Everyone is looking at ways to reduce their bills right now, and that includes with the weekly grocery shop. For many of us that means shopping around to find the best bargains at different stores.
And while I've always been partial to a B&M shop to get some store cupboard discount deals, I've never really thought about using it for my entire weekly food shop. Until now that is.
Having spotted my local store has a fridge inside these days, with fresh milk and fresh meat and fruit, I thought it was high time I tried doing my full weekly food shop for my family of four there. The plan was to see if I could really get a full week of breakfast, lunch and dinner options all from the budget retailer.
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Naturally, with only two fridges in the whole giant store, I was a tad limited on the fresh food side of things, but I still managed to get a decent haul of food goodies. But would they make decent family meals that would keep everyone in the household happy?
Well, there was only one way to find out... Here's how I got on.
How much did it all cost?
Full shop, total spent: £59.63
I aimed to get enough food for the family for breakfasts, lunches and dinner options with the odd snack over the course of a week. But getting full meal ideas together was a little trickier than I thought for our meat-eating household, due to the very limited option on fresh meats and fresh veg in B&M.
However I did manage to pull together enough meal options for the week for two adults and one child (I've not included one of my kids as he's a fussy eater). Plus some of the items were in larger pack sizes so would actually stretch for further meals in the future.
I was pleasantly surprised by how cheap some store cupboard essentials were, while also noting that some things were quite a bit dearer than at my usual supermarket shop. In particular for branded items like Heinz - where spaghetti hoops were on sale for a jaw-dropping £1 a tin yet I never normally buy them for more than 70p so they got left behind.
The total shop came in just under £60 though - which is a lot less than I normally spend on my weekly supermarket shop but a lot of that can be put down to the lack of fresh meat, fruit and veg I think.
Here's a breakdown of all the items that I purchased:-
Fruit and veg
Now here's where it got tricky. B&M don't seem to stock that much in the way of fresh fruit and veg - in fact I couldn't find any fresh veg at all. So tins it was with garden peas and mushy peas.
I couldn't find any tinned potatoes though, so I was left with the Smash mash option - and there was only a very large tin available so this one would have to be used throughout the week.
However I did manage to get a pack of fresh apples and pears from the fridge section. And what a revelation these were! The apples were a little on the small side, but the fruit itself tasted absolutely incredible and are literally half the price I pay for fresh fruit at my usual supermarket so I will definitely be going back for more of these.
With a lack of any other fresh fruit I had to opt for tinned pineapples and peaches to use for my personal breakfast favourite of fruit and yoghurt.
Del Monte tinned pineapple - 90p x 2
Princes tinned peach slices - 85p
Royal Gala apples (4 pk) - £1.09
Honey Harvest Conference pears (5 in pk) - £1.40
Smash mash (360g tin with 12 portions) - £1.99
Tinned garden peas - 39p each, but on offer 3 tins for £1
Tinned mushy peas - 45p
TOTAL: £8.58
Meat
Again, hardly any choice in the fresh meat fridges at my local B&M. I've seen online that they do sell fresh chicken breasts and even steaks, but neither of these were available on my shop.
Instead I was left with a large pack of cooked chicken portions, so I figured I could just peel off the meat to put into a big curry. This turned out to be a very messy job as the portions were all wings and legs but it was worth the effort - the chicken was delicious so this also ended up being a bargain way to feed three of us in one meal.
All other meats were processed pork products which is not ideal really, but for the purposes of the week, I bought a pack of ham that could be used for sandwiches, a pack of sausages that my picky eater I know will eat, plus some cooked roast beef and roast chicken slices that I will heat up to use in lieu of a normal "roast" dinner.
Deli cooked ham 180g - £1.05
Cooked silverside beef slices 80g- £2
Unsmoked back bacon 8 slices - £2
Cooked chicken portions (skin on and bones) 600g - £1.99
Cooked chicken breast slices - £1
Richmond skinless sausages (8 pk) - £1.25
TOTAL: £9.29
Dairy and eggs
One of the biggest expenses of the whole shop was a slab of butter. It's been one of the products that seems to have taken the biggest hit for price increases in recent months, and at B&M it was no different with my Country Life pack of butter weighing in at £3.30.
