Tips for reducing my weekly shopping costs?

H

HouseBuyer10

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Hi all
Just curious how much your grocery shopping costs you every week.
Any tips on how to reduce this? Do you shop local, free range or organic?
Two pieces of organic chicken breast are about €9 in Dunnes. A bit too expensive.
Thanks.
 
HouseBuyer10 said:
Just curious how much your grocery shopping costs you every week.
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Surely it's going to vary wildly making any comparison meaningless?
E.g. single person versus a couple versus a family with a gaggle of kids and a dog and a cat and granny in the granny flat?
Not to mention those who have specific needs or preferences that might inflate the cost of their basket of goods...
HouseBuyer10 said:
Any tips on how to reduce this?
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There are loads of existing tips for economising if you Google/search.
 
Very vague question but the supermarket own brands can be much better value than branded products and are increasingly as good as or even better quality.
 
I should have been more specific, but I don’t want to miss all the scenarios people may want to share. There could be something to learn from big families when you’re a family of three or from a couple with pets when you’re a big family.
 
There are two of us here. We get the €5 off a €25 spend in Dunnes. Sometimes we have difficulty in actually spending the €25 per week.

We cook everything from scratch. We buy the vegetables/meats on special offer. In fact we wait until something is on special offer and we stock up on a few items.

Living beside a Dunnes, Tesco, Lid, Aldi, M & S, and SuperValu has it's advantages of course. Lots of choice.
 
If near to all major supermarkets google search every week fruit and veg offers and shop around.
 
Married, 2 kids including one teenager and we get through around €80-100 a week.

Organic is a rip off to be honest and you don't need it if, for example, you are cooking a curry or a spag bol.

Dunnes and Supervalue vouchers can help. We do one big shop weekly, with a list and that does help reduce spur of the moment buys. We both hate food waste as well so use up everything

Bulk buy things like Pasta if you can. Also if you see special offers, don't be afraid to buy some extra and stick it in the freezer if you can.
 
Going to multiple shops to pick up the best deals seems to make sense.

But I read once that it can be counter-productive in that the more time you spend in shops the more likely you are to make impulse purchases.
 
E20 per week, single person.
I cook in batches, freeze meals.
I have about 50 meals stored.
Food price inflation is not such a big deal for me, and I can substitute food items.
 
HouseBuyer10 said:
in Dunnes
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Single biggest thing you could do in my opinion is to stop shopping in Dunnes. They have lovely produce and the experience of shopping there is great, but almost everything is more expensive than Lidl/Aldi and you're much more likely to pick-up a fancy bit of cheese, a nice cake, triple organic broad beans etc. Do a weekly shop in Lidl/Aldi and go to Dunnes every month or two for those items you cannot get or for the fancy stuff at Christmas/birthdays etc.

Local Centra/SuperValu stores tend to be even more expensive than Dunnes, so if you find yourself doing top-up shops during the week you should brush up on your weekly shop game and cut those out.

For us (2 adults + young child) we spend about €100/week in Lidl.
 
Couple, no kids. We do one "big" shop once a week in a Tesco/Lidl/Aldi or SuperValu which comes in at €60 - €75 but this is generally supplemented by a smaller top up shop once a week at €20 - €30, usually somewhere more expensive like a Dunnes or Spar as they are nearby. We don't pay particular attention to prices etc. so the cost does fluctuate. SuperValu tends to be that bit more expensive but I find the quality better.
 
Single person so don't really look at what I spend (maybe I should!).

Non meat eater last 25 years so that probably saves me a lot of €.

Breakfasts are cheap - oats, eggs, yogurts etc

Lunches and dinners - I tend to make large batches of veggie dishes and freeze. Always have lots of pasta, rice, tinned lentils, beans etc so handy for casseroles.

Where I would tend to spend my money is on treats/snack items and fresh fruit and veggies. Frozen veggies and berries are just as good and much cheaper - Aldi and Lidl great for these. Also, download the apps and check out all the weekly specials.

I do 1 large food shop a month and top up locally with fresh produces, bread and milk..I shop in a range of stores but there's a massive price difference in Aldi/Lidl v other shops. Maybe try and do your main shop in either of those and then just few speciality bits in Tesco/Dunnes etc?
 
I got two sets of €280 vouchers/ gift cards from Dunnes and Supervalu in 2020 & 2021 for switching elec/ gas. Conbined with their 5/25 & 5/35 offers respectively this was a nice easy saving.

I hate Aldi and Lidl apart from the odd item here and there - queues at checkouts in Lidl are awful.
 
I shop mainly in Dunnes because of the vouchers but only buy the stuff I know is the same price everywhere, butter/milk/sugar/flour/toilet paper, that sort of thing mainly plus some of their meat, I really like Dunnes mince for example and it's competitively priced and good quality so I'll bump up the spend to 50 to use the voucher with meat I can freeze if I don't need other stuff. I will usually go elsewhere for certain stuff, for example Tesco has a range of own brand spices/herbs etc that Dunnes doesn't have and you'd have to buy branded in Dunnes for 4 times the price!

I am a spending diary user though and pretty much will know the prices of most things I buy in most shops so other than the Dunnes shop I will usually give one of the other a visit once a month for the random bits that are cheaper there, a shop I have really come to like is Iceland, you get some great fish there which is handy again for the freezer.
 
Couple young child, probably average 125 a week in aldi and then probably spend another 50 euro on pick up items and 50 euro on takeaways. I am not sure how people do it much cheaper! We tend to buy fresh produce, although I've recently gone mostly vegan which has cut down on meat costs.
 
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