Mumsnet Talk

I wasn't sure how to subject this but we have 4 children 6,4,2 and newborn. The elder three are going through a growth spurt. They had porridge for breakfast and for 10oclocks have just polished off a whole loaf of bread.
I'm going shopping later, I always budget plan and I don't buy much meat but our weekly shop is still around £100-£120 with a £30 kitty for milk and bread etc.
I'm wondering if this is a normal spend? Or if I'm spending too much. We don't have any food waste so I don't think I'm buying too much, but maybe I'm buying the wrong things or is food just very expensive?
I was also wondering if anyone does Costco bulk buy food shopping and if it works out cheaper.
Thanks for any input, I would love to get more value out of my weekly shop or just for our money to go further if possible.

There are 24 slices of bread in a loaf. They had 8 slices of bread each?

Me and husband had some too. It was unsliced. Coop bakery bread. Not regular loaf size. I think they had 3 or 4 slices. I had 4 slices, hubby maybe had the same.

Ah.

How much would the price difference be if you bought a sliced loaf?Do you go for own brand items, or branded? A lot of advice is to go down a level so if you buy Heinz, go down to shop own label before going to basics for example. It only works if you aren't already on the lowest tier.

Does that amount include only food items, or everything else including nappies, cleaning stuff, loo roll?

Co op nice bread is similar cost to a loaf of warbutons but nicer!

Where do you shop? Do you buy labels or own brand? ( try dropping a grade?)
Do you have a market/greengrocers? Ours is much cheaper than tesco & better quality.
We spend about £80 a week for 13/11/2 + 2 adults.

I spend less than £100/week for my family of 7.
Two adults, two teens, two under 10s and a toddler.
Lots of fruit, cooking from scratch, generic cereals and I get my organic vegetable box delivered

Thanks, I buy whats on offer, rather than meal plan. It includes nappies and wipes, I buy cleaning stuff monthly and I cook from scratch. I'm guessing its just costly then. It was about £80 until they started growing and now they're literally bottomless lol.
This week it's noodles and pasta. Maybe I need more potatoes. I will drop my brands, I guess that will give me more value without loosing taste. Thanks.

Well - two different issues here.
I think that's a bit odd, if everyone had porridge for breakfast, to then polish off a whole loaf of bread for just a 'snack' at 10 o'clock (unless you had breakfast at 5.30am that is). Porridge should be slowly releasing 'energy' for some hours after you eat it.

The amount you spend is about twice what I spend for my family. I'm not buying nappies anymore, but I do have "starving teens", and I have 3 dc, not 4. I know I bought considerably less food when my dcs were your age though.

Whether it is 'too much' or not isn't up to us to decide thought, it's up to your budget to decide. You mention a Co-op loaf of bread. We have a Co-op near us, and whenever I pop in to pick up the odd item (it's our nearest shop), I'm sturck how expensive things are in there. Of course, whether it's practical for you to shop elsewhere, we don't know.

We have 4 kids (9, 6, 4 and 18months) and spend about the same as you counting nappies, household products etc. With mine it is the constantly depleting fruit bowl that drives me mad. I think food just is pretty expensive at the moment. However have recently discovered an Aldi I can park at so hoping that will save some money this year.

Can't say if you are spending less or more we have different preferences on food,. I, myself is a spender when it comes to food. But, weekly shopping will really help you save money than buying in one blow. You might try to list down your expenses or any future expenses and look into details if you find other things you might exchange or make alternative to items that you think is not too worth it. Try other foods