to ask how to get my food and grocery budget down?

[undercoverPrincess]

I have read posts on here about £35 pw grocery shops, how???

There are five of us, one in nappies, and I struggle with £150 pw. I do try and buy healthy food and cook from scratch as much as possible.

There are five of us too with one in nappies and two cats and our food bill is half yours. We shop at Aldi and go to the local co op everyday to get the reduced stuff. DW is a veggie so we dont get much meat

Shop for different stuff in different shops if you have the time. I get my nappies, wipes, coffee and booze in Aldi, veg from the veg shop, meat from the butcher, the rest from Sainsburys.

Try the Basics / Value range for everything once; some of it will be fine and you won't notice the difference, other stuff will be horrid so the next time you buy it just go up a level to the supermarket's own brand. I've saved loads of money doing this recently. I've found out I simply can't cope with Basics bread for example, but butter, veg, beans, hoummous, pasta I can.

Cook vegetarian meals twice as much as you used to.

I don't think £35 counted for 5 people... its 3 of us and sometimes we manage £40 and my DP looks at EVERY penny.

We have a little veggie garden at the back of the house so in the summer is even cheaper and quite fun, but I have to admit that half of the time I have to buy extra things apart from the weekly shopping.

DP would tell yu the secret to cheap shopping is lots of spuds!! and cook them in a varied way...

YABU to ask it on AIBU, yes.

Agree that meat makes a huge difference to the food budget. Dh has been on a vegan diet since Christmas (dc's and I only ever ate meat 3 times a week anyway) and just cutting out what he would have consumed in meat has significantly cut out budget.

Also agree with working out what sort of stuff you can cope with budget brands for.

Thanks can you get most things in Aldi as I have tried it before but couldn't get everything we need?

Only about £20 of budget is meat / fish I used to be veggie but we now have chicken breasts and salmon fillets 2-3 nights.

We have cereal / toast for breakfast and the kids have a cereal bar too. Lunch is Sandwiches for us with lunchbox things for kids (cheesestrings, frubes, fruit, crisps, drink), and dinner - I do the same for us all most nights.

The toiletries / detergent etc bump the £ up as do all the cheese / ham type sandwich fillers, I spend £3 a week just on tuna!!!

Yogurts, milk?

I go to asda with the resolve to spend under £100 and it never happens :(

Maybe also look at lifestyle? Our food bills also reduced significantly when I went back to work a year ago (electricity bills too)

Trills is perfectly right of course, but AIBU is so much more fun and gets all the traffic...

1. Pasta is your friend.
2. Particularly when you get it at Lidl.
3. Tesco cheap quiches are gross.
4. Use your freezer wisely, get to the shop at certain times (you will find when they are by experience, eg my local Waitrose it's 7.15 p.m. but Co-Op mid-morning) and snaffle the bargains.

Trills sorry I didn't see anything about food budgets in the rules of AIBU

Good recipe for cereal bars here much cheaper than buying them and you can make loads and freeze them.

We eat lots of yogurt (at least me and dcs do) but none of us like milk so I get through about 2 pints a week in cooking (family of 4)

If you send oh to the supermarket about 7 ish they have a reduced shelf were things can be up to 70% off also downgrade a brand so if your buying branded stuff go down to the supermarket brand if your buying supermarket brand but value brand

Less snacking qinbetween meals try and give a pudding so they get a sweet contest grazing costs money many people shopping consists of biscuits and crips

Lurking with interest. We spend about £100 for four of us, two in nappies but we only shop in the dreaded Tesco and I'm really keen to reduce our costs just because of how much we waste, particularly on DP buying packaged crap (yogurts, lucozade, cereal bars etc etc) to take to work.

AIBU gets all the traffic because people like you post in AIBU when the question is really about Food, or Hoursekeeping, or Money, all of which have their own topics.

The "fun"-ness of a thread is rather more about the content than the topic in which you post it, unless you think there is something about AIBU that will magically turn "how many meals I get out of a chicken" into a riot of laughs.

