Food Shopping

[Tinylo]

OH is constantly on about how much we spend on food, drink and household stuff, about £140 a wk!

There's me, DH, DS1 (3) and DS2 (1), DS 1 eats like a horse, probably more than I do. We don't buy finest anything, nearly always value or own brand where they sell it but lots of fresh fruit and salad.

So out of interest what does ur usual shopping list contain and how much do spend a week?

Armed with this info I may be able to get some ideas to help reduce my bill and if he see's it's not just me he may lay off the nagging a bit!

 

[moondrops]

We spend around 40-50 in Aldi and get everything we need, including nappies, wipes, loo roll, kitchen roll etc and all fresh fruit and veg, a punnet of strawberries is 99p and they are from England too. Their food is lovely and i am a fussy eater and usually always have branded stuff but Tesco is just extortionate so we shop at Aldi now and only go to Tesco for ariel and comfort, will be stopping that though and try Aldi brand instead. It is worth a try if you live near an Aldi or Lidl x

 

[Angelicous]

lol we have the same problem. DD and DS now eat as much as us sometimes!!!!

We too always buy cheaper brands and fruit/veg of stuff and try to cook from scratch.

All I can suggest is to find cheaper recipes using stuff like mince. Also over the years (partly for budget, partly for health) I've made hubby halve the amount of meat he uses. For stuff like spag bol/shepherd pie in particular, we bulk up using pulses (chickpeas, kidney beans, cannelini beans etc) and veg. Also, a lot of asian recipes don't use meat (or only a small amount of meat) and end up being cheaper to cook. (Like I can cook 30 giant "meaty" spring rolls with 250g of mince).

Also, when we can get to a butchers - we often go for their special family packs - so you get a discount on a week's worth of meat. Our local butchers's packs are around £30 (would normally cost around £40)

We also now avoid buying ready-made sauces/coleman sachets etc when we have time to cook, because you can do the same for much less. (Instead of £1-odd for creamy sauce or chilli con carne etc when you can spend use like 20p worth of milk/spices).

 

[tallybee]

Like you, we get a lot of Value brand stuff it's the fresh fruit, veg, salad that bumps up the price!

Also without a word of a lie the kids eat more than DH and I

I don't add up how much really, store cupboard bits and freezer stuff plus anything we need at the time is from asda (we get £200 a month in vouchers for there, so when they arrive it's a big shop)

Then in between it's topups from the market or Aldi, like pp said their fresh stuff is well-priced. The market is even better for some stuff, it's just getting round to going into town the day it's on lol. I do try and make the effort as much as possible though, as the prices are amazing compared to the supermarket, for fruit veg and meat.

I am big on cooking from scratch as much as poss. which keeps cost down.

I agree with Angelicous about using less mince and bulking out with other things, grating the veg into it makes fussy people not notice it Also healthier as well as cheaper

 

[Tinylo]

We get through a lot of mince and pasta, so I like the idea of bulking out the dishes with grated veg (DS 1 is extremely fussy) and extra beans. DH is really keen on his meat protein though and he can't seem to fill up on veg, so this may help the dishes go a bit further.

 

[Tinylo]

lol we have the same problem. DD and DS now eat as much as us sometimes!!!!

We too always buy cheaper brands and fruit/veg of stuff and try to cook from scratch.

All I can suggest is to find cheaper recipes using stuff like mince. Also over the years (partly for budget, partly for health) I've made hubby halve the amount of meat he uses. For stuff like spag bol/shepherd pie in particular, we bulk up using pulses (chickpeas, kidney beans, cannelini beans etc) and veg. Also, a lot of asian recipes don't use meat (or only a small amount of meat) and end up being cheaper to cook. (Like I can cook 30 giant "meaty" spring rolls with 250g of mince).

Also, when we can get to a butchers - we often go for their special family packs - so you get a discount on a week's worth of meat. Our local butchers's packs are around £30 (would normally cost around £40)

We also now avoid buying ready-made sauces/coleman sachets etc when we have time to cook, because you can do the same for much less. (Instead of £1-odd for creamy sauce or chilli con carne etc when you can spend use like 20p worth of milk/spices).

Ooh meaty springrolls, could I ask for the receipe they sound really tasty

 

[Tinylo]

We spend around 40-50 in Aldi and get everything we need, including nappies, wipes, loo roll, kitchen roll etc and all fresh fruit and veg, a punnet of strawberries is 99p and they are from England too. Their food is lovely and i am a fussy eater and usually always have branded stuff but Tesco is just extortionate so we shop at Aldi now and only go to Tesco for ariel and comfort, will be stopping that though and try Aldi brand instead. It is worth a try if you live near an Aldi or Lidl x

Blimey that's amazing shopping value. I have tried Aldi before but I didn't really notice a lot of difference, I might have to look again. I also tried the local veg shop and butcher but their prices were either the same or more expensive!!

