That all sounds great but i would just say:
Aldi & Lidl (Stores like them)
Everyone goes on about how great they are, how cheap they are,
"I saved £100 a week when i swapped to Lidl"
All true...... Depending what you buy.
If you compare the cost of items in Aldi and Lidl to Brand names or the upper scale of Supermarket own brand, yes you will save money, if you compare it to the other supermarket home brands though you may find that Asda or Tesco can work out just as cheap, sometimes cheaper as it seems Tesco and Asda have the power to do better deals (Iyswim?)
It seems to get overlooked a lot that Aldi and Lidl pretty much only do own brand, so compare own brand to own brand and you'll get a much better idea of what is better value.
When shopping, try to keep an eye on the small prices. EG: coffee.
if you look at the per Gram price on coffee as opposed to the price of the jar you can often find spending a few pence more actually saves you 20p in the long run. Same with everything, Cheese at Tesco could be £2.50 a block and Asda it could be £2.75 but the smaller price shows that Tesco is 75p per Gram, Asda is 50p per gram, so really you're better off buying the "More expensive" If that makes sense. (Obviously those figures aren't actual, i made them up
)
Also, slow cookers and frozen stuff.
Slow cookers are great.
EG: Simple Bolognese.
Mince £3 for 750g
2 tinned chop toms 35p
1 passata 40p
hand ful of frozen diced onion (pennies)
Handful of frozen veg (Pennies)
Fry the mince, bung everything in the slow cooker.
first night have 2 spoons each with spaghetti.
2nd night have the remainder in a bowl with garlic bread (32p)
Total cost per meal per night about 70p each.
(This is based on the 3 of us obviously so will need adjusting if there's more in your family etc.)
Frozen veg, frozen onions, frozen peppers are all pretty cheap from tesco and can be used in lots of things.
heat a pan, chuck in a few peppers, pour over whisked egg and you have a tasty omelette snack for about 20p
Weirdly, instant mash is also a good idea to keep. It costs about 80p, serves 4, but unlike spuds it never goes off, never shoots little shoots etc so never causes waste. so if, like me, you plan a fortnightly meal plan you can still have pie and mash even 2 weeks after the shopping is delivered. (Frozen pies from Tesco £1 for 4, mash 80p, frozen veg £1 (use at most a quarter so 25p) Gravy, a few pence Total price £2ish, divided by the three of us, 67p each)
Then theres the easy peasy chicken and trimmings.
Frozen chicken strips (they're already cooked so just bung them in the slow cooker with some water)
Chuck in some veg and leave it for a few hours.
when ready to serve, thicken the water with gravy.
Serve with Stuffing and mash.
Second day have as a type of stew with crusty bread
Chicken £2, veg 50p for half a bag, stuffing i think 75p, mash 80p, total £4ish, divided by 2 days, £2ish, divided by the three of us, 70p a meal.
Other things you could do.
Go Pay as you go. Total cost per month for my phone £4 (£1 a week with EE)
EE give you things called boosts, every 12 weeks i get to boost minutes, texts or data, I currently get more than i need on all of them (but i'm no social butterfly and hardly use 10 texts a month)
Drop TV and Phone from your Virgin and get the Broadband only deal.
It cost us around £35 per month for fast internet.
Drop TV License and instead of giving BBC £12 a month use it for Now TV and Netflix. (obviously if there are things you can't live without on the BBc then this isn't a great idea)
Change Gas and Electricty and call them to check tariffs. We're on a pay and go meter system and when we moved in here we were spending £20 a week on gas alone, we called and told them and they checked our tariff, we now spend about £10 a week.
If you have a car.... Use it as little as possible. When you're sat at the lights or in traffic or anywhere else you don't move towards your destination, count to yourself and every time you reach 10, throw a penny out of the window. (in your mind obvioulsy) Do that for a week and you may find that your car has cost you 10-20p so in a month it's cost you 40 - 80p, not alot no, but it's total waste, you weren't getting nearer to your destination, you were just sat there, thats money that could have paid for 2 days worth of cheap main meals for you and your family.
(the 1p every 10seconds is just a rough guid of total cost of sitting in traffic. petrol burning, tax outlay, mot outlay, insurance cost etc. if you look hard at cars they cost an awful lot. even just sat, doing nothing right now, it's costing you money every second)
Clothes, before heading to Next to get jeans or basic stuff, check a few charity shops. Quite often you can find decent jeans and brands in them for less than a £5 per item. (I found a Monsoon coat in one a couple weeks ago, knee length black style thingy, it cost £3.75)
think i'll stop there, this post got very long, sorry. :(