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

Ye gods. Has there ever been a thread with more showing off about refined taste in food/ culinary skill? It is pretty hilarious.

there are many other similar comments such as how people must not be getting any fruit and veg, eating very low welfare meat, or be protein deficient

On 2 pounds a day per head, you have to be eating low welfare meat, or none at all, and you're not going to be getting a varied 10 a day, are you?

Having a tight budget is one thing, I spent many years on one myself, and still can't splash out much, but refusing to spend money you do have and living at extreme budget levels for no good reason is bizarre.

Lidl free range chicken £4-5 the beef is British grass fed £7-8 none of it is the cheapest. The £5 is just the meat.

1 x Sainsbury's Jumbo Roll Kitchen Towel, Basics x2 - Total Price £1.00
2 x Sainsbury's Super Soft Toilet Tissue, White 9x240 Sheets - Total Price £6.00
1 x Sainsbury's Washing Up Liquid, Lemon 740ml - Total Price £0.70
2 x Sainsbury's Thick Bleach, Lemon 2L - Total Price £2.00
3 x Sainsbury's Sponge Scourers, Basics x3 - Total Price £0.45
1 x Sainsbury's Handwash, Basics 500ml - Total Price £0.50
2 x Sainsbury's Wood Cat Litter 10L - Total Price £8.00
1 x Sainsbury's Cat Litter, Basics 10L - Total Price £1.55
1 x Iams Senior Cat, Ocean Fish 700g - Total Price £4.50
1 x Sainsbury's Specially For Seniors, Meat Selection In Jelly 12x100g - Total Price £2.35
1 x Go-Cat Adult Chicken, Duck & Rabbit 825g - Total Price £2.00
1 x Sainsbury's Strong Brown Flour 1.5kg - Total Price £0.95
1 x Allinson Seed & Grain Bread Flour 1kg - Total Price £1.30
1 x Sainsbury's Very Strong Canadian Bread Flour, Taste the Difference 1kg - Total Price £1.10
1 x Sainsbury's Unfiltered Extra Virgin Olive Oil, SO Organic 500ml - Total Price £2.50
1 x Mazola Rapeseed Oil 1L - Total Price £2.00
1 x Sainsbury's Carrots 1kg - Total Price £0.60
1 x Sainsbury's British Garden Peas 1.81kg - Total Price £2.35
1 x Sainsbury's British Broad Beans 750g - Total Price £1.20
1 x Sainsbury's British Sliced Green Beans 1kg - Total Price £1.20
1 x Sainsbury's Sliced Mixed Peppers 750g - Total Price £1.50
Since MNers famously like reading other people's shopping lists, here's mine. This was a fortnight's order for myself - but I eat so much, it would probably do 2 adults just as well.
Total = £89.73. Make of it what you will.

1 x Sainsbury's Chopped Spinach 1kg - Total Price £1.50
2 x Sainsbury's Chips, Basics 900g - Total Price £1.30
1 x Sainsbury's British Pork Mince 5% Fat 500g - Total Price £2.50
1 x Sainsbury's British Turkey Thigh Mince 4% Fat 800g - Total Price £4.00
1 x Sainsbury's Beef Mince 10% Fat 750g - Total Price £3.50
1 x Sainsbury's Lamb Mince 20% Fat 500g - Total Price £4.00
1 x Sainsbury's Large Whole Chicken, (approx. 2.1-2.4kg) - Total Price £4.50
3 x Sainsbury's Portuguese Sardines in Spring Water 120g (90g*) - Total Price £1.20
1 x Sainsbury's Barn Eggs, Basics x15 - Total Price £1.25
1 x Branston Baked Beans 4x410g - Total Price £2.00
1 x Sainsbury's Passata 500g - Total Price £0.50
1 x Sainsbury's Chopped Tomatoes Carton 4x 390g - Total Price £1.30
1 x Cerebos Iodised Salt 400g - Total Price £0.85
1.00 kg x Sainsbury's Loose Fairtrade Bananas - Total Price £0.68
1 x Sainsbury's Red Seedless Grapes 500g - Total Price £1.50
1 x Sainsbury's Nectarine Punnet x4 - Total Price £0.75
1 x Sainsbury's Honey, Basics 340g - Total Price £1.00
1 x Marmite Yeast Extract 250g - Total Price £2.50
1 x Lotus Biscoff Caramelised Biscuit Spread Crunchy 380g - Total Price £2.25
1 x Budweiser Lager 18x440ml - Total Price £12.00
3 x Sainsbury's Diet Indian Tonic with Lime 1L - Total Price £1.20
2 x Sainsbury's Fairtrade Double Dark Blend Coffee 227g - Total Price £3.70

