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

It's a heap of shit. The woman of the first family up this series is an ex-colleague and she was completely hamming it up for the camera. Her daughters are very bright girls. There is no way they don't have a clue how to shop astutely.

We probably spend about £150 per week for four of us - Dd is vegetarian but I reckon any saving in meat has been eaten up by me buying more veg! We get through lots of fruit and veg, and both DC have healthy appetites. Then there's my wine

I make tinned tomato lollies.

Oh yes, there's the Cook habit too. That adds up extremely quickly. I highly recommend Cook ready meals over M&S, they taste real whereas most M&S stuff tastes synthetic these days. Especially the desserts, every single Cook dessert I've had (especially the mango cheesecake and the sticky toffee pudding) makes me wonder why I bother cooking my own. Except the cost of course but the ingredients in desserts do tend to add up to more than I expect.

We're working on 50-70g of protein per adult/teen, per day, here. 200g of mince shared between 4 people contributes very little towards that total. 500g of lean mince plus 100g of bacon will make 5-6 portions of bolognese sauce, including a lot of veg, as we skimp on the pasta portions, if anything (Doing MFP, so counting quite accurately). The kids can't top up with cheese, due to their dietary restrictions, so need the meat for protein.

I picked up a slow cooker in the Next sale for a tenner, this thread has put me off a bit now. I have never used one before

My supermarket spending is probably on average about £60-70 per week for 2 adults and 2 hungry young DCs. If I factor in my £10 in the work canteen, similar for DH, then trips to Costco every few months for things like washing powder. Also we eat out/take away for a couple of meals per week, so that's probably past £100. Most of the DCs clothes are bought in the supermarket, so that's included.

I buy a mix of brands depending on quality. Value, own brands and premium. I have to buy an alternative milk, and be careful about bread due to dietry requirements so they are dearer. We buy few soft drinks and little alcohol, also few snacks so save money there.

i used to shop for about 60 a week for 6-8 depending whos in the house. 2 are babys though one still only breast feeding and the other baby portions. but the bill has gone up lately because i have not been bothering to shop for own brands and budgeting that much. i waste quite a bit of money because of lazyness

Yes Chewbecca, that's my worry. DH and FIL are big eaters and like a proper pudding too everyday. So if i were to shop at Cook for our evening meal that would be about 30 quid, per day. That would be 150 for 5 days of dinners, not including the dc food or any breakfast/lunch/snacks etc. I can feel my insides gasping for breath at the thought. But i can't go on the way i am and it only seems to be me who is bothered, so i am going to have to try it.

And much as I hate powdered garlic, I have plenty of tinned tomatoes, passata etc in the cupboard.

Some of the seemingly tastier tinned tomatoes have loads citric acid added to make them tangier, btw. They are not necessarily more tomatoey.

£160/£180 here.
Why would you scrimp if you didn't need to. There is a world of difference between value and premium.

Quite honestly OP, your Spag Bol sounds utterly dire, and if that's what value eating is about, I think I'd prefer to survive on cornflakes.

2 adults, 2 hulking teenage boys and a cat here. I reckon we are about £600 a month. However we also do costco about every 2 or 3 months and spend about £200-300 - not all of that is food though.

We both work, we all take a packed lunch and we go through 5 to 6 pints of milk a day.

We do a mixture of scratch meals, fudged meals (meat/fish mixed with prepared sauces etc) and ready meals and an occasional take away.

It really depends on our schedule. Some days we are in a rush as DSs have things on early evening, sometimes I have longer to prepare. Mixture of supermarket or branded goods - I rarely get value stuff as it usually lacks something (flavour) and it's a false economy in many cases imo.

We aren't struggling but aren't over extravagant either. At the end of the day, If we are hungry and I can't be bothered cooking, I don't have a problem with buying 4 ready meal curries. You are a long time dead.

It's all this branded items, admittedly there are certain items that I will buy branded but other than we stick to own brands. The only time we do buy branded items is whenever they're o offer!

