What's your average family grocery spend in Ireland?

[AgesAndAges]

I'm always interested in these threads but I find it's hard to equate UK spends to Irish as the prices vary.

We are a family of 2 adults and 3 small kids. I normally shop in Tesco though I've found they have gotten very expensive recently. Our shop was always €90-€120 before, but these days I'm finding it difficult to keep below €140. That covers all meals, school lunches, dh's lunch most days, toiletries and earning products. Oh and nappies wipes for the youngest.

Am I realistic to think I could do it for less? I cook from scratch most days and have a small repertoire of very cheap meals that I mix in with dearer ones. I'd like to be more frugal without scrimping.

I used to shop in Lidl but found it wasn't
too much cheaper than Tesco and I couldn't order online or do click and collect so switched to tesco for convenience. I sometimes shop in SV and find them the most expensive, but their produce is aways fantastic and they are the only company who deliver to our address so it's a toss up.

How much do other Irish families spend?

[AgesAndAges]

I'm mid-west too!

So, I went to Dunnes today! Given that it was very busy and is mid renovation at the moment (up in a heap and dust EVERYWHERE), it was a bit of a nightmare. But I survived it

I actually ended up spending €156 🙈 But that's because I picked up a few impulse bargain buys, including 10 packs of koka noodles for a fiver (reliving my student days) and one of their luxury apple pies that I can never resist (also cost €5). I also had a giant box of Fairy non bio that cost a tenner, which is great value compared to the €22 it costs in Tesco.

Because I'm really sad, I have calculated what the equivalent shop would cost in Tesco and it's €183, so I definitely have made some savings. Plus, I now have loads of €10 of €50 vouchers. I suppose next week's shop Wil be telling, as I will hopefully be over the novelty of impulse buys, plus I'll have the vouchers to save with.

[AgesAndAges]

I will repost the first of last week's receipts again later 👍

Oh and also a copy of this week's one if anyone wants a nosey at what I've been buying 😂

[Apileofballyhoo]

I sometimes do a click and collect for Tesco, OP, but I just get the things I want on offer! I also check Supervalu online before I do my shopping to see what they have on offer that week.

[DramaAlpaca]

Ages I'm also mid-west & think I was in the same Dunnes as you were today

[Ballygowenwater]

@AgesAndAges I am wondering if our local Dunnes is the same one- mine is up in a heap at the moment too... or it was 3 weeks ago when I was last there!

@Whoseagooddoggiethen it was just time to come home tbh. Couple of things happened together which meant it made sense to do it now.

[Whoseagooddoggiethen]

Well i hope you will be very welcomed and happy with your new start :)

I did a list last night of shopping. Its literally lunches because the freezer and presses are full. Im a great bulk cooker but as i love cooking i just make more instead of eating from the freezer but thats changing this week. Lads are with their dad for a couple of hours today (shockingly) so goibg to pop to Lidl purely cos they love their pretzels!

[Bluefargo]

We do a big shop at start of month with Lidl (use the buymie app for delivery - good value for a big shop but not anything under €100) we spend about 260 on that and it covers all dried goods/meat/fish/cleaning products etc.

Then we do a 60 euro shop every week in Aldi that covers dairy, bread, lunch things fruit and veg.

Works for us - has stopped a lot of the SuperValu / spar expensive shops during the week.

[Happierwithouthim]

What's buymie app? @Bluefargo ?

[seething1234]

2adults 3 kids approx 140-160 percent Tesco shop and then lidl top ups (if I do a cheap Tesco shop I might have to pop to lidl twice).

Finding shopping has increased in the last 2 years. E.g Ham for the lunches in this house could be over €6-7 euro . When i make my own ham no one wants it for their lunch .

[AgesAndAges]

Wanted to resurrect this to see how much everyone's bills have gone up by in the last 2 years.

I started noticing a sharp increase in my SuperValu shop at the beginning of 2022, so in early summer I switched to Dunnes as they started doing home delivery. Was spending between €180-200 there but with the €30.of vouchers I was getting off it felt like I was getting a good deal.

Unfortunately, they kept missing whole crates of food from my shop so it was a huge pain and now I've switched back to SuperValu. Did a €150 shop there today but there was a lot less in it than there would have been in my Dunnes shop so I feel deprived 😂

[AgesAndAges]

I'm tempted to try Aldi but my nearest store is a spin and doesn't do delivery or C+C. I've also found that their fruit has a questionable shelf life, and if I'm going to the bother of physically doing a weekly shop, I deffo don't want the hassle of doing topups too.

[LifeInAHamsterWheel]

I'm finding it so hard to work out where I should shop now! I work fulltime so don't have time to go to lots of different shops but it seems that's what you have to do to follow the 'bargains' at the moment. I'm genuinely at the price increases lately. For example I've been buying soda water for years it was always 25c in Lidl and Aldi now it's 59c!! Everything has gone up, and in a lot of cases it's really jumped not just a few cent. In Tesco it's so confusing with all the yellow 'clubcard only' prices but we know they've put the prices up so that the 'clubcard price' seems a bargain Lidl & Aldi prices have really gone up over the last 6 months. I don't go near SuperValu it's the worst. There isn't a Dunnes near me so I don't know about them. It's stressful. Yes I can and do batch cook, but as I said I work full time so I can really only do that at the weekend. If we have a busy weekend (teens, matches or anything on) then it's hard to batch cook much. I'm so sick of it!

