How much do you spend on groceries?

[LadyCatherinedeBourgh]

Just looked at the breakdown of our budget for the month and we have spent c. £100 per week this month in the supermarkets! That's for me (a SAHM), DH and DD (2yrs). Baby no 2 due in a matter of weeks so want to reduce spending as will have additional expenses e.g. more nappies etc

I already shop in Lidl (not exclusively as find you can't get everything there), cook from scratch most of the time, switched from Pampers to Lidl nappies with success and tried cheaper washing powders without success.

What do you spend weekly in the supermarkets? Any tips for reducing spend?

[cozietoesie]

How is that £100 broken down though ? You may be buying in LIDL and cooking from scratch but are you eg including drink, eating a lot of meat, going for the expensive options on the LIDL shelves and so on. What is in that £100, roughly?

[isitsnowingyet]

We spend £100 weekly or a bit less for DH and 3 kids age 13,12 and 8 and yes they all eat a lot. That's from ASDA including delivery charge. I'm sure I could spend less if I put my mind to it! Your budget does sound a little high, as theoretically the 2 year old doesn't eat that much..

[Fluffycloudland77]

Well, it's £40ish a week for us incl a cat.

That's for all meals eg packed lunches etc.

What's your meal plan for the week? You can cook from scratch with fois gras and truffles or cheapy mince and tatties.

[GwenCooper81]

We spend about 70 a week with an extra 15/20 on goodies and treats on a Sat. This includes takeaway which obviously isn't mandatory. 3 adults most days plus 2 sometimes 3 children. We also have two hungry cats!. I shop at Morrisons or Asda.

[fishybits]

Monthly -

120 - veg/fruit
45 - meat
45 - fish
90 - dairy/cereal/ household/nappies

So about 70 a week.

This is when DH is away so just for me and 17 month old DD. We don't eat meat or fish from a supermarket, it's all butcher/fishmonger and is more expensive but I like to know precisely where my food comes from. When DH is home the meat bill goes up to anywhere between 150 and 200 a month which is utterly ridiculous but he refuses to eat more than one meat free meal a week.

[confusedofengland]

For me (SAHM except for 1 day per week), DH, DS1 (4.6) & DS2 (2.2) & Dcat, both boys have very large appetites for their ages - also currently living with my parents but will discount them for now as this is only temporary!

Spend between £100-£200 per month on all groceries, cleaning stuff, cat food, toiletries, nappies etc.

Save money by mainly shopping for any fresh goods (bakery items, meat & fish, fruit & veg) at around 7/8pm when our Tesco reduces them by 75%+. Eg went last night & got 2 large packs smoked salmon, 2 packs meatballs, 1 pack stewing steak, 3 individual pizzas, 1 pack chicken bits with herb coating, 1 pack river cobbler & 1 pack cod for £10. As you can imagine, savings like this make a huge difference over the course of a month!

I also buy milk, crisps, sugar, potatoes, bread, onions, bananaswhen I can't get them reduced at Farm Foods, as it is very good value for money.

Another thing to do is to see if you can buy any meat/fruit/veg direct from source. So, for example, we got a whole lamb direct from a farmer for £90, which is very good value for money & lovely quality too.

I also notice that other people seem to have lots of different types of things. So, for example, we are staying with my parents now. DSes wanted an ice-cream this afternoon & there was a choice of ice lollies, fab lollies, ice-cream from a tub & choc ices, with 3 different types of sauce. We tend to just have 1 tub of ice-cream & 1 sauce & that's it - and everybody is happy with that, so obviously it's a lot cheaper. The same applies for just having 1 or 2 cheeses, 1 pack of ham, 2 or 3 types of fruit etc. And the irony is that as my DM has so much choice, a large amount of it is out-of-date & will get thrown away anyway, so money has been wasted.

[chickydoo]

£150 a week
2 adults
3 teens
1 8 yr old
4 cats
& my Dad eats with us twice a week

Does not include booze, but does include toiletries etc

[BellaVita]

About £150 a week (no booze - buy in bulk separately) - me, DH and two teens (16 and nearly 14).

[AnythingNotEverything]

Me, DH and DS (13) get by on £50-60 per week, but every 6 weeks or so we et a free week of leftovers or offers that have built up in the freezer.

And yes, it's true what they say about teenage boy's appetites.

