How big is yours? Can you cut it?

LETHAL LADY

wyndham wrote: »

Who the fck drinks instant coffee granules nowadays anyway? It's not 1993. And at €8.50 a jar?

Why what do you drink?

desertcircus

Why on earth would you buy branded milk? The stuff is a commodity product; the only ingredient is milk. Are supermarkets getting their milk from really crappy cows?

Milk is milk is milk. Buying a branded version is just short of throwing money into a bin. If you're going to buy branded stuff at least have the good sense to limit it to things where believing the brand makes a difference isn't entirely ridiculous.

Tar.Aldarion

You loyally buy gold blend, cif and flash? Eh why. Waste of 15 euro and then you complain?

'I only buy dear things, not better than cheaper alternatives, why is my bill large? '

planetX

desertcircus wrote: »

Why on earth would you buy branded milk? The stuff is a commodity product; the only ingredient is milk. Are supermarkets getting their milk from really crappy cows?

Milk is milk is milk. Buying a branded version is just short of throwing money into a bin. If you're going to buy branded stuff at least have the good sense to limit it to things where believing the brand makes a difference isn't entirely ridiculous.

I do, mainly because I have the idea in my head that the local farmers get a decent price from them. If I'm really broke I'll buy the cheapest, but I still check that it's not imported from the north.

plys

desertcircus wrote: »

Why on earth would you buy branded milk? The stuff is a commodity product; the only ingredient is milk. Are supermarkets getting their milk from really crappy cows?

Milk is milk is milk. Buying a branded version is just short of throwing money into a bin. If you're going to buy branded stuff at least have the good sense to limit it to things where believing the brand makes a difference isn't entirely ridiculous.

I don't agree re milk - IMO, Avonmore is superior to the Lidl/Aldi brands.
That said, the price differential far exceeds the quality differential, so I buy both!!

cournioni

plys wrote: »

I don't agree re milk - IMO, Avonmore is superior to the Lidl/Aldi brands.
That said, the price differential far exceeds the quality differential, so I buy both!!

Eh?! What's the difference? I buy Clonbawn and regularly drink Avonmore at my parents house and there is no difference. Milk is milk, and both brands are from Ireland so the likeliness is that cows eat, **** and drink in the same fields!

kneemos

Aldi dog food is very meaty and 39c for 300g,don't know about the dry stuff though

plys

cournioni wrote: »

Eh?! What's the difference? I buy Clonbawn and regularly drink Avonmore at my parents house and there is no difference. Milk is milk, and both brands are from Ireland so the likeliness is that cows eat, **** and drink in the same fields!

Like I said, I use both, and in my opinion, Avonmore tastes better, AND lasts longer. Whether that means it's fresher than Clonbawn, or goes through a different pasteurisation process, I don't know. All I know is that I prefer Avonmore.

desertcircus

plys wrote: »

Like I said, I use both, and in my opinion, Avonmore tastes better, AND lasts longer. Whether that means it's fresher than Clonbawn, or goes through a different pasteurisation process, I don't know. All I know is that I prefer Avonmore.

Have you double-blind tested your preference? It's quite likely that the difference is a result of perceived quality. And I'd be utterly astounded if one brand of pasteurised milk went bad quicker than another.

professore

planetX wrote: »

I do, mainly because I have the idea in my head that the local farmers get a decent price from them. If I'm really broke I'll buy the cheapest, but I still check that it's not imported from the north.

Aldi and to a lesser extent Lidl do as much for local producers as Dunnes and Tesco (which is English anyway). There are loads of excellent Love Irish products in Aldi.

Dunnes is SuperValu prices for Aldi ambience and yellowpack quality. That's why their "special offers" now say "cheaper than centra and SuperValu". What does that tell you? Half their fruit and veg is rotten when you bring it home. Since Ben Dunne left the management have lost the plot. Either go for price or upmarket, Dunnes pretend to be both but are in fact neither.

summerskin

We're a family of 4 and shop at Aldi and Tesco. We spend €170 per week on average.

samina

I cut mine down to around 180 for my big shop by shopping around. I spend around 30 in the butchers, around 30 on fruit and veg in aldi and the rest between tesco and dunnes. Tesco own brand juices, cleaning products etc are great prices and it's usually cheaper than dunnes so I would spend more in tesco than dunnes
.
Also shopping between both dunnes and tesco I'll usually get special offers on branded things that the kids prefer like cereal and yoghurts regularly enough that I don't need to buy aldi ones.

plys

desertcircus wrote: »

Have you double-blind tested your preference? It's quite likely that the difference is a result of perceived quality. And I'd be utterly astounded if one brand of pasteurised milk went bad quicker than another.

Don't want to derail the thread, but the likelihood is that you're right! That said, as a household, we don't drink a lot of milk - 2 litres tends to last us 5 or 6 days. So it's not going to cost me an awful lot more per week to choose Avonmore over own brand (be it Lidl, Aldi, Tesco, Dunnes, M&S etc.).

