How much is your weekly shop?

If you add mushrooms and some cheese on top, you'll have enough protein. If you want it vegan just add lentils and leave the cheese.

It's sad to see that many people believe the only viable source of protein is meat & animal products.

We definitely need better education around food & food groups.

Milk from the milkman is 2-3 times the cost per pint when bought in 4 pint cartons at the supermarket.

We use Ocado and we aren't particularly careful. Over the year so far we've spent between £70 and £180, but most often about £110-120. That covers all meals for four of us, apart from the kids' school lunches and maybe one meal out most weeks.

Including top ups we probably spend over £200 per week for two adults two primary age children. Main meals similar to the ones OP posted, so quite meat heavy and also DH and myself will have things like a fish or chicken fillet with salad for lunches so that’s bumping the cost up. We also try to have omelettes or Greek yoghurt and fruit for breakfast as I think the protein fills the kids up better for school. I don’t know how a previous poster is estimating £20 a month for top ups for milk and fruit - my milk bill from the milkman is £32 a month just for milk and one carton of apple juice a week. Fruit on top would be more than double that.

No guilt allowed as long as you're not buying wine in place of feeding kids.

Life is hard enough as it is without having to give up everything you like to "cost cut" if you don't need to.

We do have some meat free meals but have fish instead so equally costly. Looking at my wine budget guiltily now.

Tomato pasta has about 5g of protein per portion. Doesn't seem enough really unless there's plenty of protein elsewhere in the diet.

Not vegetarian but we do have 2-3 meals a week without meat. Also, none of us drink wine so we do probably save a chunk that way!

That's incredibly cheap. Can I ask if you are vegetarian? And does your bill include wine?

Two adults, two kids - £150 at Sainsbury’s, this includes cleaning stuff. I buy dog food and treats elsewhere and sometimes top up bread and fruit.

We eat mostly vegetarian with some chicken and fish.

Usually £120-£140 in Aldi. Family of 4/5 including packed lunches.

Between £80 - £100 per week at Sainsbury's. Inc!used cleaning products etc... Family of 3 - two adults and one pre teen. Also Hello Fresh once per fortnight at £35.00. Eat at school and work at lunchtime. Cat costs about £60.00 per month. It's all gone up a lot. Could make it cheaper by meal planning better, batch cooking etc and going to cheaper suoermarket. Do this sometimes but am a bit lazy and just trying to keep.no with full time job, I suppose!

Avg £100pw on just food. 2A& 2Teens. I shop at Lidl, Costco, Aldi and a butcher cash and carry. Cleaning, toiletries and alcohol are all budgeted separately.
I use cheaper cuts of meat, 4x chicken legs for £2.09 for a Roast Dinner instead of £4.50 for a whole chicken. Chicken thigh meat instead of breast. I'm on MJ so have cut down on rubbish food and stick to meat and veg and fruit for snacks. The teen DDs are not huge eaters and DH will happily eat a bowl of shreddies or weetabix if he's still hungry after dinner.

@Loveduppenguin oh I totally get that.

Allergies scuppers us ( and others I’m sure) a lot as there’s very little pre made we can buy.
Also many cheaper items we have to buy alternatives ie Peanut butter is fairly cheap, we can’t get anymore but a seed butter like pumpkin or sunflower is often 3 times the price.
Things like cheaper chocolate often have hazelnut in also.
Stuff like Milk powder is added to many pre made potato based frozen items - nightmare for dairy intolerant

About £250 pw for 5 (3 adult/2 dc). We can afford it but there are things we could economise on if we needed to - lots of fresh out of season fruit, packaged snacks, ready to cook meats, meat every day, we often choose premium ranges if it tastes better, online shop so we never buy yellow sticker products. One child and one adult gets lunches at school/work on weekdays, but it covers all other meals. No pets, alcohol or nappies.
We use Tesco, Aldi is definitely cheaper but they don't deliver.

Wow.
is that x3 meals each per day? Including kids lunches & snacks!
mine are 9 & 13 and it’s nowhere near that!

To reduce costs (for just me!)
Frozen berries. Cheaper fruit like apples and bananas, strawberries only in season
use the Aldi super 6 and try and meal plan with those
mince based meals usually chesper
i add veg to everything to bulk stuff but also for health so lots of diced onion, carrot, celery etc
end of the week I do a fridge clear out soup or pasta bake (soup usually veg and lentil, pasta bake is whatever bits of meat, cheese etc is left)
big tubs of Greek style yoghurt in Aldi, no additives and cheaper than Greek yoghurt
Aldi own brand tortilla chips are really nice and cheap
batch cook and freeze
I go on a Sunday morning at 9.30, get my free coffee from Greggs (car insurance offer!) then do the Aldi shop as they open. It’s well stocked and quiet

i add up as I go around Aldi so I know how much it will be as I can’t go over budget by more than about £5

The thing that's so great about these threads is finding new meal ideas! I love how so many share their menus for the week. Very nice to share.

Between £200-250 per week Waitrose / Ocado and then £30-50 Gousto (x3-4 meals a week). That does pretty much every dinner (we don’t get takeaways much - maybe a couple of times a month). It also includes my lunches for work and my husband takes leftovers 2/3 times a week. We pay for school dinners x2 children too.

With the amount of meat you eat, you're all likely getting more protein than you need. You should think about getting enough fibre rather than protein - colorectal cancer is on the rise in young people and one risk factor is not enough fibre. Highly processed meats like chorizo are terrible for you - would avoid eating anything like that (including bacon and ham) more than once a month.

Things like milk, Greek yogurt, nuts, chia seeds, etc have a lot of protein too. Plus pulses obs. And also consider children often are given far more protein than the recommended amount.

2 adults and 2 teens. I think it's easily 170-200 per week. Mainly Sainsbury's. Tried Lidl/Aldi but hate their veg. nothing lasts. We also have a cat. We rarely eat out though and we eat well and buy good quality stuff. Baffled how people can feed a family for 80 or so per week.

We do Sainsbury’s. 4 of us. Monthly it’s £125 and top up on weekends at Tesco £30 max. Amazon for toiletries and pet stuff, these are mostly monthly totalling £30

I think they meant "standard" as in "the type you've quoted", as opposed to the cheap and cheerful jacket beans and cheese type.

Family of 3 (& a hamster!)
Ave £80 a week
We don’t but ‘ready meals’ but do buy frozen food like chips / pizzas / Quorn type stuff & a jar of sauce, alongside fresh fruit, veg, dairy, meat, pasta etc to make meals with