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

[Muskateersmummy]

I think it's very often the top up shops. My dh and I fell into this trap and found as we both "popped" in to a supermarket to get some lunch each day, and then grabbed some bits (bag of sharing crisps, some chocolate, oh and that new fresh pasta and sauce for us to try, oh and can't be bothered to really cook tonight get some tiger bread and pate, been a rough day grab me some cider) ... That really mounts up quickly! We now meal plan, take our own packed lunches and don't do the just nip in to get something, our food bill is kept comfortably under £80 for the 3 of us.

[UmbongoUnchained]

I used to have a budget of 40 a week for me daughter. Half of that was nappies and formula so twenty quid a week for me to feed myself. Now I want lots of money and I'm with my husband who also earns lots so we just chuck in without looking now. I've vowed to never have to go round with my calculator again and have to choose between buying food or tampons.

[justdontevenfuckingstart]

These things never end well. If you have money you spend it, if you don't then you can't. We could all live on savers beans on savers bread but we don't have to.
When you have no money it's shit. I fed my girls on pennies for years. Value everything. Then later i spent without worrying because I could. Now I am trying to save a bit because it's sensible.
If you have the means you probably won't be trying to feed your family on £3.64 a week. Some like to and great for them but most I would imagine shop to a level they can afford.

[notquiteruralbliss]

200 would be a minimum. But we are rubbish at budgeting and shop in Waitrose because it is on the way home. There are 5 of us though.

[FuzzyOwl]

Surely it all comes down to what you can afford.

If you are including nappies, toiletries, and cat food in your food shop, then yes we spend over £200 per week - but I don't count them as food!

[BITCAT]

Never ever spent that much. Although I'm sure my mum did there were 7 kids and 2 adults
My family is 4 kids, (3 teenagers and a 10year old) myself and my dp.
I spend roughly 80/100 per week. I use our local farmshop for fruit and spuds. I an all meals for the week and buy what we need for that and any items needed for lunches for my dp and kids. I bake an awful lot..so most of our treats and pudding are made from scratch we does save us money. I use my slow cooker an awful lot too. I have to wonder how a normal sized family could spend 200pound for a week. I don't even spend that at Xmas.

[Hobbes8]

It's hard to compare like with like in these discussions. Some people will say they spend £50 per week on a family of four because that's their weekly lidl spend, and then forget the 3-4 top up shops, £5 per day work lunches each, kids school dinners, weekly take away, etc.

Others will say £250 per week because they go to a massive tescos and forget that they also bought 3 DVDs, a pair of jeans and a kettle.

[AYD2MITalkTalk]

YABU OP - a cat is not a person

[eurochick]

We tend to spend 200ish. Family of 3.5 (the .5 is a nanny who we feed during working hours). We shop at waitrose. We are both quite foodie and enjoy cooking. Quality ingredients are important to us. I also like nice wine. As we have a toddler we rarely eat out or go to the pub. Take always are occasional as our home cooked food is nicer than any we have found round here.

We could easily cut down if we needed to (in my student past my food budget was £10 per week) but at the moment we can afford it and there is nothing else we would rather spend that money on.

[Imnotacelebgetmeouttahere]

What others have said - it's all relevant to income and how you feel. As justdont said I spent years buying basics range and choosing if I ate or my son, now I'm fortunate enough not to be in that position - and I'm grateful for that.

None of mine get £20 a week either or live off crisps .... We just chose to eat what we enjoy

[pleasemothermay1]

Worse thing was the family ould have been only spending £100 if the mother hadn't been undermining the dad when he was at work chucking out the cheaper bits and buying name brand and microwave meals 😳

[Marthacliffscumbag]

Urgh, powdered garlic and tinned tomatoes is not a bloody bolognese! I wouldn't feed that to my dog.
£200 a week is easily done, all organic free range meat here, 2 bottles of champagne and thats £100 gone. The difference is we bring home six figures so can afford to spend over £200 a week on food, without making sacrifices. It's not necessarily lobster and caviar every evening but it means we eat very good food, plenty of fruit and veg and don't think tinned tomatoes boiled to death in a slow cooker count as a meal.

