Food budgets

[Mumofgirls89]

Can anyone advise on their food budget, shop and whether that's a skimpy shop, normal or luxury one?
I've had a £140.00 pw budget set for a while for my family of 5 with pet and its not cutting it anymore and I need to act on it really. I did a skimpy shop and still came in at £120.00 without washing, pet stuff or toiletries. Most items are not branded per se, but maybe more asda brand.
I shop at Asda atm and use the rewards.
The pet is non negotiable, I have other budgets for his basic items, it's only if I buy him treats or a new bowl etc.
Also feeding the children is non negotiable...apparently they need feeding too 😆

Ours is £300 max per month - 1 adult (dairy & gluten free), 2 teenagers (1 dairy free and the other vegetarian) and 2 cats. This covers all food, toiletries, cleaning/washing/toilet rolls etc.

We eat mostly vegetarian (usually vegan), I go to a community food hub once a week (pay £4 and get 2 bags of shopping inc vegetables/fruit), batch cook, meal plan and try not to buy pre packaged snacks. We stick to 3 meals a day with a small pudding and occasional after school snack.

Also utilise olio - last week I picked up a pack of burgers, sausages, loaf of bread, 2 packs of oranges, new potatoes, pret soup (used as a pasta sauce base that night), 2 pret wraps all free. Froze the meat and bread in individual portions and used the pret stuff for dinner that night.

I bulk buy toilet roll, cat food from amazon subscribe & save.

We eat pretty well, This weeks meals are:
Today - Savoury flapjack (using up sorry looking carrots & courgette)
Monday - Lasagne (lentils and sorry looking veg)
Tuesday - Vegetable curry (using up vegetables, potato and will chuck in some lentils)
Wednesday - Bolognase with rice/pasta.
Thursday - Jacket potatoes with beans.
Friday - leftovers!
Saturday - burgers and homemade chips.

Breakfast is cereal/toast/fruit.

Lunch is leftovers/couscous/wraps/sandwiches or I make pizzas using reduced rolls or wraps. The girls will have a couple of biscuits, packet of crisps, some fruit/salad.

Pudding is ice cream, ice lollies, ice poles, meringues for strawberries (when we get them cheap enough!), tinned fruit, or rice pudding.

Snacks - breadsticks with cheese triangles, crackers & butter, toast, fruit, houmous & salad sticks.

Weekends we often have brunch rather than separate breakfast & lunch. One day is usually a fry up (sausages, hash browns, beans & eggs).

We do buy a few different drinks, I get a bottle of squash a week, couple of fruit juice cartons for the girls breakfast, then teabags for me and milkshake powder (not often as it's only dd1 who drinks it). I bulk bought some cherryade/orangeade cans cheap on amazon as its been so hot (around £4 for 24). I have a milk frother so when it's cooler we make hot chocolates/lattes using syrups from tkmaxx. Soya milk is currently the cheapest milk (50p a litre) and froths up really well, lovely & creamy too. Feels like a really indulgent treat on cold evenings, cheaper than Costa etc!

I find Asdas very expensive these days. Aldis is my weekly shop place, although even that's creeping up. We're a family of 5 and I spend about £120 a week and that includes wash stuff and minced chicken and frozen veg etc to make the dogs food.

I think it was on the Radio 4 Food programme they said Asda and Morrisons were now owned by venture capitalists and they had to make more money to cover finance that had got more expensive due to higher interest rates, so this is why prices had increased more. Which sounds like a reason not to shop there.

Jeez, I thought every shop was raising prices to cope. I don't normally like to shop around, I hate shopping and want it done quickly so I know where things are I want, I don't get distracted by offers of things I didnt intend on buying and I get out ASAP!

I've managed to reduce the shop spends following the lovely advice on here though so very grateful for thoughts!