To think husband's spending is excessive!

[CornishDoll82]

We need to cut back on spending as I'm still on maternity leave and going back part time hence losing a chunk of salary. My husband does the food and grocery shopping for the week and I've realised he's spending around £220. I think this is massively excessive and we should be able to do it on about £120 therefore saving us £400 a month - but he's insisting this is normal and it would be hard to cut it. There are us two and a 11 month old baby.

Who's right? What do you spend?

[VinceNoirLovesHowardMoon]

£220 a week?
Yes that's a huge huge amount. Do you eat caviar and lobster for breakfast?

[VinceNoirLovesHowardMoon]

Surely you must be binning loads of food on that budget?

[WellErrr]

We have 2 children and spend £100 a week including nappies and cleaning stuff etc. We don't skimp, we get everything we need.

What he's spending sounds like LOADS. What do you eat!?

[DameDiazepamTheDramaQueen]

That's a big bill, not sure we even do that at Xmas! Is he buying booze as well?

[KP86]

Whoa, that's a lot! What kind of food are you eating?

I think we average around £100/week and I think that's still too high, but no major money issues for us so I don't watch as carefully as I could/should.

One way of cutting down straight away is to shop the offers (eg. I try to only buy meat that's half price and base my menu around that) and go to the pound shop for cleaning products, kid's snacks etc.

[TurnOffTheTv]

I'm a family of 5 and spend about £150.

[icanteven]

We are two adults, a 5yo and a 7yo. £100 - 120 on Ocado every week (depending on washing powder/wine etc), plus maybe £10 - £20 on bits during the week.

I personally think this is a lot, but there are other areas in which we don't spend much, so it balances out. I love food, and hate skimping.

Your husband's spending is crazy though. What is he buying? If it's 2 Duchy fillet steaks & a bottle of nice wine every evening, I can see it adding up.

[queenoftheworld93]

We're a couple and we spend around £30 a week. I don't even understand how you can be spending £120 let alone £220... What do you buy? Is it a lot of convenience food? A lot of jars are really easily replicated with a few dried herbs and tomatoes/flour and milk. Even if time is really tight though, I still don't see what your husband is spending so much money on!

[zoeedge]

That seems like a huge amount - in our household there's 2 adults and a hungry 22mth old boy still in nappies and we spend about £80-90 a week max!!!

[PotteringAlong]

I spend £250 a month for 2 adults and 2 children. £220 a week for your family is a phenomenal amount

[arethereanyleftatall]

We spend about £150.

But it depends entirely in your life style - do you entertain a lot? Then £200 is still much cheaper than eating out.

Obviously you can cut down if you need to. There are plenty of people on here who's budget is under £50.

[Oysterbabe]

Two adults and a baby here, we spend about £50 a week. What the hell do you eat?
I love cooking so prepare everything from scratch, which I think is a lot cheaper, and make lunches too.

[SparklesandBangs]

I can't usually understand how other Mnetters live on such a low weekly budget, but then we don't spend £250pw on groceries and we are 4 adults with 2 decent wages coming in, and we tend to but Tesco finest not Tesco value.

What are you eating/drinking

[tabulahrasa]

I can spend about that if I don't actually write a list and do a lot of impulse buying...but usually (and without going without anything at all) it's more like £170...but I'm feeding 4 adults, me, DP and a 20 and 16 yr old.

[Spangletangle]

Yes 120 is about what we spend for two adults and an older child and that is ample. Some weeks it's a lot less. I also can't imagine what he's buying for that?

[gamerchick]

What's he buying?

[BaronessBomburst]

Two adults, a young child, and a cat. I could spend £100 if I went to the dearest supermarket and had a spending spree in the wine aisle.
I usually spend €60 in Aldi and pick up extra bread and fruit through the week.

[GunShotResidue]

2 adults (one pregnant) and a two year old here, we spend £40-50 a week. We've never spent more than £100, even when we have guests staying. We buy lots of fresh fruit and veg and decent meat, if we needed to save money we could spend less.

[SquareDolphin]

I also think it's excessive. Maybe treat it as a game and ask to go through receipts together. The gold-plated potatoes need to go

[Hughpughbarneymagrew]

We are 2 adults and one infant. We spend £60-70 per week in a big shop then around £20 per week in bits and pieces to top up. And we aren't cutting corners, we're buying convenience foods and/or the branded and premium ranges. We don't drink much booze though.

[Kr1stina]

We are a family of 5 , including two adults and two teens ( who obv eat more than adults ) . We just had a week away on a self catering holiday and our tesco bill was nearly £220 .

However

That's 5 of us and there are only two of you
That included lots of alcohol and " luxury " foods ( because we were not able to eat out and we were treating ourselves )
It included food for packed lunches , so that's 105 meals
We bought things like coffee, sauces, jams , toothpaste, toiletries etc that you would not normally buy each week
Tesco is much more expensive that where we normally shop

So I'm struggling to see how you could POSSIBLY be spending that on 34 meals a week .

[notapizzaeater]

Presume you see what he's buying - so what is he buying ? We eat very very well and I cater for my coeliac teenager (empty legs ) son and 2 pets (and currently another adult) and we don't spend anywhere near that ...

[Lolly86]

There are the two of us and 2year old DD we spend roughly £50/60 a week on a big shop and maybe up to £20 on top ups a week so yes that does seem a lot

[mrsmeerkat]

It is ridiculous. I can do a full shop for about 60 to 80 for four of us

We eat salmon and steak but balance that out with pasta pesto etc

That includes nappies for two toddlers so I cannot imagine what he is wasting money on

[Kr1stina]

Oh yes, I forgot to add that were also buying some gluten free food, which is very expensive ( £3 for tiny loaf , £1 for a muffin )