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 currently paying for 7 people (6 adults, 1 teen). Only 2 adults working in average jobs for various reasonable reasons it's awful.

Supermarkets doing well put of it.... Tesco UK expect nearly £3billion profit this financial year 🤬

There's a big hike in prices coming due to the Middle East problems which will hike the price of oil and everything else. Stock up now.

My shopping averages out to £150 a week, including top up shopping. It is for me and 3 dc, all in primary school.

It is cheaper for me as I have already stocked up a lot of cans and flour. I just need to keep on rotating them, to make sure they don't expire. However, my house is now full.
Not to mention, dc get free school meals (it is for all primary school children here).

The butcher shop near my work is the cheapest one around. I mainly buy chicken drumsticks from them. It also takes up good amount of space on the plate. As they are the cheapest. I buy fruit from the Sunday market place, while ex takes the dc out. No other fruit buying throughout the week. I store some fruits in the fridge to make them last longer.

You are also most likely buying nappies, wipes and clothes for your baby. The older most children get, the less time is spent buying clothes they have out grown.

I don't even know what to say anymore, it's just awful how the economy generally in the last 15 years has morphed into such a vengeful beast. And the reasons why seem so controversial to discuss. Having to come to terms with the increase in grocery prices in the last couple of years (and of course groceries is just one expense of many affected) was hard enough in the short term, but to realise 2 years later that not only will prices not go down much (if at all) again, instead they'll continue to rise, is depressing and frightening. No way have many people's incomes gone up enough to compensate, that claim is a joke. As someone said up thread, everything has gone up and still prices and costs are rising. But as ever, certain people won't be touched by the fear this engenders, and some of those have been/are in a position to do more about it... but don't 🤷‍♂️

We are vegetarian and I can get it done for about £30-35 per person per week but we mostly don't eat a British diet. This includes cleaning supplies and basic toiletries. As you said you don't eat meat I think you can get it down.
My tip would be to explore Asian and other cuisines that use more spices, low cost ingredients and less meat.

I adult, 1 hollow legged teen on a strict budget. Everything has to come in under £50 a week or we simply don't have food to eat. Doesn't include the teens lunch at school. I tend to have something like egg on toast. I can get a dozen eggs and a loaf for £5 and that's all lunches for mon-friday. Soup and bread Saturday and Sunday, normally vegetables from the garden. Dinners are pasta with a simple sauce, jacket potatoes and beans, occasionally chicken or beef stew. Yes veg and fruit is lacking but until I find a job I can't afford it (it's amazing how much you can clean with washing up liquid and I make my own spray cleaner)

Appropriate username 😁

We spend £70 for 2 adults (breastfed baby also) at Sainsbury's so not the cheapest supermarket! We do cook from scratch but that includes every meal, some fizzy drinks, often a bottle of wine, all toiletries, some desserts etc.
when going round the shop I do look for cheaper brands etc but struggle to see how over £100 unless including a lot of alcohol/ cigarettes/ pet food or something?

Yes, definitely gone up in the last few weeks…5p here, 10p there. I’ve noticed it with the dogs food and treats, and stuff that we buy every single week. We only go to Tesco because I try and get everything with the club card reductions, but it’s not always possible. Even Home Bargains is not so “bargain” anymore😪
We chat about what we want to eat for Sunday lunch…very often it gets changed as I’m always saying “how much?? Put it back” to DP😁 We don’t often have a joint of meat for Sunday anymore, the price is crazy for just us two and the Ddog!
Cant see the prices ever coming down to more reasonable again.

I can't seem to get it below £150 a week for me and two teens - I only shop at Aldi too.

People calculate their weekly spend very differently though. I was talking to my SIL about this, she says she only spends £100 a week for a family of 4 but that doesn't include her toiletries, toiletries roll, cleaning stuff etc as she does this separately at b&m. And it also doesn't include the weekly takeaway or the visits to the corner shop when they run out of milk or bread.

We're at about £700 a month for 2 adults 3 young kids. That's everything, including a monthly ish bulk butchers shop, toiletries, cleaning products and alcohol. We aren't particularly on a budget, we eat well, cook from scratch, prioritise protein and eat a lot of fresh foods. Typically 2 days a week at least we do veggie, but also eat a fair amount of expensive imported produce. Meal planning really helps cut down on any waste.
It's definitely still climbing, but it's shrinkflation that drives me loopy! I don't want a smaller pack, just put the price up! A pack of 4, that used be 6, then 5 is useless to me!

I have a distinct memory from childhood of petrol going up to 57p/litre and my parents saying "This is ridiculous. It'll have to come back down; there's no way people can afford this!"

