If you spent under £60 a week on grocery shopping

[QforCucumber]

What do your meal plans look like?

There are 3 of us at home (2 adults and an almost 3 year old) 2 cats. Including everything, packed lunches and evening meals, snacks, nappies etc. I'd like to get our shop under £60 a week consistently and never seem to get it right. Always end up around the £70-80 mark.

[ivykaty44]

Nedzilla is right, just reducing two of your meals each week to meatfree/plant based will bring your shopping bill down and it’s healthier with to much meat not being good for you. Swap a meat curry for a vegetarian curry, add in a risotto with mushrooms or a vegetable pasta dish

I used cotton wool and baby lotion rather than wet wipes as I found wet wipes expensive

[Nedzilla]

With babies and toddlers nappies and wipes add to the cost. Reusable will save in the long run, even if you only use reusable wipes and overnight nappy.

Otherwise the key is less meat. Make at least 2 meals a week vegetarian, and use less meat on another 2 ie just adding chorizo to pasta or similar.

[Battenburg1978]

Following this thread for ideas! I try to spend around £35/week on groceries, and usually end up more at the £45 mark. We are 2 adults, 2 YO DD and teenage SDD on weekends. The caveat is that DD is at full time nursery so she just has breakfast and a snack during the week and it also doesn't include my partners lunches. So you are doing well if you can stick to £60 for all meals.

I used to head straight to Lidl but have found recently that Asda and Tesco can be more competitive. The annoying thing is that it takes ages to figure out what's cheapest where then walk to the various shops (if you're shopping around to save a few £ you don't want to cancel it out with petrol/transport costs unless it's worth it!) that's the part I find gets me down.

Re nappies, I spend £4.40 a month on nappies and about £3 on wipes, either Aldi, Lidl or have Asda this month. It's low because DD's nursery also provide nappies/wipes and I really noticed the difference when we were at home over Christmas.

Meals wise, I have to say we don't eat hugely well and I think I could do better.

[loadofcrap10]

Stop snacking. Totally unnecessary, not needed, not healthy

[Happyinheels]

A meal plan really really helps! Do not deviate either
Cooking things like a chicken which can then be stretched over 2/3 meals is great. I often cook a ham joint in the slow cooker. The first night we have ham and say veg, second night I use it in a pasta carbonara dish, third night a quiche and there's always leftovers for sandwiches too.
Aldi is fantastic value. There is a lady who has recipes and meal plans online and on Instagram who shops at Aldi, she's called Amy Sheppard and has a book called The Savvy Shoppers Cookbook. Amazingly her weekly meal plan comes in at around £30/£35!
Maybe we should start a weekly meal plan thread kind of thing to share meal plans?! That's where I fall down often, because I get bored of meal planning!

[Lou0219]

Didn’t want to read & run

Go Aldi for nappies there good & like £2 for 50 odd I think. We use online shopping or even just to add it up to see how much we are spending on each item then you can shop around. We usually get some from Aldi some from Asda & then cupboard foods from home bargain etc x

[lpchill]

We spend around £40-£50 weekly on our shop. We shop mainly Lidl with a once a month trip to Asda (husband needs decaf tea and coffee) for the bits we can't get in Lidl.

We have massively cut down on meat. It used to be a 500g mince would be for one meal. This is now for two meals. We do a lot of eat for two days meals, shepherds pie, lasagne, spag Bol then turned into chilli the next day. This also helps with lunches. Not really noticed a huge difference. We are now experimenting with no meat meals (husband was adamant that he wouldn't touch it but is now ok with it)

For the cat and dog we tend to buy food online or where is cheapest and bulk order. Dry cat food is the Lidl box one)

[PatchworkGirl]

I don't know what I spend any more - will have to check. One thing we do regularly (2 adults) is cook double the amount and use the leftovers the following day. For example, my partner makes a nice bean chilli which we have with rice on day 1, then I add lentils/pasta and cheese for a lentil/pasta bake with salad on day 2. I also used to batch cook and freeze a lot which was very cost effective.

[MiseryLoves]

I shop in Asda. Every week I buy:

3 x meat from their 3 for £10 range
£5 on fresh veg
£5 on fresh fruit
Large bag of potatoes
2 packs of dried pasta
Large bag of rice
3 boxes of cereal
Few Tins of tomatoes.

Then add on essentials (bread, cheese,milk, cleaning stuff etc)

Top up any herbs/spices/sauces that have run out.

Some meals I make:

Cheese and leek pie
Sausage casserole
Irish stew
Pesto pasta with chicken/ham/gammon leftovers
Toad in the hole with cabbage
Roast dinner
Vegetable curry
Tacos(either in tortillas or the meat with rice)
Ometlette and chips
A ‘chuck everything that’s left in the slow cooker and hope for the best’ stew/soup
Pie and mash
Pork chops with rice/potatoes
Pasta bake with sausages


I spend £50-60 per week on main shop, for me, 2 teens and a toddler.
We use cloth nappies so no big expense.

Toddler has sandwiches/pasta/leftovers etc for lunch, but teens do have £15 per week topped up on their dinner account at school though

[Lazypuppy]

Food shop is £40 a week and i spend £25 a month on nappies, formula, wipes from aldi.

I always do the food shop online as then if i go over £40 i take stuff out to get it as low as possible. We aim for £40 as that is minimum for free delivery

[Star2015]

When we were really meal planning /budgeting to the max we used to log onto Aldi and see what meat and veg were on the super six desk and then meal plan around that.

