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?!

Another one here that everytime we do the food shop I'm astonished all over again at how much everything costs these days. We bought some olive oil in Aldi this week which we haven't had to buy for ages and it was £7.39! Not even for a litre bottle, I think it's maybe 500ml off the top of my head

@Phonicshaskilledmeoff I can easily get it under£100 a week for 2 doing my whole shop at M&S or Waitrose, never mind Lidl or Aldi - I buy a very very big chicken off farmers market- does Sunday lunch, a ramen, and a sir fry - I then buy fish cakes, mince for chilli and bolognese , jarred anchovies to make pasta with lemon and anchovy , good sausages, bacon to make pan Haggerty ( like a stew) fruit, veg, rice, eggs, granola, bread, crumpets, Greek yoghurt, porridge pots, hummus, juice. 1 packet of biscuits- maybe a top up of mustard, gravy, tea etc

What I don't do is buy loads of cakes, snacks, deserts, and I buy the wonky strawberries in Waitrose and bananas and grapes

My H works from home and will have soup and maybe a couple of oat cakes with hummus at lunch and a banana - I will take tinned sardines or tuna , oat cakes and 2 pieces of fruit

Cloth nappy discussion.
We did cloth nappies, our newborn nappies - 2 packs muslins, 6 wraps, a pack of liners, 3 packs of wipes cost us £100. At the time a pack of 40 size 1s cost £3. She went through 20 nappies a days for the first 4 weeks which would have cost £42 she then dropped to 12 nappies a day and would take a further 9 weeks to reach £100 in disposable nappies. This is excluding wipes components. After 13weeks the outlay costs were recouped and it was just the washing and drying costs. We spent another £100 on birth to potty wraps, more liners, boosters and some Terry's for overnight. We used the muslins as our main nappy until potty training at 2.5y just doubled up and with a booster.
There was more washing because of the cloth nappies but less washing because her explosive poos were contained within the nappy. She has horrendous nappies due to food allergies and would have gone through 3 or 4 outfit changes a day without the cloth. We would have also had them diagnosed quicker as didn't think her explosive poos were a problem as we didn't get the poonamis that everyone else got.
We sold the newborn wraps to a friend for £30 recouping some of the costs.

There absolutely are cheap and expensive ways to cloth nappy but with flats it can be fairly cost effective! Get suckered into all in ones with fancy patterns and you can spend a fortune!

I guess I’ve never asked my friends and family what days they eat meat/don’t eat meat, so we may well be outliers!

We eat meat every day and I think most people do. I have a teen ds who's into fitness and is also a fussy eater so we get through absolutely loads of chicken. Dh would be horrified if I made his evening meal and it was veggie. A previous poster, said her dh eats soup and oatcakes when he works from home. My dh would never eat that. I wish my family would embrace things like this...

Ok that sounds more realistic budget wise.

No-one has goaded you -it's perfectly normal to ask how people budget on these threads.
You could be raising hens and pigs --it's been mentioned previously 😂

Sorry that was to @Phonicshaskilledmeoff

To be fair my DH (and everyone in the house) will happily eat veggie meals, so for example it’s a veggie lunch and meat for dinner or vice versa. We didn’t have meat on our evening meal last night, but we had steak and onion baguettes for lunch! My youngest is autistic and is very limited diet wise but he does eat chicken and steak so we incorporate those as much as we can. Without meat he wouldn’t get anywhere near his protein requirements.

I’m in Ireland and the most I pay for a cucumber is 85c and every second week they are on offer for 35c.

i’m starting to wonder if prices in the UK are actually more than an Ireland these days?

We also eat meat every day. Not large quantities though because of cost.

But we absolutely normally eat a chicKen curry, chili con carne, sausage and mash, roast chicken, fish and chips, pork tacos, Bolognese, just bulked out with lots of vegetables where possible and smaller amounts of toast but fill up on potatoes and cheap root veg to keep the cost down.

No, most people definitely don't, based on the numerous online and offline discussions I've taken part in. It's healthier for most people not to eat meat every day, and often cheaper.

Is this quite a select group of middle class/eco conscious types?

I think vast majority of people are eating meat every day....I'm not talking butchers quality lamb chops and steaks. I mean things like bacon, sausages, chicken nuggets, burgers, pepperoni on pizza, ham sandwiches etc. Not brilliant quality stuff but I think very few people have days where they eat totally veggie.

I think most people probably do eat meat daily - something like a ham sandwich for lunch at least.

As I said, that's not been my experience. Of course I've not surveyed the entire country (UK)....😬

Ha ha nope, just a range of folk from a variety of backgrounds and income brackets (including my favourite German actor who mentioned it in an interview a few years back....😄).

Fluufer
Copy from a Which report.
The cost of reusable nappies varies depending on the type and brand you choose. In 2024, Moneyhelper.org, the government’s money advice service, estimated the average overall cost of using leading-brand disposable nappies at £1,000. It puts the average cost of reusable nappies at just £400 (including laundry costs), giving an overall saving of £600 over the first two and half years

I'm assuming the "leading brand" must Pampers at 20p ish per nappy to be adding up to £1000. A supermarket brand nappy is more like 5p per nappy. In which case, savings are going to be much much less. It's not worth it for most people.
There are other benefits, I have used cloth for my younger 2, but the savings are minimal at best.

