Those of you who shop for £30 - £35 ish a week

[lucysmam]

What do you buy in a 'normal' shop?

I'm still struggling with cutting my food budget down so just wondered what would be on other people's lists, see if I can get any inspiration from them.

TIA if you have time to help

Blimey, I'd love to get shopping down to this sort of price. We cut down from £130 a week to £100 a week for family of four (including formula and nappies) at the beginning fo the year. Sometimes manage to do it for £80 if I am really, really tight.

We did a shop in Lidl the other day....it cost £75 and hasn't lasted a full week, and there are only four of us.

wow! Really LackaDAISYcal?

I have read some threads in the past where people have been spending this little, & thought it might help to know what they're buying. My search skills are crap questionable at the best of times, the only thread I can find, which I have been through with a fine toothed comb is Miows' (sp? very dodgy, sorry) from ages ago

Hi lucysmam
I got mine by meal planning and trying each shop to go down a brand on one item and see what it's like. Also we eat 2 veggie meals a week, and I bake most of our cookies etc - not all but most - amazing how much you can spend on sweet treats etc.

I think not eating meat helps a lot.

Also no crisps/biscits/cakes.

Some weeks shopping is much more, like loo rolls, washng powder, coffee.

That is a v low amount to try and eat off though.

I think food prices are creeping up again
I menu plan and shop with a list but he last few weeks my shop has been £110 - 130!
Even an Aldi shop was £90.

I spend on average £35-£40 a week for the 3 of us and both DD & DP are big eaters.

I try and menu plan.

I shop in Asda & Iceland.

It maybe cheaper this week too, as i purchased all our washing tabs, conditioner and washing up liquid last week.

I try and meal plan, I try and fill up the freezers with meats etc. I just buy fresh bread & milk once more in the week.

We spend £50 a week for

me, DP, DS and cat all week

mindee monday to friday

two step sons fri to sun.

We buy whatever is on offer, fruit and veg that's in season, smartprice/value wash powder, fabric softener, loo roll etc. Our main area of savings is buying reduced food on a sunday afternoon, freezing it and planning meals around what we have bought.

We alternate between asda, tesco and lidyl.

We have got down to £37/week using www.mysupermarket.com and usually going with ASDA online. Things I buy: potatoes (for soup, baked potatoes, mash), onions and tinned tomatoes for spag sauce/pizza sauce/lasagne sauce. Also occasionally buy nappies from Lidl but not much else there these days as prices have gone up. Its all down to meal planning and cutting out non-necessities like drinks, crisps, biscuits.

Then eventually I break down and go to Waitrose and spend £60 on pretty fruit and veg etc but it all evens out. You can't be 100% good 100% of the time surely!!!

Am off back to mysupermarket in that case! See what I can do.

I agree Lidl prices seem to be getting higher, I haven't shopped in there in ages since moving but had a wander the other day and was a bit at how much some of the stuff we used to buy in there had gone up.

Had a titter at "pretty fruit and veg", I know what you mean! But tis so expensive

I shop for £30 a week but there is only me and 2 preschoolers.

Potatoes
frozen veg
fresh carrots, bananas, apples, cuecumber
yogurts
beans
sausages
chicken pieces
mince
milk
biscuits
cereal
flour/yeast for homemade bread
wine(I need a treat once DC in bed)
loo roll
wash powder
cheese
eggs

then cleaning bits, storecupboard bits,
toiletries as needed but spread out through the month.

we eat cereal for breakfast, sandwich, homemade soup or egg and beans on toast for lunch. Sausage casserole, shepherds pie, roast chicken,chicken curry, pasta bake, etc for dinner. Eat well even on this, but know I would spend up to a tenner more if DH was still at home.

Shop at tesco BTW and also get healthy eating voucher for DS(£3.10 a week)

thanks norks, I don't understand why I'm struggling tbh, we all have cereal for brekky, usually pasta or savoury rice or something along those lines for lunch & then pretty much similar to your list for tea. I think I might resort to pen & paper again & see what I can cut out of what we'd normally get

I spend about £60 a week and shop at Aldi. Once every 3 months I bulk buy meat from our local butchers and get chicken, mince and either beef or pork and freeze. This butchers shop usually costs £40-45 and I am v frugal the week before I get the meat and use up everything.

