To think that DH is being totally unrealistic about the weekly food bill!

[goingeversoslowlymad]

Am getting a bit stressed out about my DH and the grocery shop. Our weekly bill is usually between £80 to £100, we would do a top-up shop of about £20 midweek, so max £120 all in for a family of 4. We do not use nappies, this includes everything including toiletries and cleaning products.

Money is pretty tight at the moment and I can appreciate he wants to try to cut down a bit but I seriously can't seem to get it much lower than this, there are no luxuries in this either i.e wine, magazines etc. Everyone I talk to in our situation seems to spend a similar amount but DH seems to think it excessive.

I'm going to give a veg box and meat pack delivery a try. Also going to order online to avoid being seduced by the offers instore. I don't see it being much cheaper but hopefully he'll stop moaning if I prove he's being unrealistic! What does everyone else spend?

Generally, just under £60 on online Sainsburys shop every week and I top up on a couple of loaves and milk and anything I've forgotten or don't trust online (e.g. I've gone back to picking out my own bananas, so they last longer) from the Co-op or Tesco. I am another one who always gets cleaning products week by week and would be very cross with myself if we had to get washing powder and dishwasher tablets in the same shop.

However, that is just for DS, 9, and I and we are vegetarians. I know it wouldn't be much fun, but we could just about manage on £40 a week.

Dum I did an online supermarket comparison of my shopping and it was Asda followed by Sainsburys that was cheapest .Tesco was more expensive than all including Ocado and Waitrose. I think its the clubcard points that keep people going in.

Our weekly shopping bill is also between £80-£100 more often nearer the £100. That's for a family of 4, 2 adults, a 12yr old and 4 yr old. That includes everything though, all toiletries/wine/packed lunches for DH and youngest DD, cat food, the lot. We never need to top up in the week and we all eat well.

I spent around 80-90 but that is only for me and DS as DP is only here 2-3 days a week

I agree its cheaper if you are prepared to cut down on naice food we have this discussion all the time,we spend 80-120 and there are only me dh and dd's 1 and 10 but we do buy nappies and baby food (she likes it and i work so we do need a few) We eat wholegrain past rice and bread,all more expensive than white,lots of fruit and veg and decent meat and fish.

From that food we all have lunch too so i dont think its that bad,would be more if we bought our lunch at work and paid for school meals.

I spend between £100 & £200 for one month, for me, DH, DS1 (3.6) & DS2 (14 months) & a cat. This includes nappies, cleaning stuff, meat - everything!

I keep it to this level mainly by buying reduced everything! If you go to the supermarket at the end of the day, you will get things marked down by 75%-90%. It does mean being prepared to eat whatever you find, rather than shopping specifically for say, steak, but because of this, we are quite adventurous eaters - I would even say we eat like kings!

My food bill is 30-40% more than it was this time last year.

Dh has no idea who much groceries cost and on the few occasions he does go/picks up some stuff for me he is always horrified.

I do an online shop every week (£50-60) and then top up at my local co-op which totals £100 per week.

There are 4 of us, 2 young dc.

It depends how much time you have to shop around and meal plan.

My friends use mysupermarket.com and they said that Tesco was relatively expensive so I have shaved off about £10-£20 simply by going to Asda/Morrisons instead. However I work 4 days a week and hate menu planning so I do top up on essentials from Tesco and then DH is near M&S and sometimes he gets stuff from there. Also Tesco offers click and collect which is a lot handier as time is a premium to me so haven't quite escaped.

I do get somewhat surprised by those who feel the need to comment that others grocery spending is ridiculous and that means you Rabbitee. We spend around £100 a week on the three of us, but that represents a big saving as we have cut back on our meals out and takeaways so its important to us ( and cheaper) that we have nice food to replace that treat. We can afford it though so perhaps a different situation to the OP.

If you write down a list of your outgoings you may find a more obvious way to save money - we categorised stuff by effort vs cash saving so things like reviewing our tv/internet & phone package were obvious ones, reducing the shopping bill is a good idea but takes quite a lot of effort.

