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.

So what’s the ranking for supermarket prices then - I’d guess Waitrose/M&S, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Morrison’s then Asda - with Aldi and Lidl as the cheapest? I don’t like them though for a weekly shop, too set in my ways.
Snacks cost a fortune imo - some cereal bars we all like can be 1.99 for 5, this adds up a lot. Annoying we are vegetarian and yet still spend over £100 per week for 4.

We spend £40 a week and that’s in Waitrose. Mainly veggie though and rather than have 7 different dinners we have pasta twice, frittata twice etc and this really keeps costs down. I now have a staple of about 5 meals I switch between and adjust with what’s in season.

I think tesco is more expensive than sainsburys.

The shop I do in tesco is only a few pounds cheaper if I do it in aldi. There are some things which are more expensive, but not things we buy. Tinned tomatoes for example are only a penny cheaper in aldi than tesco.

£80 at Aldi every 3 weeks (bulk buying)
£70 at a week at Waitrose

Family of 4.

£100 per for 2 adults and 2 children 6 & 4. I can do it on £60 during term time when they're in school meals.

We have 3 meals a day at home. Inc all cleaning stuff and basic things like shampoo & toothpaste.

I'd be aiming for £55pw for 2 adults.

Lately iv been struggling to get ours down. We spend about 70 a week at lidl plus about 20 top up
2 adult 1 toddler.
It was around 50 a week with a 10 top up not long ago but i swear prices have skyrocketed

Don't get fruit and veg from Lidl or Aldi

2 adults 2 kids, including dog food, washing powder and wine.....£600 a month.... sometimes over if entertaining/feeding extra.

Too much but it's something I haven't given the headspace to deal with. We have takeaway too often and my children don't like eggs or beans (things I would have used for quick and cheap dinners).

I used to be very good at budgeting, and spent around £70 p.w. for a family of 4, with a spend of around £90-100 once every 6 weeks, when I'd stock up on pet food and cleaning stuff/toiletries.
I don't think we missed out either, but over the last 2-3 years I'm embarrassed to say that I've gotten very lax and I've now no idea how much I spend every week.

I think it's partly because I don't meal plan anymore, I don't make a shopping list and I impulse buy far too often.

I've recently realised how bad I've become and want to change as I think it's really 'wasteful' (although that's not quite the word I mean as what I buy isn't wasted, or very rarely anyway).

I just feel that I should be budgeting.

I think for 2 people, £50 is a generous weekly budget, but I guess it depends on whether you buy brands, where you shop, if you buy organic, etc.

About £80 per week at Sainsburys, 2 adults and 1 (large, greedy), cat.
Plus about £10 per week in Coop, extra bits/chocolate/crap. Used to be more in Coop but am trying to get this down.

£80 for four of us. I'd say you're not doing too bad OP. If you do want to cut back, the best way is to meal plan, do a roast dinner and use leftovers the next few days, eat porridge and use frozen food like chicken portions and berries. When you're not spending much on food you can either get stuff that's easy but not very good nutritionally, or get stuff that requires more effort and time but will give you nutrition. The two only come together when you spend more.

@Myusernameismud haha brilliant! I’m always looking for inspiration, I think I get a bit stuck in a rut buying the same things and that can actually make it more costly - eg not making the most of offers for instance. Being online means I don’t ‘see’ the offers so I always find tips for online shopping helpful! DH is actually much better than I am with that, I’d been doing the online shop for years when he pointed out that you can actually shop by offer

About £70 per week, one adult and two children. That includes my packed lunches for work every day. Usually Tesco.

I'm sure I could get it a bit cheaper but I like buying lots of fruit, fish and some nice things for the dc. We don't have many luxuries in life.

Two adults, and we spend £100-£130 not including eating out or alcohol. DH and I want to cut this down as it’s a ridiculous amount to spend, but neither of us will negotiate on the food we eat.

Between £100-120 weekly shop at Lidl/Aldi for family of 5 inc pets and for household/toiletry items (cleaning products/loo roll/bin bags/toothpaste etc). It includes some nice (treat) food items too. Will occasional top up with bread, other bits from Tesco but not amounting to more than around £20. Hoping this is reasonable as can’t see how I could cut down further!

What do I buy?

Nothing extravagant but we do eat lots of meat some from the local butcher and quite a lot of fresh veg. Dh is very into his healthy lifestyle so we are low on processed carbs and high on complex carbs and proteins.

It's not alcohol as the amount doesn't change really if we do a dry month or not.

The only way I can see I could bring costs right down to these type of amounts are very carb heavy meals like lots of pastas(although we could switch from local butcher to aldi etc admittedly)

And it's a teenager not a toddler she isn't a huge eater though. She does graze a lot.

I strictly stick to £40 a week home shopping for myself and 3 children (14,11 and 8) with top ups of bread and milk another £10 throughout the week. Our diet is pretty dull with lots of value food and I only buy enough for meals for the week so no interesting extras. One day I will earn more and we will have nicer stuff but for now it works.

I can see a lot of people have said 100+ including cleaning products etc. The OP asked what you spend on food and how often. Is 40-50 a week that surprising? Is everyone including non- food items in their amounts?
We buy all cleaning products, toiletries, toilet roll etc separately so they don't get counted in my weekly shop total, but would probably add an extra tenner on, maybe 15 at a push.
I have a slightly neurotic 4 week rolling system. Bulk toilet rolls and cleaning products one week, laundry bits the next, shampoo/shower gel/soaps etc and then a week free to get anything else that needs replacing. Usually nothing does and I stock up on snacks instead.

About £170 a week. 5 people, 3 adults 2 teens. All food and cleaning stuff. Lunches amd drinks included in that.

I find it hard to separate the cost but I'd estimate £15 per week on cleaning stuff and toiletries. Didn't buy any yesterday and bill was £135.

Hard to say, as lots of different shops. £50-60 in Aldi every week. About £20in top ups. Plus about £50 pcm in local 'bargain store' buying toiletries, cleaning stuff, snack foods etc.
So probably £90ish for 2 adults, 2 tweets, cat.

2 adults 2 teens plus a cat

Use Ocado and spend about £100-120 every 6-7 days

Includes all toiletries and wine and all my lunches as I WFH

It’s a bit hard to separate the cleaning/household stuff as usually they are just in with my Tesco online shop, though I do bulk buy my toilet rolls from Amazon now the shops seem to have discontinued the ones I like. I also sometimes get cleaning stuff from Wilko if I’m in there or Waitrose if it is on offer.