£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 pay around £300/month for groceries. That's from Lidl. Inclusive of laundry/cleaning stuff but not food etc for the pets. I don't drink and don't smoke, we don't each a huge amount of meat, and I cook stuff from scratch. Single mum to 2DC (18 and 11). I do the usual meal planning and batch cooking. I'm trying to really scale down to see how low I can get my food shop (without compromising too much on what I cook). Used to do Sainsbury's and Ocado shops!

you can grow lettuce and tomatoes in pots very easily,from seed, dont forget that. Also I could type up 5 meals for a family of 4 for $20 ( roughly 10 pound ) and happy to so but they are all over the internet.
I don't mean to be rude but the pp's menu spunds dire. ( the one with the value oats and the wafer thin ham)

Have you tried shopping online OP you can see how much the basket is adding up to, I often go through it a few times and take out things when thinking about whether I actually really need them or could swap for a cheaper version before I checkout.

You can save shopping’s lists too so if you save your regulars on apps for all the supermarkets in your area you can transfer the list to the checkout and see which is cheapest that week.

It wasn't meant to sound like fine dining! Just an idea of how you could get three meals a day for not much. Wouldn't measure up to many people's ideas, I know, but it's not far removed from many meals we had when I was growing up and money was tight. It's perfectly possible to live without eating Greek yoghourt, chia seeds, smoothies, avocadoes, sourdough and kimchi, as my 92yo mother is proving right now.

It sounds like a lot but when you break it down. It’s probably about £30 a day on food. I’ve knocked off £100 a month for booze, cleaning stuff and toiletries. Which is 7.50 per person so 2.50 per meal. If you are eating a good variety of tasty, nutritious food for £2.50 a meal then it kind of is what it costs. Take advantage of special offers. Consider supermarket own brand, makes sure you use leftovers etc

Family of 4, we spend around £120 to £150 a month.

I don't understand how this is possible without shoplifting.

We're about the same and probably ought to rein it in a bit, although it's a busy kitchen and does also include wine! Four of us including 2 teen boys and guests for supper and/or lunch at least 4 times a week. All meals (including lunches) cooked fresh and lots of small but frequently bought ingredients like berries, Greek yogurt, herbs, avocadoes. I also make cakes for our hobby groups and things for teens and friends so lots of butter, eggs etc. If we were out all day we'd need far less food!

Around £500pm for three adults. I shop at Lidl and Sainsbury's mainly. Stopped using the coop much as it got so expensive. This includes everything, all meals, toiletries, cleaning products. We eat well, and that figure is the most we spend. On weeks when I meal plan religiously I can spend less. I also do a Costco run every couple of months where I spend about £100. Not much alcohol in there, as I don't drink and DH and DD don't drink much. Costs have rocketed though. I'm fairly organised, a decent cook and have time to prepare meals from scratch. With young children/a busier lifestyle, I think it would be harder to keep costs down.

That figure of £1k really does include all food - including the odd top ups of milk and bread, meat for weekly roast from the butcher. We never used to spend this much and tend not to buy branded anyway.

The increase in prices seems painful expenditure to me (but not to DH!).

We do cook as a family. A lot. There’s always something in the oven, in the fridge or in the cake tin. Not much wastage at all. It all gets eaten. But ingredients can be expensive can’t they.

Sounds like we’re not alone spending this amount and it’s easily done tbh. Equally if we’re more careful and plan a bit more we can save quite a bit of money.

I’m looking forward to being more frugal. Very impressed with some of you who are spending so much less!

We spend similar OP, for 2 adults and 2 professional athletic teen boys who eat a lot of protein.

I’ve just been to the local farmers market and done a meat top up.

For £274 we got the below

10kg of chicken breast
10kg of leak steak mince.
4kg of pork lion joint
6kg of silverside been joint.
4kg beef brisket joint
20 steak burgers
4kg of lean diced steak.
Full lambs leg. 3kg
2 gammon joints (3kg)
6kg steak mince
12 Cumberland rings
18 Cumberland and black pudding sausages
18 Cajun sausages
18 pork, leek and Stilton sausages
18 sweet chilli and irnbru sausages
28 square beef sausages (slab)
12 cheese stuffed bacon burger dogs
5kg of unsmoked bacon
5kg of streaky bacon.
12 pork and haggis pin wheels.