You are not above using the forum in a tidy fashion.

Cook in large quantities and freeze - stews, curries etc

Am marking my place. There are 3 of us, LO still in nappies and I struggled to spend less than £120 a week. Last few weeks has been nearer £80 [proud] mainly by eating more frozen veg with meals not posh fresh stuff and having less treats and making more from scratch.

Have a look at the Money Saving Expert site if you haven't done so already.

Meal planning willsave you a fortune. Plan your meals and only buy what you need.

Stop buying expensive processed crap like Cheesestrings - buy ordinary cheese instead.

Whatever level of brand you buy, drop down one. So if you buy a brand, buy the supermarket equivalent. If you're already doing that, drop down to th Basics/Value level.

This will knock roughly 33% off your bill.

I buy big tubs of natural yoghurt and add fruit / honey and am thinking of going the whole hog and buying a yoghurt maker next. I save a lot of money only buying own brand versions of treat stuff like Frubes, or only buying stuff like that if it is on special offer, as a treat. Cereal bars are a rip off, if I have time I make flapjacks or peanut butter energy bars from scratch (doesn't take too long).

I but value detergents and buy whatever toiletries are on offer. I also use lemon juice, vinegar and bicarb of soda a lot for cleaning!

I go to Aldi once a month and stock up on what I can get there, as I agree, it doesn't sell everything I need, and get everything else in my fortnightly online shop with Sainsbos.

I spend more than £35 a week on shopping I must admit, as we like a few little luxuries like real coffee, wine, nice ham but I rarely spend £100.

that is a good idea but my house is tiny and my freezer is full!! I have veg in the bottom drawer, chips / potato products / frozen fish in the middle and pizzas / bread / ice cream in the top.

Also my children don't eat stews or cottage pie type meals....

I have been buying tesco value nappies and they are fine! I have 2 dcs in nappies and so far no leaks :) £2.07 for 28 nappies.

If it's not on offer don't buy it.

I buy all the basics from Aldis - fruit, veg, bread, dairy, small amount of meat and fish for dd, juice, pasta, tinned foods, cereal, biscuits etc.

Then everything else I shop around for and only buy if it is either reduced or on offer. That way we eat different things all the time and don't get stuck in a rut, plus we eat much cheaper. I think if you have a completely set shopping list you can end up spending much more. Also if you impulse buy loads of unnessary items you will spend more.

I spend about £30 a week for two, that includes all cleaning stuff, toiletries etc. I'm vegetarian and dd is vegetarian about 4 evenings a week, so that helps keep costs down.

'Stop buying expensive processed crap like Cheesestrings - buy ordinary cheese instead.'
But my 6yo loves cheesestrings :( I only allow her one a day.

'Whatever level of brand you buy, drop down one. So if you buy a brand, buy the supermarket equivalent. If you're already doing that, drop down to th Basics/Value level.'

I aleady buy supermarket own mostly unless 'branded' products are on offer :(

A freezer helps - buy 10p bread and freeze it, bulk buy and cook etc

Porridge for breakfast (value oats)

Swap chicken breast for legs and thighs - they taste better anyway, and you can always use the bones for stock

Which leads me nicely to soup - I make a huge, huge pot every week. Spicy tomato and lentil (17p a portion) or leek and potato (20p a portion) are favorites, it keeps in the fridge for days, is filling, very nutritious, freezes well, is great for lunches. And ultra cheap.

Buy fruit and veg in season or try tinned or frozen types.

Eggs - cheap healthy lunches

Value cream cheese, and peanut butter, make cheap sandwich fillings. Pitta breads are cheap and make a nice change.

*already

Also, if you have a local Farmfoods / Home Bargains / Pound Stretcher - you can pick up crisps, drinks, teabags and yogs a lot cheaper. Obviously it depends how much time you have to shop around, plus consider the cost of the journey.

I've recently learnt to tell my kids "we've got none of that, you can have X, Y, or Z instead". Previously I was catering for their every whim and now I don't. Tough-titty