 

[Jem88]

We get our shopping every 2 weeks and spend around £80, we get most of it from tesco but i get most of our fruit/veg & toilet rolls from aldi as it's a 10min walk away.

We buy frozen chicken breasts, frozen sausages, some frozen veg. We also get 2x 500g packs of mince and freeze them in 3 portions so that makes around 6 meals.

At the moment LO doesn't eat very big portions but i guess our shopping will go up once she and the LO on the way starts eating alot more. x

 

[Piggywinkle]

We spend around 40-50 in Aldi and get everything we need, including nappies, wipes, loo roll, kitchen roll etc and all fresh fruit and veg, a punnet of strawberries is 99p and they are from England too. Their food is lovely and i am a fussy eater and usually always have branded stuff but Tesco is just extortionate so we shop at Aldi now and only go to Tesco for ariel and comfort, will be stopping that though and try Aldi brand instead. It is worth a try if you live near an Aldi or Lidl x

This ^^^

We were spending around £70 a week at Tesco or Asda. We get the same amount of stuff now from Aldi at around £45 per week. There's nowt wrong with the quality either and I'm fussy! Their nappies are a right bargain and things like toilet paper are a couple of quid cheaper. We had to do something as I gave up work when I had LO so we couldn't just waste money like we used to.

I'd really recommend giving them a try - you'd be pleasantly surprised.

 

[Bittersweet]

I live at home there is 5 of us (me and my 2 snilings mum and mums partner).

I wish I was kidding but we spend £150 per week! My siblings eat alot of food between them (my brother will eat a meal, and then a ready meal. In one sitting).

It's ridiculous!

 

[lovemybubba]

I spend £30ish in Iceland a week just on myself!
My mum used to spend £100 sometimes less in morrisons every week for 5 of us I think that's pretty good. But god knows how she does it.

 

[Angelicous]

Meaty Springroll recipe Costs under £5 for 4-6

Ingredients:
Spring roll skins (large sized ones come in packs of 30 - can get in most asian/oriental shops in the freezer section)
250g of mince (pork is traditional, but beef is fine too)
Beansprouts (couple of handfuls) OR white/sweetheart/pointy Cabbage (thinly shredded)
Grated carrots (a couple)

Optional - shiitake mushrooms (fresh or dried ones rehydrated)
Whatever other veg you have in the fridge that needs using up

Too prepare/cook:

Get a wok or biggest frying pan you have and brown the mince

Turn up heat high and add the veg and stirfry. (Cabbage first if you're using it, if you're using beansprouts put them in last). You don't need the veg cooked through, just wilted enough so there's no hard edges on it for when you wrap it - a couple of minutes should do it. Season with a little salt and white pepper. (Never black pepper)
Let the mixture cool.

Get the spring roll skins. (defrost earlier or microwave on low wrapped in a tea towel)

Spoon in about 2-3 tablespoons of the mixture and roll them up. Lay them flat with a point towards you, roll up from the bottom, tuck in the left/right side when you get to the middle and carry on rolling. Like you would a fajita or something, but tuck in both ends. You need to make them tight so they don't fall apart. A little liquid on the edges will hold them together.

Deep fry in clean oil (around 180 degrees centigrade - if you're using a fryer turn it up high) You don't want to overcook or fat will seep in and make them soggy. Also too many in the pan will make them soggy. Do 2 or 3 at a time so there's enough room for them to float freely without touching eachother. Just crisp the skin - takes about a minute or two per batch.

Done

Serve with boiled/steamed rice and salad Traditionally its served with soy sauce and english mustard (yes, really) but my OH and kids like it with soy and sweet chilli sauce.

 

[babydevil1989]

we spend £80 every two weeks for me,OH,LO and a cat - we get mostly value everything - we use frozen veg - frozen meat - split mince packs in two and freeze - bulk out mince meals with veg - look in the clearance section to find meat you can freeze - pasta dishes are very cheap - have jacket potatoes a couple of nights a week - put your shopping list into mysupermarket.com before you vo shopping it will tell you cheaper alternatives for some of your items - print/write out the listand take it with you (& stick to it lol) thats all i can think of at the mo

 

[mumandco]

We spend around £50 a week but as little as £35,we meal plan and write a shopping list. I don't buy anything thats not on the list. None of us eat a lot though really,oh and I eat one meal a day. And the boys eat about 2 chicken nuggets and 5 chips each. We rarely buy frozen food like nuggets though so they last ages. We have a lot of pasta sauces type dishes.
We buy a big bag of potatoes which are £5 and they last forever,one big potato will make enough chips for oh and I. There are so many things you can do with a bag of potatoes

 

[babydevil1989]

^^ can i swap OHs mine would have three or four potatoes for chips!! he eats soooo much lol x

 

[mumandco]

Given half the chance he probably eat that much lol but coz he works nights he sleeps all day so doesn't eat lunch.he does eat a lot of meat il eat 1 chicken breast and oh will eat 2/3