Bringing down cost of our weekly shop.

[Mrsmch123]

Hi, we are a family of three. 2a and one 5yr old.
we are currently £100 a week for our weekly shop.
one adult doesn't have bfast, lunch and dinner two days a week.
the other adult doesn't have breakfast two days a week.
child has breakfast club x2 week, packed lunch 5x week.
In addition to this we all have a takeaway on a Friday not included in this £100, and another £20 halfway through the week for top up of fruit ect.

is this the average for a family of three?
how much do others spend?

I used to keep quite good track of our spending but for the last year or so I’ve just been very lax. I would guess we spend about £200 a week on average. I tend to shop more sporadically, probably 2-3 times a week rather than doing many big shops. I generally spend anywhere from £60-80 at a time but it’s for days not a full week.

I am going to try to stick to a fixed budget of £120 from next week so we will see how that goes.

Obviously it will depend on where you live, where you shop & what kind of things you eat but I don’t think £100 a week is too bad for 2 adults & a child. We are a family of 4, but 2 adults 1 toddler and a 9 month old so probably quite similar amount of food wise and we spend anywhere from sort of £130-160 on our weekly food shop. We could definitely cut it down though if needed as we do buy a lot of meat, a lot of fresh veg & a lot of fresh fruit which bumps the price up compared to the frozen alternatives

This sounds good to me and probably similar, proportionately to me. We are 2 adults, 2 teenagers (15 & 18) and an 11 year old. We spend about £180 per week give or take.

It depends entirely on:

a) what you're buying in your shop
b) whether you're buying brands or own label
c) whether you're buying ready meals or making your own
d) where you're shopping

I spend about £150 for a family of 4 adults, which also includes a lot of soft drinks, beer and usually a spirit like gin plus mixers.

Edited to add:

The majority of my shopping is in Aldi, with stuff that I can't get there bought from Sainsbury's.

ohh well seems to be the going rate. We shop in Asda. Buy midddle of the road food with exception of Heinz ketchup and decent burgers.
no alcohol.
we tend to eat roughly the same things.
pie, chips and beans
burger and chips
meatballs and pasta
chicken wraps
Sunday roast
little ones eats lotsssss of fruit which defo bumps the price up.

If you want to cut down a bit, you could try going down a brand level for some things to see which are ok and sticking with pricier brands where you can really tell. For fruit, try replacing some with frozen fruit eg to have with yoghurt etc. works out cheaper for berries etc. See if there is any waste you can cut out. That may not be a normal week, but there's not much veg there. Carrots are super cheap, maybe have them in place of some of the fruit. Frozen peas are probably fresher than ' fresh:' peas. Frozen peppers are fine in pasta sauces etc.

I think £150 a week sounds quite a lot really for your family.

id swap some of the fruit for vegetables and fruits that are cheaper and last longer.

Also sounds like quite a lot of ready made food unless you are making it all from scratch?

I would think about adding more meals with the same base to bring costs down, roast chicken then becomes risotto / ramen / stir fry / wraps / pulled chicken or whatever. One packet of mince can make spaghetti one day and then that base can become chilli the second (add lots of different types of beans and the appropriate seasoning). Adding pulses or beans add other cheap vegetables (celery, carrots, onions, tinned tomatoes) helps to bring the budget down.

id avoid the top up shop in any way you can, freeze a loaf or bread and a couple of pints of milk from your main shop and pace your fruit and veg in the right order and you shouldn’t need it. It’ll stop impulse purchases and over buying.

id also think about reducing the frequency of take aways for health and wealth reasons. One nice meal out or take away a month and replace that with a fake away at home instead. Chicken wraps and chips, or any sort of fake away will be cheaper and healthier.

Have a look at Jenine kayley (@jeninehepworth) on TikTok she makes meals to feed a family of four for a fiver. Lots of good ideas on there

@Mrsmch123 Do you eat any veg?!

Is your food shop mostly items you take out of a packet and warm up?

If yes, then you could definitely spend less if you cooked from scratch.

What sort of fresh fruit do you buy?
Berries, kiwis, exotic fruits?
Apples, bananas, oranges?

Do you buy any veg?

And what fruit are you buying that's costing you so much?

