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Me and the wife are at loggerheads with our weekly shopping,, well more to do with the price of it,,, we dont usually do one big shop more every other day,,, i have averaged out our shopping bill for the past few months and come to just under  300 pounds a week,,(includes nappies and toiletries) by anyones stands this must be expensive for a family of four? I have a one year old and 3 year old and i work away half the time....the wife is having none of it and says im just being grippit ?,,, its actually stressing me out as i work in the oil industry and im trying to limit our spending due to the current climate 

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Guest BlueGaz

Wow, I think thats a lot.  We are about £90 a week on a big shop, probably about another £30 or £40 added  to that for bits and bobs here and there.  Eat well, fridge etc always full.  I would go mental if she spent that much a week. We are 4 too, but kids older, no babies which I appreciate need other stuff.

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We are a family of 4 and I noticed a massive difference going to Aldi rather than Asda, even though Aldi is a 25 miles from us.

A big thing was we were spending about £30 before we bought a pint of milk by having to bypass all the kids clothes, toiletries and toys. Not saying we dont buy that stuff but we were buying for the sake of buying

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I am at my end of ny tether with it,, as i said i work away half the time which makes it even worse,, we buy fish probably 2 times a week which adds a bit more to the  cost but it cant be  justified,,,i am constantly trowing out veg which is out of date,, 

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That's a huge amount to spend weekly. Four of us and we spend £150 maybe, tops. Used to spend £20 a week on milk (sons drink loads), but Iceland and others sell it almost half price. In many cases brand goods doesn't always mean lower quality - although in many cases it does. You just have to try things out.

 

I found a good beating ends the problem ... After she'd finished with me I never complained about her spending again!

Edited by Stapes
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Guest BlueGaz

Try and roughly plan your week with meals and buy against that.  You will still buy a wee bit too much, and still have to buy fresh a bit more often, but it works for us.  If the kids eat the goodies, they don't get anymore till the following week.

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30 minutes ago, hampden_loon2878 said:

I am at my end of ny tether with it,, as i said i work away half the time which makes it even worse,, we buy fish probably 2 times a week which adds a bit more to the  cost but it cant be  justified,,,i am constantly trowing out veg which is out of date,, 

Is the stuff you throw out actually going off, or just "out of date"? The amount of stuff that gets wasted just because it is past it's "use by" date is mental. I know folk who still throw stuff out because it is past it's "sell by date" - even more mental. Sounds like your wife is just buying too much stuff. In the long run it's probably going to be cheaper and easier to get a new wife. If the wife won't change, change the wife

 

 

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Sounds like you both need to learn to cook, most of your cash must surely be on expensive prepared shit.  We are a grown up family of 5 and nowhere near that level of spends. make sure nothing is older than 1 month in the freezer and keep some room for cooked food that is left over, going out of date etc.

Get the kids into enjoying soups, casseroles etc which includes all that veg you are throwing away.

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1 minute ago, The White Ceelo said:

Sounds like you both need to learn to cook, most of your cash must surely be on expensive prepared shit.  We are a grown up family of 5 and nowhere near that level of spends. make sure nothing is older than 1 month in the freezer and keep some room for cooked food that is left over, going out of date etc.

Get the kids into enjoying soups, casseroles etc which includes all that veg you are throwing away.

Yes we both need to learn how to cook,, dont get me wrong what we make isnt junk,, we dont make the best of what we buy,, she throws everything out thats past its sell by date,,, even tatties which i didnt know had a sell by date,,fruit is another killer,, 

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We are similar to you, family of 4 with almost 3 year old and baby.

Thats a mental amount to be spending! What the hell are you eating, and where are you buying it?

We have an expensive habit of popping to the Co-op and spending £20, but when we're a bit more disciplined, we go to the Lidl and it's brilliant. You'll struggle to spend £40 and fill your fridge. Their fruit and veg is better than any of the other supermarkets near us, and arguably on a par with the fruit shop.

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BlueGaz is spot on - decide at the weekend what your meals are going to be for the week ahead and use that to make a shopping list (and check your cupboards and fridge first to ensure you are going to use whatever is left over from the week before).  Then you will only buy what you need and use most of it.

 

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4 minutes ago, sbcmfc said:

We are similar to you, family of 4 with almost 3 year old and baby.

Thats a mental amount to be spending! What the hell are you eating, and where are you buying it?

We have an expensive habit of popping to the Co-op and spending £20, but when we're a bit more disciplined, we go to the Lidl and it's brilliant. You'll struggle to spend £40 and fill your fridge. Their fruit and veg is better than any of the other supermarkets near us, and arguably on a par with the fruit shop.

My wife cant go to the shop for one thing,, a "one thing" shop for her is 30-40 pownds i am not even kidding,, if you were to add the lobster,,,partins,prawns into the mix which we get for free it would be a lot more expensive,,, a big part of our problem is that we all eat different stuff,, my wife doesnt eat meat,, the bairns most of the time are different to me,,, we do spend a lot on fish,, epecially salmon,, might need to limit that to once a month...or get the net shot?

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when our two when similar ages to yours we had one big shop delivered a month from asda and topped it up by buying fresh stuff once a week.

 

Ordering online meant that we were able to take our time ordering stuff and making sure we were getting the best deals, plus by not going to the shop we weren't buying as much stuff that we didn't need by just picking it up and sticking it in the trolley.

