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!

Its weird tho...I feel really happy and positive if I can go a few days without buying any groceries at all!!!!! My fridge looks pretty bare at the moment but I'm using up odd bits for a meal this evening then I plan to go and do a week's shop in Tescos tomorrow so I'll report back then! I'm sooooo excited!....saddo aren't I?

were family of 6 plus rabbit(cant leave her out!)our average weekly shop is £100.sometimes less sometimes little bit more.i buy just what we need so no leftovers to waste .some weeks we have a 'use up ods and ends week' so except milk,bread,pack lunch things,fruit etc,were not doing proper shop.i find if i shop online i spend less even with delivery charge.

I have recently cut back on our shopping.
I do a shop at Aldi and then top it up with asda.
At aldi i get staples like rice/pasta/sauces/the offer veg/fruit/cereals/biscuits and their bags of frozen fish and chicken breasts.
I tehn go to asda for toiletries/dairy stuff and always buy reduced meat our freezer is full of it.
Interestingly our local asda has much more reduced goods than the one in town.
The value stuff is good on the whole esp the salad cheese just like feta! But don't like the value frozen veg get their own brand.

Good tip r/e the pimms from aldi was looking for something for dd's chrsitening so might try it. Has anyone tried aldi's sangria ?

Well...I did a big week's shop tonight at Tescos. I bought a lot of value stuff - about half my shopping was value - the rest was their next range up but whatever I wanted I tried to get what was on offer.

I bought enough to see us thru till next week apart from we'll need to top up with bread, milk and fresh fruit at the weekend.

My bill came to £92. Had I bought the equivalent in Sainsburys I am certain it would've been about £130. I'm just pleased my bill wasn't over £100 which is so often is. I had a voucher for £12 off too so that brought the bill down even more and I got another £12 voucher printed off with my till receipt for my next shop.

Wait and see time now and see what their value stuff really is like!

Hey! Hiya NJM.......!!

So what do you think of my efforts with my Tesco run tonight? I thought I did quite well...took me an age to go round comparing prices, smelling everything, prodding bits here and there! Took DD1 with me - she was soon bored of comparing loo rolls!

Joys of shopping. What a fun and exciting way to spend a Tuesday evening!

Prices are going up up and up. Its frightening! Money seems to go nowhere. Do wages go up No.

Yes it is very frightening. I hate having to watch what we spend when I grocery shop these days. I hate having to leave the car at home more especially when the kids are tired and clearly don't want to walk. We live off one wage - DH's. He earns well but his pay rises are very basic and never enough to cover the increases we're having to find. A very good friend of mine had her home repossessed last month. She's now in a rented place but is struggling to find the rent already. Her DH is a waste of space and whilst he works its not regular work. I look at her and think how lucky I am but that could be anyone, including me, losing our home etc if we're not careful now.

Cheers NJM. We have got an Aldi but I've always tended to avoid it. I have been in once since it opened about 10yrs ago and wasn't overly impressed with it but maybe I should go and take another look.

Yes DD1 was a great help. I lost her at one point and she'd made herself a chair out of the packets of kitchen rolls! She looked very comfy! Bless her. She is a good girl. Whereas DD2....now that's another matter.

Message withdrawn

we don't have an Aldi in this part of the country, but shopping in Lidl we cut out bill from £171/month (family of 4 and I'm pregnant) to £133.

i'm going to start flogging some stuff off here because the fuel bills just seem to be going up no matter what we do - we cut back use and the bills for what we do use just go up quite a bit.

Our food/toiletries/household stuff budget is £60 a week. It has to stay at that as prices go up as we've no more to spend. Since having DS we are basically buying the same amount of food but making it go further. So a meal that fed two/four now feeds three/six. Admittedly we can't sustain that forever but that's how we're coping right now.

I also have concerns about some Value products. When you look at the labels there is often a lot more salt and less nutritional value. But some are OK - you just have to try them and see.

We have really tried not to compromise on quality here. I still buy fruit, veg and meat from local shops. So DH and I will now tend to eat two meals a day with decent food instead of three with cheap stuff. We've both lost a fair amount of weight, but that's no bad thing.

I've not read all the post so not sure if anyone has mentioned it but mysupermarket.com has been useful for me. You can have a look at all the offers and then print out a shopping list if you don't want to pay for delivery. A word of warning some supermarkets have started putting lower prices on some of the basics online so its a different price in the shop!
Another vote for aldi as well did my shopping there this weekend and spent less than £40 including ice-cream, rice and pasta

I tried Aldi for the first time last week (having steadfastly avoided it for years) and when I got home I put my till receipt into mysupermarket.com and was delighted to see that the £30 I spent in Aldi would have cost me £45 in Asda which I have always said was the cheapest supermarket til then. Couldn't get everything I wanted in Aldi but got most things and will definitely be going back. Oh and got that face cream that everyone was raving about so good trip all in all.

we shop online and use mysupermarket for comparison. also i shop for nappies etc on boots if they're not on offer at the supermarket as i build up a load of boots points and then use them for a bulk buy of nappies etc later on.

we have a farmers market that we go to each sunday for veg, salad and bread so we eat seasonally as well.

started also eating a lot less meat and buying really quality stuff instead of loads of cheap stuff where the farmers get nothing.

my aim too is not to top up in the supermarket during the week - if i can manage this it will be much better!

expat, can you post a months shopping list please!

