to think that £500 is far too much to spend on groceries in a month?

[fartlek]

I just totted up what I spent at supermarkets this month and realised that this is why I am £20 away from the end of my overdraft the day before payday. DH has also bought groceries this month so this isn't even our entire bill! We don't share accounts so it gets a bit murky as to who spends how much on what (this is a whole other thread to be started in relationships, we won't go there just now) but I'm pretty sure this is extortionate.
I have never been much of a budgetter when it comes to food shopping, I just buy what we need and try not to go for the most expensive item. What do others spend if I may ask?

Around that here but 5 of us 3 of whom have packed lunches. I could spend less if
I planned better

We spend about £120 a week for 6 people- that includes food, toiletries, cleaning stuff and food for 2 cats and 2 dog. It would be less if we lived closer to civilisation but delivery costs add loads to the price of everything here and it isn't possible to get supermarket deliveries.

Yeah, we spend that, but the weekly supermarket shop includes toiletaries, small clothing bits like extra school socks, presents for schoolfriend birthday parties etc.

Whenever there's a thread full of the £60/week for family of 4 shops, they only EVER talk about how to plan/buy food cheaply. Most people's weekly shop isn't just food, IMO the £70/week people must be topping up other bits elsewhere.

I spend about £60 per week and that includes a bottle or two of something nice.

It's not a crazy amount if you can afford it, but if you're scraping the bottom of your overdraft then I'm sure there's money to be saved.

Keep your receipts for a week, or, better, a month, and then analyse them. Do a Lidl/Aldi shop once a month for non-perishables like dishwasher tablets etc. Set a target budget per person meal and challenge yourself to stay under it except for special occasions.

I think it's possible to do it for less and I have done when we've been struggling but if I have the choice I would rather spend more and get a bigger variety of snacks / convenience foods etc because it makes life easier and more pleasurable for us all. We spend about £150 a week in tesco, that's for dh and I, dd aged 13 and ds aged 4. We don't drink alcohol or go out much so food is a big deal for us!

Our £120 shop also includes mine and DHs food for work, so we're not buying coffees and lunches during the week.

If we only counted family meals I'm sure our shop would be around £60/£70. But in real life for a shop that needs no top-ups it doesn't matter how many lentil meals you make (and we do cook from scratch and mostly vegitarian for budget reasons), you still need extra non-food bits

Much much less . Meal planning, mix Aldi shop with Morrisons or Sainsbury's. Odd bit of Waitrose thrown in.

I spend about £60 per week and that includes a bottle or two of something nice

is that just food & household cleaning stuff, or is it everything, including gifts, batteries, lightbulbs toiletries, clothes, garden stuff, pet stuff, festive/party/birthday stuff, books/magazines/treats etc?

Yawnyawnallday Same question, most people meal plan, but do you spend money during the week on other things like gift cards, gifts, snacks when out and about etc?

Two of us and a 3 year old. £80 a week

I spend around £530-£570 a month for two adults, a teen, a tween and two DC in infants school.
This doesn't include lunch for the teen who gets £15 a week to buy hers or any alcohol.
It does include all toiletries and cleaning stuff.
I buy a lot in bulk from Costco and meat in bulk from the local butcher. Mostly cook from scratch bar a few old El Paso or Spice Taylor kits.
I rarely buy own brands.

5 Adults 2 cats I spend approx. 600 a month, we entertain a lot and there is often 10 for lunch on a Sunday, I do most of my shopping at ASDA.

Family of five here and we spend about £1200 a month…. that does seem excessive reading this thread so to answer your question, I don't think that £600 a month is too much.

Wayfarer - we spend around £65-£70 a week, sometimes less and do not eat crap so there is 'getting away from it'. We are vegan so no meat in our shopping, don't really drink, so no alcohol and plan meals that use up all food. The freezer is used a lot too.

We spend around £120 a week for all food/ toiletries/ household cleaning stuff and it includes 1 tin of formula as DD ( few weeks old) sometimes has that at night.

We mainly shop at m&s or waitrose and I'm sure we could shave if we swapped supermarkets but we don't need to.

£150 a week here for just the two of us but I won't eat cheap meat. It's my issue and way overboard but I make sacrifices elsewhere so feel it's ok.

Me, DH and 2 cats live on £40 a week, all meals include meat, we just meal plan carefully and shop in aldi. £7-10 of that is cats food. I'm amazed at those who spend 3 figures a week on 2-3 people.

ScarletSahara You also only mention food. Food is only one aspect of most people's weekly shop. Does your shop include everything other than petrol & bills & activities?

No way does my budget include anything like socks, gifts, magazines, coffee out etc. I have £15 a day for that and DH has £5 a day.

There is Me, DH, ds ( 13 months) and baby DD

We spend £170 a week that includes all toiletries/ household cleaning stuff as well as food

We buy meat from local butcher, veg from farm shop, bread from bakery or we bake our own and everything else from waitrose

I would say on average £480 for me, dh, two dcs, two cats and three Guineas.

Sounds about right. I spend £65ish a week for four (two adults, two primary school kids), and that's not including lunches on weekdays or the organic meat box (£80 every six weeks or so).

I do meal plan and use mysupermarket.com to make sure I'm getting the best deals, as I resent paying more where I don't have to, but I don't always buy the cheapest (eg not the cheapest loo roll as it is so thin we use twice as much).

There is some catering for allergies in there - I figure I could save about £5 a week if not for that, same again once the little one is out of night nappies.

I have £15 a day for that and DH has £5 a day.

So to compare really you need to add £140/week to your weekly shop if you're compairing your shop with people who spend more on the big shop but get all their coffee for work breaks and snacks and leisure etc included in that

Yes-Aldi nappies are amazing and for other things we bulk buy and look where has the best deals. My amounts don't include clothes, petrol or cosmetics but does include toiletries etc. We also use our high street green grocer as it is often cheaper than the supermarket. We used to spend so much more but decided to change our habits to enable me to give up work when our child was born.