Cheese was also quite expensive I thought - I had actually misread the label and when I got home realised I'd spent a rather large £2.95 on my block of white mature cheddar (I think perhaps the red cheddar was cheaper which is where the confusion arose). I got a right bargain though with the eggs - a massive 10 pack of large eggs for just £1.25 which I planned to use for a "big breakfast dinner" one night as well as the remaining ones to use for ham and cheese omelettes at lunchtimes.
I was limited to only one possible option for "adult" yoghurts - the Muller fruit corners - which again seemed rather expensive to what I would usually buy, at £2 for a four pack, whereas the kids' fromage frais were just £1 for a 4 pack.
Semi-skimmed milk 1 pint - 79p
Whole milk 1 litre - £1.15
Kid's yoghurts (4 pk) - £1
Muller fruit corner yoghurst (4 pk) - £2
Wyke mature cheddar (350g block) - £2.95
Big Eggs (10 pk) - £1.25
Country Life spreadable butter - £3.30
TOTAL: £12.44
Bread, rice, pasta, cereals
I was pretty pleased with the prices on the rice and pasta section - with the cheapest big bag of pasta I could find a respectable 69p for a big 500g of fusili. Similarly, the Ben's rice in bags box that I like (yes I know a big bag of rice is cheaper but I'm terrible at cooking rice) was priced at £1.99 which is a lot less than the price I've been buying in recent weeks at other rival supermarkets.
There was a lack of choice in the bread department - maybe I'd timed my visit wrong - but there were no finger rolls for my hot dogs. So I had to make a substitution with Warburton's soft white pitta breads instead and hope that my kids would not notice.
And the Warburton's large sliced loaf was the only standard tin loaf still left to buy, which again is more expensive than the usual own brand I would buy at supermarkets.
Similarly with the Weetabix, it was more than I would usually like to pay but there was no other option as B&M don't do their own brand version. I've got into the habit of buying own brand weetabix cereal at other supermarkets now as they taste very similar and are much cheaper.
Ben's rice in bags 500g (8 portions) - £1.99
Casa fusili pasta 500g - 69p
Warburtons 800g medium sliced white loaf - £1.25
Warburtons 5pk soft pitta bread - £1
Weetabix pack of 36 - £3.59
TOTAL: £8.52
Tins and store cupboard
Due to the lack of fresh meat options, I had to think a bit more creatively with the tinned foods offering. I bought a big pack of tinned tuna so that I could make tuna pasta for dinners and lunches if necessary as I know it's something everyone will eat.
I've never really tried tinned curry or tinned chilli con carne before, but this was the week to give them a whirl. Soups seemed a tad on the expensive side to me, although I've not been buying them for a while as I tend to make my own with leftover veg which was not an option on this week.
The cheapest bean option was the four pack of Branston, while there was a mind-boggling array of tinned tuna on offer - I plumped for a six pack to make a few different main meals/sandwich filler options.
Heinz chicken noodle soup 400g - £1.15
Heinz beef broth 400g - £1.19
Prince's chicken curry tin 392g - £1.49
Bisto gravy granules 180g - £1.19
Branston baked beans 410g 4 pk - £2
Princes tinned tuna in spring water 145g x 6 - £4.25
Yorkshire Tea - 40 bags - £1.50 (on offer)
Napolina 15og tin Quinoa - 10p
Ye Olde Oak hot dogs - 65p
Hunger B's Chilli Con Carne tin 390g - £1.20
Tomato passata 500g - 79p x 2
Mayflower curry sauce mix 255g (contains 9 portions) - £1
TOTAL: £17.30
Treats
I mean the one thing you can seriously go to town on at B&M is crisps, chocolates, sweets and treats. But I'm trying not to go too mad in this section, so I pick up some mini party ring biscuits that the kids like for a bargainous 75p.
They're also a fan of rice pudding so these ready packs can be combined with the tinned fruit for desserts during the week.
I thought I'd got a bargain with the multipack of Seabrooks crisps for £1 - until I realised the old "shrinkflation" technique had come into force and it was a bag of FIVE packets rather than the six packets in other multi-packs on offer in the crisp section.
