What are Some Tips for Managing a Family Grocery Budget?
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As we know the prices of food has shot up. Does anyone have any good tips for lowering my weekly food shop? I already shop at Asda, aldi, Lidl and B&M is there anywhere else that does decent food that doesn’t need a remortgage? I have a family of 5 including 2 adults, 2 teenagers with hollow legs (where do they actually put it all?) and a 6 year old who wants snacks every 10 minutes. Any tips or discounts etc greatly appreciated
Shop late for yellow sticker reductions and often frozen food and some tins are cheaper. Look for offers but check the weight in small print for value.
Get to know your local supermarket price reduction times. Use food sharing apps and use online food discounters that sell items near or past the best before date.
Some convenience stores offer big discounts for short life products on their last sellable day. So if you time it right they can actually be very cheap for some items, bread etc. Make sure you are registered with all supermarkets for promotions and always keep an eye out for vouchers. At the moment I have some vouchers for Tesco and occasionally a £5 off voucher appears on the Lidl app. Always factor in your fuel. Petrol/Diesel now is so expensive so bear in mind how much it is costing you to get to a supermarket especially if that supermarket can't provide all you need which is the issue I have with Aldi and Lidl that have more limited ranges so I can't do a full main shop there. Driving further to a supermarket could be costing you more overall. When I worked out how I shop and what I like I found Tesco cheaper overall but that is because I have a very large Tesco locally with a comprehensive range including budget items and I can get almost everything there. I just ignore the expensive stuff and concentrate on the short life reductions, value items and offers. I don't really drink much alcohol and I'm not a great meat eater so I guess my shopping choices could be different to others. I can go through the week and the only meat I've eaten is the sunday roast and had no alcohol at all.
You say you have many to feed and also they like snacking ( your 6 year old). My advice and you don’t need to take it is fill them up with low calorie filling foods such as oats, which are cheap, eggs, berries and yogurt. Obviously you are going to eat more than this, but if you eat filling foods then it will be less to buy. Search online for more foods.
I do 3 food shops a week. One is a slight detour as in I can go that way home or cut 5 minutes off my journey and go another way. This one has great reduced items (morrisons). I do a veg shop that's also good and on the way home and my main shop. I use waitrose as we've the coop, Iceland and M&S and morrisons. Morrisons Iceland and M&S are franchises and charge more thrn in the UK. Coop is naff and expensive. Waitrose is good value and does have OK reduced. I get what I can reduced and freeze what I can. School holidays I tend to take food out of the freezer and use it so spend less in then.
There are plenty of low cost recipe ideas on the internet. Obviously take a bit longer than ready food. I think we need to step back a few years and maybe involve the family to help.
That's just it we are trying to juggle working full time and the house that we go to ready food because its easier. I was working multiple jobs for years as they were zero hours. One in a school and the other after school. By the time I got home no chance I was going to cook from scratch. My oh also has a physical job and was knackered. I finish now by 4 latest and it's so much better. Im shattered but get to chill for a bit and want to cook better. But it's hard for families to manage it all.
Jerseydrew try cooking bulk dinners and freezing in batches. Saves a lot of time and energy costs
It does but its also about time. Its getting the balance of getting prep done and family time and having the energy and motivation on your day off to do it. I know myself there's times I'm mentality drained and can't face it because I'm overwhelmed with juggling so much.
I cook fresh as much as possible and also batch cook and freeze this saves waste as depending on what the kids are doing we sometimes eat at different times
I do the same but I also understand those that don't. Ive multiple jobs that were both physically and mentally demanding. My weekends were spent just wanting to sleep. I've one just now its physically and mentally demanding I love my job but I'm not working such long hours. I get those that don't have the energy to cook. I use my slow cooker.
I use my slow cooker quite often especially in winter when I can do stews and soups
Utilise your freezer. Buy yellow or orange sticker food and freeze as much as you can. I use the loyalty apps, which helps me save some money. Buy as many value and own brand items as possible. You could try things like Too good to go, but you don't get to pick the items so can be a lottery.
Our bodies do not need snacks and overly large meals. In the past snacking wasn't a thing and children ate their meals without fuss and enjoyed them because they were allowed to get hungry and ready for them. By constantly snacking kids are never hungry or aware of the amount of food they are taking in and that is why we have obese adults.
I am constantly amazed when transporting children for a 90 minute contact they have to take snacks, as if they will faint from hunger after such a short time without one.
Cutting out snacks would save lots of money as crisps, biscuits etc are not cheap. Plenty to drink, preferably water, is needed more than snacks.
I don’t feed her snacks every ten minutes she has 1-2 a day she is perfect weight and active so I’m not concerned about that. She does clubs/sports every week
I totally agree, my teenage daughter would sit on her phone all day if she could, we do get out as much as we can though
Try Discount Dragon, they do free delivery if you Spend £20 although delivery takes 10+ days, or Approved Foods, all have cheap short life food.
joceeree could be worth downloading the olio app, people give away short dated food for free, might help a little.
I've also found the local market is a lot cheaper for fresh fruit and veg than my local Aldi and it's actually better quality from the market,.
My local co op is quite good for yellow sticker reductions, sometimes I pick up baguettes for 18p which help fill up my teens... fruits likes strawberries and raspberries for 50 - 60p it's best to try in the evening.
I get a chicken and roast it. I roast it in the slow cooker. Left overs go into a curry or pie. I get tomatoes from olio or seconds from the farm shop or reduced and turn it into tomato sauce for pasta. I usually make tomato and mascopne
firstly we always shop online so we know how much we are spending and can really plan our meals. secondly maybe google batch cooking big meals and see what you can cook thats cheap for some many meals.
Go out and buy the vegetables that have been drastically cut prices for Easter. If you keep them in the fridge they keep for weeks,
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