Things I buy (not every week but as needed)
Nappies, toilet roll, wipes, washing up liquid, dishwasher tablets, brown bread, cereal/ porridge oats, peanut utter, jam, potatoes, onions, garlic, ginger, seasonal veg and fruit, pasta, rice, milk, butter, flour, tinned toms, baked beans, kidney beans, chickpeas, cream cheese, pate, cheddar, yoghurts, sausages, whole chicken (on occasion), stock cubes,tea bags, ice cream

I also go to my local asian supermarket and get dried beans, herbs, sauces etc

make everything from scratch - I dont buy crisps, squash or juice, coffee, biscuits, cakes, pizza, ready meals,

there are lots of threads about supermarket smart price/basics and what's good/what isn't. Try searching in money saving/promos topic?

DH and I were surprised that Lidl wasn't that cheap tbh.

We usually shop in Morrisons, not out of choice as I'm not that impressed with their stuff, but because DH works at the head office and we have a discount card.

We shop at our local market and get just basic stuff, it does see us through the week and sometimes longer. We usually spend around £30-£40 per week for 3 of us including 2 dogs.

A basic list of things we get is like this;
Potatoes
Carrots
broccoli
bananas (X2 big bunches)
Apples
Pears
Peppers
Cuecumber
Lettuce
Tomatoes
Onions

X3 packs of meat from our butchers for £5.00
Dry complete dog food
Rasins
Milk (although have to buy more in the week as we seem to get through a lot)
Nappies
Wipes
Bread X2 loaves (I freeze the ones I don't use)
Toilet roll

Sometimes there are offers on pasties and stuff so I get DH some of them for his lunch at work.

Often get other bits and bobs if any money left over and if I see and offers etc.

I spent £91 in Lidl this morning!
I meal plan FGS!
There are 5 of us and a dog.
All of us have packed lunches.

I know a mum who has £23 a week to spend on food for her and her daughter. It must be possible (they are still alive) but goodness knows how.

We normally spend about £50 a week at Sainsbury's but that includes 'luxuries' like wine and nice biscuits so I'm sure we cold cut it down. We're a family of four and it includes formula and two lots of nappies.

We don't eat meat and always buy own brand things. Bying things like Basics tinned tomatoes and making own sauces instead of buying tinned ready made sauces, etc helps.

Goober - I find Lidl expensive now, more so than Aldi or Asda.

Mine is £50 a week and that's lots of organic meat too and I thought that was a bargain (and my family is 2 adults + 2 children). There's no way I could cut it down to £35. I need to look in this forum for tips more often I think!

Hi LM

I shop monthly from Asda online and then top up weekly from FarmFoods and Tesco.
I buy most of the meat from Asda as they do the Smartprice, I buy all cleaning products there too, the odd brand name I want comes from Semichem or Poundland.
There's no markets here, apart from the Farmer's market and that's really dear!

FarmFoods is definitely my best secret. Milk costs £1 (it's 1.74 in my local shop), they do 9 rolls of lotion loo roll for £2 and as long as you avoid the really nasty processed meat pies and the like, they have good stuff. Bags of oven chips, frozen veg, and fruit (makes good smoothies and smoothie ice lollies with a lolly maker from poundland!), but don't forget the sweets.
My DD likes sweets as much as the next kid so I buy them from there and put to one side to ration out. Also things like ketchup and mayo, dried herbs and spices, salt, oil. Far cheaper than anywhere else. They do bags of potatoes too and while I find rhey go off very quickly, I cook and freeze them so saving there.
Bread too is cheap. 2 loaves for £1.

Actually, reading back, ny list is similar to Norks, except I don't make bread and I try and put herbs/spices/sauces in to perk things up.
I also stopped buying biscuits but what I get is a biscuit kit (77p from Asda), so DD eats less of them, feels like she is making something and they are really nice, chewy chocolate chip cookies.
I'm shite at baking so I've given up. I spent far too much time and money trying to bake. I have admitted defeat and buy now.

By Littlepurpleprincess Sun 26-Apr-09 15:23:59
"I know a mum who has £23 a week to spend on food for her and her daughter. It must be possible (they are still alive) but goodness knows how."

I do that.
I try and keep my shopping budget at £100 for the month. Some months there's a bit extra, some there is less so I try to make sure that there's plenty in the freezer and cupboard to get us through the bad weeks.

I was working and of course I could, and did spend more but on benefits that's exactly what I do.