Grocery shopping....anyone else finding it increasingly expensive? What do you pay weekly?

[whispywhisp]

Anyone got any recommendations on Tesco Value products - are they any good? What foods to avoid that are clearly rubbish?

We are a family of four. I have always tried to buy our groceries economically but have tended to avoid Tesco Value products because I've worried about the quality.

Its now become so expensive to buy food and household products that we've got no choice but to buy the cheaper range.

I don't know what everyone else is spending each week but, on average, I'm paying way over £100 per week on everything - food, cleaning materials, pet food etc etc and we simply can't afford to continue like this.

What does everyone else do? Are we all finding it increasingly expensive to buy groceries? Anyone found some of the Tesco Value stuff should be avoided?

I would grow my own stuff but we don't have the room. I would use a local greengrocer...if we had one. I cook all our meals - we are a family who eat a lot of fruit and veg and its those items that I'm finding have gone up so much. I like my kids to eat well, which they do, I don't want them to eat junk (which they'd love to, I'm sure!). Help!

The answer is to stop shopping at tesco or Sains and go to Ada instead. My weekly shopping for 5 plus rabbit is between £70 and £90. They are by farrrr the cheapest and the quality of the fruit and veg is superior to anywhere else I've shopped.

Wow...what some really helpful posts...thank you!

Morrisons - yes I like Morrisons but unfortunately my nearest one is 20 miles away.

I think I will start shopping online again - I find I spend less when I shop online because I tend to watch the sub-total rising as I'm adding bits to the order and can delete if needs be rather than go to the shop itself and not know how much it'll cost until I'm at the till.

Judgenutmeg...your list is really helpful. Thank you.

Unfortunately I don't have the spare time to go around all the various places I could get groceries .... Lidl, Sainsburys, Asda and Tesco to compare prices and offers and to be honest I find shopping boring enough as it is so I tend to just get what we need regardless of cost...whereas now I've got to make some major cutbacks. We simply can't afford to keep paying so much out each week.

((NJM...hello you! I know I've not replied to your email. I've been really laid up with my back and with the worry of the dog and all the trips to and from the vet this last week I've just not had the time or energy. Sorry...hope you are ok? xxxxx ))

When I'm not being very careful I usually pay about £70. When I am being careful, I average about £45pm.

We are a family of 4 and eat very well. The boys have a school lunch but eat man-sized portions at all other meals.

Our new Asda opens tomorrow. I am almost intrigued enough to pop in for a nosy.

Our Asda is new. Its ok although stiflingly hot cos its upstairs with a multi-story and cinema beneath it. Its escalator thingy horrible and you end up feeling sea-sick when you get off of it! I've been in it once - its ok but I wasn't blown away by it.

I think one really helpful thing is to be absolutely ruthless about not stocking up inbetween shops. Some people shop every day and that works. And some people do a weekly shop and that works. But the in between system with a big weekly shop and a quick top off almost every day is a killer. I'm thinking of getting the breadmaker out again and just not going into supermarkets.

...or local shops for that matter. Avoid temptation.

we are a family of 5 and spend between £110-£130 a week on our weekly shop,this has gone up from £90 just 3-4 months ago.
will not buy cheap bread i hate it!
that figure in cludes nappies houshold items and stuff for school packed lunches.

I've got a breadmaker too. I used it a lot for about a year or so. I need to buy a replacement bin for it because mine has broken and once I can find a new bin I'll get it in use again. We get thru so much bread what with me doing three lunchboxes every day of the week and the kids love home-baked bread.

whispywisp do ur tesco shop online if ur able and look on here for the promotional codes to use that take up to £10 off ur bill using e coupons,thats what i do

Me and 2 kids average about £40. But they are small and don't eat a great deal

I spent £38 at Morrisons and £14 at the butcher this week - this is for me, DH and 2 boys of 3 and 6.

At the butcher I got 1 lb pork sausages, 2lbs minced beef, 6 FR chicken portions (fresh but half price), 2 slices smk bacon and a dozen eggs.

