£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?

I agree. Good brands in Home Bargains. With a bit of M&S thrown in (some bits are no dearer at all, & I like their own brand cleaning & laundry stuff).

2 adults (one veggie, though), one older teen, one just about to turn teen. No pets, no alcohol, but all cleaning stuff. Easily done with variety of nice meals for £600 a month.

However, I can see if you add alcohol, & all brands at Sainsbury's how it could be £250 a week. It's not outrageous.

Yeah we spend at least that. Family of 4. Includes most lunches too as try to take packed rather than buying in London. I could probably do it cheaper but extremely time poor so need to shop at ocado rather than physically at Aldi etc. Includes booze and cleaning material, not dog food

Doesn't sound crazy expensive for a family of 4 in 2024. But as a pp said, all you can do is use cheaper stores/use some budget products.

I don't know how much DH and I spend and have never totted it up, but I suspect it's around £105 to £115 a week, so like £460 to £490 a month - on average - throughout the year.

So if you've got 2 children as well, £1000 a month at the supermarket doesn't sound massively high. You probably can reduce it though, with some of the suggestions given.

We spend about £500 a month for 2 adults and 2 dc. Neither DH or I eat breakfast, and we get lunch in our staff canteens for about £2 a day.

DD1 buys her lunch at school, DD2 has a pack lunch.

We buy a fair amount of convenience food, like fresh pasta, ready meal type stuff. Certainly I think we could cut the amount we spend if we meal planned and cooked from scratch every day. Life is too short though.

£120 a month...so a family of four spending £30 a week on food shopping. Where are you shopping? 1970?

Stand down everyone, that was a typo. I meant a week! No idea why I typed month.

We spend that op and there is only two of us! We like nice food and alcohol though.

OP we do the same. We do drink and we have 3 pets but I meal plan and we only shop at Tescos and I likewise don’t understand! I do only buy high welfare meat and fish but therefore we eat most veggie if not vegan

@Comedycook an error, I was thinking about the monthly cost of the OP and wrote month when I meant week. But I'm probably doomed to a lynching as it's too late for me to edit the post.

Forget my last comment then!

We spend 500 per month on weekly supermarket shops (2 adults and 2 primary kids, cats). That comes from the jount account which is for monthly bills. Alcohol, treats, non essentials don't come from this account. We both allocated money each month to luxuries (cafes, days out, cinema etc) and things like alcohol, take aways and perhaps steak or something for a nice Friday night tea would come from that account. It's probably working out similar when you put it all together but the thing is when that treat budget has all gone so have the treats for the month!

Two adults and one adult who is here three nights a week and probably two weekends a month when we might have 6 to 8 people for a weekend meal.

Including all toiletries, cleaning stuff, beers, occasional spirits, etc., I'd say we spend between £800 and £1000. It also covers breakfasts and my lunches. We never have a takeaway. We eat well but not terribly extravagantly. This week for example:

Tonight: roast chicken, New potatoes, Greek salad, coleslaw, and something like profiteroles for 4

Sunday: roast lamb for 4 and a roulade.

Monday: Bol

Tuesday: chicken curry with some samosas and rice from Saturday's chicken.

Weds: something like pork chops and cous cous with salad

Thurs: omelette and salad

Fri: plaice, fries, salad or green veg (plaice was heavily reduced and is in the freezer).

DH likes a desert and I tend to buy the Gu ones or similar. Always have in fruit and cheese.

Usually do big shops at Tesco. Nice meat and fish from Waitrose.

If it were just DH and me, I reckon it would probably come to £500/600.

Undoubtedly it could be done for less but we are fortunate enough to be able to have what we fancy. When DS and Dd's BF are here it amazes me how much they can pack away. Both late 20s and very active.

The cats are separate and probably come to about £150pcm. Only the best for them and they complement with mice!

Op how much d you throw out each week. That’s usually a good indicator of buying too much without real thought as to what you buy

@SilenceInside 😂 sorry!

I think you need to look at food/drink spend overall. Some with low supermarket spends have kids on school meals or buying lunch work in canteen. Meals out? Takeaways? Coffees out? Milkman? I’d personally rather spend a little more in supermarket and not get a takeaway for example.

Yep, £1000 a month which is approximately:

£5 per person per day for food (3 meals plus snacks) plus
50p per person per day all toiletries, cleaning and sanitary products and
£1 per person per day 'extras' such as a takeaways twice a month or coffee out or alcohol consumption

We spend around £120 a week at Aldi, Morrisons and then Waitrose top ups. I like welfare assured meat/fish so that bumps the costs up. On top of that dh has coffee and lunch out each day at work at £10 a pop (I make my own lunch from main shop). Then we eat out/takeaway around twice a week so it all adds up to about £900 and that's just for two adults. If ds is at home or joins us for a meal then it's a lot more as he can eat a whole packet of cereal and drink 4 pints of milk in two days for example.

family of 4 - kids are older teens now. We spend less than £500 a month, thats for everything including some wine and beer. I cook from scratch, older teens take packed lunches and dh and I both WFH.

This sum of money is truly mind-boggling!

Family of four costs us around £350 a month. We tend to buy in bulk, mainy from Lidl and Aldi, with occasional treat from M&S. We try to avoid all the expensive 'bad' stuff like crisps, fizzy drinks etc.

I just don't understand this. We are a similar set up....dh WFH, I'm a sahm, two teenage kids who take packed lunch....we spend double that and I don't buy alcohol

How often are you "popping" in to top up your shop? If you are in a shop every day you will spend a fortune. You should only need to spend a tenner on milk and bread during the week. Meal plan and don't buy too many snacks, if it isn't in the house you can't eat it or drink it.

Try to take out cleaning things, toiletries and extras to see how much you spend on just food. Shower gel, makeup and cleaning spray can easily add up to £20 unless you are getting own brand everything.
I found Sainsbury's really expensive and I can get a lot more for my money at Asda. When I used to shop there years ago they were rubbish but much better now, lots of choice and everything very fresh

£175 for a family of 6 (although we feed an extra person taking it up to 7 one day a week).

I cook meals based on what we have in the fridge/freezer/cupboards rather than popping out for extra small shops because someone fancies something different.

All the usual tips, bulking out things with lentils, veg, oats, making leftovers into additional meals (e.g. leftover mashed used to make bubble and squeak with friend eggs). I dont really buy packaged snacks but have cheaper options like carrot sticks, cucumbers, mini apples, own brand natural or Greek yoghurt. Don't buy sugary or branded cereals, just porridge oats, which are very filling. No fizzy drinks or anything, unhealthy and unnecessary.

Just checked and ours was £650 last month for five of us. Two adults, two infant age, one toddler. I can easily imagine it being £1k if we ate all meals at home (adults have one takeaway and several lunches out a week) or had older kids who ate more.

Ours includes alcohol but that's not actually a huge cost, maybe £15 on wine each week and a few quid on beer a month.

What do you snack on? I'm curious.