£100 per week for weekly shop

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There are 3 of us in the family (DP, me and DS, 4). At the moment, we are spending hundred quid on weekly shop inc food, basic beauty stuff and household cleaners. It used to be around £75 but it's jumped up recently. We go to tesco and buy a range of value and branded products. Most nights, I cook from scratch, apart from Thursday when I get ready meals in for convenience as I stay behind at work.

I've always thought our shopping bill was a bit excessive but I seriously can't think of anything that we can do without (maybe apart from the ready meals but they are a life saver). We literally buy the bare minimum.

How do you keep your weekly shopping bills down?

Just lurking on your thread, as mine used to be around the £120 mark and has recently jumped to more like £160, if that makes you feel better.

However, we have to buy shedloads of free from stuff (gluten and dairy intolerances)

Shop in Aldi. Seriously. I have cut my weekly shopping bill from £75-100 to £25-40 and we are eating just as well as we used to.

Can you do a pizza (or two) instead of ready meals? Even a branded bought one that can be added to with extra cheese/ham to make nicer? Seen a few huge ones in ASDA but bet Teco do some too - would that work with your family instead of say a Curry for £12 or whatever?
You might well do that already, so sorry if this isn't any help!
Do you get branded washing powder/conditioner? I bulk buy mine on Amazon with subscribe and save which does shave a bit off. Also I hear the own brands are actually preferred by a lot of MN'ers, so could be worth checking out.

I spend £100 a week on 7 of us.
We don't eat meat every night and I find where we live Asda is cheaper than Tesco.

Wow - that's a lot! There are 5 of us and with an occasional treat (ie croissants for Sun breakfast) I spend about £65-70 per week.

Are you buying value cleaning stuff? The dishwasher tablets that are less than £2 a box, the washing powder in the huge great big pack for about £8 which you then only use half the recommended amount of (still going strong into the third month of use) etc? The value crisps at 68p per bag of 12 packs?

Only buy shampoo / shower gel etc when it's BOGOF or half price etc and stock up.

Don't bother with the cheap loo roll or coffee though - some things you can't compromise on.

Mine is £100 a week for me, DP and DD (3).

But I'm a brand snob.

That does sound a bit high - does it include alcohol? I'm sure one ready meal a week out of 21 isn't the cause of the increase.

I also shop in Tesco and my total has recently gone up a lot as well although I couldn't identify anything in particular that's gone up.

Check out this site. It was recommended by another mumsnetter on another thread. I have adapted some of the recipes for our needs/tastes and it has saved us a bomb.

And don't shop in tescos, it is a rip off. Asda is cheaper and aldi even cheaper again.

Aldi is excellent. I can spend £70 in Tesco without noticing, same amount if Aldi £35. Full shop with everything including washing powder, dishwasher tablets, loo roll etc still on £50. Quality better imo and great if you cook from scratch.

Yes to value cleaning stuff. Yes to bogof.

I think part of the problem is that some nights we eat different things. DS is a resistant eater (am another thread about this!) so he always eats different foods to us unless we decide to eat fish fingers and chips (i can just about tolerate this once a week). DP and I have chicken once a week or maybe twice. The rest of the time we eat different things. Why? Yes I ask myself that frequently. I like super healthy vegetarian food with lots of beans, lentils and rice and fresh veg. DP hates my food so he either has what junior has or I might get something out of the freezer and defrost it for him (sausages etc). Or I ask him to sort his own food out, depending how ratty I feel (frequently) in which case he has beans on toast or egg on toast.

Ok, I'll give aldi a go. I don't have time to go to different places unfortunately but I know that would be the best solution.

Fruit and veg is supposed to be good there, right?

Can you batch cook instead of the ready meals? I do that and take a portion to work but find it easy at home too so I can just grab something out the freezer and its a meal

I changed from M&S to Aldi on an economy drive last year and wouldnt go back. We have treats from Marks but all everyday stuff is Aldi. They do some lovely frozen fish and frozen lamb shanks, as well as good food and veg

Yup, go to Aldi/Lidl. I prefer Lidl, their breakfast cereals etc are nicer.

