Food shop

[didntsignupfothis]

I would love your tips on reducing the cost of the weekly food shop. We’re spending around £40 more than we were around 1 year ago but still getting the same amount of food.
I know the prices have all increased but…

What do you do or where do you shop to keep costs down?
What cheap meals do you make?
:)

I buy no alcohol, very few cleaning products beyond washing up and laundry detergent and bath stuff, I shop for fresh ingredients not prepared meals, and I have tried and discovered which items I need to buy quality and which ones are ok from the Essentials Range.

I shop online so I can see exactly what the total is before it’s time to pay.
I’ve swapped all lamb for beef.
We eat meat free at least 2-3 times a week.
I buy easy cheap lunches like spaghetti hoops or linda mc cartney sausage rolls.
We eat a hell of a lot of pasta and rice meals.
We have a good roast chicken dinner once a week and use the leftovers in a stir fry or curry the next day. It’s not quite the old MN chicken that lasts 9 days but it saves us a bit.
We spend out on 2-3 things a week that we really love like olives and save on things we don’t care about like buying cheaper own brand cheddar or yoghurt.
We don’t bother with alcohol because wine feels like drinking money these days.
I try not to get sucked into deals on things that are branded and slightly more expensive.
The only branded cleaning product I buy is my toilet cleaner and all else is own brand.
We use the tinfoil twice if we can (we tried reusable oven liners and the oil on them never cleaned off and just went sticky). We also use one teabag per two cups of tea in the pot.
But my goodness, it’s all so expensive now!

I can’t believe just how much more expensive everything is. We don’t buy any luxuries, no alcohol, cleaning products we get from a different shop.
We don’t ever buy ready meals and we meal plan every week so we aren’t buying random unnecessary things online as it’s easy to get dragged into offers etc.

Tempted to try another supermarket like Aldi maybe 🤔 I wonder if it’s cheaper than Morrisons?

We buy own brand everything (where possible) rather than pay for the same product but a known name on a box.

For content we are a family of 4, 2 adults, 2 children aged 5 & 7. We do one large online shop once a month which is around £180-200, this includes all food items, cleaning products, personal hygiene products, treats such as alcohol…etc. Also every week we visit our local CoOp for fresh fruit/Veg and milk which is roughly £10

Overall I’d say we spend £250 a month on groceries.

We do a £100 Ocado shop each week and a £20 Lidl or Asda top up mid week depending on where my dh is working. That covers all breakfasts, dinners and snacks and lunches for my DH and I (kids eat at nursery/school). Once a month I spend about £40-60 on toiletries/cleaning stuff. Meals we have on rotation, pantry pasta (olives/capers), roast salmon with veg/rice, sausages with flatbreads, halloumi wraps, tuna pasta, pesto pasta, Japanese golden curry/veg, the odd oven pizza, roast chicken one day/leftover chicken the next day plus stock. Ham sandwiches or cheese on toast for lunch, bread sticks and fruit mainly for snacks.

It's really hard to keep to budget but shopping online helps me be thorough and make sure we are ordering enough and that I'm taking advantage of all of thw offers (e.g. Ocado do a 3 for £12 on meat and fish which usually does two meals for us)

I was shopping at Ocado and have done for ages. DH changing jobs and I’m retired so needed to make savings.
We lasted 2 weeks with DH going to Aldi. I believe this can vary from store to store but the fresh produce was generally terrible quality. I was just throwing things away. A couple of other items were OK but availability was inconsistent.
I’ve gone back to Tesco as Clubcard prices are good and lots of items price matched to Aldi.
I’m getting better at batch cooking/ freezing leftovers etc.
I buy pulses from Hodmedodds to make soups and stews too.

These are some things which we have liked.

We have a local refill shop. They do food and household products. We use it quite a lot. From a money-saving perspective, especially for:

• spirit vinegar for cleaning (we use this in place of many other cleaning products)
• cupboard items that I only want small amounts of at a time or only need as a one-off, e.g. if I need 50g of currants, or wholemeal flour, or particular spices. There are usually a few things like this each week! Bonus: cupboards don't get overfilled.

Cheap meals
Lots of nice vegetarian food. Several of the recipes below are Italian 'cucina povera' type recipes - you can search the term and find loads more.

• semolina gnocchi (these also freeze really well before baking, so I batch cook them)
• cheap pasta ideas: plain tomato sauce, roast veg and ricotta, aglio olio peperoncino, carbonara, amatriciana
• recipes using eggs - frittata, egg curry, shakshuka, eggy bread with baked beans or veg
• recipes using chickpeas and beans. Pasta e ceci and pasta e fagioli are favourites. Homemade houmous and white bean dips (I make in bulk and freeze in portions - they split a little on defrosting but are fine with a tiny splash of water and a stir)
• lots of the recipes from River Cottage Veg Everyday are delicious and cheap - we cook from this book a lot
• for breakfast, we basically do porridge or overnight oats or toast by preference anyway, but I would guess these are fairly cheap options
• meat recipes using mince or cheaper cuts - beef shin stew, pork and fennel ragu, beef Lindstrom. Bulk out cottage pie mix with lentils.
• our local supermarket has a fish counter which often has good discounts at the end of the day if you can shop in person

Household

• replacing hand soap and shower gel with bar soap. I don't bother with cleanser any more either - my skin is happier with a flannel and water, occasionally a sensitive oatmeal soap.
• not buying loads of cleaning products. We basically have spirit vinegar, baking soda, washing up liquid and bleach, which covers almost everything, and antibac wipes for occasional use.
• ditching fabric softener.

