Shopping bills out of control

[Banana7]

Hi,

I can't seem to manage to bring my weekly shopping to under £100. There's 4 of us : 2 adults with reasonable appetites, a 7 years old and a 3 years old with little appetites but who like their snacks.

Just today, I bought (from Tesco) :
-mince beef
-2x tinned tomatoes
-2 x kidney beans
-soured cream
-2x bread loaves
-1 grapes punnet
-1x6 crisps pack
-1 pack of fruit juice lollies
-1 hummus pot
-1 breadsticks pack

That came to a total of £19!

I can't seem to pinpoint where I'm going awfully wrong because all of the above will be eaten, there won't be any food waste. I plan to do a chilli con carne with half the mince pack and freeze the rest for a bolognese next week.

I spend about that a day(either as a daily shop or combined as a bigger shop supposed to last us a few days) so that's almost £150 /week and that doesn't include cleaning stuff, alcohol, some of the kids treats, milk and toilet roll, that sort of things.

I don't understand how the average spend for a family of 4 per week is under £100.We don't even need nappies anymore!

Any enlightened thoughts?

I wish I knew. I tried to place a Tesco order to replenish drinks and snacks from over the weekend, it came to £60. I went through it to see what I could have accidentally ordered to bump it up but nothing. Literally crisps, juices, milk and breads with some fruit for packed lunches and after school.

I used to manage to get a massive trolley full from aldi for about £80 which would last ages, now the same stuff is £100 - £140. Only £10 less from Tesco and doesn't have everything we need so would need some top ups.

I don't even buy many brands and veer towards Stockwell Farm at Tesco where I can.

I really hope it doesn't get worse.

Unfortunately cheap shopping days are gone. We've had to go for freezer type meals 2/3 times a week to keep the costs down but even then it's only saving us £10 or so a week. It's insane.

I've no idea. I'm going from Lidl to Tesco to get everything and it's so so expensive.

shop At aldi or lidl
Never buy alcohol
have 3 non meat dishes ie pesto pasta,
freezer food, jacket potatos

and never buy brands- I used to hate anything non Heinz but you soon adapt

i’d keep all the receipts over the next two months then reassess. Then I’d start meal planning based on what’s on sale and batch cook. Some shops sell off items at the end of the day, some first thing in the am.

I have noticed that Lidl and Asda seem to be the worst right now for sticking an extra 30p or 50p on an item.....my weekly almond slices have gone from £1 to £1.50 in 2 weeks....not buying them until price drops again or will find an alternative....nice coffee in Lidl gone from 1.89 to 2.09 to 2.30 in a few weeks...!!

Meal planning is your friend! I plan 2 weeks meals (often the same meal twice) and do a fortnightly shop at Aldi. 2 weeks meals, stuff for breakfast and lunches, milk, juice bread and sweets, cheese some crisps and two bottles of Prosecco came to £81. Doing this has cut my food spend by half.

The price of everything has gone up that's what it is. I've noticed my grocery bill in aldi alone has gone up from around €100-€110 to €155ish.
I sat the other day & looked through my receipt & noticed that each item had gone up by around 30-50 cents. Some things were more like mince was €6.50.
I'm not buying anymore than normal.
I'm going to have to start buying small packs of mince & bulk out with tomatoes/veg & make more vegetarian cheaper meals & buy less meat.
I usually buy the rest of my shopping at a store like tesco (think coffee, certain cereals etc) but I've just not had the extra funds unless I take it from elsewhere.

I usually get a 750g of mince and can get 3 separate portions out of it, when I do a chilli or Bolognese. Bulk up on cheap beans and then the rest is the rice/pasta/jacket potato,chips so maybe try and stretch a little further.
Do the same with curry's, get the large pack of chicken thighs and can usually get 3 portions.
Also on really cheap days literally get a punnet of cherry tomatoes and cook into a pasta sauce. Usually already have pasta, onions and garlic in the house so that's a 99p dinner day (cherry tomatoes), a little extra if you want Parmesan too.
I find the cost jumps up the most when it's a week we've run out of washing powder, toilet roll etc

I did a repeat order from Asda. 2 months ago it was £70, now it’s £100. Everything is just creeping up. Even budget foods don’t feel like budget anymore

OP I just did your exact shop on Tesco online and it came to 12.69. I got the cheap tin tomatoes and 2 hovis loaves. I got the 750g mince too. Are you making sure to check offers and not go for premium stuff?

Could you tell us more what kind of mess you do and lunches? I think it would be really helpful.

I manage to meal plan well for breakfast and dinners but lunches just tips my shopping over for some reason

I don't think you're doing anything wrong, food prices have just increased massively. We are two adults, a 3yo and 3mo and we spend about £120 a week.

I compared my receipt for last shop with one with a few of same items from two years ago and the prices have gone up substantially (and package sizes also down in some cases).

I try and bulk stuff out
So chilli I would add more veg, and have less of the chilli but add some value tortilla chips (they have less additives too!) and turn some into nachos as an additional lunch/snack
It's not easy!
Wonky veg, and buy the Tesco stuff that's price matched to Aldi (easier to see online)
Spag Bol make with celery onion and carrot but I use more than usual as carrots are cheap. Add a cheap garlic bread to fill up

Shop at Aldi or Lidl, this will save you loads.

