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?

ben10 - they queue up in height order for 'tasting' as soon as they come out of the oven! All 3 of them do eat a lot, but the horrible sods never put on weight! Must admit though dh has a physical job and the 2 DS are very sporty

I buy steak fillet, salmon steaks etc, all organic

Well you could probably knock a fair bit off by buying cheaper cuts of meat, or cheaper fish. But I'd rather eat fillet steak less frequently than have cheaper beef regularly etc.

When I was with the XW our weekly shop was regularly £150+ for just the two of us. If I did the shop on my own, it was about half that.

'I am amazed that some of you can spend so little - what abotu breakfast cereals, bread products at breakafast, fresh fruit, yoghurts? packed lunch items x 10 per week, household stuff such as dishwasher tabs, washing tabs, loo rolls, etc etc?? Quite apart from the basics of dinner every night.'

My cereal costs 46p for a huge bag from asda, you can get 6 yogurts 44p from asda,fruit I can get a massive crate of it for a fiver from the fruit shop as they are desperate for cash as its a recession dont have a dishwasher, washing tablets I spend 3 quid on for a box and it lasts around a month thing there is about 26 washes in them? get them from asda to, loo rolls 42p for 4 from asda again.

Just to clarify my post above - I suppose I see meat as a 'flavouring' rather than as necessarily 'the main part of' a dish.

So a stir fry for 4 for us, depending on season, would be half a bunch of spring onions, couple of peppers, lots of mushrooms, maybe a small courgette, a head of broccolli, some mange tout or sugar snap peas, maybe some tinned water chestnuts or bamboo shoots or half a bag of beansprouts, chilli, ginger and garlic to taste, some mixed oriental greens if we've got some from the veg patch - and a handful of prawns (again, we buy a standard-sized pack meant for 1 meal and freeze them in lots of smaller handfuls) or a single chicken breast to add flavour and some extra nutrients.

Equally a pork casserole contains lots of peppers, onions, tomatoes etc to stretch the small amount of pork + matbe a chorizo sausage for extra flavour. Or it's onions, apples, cider, root veg and a similar amount of pork. Similarly a couple of rashers of bacon in a mainly tomato and pepper based spicy pasta sauce. Or a small amount of fish in a fish pie that's heavy on the carrots, eggs, onions, spinach and potato.

It's a way of looking at meat or other expensive ingredients that I was brought up in and so doesn't seem at all strange to me - I am surprised tbh that it has seemed so alien here.

My online shop most weeks is £80-£100 and then I do a top up of about £30-£40 mid week too.

We are a family of 5, one still in nappies and buy everything out of that - loo rolls, toiletries, food and drinks.

I thought I was doing well! LOL

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

We spend £100 a week at Sainsburys. This includes all toiletries, nappies, sanitary products and cleaning products. I also try and incorporate extras like dvd's and the occasional bit of kitchenware into that budget too, and the odd bit of clothing and birthday presents where I can.

I'd say we eat averagely, certainly not anywhere near as well as we did pre kids, no steak on the menu here! Meat 3 or 4 times a week, but we rarely buy this at our supermarket, we get it from our local butcher, so I'd have to add £60 about once every two months on top for that. I have 2 dc, 7 and 2.

If you are buying a wide selection of high quality fruit, veg, good meats and fish, then I don't think you're going wrong. Quality is important and should be a priority. Variety is also important.

If he wants a more limited diet, cut your shopping bill by buying cheap alternatives for him. Plenty of mince, beans and potatoes for him. Continue feeding yourself and your child properly.

We spend about the same as you on actual food, - between 2 adults, a fussy 5 year old and a fussy 8 year old (both boys have ASD and are very particular and narrow in their tastes, so I often end up cooking at least 2 different versions of a meal and using a bit of good quality convenience food to make meal cooking less hectic)

Balancing that out, though, we never have takeaways and only eat out about once a month, with that usually being a £25 lunch. Some people who claim their food budgets are small might eat out or have takeaways a lot more often than you do, so spending the money elsewhere.

Follow this meal plan religiously for a month. It should be no more than £120 for the month. (Prices given are for 2010 + you may choose to buy organic meat/ free range eggs).

www.cheap-family-recipes.org.uk/

The diet gives you adequate nutrition but you'll be forced to reconsider your spending. It's lent, so an ideal time to follow it. It's intended for a family of 4 but as you only have 3 you'll just have bigger portions

At the end of the month reassess your grocery budget with your husband. He'll have a clear opinion by week 2, I can tell you
Whatever you do, don't break before the end of the month.

Or this book will get you down to £50 a week

www.amazon.co.uk/Budget-Meals-Delicious-Dessert-Recipes/dp/1904566758/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1330196047&sr=8-5

Both are what I recc'd a lot to friends reeling from the Lehmans etc redundancies. A lot of those guys had to adjust previously sumptious budgets at a moment's notice.

washing tablets I spend 3 quid on for a box and it lasts around a month thing there is about 26 washes in them

How do you get away with 26 washes a month?

