How much on food shopping ?

[Blossum123]

There are 2 dc and 2 adults and 2.pets .we spend £100 a week on average- I meal plan etc .other people seem to do it very cheap- does ur shopping bill include cleaning products? X

We are I adult, 2 year old in nappies, 7 year old on packed lunch and 2 cats. Dh is away for 6 months. I'm trying to stick to £250 this month on food shopping, nappies, cleaning products, cat food.

I've done a huge food shop which came to £114. £92 in aldi, which is the most by far I have ever spent there, and £22 in asda on dishwasher salt, tuna, shower gel, deodorant etc. I've bought enough nappies, milk, cat stuff, all meat & fish, tins. Any non perishables really that I had room for.

I've done a batch of spag Bol already this week with 250g of mince rather than 500g and bulked it out with extra veg. It has fed us all, a batch for freezer and some in fridge for toddlers lunch tomorrow.

We're having salmon, egg noodles & stir fry tonight. Going to make a big sausage casserole in slow cooker tomorrow for tea with mash & veg plus a few batches to freeze.

We don't really have puddings. It's mainly yoghurt or fruit. I bit jelly sachets every now and then. They might have an ice lolly after dinner or they like fruit dipped in chocolate spread.

I shop mainly at aldi. I've swapped from sainsburys to asda this month to see if that makes a difference for the little things aldi doesn't sell.

In theory I have £34 per week for the next 4 weeks which it's quite scary but I won't need a food shop now for a good 10 days so hopefully it will be ok.

I find when there isn't any money left in the pot at all you just manage somehow but when there is money available to spend we seem to be really wasteful. I had been spending £100 per week some weeks because I just haven't been planning ahead. If rather have the money in my pocket that in the pockets of the supermarkets!!

My food shops are extortionate compared to these... Mostly £70 per week for one adult and a 16y o (including cleaning etc) I aim for my magic £50 figure but I keep falling short :(
I shop in Tesco as my daughter is coeliac and tesco have the best range of non-branded gluten free foods (in other words, it actually works out cheaper paying tesco prices as we can buy tesco own brand, sometimes even value, and rarely buy anything in the freefrom aisle unless it's bread type products). She also had skin allergies so I can't save on laundry stuff; it's Tesco Natural, Ecover, or nothing. I buy value powder for when I'm just washing my stuff, but it's not often I do a wash load that's only mine. Save where I can!

Anybody else trying to keep shopping costs down with an allergic/coeliac family member?

(Lidl / Aldi proved to be the worst for GF: they have the odd 'treat' but we ended up back at tesco for so much other stuff it was a waste of time)

*has skin allergies, not had.
Idiot fingers on tiny phone!

What kind of bread makers have you all got? Were they reasonably priced?

supermum try ebay for a breadmaker or The British Heart Foundation have specific household shops now selling donated electrical goods and furniture. All the electrics have been checked and they come with a short guarantee. You either take to a breadmaker and love it or you use it once or twice and never again so most second hand ones are hardly used.

At the moment my budget is £500 a month for 9 of us - 4 adults, 4 teenage girls (one of whom is coeliac), a 4 year old, 3 cats. This includes cleaning products, loo roll, everything. Packed lunches for everyone every day

When the girls go home (efl students) we will go back to £350 for the 5 of us.

I work in a hotel so get lots of free food and am a keen bargain shopper, we eat really well on our tiny budget but it does feel like a second job at the moment menu planning, shopping around, cooking and clearing up. But i get a lot of satisfaction from knowing that i have knocked out 4 packed lunches for £1 - which the other students at the language school are jealous of !

Anybody else trying to keep shopping costs down with an allergic/coeliac family member

I try to avoid foods that naturally have gluten rather than substituting ie. i would do a meal with rice rather than using GF pasta. Polenta cakes, meringues, that sort of thing for sweet. I have found morrisons quite reasonably priced for bread

Cheers for these :) I do all of this already, so it looks like in doing all I can! I've now started meal planning with the precision of an army major, and got the shop down to £38 last week including a bottle of gin. YES! Huge difference!

We spend £70 a week for 2 adults, 3 children and 3 cats. This includes breakfast, dinner and tea for all of us (kids take packed lunches to school), cleaning products, shower gel etc but not washing powder, fabric softener or bottled water - we buy these from Costco once a month and costs around £30-£35.

An average weeks meals are:

Breakfast - cereal/toast/fruit.

Dinner - sandwich, yoghurt, piece of fruit, bottle of water and either a cereal bar, chocolate biscuit or packet of crisps.

Tea - shepherd's pie, curry, lasagne, roast chicken, spaghetti bolognese, etc etc.

We shop at Aldi and get extras such as lemonade, coke, biscuits, the odd cake, hot choc etc too but by the end of the week the fridge and cupboards are completely empty with absolutely everything eaten so nothing goes to waste. The cats also quite happily eat Aldi cat food so that helps as it's pretty cheap.