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

if we have a dinner party can be £300 for that including wine. If no kids at home and not entertaining, hardly anything as me and dh on diets. Do people honestly know how much they spend on garlic?

Do people actually spend 300 on one meal they cook themselves?

Certainly not all the time. But if you have 8 people who like to drink, 3 courses and doing eg wild salmon, I wouldn't expect to see much change from that. But don't do it all the time as I'm a lazy cow!

I can only assume sol is the Queen

I was joking, hence the wink

Not discovered Aldi booze then?

drspouse So I also think £2/DAY per person is very hard - especially with a small family.

I can't see how it can be done. Even if you ate a fairly small to medium-sized dry jacket potato for every meal and nothing else ever (no garnish, no butter, no cheese, no beans or tuna or topping) and only drank tap water, it would still be 75p a day and would only deliver about 483 calories in total.

If you ate like this, an average adult female with a BMR of 1600 a day would have a deficit of 7800 calories per week every week. That correlates to a loss of two pounds a week. Within two months, you'd have lost a stone. Within a year, you'd have lost six stone.

A ration of 484 calories a day is only double the calorie rations for Jewish people in the Warsaw ghetto during WW2, which was designed to be a starvation diet. It's half the calorific value of the rations given to inmates at Auschwitz (where you were not supposed to survive for more than three months).

Not to mention, you'd get ill very quickly as you'd get no Vit A, Vit E, only 12 percent of Vit K, only half your folate requirements, and no B12 et al ...

People must be forgetting to account for something somewhere.

80 quid a week at Aldi including loo rolls, cleaning stuff, bin bags, tissues for 3 people equates to 3.80 each per day, that's for all meals and sandwiches to take to work/ school. I think that's really good and that includes steak and salmon most weeks!

The same shop would be at least 150 in Tesco.

Haven't RTFT but I used to work in a supermarket (one of the cheaper Big Four) and I can tell you that it's dead easy to get
to £200 for a week's shop, especially if you buy lots of branded stuff and ready meals. Between £100 and £150 was about average.

Dame

That's believable at £320 a month for three people.

What I can't understand is the posters on this thread and previous threads that quote sub-£70 a week for more than three people when at least two of those people are adults.

I could knock at least a tenner off my bill without even noticing if we cut out steak, bringing it down to 70 then probably about fiver if we cut out biscuits etc. So 65 for 2 adults and a teen who is 6 ft 1 so an adult. Hard to get below 65 though and only in Aldi.

People that are feeding everyone on £50-£70..

I'm not doubting you or been rude but is that any fun? Do you have any luxuries or?

There is 7 of us, 2 adults, 5 kids, one of whom is a teen, 1 cat.

I spent about £100 a week on shopping, including a £23.90 veg box.

We are spending less at the mo as husband and I are using Huel as a meal replacement, that works out at £9.50 a week for 2 of us, if we go 100%, which is unlikely, cos i like food.

I wish I had that much to spend on food.
I get £100 a week for food, petrol, clothes, fun, presents. Basically anything that's not a house bill.
I do £30-40 in lidl & sainsburys with the odd £60 one.
I don't buy lunch (I just have buttered toast) for me or fruit (it's so expensive). I cook from scratch and give the meat to the kids and dp.
I dream of drifting down the aisle of Waitrose without a worry about the till!!

No Aldi or Lidl anywhere near me.

I used to shop with Ocado however and while I never reached the heights of £200 a week it is very easily done especially if you're buying offers e.g. Three for two where you're buying double what you ordinarily would. Also if you're buying branded products and the finest cuts of meat/fish, plus wine/beer/fizzy drinks for the kids the bill goes up quite quickly.

I stopped shopping from Ocado in April and have saved a fortune. I also stopped drinking Coke in May and this adds to my saving. Now I shop at sainsburys on a need-to basis and only buy what I need. That being said I could still cut down by e.g. Not buying chocolate

I try to keep my weekly shop under £100, sometimes it's around £65. That includes three meals a day for all of us and I shop in Waitrose. I don't top up shop either.

I have 3 kids (2,4and 8) and a cat along with oh and me. I spend around £120 per week with toiletries, nappies and cleaning products. This is budgeting on a list and I reckon by the time the kids are teenagers it will easily raise to £200.

Inspired by this thread i have decided not to be so 'lazy' and got the slow cooker out. I have been to Waitrose to shop today and spent 156 pounds (sorry, got no pound sign). Almost everything i bought was reduced or 'essentials' (which always makes me laugh 'essential artichokes'. Well i don't know about you but i find artichokes are an absolute essential! ). So for 3 adults

Today (the dc are eating with us too today so thats a 2 and 4yo as well); Pizza (2 of their rectangular essentials ones for 3 each) and Salad
Tomo; chicken, ham, mushroom and leek pie with new spuds and veg. (chicken and ham frozen from previous roasts mixed with a bought white sauce and sauted leeks and mushrooms, topped with ready rolled puff)
Weds; Lamb tagine (3 packs of diced lamb shoulder at 2.39 each) with chickpeas, peppers and squash and cous - enough for dh and i to have lunch the next day too.
Thurs; Toulouse sausage (2 packs), carrot and red pepper casserole and jacket spuds and broccoli.
Friday; Chicken, courgette and chickpea curry (4 chicken breasts reduced to 5.60) with a ready sauce and micro rice and naan an a packet of samosa & bhajia.
Sat; Pork meatballs (2 packs reduced to 2.39 per pack) and spag. (with frozen chopped celery and carrots and onion cooked in a tomato sauce)
Sun; Chicken thigh and bacon lardons in a wine, mushroom sauce and mash, carrots and peas.

