Sick to death of grocery costs (1k/ month)

[Icannotbudget]

Our grocery bill has slowly increased and is now around 1k per month. This is for two adults, two very active teenage boys, and two dogs. This includes everything you would get from a supermarket eg personal care and laundry/ cleaning stuff.
Both kids are neurodivergent one in particular is very fussy and would rather go hungry than eat ‘cheap’ food. The older one just seems to need constant protein.
I am vege and pretty unfussy but don’t like freezer food. No alcohol and i shop at Aldi as much as poss but do use other supermarkets too.
DH works long hours and Ive just gone back full time and really struggling its impossible to cook from scratch every night.
Not sure if I want sympathy or strategies to be honest, its crippling me and im feeling really down.

Leah5678
Gone up to something (euro) for the fake ones (Rice crunchies or crispy rice or something) yesterday which (to me and the kids) taste nothing like the real ones. Depressing. Same for corn flakes.

Haven’t been able to afford ‘real’ weetabix in years (which is fine as they all taste the same to all of us) but yesterday bought a box of Kellogg’s cornflakes and Rice Krispies and told dh yesterday eff that, will spend two euro extra for real Rice Krispies and corn flakes from now on. Eff paying two euro for cereal we don’t like!! THAT’s When he said we should go onto porridge. No way in hell!!!!

This isn't cavier though, they aren't trading up to luxury products, these are things that they used to be able to afford before the Cost of Living crisis. It's the affordability that has changed.

I buy 90% own brand but someone must be buying branded as the supermarkets are full of them, I wouldn't consider them to be for millionaires only. Cue vision of Rishi in Tesco trying to decide whether to get the normal size or giant tub of Lurpak.

@daisychain01

How about getting rid of the dogs and kids!!!!

I am just joking......

£100 a week budget for family of 4 and 1 dog here. Once every 6 weeks I do an Iceland order for the nuggets, frozen veg etc ( did anyone else take advantage of the 10 for £10 Birdseye offer recently? Twas amazing ). I shop at either Asda or Aldi, OH prefers Lidl on his weeks.
I go to Superdrug once every couple of months and get ALL toiletries including hair products etc. Spend about 35 quid on that by getting what's on offer.
If we go to Costco we sit and work out what to get. Granola bars and treat stuff are always worth it, meat and fish, bulk buy pizza bases and freeze. We have homemade pizza once a week.
It takes up a fair amount of our time but needs must unfortunately. Gone are the days we can just sling stuff into the trolley.
If the boys preferences are difficult to tweak OP what about yours? You say you don't like freezer food but the quality these days is pretty good. Would you be willing to give it a go? Some days we just have some quorn nuggets/chicken pieces and a salad. Keeps the cost down.

Edited to add, definitely go to Iceland for the branded frozen stuff. It's extortionate in other supermarkets. Farmfoods sells the branded stuff too and there are nearly always offers on.

That seems like a lot - if they insist on certains brands (ie more expensive) can you try swapping the contents of own label stuff (eg cereals)? I think quite a few do this as some have an attachment to the label iyswim rather than actual taste of the product. We find that lots of own brand stuff is identical or better. Re protein, there is much cheaper protein such as pulses, rather than meat. And sorry to say I think having dogs is a (unnecessary) 'luxury' if you are finding it hard to pay so much for grocery bills for your family.

Caveat: I'm in the US so this may not be true in the UK. Check the price of your dog's food on Amazon.

Our dog has an extremely sensitive belly and the ONLY food that doesn't give him terrible diarrhoea is Hill's Science Diet. We buy it on Amazon and it's at least a few dollars cheaper & sometimes goes on sale.

food is not cheap, though hand on heart im not sure its supposed to be cheap

If you are eating a ready meal - then this adds up, could you instead make yourself a dump bag for the slow cooker? Then eat that the nights you don't want to cook? Taming twins has plently of dump bag vegetables ideas

Times change, prices fluctuate, you change your choices accordingly. Essentially if Lurpak is so extortionate nobody buys it then they won’t have any business and will have to reduce their prices. If people are still buying Lurpak when they can’t afford it then they’re propagating the issue because Lurpak will take it in and keep prices as they are.

It’s called capitalism, I assume those of you who run small business price in the same way rather than for charity.

This ! I work full time and earn a good, above average salary. I shouldn't have to have a mental debate over a tub of fucking berries in the supermarket.

@FfsJaney

How did you think that the relentless rain and waterlogged fields wouldn't have an impact on farming and food production? How is it possible to get to adulthood and not make this connection. Honestly, the mind boggles. Lambs have been drowning in fields, so expect the cost of meat to rise too.

