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Housekeeping

Supermarket shop how much do you spend?

91 replies

magazinefiend · 24/02/2013 13:45

OK so its nosy to ask. But I am fed up of arriving home with weekly shop and having to confess to DH how much it cost. We are family of 5 (me, DH and 3 DS ages 7, 5 and 2) and if I count evrything including nappies and washing powder ( and the midweek topup for milk etc)that makes at least £145 that I am putting into the superms pockets every week. and we are not eating lobster. a weekly shop includes stuff for kids packed lunches, a bottle of whatever wine is on offer, and food that i cook- no ready meals unless you count fishfingers! i make a list and all the other tips telly give you. Please don't tell me to go to 3 diffrent places to get bargains because I really haven't time. and yes, I know there will be those of you on benefits etc who are now saying £145!! She doesn't know shes born etc, and Ladies ( and Gentlemen) if you are in this situation I applaud you because i don't know how you manage.

OP posts:
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BamBamAndPebbles · 24/02/2013 13:49

One man
One woman
One boy
One toddler
One Baby
One cat
One dog

Shopping £143 this morning. Will prob top up on fresh stuff mid week so maybe another £10. Plus £10 to school dinner money.

But that's everyone's food, drink, snacks, cleaning stuff, formula milk, nappies etc for the week.

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freddiemisagreatshag · 24/02/2013 13:54

Why are you "confessing" what it costs?

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Myliferocks · 24/02/2013 13:56

2 adults and 5 children ranging from 17-8 and a cat.
£90-110 per week plus another £10 top up during the week.

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BamBamAndPebbles · 24/02/2013 13:56

This is absolutely true-my dh has a little moan every week at the amount it costs. I said he should go then.

He went a couple if weeks ago and it came to £190!!!

He hasn't moaned at me since Smile

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Possiblyoutedled · 24/02/2013 13:57

We have two dds 11 and 2 and me and dh. Always around one hundred but includes lunch for all of us as we take our own. Plus treats like wine and chocolate nappies cleaning etc. I don't believe it when people say they feed 6 for 30 quid tbh and I don't actually want to eat crap. We enjoy decent healthy food and pay for it so I don't care.

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ouryve · 24/02/2013 14:01

2 adults, 2 primary school boys. We average about £600 over the course of a month.

Dinner might be £15 for all of us one day and £3, the next. We don't need to budget, but do look for good offers and buy as much as possible in season (unless I fancy something ridiculous like babycorn in February - February's a month when eating seasonally is a bit tedious, though!)

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MrsMargoLeadbetter · 24/02/2013 14:03

£85ish for me, DH and DS (4.5). DS has school lunches 4 days a week, which is additional £8 pw.

Have managed to reduce from more by shopping online, we shop at sains so could reduce further if we went elsewhere.

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123rd · 24/02/2013 14:05

Family of four-me, dh, dd9& ds6 and it always come to around £120 ish and I do buy a mix of valve things-biscuits and brands -Heinz baked beans. I do look out for BOGOF offers so then towards the end of the month I try and have one week where I only buy the fresh fruit and veg and live out of the freezer for main meals.

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Coconutty · 24/02/2013 14:06

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Springsister · 24/02/2013 14:07

£80 for big shop. 2 adults, one boy, one toddler, one cat.
Plus £30 top up midweek.
Dh buys us sat evening meal usually around £15.
So we spend around £125 pw.

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KnittedCharacter · 24/02/2013 14:11

Me, dp and six month old ds approx £80 - £90.

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Alibabaandthe40nappies · 24/02/2013 14:13

Why are you 'confessing'? You are buying food for your family, not gambling or blowing it all on shoes. Presumably your DH is also eating what you are buying?

There are 4 of us - me, DH, DS1 4, and DS2 23 months. I spend roughly £130 a week, that includes nappies but not booze.

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Sulawesi · 24/02/2013 14:14

I seem to be posting this every other day at the moment!

5 of us, twin 10 yr old boys, 8 yr old boy.
2 dogs

£200 per week at Ocado and Abel and Cole. Can be up to £1000 a month f we have friends or family over for dinner or to stay the weekend. Hardly eat out at all and only the odd take-away.

Always buy free-range meat, organic milk and fruit and veg. Lots of fresh fish, fresh pasta. Love good food, need to cut back but find it very hard I must confess Blush.

DH works at home and I'm at home so we eat every meal here. Wonder if people include their work lunches when they are adding up the price of their weekly food bill?

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Yama · 24/02/2013 14:17

We shop in Aldi (main) and Lidl (stuff like Greek yoghurt and kale).

This week it was £89 in Aldi and £18 in Lidl.

This includes all meals and lunches for 2 adults and two children. Also, any cleaning products and, usually, 2 bottles of wine. There were a few extras this week as dh is having friends round one night.

We do not buy any sweets, chocolates, crisps, cakes, biscuits or juice.

It wasn't that long ago that our Aldi shop was £60.