I need to seriously cut back, spent £40 at morrisons yesterday and had bugger all to show for it.

Big things for me are the Electric and Petrol prices, but it all has a knock on effect.

Until wages/benefits etc start going up in line with everything else, we are royally fucked.

Car broke down last year and had to use Tesco online. Value corn and tomatoes horrible and tough compared to Aldi, juice not as good, or paper towels or toilet paper. I could go on and on.

Seven of us, usually spend between Euro 185 and 200. That includes meat for 4 to 5 meals, and beer and wine for the week. I would spend another 20 on incidentals at the local shop.

I find menu planning before shopping helps, and I'm thinking of shopping once every two weeks, because of the cost of diesel, and using the freezer more.

I've started using my local farm shop and get my meat and as much of my veg / salad stuff as I can from there before going to the supermarket. Which supermarket tends to vary as DS1 needs to eat gluten-free and sainsbury / tesco have the best own brand gluten free stuff but if I don't need to top up with that then I go to Asda.

Was wondering about trying a veg / fruit box service but don't know how well they'd work out financially. The boys aren't big veg eaters and I don't want to end up with a load of weird looking vegs I don't recognise and don't know what to do with! Anyone else tried this kind of thing?

I've read all the posts since last night and by the looks of it I need to go and make a visit to our Aldi. I didn't realise their stuff is as good as everyone says. There's just something about that place that has kept me away. Probably cos its all stacked up on the floor in the middle of the shop in rows rather than on shelves and its a bit of a mess! I sound like a right snob I know but the cleanliness and layout of Sainsburys has always attracted me more but unfortunately the prices are not.

i guess im very lucky as aldi is a approx 3 min walk away and tesco 5 mins
guy seels fruit and veg outside aldi to

i have a veg/fruit delivery from abel and cole every week just order what i want online for a family box with fruit and veg approx £23 theres your healthy stuff

we dont use many tins probably 4 a week in total
you can get fish from above delivery good for a fish pie feeds loads
meat is so expensive from there though
i have to kinda meal plan we are family of soon to 8
they all eat healthy salads home made pizza,spag bol no meat pleanty pasta
i guess i dont overcook often they will say is there anymore and answer is no
but sugar free jelly so cheap or just grapes and straws for pudding,hence where the veg delivery comes in
dont buy jars of this and that if i want to add flavour i add my own
jars or cook in sauces are so dear and full of rubbish salt and sugar
if we run out we run out makes us appreciate it all the more come the friday when i go shopping and the kids are like oh wow this is nice
i guess we spend a lot on cheese milk natural yoghurts things like that
my shopping bill inc wash powder d/washer tabs loo roll etc is approx £80 now thats quite good for a family of 7
sit down actually write a list see what you want to cook you be suprised just how much you buy you dont need or isnt any good anyway
treats in our house are just that treats if i come home with jammy dodgers they go crazy its funny
also you can choose on abel and cole deliveries if you dont want weird looking veg opt our for a replacement
but its quite fun opening the box and saying to the DC ok lets find a recipe for this and try it all of us

Shop at Sainsbury's. No, I am serious. If I shop at Tesco I find a lot of their food inedible and if you take stuff back to moan they're vile. Sainsbury's are brilliant. This week I spent £63 for eveything, except the extra bread and milk I buy every other day. This was for 6 of us including Organix puress, some childrens socks and trousers and all my week's nappies. I got lamb, pork, 3 packs of beef mince, 7 reduced punnets strawbs 39p a lb,spinach leaves, other fruit and veg.. you get the picture.Their £1 a 500g mince was lovely for burritos and didn't taste cheap.Their pork loins were delicious and we had 3leftover after stuffing ourselves, they were a fiver for 9.No, I don't work there! Their economy nappies for £1.50 for 20 are fab.i buy their premium ones for my baby tho, they are just like the leading brand and are £7 for 70!Well impressed.

MOst Tesco value stuff is fine. I don't buy processed ready-food anyway so wouldn't buy it value or own brand, but for simple things like veg, fruit, oats, cereal, honey, tinned tomatoes, cheese, juice it is fine. I buy the value bread if I want to make toasted cheese sandwiches, as it is good for that! The pitta bread is fine.

Cut back on meat, chicken and fish, and the meat and two veg type meals, they seem to work out more expensive than a big carb and sauce type meal like pasta or rice.

Meal plan. Substitute expensive ingredients in recipes for cheaper alternatives.

I also regularly go to sainsbury's right before closing time and stock up on really reduced bread, milk and anything else they have reduced to clear and then freeze it.

I regularly get loaves of good bread for 10p each, 4pints of mink for 50p and organic chicken breasts for 30p!

No treats, no extra junk food, no pudding except on the weekend.

I never throw food away, look in the fridge and use what needs using before it goes off.

I also go to the local market at about 5pm and ask the fruit and veg sellers if they have anything going cheap or that they're going to chuck. Mostly I just get loads of very ripe bananas which is fine as I hate how supoermarket bananas are always green, but yesterday I got a huge bag of grapes for 40p. Granted I had to sort through them to pick off the mouldy ones but there where still loads there that DS and I stuffed ourselves on.