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?

Family of 5 here (plus 2 cats) and we spend around £90 on weekly shop then around £10 on top ups. (thats at tesco and i dont buy expensive cuts of meat, usually belly pork or beef brisket.

We spend no more than £50 on four of us. We eat well. I buy fruit from a local stall, I buy veg in lidl and meat from our butcher. You don't need to compromise on quality to save money. Just shop better and plan meals. We have 2-3 veggie meals a week. Including soup, baked potatoes etc, lots of salads and so on.

I spend about that, but there are 4 of us, including 2 teenagers, and I know I don't shop very economically. Me and DH both work fulltime and tend to just chuck stuff into the trolley that we know will make quick meals when we get home at 6.30 and everyone is starving! We also buy quite a lot of wine treats
Can't really say whether YABU - depends what works for your household and budget

That's a lot to spend but isn't a problem assuming you can afford it. If you want to change DH's mind can I recommend 'Operation Economy Drive' ? Essentially means that you put the family on a diet of porridge breakfasts, sandwich lunches and soup/lentils for supper (no wine, obviously) for as long as it takes before he cracks :)

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

If you can afford it it is up to you and your DH what you spend. But i do think thats a lot. It sounds as if you are eating a lot of meant which isn't actaully that healthy. I buy free range chicken for example, but unless I was buying fillet steaks and cuts like that a couple of times a week, I would never spend that amount just on meat.

Cross-post- I'd definitely give the wine and meat/fish a miss for a a couple of weeks then. I can understand not wanting to buy cheap meat, so give it a miss (or just buy single portions for DS).

Well steak fillet, salmon, alcohol is expensive so I think your DH does have a point.

If you can't afford that sort of shopping budget, you'll have to cut back like many other people have had to.

Cogito has the answer! Things like breakfast cereals can be hugely expensive too, depending what you buy.

It also depends on how many school dinners, lunches out and takeaways you have each week. I am a family of three 2dc and myself and I spend about £80 a week but we buy no food outside of the home on a day to day basis, we all take packed lunches to school and work and very rarely have a takeaway!

I'm amazed at the people who spend £50 a week on a family of four!? That's about £1.75 per day per person?! Are you sure you are eating enough??

Thing is, it depends what your disposable income is.
I don't spend anywhere near that amount (probably £75-£80 these days, including all top ups in the week, and including cleaning stuff, shampoos, etc.) and I have 5 of us to cater for...... and teenagers eat A LOT.
However, on these threads you often get people who think nothing of spending £150 - £200.
There's no right or wrong answer. There's plenty of ways to cut back if you want to - people here will help you out, but if you don't need to, then why not splash out on the more expensive things if that's what you enjoy.

Tbh this may not be about budgets. It may be about him wanting to take control of something you currently control (without any of the faff of shopping, menu planning and cooking). If you can't afford it then he has a point. Otherwise tell him if he wants to buy from Farm Foods or wherever, he can plan, shop and cook.

Is your DH worried about money. Agree to his way for a week and see if he notices a difference in the food quality. Most economy veg tastes just as good, it's just less standard shapes. We're veggies so our food bill is half yours but I would imagine good quality meat tastes better than the cheap stuff.

If you can afford it then it's an OK amount to spend.

If you can't, then it's not.

The thought of a bag of frozen chicken fillets from Farmfoods makes me feel ill.

Why ill? I keep seeing Farmfoods mentioned on MN, is there some 'thing' I've missed about it?

Yeah I take my hat off to people who can feed four adults (teenagers) on £50 a week and still cook good quality homemade meals all week, maybe it depends on what part of the uk we live? Prices vary and all that!!

Ours is £70-80 a week for 4 of us, includes nappies etc though, no alcohol.

Agree your DH should learn to cook!

We spend about £250 a month on food, nappies, wipes and cleaning products for a family of 5. That's 2 adults , 6yo, 4yo and 1yo. All cooking from scratch mainly basics brands.
But if you can afford to spend that much then what's stopping you.

We can afford it, it's not about that. I'm liking the idea of doing a stealth budget shop and seeing how he likes it but then I'm punishing myself and ds too! It's just wound me up that he thinks the family food budget is for him to comment on, he doesn't know what he's talking about if you ask me. Really surprised at how economical some of you are though, well done!

I'm amazed at the people who spend £50 a week on a family of four!? That's about £1.75 per day per person?! Are you sure you are eating enough??

I'm sure you didn't mean that to be as patronising as it sounds but...

For example, if you cook a chicken roast on a Sunday...you can make chicken fried rice on a Monday with the leftovers.

If you have a lot of veg and it looks like it's not going to last more than another day or two, you can make a huge pot of veg soup and freeze it.

There are many, many ways of making a budget stretch further...sometimes it just takes a bit of thought.

Also, how much is 'enough'? Judging by the amount of overweight people there are nowadays compared to years ago, it would seem 'enough' has become a much larger amount.

I'm shocked tbh taht you don't think he has a right to have a view on the family food budget

I'm shocked tbh taht you don't think he has a right to have a view on the family food budget
Shocked? Why? I don't interfere in the car maintenance budget because I don't know how much an oil change costs and he does. It's about delegation.

Yep I agree

Sounds more like segregation to me

If you two took more time to muck in together, you might not have a problem.

You say you can afford it and it's 'not about that'....so why does your DH think you should cut back?

We don't spend that much on food because we don't eat much meat or drink much wine and tbh probably eat healthier than many people who spend much more. So tonight having home made spinach and feta cheese pie in filo pastry. For lunch home made carrot and corianger soup. Last night spaghetti bolognaise made with a tiny bit of steak mince and lots of carrots and mushrooms. Night before fresh sardines and veg.

It is possible to eat very healthily without spending large amounts of money. But not if you eat lots of meat and drink lots of wine.