Food Shopping!!

Oh I forgot, I also love Poundland. There are quite a few food items I get there that are significantly cheaper than Morrison's, such as Cadbury's breakfast bars, Bisto gravy thickener and some Thai crispy type snack things that I love (forget the name).

We also get a lot of OTC meds at Body Care. Very cheap.

We are a family of 4 and I spend probably around $100 a week, some weeks less, some weeks more. I buy veg and some other stuff at Aldi, but I cook every single day, we rarely eat out, and I don't buy processed food or ready meals. I cook from scratch everyday. We eat meat and we don't drink alcohol. I think that the price of food has gone up HUGELY over the last few months, and I don't think you are really doing anything wrong. With a small fridge and freezer, I do top ups regularly.  It sucks, but amongst my friends, we all seem to spend about the same amount of money....so I feel its quite normal.

I sort of wish we had an Aldi near here.  I have to do a train/bus transfer thing and then still walk several blocks to get to one.  I really don't like the veg at the Lidls near us.

Another thing to keep in mind is that you are getting higher quality foods at the entry level than in the US.  I don't mean you can't get good food in the US, but basic food tends to be a different thing.  Beef here is generally grass-fed. Unless you buy grass-fed in bulk in the US, you usually pay a premium. Free-range eggs/poultry actually means something and battery hens have been banned.  Even a lot of processed food have fewer or no artificial ingredients.  Often, you can find own brand products with higher welfare/free-range/organic ingredients, and some of the shops will even explain where they get their produce or how their dairy, meat, and eggs are produced.

You will find your groove.  My cooking has changed a lot since I've moved here.  Once you adapt, you might find your bill go down.

You may be buying really pricey out of season vegetables, if you're just buying the fruit/veg you're used to like strawberries are available at the moment, they're not in season and are like £4 a box.

Not sure where you are going, we got a box for £1 last week in Morrison's, though I agree with you about the seasonal thing, Spanish strawberries just don't have much flavour to me, I think it's to do with them having to be picked earlier to be shipped here, so with strawberries I'll only ever buy when the British ones are in season, unfortunately that doesn't stop DW putting some in the trolley!

On money saving ideas, our local market is excellent, fruit and veg is cheaper here, and the meats as well. Morrison's usually have offers on selected meats, so our Sunday dinner is usually down to what is on offer here.
We spend about £60 a week for 2 of us, I know if we tried we could get it down but it's ok within our budget.
DW often just picks up some expensive items but then the next aisle she'll find a real bargain!
Agree about Bodyworks, I think it's that anyway, we have a shop in our local shopping centre that sells toiletries much cheaper than the supermarket. And some decent bargains at places like Iceland, Aldi, Poundland - you just have to work out which of their brands you like and which you don't......for example, Iceland do a 10" frozen pizza for just £1 and DW says its the best frozen pizza shes had!

I'm sure someone has mentioned this before, but when things were tight I'd always go to Lidl, see what they had on sale and plan my meals around that. I could get an entire shopping bag full of produce for around £10-15 that lasted a week. They tend to not carry everything larger stores do, but what they do have always seems to be high quality compared to stores like Tesco. For example, they always had beautiful aubergines for 80p each, while the ones at Tesco were small and beat up for £1. And a huge bag of spinach was only £1 there, while it was £2 or more at Tesco. I never bought packaged, processed food, but you could get ridiculous deals, like a big package of biscuits for 20p and a jar of pasta sauce for 30p. I never bought meat there and only eat fish (and only occasionally), so I have no clue the best place to buy meat.

One thing that saved me a lot of money was looking at all of the store websites to find prices of things like soap, shampoo, deodorant, toothpaste, etc, and see who had the best deals. My husband's deodorant was usually £3 per bottle, but searching sales, I found it for less than half price at Asda and stocked up on 20 bottles. I did the same thing with shower gel - when it was half price, I bought 10 bottles. I had a lot of storage space in my bathroom for it, though. It was so much cheaper than grabbing a bottle when it was needed.

