being made about what was the best for society as a whole but as rich individuals who want to get even richer and those than protected them. I think it is going to get a lot worse before it gets better. There is now war on two fronts which will effect our food/heating production. These are basics we all need so they can charge what they want and we will have to pay. Our water companies were also sold off to foreign investors and they are hinting at price increases as well.

Not everyone can grow their own veg as lots of people do not have access to gardens/secure outdoor spaces. It will become much more important to budget and decide what works best for your family. ATM my family do not have to do without but we are slowing starting to make changes to the types of food we buy e.g. searching for non branded replacements. We are currently trying to keep to £200 ish pounds per week all meals included for 4 adults including toiletries. We eat a varied balanced diet but it aint cheap!

I can see this box of 6 eggs is the new mumsnet chicken .

We probably get through 15 eggs a week

That sounds delicious!
I'd eat that every single day 😃

We spend £200 a week.
Two adults, three kids (7, 6 and 3) and two cats. We eat well; buy meat from the butchers and fruit and veg from the greengrocers etc. Rarely buy alcohol. I love to bake.

It’s our biggest expense but it’s important to us.

I've just added the Jo wicks meal plan to Asda it comes to £35 say £30 in aldi (£20 if veggi). For two adults that would do lunch and dinner for a weak. Maybe £20 on top for basics + snacks.

We are in £150 a week, two adults and a young toddler. Btw if you're breastfeeding remember you're probably eating more food as you need more calories so it's not 100% free! Though obviously cheaper than formula.

more like I’ve had too many pain killers after taking my wisdom teeth out🤷‍♀️

I know we don’t go much over £100 a week because I put £500 in a separate supermarket shopping pot each month. We certainly don’t eat badly though. Should have quality checked my own post and maybe selected a more exciting tea but honestly wasn’t expected to get jumped on quite so much 😂🤦‍♀️

Tbh the whole shop is very skimpy for a family of 5
A 500g pack of mince between 5 people?
Does 2 nights
That 50g of mince in a portion
I know bulking out is a thing but it hardly seems worth buying the mince.
Only fruit is a small pack of berries
One tub of yoghurt?
Personally if you are that strapped for cash @Phonicshaskilledmeoff I would go veggie and look at daal and veggie curries
Bake your own bread
Make homemade pizza

Hope your tooth isn't too bad !

This time of year I swap to in season fruit
Clementines/ Sats/ oranges
Apples -British ones
Pears
Plums
Grapes
Frozen berries for dessert and porridge are about 4 x as much in a bag for the same price
Our greengrocer sells too big/ small/ knobbly fruit and veg much cheaper.
It's criminal how much is binned when people are struggling, for such stupid reasons.
Markets are also good
We store fruit in the fruit box in the fridge and take out what we want every morning to avoid waste and fruit flies

You’re quoting answer at the wrong poster. This poster @anonhop is only 2 adults and an EBF baby.

I spend about £80 a week for me, a dog and a cat.

Thanks !
That makes more sense!
Sorry @Phonicshaskilledmeoff

Oh that's annoying
I think supermarket fruit is "held "by gases,so it can then be sold and that's why it goes off so quickly once home.
I find Waitrose, Sainsburys and Co op fruit quite good but of course they are the pricier ones.
We are lucky as we have 2 markets and a greengrocer, it is always fresh and interesting varieties.

@LoftyEagle

Hate to break it to you, we're in Surrey too!

Honestly, there's many fortunate reasons why we can do what we do. Including, but not limited to:

Non fussy eaters, no food intolerances.

Money to bulk buy great deals when they happen.

Storage space to store in bulk when needed. Huuuuge freezer!

Time to plan and to cook from scratch (and the headspace that goes with this)

Skills to plan and cook well.

Ironically, I think the more up against the wire you are, the harder it is to do it cheaply.

I find a lot of what I used to be classed as peasant meals have even gone up a lot in price.
Stuff I subsisted on as a kid because we didn't have much money are now relatively expensive. Ham shanks, oxtail, cheek,brisket, neck of lamb. All those cuts were cheap but needed long slow cooking. You can't even buy some of those cuts now.
I used to make stuff like ham shank and split pea stew. braised beef casseroles , oxtail stews, etc all filling and tasty.
Now the only cheap foods are high-carb and processed meat.

