To wonder if people actually spend 200+ on a weekly shop

[pleasemothermay1]

Watching eat well for less and I just can't believe people actually spend 200+ a week on a food shop

One lady was giving a teen 20 a week to get chips and chicken 😟

We have 6 in our family

One baby
One toddler
One teen
Me and hubby
And a cat

I spend £65 a week including nappies and toiletries

This gose up to £90 during holidays and the teen is eating at home not collage

It's mad what are these people feeding there kids

My children have breakfast lunch and dinner I don't encourage grazing all day they can have fruit in between meals and I cook from sctrach pretty much 5 days a week junk on a Saturday then roast on a Sunday

Yes, prices vary depending on the food you like and where you live. Also not everyone lives near an Aldi or Lidl. I would have to travel at least 10 miles to shop in one so not worth the time and petrol. Also, I find they don't have much variety.

We have a good variety of shops nearby which does help.
Our Christmas bargain is whole salmon, the shops usually sell them at half price so I buy them, fillet them and freeze.

We are lucky to have an award winning lidl here-- with an awesome bakery. Free range British chicken is between 4 and 5 pounds (1.5kg) feeds 3 of us twice (dd is veggie). Bannans are 68p per kg I buy about 2kgs which is at least 12 fruits for £1.50 other fruit and veg is cheaper, I reckon each portion is 10p on average so only £14 for our 5 a day for the week rather than the £50 someone quoted. We do eat beans/ lentils at least once a week too.

Also dh and I can both cook so the burden doesn't fall on one person.

Literally just got back from ALDI with a £59 shop. 2 greedy adults and a weaning 6mo here!

Defrosting again- I'd take fish out on the morning not the night before.

And - one pack of mince does your family of 9, 2 full meals , plus 4 toddler meals?? How can one pack of mince do 24 meals? Even bulked out to the extreme.

Because it's a bolognese it contains other ingredients besides meat. We also serve it the Italian way and stir into the spaghetti. We serve the young children correct portion sizes which aren't small but are less that I imagine most families serve.
We have salad and garlic bread which also fills us up.
The pack is 400g are other people's pack smaller maybe?

I think when I but mince it's 500g

Omg we are back to the bottomless mince packet 😂 I've seen this debate before, 400g is less than a pound (lb not £) of mince, some people make it do twenty portions. I think someone called it homeopathic bolognaise on another thread which I thought was hilarious.

400g in this house makes one meal for four of us.

at homeopathic bolognaise.

Traditional spag Bol isn't really that bulked out: onions celery carrots bacon/ liver. Some of the spag bols described on MN with mushrooms/ lentils etc are just mince and sauce dishes really

Wow! I'm stood holding a pack of 500g turkey mince. If I make a bolognese, I'll bulk it out with some lentils (I like the texture they give) and some red peppers. That will then 'just' do one meal for the 6 of us. No way is there ever anything left, let alone another full meal and toddler lunches on top.

I don't think our portions are excessive as we never think we're hungry or deprived when we eat at friends or have lunch or dinner out.

We're a family of 4: DH, DS 1 is 18, DS 2 is 14 & myself. I buy the smaller 5% fat beef mince & add kidney beans for chilli or a larger, 5% fat pork mince for similar money.
My weekly shop for the 4 of us + pesky cat is between £75-85. I think that Aldi' s own 50-50 bread at 45p a loaf is a godsend. I can tell my boys to make themselves toast when they get in, ravenous, and because we've compromised on the 50-50, I can kid myself that it's good for them!
(Mind you, yesterday I was the lone voice saying that £300 for a hairdryer was too expensive. )

No our mince is 400g. To that we would add onions, carrots, celery, garlic, tomatoes to make bolgnaise. Than add spaghetti/ courgetti or whatever. It would do two adults and two small children 1 evening meal. Maybe a lunch for children. So 6 meals tops.

Honestly if a pack of mince at 400g is being billed out that much it can feed 24, it's really not a bolgnaise anymore, but a vegetable and lentil stew with beef crumbs.

Yes, 500g here for 6 then it's makes sense that 400g would be one meal for 4.

£300 seems expensive for a hairdryer to me. Unless I was a mobile hairdresser then it would seem a reasonable business expense. But then I spend about £20 a year on make-up and know many woman spend that and more a month.

We buy 500g and it makes five meals. It is "bulked out" with veg but that hardly adds to the calories. No way would it be 20 portions. Either your calculations are wrong or you are actually mainly eating garlic bread for tea.

No we only have two slices each of gb or the meal is too carby with spaghetti.
I use lentils , finely chopped celery, onions and peppers occasionally mushrooms.

Looking at various sites online (government sites, health charity sites, etc.), It seems estimates for an appropriate adult portion of meat for a main meal vary, but are mostly between ≈75g and ≈150g (depending on the type of meat, whether the meat has the starring role, etc.) - any less than that, and you're looking at something that's less than a portion so you'd need to be adding pulses or something which don't taste nearly as nice.

So it's really it's really lentil bolognese with a few crumbs of beef/per portion.

We can only eat very lean meat(my husband has very high cholesterol/blood pressure), I choose organic and cant come back. We spend that much(even more) on weekly shopping. It means we save less than equally paid and have to skim on other things compare to the equally paid. However quality of foods is the most important to us, I'd rather live in a small house, its a lifestyle choice. I know my friends who spend only 1/3 of ours by hunting for bargains driving to various places to get a better deal. We cant do that, its too much for us as weekend is our only time off with the kids and we want to spend time with them---again, we make that choice even we know we are worse off in terms of savings

That bears no resemblance to real bolognaise which is mainly a meat dish 😉 although I'm sure it tastes good as a home made recipe it isn't bol.

BeJay, but while ragu / bolognaise sauce is a meat dish, it is served in amounts that just coat the pasta - not in the generous dollops of sauce atop small amounts of pasta that is considered normal here.

I'm going to appall you all and say I spend £120 at least on food just for me, not including dinners out.

I eat very well. Lots and lots of veg. And see my food choices as an investment in my health. I also have a job with extremely long hours so have to, for example, buy salads from Pret rather than make them myself.

If you can afford it then why not?!