Supermarkets

You should ask your Vet for prescriptions and get your Metacam online watermeadow. It’s half the price you’re paying and you could get several bottles.

AI Overview Aldi is offering major price cuts on over 200 summer products, meaning you can complete a large basket of groceries for a fraction of the cost. Consumer champion Which? named Aldi the "Best Value Brand of the Year", with a typical big basket coming in tens of pounds cheaper than traditional grocers.

I suppose if you were to live on tinned rice pudding, rice potatoes, peas, cheapest toilet roll[perhaps they buy that elsewhere] etc, it would be possible.

I shop at Aldi weekly. On my own and £38 a month, no way. What are they buying, carrots, potatoes, 4 pack of toilet rolls, small milk and a loaf of bread each week.

There are 3 main supermarkets in the town I shop in the most.

One of them does the "we compare our prices to Aldi" whatever the words are.
So I thought right, I may as well go to Aldi in that case,
I am quite often pleasantly surprised at the bill at the end.

Though probably depends on what items you like to buy.

WelshPoppy

I shop at Tesco and have done for over 20 years. Have tried all the others but always end up back at Tesco. Weekly bill varies between £80 and 120 a month. We do go to Costco where we buy our washing detergent, conditioner, kitchen and toilet rolls, black rubbish bags, beef joints and chicken pieces but only go once every 3-4 months.

My girl always found tesco online the best value, because of the long sell by dates.
She found it easier to have a vague meal plan and buy from tesco because it didn't go out of date before she got round to cooking it.

I do our main shop (£65 or so for two) at Ocado where they supposedly match price match Tesco, but pick up odds and ends over the week if my GC are here for supper or we run out of something.
I use our local Lidl and Morrisons too but can't get everything that I want which puts me off doing a whole shop there, though they do seem to be cheaper.
Having pets must add quite a lot to your bills now, or if you drink much alcohol. My husband likes a drink in the evening but gets that himself from a little local shop.

I shop at Tesco and have done for over 20 years. Have tried all the others but always end up back at Tesco. Weekly bill varies between £80 and 120 a month. We do go to Costco where we buy our washing detergent, conditioner, kitchen and toilet rolls, black rubbish bags, beef joints and chicken pieces but only go once every 3-4 months.

I appreciate your point, jakuss

Its quite sobering (excuse the pun) to realise you could get out and about, eat, stay warm, and well
.. be comfortable for so little.
I wish i had a Wetherspoons near me, now!

Should you be advocating a G&T every day? A daily greasy spoon doesn’t sound either the healthiest or most tempting of diets- where do purchases of food for breakfast, supper, things like milk or loo paper feature in this.
Of course for the latter I suppose you could go wetherspoons as you suggest.

If you went wetherspoons each day for a week it would cost you £35 and that's a meal with a g & t, or whatever

I prefer in person shopping.
When i was working, I'd often get off the bus and nip into whatever shop caught my eye.

I like fruit, for example, but what fruit depends on the texture, cost, ripeness, and you can't really get that online (although tesco guarantee things to last a week, ten days etc)
No doubt it's more expensive online, too.

I don’t want to shop on-line, I like shopping and it’s often the only time I meet and speak to other people.
On-line pet foods are the more expensive options. I have reluctantly changed my furry darlings to supermarket junk food because it’s the cheapest and one cat is on Metacam for life (like Ibuprofen but £50 for a small bottle from the vet instead of 60p for a pack of tablets for humans)

I can't get to any shop under my own steam, so its all a bit pot luck.
I have to consider taxi fares on top of whatever shopping I buy, or the sheer panic of being driven by my boy.
All in all, online seems safer.
If i could get around easier, I wouldn't spend my time going shop to shop, anyway.

I’d like to see what they bought - surely £138? I spent £40 in Tesco last Saturday just stocking up on things DGS2 might or might not eat that afternoon! At least DD2 took most of it home with her, so it wasn’t wasted.

