To think husband's spending is excessive!

[CornishDoll82]

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?

If you're on Maternity, then there's no reason why you can't do the shopping or help DH do it online. Just stop buying the best of everything.

Its always the ones who 'cant do aldi' who spend a silly amount of money on food, a lot of which probably goes to waste each week anyway.

Its easy to learn how to cook, I cant stomach ready meals now, they taste weird.

I've never seen scrums at aldi neither

There are five of us (me, dh, 3 dcs aged almost 10, 7 and 17 months). Main shop at aldi is usually just under £50, top ups throughout week are about £20. That's all groceries. When money was tighter we could keep the total under £45 all in but we didn't have ds3 then. Meal planning is very very useful!

My local Lidl is empty during the week, but anyway...

There's some middle ground in between Ocado and Aldi - Asda, Morrisons, Tesco, Sainsbury all do delivery.

Am assuming your DH is a reasonably high earner if he's arguing against cutting back. £220/week spend equates to £11,440 per annum. However, that is out of post-tax income and if he's a 40% tax payer that requires an extra £19,067 of gross salary (assuming 40% tax on all or it and excluding national insurance contribution). Reduce the bill by £100/wk and you could have a reduction in 40% taxed income of over £8k without noticing.

That is an obscene amount . I live with my DH and a grown up daughter with a younger one coming home for holidays and some weekends. Both the girls have boyfriends who stay here and eat here frequently. We also enjoy a nice steak at a weekend and a buy a lot of wine and even champagne but our food bill is nothing like that. It sounds like the OP and her DH are still shopping like young professionals who have more money than time when that is no longer the case. They need to sit down together and get organised.

We keep costs down by buying wine / cleaning products / toiletries / grocery basics in bulk from wholesalers. I also buy great quality meat in bulk and freeze it until I need it. Then I shop weekly for perishables and treats. I reckon for a typical week I spend about £110 - £130 all in and we eat very well. Even Christmas week I wouldn't spend £220 on three people - one of whom doesn't drink!

Like a PP I often look at Charlie B in Waitrose and wonder how on earth anyone would pay that sort of money for a ready meal which will not be as good as homemade. £8.00 would buy enough steak mince, tomatoes and beans to make enough chili for 3-4 meals. Once this is frozen in meal sized portions it is as easy to prepare as a ready meal after a busy day.

Wow, Eddie, that's an awesome statistic!

We used to get everything from Ocado and there were no top up shops during the week. Two adults, one child with healthy appetite, one cat. All cleaning materials, nappies etc. Could usually do it in the region of fifty. Might hit the hundred if we had guests and laid in booze. I'm not sure I even believe you can spend 220 a week for three people unless you bin more than half of what you buy. NB we were shopping Ocado too! Would still do so but they don't deliver where we live now. Put a photo up of your receipt so we can get our heads around it and tell you where you're going wrong.

We spend about £250 per week for a family of five including three teens and all their friends. We entertain a lot - puds and meat joints and wine add up!

I think your dh could easily economise on basics. I'm sure we could save ourselves a few bob that way too, in fact I'm going to do that.

Okay OP, if you really can't face Aldi or Lidl can you at least try Tesco or Asda? Also, how much of your weekly spend is on wine? How open are you to cutting this back?

two of us plus DS2 (21) home until September. I spend £80pw, mainly in Tesco and Waitrose and we eat very well for this, including lunches. It does not include wine, which DH buys separately as I don't drink.

the more I read, the more I think this is just a stealth boast

You'd be better off eating out at that kind of money. You need to lose the convenience meals. Batch cooking might be worth it now that you have a baby.. Chilli especially is great for it.

hmmm. I don't like Tesco as a company, but I do like their delivery system. I have had no issues of them not delivering essentials like milk - that's just plain odd. But if you used Waitrose online, for example, you'd still see massive savings on that amount I reckon. We only go over £100 on a weekly shop if, like this week, we had visitors at the weekend. We are two adults, and a 11 and 9yo. And we like to eat!!

FWIW I used to get nappies delivered from Boots (plus other baby stuff) - I found the offers plus the Advantage points added up. Plus I told myself the Advantage points were "mine" for buying nice skin cream etc, so that was a great inventive . The supermarket shopping wasn't quite so bulky then.

The ocado shop can stay, you just need to look at what you are buying. We use ocado for majority as like you say it's reliable, convient and on time. Ocado price matches tesco anyway on brands so no differences

We spend around £100 a week on 4 of us. That's 2 adults and 2 primary school age. We eat mainly meats that's are low in refined carbs so most meat and fish with veggies, or veggie dishes. We buy mainly organic

A few things to look at:

• don't buy individual portions ie small yogurts or fruit puree for baby. Buy a large pot of Greek yogurt or large jar of Apple puree from baking section rather than baby section. Spoon into own bowl.

• don't buy any baby branded snacks for child. Just regular fruit/ cheese/ breadsticks. The mark up on baby stuff is high

• reduce how many non food products you buy. They sell hundreds but you only need a few to clean and wash with not the whole range.

• batch cook. With a baby presumably eating soon the ready meals are way too high in salt for them. If you make say a large cottage pie, make two and freeze one so another evening you have effectively own healthy ready meal.

• reduce wine intake. How many bottles a week do you currently use? Think of it as an health option reducing rather than cost

WellErr you've got to wonder!

WellErr, it could also be a clever PR stunt by an Aldi PR rep. So we all defend Aldi and recommend how cheap and wonderful and non scummy it is, whilst simultaneously putting down Ocado!

You can cut your budget AND continue to shop at Ocado. You don't have to change your supermarket, you need to change your cooking habits. I used to shop at Ocado and it was no more expensive than Sainsbury's. I stopped because the fresh stuff isn't great.

You need to start cooking from scratch, in batches and freeze portions. We eat very well by making lots of it. If you can't be bothered to/don't like cooking, then I can see how your bill is as high as it.

We also found a wine box that is OK, as the wine bill was excessive.

We now spend £104 a week, for 3 of us (2 adults, 1 7-year old) including all dishwasher tabs/shower gel etc. Can't seem to get it down to £100, which annoys the OCD me...

Yup, 5 of us, about £120 including booze and nappies...

Oh and use Amazon family subscription for baby nappies etc. Delivered just as convient but way cheaper by bulk

If you're on maternity leave and then going to be working part time, can you go to Aldi or Lidl at a quiet time of day, if it is otherwise too crowded for at least part of your shopping, which would save loads?

Like most supermarkets they do get busy in the early evenings and at the weekend but if you go in the week before mid afternoon they can be virtually empty.

You do not have £220 to spend therefore no matter what anyone else does it is excessive it is excessive anyway write a list and meal plan in advance and you will notice a fall immediately.

We shop at Watrose and do spend quite a bit but if you want to cut down you can. You could very easily cut 100 a week from that bill and still eat very nicely.

Mind you it depends how much wine is being drunk.

We do a basics shop from tesco online (loo roll, pasta etc), veg from there or waitrose.

Amazon is great for nappies and wipes if you sign up to their subscribe and save. It's cheaper and so much less hassle.