I don't really know how much I spend.
I do a big shop every four weeks or so, and when I say big, I mean huge. Easily £200. I bulk buy things like disinfectant when it's on special offer, because we have a huge cupboard we can stick all that stuff in. Washing powder, shower gel, shampoo etc gets bought once every three to four months. Toilet rolls, once a month or less. And I will do a menu that covers at least two weeks and shop for that as well. All meat goes in the freezer. Then I do top up shops for milk, bread, fruit and veg, and another big shop when the meat for meals runs out. This one might be a lot smaller than the first because we have enough stuff to see us through a nuclear meltdown. But if there's something on special and I'm running a bit low, I stock up.
So I have no idea what I spend because it's all lopsided. Big shop followed by milk and bread runs, followed by small shop. I guess it works out to about £300 a month. But one month I could buy every cleaning product going and then nothing for the next three months so it's hard to tell. I rarely buy any of that sort of stuff if it's not on special offer though so that has to save some money!

I haven't read the whole thread but we most definitely spend more than £200 on a weekly shop - we mostly eat meat and lots of veg and very little processed food, I waste very little and that does not include alcohol, eating out or pet food.

Oh, and the poster who just bought a slow cooker don't despair :)

I don't use mine a lot tbh but I do find it useful, I do get the the points from the posters who talk about loads of stews and all tasting the same and I honestly don't like spag bol or chili made in it as the meat goes too soft for my liking. I have however done some lovely lamb in it, and dry cooked chicken in garlic, soup and rice pudding and I love it at christmas to keep the meat hot in the gravy freeing up the oven to cook everything else.

Wake up call for people.

That few pence you don't think about when buying stuff, I work there! we still pay childcare costs & we work in a minimum wage job. I wouldn't wish it on anyone. I've done it for 8 years

MrsKoala - we interperse convenience food with home made. Partly because there's always one member of the family who has to have a meal that is either subly or radically different from the rest, for whatever reason and partly because my health and the kids' needs don't always (rarely) allow me ample time in the kitchen calmly preparing an entire meal from scratch.

The sort of things I buy as ready meals are things that it would take me ages to make from scratch or where one person is having something radically different from the rest. Today, I was out all day with one of the kids. Popped into waitrose on the way home:

Pack of 2 chicken kievs, reduced - served to kids - one with chips, one with pasta and courgette and sweetcorn one in a ready made tomato and basil sauce. Ready made curry dishes for adults.

DH picked up some raw beetroot, last weekend, at a farmer's market. I had time to faff on Thursday, as he was home. I made a HFW puy lentil, roasted beetroot and goats cheese thing for me and him. I bought some lamb and mint chipolatas from Sainsbos with that in mind. I had a cauliflower to use up.

Me and DH: lentil & beetroot dish + sausages + cauli with squeeze of lemon - really bloody delicious combination!
One kid - sausages + pasta in good quality jarred tomato & garlic sauce + cauli
Other kid - sausage and chips! (yes, I have one who won't touch veg!)

I only know know Gorman looking for his namesake? What poems are these?

I have just watched half this programme. Who cares what they spend, they aren't actually eating any real food. It's all processed shite. They must a be malnourished. I didn't get to the end but the bloke seemed great. None of them are his decent meals though as they had already eaten 5 bags of crisps.

"Branded" items is a bit of a red herring, really. You're only going to find them in abundance in the non-chilled parts of a supermarket and Cecco linguini really is so much nicer than 35p value spaghetti. I buy it for £1 on offer rather than full price, though. Works out about 12p per portion, on average.

Seven - he has a Modern Life is Goodish thing on Dave and features a "Found Poem" compiled from outraged posts on the Internet. Unfortunately, I read your post in his voice!

I have spent £200 a week, there is pregnant me, DH and ds (10 months old) that includes nappies & wipes but not milk as ds is breast fed.

I am not even planning on going to the shops much anymore - i think i'm going to get it all delivered! DH has never so much as made toast. The dc only eat a very limited diet as does Fil. Everytime i go into the kitchen to make dinner they smash something up or bite each other (or attack fil). Last week (Weds) i made dinner from scratch and we sat down toe eat at 10pm. I am exhausted and it can't go on. (also expecting a baby) . I think i will try to batch cook some chillis and stuff at weekends then use the micro rice. So some home made, some convenience. But on other days it will be all bought in. I am hoping not for long, but about 6 months probably.