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

[BoGrainger]

I shop at Waitrose for a family of 5 adults and a dog and usually come in at around £100 every 10 days. I expect we spend another £50 a week on meals out/incidentals etc so it probably works out at £500 a month. I can't think what I would spend another £100 a week on!

[OhTheRoses]

When DS is home easily £200pw. When he's not closer to/just under £150. I don't even think we are particularly extravagant. That includes wine, beer, cleaning stuff and toiletries.

If I shop daily just for food, it's about £20. we tend not to have takeaways but that doesn't include lunch for me and DH.

If I didn't have the mine and didn't work full time and full on am sure could halve it but I don't have to.

Dinners this week have included a little gem and herb salad with cold meat, quiche and halloumi; smoked salmon, prawns, rollmops, salad and good tear and share bread, Friday night quickie - sainsury Chinese bits.

[Mycatsabastard]

The comment about not feeding the spag bol the op described to the dog was really nasty. Seriously, think before you hit the send button ffs.

There's four of us, three adults, one 10 year old with hollow legs and 3 cats here.

I cook from scratch pretty much every day because I'm at home. I make packed lunches for anyone at school/work. I find it hard to work out how much we spend weekly but we spend about £30-£40 at the butchers monthly, £30 a month on cat food/biscuits/litter, plus about £50-£60 a week at Asda including top up shops.

For the op, my spag bol is mince, onions, crushed garlic, fresh tomatoes, a carton of asdas own brand passata, oregano, thyme and a teaspoon of sugar. It's lovely.

[teacherwith2kids]

I do the Mumsnet chicken AND the 12 meals from a pack of mince .. it took Mumsnet to show me that it's not normal to do so.

Just checked our Tesco favourites list for the size of the pack of mince. 500g or 750g are both on our favourites. I'd say I use a 750g pack for shepherd's pie + spag bol + chilli or lasagne, and a 500g pack for spag bol + chilli + lasagne.

The thing that you have to remember is that, for me, meat is a flavouring and a nutrition-booster. It's not - with the exception of the roast chicken part of the MN chicken - the 'main deal'

So for me, a shepherd's pie is as much about the carrot, the onions, the gravy, the leeks in the potato and the crispy cheese on the top as it is about the fairly small meat element. Spag bol is all about the tomatoes and onions and herbs and garlic, with the nutrition boosted by a little mince and the cheese. Chilli is about the above but also about the beans (I would say I have about an equal volume of beans and spag bol, plus chilli and cumin), and the accompaniments of guacamole, yoghurt, pepper, lettuce, tortillas / tacos or rice. Lasagne is as much about the extra peppers, tomatoes and vegetables in the sauce, the white sauce, the pasta, the cheese topping as it is about the small amount of mince.

It's like saying 'but you make a pack of frozen peas last for three weeks' - nobody would think that odd, but for us the peas and the meat have much more equal billing than in most people's diets IYSWIM?

Equally for the chicken (roast, cold + any variety of made up salads - lentil, curried pasta, bean, home-made coleslaw - pie, risotto or soup) there is no pretence that the risotto or soup are 'all about the chicken'. The chicken is subsidiary in the risotto to the rice, the cheese, the wine -or whatever has gone into the soup that day. It boosts the flavour (we buy very good chicken so that it really does taste of something), it boosts the nutrition a bit, the 4 dishes run together as a good menu for the week, but I am not pretending that we 'dine principally on chicken' for 4 days in a row.

[Savagebeauty]

I spend about £150 a week for 3 of us...me and two teens.
Probably £8 a day on fruit.

[dustarr73]

I think it's easier to do a budget shop when you have smaller kids.There is 4 adults and 3 kids.plus 3 ferrets.I would usually spend 200 a week on shopping.

I find Aldi meat nicer than my butchers.

[CryHavoc]

YANBU at all to ask, but don't be surprised at the answers. I spent £150 at Waitrose this morning, and then went to the butcher and spent another £40. That's for two adults, an 8 yr old, and a dog.
I did my stint of £300 a month shopping budget, and while I don't have to do it I'm not going back to trawling Asda for bargains.
I cook from scratch, and we don't snack - I don't but biscuits or crisps.

[Mari50]

There's two in my house, DD and I, I do the majority of our food shopping from marks and Spencer's, I spend about £70 a week. I don't really cool anything from scratch, I can and I have done in the past but to be honest I can't be arsed these days. I could spend less but I would probably cut back on all the Boden shit I buy my DD before I start cutting back on the marks food if I needed to budget.

[OhTheRoses]

Ah well, we eat meat for protein, not mere flavouring. 500gm mince does spag bol for four here - with an onion, tin toms, squirt puree, oregano, red wine.

[00100001]

We spend about £25 a week for two adults. can get it down to £15 or less if needed. (mostly by cutting out meat)

[OhTheRoses]

Yes, a small lunch Dixie

[Buttwing]

I used to spend around £230 a week that was for 2 adults,4 kids, 2 dogs and 2 cats. Two of the children in nappies, one on formula, no alcohol, all meals from scratch and one child on packed lunches. That was with Sainsburys online shopping. I switched to aldi and now spend £160 a week. I could probably get it down a bit more if I went to the market for fruit and veg and shopped around for bargains but I really don't have the time and I'm ok with spending that.

[WaitrosePigeon]

I admit I do spend £200 a week. I shop in Waitrose though, it's easily done in there believe me!

[wobblywonderwoman]

I suppose the moral of the story is If you have the money and you want to spend 200 plus - do it.

I would love fillet steak twice a week but prefer to money on other things.

Really don't get the tinned tomato in spag bol angst !! Though I try to use fresh its not the world's worst ingredient

[HeadDreamer]

I don't know how people can spend £200 a week for a family of 4? I haven't seen the program.

I shop at waitrose and ocado. Because I like how waitrose has a quiet car park and shop. Even popping in today on Saturday I can park at a children car park and no queues at the self service. I got some fresh tunas for dinner too. With seafood once a week I still only manage around £100 a week.

Maybe that have tuna and scallops and king prawns every night? Cooking like nigella and Ella Woodward maybe?

[tonystolemylemon]

What do people use instead of tinned tomatoes??

[StickTheDMWhereTheSunDontShine]

Definitely hit the £200+ mark, most weeks. Higher welfare meat, good wine, catering for food intolerances, tastes which don't pass off tomato splodge as "bolognese"...

Powdered garlic isn't nice, Poppy!

[thisisafakename]

Urgh, powdered garlic and tinned tomatoes is not a bloody bolognese! I wouldn't feed that to my dog

God there's some bitchiness on this thread. What do you use instead of tinned tomatoes then? Seeing as most spaghetti bolognese recipes list them? If you look on the ingredients list, they tend to contain just one ingredient (unless you get the nasty variety)- tomatoes. Powdered garlic isn't that bad. If you ever feed your kids anything from a jar or packet, it will have a hell of a lot more worrying things in it than a bit of garlic powder.

Maybe some of the people whose bills are so high buy wine or other booze in their weekly shop- I would think that would drive up the price of the shopping.

[HeadDreamer]

Just saw this.

500gm mince does spag bol for four here

Um do you need that much mince for spag Bol? The waitrose mince is 400g a pack. (I get the turkey thigh and breast ones). I only use half a pack for each meal. So 200g for a family of 4.

Some of you have too much meat.

[tonystolemylemon]

200g for 4 people?? What do you bulk it out with?

[tonystolemylemon]

I only eat red meat once or twice a week but when I do I'd prefer to do it properly..