[wibblewobble8]

Its not totally unbelievable. We go through stages of spending £200 + but id be appalled if it was in one go. What happens is popping into tescos/asdas every day spending £10/£20 quickly adds up (cooking from scratch always seems to work out rather expensive in my house). Then we'll tighten our belts and go to farmfoods and feed everyone 'brand' names but can get a weeks shopping for £70 but its just different kind of food. Im sure there is a happy medium somewhere but i've yet to find it . And yh having teenagers/young adults in the house does add expense compared to a younger kids. And pets too.

[softips]

We spend £40 a week, using Lidl and the local Co-op. We don't always cook from scratch but we get a lot of reduced bargains, use meal plans, and DH gets two meals a day at work for free. We are on very good income and could easily afford to spend more, but we spend loads on holidays and overpaying our mortgage and pensions instead.

[Hepzibar]

I bet we spend not far from £200 and there are only 3 of us! Weekly big shop is £80 ish, add on lunches, which all 3 of us usually buy out, incidentals throughout week - milk, bread, fresh stuff for dinner , an odd takeaway DS I reckon easily comes to £200. I don't believe we are extravagant.

[pleasemothermay1]

I think the thing I get most from the show its two things

1- often people who say they like good food are talking out of there arse as the hosts prove once the labels are re,over most people couldn't tell name brand pizza to cheap lidil ones

2- a lot of people don't no how to cook

Cooking from scratch can often be as quick a oven shit
And a lot of people just don't know about slow cookers you can even cook the meat from frozen in it

[TimetohittheroadJack]

I think when your baby and toddler are a bit older, and your teen is still at home, you will realise how easy it is to spend £200 a week. The 'nice fruit' , yogurts, endless rounds of toast, cereal , cheese, cold meat , milk. I don't buy biscuits/crisps but I'm sure it would be cheaper if I did. My three will all take a packed lunch but prefer to buy a school dinner (pretty sure they all go to gregg/chippy instead) . Once a week they get £3 each for lunch, so that's another ~40 a month. Then the occasional takeaway - once a month -another 40. I don't think we are particularly extravagant but certainly spend a fortune!

[BITCAT]

Please mother I totally agree. Slow cookers are amazing and very useful. I even cooked a beef joint in it. Its worth investing in one if you have a busy lifestyle because it just allows you to eat well. And save time.

[AYD2MITalkTalk]

I utterly fail to understand the "can't tell the difference" thing. There are many, many things where I definitely can tell the difference and have called DP out on it when he's used the "wrong" brand.

[SweetPeaPods]

We easily do. I spend way too much. DC are 3 and 1. Would love to spend less so would really welcome any tips.

[OhSoggyBiscuit]

I spend around £30 on average on myself- shopping at Tesco and having to buy free from products which costs more then regular! Plus sandwiches out and about and drinks and stuff.

Every family and household is different.

[Sparklingbrook]

All families are different. What a shock.

We are spending more at the moment on food as we are having a lot of barbecues and cider. Plus the teens have broken up from school and they are allowed to have stuff to graze on in the holidays.

I never understood the slow cooker love. I used it once and it's now in the loft. Might be ok for a stew in the winter.

[PoppyAmex]

Probably showing my "foreigness" here, but what on earth is powdered garlic? Doesn't sound nice.

You feel very strongly about it, OP. People live different lives and prioritise different things.

[Chewbecca]

Depends if you include takeaways, meals out and lunching out of the home? (& wine by the box, & meat deliveries & friends for dinner occasions).

We (2 adults & a hollow legged 12 year old), spend less than £200 at the supermarket but a fortune on other stuff. Fine by me, I do not need to scrimp so I buy what I want.