How much do you spend food shopping and how frequently?

[Nobhobs]

We spend about £70 a week on two of us, which to me just seems ridiculous. We shop at Lidl so I struggle to shop for a two week period as none of the fruit or veg lasts long and I end up spending loads on top up shops. Spoke to DH this morning about how I want to get it down to £50 a week while it's still just us two (expecting a little boy in July) but he claims this is impossible.

Doesn't sound too bad to me. Prices have gone up recently.

@mumshappy @youmadorwhat

Do you think? I had shopped at asda for about a year but the meat and fish was frequently off before its use by so switched to tesco, spending about £10 more, which is worth it as i was throwing a lot of off meat away with asda!

£100 a week for 2 adults, DTs and 2 dogs, but includes nappies, wipes and all toiletries/cleaning stuff, from Sainsburys.

We are a family of 6 - 2 adults, 2 teens who eat shed loads and 2 primary aged children. My food bill has gone from £100 a week about 18 months ago, to £150 a week now. I use Ocado, meal plan and cook everything from scratch. That doesn't include cleaning products /loo rolls/alcohol as we buy those separately. That's literally just food... Bit scared as to the impact of Brexit. I try to cook veggie meals, but my family, particularly DH, are very happy carnivores!

£60 a week on online food shop.
Probably about £5-10 on top ups.
£10 a month on milkman.

Oh and £35 every for months for loo roll delivery by who gives a crap.

melissasummerfield I dont like Asda meat either. I tend to get aldi meat. The fruit and veg at aldi is apparently rotated a lot by the staff so the soft stuff is at the top. I always go underneath to the bottom carton and dont have a problem anymore. Most of their copy items are of the same quality as branded (muller rice things, pom bear crisps, loo roll, baby wipes, cleaning products, pizzas) I do go to home bargains and sainsburys for some things. When ive been to tesco (fancying looking at clothes etc as well) I only seem to get half the amount of stuff for the same money.

Around £30 per week for 2 adults & 3 Dses (10, 7, 5). Then a couple of top-ups midweek totalling £10-£15 for fruit, bread, milk.

We are pretty skint atm & have been in the past a lot, so I'm pretty good at bargain hunting. My main tactic to keep costs down is to go to Tesco every other week or so at final markdowns time & get lots of fresh bits. I went last night & got packs of mince for 56p, loaves of bread for 15p etc. I freeze most of this & it lasts for ages. We also eat lots of cheap & nutritious meals such as pasta with veg sauce, risottos, casserole, eggs etc.

7.50 on pasta, rices, tinned veg and sauces

What rices and sauces. I suspect microwave pouch style rice and ready made sauces. Both a way of cutting costs.

We went to the money advice agency recently, and guidelines are €5 per person per day on food- that would work out as €70/£60 So that's bang in the middle for you both- you're both right!

Family of 4. Dts 11. Around £75 pw. Main shop at Lidl, chicken from halal butcher, top fruit and veg from market. I do batch cook and mainly cook from scratch.

Including a few beers, all cleaning stuff and toiletries I reckon about £140-£160pw for three adults. That includes the odd bunch of flowers, nice coffee and good meat. That's for 3 adults. When dd is home closer to £180-£200.

I appreciate that's a lot and could be cut down but I really don't think we are overly extravagant - certainly not smoked salmon and fillet steak extravagant every week. But I do work full-time in a very demanding job and it helps to have some v easy dinners, ie, Sainsbury's boeuf bourgignon or salmon fillets and prepped veg and mash. I have no doubt I could shave off at least £40pw and would if I had to and if I had more time to shop around.

I spend between 80 and 100 a week for 6. 3 Adults and 3 children and a dog. Very occasionally depending on what we need it can go to 120.

Try Morrisons for your DH steaks, if you get the unusual but delicious cuts like bavette its 2 packs for about £7 (4 steaks).
We don't budget particularly. Spend probably £80-90 for 2 adults and a cat. Includes alcohol, litter, toiletries etc. We also eat out once a week. I couldn't imaging getting a full weeks worth of food for £50, maybe try for £60 and see if you can do it.

