How much is your weekly shop?

[KnittedBreast]

I was talking to an old collegue the other day about food shopping and if hes noticed a price rise in his shopping bill.

He lives with his wife and their 3 year old son, i was shocked when he said his shopping bill is £100 a week every week! thats not including the occassional expensive week you know with washing powder or whatever.

My parents with no children (living at home) spends 150 a week-on what? seriously? dips? bloody expensive dips!

My shopping costs about 50 but often 30 a week for 2 adults and 2 children under 5. I have noticed my bill going up a bit, dont know if my son is eating more or vat rise.

do you shop weekly? whos bu, my collegue or me? where do you fit?

I don't think my last post was long enough so trying to think what we've had for dinners this week ... last night was chick pea curry, night before was mushroom & potato hotpot, night before that was broccoli & spinach souffle but can't remember what we had with it - think I had organic sausages, not sure about DH, also had a rice pud that night. Before that my mind is a blank though think DH might have made lentil sauce and pasta one night.

We don't have pudding (except fruit/yogurt) and very very rarely buy branded stuff.

Okay to those wondering how some of us have such cheap shopping bills. Just 1 example:

spaghetti bolognaise - made yesterday 12 adult sized portions. I freeze into portions what we don't eat. Cost:

2 packs of 500 g steak mince from aldi - £5.98
3lb of carrots - i think 60p from market
1lb of mushrooms £1.20
2 tins of tinned tomatoes from aldi - i think about 28p each
mixed herbs, garlic, 1 large onion and 1 stock cube - about 30-40p

plus whjolemeal spaghetti from asda

onceamai, you could shop online in the evening with asda or tesco and spend A LOT less!

About £77 at Tesco. I love Waitrose but sadly had to admit that you get more for your money at Tesco.

OK, here are some examples of what we eat...

Morrisons recently had an offer for birdseye pack of 4 breaded fish for £1.24. Me and dp will have 1 piece each and dcs will have fishfingers (2 each, pack of 10 is £1.69 from Lidl). Chips are 50p from Lidl, we would use half a bag, or if they have potatoes on offer I will have those instead. Normally we would have3 of the following on the side- sweet potato mash, peas, baked beans, salad leaves, grated carrot salad... Not very exciting I know!

Morrisons again, have been doing stirfry veg pack for 50p, and I bought an extra cabbage to add to this, they are also on offer at the moment. I have loads of sauces in the cupboard as they were on buy 1 get 2 free a while ago. Served with quinoa this week, usually would just have rice with that.

Last night we had buckwheat pancakes. The filling was leftovers from the freezer (a kind of lentil thing that was a topping for jacket potatoes puy lentils, carrots, tinned tomatoes, garlic....). Salad on the side, grated carrots again, avocadoes (bought for 35p each)

Basically, we eat meat very rarely, our food is nutritious but quite basic. I buy fresh basil and coriander once a week, use lots of garlic, ginger etc to make things interesting.

It's not how I'd want to eat forever, but I need to be SAHM this year for various reasons but I actually can't afford to be!

Treats are Morrisons value choc digestives 34p and their value crisps 25p for pack of 6.

We have porridge for breakfast every morning, topped with value dried fruit- raisins dates and apricots are favourites atm- and I always make sure there is fruit in the house which the kids can help themselves to.

I spend £60 on average (per week).

Waitrose quick check scanners are good - you can keep a running tally of what you're spending and deduct any rash purchases!

My new tip: use half the pack of mince when making spag bol etc and pack out with more veg. I discovered this by accident as I always add loads of peppers/ courgettes etc - and wondered why there was too much to fit in the baking dish.

In my opinion the easiest way to save money is to do a single weekly shop (or a big monthly store cupboard one and weekly fresh stuff) and avoid 'popping in' every couple of days as those trips are the ones that add up to a big bill.
Never shop when youre hungry either, it just encourages you to fill the trolley with snacks.
And ALWAYS use a list! Spend a few min going round the house/ kitchen cupboards etc looking for what you need, write a list and stick to it. I don't understand how people can get the stuff they need without a list, unless they have a fab memory
Stuff on offer is only a bargain if you actually want it and use it BUT if you use it regularly then watch for offers and stock up then. We almost never pay full price for wash powder, cat food, breakfast cereal, loo roll etc

Everytime I see these threads all I really want posters who spend under £80 a week to do (family of 4) is to tell me what you buy! PLEASE SOMEONE DO A LIST!!