I can't comment on Costco in the UK, but now that I'm in Canada, I find them to have fantastic deals on food compared to other places. Equivalent produce is usually half the price there. If you have the space, I'd recommend buying frozen food in bulk, because it will always be cheaper.

Not everything from Lidl is cheaper.  You have to be careful with that.  You do learn what is and what isn't though.

Not everyone has "Home Bargains" or whatever.  In fact, I've never heard of it before this thread.  We do buy some things from the 99p shop or places like that, but we have learned to be careful, even with brand names.  We bought some Detol hand wash (with Chinese lettering) which caused skin problems when stuff from the regular shops never have.  I am not sure if it was formulated for Chinese water or was fake (I don't think so, but maybe), but we don't bother with that any more.  But even the 99p shop isn't always a bargain.

We do a once every couple month shop at Costco, and stock up on things like toothpaste and other things.  The major cost for our non-food items if we do a twice a month delivery is our cat.  Plus we buy recycled paper products, and they can be more expensive than the cheapest non-recycled stuff.

The reason we rely on delivery more is because we don't have a car, and while we live in London, we've not got a lot within walking distance.  A couple of Lidls, a smallish Morrisons, and a massive Sainsbos.  There's not even a green grocer or butcher near us, although one stop on the train brings us to a place where all of that is near the station.  Problem is, it's an aspirational area, and I find even the chains are a bit more expensive.

However, I don't think I'd be able to get the quality of food we get for the price we pay in an urban area in the US.  I don't mind paying a bit more, but I've managed to cut down our bill about £20 a week over the past year or so.  It's still outlandish compared to what I lived on in the US, but as I've said, we don't eat out and the cost covers all food we eat.  I ate a lot more crap and ate out a lot more in the US.

Not everyone has "Home Bargains" or whatever.  In fact, I've never heard of it before this thread.  

True, there are only 250+ stores in the UK.  However, there is one in the OP's area... and 3 in the 'burbs of London.

I'm sure someone has mentioned this before, but when things were tight I'd always go to Lidl, see what they had on sale and plan my meals around that. I could get an entire shopping bag full of produce for around £10-15 that lasted a week.

Oh yes... when I was single and struggling, I once did exactly the same, and got a week's worth of meals, including work lunches, for £7!

Most weeks I will begin my shopping at either Aldi or Lidl-if they don't have everything  I need I will head to my local Sainsburys. 
However I understand that some don't have the time/transportation to do this.
To echo others we rarely eat out.  I've been here for almost 7 years and I still convert £ to $ when eating out and feel that it is a ripoff. 

We ate out today.
Very Berry at Costco $1.55
Taco and bean burrito at Taco Bell $1.95 total (with senior discount)
and we splurged on prescriptions......$14 for 3.
We also bought Easter candy that was closing out at 70 & 90% off at Target. So I got a bunch for $3.42. (M&M's, Cadbury, snickers)

Groceries were 2 gallon of milk for $4.49 and a gallon of OJ (not from concentrate) for $5.89. Costco. Ad, 45 bottles of water and a big jar of mixed nuts.

Cheers

We eat out a lot at least 2-3 times a week. It's not always really expensive, but places like Meatliquor or pubs or brunch on a Saturday/Sunday or whatever, for us it's one of the joys of living in London. I would say we probably do at least one decentish meal a week (sometimes more....)

We ate out today.
Very Berry at Costco $1.55
Taco and bean burrito at Taco Bell $1.95 total (with senior discount)

That's not eating out. 

True, there are only 250+ stores in the UK.  However, there is one in the OP's area... and 3 in the 'burbs of London.

Is it really worth it for us to travel up to Enfield from south London?  This is a serious question, btw.

We eat out a lot at least 2-3 times a week. It's not always really expensive, but places like Meatliquor or pubs or brunch on a Saturday/Sunday or whatever, for us it's one of the joys of living in London. I would say we probably do at least one decentish meal a week (sometimes more....)