[AnythingNotEverything]

And to answer your other question, we manage by meal planning. We buy meat on asdas 3 for £10 deal and freeze what we can. We never have to throw any food away.

[Lulabellarama]

About £120
That's all meals including packed lunches for me and DH but the DC eat dinner at the childminders during the week.
That's also all toiletries and a couple of bottles of wine.

[learnasyougo]

me, DH and a 10 month old spend to a budget of £40 per week. That doesn't include alcohol, though.

The single most effective thing that worked for us was to write a meal plan for the week and buy only to that. If it's not needed in that list of meals, we don't buy it.

We also bake our own bread because it's cheaper (google for a no-knead bread recipe: just stir, leave overnight, bake in the morning).

[Lavenderloves]

I'm going to try that overnight bread recipe. Thank you.

We spend around £80 -£100 a week and eat very well.

[Lavenderloves]

Aldi btw...love aldi

[MummyAbroad]

Here is a different tip - potty train DS1! For mainly financial reasons, I potty trained both my DS's "early" at 1.5 years old, and it really wasnt that hard. (All of my friends who left it later are having a much worse time) I read "Early Start Potty Training" for tips and totally recommend the book.

watching the rest of the thread with interest as I need to save more money now that these growing boys are eating me out of house and home...

[racmun]

£100 a week seems pretty good to me - does that include all your toiletries and household goods eg dishwasher tablets and soap powder etc?

[LadyCatherinedeBourgh]

Thanks for replies, yes it does include all toiletries, household bits and the odd bottle of wine. I do meal plan and stock freezer with leftovers etc but still seem to have to pop to shops every few days for milk/bread/fruit/veg etc which is where the cost creeps up I think. I might try going back to a bigger shop online and see how that works out. It's interesting to hear others budgets, sounds like we're spending too much as I thought!

[BackforGood]

Probably in total - including top ups, and things like toothpaste and shampoo which I buy at Wilkinsons, about £75 a week. That's 2 teens, 1 11 yr old, me and dh. No pets. Weekly grocery shop I do at Aldi for about 3 weeks (spend around £50 - £55) and then then 1 at Sainsburys where I might well spend £70+.

these things depend though - is that all meals ? or do you/dh buy lunches at work ? what about meals out ? or takeaways ? or having Sunday dinner at Grandma's each week ? or inviting others into your home ? etc.

[Thatsinteresting]

We aim to spend £60 per week but it's usually nearer £70 on food, toiletries, cleaning product etc. We have 2 adults and 2 dc (5 and 1). We only have organic milk, which we get through loads of, organic butter, yogurt, cheese, eggs and teabags. I think we'd save around £15 per week if we gave up organic stuff. We don't buy alcohol in that budget and we're all vegetarian which helps keep costs down.

The best advice I can give is really meal plan. I used to plan for each week but now plan for the whole month. It takes me an entire evening but I can see which meals need simlar ingredients so I group them together so I only need to buy 1 pot of sour cream, for example, rather than buying 1 using half, throwing it away and doing the same 2 weeks later. I then do a huge shop for tins, packets etc (Aldi is great for this) and get all my fresh stuff for week 1. Then once a week I shop for top up fruit, veg and milk. I buy all the cheese for the month as it's usually on offer and buy butter and freeze it so my top ups are small.

As for toiletries do try lower brands. I used to always use John Freida shampoo and conditioner at £6ish a bottle. I now use Boots essentials range which is twice the size for 60p and my hairdresser always comments how great my hair is these days.

As for cleaners, use less. Most of the time just water will do but if you need a bit more power try half the recommended amount.

[Fluffycloudland77]

E-cloths are brilliant, I do my windows with them as well as kitchen and bathroom.

I got them in TK Maxx.

[confusedofengland]

silverfoxballs I just use dishwasher powder & put about a spoonful in at a time (Tesco Daisy), which is even cheaper than tablets & just as cheap if not cheaper than cutting them in half.

[Fluffycloudland77]

Your meant to break dw tablets in half while they are still in the wrapper.

[Thatsinteresting]

Silver The cheap shampoo doesn't smell great but my hair doesn't smell of anything when it's dry. They also do a 2 in 1 if you're very money saving/lazy.

[InMySpareTime]

Per week:
£20-30 on groceries/alcohol/cleaning stuff
£10 on meat in the butchers
£5 on fruit and veg (we also grow some)
= £35-45 a week for me, DH, DS (11), DD (9).