Our food bill for four is 60, your weekly bill would be our Christmas amount, it does go up if we dishwasher tablets or toilet rolls though.

We do eat the same meals a lot though and dh makes his own lunches that consist of weird lentilly concoctions and frozen veg (don't ask).

Otherwise we eat pretty normally, spag Bol, sausages, potatoes and sweet corn, cheese and potato pie, stir fry and noodles. We don't eat a lot of proper meat, the mince lasts 2 days, sausages one day, stir fry will only have bacon in, one meal will involve oily fish from a tin then at the weekend I cook properly so teriyaki salmon or liver and bacon etc.

We don't drink and only have apple juice and I suppose we eat very frugally, am amazed when I open my friends fridges and see them packed to the gunnels with lots of things that go off and three different types of cheese etc.

Why not try the Money Saving Expert's downshift challenge?

I don't know if you already buy own brands, but this about dropping down one level of the brand that you buy. So, if you're buying Heinz beans, you drop down to Asda's own beans. If you're buying Asda's own beans, you drop down to Smart Price beans. By doing this you can save, on average, 33%.

The idea is that you drop down to a level that you're happy with in terms of price/quality.

And if you haven't already tried Smart Price (or Sainsbury's Basics/Tesco Value) then you should - most of them are very good products indeed. In fact, some of them have better ingredients than their more expensive alternatives. And I say that as someone who is a real foodie.

There will always be someone who can do the weekly shop on 2.50. Personally mine is more like yours. Do try the online shopping as i find it easier to budget.

Perhaps have a week a month where you eat cheap things like pasta and baked potatoes with no meat.

Is your dh likely to complain if the food is cheap, boring, or you have the same things a lot? If so he can do the shop himself. I bet he won't be able to do it as cheaply at you.

That seems a little high to me but I can see why it would be. Food prices are atrocious at the moment.

We are a family of 4 and about 18 months - 2 years ago our weekly food bill was approx £30/40 per week which included nappies, wipes, wash powder and cleaning products if we needed any and dog food for 2 dogs.

Now our weekly food shop is more at the £50/60 per week mark, although we do try our hardest to keep it to the £50 mark or lower if we are able to. We no longer use nappies in the day just cheapo pulls ups at night (I cannot wait until the DD's are out of those tbh) There are no luxuries in our shopping. The majority of our food is off the local market and all meals cooked from scratch. We do buy some cheap tinned bits like tomatoes, beans etc from the supermarket.

We don't live on a strict meal plan but we do have a stock of cheap meals prepared from scratch that we cook within the week, just not on set days IYSWIM.

I have to be honest and say I would struggle to spend £100/£120 per week on food for us 4 unless I was buying it all from the supermarkets and maybe some ready made meals.

I always find that if I go to mad on trying to get the weekly shop down it goes pear shaped and I end up throwing away veg that has gone off after 2 days or we end up running out and have to stock up at the more expensive village shop.
I spend £100 weekly for 4 adults and a £100 once a month drystuff/loo rolls etc .
We eat very well and this includes all packed lunches for 4 as well.

I just nipped to the shop for a top up and spent

8.00 on batteries
6.50 on nappies
3.82 on those dry bed pads
1.49 on peanut butter
1.00 on toothpaste
3.55 on two new toothbrushes

So 24.33. This is why i don't understand how some people say they spend less then 50 a week including food. Especially when they have pets as well. My pet food costs 7.00 a week and its the cheap stuff.

Hurting. How much do you spend on your dog food?

We spend around the same as you OP, that includes nappies, wipes, cleaning stuff, loo rolls etc. There is always someone who says they only spend a tenner but then later on admits that doesn't include cleaning stuff, loo roll, toiletries etc!

We have 2 preschoolers and I realised recently I was wasting a lot on all those crappy organix/healthy toddler biscuits/fake crisps/mini packs of raisins. Now for a treat/snack I get them value rich tea biscuits (18p!!) Or value choc chip digestives, a handful of pretzels with some chopped up fruit, I buy a big pack of raisins and put them in a little pot, and I sometimes give them (shock horror) real crisps as opposed to those overpriced Organix ones that they don't eat anyway!

