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

Lol @ stick of bamboo

'Mum - I look like a stick of bamboo: long and thin with knobbly bits!'

Ds1, just turned 16 is 6'3, and 34/34 (well technically he needs longer but black socks fill the gap...)
Ds2 still 14 is 6'1. and 36/32 - he is like the proverbial brick shithouse.

DH and I were both tall skinny children but were both probably undernourished - DS1 has exactly DHs build (as he is now) including the same walk and feet but DH at his age was average height and skinny, he had a 30 inch waist until his late 20s. DS2 is a complete cuckoo in the nest :o

It's mad how much people spend on food!
There are 3 of us, oh, me and DD (2). I spend around £50 a week including nappies and toiletries. I could easily cut this down to £40 though if I planned meals. We have too much food waste too.

Sorry bigkid, the other recipes are similar:

Curry; put sear and stew on hob, bit of oil, add chicken thighs and brown, add onions, a couple of tsp tikka masala paste, a level tsp ground coriander and cumin, lazy ginger & garlic & chilli. stir and coat. add passata and a tin of coconut milk and put in the slow cooker for 2-3hrs on high. Again add whatever veg you fancy and a tin of chickpeas to warm thru.

Toulouse sausage casserole; brown sausages in oil in S&S add onions, thyme, garlic, chunks of carrot and celery and a nob of butter, stir round, add a tbsp flour to coat, Add red wine and stock. stir and put on the slow cooker. Again add butter/haricot/cannelini beans at the end. Serve with mash and broc.

Chicken with wine and mushrooms 2 ways.

1; brown chicken thighs in butter and oil, add onions and garlic and celery and chopped up chestnut mushrooms. stir in tbsp flour to coat. Add white wine and stock. cook in slow cooker for 2-3 hours on high. When finished stir in cream and chopped fresh parsley

2: brown chicken thighs in butter and oil, add onions and garlic and celery and chopped up chestnut mushrooms and carrots. stir in tbsp flour to coat. Add red wine and stock (and toms if you fancy). cook in slow cooker for 2-3 hours on high.

Pork in a mustard and cream sauce; brown diced pork shoulder/belly pork in butter and oil, add onions and garlic and celery and chopped up chestnut mushrooms. stir in tbsp flour to coat. Add white wine and stock. cook in slow cooker for 4 hours on high. When finished stir in double cream and mustard to taste (i use 2 types, a smooth dijon or english and grainy one). Luvverly with mash.

Obviously they are all similar so i wouldn't eat them every night! But they are handy. Some are nice for entertaining if you don't want to fiddle about when guests are there and the kitchen can be all tidied first. The cuts are cheap and fatty, but we like fat - some don't (i'm looking at you fil). I used to cook them when ds1 was napping mid day. so it worked well for me. I'm going to start trying them again i think as i do get less hassled in the day.

Zbag - what do you eat? Does that include loo roll/ cleaning stuff etc? A 2 year old doesn't really factor into things imo, it's when they hit 5 you start to notice a change then again when they're teens.

teacher I can do frugal without joyless, I hope that even at the point when we were hit with the double whammy of maternity leave and redundancy mealtimes were still enjoyable. Unfortunately my mum never managed this.

artandco I don't think the average person would think of those meals as regular - more treat. In my house we eat porridge for breakfast. Oats with milk. The end. For lunch there is eggs on toast and fruit/carrot sticks/salad. Much cheaper.

and a lot of superiority about prioritising good food and buying organic.

I think the "superior" attitudes come from those who don't spend much as they assume that those who spend more are not as clever at cooking or budgeting and therefore buy overpriced preprepared food. It doesn't seem to occur to them that some people may spend more because it is important to them to buy more ethically or buy better quality food.

Why?
We eat porridge also. But porridge here isnt just oats and milk

Porridge - oats, milk, topped with banana, blueberries, flaked almonds and hazelnuts or similar

If we just did oats and milk, then that would be no fruits or veg at all at breakfast time, and I like to increase the proton by added nuts or seeds

• protein

Eggs, bacon and spinach is hardly gourmet breakfast food. It's a standard basic breakfast

I dream of shopping one day where I don't look at the price of everything, don't compare prices, don't work out what's the best price per llb, don't have to rake through the bargain shelves, can buy exactly what I want. it must make shopping such a pleasure.

Marynary,

There's another variant as well - those who buy ethical / better quality food but are prepared to eat less of those more expensive ingredients to balance the books IYSWIM?

It's made easier because the better quality food often tastes 'more' - so better quality meat tastes more meaty, better quality fish has a more concentrated flavour, really good Chaddar is more strongly flavoured than a medium supermarket block. Can't say I notice the taste difference in eggs, tbh, but we still buy free range anyway.

We spend a fortune. Mainly due to lack of planning and I've been ill and I'm pregnant so can't cook a lot of the time. However we can afford it so it's not the end of the world.

I've spent £10 a week for me when I lived on my own and £20 a week when me and dh were skint - this was a while ago. It was monotonous and involved very little fresh fruit. I like spag bol/ cottage pie/ veg chilli/ veg curry/ jacket pots/ something & chips but in rotation for months dishes lose their shine.

I feel very fortunate we have a lot more choice these days.