Agree totally. My dh eats keto and it's expensive.

Inflation has slowed - but it is still positive. So the cost of everything is still going up, including food. Just not going up as fast as a year ago.

Definitely not where I live. So many are veggie re ethics but increasingly at work and socially people seem to be eating less and less meat due to cost.

We are a mixture of both.

The only meat we are having this week is 2 free range sausages each. Will have protein from cheese, pulses and eggs.

This week we’re having - toad in the hole and greens, polenta with cheese and a tomato sauce, med pasta and Parmesan, jacket potatoes with salad, coleslaw and cheese, veggie dal, calvo Nero, bean and cheese soup with rolls. Fruit and yogs alongside every day.. Sultana bran flakes for breakfast or toast and peanut butter and cheese, carrot or egg sandwiches with cherry tomatoes and mayo. Maybe tuna but probably not. Some biscuits/ or a trail bar. Bit of choc/ ice cream, wine or gin Fri/Sat night. Maybe a crumble at the weekend.

Sometimes I’ll roast a chicken and have chicken, egg fried rice or curry the next day with veg. Often have a dal or pasta or something with tofu. I might do home made fish and chips sometimes of fajitas with chicken or a chopped up steak and peppers.

Really don’t need or want loads of meat. The less meat you eat the less I fancy it.

That said I still struggle to get it below £40/50 a head per adult for a week for everything including household products.

I’d probably eat a very dal or Asian heavy diet if it was completely left to me. There are some great cookery books out there now. It’s suiting everybody I find hard.

people seem to be eating less and less meat due to cost

Depending on what meat you are prepared to buy/eat ...meat is not always more expensive.

Yes, decent quality meat is expensive...but many people are happy to eat processed/frozen meat which is often cheaper than veggies.

We're a family of 7 and we probably spend around £150-170 a week. Only one of the kids has packed lunch, the rest have school/college dinners (I'm not including the price of their school dinners)

We spend a huge amount on toiletries because all 5 are girls and they all have long hair (as do I) so we go through tons of shampoo and conditioner and things like deodorant, shower gel, toilet roll etc. The price of all that really stacks up!

As an average, we've spent around £95 a week on food this year (cleaning/loo rolls adds another £8 a week, however I've got quite the stash to work through!). That's mostly as a family of 4 (till june), but currently with only 3 of us home (eldest has just gone to uni). It hasn't gone down much since she left as my OH has been on a bit of a health kick.

I run a business from home and DH mostly works from home, so we have more time than most. We also have the space and money to be able to buy in bulk when things are cheap/on offer. That's the sad irony - people who most need to spend as little as possible don't have those opportunities.

We buy few branded products, shop mostly in aldi (but I will also visit other supermarkets to pick up their offers on stuff that we have) and cook 99% of our meals at home - probably only carbonara sauce that I buy every once in a while. I also shop at the local cash and carry. I buy dried beans and pulses (though I love the bold beans jarred butter beans!). I also cook meat for sandwiches rather than buying a pack of sliced chicken/ham. I meal plan, asking then what they'd like over the next week and incorporate what's left in the fridge, etc. We waste nothing (too greedy! 🤣)

We don't buy cakes, puddings or chocolate bars regularly. Nor fizzy drinks, or alcohol. If we have a dessert, it's mostly yogurt or fruit, or I'll bake something (which isn't cheaper, but is much better as I tend to stick to proper butter, etc). I'll buy a pack of reduced sugar rich tea maybe once every few weeks or so. I'm sure some of you are rolling your eyes at how puritanical it sounds! We don't really have a sweet tooth.

I've just switched to decaff teabags as I read that the tannins in regular tea inhibit your body's ability to absorb iron and I love a cuppa!

We also eat meat on the daily.

A sample menu would be:

• Piri piri chicken tray bake with - chicken thighs, baby potatoes, peppers and tomatoes
• Roasted vegetables (aubergine, courgette, mushroom, peppers, onions and tomatoes) with bulgar wheat and spatchcock chicken.
• Chicken Curry with chickpeas and spinach.
• Spanish meatballs and butterbean stews

- pork mince, butterbeans, peppers, tomatoes, onions

• Sizzling Chicken strips - chicken breast, onions, Carrots, peppers, Chinese 5 spice, toasted sesame oil

For breakfasts - toast, yogurt and fruit, cheese on toast, cereal (I get the protein choco crunch from M&S, which is low sugar). On a Saturday, the boys have a bagel/English Muffin with sausages and cheese slices after football.

I shop at Tesco and subscribe to their Clubcard Plus offer.
It costs £7.99 a month but then get vouchers for 10% off two shops a month (up to £200). You have to use them in store but I like to choose fruit and veg so I do that anyway.
You also get 10% of their brands like F&F, Go Cook and Fox & Ivy at any time.
I tend to stock up on meat for the freezer and other non-perishables on those weeks and just get milk and fruit and veg in between to make the most of the offer.
If you sign up you get one months free trial so well worth a try if you regularly shop there.