Fox's mini party ring biscuits (6 pk) - 75p
Seabrooks ready salted crisps (5pk) - £1
Ambrosia rice pudding (4 pk) - £1.75
TOTAL: £3.50
The main meal plan
Day 1 - Chicken curry with rice and tinned peas, served three
Day 2 - Sausage and smash mash with baked beans/mushy peas, served three
Day 3 - Tuna pasta made with passata and cheese, served four
Day 4 - Tinned Chilli Con Carne/Chicken curry and rice with tinned peas, served three
Day 5 - Hot dogs with pitta bread, served three
Day 6 - Bacon and eggs with toast and baked bean, served three
Day 7 - Roast beef/Roast chicken with smash mash and peas, served three
Breakfasts and lunches
We're a pretty boring lot in our household and tend to have the same breakfasts every day. For the kids that means weetabix with milk and a bit of fruit. For me it's fruit and yoghurt, and for my partner it's toast or weetabix so we were able to get all of that from the shop.
For lunches we had the tins of soup, as well as having some of the leftover tuna pasta for a lighter lunch the next day, or ham/chicken/cheese sandwiches, while the kids had their lunches at school.
The taste test
This probably goes without saying, but I'm not exactly Nigella Lawson in the kitchen, so I'm always looking for the simplest options for meals for the family. That said, I usually cook from scratch with fresh veg and meats, so the lack of options at B&M made this a tad tricky.
I was fine with my usual simple tuna pasta meal - using the tinned tuna, passata and adding grated cheese. Also I'm a big fan of the Mayflower Chinese Curry powder anyway, so I managed to rustle up the chicken curry fairly easily - although the tinned peas made it all go a bit mushy and as you can see from the photo above it was not exactly the finest looking specimen.
It tasted good though and everyone lapped it up. Things went a little more retro when it came to the bangers and mash option, as there were no fresh potatoes in store I had to resort to schooldays classic, Smash.
Having not encountered this stuff since those school days, I was pleasantly surprised by how easy it was to make and it did make me ponder why on earth I spend so much time scrubbing and boiling potatoes when I could just literally stick boiling water on the fluffy powder and within seconds have a smooth mash. Well, I say that, until I tried to give it to my youngest who took one taste and threw it straight off his high chair.
And although it scores points on convenience, I'm not sure it's that much of a bargain compared to actual potatoes - given the 12 portion tub cost a quite expensive (in my opinion) £1.99. I was secretly thrilled to see that those funny low-fi robots from the 80s TV ads are still advertising it on the packaging as well.
I whacked in the fresh sausages to create what was a suitably Beano-esque display (pictured above) so it wasn't all bad news.
The other big taste winners for me were the cooked meats at B&M. The beef slices and ready cooked chicken pieces were really delicious, which we used to make a convenient and quick "roast" dinner for the last day of the week, using up some more of the smash which tastes pretty delicious doused in gravy I do have to say.
The tinned meals (the curry and the chilli) are not something I'll be going for again though - I can definitely cook both dishes more cheaply in bulk if I can get access to fresh meats and veg rather than the tins. The dairy products were much as what you would expect, the 10 pack of eggs being the biggest highlight for taste and price.
But the fresh fruit was also the biggest eye opener for me - the apples and pears were absolutely delicious for a bargain price so I'll definitely be back for more of those.
Overall verdict
I was pleasantly surprised that, with a bit of planning, I could actually do a full weekly food shop at B&M even with the very limited fresh food offering in store. If it had just a bit more fresh meat I would have been pretty sorted for the meals I usually make at home.
But as it is with no fresh veg and the limited meats, I feel in future I would still have to mix and match different shops to make it work. It's also really key to shop around for price matches on some branded goods - as I was shocked by the price of some of the B&M Heinz goods for example, which I know I can get on offer at other stores currently.
The big downside to B&M of course, is that while it is crammed with branded goods, there's no cheaper "own range" option. I've found that to be a godsend amid spiralling costs with a lot of essentials ranges at supermarkets tasting just as good if not better than branded ranges.
It's good to sometimes experiment with the shops you use though for your weekly food, I'm now wondering if I could do the same at Home Bargains too!
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