Since then I've bought a few more fresh fruit & veg from Aldi, and some chocolate. Total about £5. The chicken's still in the freezer, along with masses of the veg. For some reason my frozen veg stock seems to go from 100-0 all of a sudden, rather like the way pears ripen!

OMG, I wasn't even at the top of the list when I wrote the intro! Sorry

www.lidl.co.uk/en/2063.htm

Please see my post of 19:55

I've just spent 120 on this week's 😲 though that's nappies lots of toiletries etc so I can see how people spend 200

First time I ever spent over £100 this week. Two full time working parents, one teenager, two primary age. I went through a phase of £30-40 a week when we were scrimping two years ago. It was hard but Tesco basics were a revelation. I don't buy brands any more. Waste of money. But I spend more on fresh fruit and veg now as well as getting a weekly joint of something for the slow cooker

Well I feel relatively frugal after reading this thread, so that's nice. I'm not surprised that some people spend £200+ but surprised how normal it seems to be. We spend about about £100 Ocado, £20 local veggie box, bit more for the milkman. The children have school dinners 3-4 days per week, but it still doesn't come to 200. It would if we were having people round for dinner, but that's no more thane once per month (and it wouldn't be 300!).

We earn 150-200K so could spend more but don't feel the need to. I buy all good quality stuff. Chicken is free range etc. But I think I have a naturally frugal streak so do work quite hard on making use of offers etc. I waste very little. DH makes a lot of our bread and at this time of year at least we get quite a lot of berries, fresh herbs from the garden. But I think the main difference is probably that we don't eat that much meat and fish. Excluding small amounts of ham, bacon etc we probably only have "naice" meat once, fresh fish once, and then one cheaper meat meal (sausages or mince, or maybe chicken thighs). It would be very easy to spend 200+ if we ate meat/fish every night.

Forgot to say. 2 adults, two teen/tween. Includes all cleaning stuff etc and some wine, but we do sometimes do a separate wine order.

There's nothing wrong with spending a lot or a little, so long as you are not actually being wasteful. Different budgets and different preferences. Just like any other purchases. I really enjoy my lentil curries, so very happily have some meals that cost pennies, while others cost much more.

Me and 6yo here. I've spent £10 a week on grocery before for a long while. I now spend £30 a week just because I can and fridge, freezers and pantry always full. I could easily spend more and could cut back if i had to, as long as you live within your means I don't think it matters how much you spend. I'd love £200 to go asda with though

*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?*

I feed my family of 6 (2 adults, 4 DC 11,8,6,3) on around this. It's not much fun. I have to meal plan everything. We eat a healthy balanced diet but we can't afford much meat or fish (I won't buy low quality, I'd rather go without). Luxuries are nice juice or delicious bacon. I don't have any luxuries in terms of toiletries.

That seems like a lot of meat for one person garlic, that's more than this family of 4 would eat in 2 weeks.

The meat thing is interesting, I really wouldn't want for example beef and lamb in the same week or chicken more than once roasted then a left overs meal, if someone tried to give it to me again 2.days later , I would rather have a veggi or fish option.