OP, €132 for yourself and your dog is ridiculous. 2 of us shop for €50-€60 per week, and that's buying decent meat, fruit and veg. Do you buy a lot of convenience food?

Just shop for myself, My shopping bill is around 50 euro for 5 days (i.e. if I head home at the weekend) and maybe around 60 to 70 then if I'm around for the weekend, thats not including any drink I might buy as I look on that as drink money rather than shopping money. I do 90% of my shopping in supervalue and a little bit in the english market.

I strolled around lidl once or twice and on some random items it didn't appear much if any cheaper. I like supervalue personally, they have good quality stuff especially there meat which is far superior to other supermarkets and just as good as a lot of butchers.

SEPT 23 1989

Is the dog a heavy smoker and an alcoholic?

Abi

xzanti wrote: »

Aldi is your Friend...

Do you find them cheaper than Lidl xzanti?

toexpress wrote: »

Yeah the problem with that is that I want Cif and Flash for cleaning the bathroom. I want Gold Blend Coffee and Avonmore milk. There are some things on my shopping list that I just don't want to substitute own brand stuff for to be honest and the idea of doing a round of shops and supermarkets breaks my heart .... but it may come to that yet

I'm not being smart here, but if you go after name brands like that then you don't really have an argument regarding your bill.

xzanti wrote: »

And I find the system of re-filling the trolly and packing at the bench so much less stressful than in other shops... You can go at your own pace and you're not racing to get the stuff in the bags as they're piling up in front of you..

Do it no matter what supermarket you're in, I do.

mariaalice

In the nicest possible way but are you insane 8.50 for a jar of coffee:eek:

My husband work's away during the week and my children are grown up and mostly gone, so I am on my own most of the time except for the weekends.
I am off a lot during the day (shift work ) so I buy all the reduced stuff from tesco I haven't paid full price for meat or bread for months, when I am in work they feed me, however this week I am off work and I have spent about 28 euro on food and some cleaning products, there is lots of food in the fridge. I just cant imagine how a single person could sped 132 on food and cleaning products in one week.

SeaFields

We shop in aldi. Our bill for two is €90 per week and that includes a couple of bottles of their gorgeous wine.

The big retailers have do their upmost to undermine aldi/lidl. Often outside my local tesco and dunnes they used to have a trolley comparison with aldi/lidl brands in one and the very low quality own brand tesco/dunnes stuff in the other trolley. A lot of people seem to have taken that on board and believe their stuff to be poor quality.

And of course there are still those people living in celtic tiger mode and believe that they should shop no where but Marks and Spensers for fear the neighbours would know.

SEPT 23 1989

mariaalice wrote: »

I just cant imagine how a single person could sped 132 on food and cleaning products in one week.

There seems to be a dog with some expensive habits involved in this carry on

Mr Benevolent

toexpress wrote: »

Shopping bill that is.

I was thinking about this, the cost of running your house because I was away a lot over the last couple of weeks so there wasn't much in the line of food in my house. I did a shop on Monday, now there is just me and the dog that's it. €132!! Madness I still am not entirely sure how the bill hit that level. Then you consider paying the phone bills and the electricity. I recently got rid of sky on the basis that I simply can't justify handing out €33 a month for TV.

So with the rising costs of food and fuel yet no real prospect of an increase in income for most people how do you cut back without living like a miser?

I spent €64 yesterday for two people for a week in Aldi, and that included various fripperies (bottle of rum, a knife sharpener, a DVD, posh drinking chocolate etc). €132 is an utter pisstake.

Either go for price or upmarket, Dunnes pretend to be both but are in fact neither.

Damn right. Dunnes is shite.

xzanti

Abi wrote: »

Do you find them cheaper than Lidl xzanti?

I haven't really tried Lidl tbh.. I may try them for a change some week.. I've heard Aldi food is generally nicer though.

Abi wrote: »

Do it no matter what supermarket you're in, I do.

The likes of Dunnes/Tesco don't have those purpose built ledges along the wall and I find there's less space between the til and the wall.. Do you not find yourself blocking peoples path if you're packing over at the wall?

snubbleste

OP, would you ever upload your till receipt so we can judge you properly.

toexpress

toexpress wrote: »

how do you cut back without living like a miser?

A few simple things cut my bill down massively.

I try not to have meat with every meal. Normally 3 of my 7 main meals in the week are meat for example.

I grow my own veg and herbs. The latter can be quite pricey to buy but cheap to produce your own. The former really depends on the veg but all too often when I buy veg I use only a portion before the rest goes off. Self grown is always fresh.

Eggs - I keep chickens. So have my own eggs. Meat - I occasionally lay traps for wild rabbit and I like to fish.

Sauces... making your own can be really cheap. Instead of a few euros on a jar of sauce for pasta for example simply roast garlic, tomatoes and aubergine then pulverise with a hand blender, mix in some cheap grated cheese and then mix in the pasta. Healthy, fresh, cheap, tasty.