I will make a pot of my speciality 'red soup' (the only veg ds1 will eat) which is homemade frozen chicken stock, toms, tom puree, garlic, onions, carrots, red pepper, celery and red lentils (lentils, toms and puree in the cupboard but the rest bought today) whizzed up for lunches served with cheese on toast.

DS2 will have leftovers of some of these the next day and ds1 will have a rotation of pizza, fishcakes, quiche and sausages for dinners. I also bought; milk, bread, fruit, veg, deli ham, houmous, mackerel pate, cheese, snacks for dh's lunch. Ready made soups, sausage rolls and quiches for fils lunches, eggs, avocados and bacon for breakfasts (we already have oats and muesli), some pudding bits like custard, cream and eclairs, cartons of juice for the dc. We already have spices, tinned toms, puree, chickpeas, pasta, rice, breadsticks, oat bars, butter, oil, yogurt, tea, coffee etc.(since being pregnant i drink loads of herbal teas)

Will do top up on weds/thurs for more milk and bread, maybe yogurt too.

The fish was really pricey, but i usually get a side or 2 of salmon from Sainsbos and freeze it, they are about 10 each when on offer. From that i get 3 good sized fillets to have as a dinner and a 4th end piece for ds2 or for towards a fish pie. I'm thinking of getting the packs of fish pie mix, mixing with frozen spinach, parsley and cream and topping with frozen mash and cheddar for a cheats fish pie.

I know it's not exactly cooking from scratch, but i am hoping this may be a halfway house between completely homemade and ready meals.

I just dont get it. I order online and do a 5day shop. Every 5 days i spend 50 quid. I meal plan, buy quality items and cook from scratch. Both me and OH work, taking pack up with us, we also have a 2 year old and a 5 year old. I could never justify spending more, though we could afford it. We dont need to do top up shops because its only 5 days between shops and it lasts that time
But who are we to say what they should be spending their money on...

Family of four and we spend between 90 and 110 per week, we do a mix of asda and Aldi, meal plan etc but thats as low as we can get without compromising on food we actually like. some weeks can be slightly less, down to about 80 if we don't need soap powder, nappies and are well stocked on cleaning products.

You couldn't justify spending more than 2 pounds fifty a day per person, on food? Up to you, but sounds pretty joyless. 2.50 a day, you're hardly living the high life on that!

That menu sounds lovely Mrs koala. Are the tagine / curry / casserole slow cooker jobs? Are they nice? If they are would you mind sharing the recipes?

That sounds like an awful lot of cooking to me

We have just done our weekly shop.

Farmers market £30 500g of lean beef mince, 8 beef sausages, 500g of diced beef, Shoulder of pork and 6 pork shoulders. 8 chicken breasts. £30.

We also got a joint of topside beef. £12

At the fish quay, we got cod, smoked cod, tiger prawns, and salmon fillets £30. (Will probs do about 8 meals)

Than we where £54 in Asda and £29 in Lidls. This will hopefully last 14 to 16 days,

I have seen the programme - but it does seem to be a really extreme. People who do all their shopping in one place, buy only brands and convenience food. I think most people have a combination of both don't they?!
We probably do spend 200 a week, family of 4 but in that I'm including, wine, toiletries, greeting cards etc ...

I'm still chuckling at the horror at teens drinking milk.

Seriously, on the grand scale of things, milk is not the worst thing they could be drinking...

As for getting fat, DS1's trousers are a 26" waist and a 31" leg. They are getting a bit short TBH, but it is hard to find 26" waist in a longer leg length. Fat isn't really something we worry about - the rugby, football, running and cycling seem to keep that in check!

I never ever post on these threads but I feel sooo strongly about this. Why should it matter what people spend on their food, it's people's choice. I can spend up to £200 ( that includes nappies, toiletries, cleaning products etc) a week, but it's a lifestyle choice we choose!! it's for a family of four, 2 adults, 2 children under 7. Food is my ultimate priority, I have had years of ill health and have learnt the hard way that what you eat will impact your health at some point in your life. I want to give my children the best I can, their bodies are growing, once you understand basic biology you realise what they are fed now has a lasting impact for the rest of their lives. i don't deliberately but branded goods but I buy really good quality food. I cook nearly everything from scratch, I meal plan for everyday of the week, we only eat seasonally. It costs so much because I get an organic veg, meat and fruit delivery. My kids are dairy free ( health reasons) so I have to buy extras from the health food shop and supermarket. I buy Eco cleaning products and what we wash with is as natural as it can be which again is far more expensive than your average hand wash, shower gel. We hardly ever eat out, rarely have takeaways. My husband and I go without in all other areas of life, clothes, nights out etc. Yes we could do my shop soooo much cheaper if the quality and where it's from wasn't important to us. I wish eating really healthy wasn't so expensive but in the UK it is. Just to make it clear I've lived off a very low budget, so I can do it, we just choose to have a bigger budget because it's our priority.