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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think husband's spending is excessive!

363 replies

CornishDoll82 · 18/04/2016 07:44

We need to cut back on spending as I'm still on maternity leave and going back part time hence losing a chunk of salary. My husband does the food and grocery shopping for the week and I've realised he's spending around £220. I think this is massively excessive and we should be able to do it on about £120 therefore saving us £400 a month - but he's insisting this is normal and it would be hard to cut it. There are us two and a 11 month old baby.

Who's right? What do you spend?

OP posts:
mrsmeerkat · 18/04/2016 08:07

That is Euro so probably 50 pound

expatinscotland · 18/04/2016 08:10

That's enormous. Is he shopping in Waitrose?

OliviaStabler · 18/04/2016 08:13

Do you drink lots of alcohol at home?

Waitrose would not cost that much for two adults and one kid.

NapQueen · 18/04/2016 08:14

I think we need a list

Original poster
CornishDoll82 · 18/04/2016 08:15

There is a decent amount of wine in there and we have a nice steak on a Sunday! It also includes toiletries like shampoo etc and nappies and milk for our baby. I think the rest of it is just because we tend to buy convenience food. He spent £8 on a Charlie Biggam chilli for dinner the other night.....

OP posts:
Original poster
CornishDoll82 · 18/04/2016 08:15

It's in Ocado

OP posts:
PrincessPeachy29 · 18/04/2016 08:16

For two people shopping in waitrose we spend about £160 a week. Is that where he shops? I want to economise our food bill too so I'm going to switch to veggie meals a couple of times a week. I wanted to do poached eggs on toast with spinach and bacon for dinner one evening but DP said that wasn't dinner it was lunch. Confused

Is your DP like mine and only likes fish/ steak/ chicken with vegetables and organic bread/ milk etc etc?

Queenie73 · 18/04/2016 08:17

For two adults and four children ages 14,11,8 and 4, we spend £120 a week. So £220 sounds like a lot to me and could probably be quite easy to cut down.

KitKat1985 · 18/04/2016 08:18

Yes that is very excessive. We are two adults and a 19-month old and we spend about £100 per week, and that's inclusive of food, nappies, toiletries and cleaning products. You need to find a copy of his last shopping list and go though it. I can only assume he is buying a lot of alcohol, expensive meat cuts, and premium range items.

Hoppinggreen · 18/04/2016 08:18

I don't really budget on the food shop and I admit we spend far more than we need to but we spend about £150 per week for 2 adults ( one of whom is at work all week so only 1 meal a day at home) and 2 school age children.
£220 is extremely high to me and I'm not someone who can feed a family of 8 for £20 per week!!!!

PrincessPeachy29 · 18/04/2016 08:18

Sorry cross post! That sounds about right for Ocado with shampoo and alcohol.

Firstly don't buy any non food products at Ocado they are SO much more expensive. Get the same products at Tesco. Limit convenience foods like Charlie Biggam to once a week (guilty of having these more often than we should too) and meal plan.

MrsBlimey · 18/04/2016 08:21

Two adults, a teenager and two ten yr olds and we spend £100 - £150 a month. We cook all meals from scratch, make our own bread, and don't scrimp on booze, meat or treats either. Batch cooking, looking out for sensible offers, value rather than premium items, all that. Grow your own veg too. It can be done.

KitKat1985 · 18/04/2016 08:22

X-post. Okay then if you are both serious about cutting down the bill then you need to try and cut down to just a bottle or two of wine a week. The nice steak needs to become a monthly rather than weekly treat I think. And the very expensive conveinience food needs to go. Oh and it's obvious but you need to change you supermarket. Ocado is not a good budget option.

gamerchick · 18/04/2016 08:23

I spend around 300 a month for the 4 of us and the husband is a meat for every meal type.

You've kind of answered your own question and you can get that bill down with a bit of thought. Can you do a list of what he buys?

CountessOfStrathearn · 18/04/2016 08:32

There are 5 of us and my weekly Ocado shop (not including nappies) is about £70, with a couple of trips to Tesco in between to buy more milk and bread. We don't spend more than £100 a week on food.

I find Ocado a pretty good option for budgeting. It price matches to Tesco on brands and Ocado own label, we don't use convenience food, and it forces us to meal plan so we generally only buy from our list.

applecatchers36 · 18/04/2016 08:33

We spend £150 a week on Ocado for 2 adults & 2 year old. So I think you can get it down a bit we get nappies, wipes etc on 241 offers. Only 1 adult drinking as am pregnant but DP also likes a drink at the weekend and wants fish/ meat/ organic. I find if you go for offers you can still get it in budget with Ocado.

IrregularCommentary · 18/04/2016 08:35

Have you tried online grocery shopping OP? We switched to it just to give ourselves more time at the weekend and I'd say it's probably saved us 10% - 20% on our weekly bill.

Granted, me being pregnant has taken out the wine cost, but the main difference is not shopping when hungry and just not being tempted to put unnecessary stuff in the trolley.

wheatchief · 18/04/2016 08:36

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

SouthDownsSunshine · 18/04/2016 08:37

Our local supermarket is waitrose, and we spend so much. I find it really frustrating, as it would take over an hour for me to get to lidl, so I spend more to save myself the 3 hour lidl round trip!

There are ways of saving, I buy non-food items in town (poundland for most), use vouchers and go vegetarian. Ready meals are expensive, but we usually treat ourselves to a nice one at the weekend (instead of a meal out/takeaway).

RaeSkywalker · 18/04/2016 08:37

It's just me and DH- I reckon we spend £100 a week at the moment for everything. It's higher than normal for us at the moment because I'm pregnant and going through a bit of a "buy everything in Tesco in the hope that some of it won't make me throw up" phase.

NapQueen · 18/04/2016 08:40

As you are on Mat Leave could you pop to the shops every three days or so for fresh fruit and veg from the greengrocers and shampoo/cleaning products from Poundland/Home Bargains? That would cut a big chunk.

itsonlysubterfuge · 18/04/2016 08:40

I think £120 a week is excessive for 2 adults and a baby. We are two adults and one 3 year old and bought loads of treats at Christmas time and didn't even spend £120 Confused.

Don't shop at Waitrose?

shovetheholly · 18/04/2016 08:41

It is SO easy to spend £££ in Waitrose or Ocado. Those places just eat money.

Get him to shop in Aldi. Honestly, the quality is amazing and it's SO much cheaper. You could afford a date night out at a decent restaurant every week with the money you'd save.

Kirjava · 18/04/2016 08:45

We (2 adults - I'm pregnant and we both have a huge appetites and need lots of protein due to the sports we do) spend about £120 a week. We make lunches and cool from scratch. I think we spend a lot but money isn't a concern at the mo.

Snog · 18/04/2016 08:45

Aldi is a full 30 to 40% cheaper if there is one near you.
You are spending £31 a day! So £8 on a ready meal is not the main problem here.

Why not try that challenge of spending £1 per day each for 5 days, it will change the way you shop forever.

Saving £100 a week on your shop is a £5k saving over the year, enough for a great holiday!!

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