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.

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

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

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.

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)

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

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!

Stop snacking. Totally unnecessary, not needed, not healthy

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.

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.

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