I'll be honest, I reckon you may struggle to get under £100 a week for a family of 4. I know it's not the same situation, but we spend £300-350 a month for 2 people shopping as much as we can at aldi and the odd thing from Asda that we can't get from Aldi (about £50 a month).

We found that cutting out things like crisps, snacks, fizzy drinks etc really cut down our shop cost. We get these as a treat once a month rather than ensuring we have them stocked in the cupboards. Other high-cost luxury items (like dips) we also binned and just live off essentials. It's not great but it's fine and it saves us money! It all depends what you are willing to sacrafice.

We also meal prep/plan. From one 500g pack mince with pasta we can make 8-10 meals by adding in cheap bulks like grated carrot, kale, tin of baked beans, and spinach. We just stick them all in a freezer :)

Are all your items Tesco's own/Growers Harvest tomatoes and kidney beans/best value minced beef/whatever is on offer? If not, changing those items will help. Depends how much you really need to keep costs down, but do you really need the sour cream? Also, fruit on weekly offers will be cheaper than a punnet of grapes. If the juice lollies are for your DC, a couple of Tescos biscuits would be cheaper. I'm not being critical, just trying to help.

If you set a budget and are determined to keep to it, that helps. There's only two of us and our budget is £50. I know what works price wise now and we easily get a cheap bottle of wine or cans of lager (I keep my eyes open for reduced buys where boxes are damaged though)

I forgot to say really - £300-350 is probably on the higher end of 'low' price shop. We have meat with every single as we are on high protein diets. We absolutely could get out shop for a little less.

YY to shopping at Aldi or Lidl and cutting down on extras like fizzy drinks and lots of different types of sauces being the way to save if you are serious about spending less.

Also eating less meat, eg by making a chilli, curry etc with a small amount of meat and larger amounts of pulses and veg. Even buying the cheaper peppers - a 3 pack with a green one in is usually 20/30 pence cheaper than without, for example. Tesco is relatively expensive, so avoid them if possible.

Don't waste anything and use larger packs of cheaper items where possible. For example, I don't buy sour cream, or other types of cream for cooking and buy the larger tubs of full fat Greek style yogurt instead. This is a perfectly acceptable substitute for sour cream and also for adding creaminess to something like a chicken curry.

For non perishables and cleaning products/pet food, toilet paper etc, if you buy brands, rather than Aldi/Lidl, always buy on offer and keep stocks in so you never pay 'full price' - they're on offer so often it's easy to avoid and saves loads.

I feed me and a hollow-legged teenage boy for £45 a week, also from Tesco.

I don't buy branded tinned tomatoes, I get Tesco's own, 4 at a time to get them for 40p a tin. Tesco's value kidney beans. Tesco's own brand crinkle cut crisps.

Look closely at the price per kilo of minced beef. Some pack sizes are less expensive per kilo than others. It's sometimes better to buy large packs and split & freeze them. Check every price/kilo closely. Meal plan. Consider frozen alternatives (not meat) eg Tesco thin crust pepperoni pizza £3.25 fresh or £1.45 frozen. Same size. By the time it reaches ds' plate, there is no difference.

I buy cleaning products from the £shop. Eg Tesco rinse aid £1.75 /500ml. £shop rinse aid 99p/500ml Same for loo roll. Thankfully our £ shop is just across the carpark so no extra driving or time.

I know tescos is dear but what do you do when your town only has a Lidl and a tescos? By the time I'd travel elsewhere any savings would be written off.

I used to have an Asda delivery pass but they got expensive and I went back to Lidl for most things and Tesco for the branded stuff I can't swap out.

I switched from Asda to Aldi and my weekly shop went from £100-120 a week to £60 max.

Part is due to better meal planning, I now write a list for the week based on our work finish times and football matches/plans. Less food waste as it’s all accounted for.

The other thing we’ve done is switch from name brand to generic on lots of items. Squash, Aldi’s version of Pringles, their crisp multipacks, yoghurts are all so much cheaper and in most cases taste the same or better.

I was buying a small bottle of Robinsons Peach and Raspberry squash for £1.20 and a Peach Squash in Aldi is 85p and just as nice.

Same problem here. Used to spend £60 - £80 a week on everything (food, cleaning, toiletries) for 2 adults and 5 dogs (50% raw fed) mainly in Lidl. Plus an extra £40 pm online dry dog food. Now we have MIL living with us as well it's crept up to around £150 a week. That's just £100 Lidl and £50 other bits from Sainsbury's or Asda. I do think that's partly the extra adult with additional things needed (pads, extra loo roll etc) partly price increases. Lidl used to be really good value now its no cheaper than Sainsbury's.

Are you shopping at a Tesco supermarket or a Tesco express as they are more expensive imo.
As others have said it would be a great idea to meal plan.you could do a weekly shop for your food items after you have planned what you want to eat and then you can budget accordingly .I do my food shop online so I know exactly what I am spending as I go along .and I can also easily pick the cheapest price per kilo for whatever I need .
There is quite a few websites when you Google feed a family for under a fiver. But alot of them can be time consuming to make .
Jack Monroe has some really cheap food ideas and one pot cooking I think her website is called a girl called jack

I just added all of the above items on Sainsburys.com for under £15.00 so it's definitely possible to get the prices down. The ones I chose weren't even the cheapest option.