£250 per week on shopping. Is this nuts, or reasonable?

[Twobigsapphires]

The jury seems to be out amongst people I’ve spoken to (not many, basically my family). We are essentially now spending around £250 a week on the food shop (one main shop a week and one top up). Household consists of my and Dh, ds20, dd18 and ds16. Often ds1 gf will stay for dinner on a Sunday and one or two nights in the week. We have 2 dogs but Dh pays for their food separately.

shop covers park lunches for Dh and I plus ds1 and ds2. Dd I give an allowance too and she pays for lunch out of that. Also covers a couple of bottles a wine a week and household cleaning products and most essential toiletries (shower gel etc).

Dh thinks this is excessive, I think at £50 pp per week this is what it is. My dm said I should be aiming for £150 per week! Dsis says she spends around £150 per week on her food shop for her, Dh and two small dc (doesn’t include dinner money and her Dh buys lunch out each day).

what does the mums net verdict think?

My immediate thought was that is excessive. However thinking about it more I actually don't think it is.

DH and I spend approx £100 per week for two adults and two small DC for meals including packed lunches, toiletries etc and we don't eat a lot of meat or buy a lot or big branded stuff. So £50 per adult per week doesn't seem too crazy if you're buying meat, including toiletries and household stuff etc.

That’s about what I spend on four of us (DC are 11 and 7) and it doesn’t cover all lunches. I do shop at Ocado and top up at Waitrose so it could be cheaper, we cook from scratch using free range meat etc so it’s expensive in that way. But it was £150 or so a couple of years ago.

£50 per person is a lot whether you can afford it or not.

It really isn't.

It really isn’t. Why do we have this idea in the UK that food should be such a small proportion of what we spend?

Eating well is so important. Both healthily and for enjoyment. And if we can afford it, why would we not want to spend a bit more to eat ethically and support local producers? And none of that is cheap, even more so nowadays.

Don’t get my French mother going on the English (her term, not mine) attitude to cheap food.

I'd love to see what kind of meals you have, I spend about 70-100£ a week on food and household items for 2 adults and 2 DC, we have a mix of vegetarian and meat based meals and packed lunches. Dh prefers vegetarian meals which might help keep my spend lower

We spend around £150 a week, not including school dinners. But kids aren't teens yet; from what I hear teens are forever hungry. Also where do you shop? Lidl and Aldi are about 30% cheaper than Tesco and 40% cheaper than Waitrose.

This is what I won’t compromise on - feeding my family well. But can’t argue the burden of that is increasing and it’s becoming a luxury to be able to make that choice.

it’s not about food being “cheap” or “expensive” but that the cost of our shop has seen a stark increase and you can’t sustain that indefinitely.

ONS:-

Prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages rose by 13.6% in the year to August 2023.
This was down from 14.9% in July and a recent high of 19.2% in March 2023, which was the highest rate seen for over 45 years.

I'll never understand how people can spend so little on their weekly shop.

OP I think it's a reasonable amount. I spend around £150 per week but my children are much younger. I cook from scratch most nights and try to have lots of fruit in, which isn't cheap!

£250 a week for five (sometimes six) adults seems perfectly reasonable - especially as it includes toiletries, cleaning products and alcohol.

We probably spend £150 a week for two adults, two cats, a kitten and a dog. Could we spend less? Probably - but we can afford it so it's irrelevant really.

I think you can eat well on £50 per person per week for all meals including lunch. It's a good amount for a healthy and varied diet.

I'm sure you could economise to £200 a month if you wanted to but food and nutrition are important so I guess it's about priorities.

I don't think your cost of £250 is unreasonable for the size and ages of your family . I mean it seems a scary number for anyone to pay £1000 a month on food but we are in a COL crisis so it is what it is .

