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?

Their are 3 of us two adults and a 12 year old boy we spend between £50-£70 a week on food including cleaning stuff

I buy somthing value some things Mid range brand and some things tesco finest

My meals are planned, I also buy things from the marked down isle also we don't buy loads of junk eg crisps and sweets

I often see people with shopping that comes to £150 but often they have things like frozen jacket potatoes and cheese strings in their trolly so no wonder their shopping is so much

Last week I was buying paracetamol the one I was buying was 34p for 6 the lady next to me was looking at a branded one for £2.56 my oh informed the lady that the un branded one is actally what they use in the hospital and that all paracetamol contains the same thing I thing it's ingonarnce like this that makes people buy branded items that are no diffrent to the cheap stuff thus bumping up their shopping bill

I also thing people have poor cooking skills in the uk hence people buying frozen jacket potatoes

GnomeDePlume

Sorry don't agree we change our clothing every two days unless dirty

Today my 12 year old son is not and has no plans to leave the house why tomrrow should be put clean jeans and t shirt on his cloths are not dirty

And your assertion that people with small kids have no clue abou teenagers I have one and do not spend silly amount. Of food and some how we have three meals a day

Today we are having a chicken pie home made with beans and mash

I think these days their is a leaning towards allowing children to graze all day on snacks often when I go to other people houses my son is immediately offered some form of pot noodle,chocolate or crisps And I can clearly see why some people spend so much on shopping

In my home a small selection of fruit and a drink of lemon squash

Gnome - a lot of people who have posted do have teenagers. Not sure how a thread about "is this a reasonable amount to spend on a grocery shop?" turn into a criticism of other people's hygiene .
My teenagers shower each day (often twice a day in the case of ds) which actually means their bodies are very clean by th time they use a towel. The towel is damp - it's then aired before the use it next time, it doesn't need washing every two days at all. There are also lots of ways to save money when shoppping (as people have suggested). There are reasons (time, location, cba) why some people don't, and that's fine, but it does make me cross when people with bigger budgets available to them come onto threads like this and start criticising those people who do manage to shop within a budget.

I cook everything from scratch, don't buy alcohol and don't by frozen jacket potatoes and snacks but I do live in a very expensive part of the south east and access to Lidl, Aldi and a decent market is very limited. Our nearest Lidl is some 9 or 10 miles away, which involves parking and petrol, and our Saturday market is a bit artisan bread and olives, all a bit eyewateringly expensive.

I do think where you live does impact on what you spend on food and petrol.

We don't have a Lidl anywhere near either. Very little is thrown away since we menu plan, cook from scratch in large quantities and then freeze. Wish we had a market with nice bread and olives as well though.

Mango try shopping at the gamers market just before due to close you will bet bargains and people will want to off load their goods

Also have you tried costco or makro which are places that sell bulk items the meat is very good we buy in bulk then cut it up in portions and freeze

I've just finished doing an overhaul of the family accounts and was baulking at the amount we spend on shopping every month, but reading this thread I feel a lot better about it now!

There are 5 of us in the house, me, DH, DS1 (12), DS2 (11) and Ds3 (6 months) and we spend an average of £100 per shop, which is done every 10 days or so with top ups of fresh bits in between which probably come to around £15 a week. That includes all the household stuff, nappies, baby milk, fish food, toiletries and wine. Oh it also covers the huge amount of snack food for the never ending stream of 11 and 12 year old boys coming through the house all week. We eat meat for maybe 5 evening meals a week, so the 2 that we dont really keep costs down, especially as they are usually made using the tail end of whatever veg is still kicking about.

