£1,000 at the supermarket every month!

[Sainsburysaddict]

So - have just gone through our finances and we’re spending £1,000 at the supermarket every month.

DH says this is average for a family of 4 and is rather alarmed that I’d like to budget. Spending less can’t be done apparently, without a life of boring meals.

We desperately need to save money.

Thoughts? Tips? How much do you spend?

4kg of pork lion joint Is that for the cat?

You're spending around £35 a day .

That's a lot.

I'd say £10 max for a nice main meal for 4, including veg, fruit, and other ingredients and far less if you're not including meat or fish.

Are you buying 'brands' rather than 'essential' ranges not just for food but laundry products etc as well?
They are often 2 or 3 times more expensive.

Ive found the cheapest way to buy chicken is skin on and bone in chicken thighs they are £2.85 a packet and will easily do a hearty chicken casserole or more refined chicken dish

thing is with chicken thighs its the best cut for meat to bone ratio and if you can be bothered to pul of the skin and de bone they are really good value

https://www.deliciousmagazine.co.uk/recipes/creamy-tarragon-chicken-casserole/

made this and picked up a bottle of wine in lidl for a £5 and drank the rest of the wine - but doubled the recipe and froze the other half. There was some left over from the first dish and blirtz it up into soup for my lunch

I feel I can't keep doing chicken though so have gone for beef bourgeon again for tomorrow and salt and pepper pork for tonight with egg friend rice

There are 4.4 weeks in a month and we average £200 on each weekly shop, with a few top ups in between. So around £1000pm I’d estimate. But that’s cooking everything from scratch, all organic ingredients, cleaning products, bottled water (some alcohol but not much) for family of 3. No nappies/formula.

Husband won’t eat ‘boring meals’ so average weekday meals are Osso Bucco, Portuguese steak, lamb and dauphinois, Penang curry etc… (he’s happy to cook though!)

If I needed to cut down I’d have a few basic meals (I’d love a jacket potato personally, or a no meat lasagna/no meat chilli) and eat non organic produce. That would easily cut us down to £130pw.

Are you meal planning or buying anything out of the ordinary?

You'd be surprised. I bought a pork loin fillet £17, prepared veg (cauliflower cheese £7, green beans £3, goose fat roasties £8) 4 sea bass fillets £16, seasoning £5, tarte tatin £9 and nice ice cream £7.50 and 2 bottles of wine at £12 each... Came to 96.50... didn't fill a bag-for-life... for a meal and a half (special occasion, but still... )

Apologies! Better window displays too!

I can easily see how that happens. We’re a family of 3 and spend £750ish most months. We do like nice wine though and probably go through 2 bottles a week. That, plus the fact that I cook everything from scratch and use high quality organic meat and produce where possible means it’s very expensive. And DD is an absolute fruit monster, I easily spend £30 a week on fruit alone.

@ClaireduLune

£10 per day is what Im spending for 4 of us and we are eating well ( I have 2 students with me) At the weekends have had guests on top of that so extra food for entertaining

I'm spending under £100 for 3 adults plus an occasional adult. We eat very well and buy alcohol too. This doesn't include eating out once a week though and dsd buys her own lunch stuff

We spend similar (family of 5, 3 adults, 1 teen, 1 preteen) that includes our stationery, underwear, toiletries, groceries, cleaning products. We rarely eat out or get takeaway there's our lunches in that. I suppose it depends what is included. Are you also spending money on meals (such as school, office) out through the week?

No one of that. Unless you class a bit of own label brie ‘fancy’.

No. Just our eldest buys lunch at school, which is approx £2.75 per day. That’s not included in the £1k outlined. Everything else is!

That works out as about £8.50-£9 a day per person.

I think that's quite a lot?

If you think two meals could be quite cheap - a bowl of cereal and milk or egg and toast for breakfast would be less than 50p p/p. Bowl of soup and bread/jacket potato with cheese/beans, or beans on toast or omelette or salad could be done for another 50p for either lunch or evening meal, depending what time you have your 'main' meal. That leaves £7-8 for a main meal which is a lot - 1/4th of a nice lasagne with sides and good quality ingredients would still only be about £2 p/p. You wouldn't really need snacks with those sort of meals but even with a few included, plus drinks, you could probably very easily shave off at least £1 per person per day, which is an extra £120 a month.