I live in a small market town in the NW ....we have a marksies food hall, Lidl, Aldi, Morrisons, Asda express ( in the petrol station), Co op, Iceland warehouse , home bargain and B and M ....

£38 on a monthly shop? That's taking 'strategic shopping' to a whole new level! Mind you, I'd like to see what that 38 quid gets.

I'm constantly checking for the best prices online before heading to the shops, so can save quite a bit some weeks. I must say, I’m often surprised at finding some items have gone down in price - all helps.

We get a fair bit from Iceland, and on Tuesdays you can get 10% of everything if you're over 60. Sign up for the bonus card and have some proof of age (I look over 60 though anyway 😁).

That's basically it - check prices online for the best deals. We're lucky here, we have Lidl, Aldi, Asda, Tesco, M&S, Iceland, B&M, Home Bargains close by and can shop around.

I used to shop mainly at Waitrose until an Aldi opened opposite my gym. I now shop almost exclusively at Aldi but I buy or get given most of my meat from local farmers in return for grazing, so I don't buy a lot of meat from there. However, what I do buy is really excellent, as is the fresh fruit and veg. I'll go into Waitrose for a few of the things I can't buy at Aldi and I also use a local independent supermarket which has a tie in with Morrisons but also stocks local up market products and also my local farm shop. I'm fortunate that I can afford to stockpile things that are on offer and I have the storage space too so if I see a good deal on something I use, like coffee or wine, I stock up.

I think they left the 0 off.

Maybe the £38 shoppers use Olio a lot!

My local supermarket is Waitrose and difficult to get to as I no longer drive.

UI do most of my shopping online and have accounts with Sainsbury's, Morrison's and Tesco. I also have one with Ocado/M^S but that is because I only drink M&S coffee and the jars are not £7.50 each.

Occasionally I have to make up the money by adding extra loo rolls but I do buy long life milk which isn't cheap.

By shopping online I can keep a beady eye on my spending.

I share everyone's surprise at the £38 quoted. I'm a vegetarian who lives alone, but do feed GC twice in the week.
I consider myself a thrifty shopper, but would struggle to keep my weekly supermarket visit to £38 a week, never mind a month.
I do acknowledge that a significant percentage of supermarket bill will be non food items such as cleaning products. Maybe the family quoted don't wash or use toilet paper.

I have an Ocado delivery about every two weeks and it’s about £50-60 , I have a local milk delivery and buy fruit and veg from the green grocer as well as Ocado. I live alone but have family stay quite a bit. I cook from scratch most days, make my own yoghurt and bread and eat very little meat . I don’t believe that someone’s monthly food bill. is £38 unless they live on beans on toast! Although nothing wrong with beans on toast itself .

Lucky here we have a big and small Tesco, big Co-Op, Waitrose, M&S food hall, Morrisons and 2 Aldi also a B&M which I do pick tinned stuff cheaply from I’ve shopped in Tesco mostly for years but recently discovered how good Aldi fresh stuff is. I don’t shop in Marks or Waitrose too expensive for me.

There is a local Tesco Express in the village, well run, pleasant staff, but recently we have noticed a change in the products. Little 'own brand' but more expensive Cadburys, Warburtons, butter, cheese, branded makes etc. last week it had a re-vamp and is now geared to promoting meal deals: instant meals, puddings, fizzy drinks, wall to wall chocolate, crisps and snacks. Basically , junk food with a high profit margin for the passing customer , like a motorway shop. Plus everything is more expensive than the large Tesco.
All geared to the passing customer, who park on the pavements in the High street, local roads and on grass verges, anywhere other than the large carpark directly opposite. Very little interest shown by Tesco to village complaints, only geared to profit margins and their so-called Healthy eating. Have they read the contents of their instant meals? No other food shop within the village, although we have an Aldi, Lidl and Co-op within driving distance, but not by bus.