There are 4 of us (2 adults,2 dcs), average spend £75 pounds. So £2.68 pp per day. Granted ds has school dinners, but that gives us something like on an average week;

Sunday- roast (£58)with broccoli (37p), carrots (42p) and potatoes (3.29 for 7.5kg so maybe £1) home made fruit pie/ crumble with cream (a quid maximum for the fruit often less) 40p for the fat,(250g for 80p) 20p for the sugar( 50p per kg)10p for the flour (42p for 1.5kg) 37p for the cream ( don't use the whole pot) total cost £7.86 or £1.96 each
Monday-- stir fry /cottage pie/ chilli with the leftover meat + some of celery (42p), carrots (42p), peppers (60p) , noodles (2X 50p) or tinned toms (31p)and kidney beans (19p) , coriander (44p)with rice (50p) total cost £2.44 for stir fry or £1.34 for chilli so 34.5p each or 61p for stir fry.
Tuesday home made pizza- flour (75p), yeast 10p olive oil (75p) paassatta (31p) mozzarella (88p) tiny bit of chorizo (30p?) the other pepper (33p). , makes two huge pizzas eaten with salad ( lettuce 50p, cucumber half of one so 15p and a punnet of cherry toms 50--60p) total cost £4.67 so £1.16 each
Wednesday-- lazy night breaded chicken (50p) with rice (20p) and carrots (20p) for ds. Pasta pesto (40p-50p) with salad (30p) for dd. perhaps aubergine and chick pea curry for the adults ( a aubergine 49p, tinned toms 31p, chick peas 31p rice 50p) total cost £3.21- 80.25p each
Thursday- cook from stratch night often fish, perhaps fish pie or kedgeree or if not had beef for roast then spaghetti Bol. ( mince £2.29, tinned toms 31p packet of spaghetti 50p) or ( pots -£1.50, fish £4.50 milk £1 butter 40p)so spag Bol £3.10 so 77.5p or fish pie £1.85 each
Friday - another quick meal so for Wednesday ( or ready made pizza if not eaten earlier in the week) or " Jamie's salmon" - not if fish pie on Thursday ( salmon steaks £3.50, cherry toms - 60p , green beans 78p anchovies 68p a lemon 30p cous cous 75p so £1.65 each
Saturday - might be risotto ( rice £1 lemon 30p, mushrooms 68p, stock tbh usually from freezer + Parmesan £2) £3.68 -92p each or bbq ( mince £2.29 as above plus fresh buns £2. + salad £1 + homemade chips £1) so £1.57 each
So each main meal is average of £1.50 pp leaving £44.80 for lunch stuff , breakfast, tea, coffee etc. I deliberately tried not to list the cheapest meals ,we might have veggi soup one night. We buy 4-6 pints of organic milk each week (about £5) loads of fruit (apples, satsumas, bananas plus something seasonal) and a big tub of Greek yoghurt we do drink water with meals during the week though and just have juice and wine at the weekend. I don't think we are over reliant on carbs or unhealthy- but am throwing it out for the mumsnet jury.

We spent about 120 pounds for only two adults and a baby (we buy formula, and milk ) we don't buy junk good, we cook everyday from scratch but we buy lots of organic and lots of vegetables and fruits, then I don't spend in other things like computers, lots of unnecessary clothes and shoes, and that way I can save a little money by the end of the month

teacherwith2kids The fact that you spend less doesn't make you more clever than those who spend more. Not everyone wants to eat less expensive ingredients and not everyone needs to "balance the books". You may not be able to taste the difference but maybe they can and if they can afford to spend more why shouldn't they.

Our family...2 adults 3 children (15,12 and 7) 2 dogs and a cat. I'd love to reduce my weekly shop which is anything from £120-£180 not necessarily spent all in one go, but I often go for extra fruit, milk and bread. I've tried Aldi and I do go there for some extra snacks but all the fruit I've bought there has been horrid. I bought a punnet each of raspberries, strawberries and cherries, no one would eat them. I've tried on several occasions. I would rather spend a bit more on the fruit and have it eaten. I've tried cheap baked beans and hidden the tin and got "yuk, what brand are these?" I've also tried buying cheaper brands of cereal and putting in the brand box and they notice every time. (Though it did work with weetabix) I've also bought cheap black currant squash and put on the robinsons bottle and they said it had gone off. So they do notice cheaper brands!

teacherwith2kids with eggs you really need to go to the top of the range to get a taste difference, our veg box eggs are something else. But I agree with your point about balancing the books, we do spend a lot on organic produce but don't eat that much meat. If we couldn't afford organic meat I simply wouldn't eat it. Bar the odd quiche or pizza I cook from scratch every evening. My £200 bill comes from the ingredients and also eco friendly cleaning products.

I really appreciate pp who came on and documented her weekly plan. I would appreciate more from the £50 pw people. Even if that doesn't include non food items I still struggle to see how you could get 21 well balanced meals and drinks from that.

Stillwishihadabs...not sure how you get your food so cheaply. For starters what joint are you using for the roast that does 2 meals and costs £5 including all the veg and dessert?

Not that much every week. Sometimes but then I stretch beyond the week.
Top Saving tips
No kids whilst shopping
Meal plan & stick to list
Online / Tescos scan as you shop- curbs temptation.

I'm with Mrsvilliers... Organic, ethical, high quality plus Eco products equals minimum £200. Kids are only 6&4 :/ And we rarely drink alcohol and cook virtually everything from scratch.

Jas44- I could have written identical post!