Also meant we could buy in bulk i.e a full months worth of nappies as we didn't have to fit it all in the boot

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For us it varies from week to week but one thing we do try and do is make a list before we go. Some weeks are more as we will buy things out with he list if it is on offer such as pasta or curry sauces. We know we will use them at some point and make sure there are always a couple of jars in the cupboard. Also having a 1 year old means we are always looking to pick up offers on happy wipes etc. Mostly we go to tesco as its easiest but if we could make a bit more time we go to lidl and then tesco for the bits we didn't get

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Guest flumax

I buy £400 tesco gift cards through union purchase scheme giving me 4% reduction and helps us budget. That's it for the months groceries. £100 pw for £96. Considered lidl /aldi but it's a 50 mile round trip, no discount, plus an hour driving time. More cost effective to go to local tesco. 

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probaly GBP 50 a week for 2 folk and even then then i might be forecasting high

although this is za prices where its GBP 3 a kg for mince say GBP 5 a kg for lamb chops etc etc 

I don't throw out anything unless it tastes  bad - missus complains on me eating yoghurt 3 months past sell/use date  

 

 

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2 of us spend around Eur 125 a week on shopping....say about £100 ish.

The trick is to be absolutely targeted. Write down precisely what you need for that week, and stick to it....I agree that this is much easier to do when the kids leave home, as opposed to when they're in the house eating all kinds of crap day and night.

We've become relatively unusual in that we now rarely eat carbs. of any kind, so no bread, pasta, potatoes, rice etc. Also no processed shit, and almost nothing that has loads of sugar.

Our shopping basically consists of vegetables, fruit, meat, fish, bottles of water and a couple of bottles of wine. It's not as expensive as you think and pretty easy to do.

We're right boring f*ckers.... :lol:

 

 

 

Edited by Rossy
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I pop into the supermarket most nights on my way home from work just to check the reduced aisle :lol:

Often pick up reduced mince, chicken etc and just fire it in the freezer when I get home.

Another thing we often do is cook a chicken on the sunday and have a simple roast or something..then strip the chicken and make another meal for the Monday night. Can even make a stock with the carcass if you really want to get everything out of the bird.

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3 hours ago, hampden_loon2878 said:

Me and the wife are at loggerheads with our weekly shopping,, well more to do with the price of it,,, we dont usually do one big shop more every other day,,, i have averaged out our shopping bill for the past few months and come to just under  300 pounds a week,,(includes nappies and toiletries) by anyones stands this must be expensive for a family of four? I have a one year old and 3 year old and i work away half the time....the wife is having none of it and says im just being grippit ?,,, its actually stressing me out as i work in the oil industry and im trying to limit our spending due to the current climate 

Sounds like a difficult cycle to break - a few suggestions;

Switch to a discounter - Aldi/Lidl products are just as good (in some cases superior) to Asda/Tesco. Aldi steak is exactly the same product as M&S's offering. This alone wil reduce your bill by at least 30% without changing anything else. Unbranded nappies (I'm sure aldi's won an award for value/quality) and things like washing detergent don't need to be branded. Razor blades too - you can buy cheaper products that do just as good a job. At times the discounters sell produce at below cost price.

  • Make a list - and stick to it, no aisle end shopping!
  • Best before/Use by - there's a difference here. Use by is a safety thing, best before is just an indication of quality over time.
  • At the till - pay in cash, that will hit home how much you are spending and will limit impulse buys
  • Do the maths - shaving £50 off a weekly shop would buy you a holiday, use it as a motiviation.

Hope you manage to talk her round, let us know how it goes :)

 

Edit - I never spend more than £50 a week on me and the missus and eat well.

Check out  'Eat Well for Less' on BBC iPlayer, it tackles this very problem you have.

 

 

 

Edited by they've_been_suckered
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I will add that the pasta bake sauces in aldi and lidl are as good as if not better than the more expensive brands there curry sauces are also excellent. Might be worth checking local markets to see if there is a butcher van. When I was still in Ayrshire we would go to the saltcoats market and load up with meat from them. Very good meat at very good prices plus if you are lucky once they see you regular they might chuck in an extra bit here and there. Even now when I go up to see my folks the guys on the van will add some to anything I buy but then I do usually load up on slice for heading back down with

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2 hours ago, they've_been_suckered said:

Sounds like a difficult cycle to break - a few suggestions;

Switch to a discounter - Aldi/Lidl products are just as good (in some cases superior) to Asda/Tesco. Aldi steak is exactly the same product as M&S's offering. This alone wil reduce your bill by at least 30% without changing anything else. Unbranded nappies (I'm sure aldi's won an award for value/quality) and things like washing detergent don't need to be branded. Razor blades too - you can buy cheaper products that do just as good a job. At times the discounters sell produce at below cost price.

  • Make a list - and stick to it, no aisle end shopping!
  • Best before/Use by - there's a difference here. Use by is a safety thing, best before is just an indication of quality over time.
  • At the till - pay in cash, that will hit home how much you are spending and will limit impulse buys
  • Do the maths - shaving £50 off a weekly shop would buy you a holiday, use it as a motiviation.

Hope you manage to talk her round, let us know how it goes :)

 

Edit - I never spend more than £50 a week on me and the missus and eat well.

Check out  'Eat Well for Less' on BBC iPlayer, it tackles this very problem you have.

 

 

 

I concur.

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Seems high but hard to say without the list of what makes up the typical 300 quid per week. Does that include a lot of pricey wine for example or fags or are you a family who lives on M&S ready meals? How the feck do you spend so much every damn week.

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1 hour ago, thplinth said:

Seems high but hard to say without the list of what makes up the typical 300 quid per week. Does that include a lot of pricey wine for example or fags or are you a family who lives on M&S ready meals? How the feck do you spend so much every damn week.

We are not big drinkers and neither smoke,, ready meals is a big one when i work away,, she buys shit loads of wipes,, thays another,, just doesnt make sense to me i maybe should have said in the original post that includes  washing poweder ect,,, still too much,, im home tomorrow so the list will be written and stuck too

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