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Dothraki · 24/02/2013 14:23

4 adults £45. I do not buy crap - or snacks, biscuits,crisps, or ready meals. I enjoy cooking and make everything from scratch.

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MrsMarigold · 24/02/2013 14:26

Similar sized family. I do one big online shop per month - £200 for nappies, wipes, cleaning products, clingwrap, loo roll, tinned stuff and pasta etc.
£25 per week on veg/fruit box delivery
£50 per week on other fresh stuff, meat, fish, yoghurt, milk and bread.
£40 per month on snacks - DH gets v excitable if there aren't any - these include olives, dried fruit, pistachios, cashews, fancy cheese (comte/manchego/gruyere) and quince paste. I would not buy these normally but it's worth it to keep the peace. *Top tip nuts from Lidl are tastier and better value.

So about the same. DH usually takes us out to lunch on Saturday.

He thinks I'm profligate with my housekeeping money but by the time I've done the grocery shopping and got shoes/clothes for the children, there isn't much left so I hardly ever buy stuff for myself. Make-up etc is horrendously expensive.

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MrsMarigold · 24/02/2013 14:31

cat food once every three months bought online. for £30

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Ragwort · 24/02/2013 14:35

Three of us and we spend around £100 a week, no nappies but a lot of wine and beer Grin. That includes lunches as DH works mostly from home (takes sandwiches if out) and DS takes a packed lunch.

Would spend more if we have visitors; I could cut back but am in the fortunate position of not having to - and as we rarely eat out I consider it perfectly reasonable to spend a decent amount on food. Managed to spend nearly £30 on a very mediocre meal out for just DS and myself last week Sad, which was a complete waste of money.

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InMySpareTime · 24/02/2013 14:35

2 adults, 2DCs (8&11), £25 a week in Aldi. Plus £18.50 school dinners, £10 in the butchers and £5 in the greengrocers.
=£58.50 p/w term time, cheaper in the holidays.
Includes booze, snacks, non-food etc. and lunch for DH.

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OptimisticPessimist · 24/02/2013 14:36

1 adult, 3 DCs aged 3, 5 and 9, two cats. Older two get FSMs so don't need to do lunch for them during school weeks.

I do an online shop once a fortnight that I try to keep under £140 and then top up with fresh fruit, veg and milk over the fortnight. Probably £20 at the most. So about £160 a fortnight. My kids mainly eat small portions of main meals though, so I can freeze quite a lot of leftovers and make things last that way. I suspect that when I have 3 teenagers it'll be much harder Grin

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Rattitude · 24/02/2013 14:36

For two adults, I spend about £35/week, shopping at two supermarkets (Aldi and Morrisons). This includes a bottle of wine and fancy cheeses, but no crisps, biscuits, ready meals.

In addition, I spend (on average) about £10 / week at my local butcher's.

All meals are taken at home. We eat very well (I think).

Lunch is usually a salad, or soup with something else. I am ruthless about portion size with regard to meat though: 100g/person only, so one chicken fillet will typically feed us both.

For dinner, we probably eat fish twice a week (one dinner with fresh fish, one with tinned tuna) and have meat 3/4 times, so once or twice a week, we will have a vegetarian option.

To really save money on your supermarket shopping, you have to switch to Aldi or Lidl and you will probably pay only 2/3 what you pay for similar goods at Tesco/Sainsbury's. However, a lot of people find that they cannot get all the stuff they want at Aldi/Lidl so you might still need to do a top-up shop at another supermarket.

If time is of the essence, you may want to try either Aldi/Lidl and do a big shop there ever fortnight or so, and buy the complement at your usual supermarket.

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LillethTheCat · 24/02/2013 14:40

Me, DH, 8YO DS, 5YO DD1, 17MO DD2, cat and Dog. Friday we spend £123 on our weekly shop and will probably spend another £10 on Tues for top-up.

Id like to get mine down too. Am thinking of doing away with crap that mainly me and DH eat. Also thinking of going to Aldi and Iceland to do shopping. Im fed up with having no disposable income after Ive been shopping.

Dont often buy alcohol so it is mainly just crap (biscuits, sweets, cake etc) that I could do with cutting out.

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jellybeans · 24/02/2013 14:47

About 130 a week (2 adults 5 DC) plus 20 top up. Includes packed lunch for two and DH and 2 have school meals 20 quid a week. We have a mix of value and branded and have to buy some gluten free which is expensive and adds on about 10 to 20 a week.

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tilder · 24/02/2013 14:47

It always horrified me how much we spend. I am careful, I cook from scratch, buy budget brands, eat meat 3 or 4 times a week. We are a family of 5, children 6, 4, 1. I spend approx £225 per month for an online shop, £40 a month for veg box, £35 a month milk bill, £15 a week top ups. So I guess around £100 per week, give or take.

I would love to know how people do it for so much less. Last months online bill had nearly £100 just on cleaning products (all value brands), loo roll, fire lighters, cat food, nappies, wipes and toiletries.

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tilder · 24/02/2013 14:48

That doesn't include lunch for dh either.

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