I spent £80 on meat and fish alone yesterday for two people plus a toddler...so I'm never going to be the one to tell you to cut back.

Salmon and fillet steak are crap though. Buy a steak with better marbling, rin eye or sirloin, far tastier and still very tender and a fish that isn't so boring!

mmm, love sirloin...

Rib eye, sorry! Bobbledunk, I've given myself a steak craving. Argh.

Bobble is right about quality. Your food is your fuel, with poor quality input your output will be poor too (not talking poo here!). Look after your body, nourish it and give it a healthy base off which to work.

Btw what is farm foods? (dare I google? )

Oh my. 3 chickens for a tenner?! 30 pork loin steaks for a tenner?! What the fuck animals are they selling at that price?!?!?! Your husband will wet his tightwad pants on that website.

Can't be arsed to read the whole thread, my opinion is:
You could probably spend a bit less, but not much if you're interested in quality, I just hope you don't throw much away.
I too believe that as our food effectively becomes part of it, we should buy the best we can afford (ie before other electronic crap)

My DHs colleague said a similar thing to him but it turned out her kids ate school meals and she and her DP bought sandwiches, crisps etc for lunch every day. Her £50 didn't involve alcohol.

Our £90 for 3 includes some wine and lunch for all three of us all week with maybe one lunch out/take away. It also includes ingredients for baking, nappies etc.

So it depends what is included.

HTH

You've given me a steak craving, am so hungry for a juicy sirloin now.

mangomousse
I often wonder at this (number of wash loads a week) but for the opposite reason
My household is 1 adult 2 children and I do 3-4 loads a week.
Watching channel 4s 15 kids and counting showed a family who have 14 kids 2 adults and do 35 loads a week - I dont get it, why so many!

I do about one load a week per person - they do at least two! Given all the extra costs and time involved in having a large family, I did think "hmm Id cut a few corners there meself!"

Another family in that show had 15 girls? - they got through 15? bottles of shampoo a week!!! I know they had long hair but still. My shampoo bottle lasts weeks...............

The problem I find now with 3 teenage DCs plus 2 adults is that things like laundry just grow. Clothes are bigger, everyone showers every day so that means lots of towels, lots of people washing their hands so that means lots more towels. DCs are at secondary so that means clean white shirts every day. If we miss a day then we are in danger of being engulfed by a laundry tsunami.

I would love to increase my food budget a bit for treats - mainly things like posh cheese! Actually trying to work out how to cut the budget ATM though. Boo :(

Loving the ideas on this thread, keep em coming oh wise ones :)

'How do you get away with 26 washes a month?'

I do maybe 21 a month and there's 5 of us. We re-use towels, wear clothes everal days in a row. The only one who produces tons of washing is the 8 yo who drools and her nappies leak 5 times a day so lots of truser changes plus the cloths she sits on.
My question is what on earth are you doing for 26 washes!

Laundry is my real bug bear. There's all the usuals for the four of us and then heaven knows how many loads of sports kit for each child, I mean a judo suit can be a load all on its own, then add muddy rugby kit and swimming towels in to the mix and.......

Thank goodness I don't own a tumble dryer or I'd have to buy the National Grid.

Back to OP and the cost of food I do think that there is a huge regional variation in the cost of food, and certainly petrol, and also in the accessibility of markets. Where we are I have to drive at least 12 miles to a decent fruit and veg market and then it's packed because it's held on a Saturday morning. The nearest farm shops and markets are all a bit trendy artisan bread and olives sort.

Im still talking about washing....
To be fair I havent got a judo kit to wash, or sports kit as such. And we reuse towels at least three times.
Plus I havent got sweaty teens - the washing will definately go up when my two are teens.

But they will be doing at least some of it! If they want multiple loads of washing doing each week - they can do it!!

Budget wise - we are vegetarian, plus no alcohol. I spend about £60. I could definately reduce that if I tried harder.

26 washes a month is 6 and a bit washes a week.

Well first it depends on how big your machine is - my new one is twice the capacity of my old one
Then it depends on how big the people are. The washes for me and the two little ones hold a lot of clothes as we are all small (ish). Toddler gets through 2 changes of clothes a day but it still takes about 4 entire sets of her clothes to equal one of DHs jumpers. He is a big tall ex rugby player type with a tum and his clothes are simply enormous.

So, as will all of these things, it depends! If you have a few males the size of DH knocking around then all bets are off, frankly. While you could get away with 18 little people regularly crapping themselves without much grief IYSWIM.

That's my problem then SQ, need to trade in DH, and both DS's for smaller models! DH is 6'4" so all his stuff is big, DS1 is not far behind and DS2 is catching up quickly. Also the rugby kit that comes through this house is soooooo muddy that nobody in their right mind would put anything else in with it .

Just have to give up on this one as am reckoning that we do about 15-20 washes a week . Better go back to the washing machine maintenance thread instead .