Im a single person and I spend about £65 per week on my Tesco online shop. About £10 of that is for a relative and £55 for myself. That includes cleaning and other household supplies. There is a minimum £50 spend for free delivery.

buy all eg tesco basic range or asda basic range etc

9 in our family plus 3 cats and a dog fortnightly Tesco delivery is usually between £130-155....do all our own prepping veg and cooking, making sandwiches for lunches etc...its the washing powder and nappies that take a chunk of that tbh

I think that’s ok.

I shop in Tesco - two big shops per month, two small ones. Yesterday’s shop was a big shop for 2 A, 1 teen and 1 hungry ds8, was £170 after savings of £75 due to special offers, yellow stickers and use of their 10% discount scheme (I subscribe £8 a month and they give me 10% off twice a month, saving £16 yesterday).

My big “avoidable” costs are lots of soft drinks and fruit juices, and to be honest I spend more than I should on crisps and biscuits.

Cheap trades: pop your own popcorn to replace crisps; carrot sticks; cheaper treats like fig rolls or a small cup of dry cereal like apricot wheats or cinnamon Grahams.

We eat lots of veg. I try to prioritise things in season and UK grown veg which usually means it’s cheaper. I’ve recently discovered white cabbage and red cabbage are fab in a stir fry. Some more exotic items I will happily wait for Tescos to do multibuy offers so eg I can nab expensive frozen soy beans on 3-for-2.

My Tesco does its yellow-stickering first thing in the morning so I try to do my weekly shop when the store opens then I freeze down for meal plan that week. This way I can buy higher quality for better prices. This week I have got an organic whole chicken (still expensive at half price), four smash burgers, two finest-range chicken breasts for stir fry, and a 500g pack of beef mince which I’ll pad out with double quality of beans for 6 portions of chill.

Getting fish into our diet is challenging because one of my kids only likes salmon which is ££££ and smoked basa which is £. My dh hates smoked fish. So I handle this by doing separate protein eg dh and I have Thai fish cakes whilst kids have salmon teriyaki and we all have stir fry veg and noodles alongside.

That’s what we spend on two adults. So I think it’s quite reasonable.

I don't eat any veg but my 5 year old does. So with the chicken he will have sweetcorn, carrots, peas. Meatballs have tomatoe. Cucumbers ect.
fruit is grapes x 3 packets
strawberries x 3
2 watermelons
2 packets of apples
2 packets of tangarins
blueberries x 3
blackberries x 2.

all of it is take out and heat up. I don't like frozen meat or bread that has been in the freezer.

Is your son eating all that fruit? That’s a huge amount for a 5 year old. I’d focus on balanced nutritious dinners and avoid all the snacking on fruit. Two or three portions of fruit a day for a five year old is all that’s needed.

It’s the fact it’s processed food pushing up the price, I spend about half your costs but everything is from scratch even burgers

Is there a reason you are eating so much processed food and no vegetables? I would try to make some changes for the sake of the whole family.

Yeh I don't like most vegetables.

I eat some of the fruit as does my husband. We also waste quite a bit as I get funny about open food after 2/3 days. So not all the fruit gets eaten but say the watermelon after it's been cut and open for 2 days I will throw it out....should probably look at this to reduce the bill.....

Your fruit choices are quite expensive. You would be better with more vegetables than fruit. Frozen veg so diced peas, carrots, sweetcorn so child friendly. The main problem is that your diet is very processed - bad for your health and purse.

I would say that tallies what we spend (adjusting for more packed lunches, one take away a week or meal out and one more child who is slightly older). I shop at Aldi, I meal plan and try not to waste stuff. BUT we buy whatever we fancy to eat, I'm not budgeting, so we have salmon fillets twice a month, I buy the poshest apples, crisps, oats, tomatoes, sausages, oven chips etc because we prefer them to the cheaper ones. So I know we could cut costs if we needed to and with that in mind I'm saying if you need or want to then you probably can too without too much effort. But I don't think you're spending extortionately.

That's a lot of expensive fruit. Nothing wrong with fruit if you can afford it but the five a day recommendation is meant to include veg as well for balance and to cut down on sugar. Would definitely try to move some of that to vegetables. I think that you might need to show him him you eating more veg to help, as he gets older he will notice. Maybe making some things like pasta sauce or chilli or curry yourself if you can, adding pulses and beans as they are cheap. You can even try sweet potato chips for one of your meals. If you can't eat it in time, don't buy it. Watermelon is really for lots of people at one time, you can't cut it and eat all week. Maybe focus on fruit that lasts a bit longer, and have some frozen.