Yeah, we used to eat out a lot because of the logistics of living with inlaws.  Even if we (the two of us) ate out twice at a reasonable price, that would add £30 a week to our food bill.  I think meals and lunches out always need to be added to a food bill  to get an accurate idea of money spent.  And, yeah, it's part entertainment, so in some respects you could partially put it in the leisure tab of a budget, but so can meals made at home.  I think the biggest way we saved money over the past couple of years was to cut out most meals out.  We still go out, but when we do, it's more special.

Of course, people not in our specific situation might be fine with spending money out just like we are fine spending a bit more on food we prepare ourselves.  People's needs are just different.  But I can say that my habits when I first moved here are totally different than they are now, and the OP might find it to be the same.

If someone is totally pinched financially, I'd suggest to take a look at some of the links posted upthread about MSE (although some, not all, of the posters there would eat anything to sustain themselves provided it was dirt cheap) and cheap family recipes.  There's also a few threads on here about rubber chicken and making the food budget stretch.  However, I have a feeling this might be a part of the adjustment to the UK for the OP.  Just my take on it.

Is it really worth it for us to travel up to Enfield from south London?  This is a serious question, btw.

Yeah, we used to eat out a lot because of the logistics of living with inlaws.  Even if we (the two of us) ate out twice at a reasonable price, that would add £30 a week to our food bill.  I think meals and lunches out always need to be added to a food bill  to get an accurate idea of money spent.  And, yeah, it's part entertainment, so in some respects you could partially put it in the leisure tab of a budget, but so can meals made at home.  I think the biggest way we saved money over the past couple of years was to cut out most meals out.  We still go out, but when we do, it's more special.

Of course, people not in our specific situation might be fine with spending money out just like we are fine spending a bit more on food we prepare ourselves.  People's needs are just different.  But I can say that my habits when I first moved here are totally different than they are now, and the OP might find it to be the same.

If someone is totally pinched financially, I'd suggest to take a look at some of the links posted upthread about MSE (although some, not all, of the posters there would eat anything to sustain themselves provided it was dirt cheap) and cheap family recipes.  There's also a few threads on here about rubber chicken and making the food budget stretch.  However, I have a feeling this might be a part of the adjustment to the UK for the OP.  Just my take on it.

I think that I see meals out differently to most, they're kind of like my hobby, I'm trying to work my way through the various starred restaurants in London, as well as going to supperclubs etc and to try anything fun or new or trending in London.

I don't eat that much nowadays so  have upped the quality of what I do eat quite a bit, if we included meals out then my monthly bill is really high but we don't eat out because there's not food at home, we eat out because it's fun & an event. As you say, everyone has different priorities on what they want to spend their money on

Ordering pink onions from natoora because I saw a french onion soup recipe in the guardian saying they were the best isn't really cost effective and I don't really count it as normal spending, ditto the money I spent at Neal's yard last Thursday to make a cheeseboard for friends coming over.

I've been here for almost 7 years and I still convert £ to $ when eating out and feel that it is a ripoff. 

I'm the opposite. I was in the UK for 4 years, and now that I'm in Canada, I convert dollars to pounds to realise I'm being ripped off! I'm slowly re-adjusting to dollars. Tax not being included in prices is what kills me. I go in to buy something, and am shocked when it's far more than I thought it would be. We're paying 20% VAT in the UK, which is higher than here, but the fact that it's already included in the price makes it so much easier.

I don't eat out a lot, because I'm a big foodie and love to cook. When I do eat out, I'll only go to places I know are good, because I hate spending so much money on food I could have made myself or that isn't as good as my cooking. I loved living in Edinburgh, because we had so many amazing restaurants, and you could find delicious, cheap meals. We'd occasionally splurge and go for a lunch tasting menu at one of the Michelin star restaurants, but usually if we'd go out, it was for a good, cheap curry. Now that we're in Canada, we have a few good restaurants, but nothing that's really worth spending a lot of money on. Everything is so overpriced. A gastro pub meal (2 burgers, 4 beers) will cost $75, and a large carry-out pizza from the "gourmet" pizzeria is $38. Both are delicious, but not worth the cost regularly. My husband eats crap (to be blunt) and he says even fast food is expensive. A meal that would have been £5 at McDonald's in the UK is $11 (£8) here.