We are similar to you ! family of similar size /age.We do not have take outs or eat out unless someones birthday/Christmas etc,No Alcohol .Often people will baulk at this ,but will happily spend money on luxuries .Healthy food is important

I used to spend £75pw pre pandemic, now it's more like £125pw. The kids are now teens who eat more. However, I'm not brand loyal, don't buy organic, buy cheaper cuts of meat, don't buy unlimited fruit and veg as I can't bear waste.

Fifty pounds per adult per week all in, other than one person's lunches, sounds about right, given how prices have risen.

Our household is two adults and two teens and we're spending close to £200 PW including cleaning products, cat food, few beers.

We don't eat meat, only buy a couple of branded items, eat a lot of pasta and tomato sauce, veggie chilli, dahl so simple, 'cheap' meals but food is still bloody expensive now.

To be honest that sounds about right. We are 2 adults, one teen and one pre teen and I spend around the same, some weeks I can get it down to £150 per week. I was spending £250 a week over the summer holidays kids are expensive to feed. The teen has decided they like the school canteens lunches so I top up their account by £15 but they do take fruit snacks from home! A fruit pot at school is £1.50…

We don’t eat overly extravagantly.

Our kind of meals are chilli, roast dinner, curry etc, I do tend to cook from scratch most days, the price of meat is very expensive compared to what it was a couple of years ago. Lunch box stuff is now really expensive it’s cheaper for the near teen to have school meals however they don’t like them.

cost of living is insane.

I think this is a rediculous amount. I spend about £100 a month for 1 adult 3 children because it's all I can afford but I think if I had enough money I'd spend double that. So like £50 a week.

Its so important to eat well

I agree.
We don’t know what op’s family are eating though? They might be spending a lot on good quality fresh produce or they might eat a lot of biscuits, crisps and processed stuff?!

Nearly 40% of UK adults are overweight or obese so many are eating too much and too unhealthily.
Spending more doesn’t equal eating better.

If your DSs are anything like my DS15 he eats loads - certainly more than DH and myself - constantly hungry . I don't think £250 is bad - essentially 5 adults, 6 sometines , cleaning stuff and alcohol plus lunches.

Our weekly spend is around £150. Lots of fruit, veg and cooking from scratch. That includes packed lunches for a teen and tween and DH. And cleaning products, toiletries and the odd bottle of wine or beers.

But, I Aldi shop, menu plan, use up leftovers and consider home made soup with oatcakes and cheese a perfectly acceptable dinner.

I spend more than £50 per person easily. Food is health for me. There is also the time and energy investment to consider, both of my are finite so having a Tesco delivery instead of two visits to Aldi helps with that.

Make sure your DH does the shopping for a month or six weeks so he has to do the big shop where expensive things run out.

Sounds about right tbh - my housekeeping budget when my 3 were teens was around £1000 but that included everything - all pet food (2 dogs, 2 cats, 2 rabbits, 2 guinea pigs) cleaning stuff, packed lunches for 5 etc etc. I did a big monthly shop across Sainsburys, WIlkinsons, Aldi and the butcher then a weekly shop for milk and greengroceries. It also covered the occasional take away.

You have two young children,wait until they are teens!

Our food shop has rocketed recently,food is really expensive.

When you're feeding adults things change dramatically. I mean, I use to roll my eyes at my siblings who have older children than me, who spent more than me with 5 kids, they would say wait till yours are older.

People don't realise that when kids grow their appetites grow too. I nearly got sick when I watched my grocery bill shoot through the roof when they were older. There was no more sharing a pack of sausages between the whole lot of them, they would nearly eat a whole pack themselves. I swear they all have hollow legs.

Your bill is covering all adults, cleaning and other stuff and lunches, that's pretty good going.

I think it’s normal. We cook fresh everyday, the biggest portion on my plate is veggies. I try to eat lots and a wide variety, for health reasons, and my god, they are so expensive! I’m not buying caviar and smoked salmon, just normal meals 🤷🏼‍♀️ I’m easily spending £200+ a week to feed two adults and a baby.