I think on line shopping for a couple of weeks might be a good idea, but do it in the evening with him, give him the computer, write a list of 'basics' that you need (toilet roll, kitchen cleaner, bin bags etc) and tell him to put those in the basket while you get out some cookery books, with your pre-written meal plans to check which ingredients you have already or need. The key is you say "we need bread/4 chicken breasts/1 red and 2 green peppers/a carton of cream" etc and he goes through the options and picks the one you get, so he can see how it adds up. If it comes to too much, then say "ok, which meal would you like to change? How can we make Tuesday night's dinner cheaper?" etc.

By putting him in charge of the computer, whilst making sure you get him to put washing powder etc on the order will make him face the choices, and see you aren't picking the most expensive option, but not having them at all isn't an option.

However, I'd also suggest if you have a pound/99p shop near you, you have a look at what basics they stock, most will have kitchen roll, toilet roll, cleaning products etc, often the same brands as you'd buy anyway. It's worth picking them up in bulk once a month. It's a big cost at the time, but worth it over the month's bill.

I wouldnt count batteries as a weekly shop item and you can get them from Poundland if you're passing one during the week.

We are beyond nappies etc thank god and if the peanut butter ran out midweek then there wouldn't be any more until the weekly shop and the dc would have to have jam or marmalade or whatever was in the cupboard instead. Do people not do that?

We are skint, and spend about 35 - 40 pw. For 3 of us.

This budget basically means no booze, meat only couple of times per week, and minimal crisps, biscuits etc. It is a bit dull and Crap, I ate better as a student 15 years ago.

I grow some veg like salad leaves and herbs, and we scour the bargain aisles as.much as possible, I bulk out mince with beans and oats where I can and slow cook cheap cuts.

I think 120 is not an unreasonable ammount, it would get me all the stuff I look longingly at but don't buy!

we are comfortably off so don't need to watch what we spend particularly - but we spend nothing like £120 for 4 (or 80 now we are 3, DS at uni) if you exclude wine and other luxuries, so I think your DH has a point to be honest.

If you could be bothered to write down what was on your last til receipt ( not line by line but x on fruit and veg, y on meat etc) maybe we could help you reduce it?

You broke. I wouldn't subtract all those little things like batteries that you can get from the supermarket from my total. My weekly shop includes all that stuff so that's why i don't understand how low other peoples shopping is. And no i don't pass a poundland so would cost too much in time and petrol. The peanut butter is for my husband not my kids. Its the cheap option for his packed lunches instead of meat.

Manchester. Of course your shopping is going to be lower if you convenient leave off wine! That's selectively missing stuff off to make it sound better!

Perhaps i shouldn't count chocolate, biscuits and fruit and juice in my shopping and then say its costs so little!

Money is not so tight that I want to compromise on the quality of food and like to buy free range wherever possible and I like decent coffee. However I mostly buy own brands (most of them would be the value range) with the exception of Hellmans Mayo, Heinz ketchup and baked beans. I do feel after reading through the thread that there is a lot I can probably tighten up on and I am paying for the time/fuss-free element.

DH isn't being totally unreasonable, I just think he is struggling to grasp that 2 yrs ago we only spent £60 a week all in and that often included luxuries and now some weeks it's £120. But then 2 yrs our youngest wasn't taking a pack lunch and their appetites weren't as big.

Fair enough poopoo but I don't shop for it all at the supermarket as its much more expensive, I buy batteries cheaply in bulk normally before Christmas and we never seem to run out.

Meat in packed lunches

It makes a diffence what your life is like and therefore the choices you have. I can pop to the Poundland at least once during the week and we never buy things like chutney or jam as I make that once a year. I know that makes me sound like a wanker but it's true.

Am just extremely mindful of what we spend so that I can splurge on hols. I justify needing them as I have 2 jobs.