To spend an average £125 on a weekly shop?

[SwordPlay]

We're a family of 4 - myself and DP, an 8yo and an 18mo. Pescatarians, so no meat, occasional fish/sea food. We try to eat healthy and on a budget - yet a typical shop bill comes to between £120-130 per week. However, that does include nappies, baby wipes, cleaning products, most toiletries, razors, occasional stationery.

Are we spending too much? We want to be able to save more so I'm wondering if our shopping bills are unreasonable.

What do you think? Thanks in advance xx

[LemonRoses]

I think you could reduce it, inevitably, but we spend as much as that for two of us usually.

[feelingmehtoday]

This is the same as our weekly food bill and we are 2 adults, a teen and a baby. I don't think it's an excessive amount for a family of four, but I'm certain many families spend less.

[JacketSpud55]

I would say that’s about average honestly. Family of 5 no nappies or wipes £145 a week in Asda, yes Aldi and Lidl are cheaper but the quality is crap in comparison.

[Bryonyshcmyony]

I spend about 200 a week for five adults and teens so I guess it's relative.

[TheGirlWhoLived]

We spend about 160pw for 5 (2 adults, fussy 10yo, 7yo and 5mo in nappies/formula) so I’d say about right without penny pinching and buying cut price

[caughtinanet]

If you think you are spending too much you can either buy different things or cheaper brands of the same things. You'll get 100s of totally meaningless posts telling you what other people spend. But think about it, what relevance does it have to you? A weekly shop is unique to every single family, there is no right or wrog amount to spend. Really take a hard look at what you spend now and see where you could save money

I don't think what you spend is way out of line with what you'd expect for what you've included

[Angeldust747]

Honestly our shop has gone up loads since the pandemic/ brexit so I wouldn't be surprised if we now spend around £100 a month on general groceries including all the extras like cleaning and health stuff, where we used to spend half that.
There will always be areas where you can cut back if you want/ need to, but I don't think what you're spending is excessive

[TheSlayer]

Our weekly shop fluctuates. Sometimes it's as expensive if not more.
I find planning meals and only buying for those helps. If you are buying meat free, you are probably paying the 'vegan tax'. This is where shops mark up so called vegan products (we're a vegan household) the solution to this is but more wholegrain and legumes and base your meals on these not on expensive meat free products.

[ZenNudist]

Reasonable IME. Could spend more. Presumably average quality but not aldi/Lidl. I spend that on my waitrose shop but more on household goods etc.

[MrsJBaptiste]

We're a family of 4 (pretty much 4 adults now) and we spend £100 for the weekly shop then another £75 on a Friday for beer, wine and weekend treats.

I know this is far too much really but we meal plan, don't buy everything branded and have just got used to spending this much particularly in lockdown when the weekend treat shop went up and up as we obviously weren't going out to eat and drink.

[Starjammer]

We are about the same and there are only us two and toddler DD. We could cut back, but we don't want to

[hibbledibble]

Wow, I spend less than half that and I have a bigger family, with a child in nappies, and others wearing night pull ups. We don't get any meat or fish however, and I mostly cook healthy food from scratch. I'm wondering how you manage to spend that much on food? Are you buying a lot of convenience food?

[icedcoffees]

We spend around £75 per week for two adults, three cats and a dog.

We could cut it down but there's no reason to.

[SwordPlay]

Feeling better about this already, thank you! We shop at Sainsbury's which isn't the cheapest but often buying non-brands or things on offer.

I read somewhere that an average UK food bill for a family of 4 is around £80 per week and was mortified..!

[Bryonyshcmyony]

I don't buy any convenience food. Mine includes alcohol, dog food and most toiletries. We eat really well and I only buy organic meat.

[SwordPlay]

@caughtinanet - of course, you're right. I guess I'm trying to make myself feel a bit better as I don't think we're being frivolous at all. And yes, there's always room for improvement :)

[MonkeyFunk87]

@TheSlayer - definitely, good point. I've been trying to rely less and less on Linda McCartney veggie sausages etc.

[MrsMillhouse]

I’m finding that we are spending a lot more on groceries than we did before lockdown!

[Starjammer]

If you don't buy any meat or fish then it will be a lot cheaper. We buy good quality meat because we enjoy eating it. We cook from scratch most nights, not all because sometimes we cannot be arsed and just have a pizza or something. We also buy a lot of fresh fruit. We can easily get through 5+ punnets of raspberries and strawberries a week at this time of year, and I like to buy them locally cos they're really nice, but they are expensive. But food is worth spending the money on for me, so as we can afford it I am
happy to spend it. I think good-quality food is probably one of the best things you can spend money on.

[TheSlayer]

Could you buy your frozen stuff from Aldi? It's cheaper and has some good stuff.
Way better than Sainsbury's.

[Bryonyshcmyony]

Yes I buy loads of berries. They are expensive.

[SwordPlay]

@Starjammer - I definitely know how this feels :D

[nonotmenotI]

My weekly shop fluctuates. Some weeks it's dear and other weeks it's not, depends what I've accumulated in the freezer over the week before.

[ChunkyMonkey2020]

It's all relative to your income.

I spend that on two of us and a cat.
But I eat a lot of high protein food.

[Rabbitheadlights]

OP you are going to bombarded with posts from Vera about how she feeds herself and husband and 26 kids on 50 pence a week. The reality is it's just expensive we are a family of 9 and spend around £320 per week. I don't think your spend is excessive at all.