Are you off your meds again pet? 🌹

Not sure how old your boys are but once 16 I’d encourage a pt job in McDonald’s. Lots of teen staff at one my dc works at are autistic so it’s not a barrier. It pays well but a big perk for a teen boy is a free meal on shift and a crew app with lots of freebies eg every time a new item comes out plus any other food is heavily reduced think it’s £2.20 for a Big Mac meal with fries and drink.

How does he know its "cheap" food ?

I spend £1000 a month too - 2 adults, 1 hungry teen boy and a 12 yo dd. 2 dogs, 3 cats. Often my 21 yo dd is here too.

I would say OP that ND or not, your kids don't need to drink fruit juice and eat yoghurts. I agree that (as a former lurpack afficionado) the own brands taste the same as lurpack. I only buy weetabix or porridge now.

We don't eat red meat apart from mince every so often for spag bol.

The expense from my shop is mostly me eating chicken most days for lunch - I have quite bad food intolerances and can't eat wheat, pulses and a lot of other things.

I get what PP say about being exhausted with the whole food thing. I can never see how to get my food shop down to even £150 a week but I'd love to.

£250 a week seems insane and what do you get for that ?

I get some children only eat certain brands. The 6yr Autistic boy I look after only eats a certain brand of breadstick as his only food

He will refuse a diff shops brand

Equally a few years ago i decanted Aldi coke into proper coke bottle and dh drank it happily for 6mths till found out

But I bought Aldi coke he refused to drink it and said it was horrible 😂😂😂

@SmellyNelliey cheese strings aren't even proper cheese

£20. Week on chewy fake cheese

Just buy a block and cut chunks off it

I was thinking to myself of 'make do and mend' and ww2 cookery and if that would work at all. Then I remembered.... plates, of fish, meat, eggs being put in front of me and sitting there till it was eaten. I never ate it, I never would and never will. But there are some tips we can use from then. Really pause for a couple of weeks before buying anything not vital, freecycle, no buying food or drinks out, take your own coffee in a flask, take your own sandwich / salad. I feed my dog proplan, i find that's the most nutritious you can get without getting into the stupidly pricey brands. I also reuse birthday card envelopes for correspondence, who cares if the council thinks I'm weird. Also I wear shitty old clothes at home rather than chucking them and try to keep the house just a little colder.

I've just checked our AMEX bill and it was £840 for supermarket shops over the past month, which works out around £195 per week.

That did include some Costco shops which included clothes and other non-food items, so I think that's an overestimate.

It also included some expensive meat that's gone in the freezer (e.g. Wagyu beef sirloin, boneless lamb shoulder and rib of beef that was going for half-price at the Waitrose butcher's counter).

I think a normal week is probably around £150-£160.

(Family of four with young kids in London)

I feel your general pain, the cost of food in particular dairy stuff I find is really worrying

however £1k?? We are found including two boys slightly younger than yours. I think we spend £500-600 tops. And could spend less.

Family of 6 with dog. I work 4 days a week but in a long hours job so have to be really organised. Don’t buy branded but generally cook from scratch so it doesn’t really matter anyway. Slow cooker has been a life saver as can put chilli/bolognese or curry on all day and then just microwave rice, nans, poppodoms etc to flesh it out. I also include all the packed lunch stuff, washing stuff, shampoo and nappies and wipes etc. if you have to get branded food for your son could you cut down on unbranded household stuff (eg fairy dishwasher tabs are nearly a tenner for 40 and Aldi ones are about £3. I just can’t go above about £140. I find online shopping helps as I can see what I get before checking out. If it’s over what I can spend I just have to put stuff back out my trolley

This may be a minor expense, but how much are you spending on shower gel? I know people whose teenagers can get through £5 worth each in a week. We buy a 750ml bottle of Lidl bath gel, which seems to be exactly the same as shower gel but it's half the price, about £1, and especially in combination with one of those shower scrunchy things (I don't know what they're officially called) it lasts for ages.

Sainsbury’s made £701 million in profit in 2022-23.

apologies if this has been mentioned, for branded items if you check the Trolley website it has up to date prices for different supermarkets. Might help save a little bit

How many days has the youngest gone without food?

Sainsbury’s made £701 million in profit in 2022-23.

@MsFaversham That's brilliant because a huge amount of it will go back in tax, as will 50% of the CEo's salary and shareholder pay outs.

Pays for all the benefits people here talk about!

Food costs have fallen a LOT since they peaked.

We've got used to cheap food with tiny payments going to the producers and food has always been a cheap item compared to its true cost to the producers.

The increase has a lot to do with the war (Russia) , reduced supply of corn oil and cereals, and the cost of fuel (thanks Putin.)

It's a global issue and not that supermarkets are raising prices for no reason.

If i were you I’d give up being veggie. It’s not really worth it if you are cooking meat anyway and you buying a second protein or eating a ready meal is adding to cost. You’d eat less meat as a household if you made one veggie meal a week for everyone and then ate what everyone else did. 🤷🏻‍♀️