On top of that I cook myself and keep it as fresh and unprocessed as possible. Initial outlay for cooking yourself is high to get all the store cupboard items, spices, equipment and so forth but when you get into it in the long term costs go way down. And health goes up as processed foods are not really the best.

Also shop around. Ones entire week of shopping does not have to be done in one shop. As someone pointed out fire lighters in tesco are super cheap. Figure out which items are cheaper in which shops and do your week shopping in 2 or 3 shops rather than 1.

Economies of scale is an issue for you though. Cooking for one person and a dog is not much cheaper than cooking for two people and a dog. Doubling the number of people does not double the cost of living in most cases.

Your loyalty to brand names is likely to be an ongoing issue though. It would be a good starting point for reducing your bills.

Any more advice or help would really be contingent on you posting a few till recipets for us to crawl over. One would be good but to really evaluate your spending habits a months worth would be better.

ash23

OP, for a start, you didn't know how much each item cost until you got home and looked at your receipt. Which would indicate that you walk around Dunnes just flinging stuff into the trolley based on what you usually buy and not on the price.

Start looking at prices, special offers, alternative brands etc.

Well, actually, start shopping in Aldi but as you're reluctant to do that, then at least start paying heed to the cost of the items you buy!

Mr Benevolent

Deleted User wrote: »

I grow my own veg and herbs. The latter can be quite pricey to buy but cheap to produce your own. The former really depends on the veg but all too often when I buy veg I use only a portion before the rest goes off. Self grown is always fresh.

Eggs - I keep chickens. So have my own eggs. Meat - I occasionally lay traps for wild rabbit and I like to fish.

While the above is nice, it's not practical for a lot of people living in a city. My neighbours in adjoining apartments would not appreciate wire traps being laid for their Fluffles. Likewise, growing veg on a tiny balcony is not practical at all.

Confab

Confab wrote: »

While the above is nice, it's not practical for a lot of people living in a city. My neighbours in adjoining apartments would not appreciate wire traps being laid for their Fluffles. Likewise, growing veg on a tiny balcony is not practical at all.

Indeed but I do not mention these things in the expectation anyone and everyone can emulate them. I merely mention them as a way to show how far and wide the possibilities go with the application of some imagination and effort.

As for balconies do not underestimate the power of window boxes. Not everything has to be grown out doors. Some of the herbs I grow are indoors and I particularly like targetting ones that give off a good odour. So not only do I get herbs for free - I do not need to invest in commercial air freshners either.

Some people even rent mini gardens and plots for growing such things. That of course reduces the money saved but you still tend to save some. But to go that route I think it needs to be more than just a cost saving measure but something of a hobby too. I personally find tending to the herbs and veg to be massively relaxing and good for my health. The veg simply tastes better too.

The point anyway to repeat it is not to take my post as me suggesting things to copy but as me suggesting that there are ways available to all of us if we explore them for acheiving better and healthier food at lower prices. Quite often simply ways that people simply never considered before.

coffee_cake

We do some of ours in tesco and some in aldi/lidl. The latter are better for fruit&veg. Never buy processed sauces or whatever (except el paso bbq spice that I haven't learned to make myself yet). Always cook basic ingredients. We go through some mad amount of eggs... c'mere tax, I'm borrowing your chickens

Love meat though, no way I'd do without meat or fish in meals.

Cantona's Collars

Have a quick look at this thread,anyone who's a snob about shopping in Aldi & Lidl will be surprised.For example,Robert Roberts make the 'own brand' tea & coffee.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=70930797

As a tip,the reduced to clear section in supermarkets is extremely popular,you can fill a freezer with meat for very little from there.Some people have it down to a fine art & time their shopping trips to coincide with the reduced section being stocked.

plys

Confab wrote: »

While the above is nice, it's not practical for a lot of people living in a city. My neighbours in adjoining apartments would not appreciate wire traps being laid for their Fluffles. Likewise, growing veg on a tiny balcony is not practical at all.

When we lived in an apartment, my missus grew veg and herbs in plant pots on the balcony. Granted, not enough to keep us self sufficient, but definitely enough carrots, garlic, onions, parsley, thyme, rosemary to drastically reduce our spend on same.

Balcony was approx 10 foot long by 3 foot wide, so maybe larger than many, but the pots themselves did not take up too much space. You'd be surprised how much you'll grow in a small area..

jessiejam

I'm not a huge one to talk because i have difficulty keeping my shopping bills down too.

My brother on the other hand keeps a list on the inside of one of the cupboards and when something runs out in the house he adds it on to the list. Brings the list with him to the supermarket and sticks to it. He never doubles up on anything then.

I usually fill my cupboards with Dunnes and my fridge with Aldi. Works for me mostly unless I go to Dunnes hungry then i'm useless with sticking to the list!

2 adults, 2 kids and 2 dogs in our house and about €60 - €80 per week in Aldi, and maybe twice a month dunnes would cost me about €80 to fill the cupboards and washing powders, shampoos etc (I only buy if on special offer). So weekly about €100 - €120 Max. When I only went to Dunnes It was costing me €150 per week.