About $450 per week so around 210 pounds. We never buy ready meals, preferring instead to cook from scratch.

Ours is about £50-£60 a week including washing powder etc.

My mums (same as your parents, two of them plus small dog) is £80/week which is what she used to spend on her weekly shop and when we all left home, she upgraded to M&S organic vegetables/fruit, Waitrose shopping, and John Lewis cleaning products. Her bath cleaner is about £10!!!

What makes a massive difference is the amount of stuff you buy which is ready made and how much meal planning you do. On a good week I can get it down to £25-30. Then DH buggers it all up by demanding loads of meat and hoovering everything not nailed down or padlocked in the fridge.

£50 a week for me and DS's snacks/weekend meals (he eats at my parents' through the week and has school dinners)

I used to manage to spend only £30-35 but it seems to have rocketed and I'm buying better meat

MaryPoppins, I think it's a combination of

• planning (lists as others have said)
• forethought / cunning (ie getting to know which shops are generally best value for which products)
• Stocking up when there are offers on (esp loo rolls / kitchen rolls/ detergents)

cooking from scratch

• not eating too much meat - and if you do cooking less expensive cuts very slowly.

Oh and in the bean household we don't eat puddings

Ours is about £65-70 for me, dh and ds although you could easily squeeze another one in there.... It also includes the nappies and baby bits.
We cook lots. The little one eats a lot of fruit and it tends to be smoothies rather than wine in my shopping basket - I've got a line in bartering going on for some work I do which provides wine.

I spend about £80 a week on a big shop ,that is for 2 adults ,a 16yr old , an 8yr old (still in pullups) and a 1 yr old and a cat , buy the dog food from someone who delivers and it costs about £25 for six weeks . However i also pay to have milk delivered ,pay for school dinners for 8yr old £10.50 a week ,give 16 yr old £2.50 a day for lunch/bus . Then there is the top up shops , where i spend between £3 and £20 , dont tend to buy fruit/veg all in one go at big shop as it often goes off ,especially salad/mushrooms . The 16yr old probably costs me about £5 a week in 'products'

I am not the most economical shopper, but onceamai, if you need to save money you aren't getting the right things.

Not good at putting this into practice, but eg the theory is that you don't buy chicken fillet but buy a large chicken. Control portion size so that the breast is eaten for meal one ie Sunday dinner with padding via veggies, stuffing etc, then leg meat and pickings can go in a nice stir fry or savoury crumble or sauce with pasta, then the carcass is simmered for stock to make a nice soup with the last of the pickings and some fresh veggies.

Eg last week I made a casserole. It was around 1 1/2 lb of diced lean beef, seared before putting in slow cooker with plenty of onions and carrots and some barley. I served this up with baked potatoes. Because I had been generous with the veggies and served side veggies there was plenty of casserole to do the second day with a tin of chopped tomatoes and lots of chopped potatoes added, together with plenty of whole black peppercorns and a generous dash of garam masala, served with small amount of rice as there were plenty of potatoes in it.

I bought good quality lean diced beef. There was very little waste in it, so all of it made it onto the plates of three adults and a child. There is plenty of protein in other parts of our diet.

I couldn't cost it up exactly, but the entire cost for both meals for four probably came in under a fiver, and I had a lot of compliments.

Also if you can afford to spend on shopping buy smoked salmon but if you need to save money there perhaps it is better to get good quality cheaper fish like coley and cook it carefully - or even good quality fish fingers!. It is what you prefer and what you can afford. Nothing wrong in getting what you like.

Also would like to add I am not always good at this. I also use condensed soups as instant sauces for eg something and pasta to add to meat. I use good quality powdered soups or cuppa soups from Approved Food as a base for a casserole sometimes. But I do try. don't want to be a hypocrite pretending I am a good housewife.

We have recently switched to a system of one big monthly storecupboard shop - about £120-£140, and then spend £60-£80 a week for a family of 5 (three adults, one teen,one nine year old). Oh, and one cat. here is what we get for the monthly shop:
tins of sweetcorn, tomatoes, baked beans, kidney beans, chick peas (own brand)
jars of pasta sauce (whatever is on offer)
own brand passata
own brand cereal
coffee
washing up liquid, big box washing powder, cat food (dried), toilet rolls, toothpaste, tampax, cleaning cloths etc
herbs and spices, condiments, bag lentils, stock cubes
huge bag pasta, bag rice, wraps
Juice

Then weekly I would buy:
potatoes, onions, peppers, cherry tomatoes, leeks, carrots (for soup), bananas, lemon, apples, maybe grapes, lettuce
milk, yoghurts, butter, cheese,
bread, rolls, sometimes scones or teacakes
turkey breasts (for stirfries or wraps)
mince(beef for bolognese, turkey or pork for meatballs)
joint for roast if on special offer
frozen waffles, oven chips, pizzas.
eggs from a friend who has chickens.
beer and wine.
That's it.
I take out a weekly budget in cash, make a weekly menu and cook pretty much from scratch. No biscuits, crisps or puddings.

