to think this is an ok amount to spend on the weekly food shop?

[minimaw]

Family of 3, ds aged 12, me and DH - £100 - £110 p/w
DH has been chatting to women in his work who only spend about £50 p/w for the same size of family and now he's starting to talk about Farmfoods and mass buying frozen chicken fillets (!) to save cash.
DH doesn't cook and doesn't understand the cost of food. I do buy good quality food and lots of good cuts of meat but he's jumped on some economy drive bandwagon for some reason and it's driving me nuts. Anyone else have a hubby who just doesn't understand the importance of the food budget?

We spend about £150 a week, could get it down if we really needed to but we eat in and take sandwiches / food out everywhere so I think overall this does save £. This does include pretty much everything, cleaning, toiletries, gifts for kids parties, etc, and it's split between supermarket and local co-op.

My lot are a bunch of greedy buggers. It's a piece of piss to make £25 of actual food last four of us most of the week, with a bit of proper planning and the ability to cook from scratch. Where our shopping budget falls down is in the crap and non-meal department: crisps, fruit, biscuits, cheesy snacks, rolls, yoghurts, cleaning stuff, dog treats, arsewipes, wine, juice...almost all of these can be gone within 2 days of purchase once my back is turned. Except the cleaning stuff.

I don't think it's the actual food that costs the ££ though it's the other stuff, nappies, wipes, laundry, meds, toiletries, I save by not physically allowing myself into the big supermarket as I pick up so many 'bargains' it always comes out £50 more.

At least we know exactly who reads the thread before posting, with all these zombies

I like the Nike post very much. More of the same, please.

I'd say a week's worth of meat alone comes in about the 40 - 50 quid mark

1. Fewer meat meals - include vegetarian dishes such as cauliflower cheese, risotto, mediterranean vegetable quiche.
2. Use cheaper cuts of quality meat such as skirt steak, offal and pork cheek (pork cheek is delicious and astonishingly cheap at Waitrose)
3. Use the reduced to clear counter and a freezer
4. Use recipes which make your meat/fish go further - eg fishcakes, pasta dishes and casseroles padded out with vegetables and pulses

£50 a week is a lot to be spending on meat when health guidelines suggest no more than two dinners of red meat a week.

We do eat lots of "meaty" dinners - but using the above tips I usually don't spend more than £175 - £200 a month on food for 2 very greedy adults and 1 2 year old. And we eat very well.

I'd say that's OK; DP and I's budgeted amount is £80/week and I haven't even had the baby yet.
I think it all depends on where you buy, and what; I like to buy good quality food; it costs more but I also gives us lee-way in the budget to get cheaper alternatives if things get tight. It should be noted I get everything from tescos (online with delivery); I could do lots of little shops at all kinds of places (farmers market, lidl etc) and make a saving but I don't think it would be all that worth it as I'd have to get a taxi each time; they're far apart and we don't have our own transport.

With supermarkets selling so many products these days osn't it almost impossible to say what you actually spend on FOOD a week though?

Quite simple to work out with a receipt, a highlighter and primary school level maths

Can I just ask what on earth people are buying when they are repeatedly buying cleaning products weekly ? I clean a lot and we have an extremely clean house but I still only get through 1 kitchen spray and a bathroom spray a month. That's all I buy apart from a toilet bleach every couple of months and dishwasher tablets.

What on earth are you all buying ??? !

I spend about £150 a week on myself, my DH and 3 children aged 23, 13 and 11 ( so pretty much 5 adults). My DH buys his own lunch at work and we spend about £70 at the weekend on eating out and/or takeaways. My 2 youngest have packed lunch 3 days a week and my grown up son has packed lunch for work everyday.
The weekly shop includes washing powder, dishwashing tablets,loo rolls etc and normally 3 bottles of wine.

*Can I just ask what on earth people are buying when they are repeatedly buying cleaning products weekly ? I clean a lot and we have an extremely clean house but I still only get through 1 kitchen spray and a bathroom spray a month. That's all I buy apart from a toilet bleach every couple of months and dishwasher tablets.

What on earth are you all buying ??? !*

I wanna know too

My bills are between £50-£70 a week, depending on whether I need to buy loo rolls etc.I only buy them on offer.

Cleaning products I only buy kitchen and bathroom spray, bleach,disenfectant, soap powder and dishwashing tablets. They do me a month! Microfibre cloths are the way to go and don't streak everything.

I only but toothpaste and deodorant. I only ever use the Shampoo Bar and Dream Conditioner from Lush (gives nice shiny hair), and with 3 females in the house and DH, it lasts us about 3-4 months. Better for your hair than any other shampoo. It does help that DD works in Lush so we get it cheaper but even at full price it s still more economical. ie one bar+ 5 bottles of shampoo.