We're a family of four (plus 2 dogs 2 cats) and spend about £100 a week on average, sometimes more if stocking up on household, laundry, cleaning stuff, sometimes less if we are trying o clear the freezer a bit! We definitely don't scrimp and buy some branded stuff, and have plenty of treats and extras. I don't think I could spend that much if I tried! We do alot of cooking from scratch, but also on busy evenings will just have freezer stuff. Always a roast on a Sunday, and then use the leftover meat for sandwiches, salads, pasta over the beginning of the week. One dc is veggie so that can make things more expensive, but I can't imagine spending £250 a week. I wouldn't be able to fit it in the cupboards!

Ours is £1000 per month as well, OP.

Family of 5, no ready meals, I batch cook, cook from scratch every day (I enjoy it), only eat meat a couple of times per week. I bake bread and make ice cream etc.

We DO buy a lot of fish and seafood, loads of fruit, ham, salad, cheese etc. I also buy organic usually. It also includes alcohol free beers, decent wine and all cleaning/toiletry products.

Everyone eats all 3 meals at home though, so maybe that's a factor.

Genuinely pleased can you share your shopping list

Yep we spend the same. Lidl.

Should add, family of 4, 2 older teen boys. This includes 3 or 4 bottles of wine a week. We eat alot of fresh fruit, vegetables, nuts, yoghurt, cereal, meat most days.

@Whatsitreallylike, can I ask why you buy bottled water? That must work out very expensive and it's not great environmentally.

We spend about £900 a month at Tesco for 3 adults and 2 under-7s. But I know it could be cheaper as we eat meat every day, use a few convenience products, eat out of season fruit/veg and lots of snacks for the dcs. No alcohol and most toiletries bought elsewhere. We could cut down but we don't need to, and the cost is fine as long as everyone gets fed.

I think we spend close to that for 2 adults and 2 cats if you include all booze, cleaning products, toiletries and our veg box. That's for 3 meals a day. I buy organic when possible, only free range meat. I cook from scratch mostly, sometimes aCook ready meal if I can't be arsed.

We probably eat out once every 6 months, have takeaway pizza every 3 or 4 months. Never buy coffee out, rarely go to the pub.

We used to do Mindful Chef boxes for at least 3 meals a week but have knocked that on the head now as its SO expensive and pure laziness on my part as I'm at home all the time.

If you're drinkers you could be spending a LOT on alcohol. Check the last couple of receipts.

That’s a LOT! £150 a week here for two adults (no meat though which probably keeps it down), two children and a cat, including all cleaning stuff and the top up shop. And I feel like I’m quite frivolous and buy lots of things I like rather than the cheaper options.

It's possible to feed 4 on £10 a day but it needs some thought.

eg a kilo of porridge oats is under £1 and that would do breakfasts for ages. Or a couple of eggs each and toast.

Lunch can be dirt cheap. Home made soup (cheap as chips from root veg, beans added, to bulk it out.) Jacket spuds, beans, etc.
Or bread and cheese, fruit, eggs.

Buying tinned fish like sardines (dirt cheap at under £1) is cheaper and healthier than processed ham, or packets of sliced chicken etc that are more like £3.

That leaves a fair amount for an evening meal.

I think the issue may be buying branded stuff @Sainsburysaddict especially laundry products and dishwasher tablets. We save a fortune by buying own brand.

Oh, and all that baking you're doing.

There are five of us and we have been spending over €800 monthly recently. That is with reducing meat (we used to buy raw meat for cooking 2-3 meals weekly, now it's 1, maybe 2 if there's an offer) and mostly buying own branded stuff. We don't typically drink, but cleaning products and nappies are included. DS3 is only wearing nappies at night now.

In August it was actually over €1000 but we did move house so had a lot of exhausted nights with ready meals and lots of "let's walk to the shop!" because it was a novelty. Plus all the children at home rather than school/childcare.