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 was quite shocked recently when a friend told me that she only serves the breast from a roast chicken - she bins the rest!

She's throwing out the best bit!!

I spend £120 a week and that's for 3 people including a 3 year old. It's the fresh meat and alcohol that makes it high. I am trying to get it down but I have noticed a rise in the past 2 weeks as it used to be £110. I shop in Sainsbury

I just did my weekly shop - minus a loaf of bread - and it came to £37. Including toiletries. Thats for me and 2 children aged 3 and 4.

Mine used to be £60 but I no longer drink, and now cook a lot more from scratch. I also stick to basic fruit (apples/bananas) unless they're on offer (like cherries today for a small punnet £1)

and we only eat fresh meat once a week and fish once a week.

We spend £60 for four (youngest still in nappies). We cook from scratch and have a fair bit of snacking items in for DS. This doesn't include alcohol though.

We would spend what we needed to, but if we bought anymore it would just go to waste. I have noticed the VAT rise in individual products but it hasn't overly affected my shopping bill, it is similar to last years shopping bill.

Now my petrol bill is another matter entirely...

I spend between about £50-£70 a week on me, DH and DD, and 2 cats. I use value wash powder for none clothes items that get washed, we don't drink (at all) but I do spen at least £20 a week on Diet Coke (inc. in the budget). I kid you not. DH is diabetic, and it's all he drinks. I have found the key is to keep store cupboards stocked by buying a little item each week, so that you can bake biscuits/cake instead of buying it, turn cruddy veg into a lovely soup or stir fry, and also to cook in bulk and freeze it. It's difficult, but with the price of everything and having reduced hours at work- it's got to be done! i always go to Tesco.

Jinxediam You are my hero!

My PILs must spend an absolute fortune on their weekly shop, judging by the huge wadges of schools vouchers they get! Most of it bottles of wine, I should think.

I've cut our shopping bill recently by switching to an online shop for bulk items (mostly non-food, bottles and cartons of soft drinks) every other week, which also reduces the stress no end and makes it easier to plan meals when you are only going to the supermarket for food!

TotemPole Wed 09-Feb-11 13:33:48

I have stopped buying packaged ham and started cooking a ham (gammon?) in the slow cooker - lasts ages and only about £6 from Tescos and I use the stock for soups. I was slightly horrified at how much we were paying for sliced stuff when a joint was so much cheaper.

I invested in a meat slicer to my own gammon. For example this week Asda had 2 1.3kg gammon joints for £10, where as their ham is £6.00 for 450g. I freezer in portions of 6/8 slices. I also do this with beef and pork.

I spending £300/400 per month for 5 of us (2 in nappies).

We (dp, me and 1 small dog) spend between £100-110 per week on food. Now that I'm not feeding 5 starving teenagers who hoovered food into themselves, my shopping list has changed a great deal since we don't have puddings other than fresh fruit nor any sort of fizzy drinks, chocolate, "bought cake" or crisps. Nor do I have to provision for lunchboxes or vast quantities of bread, Marmite and sundry spreads.

We shop at Waitrose because we prefer it with forays into M & S on those evenings when we'll need to eat ready-meals. I prefer to cook from scratch but don't compromise on ingredients so it's always the leanest mince or an organic chicken. I like to know where my food comes from and prefer local produce and ethically produced meat.

I do realise that I'm very lucky to be able to shop without counting every penny but life was not always like this. When I was bringing up the dcs single-handed, there were many times when I didn't eat. Or existed on ridiculous things like half a round of sandwiches. This not being a sensible habit to get into since I am convinced that my diverticulitis was assisted by poor nutrition and I have certainly been left with ongoing issues about eating.

Nowadays, I work on the principle that it is my money, my stomach and my choice about what I fill it with!

MissVerinder

i'm presuming thats for my top tips on aldi free range chicken and sauvignon blanc? Im more than happy to wash the laundy mountain with Almat if it means I can factor my daily into the budget. After a day of DS2 (2) I have earned it!!!!

I love aldis weekly veg offers for 69p

laundry even...

very interesting thread which i'll go back and read properly later, but for this month i've just spent £205 (2 adults / 2 DC) for the month.

That doesn't inc booze (we've both cut down during the week, but still buy beers for fridge and "decentish" wine around £5 per bottle, but DH pays for it) or fruit and veg.

Fruit and Veg i'll buy weekly from the market £8-9, plus i need to regularly buy bread and milk every few days (£4) and possibly nappies but fortunately just bought 2 huge boxes for £22 in Asda'a baby event. so i'm guessing that if you add that all up it comes under £300 a month (just under £75 a week).