Nowadays we shop in Lidl and do meal plan, but not around the offers, just mainly what we have in the freezer to use or what we fancy.

[Oly5]

You’re all doing amazingly if you ask me!! My bill is easily £140pw

[Fluffycloudland77]

Feed your family for £20 a week has a meal planner on it.

[LMW1990]

2 adults 2 children here (kids here 3 nights per week). I spend approximately £35-40 in the supermarket and £10 at the butchers per week. I'm not loyal to any supermarket and look what offers each have on. I meal plan each week. We always have a mince based dish on Tuesdays, Wednesday is a lighter tea due to extracurricular commitments and Friday is fish. DP and I have an indoor picnic on Saturday nights. The other nights the meat is usually based on what the butchers have on offer. I stock up on tins once a month including soups for lunches, and I buy large bags of scratch cook frozen veg. We don't buy fizzy pop, crisps or biscuits unless it's a treat. No cakes really as I'm allergic to chocolate. I batch cook and freeze.

[Doje]

Weirdly, I found that doing a fortnightly meal plan / shop really reduced my spend! I went from spending about £90 a week to £120 a fortnight! I keep milk and bread in the freezer so reduce the odd local shop where you always spend a tenner despite only needing one thing. Any meals using salad I plan for the beginning of the fortnight and rely on toot veg or frozen veg towards the end. I also try and do a couple of veggie make a week.

Example fortnight is:-

Stuffed Peppers
Marinated Chicken thighs with pitta & Salad
Leek tart
Thai chicken curry
Casserole
Home made pepperoni pizza
Lasagne
Paella
Veg cobbler
Fishcakes
Fajitas
Chickpea and potato curry
Sausages
Fish pie

[driggle]

Really interested to follow this. I'm trying to aim for £70 at the moment as it's been creeping up to £80-90 since having DD 3 months ago which also coincided with DS moving up to year 3 and no longer getting free school lunches. That budget includes toiletries, cleaning products, cat food, packed lunches for DS and formula. I buy nappies in bulk every month or two from Amazon and do my weekly food shop online. So 2 adults, DS, baby and a cat.

I was devoted to Sainsbury's for years but they've become so expensive. Switched to Tesco and although they have great offers I find their dates are really crap. So I'm giving Asda a try this week and my shop has come to £66 for 5 meals as we're going elsewhere for dinner on Saturday and one meal I already have the ingredients for. That amount also includes cat litter, which I don't buy weekly, and some treats for Christmas.

My meal plan is...

Bean chilli & rice
Chicken fajitas
Toad in the hole & mash
Ham omelette & homemade chips
Turkey & bean pasta (really nice, simple, cheap recipe I got from Sainsbury's website years ago)
Chicken kiev & chips (already had them in the freezer)

[QforCucumber]

We do eat a lot of meat, i do struggle with making meals which don't revolve around a meat tbh. We dont eat a lot of pasta or potatoes purely down to taste, not huge fans so probably not helping. We buy a large tray of chicken breasts once a month from the butchers which is about £18 and lasts the month. Thats alongside our whole chicken. The meatballs/mousakka are batch cooked and always make 2/3 portions.
Jackets/soups are usually lunch foods when at work.
Roasted a chicken last night, had with veg. Tonight we had one of the breasts shredded in corn wraps with cheese peppers onion and mushrooms. Tomorrow the remainder will be used in a curry with loads of vegetables. Though every night has meat its usually 1.5 breasts between the 3 of us and then bulked out with vegetables where possible.

[Ragwort]

What about more meals based on pasta or jacket potatoes? Cheap & filling.

[RomanyRoots]

I wouldn't include nappies when budgeting for groceries, they come under toiletries.
We manage to buy food for about £50 a week and there are 3 of us sometimes 4.
We buy fresh produce and cook from scratch, no expensive snacks and we don't buy pop or crap out of packets.
This evening we are having fish, not from fish monger today but usually buy Salmon tails at 75p each or 4 for £2.50.
Our fruit and veg comes from local market, meat from the butchers, online or local.

[Racecardriver]

You eat a lot of meat. That’s why it’s coming out so high. If you alternate one day meat one day vegetarian you’ll see a drop (it’s also healthier, overeating protein can be harmful).

[EssentialHummus]

Egg, chips and beans is another one.

[Conseulabananahammock]

I order a big hamper from muscle food every month and a half for 60 quid. Theres 2 adults and 3 kids in the house. Then just top up about 40 a week in aldi. This does include dog food, nappies, wipes and special milk for my son which is 1.40 a carton (about 6 a week)

[EssentialHummus]

Aldi/Lidl helps if feasible. I also do a couple of super cheap meals per week that help bring costs down - tonight and tomorrow are a lentil soup and bread at 50p a portion.

[Magmatic80]

Your dinners look lush! There’s meat everyday though. We are two adults and spend about £50/week, and have recently cut down on meat a lot to reach that. Typically two or three meals a week are meat free, and both weekend lunches.

If you only use chicken breasts that can be expensive, can you change to cheaper cuts, or buy whole chickens and joint them?

Frozen meat is cheaper too.

[Pebblesandfriends]

Watching with interest, my food bills seem to be spiralling at the moment, I am struggling to keep it under £400 a month ( including household basics look roll tin foil etc). We are two adults and two primary school kids. They have school dinners and packed lunches for DH and myself are made from scratch (including the bread to save ££). I menu plan, batch cook and the £400 doesn't include alcohol or treats as those are always the first to get deleted from my online basket I am just fed up of always going over budget and counting pennies at the end of the month.