Was going to say, we did have one week when we couldn't actually buy any food at all, though did eventually scrape together a few quid for some fresh fruit. It was before that week's food shop as well. Anyway, it wasn't a particularly nice week, but it did turn out we had enough frozen veg, stuff in the store cupboard etc to get through. Was bloody happy when payday came though :) So it's always worth checking what you've actually already got if you're on a tight budget.

I always think passata is a waste of money. Tinned tomatoes with herbs and sun dried tomatoes for pasta is cheaper and much nicer. Or if you are being really careful with money cheap tomato puree and herbs is fine.

I don't understand how some people can spend so much. For some posters with the amount you spend, you could get a M & S £10 dine in meal for 2 people every night.

I could eat quite cheaply or veggie but my DP is a tall bloke who exercises, so his appetite is through the roof at the moment. He needs 4 meals a day. He also refuses to eat veggie only as it's not (in his eyes) "proper protein" but I don't feel right about buying battery farmed meat.. So meat pushes our bill up to £75 / week, maybe a bit more. I am a good home cook & everything is pretty much from scratch.

I am finding his constant hunger a bit stressful tbh as a) money is tight and b) I do all the cooking.

My bill has reduced drastically since DD1went to uni and my dad died. Now about £75 for DH, DD2 and me.

We're a mix. I work from home so eat all my meals here. DD has packed lunch. We cook everything from scratch because of DH health - has to be kept low in salt and fat. Spend more on meat - must be British, tend to buy 'finest' range or equivalent. Always get the more expensive extra lean mince as hate the higher fat content of the cheaper stuff. But I buy sausage, bacon, mince on special offer (which crop up about once a month) and freeze. Salmon sides at half price and cut into fillets for freezing etc.

We tend to reduce the amount of meat needed in recipes and bulk out with pulses and veg. I buy dried pulses in bulk and soak rather than tins. I also buy the good quality tinned tomatoes when they're on special offer - keep a stock on shelves in the garage.

Same with cleaning products - I keep an eye out for special offers and buy at half price, storing excess in garage.

All of which frees up money for the vast amounts of carbohydrates and fruit needed to keep 2 (now 1) sporty girls going. It's not just teenage boys who have the ability to empty cupboards of food!

Oh and we buy wine too!

We spend about £40-£50 a week for 2 adults and a 4 year old.

Although I should say we would spend a hell of a lot less if DP and DS would eat veg/fruit/pasta/lentils but as it is, DS will only eat chiucken nuggets, cold sausage rolls, variations of things on toast at lunch or tea time

Our budget is mainly due to the fact that we are skint but in all honesty even if I had loads of cash I don't really see why there is a need to spend £100 every single week but if you have the mooney and want to do that then go for it IMO.

A few weeks ago my bill was between £60 and £70 a week for me, dp and dd (including wine ).

Then in the same supermarket, buying the same things, it went up by £15!

I changed my supermarket and now it's back down to what it was before.

We rarely spend less than £150 per week, for 2 adults, and 3DS's aged 4,5, and 3 months. Formula and nappies really whack the cost up.

I try to cook from scratch when possible, but generally I buy veg, wait until it rots and then end up throwing it out , which is purely due to bad planning/laziness on my part...

btw aldi now do free range chickens whole! £3.44 each which I thought was an excellent buy

I do a shop in Aldi where I can get all the expensive things (washing liquids, cleaning fluids etc) and its so much cheaper than the main supermarkets- there is no difference in quality at all IMO. I then do a top up shop in morrisons for nappies and anything I need that aldi doesnt do (am v.loyal to pampers). Aldi also do an excellent sauvignon blanc for £3.21

I manage to do a monthly shopping budget of £180 using this method. There's me, DH and DS1 (that eat like horses) and DS2 (milk monster). Everything I cook is from scratch and we only eat meat once a week-chicken or minced beef. Canned pilchards in tomato sauce make an excellent curry btw!!

I could quite easily spend £100 a week otherwise