Tips to lower food bill?

[AvoidingRealHumans]

I have noticed that my food shop has gone up quite a bit and wanted tips or tricks to help bring it down a bit.
I expected it with the kids being off school but they are back now and its still quite high.
It's just me and 2 boys (9 & 6) and I'm currently spending £90 a week in Aldi. I also go to tesco express through the week for random bits but I could easily stop that as its unnecessary things I buy.

I meal plan as in decide 7 meals and only buy the meat etc for that so it must just be utter crap I'm buying although at the time I think I am getting what I need.
I thought it was because I was taking the kids shopping with me but since they've been back at school I've gone alone and still spend 90 +.

Has anyone got any tips on how to stop my over buying and bringing it down? I have noticed I buy things on autopilot that I usually get but then get home and see that we still have whatever it is so didn't need more.
Or on the other hand, am I being tight and this is a normal weekly shop amount?
Any help appreciated

You've answered your own question really - you are buying more than you need, and then throwing your money away.

I’ve fallen off the wagon recently but when I’m doing well I make sure we have a couple of cheaper meals a week and make sure I plan meals to use up ingredients from other meals. So if we have fajitas for example we’ll have another meal that uses sour cream such as stroganoff and rather than buy guacamole I make it or just use mashed avocado instead.

I try to buy more basic snacks such as packets of biscuits rather than individually wrapped snacks. I used to bake a lot but it’s cheaper to buy most of the time now.

It’s all the extra bits that make up the bulk of our food shopping, I plan main meals and add them to my trolley and it’s not that much, then I add bread, milk, cereal, juice, fruit, ham, cheese, eggs, snacks etc and the cost leaps up.

Plan one meal less. I bet there is always something left to cobble together.

Dirt cheap veg such as cabbage and carrots bulk up a stir fry very well. You can even stir fry the outer leaves of cauliflower.
Root veg – potatoes, carrots, swede – mashed with butter costs less per portion than pasta or rice

Garlic and chilli will transform most vegetables.
You can make delicious curries from frozen spinach, potatoes, chickpeas, cauliflower