AIBU to ask how much you spend a month on groceries?

[dreamingaboutcheese]

I'm trying to budget for an incoming mat leave/new baby and don't know if I'm budgeting too much for groceries. I currently spend around £500 a month (in London) on 2 adults, 1 toddler and 2 cats. Is that about normal or do you think I could do it much cheaper? Would love to know how much everyone else spends on groceries for context...

Possibly another £10 a month on toiletries and the dog costs about a fiver a month to feed (good food bought from Amazon, tiny dog!)

Two adults and2 dc aged 10 & 12. Food, toiletries, cleaning and laundry costs are approx £80 per week (£350 per calendar month)
That includes packed lunches for dh & dc1 and lunch for me at home.
Main shop Lidl or Aldi - I rarely buy "brands" and cook meals from scratch, I always cook a big pot of chilli / casserole / spag bol / soup etc and freeze for a quick meal another day. Leftovers are always used up! Buying seasonal fruit and veg helps keep costs down and I keep an eye out for offers, eg this week Lidl had large beef joints for £3.99 kg, I cut one up and made a huge casserole with half of it and put the rest in the freezer for another day.

That's interesting that you've stipulated 'toiletries' BingBong. I was including toiletries in my total per week. Things like toothpaste, mouthwash, hair products, make up etc can easily add £20 before you've even got going. Plus both my kids are still in nappies. So if it were just food alone and no wipes, nappies, toiletries or Aldi and Lidl middle aisle jumble sale bargains then I probably only spend about £70 a week!

They always start off with the roast chicken brigade who spend tuppence ha'penny on a months shopping including organic meat and then there's usually a swing of people who spend a grand feeding one adult and a dog.

Yep. It is an odd question, really. Unless you want to work towards a very specific budget and need ideas.

£200-£250 per week
Organic as much as is available. 5 of us no pets, no babies.

I will also add I always try to have a good stock of tins and frozen so my cupboards are never really empty when we do our weekly shop.

I think that sounds about right, we spend £400/month ish on two of us, 1 baby and a cat. I find ocado expensive and get Sainsbury's delivery with ocasional top ups from tesco as that is my closest supermarket.
Before the baby we went on a serious budget as we were doing an extension and managed to get it down to 30£ a week and £10 in the butchers. Now I just can't see how I ever managed that, I remember lots of boring planning and price comparisons :(!

£400 on two adults, school age child and a baby. This includes nappies, wipes etc. No alcohol but quite a few ready meals for my lunch, and ready prepared fruit and veg for convenience.

About 60 a week on two adults and one child aged 6 - includes packed lunches for all three. Could probably be cheaper if I would eat dinners based on practicality rather than whether they appeal to me that day or not...

Oh god I hate these threads as feel
Such a fool. We spend £700+ per month in Aldi and Waitrose on 2 adults and 4DC (although 2 are adult sized) going to go hang my head in shame.......

About £250 a month for me and DS (9). We don't eat meat and have fish once or twice a week. That includes packed lunches for us both every day and a bottle of wine a week for me!
I meal plan and usually stick to it. I do two fortnightly online orders of about £70-80 and then top up fresh fruit and veg as needed. I could do it for less, especially if I cut down on the top ups and I am guilty of overstocking tins and freezer things but this works with my budget and means we get the occasional treat.

I'm currently pg with dc2 and dreading having to buy nappies again. It makes such a difference to the shopping budget. This time I WILL make sure I buy in bulk when on offer.

We spend £125 per week for 2 adults, 2 teenagers and a toddler and everyone except the toddler has a huge appetite. About £10-£15 of that is due to various allergies that one of he teenagers has so I buy him free from biscuits, bread, pasta and snacks and free from foods are eye wateringly expensive.
I wish we could spend less. In an ideal world I would like to spend £100 per week but I can't manage it.

For DH, DD(11) and I, where DH and I are both out at work all day, we budget €700 a month. I try to meal plan and cook from scratch etc, but I also prefer higher welfare meat, lots of fresh veg, cheese, etc - and we also do buy shortcuts as we are so busy (pre-rolled pastry, fresh pasta, good readymade sauces etc). And I also bake from time to time, and we enjoy our wine too. And DH and DD both drink milk like it's going out of fashion!

Probably about £300 (me, DH, DS and dog). Includes all household necessities.

I think £500 sounds about right. We spend around £100-120 a week for 4 of us (dc are 18 months and 3years). I shop at either Aldi, Morrisons or asda for a big shop then corner shop for bread and butcher for meat. Meat is all free range/organic. Includes nappies, toiletries etc. Some booze but only 2 bottles a month maybe, but I always have flowers in. I meal plan and cook from scratch and tgat includes most meals (I'm a SAHM and dp takes lunch to work)but we often eat a meal out at weekends and the occasional take away. At least 3 times a month we have family over to eat so might do an extra shop then. We could cut back but I wouldn't like to.

Pp is right- these threads always have loads of posters on who seem to eat, cook and shop in a similar way to me but do it for half the price!

It's hard to work out what with both of us buying stuff when we cook and lunches etc but we keep it down by eating very little meat and not eating out too often. We also buy a lot of own brand stuff and shop in Aldi/Asda etc. Local veg shop which is very cheap compared to supermarket. It's probably about £30-£40 a week for 2 adults.

Around £100 per week, all in. That's for three adults, a 15 year old DS2 & 5 year old DD.

We spend £420 per month on three adults (one of whom is an athletic 20year-old male...he eats a lot!) and 2 kids.

Our total of £125 per week above includes packed lunches for DH, the allergy teenager and lunch for me
And the toddler at home. It's also worth pointing out that we don't ever have takeaways and only eat out about once every other month.
If people are spending £50 on a weekly shop but adding takeaways and mealsmputnon top of that then they might not be spending much less on food in reality.

Right you guys - you've inspired me to get back to meal planning and look at alternative supermarkets. I reckon I could shave off around £100 a month, even with the nappy etc costs that will be coming in again. I did include toiletries and cleaning in my overall estimate. I just buy it all in one place for convenience. Thanks for your feedback and ideas...

I'm in Edinburgh. 2 adults, 1 toddler and a baby arriving imminently! We do an online shop each week which is normally around £60-£70 then top that up with milk, few other items so probably about £300 a month. We don't buy booze and have fairly small appetites to be honest; toddler has most his meals at nursery.

That's true six - we don't often do takeaways or eat out any more either - I'm a home cooker mostly (with the odd ready meal)

With the purchase of a slow cooker I have got it down from £120 to £65 a week!
2 adults (one pregnant!) and 3 kids.

Thanks NickyEds sounds quite similar... I feel like I could do it cheaper but haven't made the effort yet to work out how. Time to plan! I'm worried if I don't cut back massively on everyday spending with this mat leave I'll end up housebound with the baby with no money to do anything or meet up with people.

WaitroseCoffee brilliant point. I've got one of those in the cupboard I rarely use. Time to dust it off. Can you recommend a good cookbook for it?