Family of 4, DC are 12 and 10 and eat like its going out of fashion

We do a tesco online shop every week and generally spend £40-£50. I'm fairly organised so never need washing powder/toiletries/toilet roll in the same week IYSWIM.
We've had a week or 2 where I've struggled to get the basket total up to £40 to avoid the charge.

We have plenty of snacks etc but again, I'll get a whole load one week when we don't need washing powder etc.

It genuinely shocks me there are families of 4 who are regularly spending upwards of £100. And the poster who spends £900 a month for 2 adults and a toddler? Shocking!

About 120 - 130 a week for two adults a pre teen ds and a dog. I do an online shop from Waitrose usually about £80, and top up at Asda in the week for fresh fruit and milk. I meal plan and cook everything from scratch.

Why do you think it's shocking myusername. I cannot imagind what you eat for £40pw tbh. Please enlighten me.

Spending £900 a month for 2 adults and a toddler is not shocking if you can afford it, people have different priorities and choose to spend how they want.

I'm shocked too.
£900 / week on groceries. For 2 . Have I got that wrong?

2 of us, I'd say a good £500 if not more per month, the freezer is full and the cupboards. I have no need to budget and shop at Ocado and Morrisons, no alcohol included.

Sorry, just saw it's/ month.

Ohtheroses I appreciate what we spend is far below average, but I cannot believe that £100+ is the norm. I'd think 70-80 is normal.
We don't waste food, I genuinely cannot remember the last time I threw away something because it was off. I had a good few years as a single parent of 2 and after I'd paid all bills & childcare had around 150 a month left. I learned to shop for my budget and it's never left me. Our finances are significantly better now, but that doesn't mean I feel the need to spend a load extra when we don't have to.

Too much! It was about £800pm before I was pg, as we were both drinking loads. Now its still about £650pm. This is 2 adults, no DC! Doesn’t include pets as I buy that in bulk online but does include cleaning products/toiletries.
We do an Ocado weekly order which is £90-£120. Then about 1-2 top ups.
The problem is we are time poor and have expensive taste. DH also can’t eat much pasta, bread or potato as triggers ibs-so lots of cheap meals are out. We do eat lots of fresh meat and fish.
When on mat leave budget will be a strict £500pm though but I will be able to go to Lidl and Aldi weekly (at the moment no time as we both commute).

Ick - have to admit to £200 on food for 2 adults plus a adult dd. This does include all food as we often buy food in cooked (aka takeaway, hot chicken )

I’m now here mainly to find out what Myusername’s family of 4 eats from a Tesco online order of £40. Not goady, genuinely want to know!

We’re a family of 4 (2 Primary school children), plus 2 cats. We average £150/week at the moment, which is high but is largely due to increased top ups. We spend £80-100/week on Tesco order online which comes on the weekend, then usually need one top up later in the week for fresh bits (milk, some veg, some fruit), either Coop or M&S as they’re our closest shops.

We’ve been topping up more or doing other shops lately as I’m pg with DC3 and not well with it, and have had lots of jumping around as to what foods I can tolerate. So our cupboards are full, I just can’t eat a lot of it at the moment (we’ll get through it eventually!).

Before then, we were on £120-130/week. We eat some organic stuff, try to get higher welfare meat where we can (and always British). We’re low carb too (part of management of health conditions) so can’t really bulk on cupboard basics, mainly eat a lot of veg, dairy and some meat.

I’m always a bit curious when people say “we probably spend x” - it’s the probably that gets me! A lot of people do underestimate what they spend, not saying everyone who has said that doesn’t know what they spend, but for instance I know what we spend because I track everything on a spreadsheet. A lot of people don’t, and surprise themselves when they actually add it all up especially if they’re the type, like us, to do top up shops. Hence why you get shows like Eat Well For Less!