I'll always buy bargain Persil / Fairy liquid bottles when on offer whether required that week or not so i've got a big stash and i cook everything from scratch (98% of the time). Thought i was doing quite well!! Right, will go back and read rest of the thread!

"Its perfectly possible to eat really well on £50 per week if you make things from scratch."

how???? where!!!!! god we cook everything from scratch. eat very little meat, and spend 100 easily

we are a family of 5 (2adults and 3dc's), and i spend between £30 and £45 a week on the shopping. I am an Aldi convert i have to say, and i think that most of their stuff is as good as the more well-known brands. I go to Asda to check out what they have in their reduced section too. its becoming a bit of challenge for me i think, trying to find things on reduced or on offer. the pennies dont go as far as they used to.

I don't know much about wine, but I enjoy the Three Mills from the local newsagents, which is British wine (I believe that does not necessarily mean grapes grown in Britain), 8% alcohol, £3 per bottle and is really, really nice. The rose and the red are the nicest. My father likes the sort of wine that is usually £10 per bottle plus, and he says it is very nice, very smooth and velvety.

I believe you can also get it in Asda.

I practically never drink, but this is something I really enjoy.

We total about £600 a month for 2 adults and 2 children, including food, cleaning stuff for the house and for us, alcohol, nappies (over and above what we get from the NHS, plus wipes etc). 2 of us are lactose intolerant, so a noticeable portion of the budget goes towards working around that.

If we had to tighten our belts, we could probably cut what we spend by about 1/3 without breaking a sweat.

The person who can't feed herself properly on a budget of £70 for 2 people and a job needs some basic cooking lessons, I think. One child and a dog don't cost that much to feed, unless you're feeding the child on steak and expensive ready meals. Because of our various food preferences/intolerances/sensory aversions (both boys have ASD), the 4 of us often end up having somewhat different meals and we still manage to do that for about £5-7 per (nutritionally balanced, good quality) main meal for all of us, including DS2's organic yoghurts. Plus, it's not setting a good example to your child if you eat nothing but rubbish in front of him.

Not telling you how much but it's a lot. We don't buy processed food, cigarettes or alcohol though.

I spend approximately £20 per week for 1 adult, 1 child and 2 rabbits. I cannot afford to go over this amount. I visit Tesco's and Sains for their reduced meat and then either batch cook or freeze straightaway.
One example: I bought from Sains, 6 pork loins £2.00, 2 rump steaks £3.00, 12 chicken pieces(mixture of thighs and legs) £3.00, 1 lamb leg £2.40, 1 x pork tenderloin £2.40 - this will do 10 meals for DD and I averaging out at £1.28 per meal plus veg or rice.

This was all meat which was out of date that day and I was just there at the right time.

I get my veg either from Lidl or the market which reduces their stock at about 1600 to £1 per bag. I make soup out of this and freeze. I also puree the fruit and put into ice cube trays and freeze for smoothies.Also the veg is good fodder for the rabbits.
I only shop where the bargains are and do a meal planner based on what I have bought, this saves both time and money.

About £70 - £80 per week for 2 adults, an 8 yr old and a 5yr old, but I don't often go for branded products and bulk buy any special offers!!

We eat meat every day as dh cannot believe people don't

There are 4 of us but dd2 is ebf atm so only counts for nappies and wipes. I spend about £60 at Tesco and £15 at Lidl a week. This includes all breakfasts, dinners and lunches for the three of us except Fridays which is chippy night.

Our meal planner is roughly the same every week:

Sun - Roast Chicken, spuds and veg
Mon - Curry (with leftover chicken from Monday)
Tues - Spag Bol or Chilli
Wed - Lasagna or Enchillidas (using leftover spag.bol or chilli from day before)
Thurs - Fish pie
Fri - Chippi
Sat - Stir Fry (nice and quick for a Sat)

This means I can buy a bag of carrots, celery and onions and use them nearly every day so no chucking food out at the end of the week.

I spend quite a bit on fruit as I don't buy crisps, biscuits or cakes.

Toilet roll, kitchen roll, nappies,wipes washing tablets and dishwasher tablets all from lidl.

We buy apporx. 2 bottles of wine a week and use some of it for cooking.

I only buy won brand tinned tomatoes so could cut back a bit more if needed.

Easily £100 for two adults and one DC - we drink A LOT. . (Be interesting if I split it into food/alcohol) !