[LifeInAHamsterWheel]

I've never done an online or click & collect shop! I just don't like the idea of someone else picking the produce, I have to root around the back of the fridges etc to find the best dates! So that wouldn't put me off Aldi but to be honest the prices aren't much cheaper there anymore...

[Belladonnamama]

I do our main shop in Aldi, 2 adults and 3DC aged 10,12 and 14. I would generally spend €140 weekly but do numerous top up shops during the week..

[AgesAndAges]

I don't mind other people picking my stuff, but SuperValu is the only one near me that offers very good customer service along with delivery, and the price increases are shocking. Many of the things I regularly order have jumped by 20% 🙈

It's the idea of top-up shops that would kill me, which is why I haven't shipped in Aldi since before I had kids (ie when I could get away with just shopping once a week).

[AgesAndAges]

Bella do you find that the 140 goes far in Aldi? What things do you find you need to top up with?

I think I could possibly put up with the idea of doing a shop in Aldi and then maybe a biweekly Tesco order with longer life fruit/the things I can't get in Aldi.

[LifeInAHamsterWheel]

It's the top-up shops that are the killer for me. My DC eat so much !! (teen DS in particular) We don't have a huge house/kitchen so honestly if I bought everything I knew we'd get through in a week I wouldn't have room to store it in the cupboards!! I need a bread room - bagels, wraps, waffles, bread, part baked rolls, chocolate croissants... it's ridiculous!!

[LifeInAHamsterWheel]

I might actually try to track it properly in October. Keep every single receipt and then put it all in a spreadsheet at the end of the month and see what's what. It'll be a scary read though!

[Belladonnamama]

@AgesAndAges

Bella do you find that the 140 goes far in Aldi? What things do you find you need to top up with?

I think I could possibly put up with the idea of doing a shop in Aldi and then maybe a biweekly Tesco order with longer life fruit/the things I can't get in Aldi.

I do find 140 goes far. We are big meat eaters and kids eat a lot. We would eat meat for dinner most days. I do have a second fridge in the garage and I keep that topped up with pizza, ready meals,party food for when kids have friends over. Top ups would be usually bread, milk, fruit. But of course I always find something else to buy even though I don't need it.

[TheKeatingFive]

Honestly, I think the answer is buy as much as humanely possible in the discounters, probably lidl rather than aldi.

While prices have gone up everywhere, they're still lower than the alternatives. The club card prices look good, but overall it's still much more expensive. I love a Dunnes top up as much as anyone, but I've got to cut right back here 😳. I never see the point of SV (unless in Cork, where they are marvellous).

Lidl has almost everything I'm looking for. The exceptions are some cereals (though they're better than they used to be). Free range chicken thighs/legs (which I can probably live without). And more treaty stuff, which is no harm to avoid for lots of reasons.

[Belladonnamama]

@TheKeatingFive

Honestly, I think the answer is buy as much as humanely possible in the discounters, probably lidl rather than aldi.

While prices have gone up everywhere, they're still lower than the alternatives. The club card prices look good, but overall it's still much more expensive. I love a Dunnes top up as much as anyone, but I've got to cut right back here 😳. I never see the point of SV (unless in Cork, where they are marvellous).

Lidl has almost everything I'm looking for. The exceptions are some cereals (though they're better than they used to be). Free range chicken thighs/legs (which I can probably live without). And more treaty stuff, which is no harm to avoid for lots of reasons.

Definately agree. I can afford to stock up in lidl or aldi but nowhere else.

[Ballygowenwater]

I only shop in Aldi, it’s that or SuperValu here and it’s gotten a lot more expensive. There’s 3 of us and we eat very little meat as I’m veggie and my daughter doesn’t like it. We used to spend €70 a week as recently as June/July, now we’re looking at €120 minimum a week.

[Theprimeofmissmulroney]

There are 3 of us and we spend about 100 on a supermarket shop but that is without alcohol. However the 100 would probably get us most of our treats and stuff. That's in lidl. 120 in Dunnes before the vouchers kick in. I always buy some alcohol then which is another 30 though. 2 wines and guiness for DH. I know it's over 100 a month but I get up at 6 five days a week, do a commute, and work long hours, so if I couldn't have a glass of wine at the weekend, I'd shoot myself now. Not prepared to give it up. I have given up buying any new clothes or shoes til January. Doing my best.

[LifeInAHamsterWheel]

God no @Theprimeofmissmulroney don't give that up you definitely deserve it.

[AiryFairyLights]

If I do a full shop in Aldi or Lidl it averages around 100-120 but that would be every two weeks and include tinned beans tomatoes pasta etc then I’d roughly spend 50 in local shops for bread milk etc if we ran out!
I only buy a couple of items in Tesco now as can’t get them anywhere else and depending on what they have on offer with the clubcard etc.