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?

My DH also has a "wow! that was expensive. What did you buy?" type of reaction on the odd occasion he comes to do the "big shop" with me (which has been much more frequent of late as I have a bad back & could do with help with the packing, loading the car etc.)

We shop mainly at Aldi or Lidl and spend an average of £70 a week on our main shop. There will always be "extras" during the week that I have forgotten or that we have run out of (usually bread, milk & loo rolls) on top of this. Our family is me, DH, DS1 14, DS2 10 & baby DD. The £70 includes nappies & extra fruit/veg for DD but no baby milk.

In our more skint days though, I used to be able to feed the four of us for £20 a week. That was a couple of years ago though, before DD - with the way food prices have risen lately I'm not sure that would still be possible today.

I do tend to agree with your DH that £110 a week every week is quite a lot for three people.

we spend the same as you. have 3 dcs but they are all preschool age so your 12 year old probably eats alot more than them so i think it seems normal what you are spending. presuming you are including cleaning products etc in that i dont know how you can cover all the food, cleaning things, toiletries and whole grocery shop in much less really as shopping has gone really expensive these days. well i suppose you could but would take a lot of planning, meal planning etc
if your dh is moaning so much why not say to him he can shop and do all the meals for a week, see if he does a better job, and if not then let you get on with it!

Shocked I guess because I think couples should work as a team. So if one of us thought the other was spending too much on something we would talk about it. And in your example, my DP would say well this is hwo much an oil change costs and we needed it done. Not just, well you know nothinga bout it so but out.

Oh I've just remembered coffee, I'm sure he hasn't a clue how much coffee costs, and he drinks it by the bucketful. We don't tend to eat out or buy takeaways often and all three of us take packed lunch every day.

We are a family of 4 and spend about £80 a week, We spent a lot of years struggling and only having £30 a week to feed us all and had no choice but to buy value brands so I tend to spend a little bit more now on better quality meat and fruit but old habits die hard and I still get value veg and go for deals!

And I don't cook, DH does all the cooking and shopping as he finishes work earlier than me

I spend about £25 per week on me and DS. I am quite fussy about buying free-range chicken, so we don't have it often, and I get cheap cuts of meat from the butcher. You have to ask for cuts like beef skirt, but it is lovely in the slow cooker.
The trick I've found to spending so little is planning. I plan our meals a week in advance, so when I go shopping I know exactly what I need. I also use the cheaper ranges, they're not so bad.
Another tip is to get a chest freezer if you have the room. Then you can bulk-buy, or get things marked down if they are near their use-by date.

3 adults here and I spend about £80 a fortnight in supermarket, and about £10 a fortnight at local shop. I'd love to have your budget!

"but then I'm punishing myself and ds too!"

It doesn't necessarily have to be punishing. It's a doddle to create a nice meal around expensive ingredients but simple meals with cheaper ingredients can be just as good. One of our favourite suppers, Egg Fried Rice, is dirt cheap because the main protein comes from eggs and, even if they're organic and free-range, it's still not a pricey dish. Vegetarian dishes based on pulses are really nutritious and a nice change, and things like beans and lentils cost next to nothing.

It's Lent at the moment - traditional time for religious types to give something up. You could set yourself a challenge to budget/tasty meals for a few weeks. You might learn something.

There are 4 of us, me and 3 dc 9,12 and 14 and I spend around £100 a week. I have tried but cannot get it less.....if I spend less we run out of stuff mid week!
Plus I've 4 cats so I would say £6-7 a week goes on them!

We spend about £100 p/w on fam of 4. We only buy 'real' food as we don't eat sugar at all as a family. Lots of proteins cost a lot of money but is FAR better for you than cheap, processed, pumped full of chemicals and fillers food, which is what you get at Farmfoods, sorry. Your family's health is important and if you can afford to eat well you should. I cannot believe that all nutritional requirements are being met on some of these budgets!

Egg fried rice is our favourite as well...and we chuck in any leftovers from the Sunday roast.

And I would say its not the meals that cost it's the pack lunches!!! Plus feeding a teenager that eats like a horse

dont eat as much meat, eat it once or twice a week.

do you eat fish? you can downgrade the type of fish you are eating.

what meals do you cook?

I cannot believe that all nutritional requirements are being met on some of these budgets!

That would depend on where you live and how you cook.

I love the BBC Good Food online recipes. If you go for healthy or veghetarian categories, they tend to be very cheap. Our favourite from there at the moment is chickpea and spinach curry. Very cheap, very tasty, quick to make and very healthy. Much healthier than quality cuts of meat.

And I would say its not the meals that cost it's the pack lunches!!! Plus feeding a teenager that eats like a horse

But a bale of hay and a few apples shouldn't cost the earth

We usually have a tight budget and I juggle and alter the shopping list so much until it fits the budget. Usually spend about £50-£60/week family of three. Includes cleaning stuff, personal care etc.

For people whose bills are only 50 - 70 a week, does that included EVERYTHING? Loo rolls, kitchen paper, cleaning products etc? Does it include enough food for sandwiches for dh and kids every day?

Also fish like salmon is more expensive. There is loads of cheap fish that is actually healthier like fresh sardines for example.

And to be healthy meals should be bulked out with veg or pulses. Someat based meals shouldn't really have that much meat in them.

Just to say, I don't care what other people eat. Just disagree with the premise that cheaper meals are less healthy when actually cheap meals can be healthier if they rely on veg and pulses.

I spend £45-50 per week on a full shop for me, DP & DS who's 2. We eat really well and I rarely buy budget brands. But, we also don't eat meat and I don't buy many household cleaners which others seem to spend a fortune on. I'm big on meal-planning and this really does help save money.

As for the £1.75 per day comment... Perfectly possible to eat well on this. I can make gallons of spicy butternut squash soup for pennies. That's what we take to work for lunch and it works out a lot cheaper (and healthier) than ham sandwiches. Seriously, if you want to save money, buy the River Cottage Veg book. Yummy dinners for next to nothing.

"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!"

In what way does being a bit frugal equate to "punishing self" ?

We cope on £25 because I don't buy crap. Nothing in jars, or ready-made, or lots of meat. Veg (especially marked down veg) is very cheap and healthy. We have veg soup, curries, roasted veg etc. Cheese is expensive, but I only buy a small block once a week.
It can be done, but it has to be planned.

Tell him you have been giving this a lot of thought and he is right. Buy some really cheap & nasty instant coffee and he will soon see the error of his ways.

It is one thing to economise when you have to (or want to) but it's quite another being told you need to do it by the other half who doesn't shop and doesn't cook & when you don't need to!