Twice a week online shop?

[BigRenoLittleBudget]

On a mission to reduce our food spend. We are a family of 5 with a 6, 4 and 1 yo including one gluten allergy which can make shopping more pricey.

I've set ourselves a monthly budget of £525 for all household goods including food, cleaning products, bin bags etc as well as nappies and wipes. Sounds ok but it equates to just under £120 per week once I've included online delivery pass which is essential for us due to work/kids/etc and we have certainly been spending more than that recently.

Previously we were doing an online shop roughly once a week but it would vary which day I managed to get organised enough to book it for. I would usually spend £90-120 ish. However invariably the food wouldn't last us a full 7 days so then I'd either end up doing our next big online shop 5-6 days later or we'd end up doing several top up shops for bits and pieces. My DH is particularly bad for this as he will then always pick up treats as well like those bags of donuts or cookies or a pastry. Either way, we have been averaging out at around £650-700 per month which is more than I'd like to be spending.

So my new plan is to use the delivery pass to the max and have twice weekly deliveries. The minimum order value is £40, so I'm thinking of trying a new system where I have a Friday delivery with a budget of around £70-80 and a Tuesday top up delivery with a budget of £40-50. Does anyone else do this? Any tips for meal planning? We'd probably spend more at weekends anyway as everyone is home, although our shop does include lunches for all but one child who gets free dinners in infant school. Thanks :-)

We do this. I tend to shop every 5 days so it stops the top up shops and I think we spend less.

I don’t do it but have wondered if it would be cheaper. Will be interested to hear from others who may do it

We do this. The main thing is it can eliminate top up shops as you don't run out of fresh stuff as easily. We don't do it specifically to save money though, we do it as we don't routinely pass a decent shop on weekdays so top up shops are a massive pain for us.

We are considering doing this

We normally get an ocado delivery on a Sunday which is usually around £150. Then I top up in person in Asda on a weds or Thurs which is usually around £40. I'm hoping to go back to work soon (currently a sahm) so debating getting 2 ocado a week so I dont need to go in person to Asda. Although we do like some things you can get in Asda but not ocado, but I'm sure we could pick those up another time

It makes sense when your budget exceeds two times minimum spend per week.

For me personally, the key is having the same slot every week so I can work other things around it and know how long things are going to last et cetera. But living with another adult and several children. Twice a week sounds good to me. I wouldn't be so fixed about which shop is the largest I would just deduct the two times fixed cost of the minimum spend. And be careful not to exceed the rest of your budget over the two shops.

Is the annual Asda pass too expensive to get in addition to the Ocado pass?

I’m considering the same as like you the second shop is 5-6 days later AND I’m getting top up shops.

We used to average three per fortnight. With food prices having gone up so much, I now do two a week with one being delivered on a Friday/Saturday and the other on a Sunday/Monday. It's made planning much easier as I have a much better idea of what meals people will be at home for and we also have a better sense of what we might want to eat. The fridge is never jam packed so it's also reduced the chances of stuff getting lost at the back or a new item being opened when someone can't find the one which still needs finishing. The only negative is that the DC perceive that we never have any food as they are used to seeing the fridge jam packed at least one a week. As this isn't actually the case, I'm ignoring this!

I top up in person in the supermarket - early evening yellow sticker stuff makes a big difference

I don't do this now but there was a time when i used to have two set shopping days - the reasons were we were wasting a lot of food as my dh will not stick to food plan and keeps throwing in sneaky take aways, or will use the freezer food on day 2, 3 etc, while fresh is left in fridge, one week i'd get say 8 bananas, a bag of apples, pears and grapes, and the grapes and pears would be eaten day one- and five days later i'd have most of the bananas and all the apples, the next week it could be the opposite, yogurts split over 2 flavours and again suddenly the kiddo's decide they hate x flavour which was last weeks top choice. So i used to do a main (usually friday) delivery which would be meat, veg etc that i would use for batch cooking over weekend- lunches /dinners for weekend and Monday, and about half the weeks fruit, salad items, bread , dairy, (not including many treats for school lunches because they would vanish over weekend), with top up shop was delivered Tuesday, included cereal. The days and times were same almost every week as that helped me plan, i cant say if we saved money but we did get rid of emergency shops that included wine chocolate and doughnuts.

I did also think about just shopping more frequently but then the day the shopping comes would change every day and I'm unlikely to manage to be organised enough to keep adapting to this, and then end up doing a top up shop in person! I think I need regular days for it to work.

Would really like to do this but timings don't really work for me, getting back from work and collecting all three DCs and bedtimes etc

I think that with a delivery pass-so no extra costs there-this is a really good idea!

I was previously shopping at both Ocado and Asda because I like some of the higher end Ocado products and they do a good GF range but then I also wanted the cheaper options of Asda. I have just switched to Sainsbury's as a compromise and their monthly pass is £7.50 which is almost the same as the Ocado Tues-Thurs pass at £6.99.