Your breakfast costs are way off. Your kids eat 6 eggs and approximately 30 slices of bread for 21 breakfasts? How much egg does each child get each day if they have 2 eggs a week each? No spread or butter to go with that?

I've just checked last week's food order which was around £50 for the food excluding the cat food.

Breakfast is typically porridge oats with bit of honey to sweeten. I buy a large 1kg bag for around £1. I also have greek yogurt with some fruit and granola, I buy whatever is on offer, so this week I've had grapes, but I'll mix it up with berries. My child will have own brand cereal versions of shreddies/cheerios, less than £1 a box.

Lunch in typically something like scrambled egg on toast, a vegetable soup or jacket potato with tuna or beans.

Evening meals I've started to swap chicken breast for chicken thighs as I can buy a large pack of thighs for around £3 which stretches for 2 meals, served with rice and veg. I'll season with honey and mustard or something similar. We also have 2 veggie based meals a week to cut costs such as baked sweet potatoes stuffed with tuna and soft cheese & veg, a tomato and feta based pasta, or stuffed peppers. Then I tend to batch cook a large slow cooker meal with a meat of choice, but bulk out witth lots of veg, which again will do us 2 nights.

I always buy the basics like break, milk, cheese, eggs , beans etc and snacks include yogurt, fruit, skinny bars, ice cream.

I detest meal planning, it's so tedious and it often means we end up eating the same sort of stuff or have something twice in a row, but it's the only way I can keep the shopping bill tight and we don't waste any food. It can be done , just takes a lot of time and planning.

Post your shopping receipt list!

It's definitely hard, but I'm glad the prices aren't going up as fast anymore.
When things got really bad a while back (on maternity leave with shit income and the savings that we had didn't anticipate all the price rises) I started doing the food shopping once a month for about £250 plus twice weekly milk buy. At the time we went for the cheapest stuff and tried to buy in bulk where possible.
Things have got much better since thankfully as I went back to work and we've managed to work opposite days so little one is only in nursery twice a week to keep costs down. But I still kept some habits, ie instead of grated or sliced cheese I buy the biggest block of creamfields cheddar (cheapest brand in Tesco) and grate it or slice it when needed. Instead of buying pastry I but the ready mixes where you just add water or milk. I'll buy the 3l bottle of oil and use that instead of buying the smaller ones more often etc
We're now keeping our shopping at a steady 60-100 a week depending on whether we need household stuff and that's only because we can afford that. If things go terribly wrong again I'll have to revert to more stringent shopping but after the last time I've started a little pantry for if we ever fall on hard times. Nothing fancy, just some extra dry stuff like pasta, dried beans and tomato Passata to make the simplest meals if needed, I'll add a pack or two of something extra to the shop we do around pay day.
It's sad that so many people are struggling and we were only able to get out of the rut because my partners work was very accommodating with letting him switch his days so we can keep childcare costs to a minimum. We now don't have any days off together but needs must and hopefully things will eventually get better.

It's not a clear photo as I was unpacking by chucking stuff but this was £75 worth of food shop
Thought I would get a few treats - nicer tinned tomatoes, stock pots as I'm batch cooking soup, the yoghurts I like as on offer, some sweets and cans of pop for visitor etc
But still.. £75!

@outforawalkbiatch just says it all doesn't it. It's just shocking

We spend £120 on average including top-up shop for bread/milk/bananas. That's for two adults and DS 4/DD 3. Would be curious to see what people include in their shop. Ours is a mix of essentials, lots of meat, 24 pack diet coke, some snacks, some beer. So definitely not just what we need!

1kg chicken breast (2 day fajitas or greek)
750g mince (2 day spag bol)
Bacon and sausages for the weekend
Frozen chips
Frozen peas
Salami/ham/sausage slices
Block of mature cheddar
Block of fancy mature cheddar
Fruit is bananas/apples/blueberries/grapes/oranges
Veg is broccoli/lettuce/cucumber/fancy vine tomatoes
Lots of yoghurts
Snacks are usually my Graze stuff (when on offer) and the kids Pombear (ditto).

We do Sainsburys every week. I always go for Nectar price offers so it's different yoghurts each week depending what's cheapest.

We could cut down on various things but am so fed up with surviving and not thriving that having a cold beer and diet coke in the fridge brings me joy!