Personally, as I cook 99% of meals from scratch, I don't fond aldi or lidl cheaper than Tesco. Tesco wins because I can a) online shop, b) collect points towards holidays. And c) of going to shop i order a cashback gift card.

I've recently swapped to making put own hummus, which works out cheaper. I think slowly swapping any pre-made stuff helps. As well as cooking once, eating twice.

I shop at Sainsburys online as I find it the cheapest option for me plus the quality of fruit and veg is better than my local Aldi. I spent around £130 a week for 2 adults and 3dc(2 are teenage boys so eat like very hungry adults), Then I usually spend about £20 a week on top up bits which I go into the supermarket for.

i try to limit what snack type things I buy, if the kids are hungry they can have cereal or toast rather than me buying specific snacks.

Vegetarian meals tend to be cheaper. Carbs tend to be the cheap part of any meal

Home made veggy curries

eggs and chips and homemade coleslaw- grate cabbage carrots and onions / that’s all cheap veg

homemade bean burgers or Mexican beans ( pinto beans, with tomatoes and onions and chilli’s and corriander, flat bread )

also look closely at the bill - DH cut down on coffee once he saw how much of the food bill was just coffee.
Cheese - so slices are thin these days. Analyse your shop - is it one or two meals that are costly or is it snacks …

I’ll definitely be having a look at those recipes Thankyou. We try to use Morrisons own branded stuff and they often have offers on for fruit like 3 for £5.
Kids usually have fruit or yoghurt for snacks, I don’t buy chocolate bars or lunch box type snacks. I get own branded tea and coffee etc
Even trying to make simple meals such as tuna baguettes with crisps or cheese and beans on toast - the total still was still much higher.

we are 2adults and 2 children and spending roughly £100 a week plus occasional top up of milk. Not sure if this is actually a lot for a family of 4 but it’s definitely at least £25 more than it used to be.

I don't think £100 a week is crazy. I would suggest adding lentils/beans in if you haven't already. Things like dahl make a very cheap tea. Lentils added to beef mince make it go further. Baked potatoes are great for a cheap meal too.

I like to make rice pudding as a dessert - you can even use risotto rice if you can't get pudding rice. I add milk and evaporated milk, plus sometimes coconut milk if I'm feeling fancy. If I add condensed milk I don't need to add sugar. I make a big batch and serve with stwed fruits.

For snacks I generally have things like oat cakes, bread sticks, cream cheese, boiled eggs, cottage cheese along side the usual bread, cereal and fruit. In our house we also have lots of dried fruits to snack on/fancy up yogurt and cereal. Porridge is a big hit too, or over night oats.

I love rice pudding. During covid, I even used basmati rice. You obviously don't get the same creaminess, but it did the job and added an almost nutty flavour. It was delicious!

We probably spend around £100 a week, but haven't been stringent in tracking it recently.

We shop in costco (pepperami, babybel and crisps, for example are much cheaper. And that's before you look at chicken breast and cheese, etc). I also buy their monthly offers. Their 5 litre or so laundry detergent is quite good. They have things like disinfectant, Mr Muscle drain cleaner, and oxy bleach for half the price of other shops. Harpic Black is also cheaper than home bargains, though not by half.

We still eat beef mince but rarely without it being 'cut' with pork mince. I've done it this way for years and my family prefer it, it's just done us a massive favour recently. We're eating more chicken mince as well, as it's cheaper than chicken breast (which is about half the price of beef mince).

I buy meat when it's on offer. Asda had pork loin for £4/kg recently, so I sliced some into pork chops and kept some for roasting.

I'm not loyal to any supermarket. I buy stuff on offer from them all.

My family are a real "no meat = no meal" type bunch. So we have meat with every dinner, but it's bulked up with loads of vegetables. I also buy (dried) chick peas pressure cook them and then add them to curries and different meals.

TL:DR - don't be loyal, shop around. I love costco (though it may not be cheaper if you stop at the cafe every time on the way out!)

Swap meat for cheaper options - pork mince for beef, chicken mince for chicken breast.

Bulk meat with veg or dried beans and pulses.

I always find these threads so difficult without knowing exactly what people are buying. Do you have a till receipt you could post?

I was trying to help a friend reduce her food bill - single Mum of one spending more than we did as family of four - she swore she didn’t buy luxuries, she doesn’t drink alcohol etc. Then in another conversation she said she bought a whole small pack of blueberries x 5 each week as the fruit element of her 7 year old DS’s lunch box as he oreferred those to apples…. so without knowing it’s difficult to help

I make a lot of chicken leg tray bakes. Two legs serves three in our house.
Use sliced potatoes, carrots, onions underneath. Garlic and sumac, herbs, bit of olive oil.
Then some of the veg can be used the next day with lentils cooked in stock and salad with feta.

I love the 4 pack of frozen cheese boreks you can get for 1.99 at lidl. And swear by Ayvar. Ideally from a Turkish/e European shop as it's cheaper.

I also make my own rolls using 480g flour, 20g butter, 7g yeast, 10g salt and 300ml water plus a glug of olive oil. You could use other more economical oil.
It does take 15 mins to knead, then 2 hrs to set and another hour to set again once you make the knot rolls. It should make 12. Then cook on gm 8 for 15 mins.