Forgot to add that Sainsbury's do an Aldi price match on a lot of the basics products but then also have a lot of GF/organic options so I'm hoping this will work well!

I've never heard of this so following with interest.

At the moment my monthly budget is £550. We get a delivery maybe every 9 days. On the first delivery (pay weekend) I buy all the monthly stuff like dog food, bin bags, toiletries, dishwasher tablets etc and extra tins, freezer bits, the amount is around £200/£220. The rest of the month is mainly fridge stuff getting delivered we don't do top up shops.

Do you have a Home Bargains available to you? Stocking up there every couple of months for a lot of the cleaning / household / toiletry items etc can also save you a ton of money - they also stock branded gluten free items too.

Definitely worth a try if you think it works for you. What you spend is dependent on what you buy and where from, because prices vary, not how often.

A regular weekly shop makes no sense logically, but it's seen as the norm, probably because shops promote it because it's likely the most expensive way to shop as you're less likely to buy in bulk or take full advantage of special offers, also likely to waste more because stuff gets lost at the back of the fridge or looks past it's best after 5/6 days. Possibly also a hangover from the days when people were paid weekly and delivery wasn't a thing, so people took the 'one and done' approach.

I would concentrate on finding some lower cost recipes and also adapting what is on offer/seasonal veg to make meals that cost less eg pork or turkey instead of chicken or beef. Use less meat and more pulses and veg in curries, chillies etc.

Don't waste anything - shopping twice weekly will help with this as you only need food for the next few days, not the entire week. Plan in a 'use up' meal like omelettes or soup/stew with any leftover bits of veg.

Could be worth looking at Aldi or Home Bargains for non perishable non food items like cleaning products and nappies, as much cheaper than main supermarkets (people on here seem to often praise Aldi nappies for example). Perhaps go once a month to stock up?

Reduce the amount of 'non meal' food you buy - not healthy, often adds significantly to the cost. If DH wants to buy that sort of stuff, it comes from his personal spending money, it's not groceries if it's not in the budget. Is the 'mission to reduce grocery spending' a need or is it just that you think you should be spending less? If you need to spend less, make sure he's on board with this and point out the consequences - lack of money for other essentials, getting into debt, not able to afford holidays or other treats etc - it's very easy for one partner to totally derail a budget by spending a few quid here and there on their own personal treats, which is unfair on the rest of the family.

But do you actually need to pay for an Ocado delivery pass at all? My deliveries have always been free and it's not like I spend a lot - usually just above the £40 minimum spend. I have an order coming tomorrow with free delivery, and I've just looked and about half the slots over the next week or so are also free.

I use Amazon Subscribe & Save for non-food items I regularly need such as nappies, baby wipes, shower gel etc. You can choose the frequency, anything from weekly to six-monthly. It informs you ahead of a delivery to review it (with the option to skip items), and if any item increases in price. Saves money and avoids lugging bulky items home (especially if like me you have no car)!

This is a good point… I don’t live near a HB but I could try to go every so often. Although I do try to use eco laundry and cleaning products where possible, do they sell them?
I also did assume that if I bought cleaning and washing stuff from Sainsbury’s when it’s on offer it would be similar price to elsewhere. Is that not the case?

It works for us! we have a tiny under counter fridge so the main reason was because we cant seem to fit a weeks shop for 4 in it! but have found we really save money, and because you know another delivery is coming in a day or 2 if you notice you've run out of something we tend to just improvise rather than pop for the bits and pieces. We use Tesco which is about £5 a month for the offpeak delivery and click and collect which is great as the C&C limit is only £25 so now and again I'll change to that rather than a delivery if its not needed.

ours tends to be Friday for the delivery and either Monday or Tuesday for the 2nd one/C&C

I do this. I also use Tesco as you can spend clubcard points on a delivery pass

When our shopping was out of control years ago, we moved to twice a week (on set days). It really helped us get out of the scarcity mindset of having to pop out to get something (and buying other stuff while there). As we got better at playing the game, we stretched it to "one and done" with no top ups. It broke the habit of constantly buying food and got us on top of our budget. We shop a bit differently now (buy things from different places in bulk (flour from mill, some Amazon/wholefoods coop builk buys, milkman for milk&butter, butcher for meat) but our variable grocery shop is still once a week, in person or online depending on how much we need to get.

I find it saves money and food wastage to have 2 smaller shops. Fruit and veg are much fresher and you don’t end up with things going mouldy or soft before they get eaten. You don’t end up purchasing impulse buys when you do a top up shop. It depends on your self discipline though 😂

I used to have a seven-day pass, but cut it down to mid week. Saves a few pennies each month, so now I do a main order on the Thursday, and top up in actual supermarket on Tuesday.

I get two deliveries a week. Monday fresh food, Friday packets, jars, freezer stuff and non food. I always order enough to avoid minimum basket charge. Two permanently hungry teens. They get free fruit and sometimes toast at school, which helps. Total is around £120 per week.