Not particularly helpful OP, sorry! I can sympathise with you. We've cut back on basically all luxuries, rarely buy things like biscuits or crisps for the kids, only buy alcohol on special occasions, always buy the own brand cheddar instead of a nice Brie or something... and it's still more expensive than it was 7 or 8 years ago when we were buying naice things without really thinking about it. It's demoralising.

I would love to see your weekly shop because unless you and your partner both eat like birds, I don't know how this is possible, with wine and toiletries as well.

It is possible.
We don't drink wine at home so that's not included.
We do eat a lot of lentils because we like them- hence my name!- but not only lentils!
Admittedly we cook everything from scratch.

I tried to get ours down last month and by the end of the month I was quite bored and uninspired to be honest.

Beans, lentils, yellow sticker food, tins...

I fully appreciate many people are on the breadline and need to be frugal, but I think you're actually doing really well OP.

We easily spend £200 a month on 2 adults, 2 kids and a dog. That will include some treats, some free from foods (DD has allergies) and a bit of booze. I feel guilty sometimes getting the treats and booze, but I'm lucky enough that we can afford it for now.

I've also been using the JamDoughnut app to get cashback on my grocery shops, and I've finally convinced DH to get the Tesco clubcard so we're getting more vouchers from them.

If anyone is interested in the JamDoughnut app, I've found it brilliant. You load a voucher when you checkout, and you get 3-4% cashback into the app. My referral code is QNEZ , which I think gets you a couple of extra quid too.
I do sometimes feel a bit awkward standing at the til as the voucher loads, but when I'm getting a few pounds every time, it's bloody worth it!

I've decided my money I've saved is going to a Beauty Advent calendar this year :D

especially when its branded items its omg prices

We pay about £120 - £150 for 2 adults and 2 tweens plus top ups. This includes most toiletries and the odd wine.

No it's not. A tiger bloomer is £1.50.

I cook most things from scratch - although not everything as I have two teens who have after school clubs etc and they often need things they can make quickly themselves - and eat a lot of lentils and pasta and can't get mine under £150 a week! And that's Aldi! But that does include wine!

It's pretty meaningless though @Foodshopthoughts unless you list your receipt.

You could be buying lots of ready meals, wine, biscuits, cakes, snacks etc.

And are you also spending money on lunches at work?

The only way to get feedback is to list the food you buy and the meals you cook.

Someone mentioned Free From items upthread - that might be partly what's crippling us. I'm coeliac and the price of GF bread, pasta, soy sauce, Worcester sauce, stock cubes, gravy, marmite equivalent, oats, breakfast cereal... is regularly 3-5 times the price of the "normal" stuff 😭 We do eat plenty of rice and potatoes but even so, I reckon being GF adds about £15 to a weekly shop.

Agree it's brutal :-O

some ideas

1. Reduce amount you go to shop. One big online shop. If you feel you're running short, give it a few days. Stockpile long life UHT milk or powdered milk, freeze bread (if you like bread) to stop the random trips as they all add up!

1. Proper meals from fresh not needed all the time.

Cereal, toast, pack of instant ramen noodles, tea and biscuits. Keep in things like instant mash, tinned or frozen fruit and veg, beans, eggs. Eggs can be fried or boiled that's your filler meal.

I've discovered chucking a handful of veg (frozen or tinned) into ramen is perfect 5 minute dinner. The varieties now are so tasty, especially the companies based in Asia i used to not do the vegetables and just the noodles

1. Freezer food - filled pasta, pizzas, fish fingers..Again I don't think every meal needs to be perfectly nutritionally balanced...I'm fit and active with good skin and hair.

I think the food and recipe industry and all the Lifestyle bloggers sell the idea of wonderful fresh cuisine (and buying all the pricey ingredients too ;-)).

But a very basic meal (baked beans, pinch curry powder for flavour, fish fingers, Instant mash) can be tasty and fill you up and won't kill you.

I think it often makes more sense to budget over a year not a month btw.

This means some months you can stock up on long life stuff (including things like toothpaste and toilet roll) and others you can just try to string out what you've got.

I walk round the supermarket and can't afford to buy things that a couple of years ago were part of my weekly shop. I pick them up then make the decision that I cant afford so leave them on the shelf. DH and I are vegetarian, goodness knows how we'd manage if I was buying meat and fish. We're also quite lucky because our local church runs a food club so we get a lot of fresh fruit and veg at minimal cost.

I think the Middle East conflict will cause oil prices to rise which causes increase in petrol prices and in turn food prices.