I'd been very ill the previous fortnight, Still, so had used up all my pre-cooked meals & other freezer stuff. That was this fortnight's shop - another might be heavier on the laundry products, say, and my freezer might not be so empty. For one thing, I haven't used the chicken!

That said, I don't feel it really is a lot of meat. I only eat at home; no restaurants or takeaways at all. Because my health's lousy, I'm careful to have stacks of protein & veg/fruit.

I posted earlier that I may be the only MNer trying to train myself to buy more ready meals! This not being able to cook is grim when it goes on for more than a few days - I end up unable to advance cook enough, so a good stock of cheap microwaveable dishes may be the way forward :)

We eat meat at most meals when we are home, breakfast - bacon/smoked salmon (not every breakfast but Certainly 3/4 out of 7, more during the holidays as we have more time. During school times it tends to be toast/cereal), lunch - ham/sliced beef/tuna salads etc, dinner - majority of our evening meals are meat based.

Oh, Cake, I LOVE smoked salmon for breakfast! Finding a pack of offcuts feels like winning a very small lottery I've discovered eggs with chorizo & smoked paprika's almost as good, though.

I only wish i could spent £200 a month let alone a week!! We spend roughly around £40 a week and that feeds myself and my husband plus our daughter and two cats! It's hard, believe me it's hard but that's all we can afford at the moment. We cook from scratch about 95% of what we eat and we also grow our own apples, pears, strawberries etc in the summer which helps a little bit. My husband used to be a baker so at least he bakes me fresh bread- if you've never given it a go- do! It's immense. :-)

I don't begrudge anyone that spends the £200, if they can afford to then why not, it's their money and if they want to do it that way then yeah sure. I'd love to spend that much and i absolutely would if i could, i like cheese, i'd buy a lot of cheese :-)

I could easily spend that.
We love eating berries (all year round) in autumn/winter you could easily pay £15 for strawberries, raspberries/cherries/blueberries etc.
Thats just one food item...!
Not too worried about branded food either.
Each to their own i guess : )

There's just myself DH and the dogs here. My last shopping bill was £200 or there abouts for a months worth of shopping including everything for the dogs.

We get milk from the milkman, which is a new revelation to us and has meant that we don't have to go to the shop as regularly for 'we need milk top up' shops. I would estimate that the fresh fruit & veg we buy at the beginning of the month will last around 2 weeks. Then we'll do a top up shop of fruit and veg only, and if that top up shop runs out we head into frozen veg territory. We have this rule in regards to meat, store cupboard item and fresh items, that once it's gone, it's gone for the month.

We Cook a lot from scratch, we're trying our hardest to follow a low-carb diet due to my pcos.

I also agree with garlicsake about the ripening of pears- 0-100 within hours, I used to eat apples as regularly as people eat apples. However, they ripen that quick now they're usually a bowl of mush within a few days, I've stopped buying them because I'm sick of them going too mushy & having to give them to the dogs! I never remember them being such quick mould growers about 2 years ago, they'd stay fresh for weeks

In summer my bill goes through the roof. Usually £16-180. In summer, more like £250 often. It's having people over for bbqs. We always do a cocktail, then really nice organic meats, salads, a roulade from Cook...the list is endless, and that's just for one meal!

Will post my meal plans when I get home (spend around £70 a week including toiletries). Reading this though I see that we probably have fewer items than others and I think a lot of you would find our diet a bit lacking in luxuries although we don't. For example we don't buy fruit juice, yoghurt (other than a big pot of natural yoghurt) and our breakfasts are very basic. Snacks are fruit or chocolate and the fruit we buy is the cheaper type (apples, pears, nectarines etc).

Perhaps I need to jazz things up a bit :) I think this will change a lot as DS grows up though as he will want more snacks etc than we have.

Also people who have cooked breakfasts what time do you have to leave the house? We leave at 7:10 so I think we would struggle to do more than cereal/toast.