There is talk of us getting the food recycling bins round here, but as we have just got round to getting a compost bin for the garden, the only thing going in it would be leftovers and plate scrapings and with 2 pre-teens and a hulking great DH, there isn't usually much of that left

WRT laundry, we usually do around 10 loads a week to keep on top of everything. DS2 is super sporty boy, so as well as his school uniform and PE kit, I have 2 lots of football kit, tennis clobber and swimming gear on top of a couple of changes of clothes a day at the weekend because he is magically drawn to the muddiest part of the field to use as a goal 2 of those 10 loads are probably just DS2's sports stuff, despite him being Hobbit sized. I do have a massive drum on my machine though, so I can get all the bedding in on one load and get a goodly amount of towels through together as well.

OP that sounds a lot. There are 3 of us at home now. DH,DD3 ( 20) and me. I spend between £70 and £80 a week. That is without buying value brands.

Wee bit off topic here but you can't expect a teenager to wear clothes two days in a row or not shower at least once a day, hygeine aside, I think mine would simply die if any of their peers found out they were living like that!

Gosh, I read this yesterday and posted but it was deleted so will try again. I don't think the OP is being unreasonable in the slightest. Here we are two adults and two teenagers. An average spend in £150 - £200 and probably more if we have guests or people to dinner.

We eat well and yes, we eat a reasonable amount of fresh meat, fish and fruit and veg. From here the drive to the nearest aldi/Lidle could take up to an hour at weekends and there is no local street market. I also work full-time and there is no way I could "shop around" but factor this in as an expense of working although I do accept I could probably save £30-£40 a week if a I did and would if I had to.

Meals this week are thus: Sat: macaroni cheese, tear and share and salad, Sun: roast lamb and all the trimmings, Mon Smoked salmon salad and pasta with smoked mackerel, Tues: meatballs, pasta and salad, Weds: Chicken curry with thighs, lemon, spinach, creme fraiche, Thurs: beef stir fry with noodles, Fri: fish, chipes and peas.

Add into that lot, loo roll, cat food, cleaning stuff, shampoo, cond. shwr gel, listerine, yoghurt, bread, milk, juice, ketchup, beers, fruit, olive oil, cheese, bisbuits, cereal, tea, etc. and it all adds up. I will also add, that I do not buy the most expensive things on offer, keep an eye out for deals and often buy "essentials or value" ranges.

Teenagers eat huge volumes, we must do at least 9 washes a week, 28 showers and hair washes a week, 7-10 dishwashes a week and it all adds up.

Feel very tempted to say also that the last quarters gas and electricity bill was more than £800 and that is because we use the heating judiciously.

I once challenged myself and did the food on £50 for a week (DH was away). I bought nothing other than that which was edible and it was pretty grim. Do-able and nutritious but nevertheless grim.

this thread is very interesting, but food shopping aside, i am stunned at the amounts of laundry some people do! We are 5, two teen/adult DDs and a 10 year old DS and 4 washes a week is enough, 5 if doing sheets etc. Clothes are designed to be worn more than once, if the bodies in them are clean.(not underwear obviously!)
Also, Aldis washing powder tabs are dirt cheap and do the job perfectly - there is definitely money to be saved on the laundry bill rather than the food bill for some folks on here .
My money saving tips for food shopping are that lentils are your friend - I use red ones for soups and to bulk out mince, green ones for sausage casserole or one their own as a side to meat. Slow cooker meals like bolognese and curries are cheap and half can be frozen. ice cream goes further if you buy cones - Ds uses a lot less when he makes a cone than if he's putting it in a bowl.

its not so much the food, but the tolitries, i dont want to live with 3 hulking great sons with out them wearing good underarm stuff!
spent nearly £10 on stuff for hubby and our 3 lads, womans roll ons are cheaper!
the amount of shampoo, conditioner, spot cream, facial scrub , toothpaste , mouthwash, 4 plus bars of soap in shower alone a month, and liquid soap etc....

then theres the washing powder, and other cleaning stuff.
we also are a family with very sensitive skin so we have to be careful otherwise most of us will be hoping around with ezcema.

also have a child with severe food allergies, so cheap own brands arent going to be available, so i cook from scratch every day.

so for a adult sized family of 6 can you guess how much i spend a week?

i do weep about it most weeks.....