This week we will eat

Spag Bol
Toad in the Hole
Stuffed Marrow
Mushroom Risotto
Chicken with Creme Fraiche and tomatoes
Chicken Caesar Salad
Pasta with Bacon, chickpeas and tomato
Mexican Chicken Wraps

I always shop at Morrisons now. It is a nice store about 5 mins from me but there are some manky stores which would put you off!

Av is £50 per week, which includes £5 for formula, and £5 for nappies, so food is really about £40. Family of 3 and a pooch.
I shop at Lidl predominately, get a tescos online shop monthly, go to Meatmart monthly and go to costco twice a year for washing powder, fabric conditioner, toilet roll and dog food.
I budget £250 pm for groceries but we usually go over a little bit.

Aldi & Lidl have good quality food, but for the brand snobs, netto are good for cheap brands.

I must admit that I hope the credit crunch doesn't send more people to Lidl, I think it's great especially since it's quiet there and there's less choice - you don't spend 5 mins picking a tin of beans, plus the frozen and chilled food seem to be much better quality than Adsa/Tescos.

We tend to be about £100 a week for 5 of us, but am trying to reduce that atm. I don't shop in Tescos on principle, and try to avoid supermarkets altogether.

So my ways of saving money are;

Fruit and veg box - total cost £18.50, should last the week. Otherwise top up from the greengrocers. We also have apple/pear/plum trees in the garden for summer fruit. Will also do a big PYO for raspberries to freeze and make into jam.
Cutting down on what meat we get - usually buy organic mince and a free range chicken, so £10-12 on meat. The chicken goes a long way, as make roast chicken, then risotto or curry, and always make stock, so then use that to make soup from the left over veggies in the box. I get meat from the butchers.
Eggs - we have our own hens, so if we're stuck for a meal can have poached eggs/omelette. Also swop them for fruit/veg from neighbours' allotments!
Milk - milkman - more expensive than supermarket, but stops 'drop in' visits to the supermarket, when something 'just looks nice'. Also saves on plastic bottle waste, as comes in glass bottle.
Bread - try to make our own, otherwise go to corner shop

So that's what I'm trying - not sure if it'll work or not, but I think staying out of the supermarket is the key!

I've just done a dummy-run internet shop with Asda. It came to £80 for a week's shop but if I were to go thru checkout it'd be less than that because of the offers on some of the bits I ordered - ie 2 for so and so and BOGOF. Even so £80 is somewhat less than what I've been spending at Sainsburys for the last few weeks.

May well put the order thru for delivery at the end of the week and what we run out of in the meantime DH can grab on his way home from work.

Wow Tortoise....that is amazing.

Me too Jajas. I know what's what with Tesco. Boring I know but I just don't have the time or the inclination to start comparing quality and price of various supermarkets. I know I can save masses by thinking differently about the shopping.

I've just managed to find a free delivery code for Asda on www.myvouchers.co.uk - so I've put my weeks shop thru and with free del it cost £78 - thats not including the money off offers which will come off when the till receipt is printed.

The code I've used is M4 WP JU FD just in case anyone else wants to use it.

We'll see how we get on with Asda. I've chosen a lot of their smartprice items inc loo rolls and soap powder - I can only try, can't I?

I just spent £71 at Morrisons but got lots of reduced meat for the freezer. Next week I will just need fruit, veg, bread and milk. I hope.

I am a big Aldi fan, and Lidl, and Asda too. Our Aldi is just down the road, so shop once a week there with a budget of £30, then once a month at Lidl, with a budget of £30, then once a month delivery from Asda, budget of £100 (buy all the cat food, litter, tinned stuff, cheap bog rolls/kitchen rolls, 400 tea bags £2.97, stock up on frozen veggie sausages/fillets and stuff that Aldi and Lidl dont' do, and stuff I particularly like from Asda). Two of us plus ds 2.5, but 4 or 5 times a week make meals for my mil, have friends or rellies for lunch, and on an almost daily basis feed a varied crew of my dh's big ol' biker mates with massive appetites, so that all adds up.

But, the biggest, best kept secret to really budgeting for shopping is strict menu-planning (lunches and dinners) strict shopping lists ~ and then sticking to it. It's a bit of a ball ache till you get used to it, but it's a bit second nature to me now, and if we need to pull our belts for a bit I can really slash our food budget, and yet still eat really well. hth.