I split these into batches and freeze them and use throughout the month,

This will do us just over a month, I cook 90% from scratch also.

@Sainsburysaddict are you going to post some receipts? I don’t think you are overspending massively, but I reckon the hive mind could probably save you around £200 a month without too much pain.

I love Aldi. We buy most from there, including some pretty decent wine. I just use Sainsbury or Waitrose for some things that Aldi don't do (mostly cooks ingredients).

I want to see you shopping bill.

This isn't possible £3 per day per person for everything isn't realistic. Chicken and salad everyday

We are a family of four adults and spent £650 on average a month on food and household goods.

We mostly shop at Lidl and do a big shop once a month after we have reached their 10% deal. We also buy a few items at Iceland and amazon.

I don’t buy a huge amount of alcohol, but none of us are vegetarian/vegan. We don’t have any pets. We have a flexible meal plan and this helps reduce costs. We also buy some household goods (such as toilet rolls) in bulk as we have a subscription with amazon (15% discount).

Family of 5 with 3 teens. Easily £200 a week plus top up shops for milk and bread

That does sound a lot from those supermarkets. We spend about £125 per week, two of us, in Waitrose. This week for example, we had salmon, veal, chicken breast, lemon sole, tortellini, sausages, veal meatballs. With veg or salad. All lunches, cold meats. Other sundries like crisps, biscuits, cake, bread, milk, yogurt etc.

Some weeks obvs more if we need olive oil or washing pods, but that's only once a month or so.

Oh and all food/household purchases are on a credit card which is purely for that, and me and DH each have a card for the account. It's paid off in full each month, and is a handy way to have all food costs itemised in one statement.

But then you need to add the veg and carbs to make it a meal.

Plus breakfast and lunch and snacks and drinks (even milk and squash isn't free)

Plus most people include cleaning/toiletries/toilet rolls in shopping.

I think easily done, money really doesn't go as far in supermarkets now.

If you are foodies, look first at toiletries, cleaning and laundry products. Assuming you've got the space, and as you definitely have the funds to front it, seek out offers on these and buy in bulk.

I have quartered my bills on cleaning and laundry products for 6 months, compared to previous 6 months (yes I LOVE a spreadsheet) by making a few product switches and taking the time to find out where something was on offer and stocking up on months worth. Previously would just add to weekly shop without paying much attention to the price.

We're a family of four (2 adults, 2 teens) and we spend about £700 with meal planning and cooking from scratch, minimal alcohol but includes pet food and cleaning stuff. We shop at Tesco and use all the angles on discounts, own brand and offers.

Caveat that we can't eat any lentils/pulses/legumes/nuts because DH is allergic. This limits our ability to do meat free or bulk up stews/casseroles. We eat a lot of meat, fish and fresh veg as a result, which is not the cheapest.

I can easily imagine a scenario where this could slide up to £1000.

I think we spend about £500-£600 for a family of 5.
Not much alcohol
Meal plan
A few meat free meals a week
Don't buy packaged snacks

Family of 4. Kids age 7 and 9. Spend roughly £120 - £140 per week at lidl and a top up at morrisons. Works out about £600 per month according to my bank app. Cook majority of meals from scratch. Kids get school lunches (for free as Scotland) and DH and I are a mix of lunch at home and free lunch at work a couple days a week. Does include cleaning products, toiletries, cat food and alcohol but we aren’t big drinkers. Rarely eat out or have takeaways.

£1000 a month seems a lot, but also seems really easy to do

A ‘lot’ of protein? You can say that again: you’ve got an entire farm there! 😂

(But also hadn’t thought about buying meat in bulk and freezing).

I forgot when the children were around I'd go to the local catering supplier to buy a gallon of washing up liquid, gallon of bleach, gallon of multi purpose cleaner. They were decanted into suitable bottles. That saved money.

A friend with a big family goes to Costco periodically to buy in bulk toiletries etc but she does have a shed and an outdoor freezer.