What would you expect to spend (groceries)

[xprincessxjanetx]

We are a family of 10 (2 adults, a 14 year old, 9 year old, 8 year old, 6 year old, 4 year old, 2 year old and twin 1 year olds)

We are also having to host my mum, dad and aunt at the moment due to their housing issues (thankfully we have a large enough house!)

My husband and I are in disagreement how much the weekly shop should cost. I think it's coming out OK and he thinks I'm spending too much and not economising enough. So, what would you expect a weekly grocery shop for 5 adults, a teenager, 4 children and 3 toddlers to cost? (Food only - not including toilet paper, nappies, washing tablets etc)

NB: My husband taking over the shopping would not be feasible. He is autistic and a big trigger is shopping as he gets himself in a muddle - and I do generally enjoy doing it myself anyway.

TIA

No idea. What sort of food do you eat? Organic, higher- welfare, lots of fresh fruit, vegetables, unprocessed foods? Or cheap stuff, highly processed?

If you have a teenager I’d make that 6 adults. I’d say ( massive guess ) £300 ish? . Just food no cleaning materials, nappies, toilet rolls washing powder in that total.
But this does depend a lot on how you cook eg from scratch or ready meals, if you batch cook, eat a lot of meat etc.
Also where do you shop ? Waitrose or Aldi?
Do you have anyone with special dietary needs? Allergies? Picky eaters….
But you will get a wide range of views on here…..

Fair play to you though, shopping then cooking for so many is a feat in itself!

An eye-watering amount 😳

We are also having to host my mum, dad and aunt at the moment due to their housing issues (thankfully we have a large enough house!) My husband and I are in disagreement how much the weekly shop should cost. I think it's coming out OK and he thinks I'm spending too much and not economising enough

No idea. But is his concern based more on whether you/he can afford it at this time? Are your mum, dad and aunt paying their normal shopping bill directly to you or just throwing the odd £50 your way? I'm guessing you are a sahp (just based on the children's ages) so it all falls on his shoulders and he might be freaking out a little. Going to assume your gas and electric has gone up a lot too.

£400 a week I recon!

£300 -£350 a week, going by Aldi/ Lidl/ Asda type prices ? I cannot imagine shopping and cooking for that number of people. I get fed up just sorting food for me and dream of a food pill.

Must be higher I reckon you spend about £40- £45 a week just on milk !

But surely your mum/dad/aunt are paying their way?

If your DH gets overwhelmed, there's always online grocery shopping.

Otherwise he'll have to leave it to you and back off.

Depends on life style but not less than £400 a week shopping Aldi/Lidl/Tesco. 3 meals a day and snacks?

We spend about £200 a week for a family of 5 with not much economising, so I'd guess about £400pw if you were being more careful. We eat meat and a lot of fresh fruit every day so we could cut back a fair bit if needed.

It really depends on what you eat. Focussing on economical dishes like Dhal, veg stews, pasta, meat maybe only twice a week?
Do you eat lots of ready made convenience foods? Branded items? Organic fruit and veg, probiotic yogurts, Things like smoothies, protein drinks, canned pop?
I'd say a couple of hundred but could be way more.

£400, could easily do £600 though.

Plus at least 50 quid a week on foil, loo roll, tooth paste, washing powder, bin bags, shampoo etc etc.

And if that was me in that situation (the laundry! The cooking! The clearing up! Putting the fucking groceries away!) ,however much a couple of cases of English fizz cost., so add £350 ish on.

We spend £120ish for a family of 5 (2 adults, 1 teen, 1 tween and a child) so I’ll say around £300 is what I would expect.

I'd imagine anywhere from £300-500 depending on quality of meat/ produce you eat/ if you're doing 3 lunches for everyone everyday/ how many prepared foods you buy.

If depends shag you eat and where you shop. We spend around £200 a week for 3 adults and 1 teen, so if it was us, I reckon we'd spend at least £400, maybe £500 a week.

We spend around £120 on 4 adults so probably £250-£300. That’s shopping mostly at Aldi.

How much are you currently spending? Which shops do you have available? Shopping somewhere where you can get catering sizes of tins/pasta/rice etc might bring the cost down

shag = what ......wtf. 😂

I spend £170 a week for a family of six (two adults, four teenagers. I’d say about twice that.

I could do it for £200 but I’d want to budget £400 because it’s really hard work keeping it under £20 a head week in week out and there are 8 children in this house including 3 infants so I’d rather not have to cook every single thing from scratch and never be able to sit down with a cream cake and a baileys or even buy a tub of blueberries if they aren’t in the super 6.

I was going to say
£400-£500 a week

FFS cheap doesn't necessarily mean 'highly processed. A mostly vegetarian diet of pulses, seasonal vegetables, eggs and some meat using cheaper cuts will probably be cheapest for a family that size. There's 5 adults in the house so disabilities aside the cooking load can be spread amongst them.

As for how much it costs, I'd say a minimum of £4-500 pw, based on £150 pw for a family of 4 being about average and tripling that and allowing some economies of scale. But it will need some planning and skill to feed that amount of people without wasting food especially if you have differing preferences or dietary requirements to accommodate.

Plus there's the available budget to consider. You might be able to trim it down if you have to but of course its fine to spend more if you can afford to. And of course your extended family should be paying for their food and a contribution to other household expenses if they are able to.

I suspect this is down to your DH not having a clue how much food costs, what is cheap or expensive and the effort required to feed a family of any size, yours especially and particularly with 3 babies/toddlers.

It's convenient to him that shopping is something he 'can't' do so unless your idea of 'doing pretty well' is a punnet of blueberries per person per day when you cant afford it, then he needs to butt out.

But I'd illustrate the point to him by looking for anything more expensive that he likes and stop buying it. So if he likes a lot of meat, anything none essential like juice or snacks, anything branded or fancy yogurts then either cut it out entirely or swap for cheaper alternatives. If he says anything just innocently say that you've reduced the shopping bill by cutting out the more expensive things, as requested.

Minimum £300.
Plus whatever nappies, wipes etc cost for 3 children, plus toiletries and cleaning stuff.

Like others have said, it depends on where you shop and what diet you eat.

For us (2x adults, 1x child), if it had to cover all meals it would be £150 per week, that's most bits from Tesco but fruit/veg from M&S. so around £600 for your fam? Obviously could be done a bit cheaper if necessary.

That being said I don't think your DH has a leg to stand on. Maybe sit with the receipts and see what he thinks could be cut? Make sure you start with any treats he's fond of.

Depends where you shop etc