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.

2 adults, 3 kids and a dog. I used to spend £160 a week in Tesco but have been shopping in Aldi this year instead and spending about £120 (sometimes less) a week instead. So much cheaper.we have a dog and she's on raw food so about £18 a week on her.

Maybe OP was including cleaning stuff as isn't it normally just bought at the same time as food, not many people do a separate shop surely, In fact household hygiene is on her list so it is included

About £30 of the shop is cleaning, toiletries, wine etc so about £90 is food. This includes all packed lunches and eldest ds (16) has a pre packed salad every day at school and this is included in the above.
I top up on bread and milk a couple of times a week.

It works out around £100 per week (me,dh 15, 11,10).

But I do 1 Tesco shop for 'heavy' tins,drinks & cleaning things every 3 or 4 month and that's about £200. I'm lucky to have a large cupboard under the stairs which I use to store items won't fit in the kitchen.

An Iceland shop about £150 again every 3.

Then once a month in Asda about £180 which includes months meat, cheese and any 'top ups' we need for the month.

I buy weekly milk and bread, and then any fresh produce we may need, and any cheese and lunch meats we need.

We spend approx £80 a week on average for two adults and a toddler (another baby on the way). Some times it's more, some times it's less. But that includes most household toiletries (not cleaning or laundry products as we get stuff like Bio D or Splosh so order that seperately online), organic dairy and eggs, meat from the butchers, and includes all breakfast/lunches/dinners as we rarely eat out. We shop at Asda or Tesco for the rest.

Less than £200 per month for 2 adults and a cat. I cook mostly from scratch and we eat very well. I meal plan, batch cook and shop at Aldi. And luckily have 2 freezers.

We spend about £40 to £50 a week for me and DH. We are both vegetarian though so fairly easy to keep it cheap.

We both hate food shopping so we do a big shop about every 6 weeks and then just shop for veg and fruit as we need it. We always have bread in the freezer (buy it when it is reduced) and use oat milk which we buy in bulk.

We buy our fruit and veg different places but never Aldi as theirs is rubbish. So from markets, Asda, Morrisons, Tesco, Sainsbury, Lidl. We get bored going to the same supermarkets all the time!

We buy quite a few things from indian supermarkets such as large bags of onions, chickpeas, lentils, spices, paneer cheese. We buy all of them in large quantities as it works out cheaper. We make a special trip about every 4 or so months to stock up.

I find most veg lasts over a week and even some salad items. Depends where you buy it. I don't buy from Aldi as it often only lasts a couple of days if that.

As to which supermarket is dearest/cheapest well I always put my shop into "mysupermarket.com" and the results can be surprising. Quite often with the items I buy Sainsbury is the cheapest. Occasionally Waitrose is! Asda is often the dearest and very rarely the cheapest

I've had a look through my bank statement for January, and what I've spent so far this month, as we did eat more convenience foods, e.g., takeaways, in January so it's not a typical month.

Including all pet food (7 animals), all food, toiletries, cleaning stuff, etc, for 2 older teens, my husband and myself we're averaging £171 per week atm. That would probably be much lower usually, but we ate a lot of sushi in January and it does include things like alcohol, a new pedal bin, etc.

I'd like to get it down to around £100 p.w., although apparently a budget of £5 per person per day is reasonable, which would be £140 p.w.

Even adding £10 p.w. for the animals still gives £150 p.w., which would mean I'm already not far off that, but it still seems like a lot to me.

Family of 3+3 dogs we spend $160ish per month.

Hopefully with the veg garden and a good hunting season we can cut that down to $50 a month

Average of £70/week, including cleaning products, for me, dd and two cats. Shop about once every 3 days. Could definitely cut down more on cakes/biscuits

5 of us (me, DH, DC 16, 11, and 9) and 2 cats, between £100 and £120 most weeks.

So a typical list. What would you cut back on:

Bananas
Apples
Satsumas
Grapes
Bunch herbs
3 bags lettuce
Nice tomatoes
Cucumber
Peppers
3 x veg
Mushrooms
Stir fry
Cheese
Crackers
Milk
Bread
Eggs
Cereal
Breakfast bars
Juice
Smoothies
Fizzy water
Elderflower cirdial
Bacon
2 x puddings
Yoghurt
Creme Fraiche
Chicken thighs
Mince
Lamb/pork/beef or chicken (small joint)
Bottle oil
Potatoes
Frozen chips
1 good quality ready meal - Sains Finest (for 4)
4 salmon fillets
Some sort of chops
Tonic water
8-10 beers
Crisps
Tommy K
Ham
Hoummous
Olives
Feta
Fishcskes, burgers or sausages
Washing up liquid
Fabric conditioner
Cat food
Tooth paste
Mouthwash
Shower gel
Bin liners
Bottle of wine quaffing quality for cooking
Pasta
2 tins toms
Tin of beans
Puree
Coffee

about £150 pw for 2 adults and 4 spolit cats

we both work from home so that includes all 3 meals at home each day

it also includes all cleaning and laundry stuff, cat food and litter, toothpaste, tissues, loo roll etc. All groceries. I CBA to try and isolate the exact actual food cost. We don't drink alcohol or smoke.

I spend about £40 a week at aldi, that's for me and teenage dd and includes all meals. I don't think we eat a lot tbh.

Usually 70-80 a week on average, that's for family of 4 but DC are only 5 and 2 so not big eaters.

@OhTheRoses that looks like a pretty legit list to me. The only thing I’d probably cut back on is the smoothies. OH got hooked on Innocent smoothies which were €2.89 a piece for the small ones so buying him 3 at a time was adding nearly €9 to our bill every 4 days.

What’s Tommy K? And what was that purée? Tomatoes or potatoes?

Smoothies usually on offer at about £3 for 4.
Tomato puree
Tommy K is tomato ketchup (sorry). We also have Westminster sauce (HP Houses of Parliament sauce).

The frozen smoothie mixes are a bit cheaper

We have a £200 monthly budget for 2 adults, we tend to spend less than £40 in aldi. Maybe £5 top up stuff. We eat out once a week ( pub style food) but that comes out of our own accounts.

OhTheRoses I dont know what you would cut down on apart from maybe eat a bit less meat. If you went to aldi I think you could get it down to about £110.00. Im one of the saddos that knows the prices of everything and just did a quick calculation of your list.

Family of 5 with a grandchild.. £1000 at least... Probably nearing £1300 in all fairness and that's budgeting

@Vanillamanilla1, I'm hoping that's your monthly spend, and not your weekly spend, lol.

Do you have the time to shop at more than 1 supermarket?. For example, get your veg cheaply at Aldi, meat at Costco, tins etc at Asda?

We do that and it's a real saver.

Online shopping £40 a week as that is minimum for free delivery. If i've gone over £40, something comes out of the basket

2 adults, 1 1yo and 1 dog