Wow, I need to economise. Family of 4 (dds aged 7 and 9), average £125/week (all breakfast, lunch, dinners, no takeaways). We do like meat most days. And booze at the weekend.

I agree packed lunch stuff like cartons of juice can be pricey, and I am guilty of buying cheese strings! But I have an allotment so grow a lot of my own fruit and veg.

In answer to original post, I think it is a reasonable amount to spend. I spend about £100 at sainsburyseach weekend and prob another£15 on top- ups in the week. We have 2 adults and 2 young children. This would include all non food items too. ( I do 3-4 washes a week by the way!)

About time we had another 'I feed my family for a week on a roast chicken' thread. I spend about £125 pw on average- does include everything, not just food. Feeling very guilty!

I spent £58 today on our weekly shop. Me and ds (7). Enough food for breakfast everyday for both of us. Lunch for me. School snack for ds. Dinner for me every night and dinner for ds for half the week. No toiletries and according to the receipt we saved £9.58. I was trying to economise too so very surprised at how little some manage to spend on food.

Ok I admit it I can't feed my family for a week on a small roast chicken - I am a failure .

In fact today I roasted a small chicken for our lunch and there were comments about the "roast sparrow" that was served! OK so both DS's and DH had been running around rugby pitches all morning but the extra veg just didn't cut the mustard I'm afraid.

Have also done three loads of washing already today - all of it caked in mud - must head back to the wm maintenance thread!

I had a look at the recipes on the cheap meal planner website mentioned further up and they were very very plain and basic. No mention of herbs and spices or even things like tomato purée to add flavour and interest. The French onion soup one was very plain with few ingredients. Delia's recipe uses a bit of white wine and cognac and puts croutons on top with melted gruyere on. It is utterly delicious and I would find the plainer recipe probably bland in comparison. I can appreciate that all the nutrients might be there but god, life would be bland.

I thought it wasn't great that apple sauce on toast was advocated as a breakfast twice a week. Really?! Is that an American thing or something? Possibly as waffles and cinnamon syrup was also on there as a breakfast. Very high in sugar, I would not have either of those for my breakfast.

I have a similar sized family (DSS on the weekends) and if we don't buy value foods it's a similar price. If I am careful I can do it for £60 in ASDA.

Back to the price of a value bag of peppers from Tescos.

Are Tesco consistent with their pricing throughout the country or can they charge differently according to the affluence of the area?
What about the other supermarkets. Do they also have consistent pricing policys?

Never though about that before. I have noticed that the two different Tescos in our town do stock completely different items depending on their customer base (far posher cheeses etc in one) but can they change the prices too?

It's on the high side, but if you can afford it, then there's no problem. We spend anywhere between £50 and £90, for 2 adults, 1 9 year old boy and 1 cat, usually averaging between £60 and £70, mostly at Sainsburys, with the odd thing from the local Co-op or very rarely, Tesco.

Ok just been on Tesco on line - South East here:

They don't have a value pepper bag. An individual pepper is 78p and a Mixed Peppers Pack of 3 peppers is £1.80.

Value butter is £1.19 for a 250g packet.

I don't think it's a lot tbh. We probably spend more when you factor in the bits and pieces we pick up during the week.

Meat is extremely expensive. Buying good quality really does bump up the price significantly. For instance, I was looking for a chicken today and the cheapest was about £4 with the most expensive coming in at £14. Likewise for mince etc.

I do think we could spend less, but I don't want to compromise in the quality of the meat in particular. I have issues with animal welfare (especially chicken) and would rather not buy it at all than get stuff I know has been produced with less than acceptable care.

I think you should both go through a typical weekly shop and see where the money is going.

value butter £1.12
family pack pepper bag £3.50
3 pack mixed peppers£1.80
market value pepper bag £1.12