Buy not but =-doh.

Interesting thread. OP I don't think your weekly spend is unreasonable. If you can afford that = and it works well for your family then good.However, if dH is getting huffy about it then you need to find out what is going on in his mind re money.

I can easily spend that - and more if I shop at Sainsburys. There is me, DH, DS (14!) and at weekends two DSS (also teens).

However I have started cooking more veggie based dishes - as have gone off meat. Me and DS are happy to be mostly veggie, with a bit of fish. DH likes some meat though. Which is fine - I can manage that.

At the weekends when we have a full house- I tend to bulk out meals with lots of veggies, extra potatoes, yorkshire puddings etc. I buy cheap bread as they get through a lot of that. Value squash to drink - no cokes. Yogurt- I buy large pots of natural yogurt - to be served on fruit. I don't buy the individual fruit sugar laden yogurts- they are v expensive.

I go to Costco for toilet roll, kitchen roll and washing powder (that lasts me about 6 months!). I also buy marmite there - as you geta great big tub for about £4 - love it.

Places like HomeBargains are great for cereal bars for packed lunches. much cheaper than in the supermarket.

This week I shopped at Aldi - and fillled the fridge for £41. The fruit and veg is considerably cheaper than the mainsupermarkets.

the only thing I won't skimp on is meat - if/when I do buy it it has to be British - and as 'organic' as poss. Same for eggs.

Wine - I won't buy cheap wine. Ever. I tend to buy that from the wine club, or go to a proper local wine shop.

Laundry. We do get through it here, even though it is only usually for three of us. However, we have our own towels - and they don't get laundered daily - maybe twice a week (mine more so, as I have more hair and they get wetter). However, I have discovered that I don't need to use as much powderas the manufacturers want you to. Half it. I sometimes use those washballs in lieu of powder (unless the clothes are particularly smelly). I don't use fabric softener - and the clothes feel fine. I dislike the artifical perfumed smell - I would prefer to smell of my own perfume.

Ithinkthat more and more people now are discovering that it is better to try and be more economical - as everything is going up in price. I am not 'tight' but I would happily shop around if it meant I had more holidays instead!

~Go Lidl or aldi you will find the difference.

You could say to him he can do it for a week and see how he gets on!

There are three of us, and we spend £120 a fortnight. At Waitrose. What on earth are you doing to spend so much???

sounds similar to us

there are four of us, girls are ages 7 and 9

We shop in Sainsburys, and our shop includes wine (maybe 3-4 bottles), toiletries and packed lunch stuff.

weekly price varies from around £90-£110 depending on what we buy (an expensive week might include washing tablets, shampoo, conditioner, extra wine)

it is a lot, for me, hubby and 6 month old big muncher we spend 40/50

I agree with the other posters and get your DH more involved so he can see where the money is being spent and then if you both want to changes could be made.

I have a very hungry baby and a very hungry husband and we budget £200 per calendar month for food shopping, toiletries, nappies and formula milk.

I like to think we are careful, e.g. we buy a whole chicken and chop it into portions, rather than buying chicken breasts which are more expensive. I also only buy toilet roll when it's on offer. Saying that, there are some things I do like to buy, e.g. Andrex toilet roll, and Fairy washing up liquid. I'm happy to try out supermarket brand stuff and I use Tesco value chopped tinned tomatoes and kidney beans.

Seems quite a lot to me I have a 14 yr old dd and ds 4 who are always always hungry and my food shop comes to about 50£ a week with no wine (I don't drink) I do cook mostly from scratch and tend to buy a enormous bag of carrots/potatoes/yoghurts etc rather than everything individually very week. Think it depends the sort of food your buying. I always but good quality meat but it tend to be a whole chicken, stretches a couple of meals etc.

Totally acceptable! I've spent more than that and not even bought food.. I probably spend £70 a week and I live on my own. More if have friends over for dinner:)

I spend about £55-60 sometimes less thats for 3 people, that includes delivery as I can be bothered to lug it up the stairs.

When we were kids mum and dad didn't have much money so we never had anything exciting in the weekly food shop. She tells me that I dont spend enough on food & she doesn't understand how I do it for so little? There is only 2 of them now and they spend over 100 per week!!!!

Our food bill is £50 on average - but our actual supermarket bill is nearly £80. I keep detailed spreadsheets on exactly what I spend on cos I'm totally anal cos we're skint - so I know where money goes.

The other £30 goes on nappies, screenwash for car etc, massive amount of bog rolls, toiletries, generall "stuff" and a fair whack of the kids clothes.

Perhaps when your DH is talking about the food bill, he actually means food only?

Our bill is for 2 adults, and 2 kids age 3 and 4.8.