Grocery shopping - what shop? Order online? How much for a family?

[janet75]

Hi,

We're new to the UK and I am trying to work out what is the best way to get our grocery shopping done. I think that online might be best as shopping with two kids is testing, but I have no idea on what shop is the best to use for a mix of good quality and good value and good service?

Also what is a realistic amount to spend on a family of 4 including nappies each week?

Thanks!

I use sainsburys (free delivery tue/weds/thurs on orders over £100) and have found them ok.

Realistic amount could be anything between £40 and £200+

Thanks.

I'm happy to shop anywhere as long as the quality and pricing are both good. I've done limited shopping at both Sainsburys and Tesco and haven't seen much difference in the products available and the price. What about M&S, I saw an add that they have free delivery over 50, is this generally a more expensive place to shop?

I use Asda online. I don't buy nappies, we are a family of 4 and spend £50 to £70 a week. Never really had any problem with Quality.

m and s is very expensive, and I don't think the quality is that much better.

A lot of mn'ers rave about waitrose/ocado I tried them and thought they were pretty average.

I have an aversion to tesco purely because it seems to have a monopoly on everything and priced out the few remaining shops in my nearest town. Plus customer service was incredibly rude (but thats a one time thing so probably not representative!)

Also M&S don't sell real stuff like flour and nappies do they? It's more focussed on pre-prepared and premium.

I've always been a Sainsbury's fan but very recently switched to Tesco as Sains don't do online delivery in our area. I'd say whatever you choose, stick to it as it's a hassle to relearn all your product choices for a new store.

Should add that I spend about £75/week including nappies, for four (though DCs v young and hardly eat, but both in nappies)

I don't think M&S do deliveries.

Tesco are not reliable.

Sainsbury;s is expensive for what it is.

Ocado are afforable, the food is way nicer and they have never let me down.

My youngest is in washable nappies but I spend between £80-£135 for a family of 5 with a cat.

mysupermarket.co.uk will tell you who delivers in your area, you can also pick one of the shops and make your order, and it will tell you how much your order would be with all of the other supermarkets.

Tescos or sainsburys.

We are a family of 2 adults, 3 children and usually spend on average £75 a week.

I think a lot depends on the branch that your online shop comes from. Ours is a very large, very busy Tesco, so there is a high turnover of stock - fruit and veg is always fresh and well selected, and there are rarely any out of stocks or substitutions. We spend between £60 and £70 per week for a family of 4 - ds's are 3 and 5, no nappies, but night-time pull-ups.

thanks.

I've checked out the Ocado website and it seems good, a mix of Tescos pricing and waitrose for fresh ... so much choice though its difficult to know where the best value is.

thanks again

Waitrose is quite good, Sainsbury's is OK. We buy our meat incl. sausages, bacon etc. from butcher and have it delivered, quality is amazing and the cost is not more than buying from Waitrose. Do online search for 'meat delivery' and you'll find a butcher near you or one that delivers nationwide.
Wine is delivered as well, trying out the Tesco Wine Club at the moment but there are zillions out there.
Weekly spend is around £100 all incl. for family of four.

We use Ocado. I paid for membership which means I can get free delivery for anything over £40. It makes it so much easier than trying to put together a £100 shop with the other supermarkets.

They have the best service - one hour slots, by the half-hour. You can also get a next day delivery. I made an order at 8pm last night and am getting it between 3 and 4 this afternoon.

Also with Ocado when you place your order it tells you the date time for each fresh item. I have tried Tesco, Asda and Sainsbury's and wouldn't use any of them again. Ocado all the way for us.

We use ocado - we found that the quality of the fresh items were such that we didn't routinely chuck fruit and veg away as we did with Sainsbury's or Tesco so the fact that it is slightly pricier is evened out by not having to bin half the food.

They also text you to remind you of when your delivery is and when you can make adjustments to it till and what is missing or substituted and at certain times of the night are free to deliver.

Have never had Banana Yogurt in place of bananas as I did with Sainsbury's!

I can better that - shortbread delivered instead of haggis.
That was tesco and was the final straw in huge line of problems with one order, which I why I haven't used them for over a year.

Recently I was alternating between Asda nad Sainsburys. I found though that Asda fresh stuff being delivered to me was on or almost at it's use by/best before date. Salad whcih was to be used that dya and was looking brown, yoghurts which had to be used that day etc. SO recently I ahve been using Sainsbury's and find it ok.
Everyone will have different experiences depending on where they live, when I used Tesco in Dundee for home deliveries you couldn't fault it, yet down here it just seemed never ending problems

Ocado for me too. Have been using them weekly for 5 years, been late (within a 1 hour slot) twice in that time. Rarely substitute, and now advise by text if they have. Food quality fab, and if any problems with a product (admittedly eggs can be a problem) just go onto web and they will refund with no hassles. delivery guys always lovely and helpful.They also price match branded goods with Tesco so are as reasonable as anywhere.(I also now have the membership - so can shop as many times a week as I need without finding the "cheaper" delivery slots!)

I find tesco to be great - no probs at all in last 3 years of using them. Our local tesco is huge so maybe thats why. Plus you get the clubcard points which add up and you can use online. Reading the Tesco bashing on MN I'm guessing their service varies depending on your local store I also regularly find codes to get me money off my shopping, easy to find if you know where last week I got £20 off a shop of £100! Family of four with one nappy wearer, and 2 large consumers of wine is about £110, with about total of £25 in top ups in the week. I would totally recommend moneysupermarket.com to help you decide who is best for you, plus you get ipoints if you go through them, I use everyweek and it really adds up the ipoints!