Get cheaper cuts of meat, eg if you're eating chicken are you eating breasts? Buy thighs instead, it's E2.65 for six in Lidl, I debone and skin them (look for vids on youtube) and DH and I have one and a half each. You can roll and stuff them too, they're great in coq au vin or a curry.

Downside is that you don't really get lentils and the like in Lidl/Aldi, but if you have an Asian grocer near you check them out for veggie stuff it's generally cheaper and nicer:)

Buy frozen vef, eg broccoli as thre's less waste and it's cheaper. I only ever buy fresh carrots or whatever is on offer.If any of your DCs are in nappies, Lidl nappies are excellent. Oh and Lidl fish fingers are very nice, and cheaper than Tesco value.

Another Lidl fan here.

Re ready meals, as you cook most nights, can't you make double occasionally and freeze the rest, then you'll have a freezer full of really nice ready meals and will barely notice the cost. I add a couple of good handfuls and lots of veg to anything I make with mince and no-one even notices they're there (chilli spag bol, shepherd's pie etc). Half a pound of mince will easily feed four of us for two nights. Freddie, Lidl do do bags of red lentils

Have a look at your cleaning products. It's very easy to spend a lot here, but what do you really need? There aren't many jobs that can't be tackled with either economy bleach ( just a drop in a bucket of hot water is excellent for floors, but yes I know not everyone want to use belach) or washing-up liquid. Lidl washing liquid for clothes is fab.

Same with toiletries, just try down grading a bit and see if you can really tell the difference. I used to but Pantenne/Herbal Essences type shampoo, now I use Lidl own brand (75p) and it's honesty just as good. Their shower gel is c. 38p.

Your DH eats beans or eggs, if he has to cook himself, but needs meat if you're cooking? Let him have the (cheap) beans and eggs then

Shop at your local butchers and greengrocers after 4pm you may find them trying to sell stuff off cheaper.

I shop at Aldi - for a weekly shop it's just over £75 and that's for 2 adults, 2 teen dcs and a fat labrador.

I menu plan, make a list of things I need, and stick to it - don't have the money to spare to do anything else tbh.

Aldi face cream (Lacura brand) is fabulous btw, if memory serves it has won some beauty award or other.

That does sound a lot for shopping in tesco! Maybe that's why it's doing badly compared to the others in the big 4. For what it's worth, me DH and 19mo varies between £70 to £100 with ocado. I do buy the waitrose essentials, but only branded cleaning products. (Brand snob here too). And the more expensive weeks include a bottle of wine as well.

All I can think of is you eat too much meat. Have you see Jamie's 15min meals? We already eat quite a lot of vegetarian. But it's a revelation how he feeds 4 with only 4 chicken thighs or 2 pieces of steaks. I would have doubled the meat portion before.

Oh and branded toiletries too! But the price of food has risen a lot. I'm sure not so long ago I had some £50 shops, and I never went over £80.

onelittle, yes I remember those carefree days of cheaper shop and spare cash. My friend shops at Waitrose and she swears its cheaper than tesco.

We honestly don't buy a lot of meat. This week we bought 2 chicken breasts (yes, they are organic but I am thinking about the welfare of the chicken) and a jumbo pack of fish fingers. Every three weeks we buy DH a 6 pack of sausages.

Some excellent advice from everyone. Thank you. So this is my plan of action:

*do a shop at aldi and see what I can get cheaper from there.
*when cooking for myself, make double batch and freeze one batch.
*menu plan (I have tried before but my grand plans always go a bit pear shaped after a few weeks but it's possibly because I am not realistic enough)

I'll report back in a few weeks to see how much I have saved!

I think Waitrose IS cheaper but it depends what you buy. We buy mainly organic, fruit/ veg/ meat/ fish, and essentials to make meals with that. Our shop is £60/70 a week from Waitrose/ ocado.

We don't buy any processed food/ snacks/ etc which I reckon is where a good chunk of people's weekly shop goes.

We buy big pots of organic Greek yogurt, and decant. No little pots.