I am so fed up with the price of food!

[weakestlink]

Is anyone else struggling to reign in the grocery bill?!

I am currently doing an online order for tomorrow and so far have £104 in my basket with just essentials and nappies (which are on offer!).

We are 2 adults, 2 children, 1 cat and 1 elderly relative (small appetite).

I spend weekly:
£100-125 groceries
£10 milk & bread top ups
£16 school lunches for 2
£10 DH lunch (subsidised so hot meal/dessert/drink £2)
Total = £136-161 per week

I meal plan, we eat meat only 3-4 days a week. We have days where I do stuff like veg fried rice, omelettes & wedges, pizza & salad etc to keep costs down and when I am short of time!

We are a fairly well off family (on paper) but honestly £161 a week on food is ridiculous!!!!!!!!

Makes me very depressed......

Me too! I never used to go over £100 at the till unless I'd bought a few luxuries (gin) :)

Now it is frequently around the £120 mark (no gin).

Bad times.

ikwym. just me and dd, and low income, but even doing stretch meals, some value substitutes, it just adds up.

Perhaps if you told us more of what is on your list we'd see stuff that you could substitute?

I am amazed at the bill sometimes, even tho i am careful. Food is very expensive.

The poor delivery chap must get very fed up of me saying every week "is that it?!" when £100+ worth of shopping comes in 4 bags

It is shocking. I have been trying not to do frequent trips to the supermarket too, but I still end up going about 3 times a week for top ups like you said. This week I tried to meal plan so that I didn't have to go back. Always forget something though. We've got to Friday and the Fridge looks bare! DS has allergies too and the Free From section is extortionate.

I daren't add up what I spend on food, but having 4 dc's ( 3 of them teen and pre teen boys) it is a lot! I tend to go to the supermarket at reductions time and get nice bread really cheap and freeze it. I also tend to get fruit and veg at reduced price, and rarely buy anything unless it's on a special offer. I've recently started getting a lot of stuff at Lidl which i think is working out cheaper.

YANBU

I'm spending about £150 a week on average - and that doesn't include anything much in the way of alcohol, or DH's spending on food during his working day which is about £20-25 a week.

We also look well off on paper, but that is a huge chunk of money gone just on essentials. There is less and less available for treats.

re the milk and bread: admittedly I do have a big freezer, but just stocked up on Tesco seeded loaves at £1 each (used to be 89p but there you go...). 2 litre milk is £1 at Aldi, sometimes less. The Tesco bread is decent and tasty.

is that pizza home-made? Very expensive otherwise.

my standbys are chopped tomatoes (31p a tin at Tesco or Aldi, twice that or more at other places), rice (4kg for £5 at Tesco online, vastly more elsewhere), stir-fry sauces 30p each at B&M or Aldi (twice that elsewhere) and Aldi super-six veg. We eat lots of chilli (cook a load and freeze in portions) and stir-fries. Also I have a butcher that does 30 chicken breasts for £20 (apparently there is a big body-builder community here) so lots of chicken dishes too.

I found Lidl a lot pricier. It's all very odd.

Yes don't get me started. With 3 children and nappies/wipes/formula to buy - its ridiculous! A 'quick' shop often costs me £60 to get the basics. A 'weekly' shop often costs me £200! We r getting into debt regularly with ALL the bills. We earn about £5300 between us each month which is fairly decent but once all bills and childcare goes out, we have virtually nothing left. I don't know how low income families manage!

I think there are ways for people to cut down but sometimes busy lives gets in the way of getting to the nearest lower price supermarket. Waitrose is expensive I think but good qualityand I've given up on Tesco's as much as I can. We dropped in at a Morrison's today and everything seemed really so much cheaper and good value. Activa yoghurts half price which was good. £1.09 for four.

Vivienne I do my main shop in Waitrose and do find it good value. Their essential and own brand ranges are really good whereas I end up buying more branded stuff if I go elsewhere.

I do top ups in Sainsbury's because we have one very close.

I cannot be doing with traipsing here and there to get things, I do my main shop online and then walk to get top ups. Going elsewhere would mean using fuel which seems counterproductive if you are talking about saving money!

I agree. I can't keep up. This time last year McCain home fries were around 2.30. They'd been that price for ages. They are now 3.40 where I am. Last month it was £3. It is actually cheaper to buy chip shop chips for us all. And that is just one item. I don't think there is a single item in my trolley which hasn't increased massively in price in the last few years. And there are never ever any offers or reductions on fruit/veg/milk etc. meal planning doesn't really make a difference if the coat of each item keeps rising.

I agree Alibaba - waitrose price match Tesco on 1000 branded goods, and their essential range is great so I rarely buy branded. It's false economy for me to go elsewhere as my 2 nearest supermarkets are Waitrose.

I found this site helped chop a bit of the shopping bill

For me, dd 7 and ds 3 I spend £10 a week at the fruit and veg stall, and about £30 at the supermarket, which varies between lidl, m&s (staff discount) and Morrisons. This includes packed lunch stuff for dd.

tazmo I am so glad it's not just me! We net around £5500/month between us and we don't even have a big mortgage but once direct debits, food and the worse offender - FUEL is taken out we are left with little left over.
It's a very worrying situation really as nothing ever seems to go down does it? Only up and up (apart from our salaries!!!)

potatoes are getting quite expensive, weather conditions.

have to say that branded oven chips and heavily advertised sugary yogurts are not exactly budget shopping! Tesco yogurts 30p odd for 4, similar price in Aldi.

I know shopping around is a pain but with a factor of 2 or 3 in the prices, surely it is worth it?

I heard the price of apples is set to soar because the weather has made a poor harvest (not sure of terminology!).

I often wonder how much I would spend a week if I didn't look at prices / choose own brand products / shop around etc.

Special for me it isn't worth it, plus I am very fussy about what I buy. I am lucky to be in a position to afford those choices, but it doesn't stop me going at the price of things!

I have just done an online Sainsbury shop for £100 and That was just bits, and 2 meals!!
I did have a result by buying pork loin for 68p and steak for £1.10 that I made into BBQ sqewers, marinated, with salad and minted new pots. Was really nice.

We are a family of 2 adults and 5 children and I spend about £110 a week on my main shop.
It used to be under £100 but every week prices seem to rise.
I already buy the cheapest products as it is so have no value products to downgrade to.

yanbu.

I don't mind paying more money if I know it's going to the farmers or it's due to weather conditions. However I'd love to know if any of it is supermarkets just increasing their profits.

What I used to spend on organic butter (when I had more money) is now what I spend on normal butter (when I'm not that well off).

I probably spend around £50 a week on me and 2 young dc's. We eat different food (DS's allergies and my IBS) and I have very little storage so can't buy bulk. I'm house hunting and dreaming of the day I have cupboards and a HUGE freezer.

We spend approx £60 pw including top ups and nappies. Dh, myself, dc3.5, dc14m.

We're a low income household but we eat well.

Wow cant believe the price of those oven chips

I don't buy them anymore and just make homemade potato wedges instead.
I chop up potato into wedges-thick or thin however you like ,sprinkle and coat with Asda Fajita mix (50p),one packet does 2 portions.
Toss in a tray with olive oil and bake .
You can use herbs if you prefer .
Cost 25p + about 30p for pots and oil.