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...

And we are in the South East.

About £140-£160 a month for two adults (incl. toiletries, cleaning supplies, batteries, bulbs, etc.): that's a monthly Asda shop at £90, a £20 butchers' trip, and £30-£50 on bread/milk/veg top-ups. But we have a take-away generally once a week, so that's an additional £60 or so a month.

We mostly buy ingredients which last several meals (meaning we tend to have 'themes' every couple of weeks...) - at the last shop we bought a jar of pesto and some grated mozzarella, and we've had pesto/mozzarella/bacon chicken twice and pesto/mozzarella pasta twice in the last fortnight.

We are in the South East. I spend about £700 per month on me, DH, 2 adult children and 3 large dogs.

I find most recipes online! To be honest though the longer I have it the more it has become 'chuck everything in'!

I was spending £240-280 a month for 1 adult 1 DC at Tesco including lunches, but have switched back to Aldi to save for a few months and am now spending about £140-160 but that doesn't always include my lunches.

DS has ASD so has quite a rigid diet, which makes budgeting quite easy as he doesn't beg for lots of extras - I'm the worst culprit for that!

dreaming I found my second baby to be different in terms of stuff we did. With ds there was lots of soft play and going for coffees in naice cafes. I was the first to have another amongst my mates, but as second dc have come along we do more picnics and visiting each others houses- it's easier to be in someone's home than a cafe with two! I also do more toddler groups than classes which are cheaper. Nearly everyone wants to do an activity in the morning and then get home for lunch. Obviously you don't want to be housebound but I've found second time around everyone is more skint so less likely to do expensive things!

I think that the single biggest differences you can make (aside from living in baked beans!)are meal planning and avoiding waste. I know it's a cliché but it works. If I need courgettes I used to put 'courgettes' on the list and buy 'some' now I work out how many I need and buy that many. I'm also realistic about it- I used to plan steamed fish and nd veg for a Friday night and end up ordering a pizza! Now I plan for pizza, or whatever and make my own.

About £200 2 adults 2 kids.
Tightly budget, meal plan, no alcohol, very little meat, maybe once a week.
That includes all lunches too.
Only shop at Aldi,

Approx £500
I do a weekly shop. Tescos and Aldi mostly, occasionally Asda or Sainsburys.
So theres Me, Dh (mechanic/manuel job), 18yr old Ds @ 6ft plus, a 15yr old Ds @ 5ft 9 ish and a BIG German Shepherd.
Break fast for me and 15yr old, 18yr old eats when he gets to work, Dh doesnt do breakfast at all.
Packed luches for 3, 5 days a week.
Meat & 2 veg & potato of some description for evening meal, 6 days a week, takeaway on a Sunday.

Agree with NickyEds.

Also, every week I tend to go down my online favourites, put in everything I need according to the meal plan and also what I fancy, what's on offer and useful to stock up on. At the end I see how much the trolley is, and get it as close to £70 as I can. That means treat stuff is nearly always taken out again and I only bulk buy what I can afford. Sounds simple but again, I can usually get the shop from £80 to £70 just on doing it that way and being brutal on what food we actually need rather than want.

I miss treat food though!

Between £250 and £300 for 2 adults and a preschoolet, including night nappies and toiletries.
£40 ocado per week, £10 top up shop, about £30 meat (organic only).
child eats lunch and tea at childminders, but has second dinner at home.

2 adults, 3 kids, 3 dogs (2 giant breeds), a cat and 3 ferrets. We spend about £350 this includes everything but we don't drink much alcohol and this includes everyone's lunch except DH's.

We eat a healthy variety of food and mix shops between aldi and ocado. Food shop will be £400 soon as Dpuppy is still growing but should settle down to £375 when his fully grown giant breed 8 months old

My friend spends £50 a week including dog food for 2 dogs and 2 kids they eat well too and have no idea how she does it!

£80ish per week at Aldi. 2 adults 2 teens.

£500 a month. That's everything for 4 adults (dc late teens) and giant greyhound. Meal plan and Aldi are my friends. We eat like kings btw.

We spend 65-70 a week for 2 adults 2 kids and a baby, we go to Aldi and Lidl much cheaper than our old Tesco shop which used to come to 100-120 a week

Oh and £20 per month for dog food!

Alot of it depends on where you shop.

We have 2 adults and one small child.

We spend £100 a week. This is food alone nothing else.

I spend £60 in Asda and around £40 in M&S

About £100 for 2 people + 2 cats, that's for food, household and cat food. I shop at Aldi (food/household) and Wilko (household/pet food), I sometimes going to Tesco and shop for the bargains/reduced items. I also batch cook a lot of dishes to freeze including lasagne, bolognese, moussaka, cottage pie, soup

I spend about £45 per week for two adults and two cats.

Oh should have said that's at Tesco, no aldi or lidl or Iceland or other cheaper shops near me.

£200 per month roughly for 2 adults 2 under 1s and 2 cats

Two adults, two DDs and a dog, was £400ish, but due to me being a bit skinto with my tax bill this month I have set aside £280 and I have to stick to that and no more. So I am meal planning and buying while joints of meat to portion and freeze and having a toastie/soup night and an egg night a week. We don't drink so no alcohol anyway.

An average of £495 per month last year. For 2 adults and a 15 year old. Excludes school lunches (about another £600 per year) and whatever husband spends on lunches. Includes all household cleaning products, fuel for fireplace, booze. Includes Christmas catering, but other entertainment (birthday teas, lunches and dinners out) goes in a separate column, as it's discretionary. So..about £5 per person, per day. Which I think is fine. We could reduce it by eating less, eating more vegetarian, trading down on some of the branded food, but I've consulted the family and they like the way we eat, so we'll stick to it for now.

About £60 a week for 2 adults, mostly from Lidl because we love their stuff. Suggest you DON'T buy their fresh bread, - it's seriously addictive. The Hi GI loaf never lasts more than one meal in our house.
We cook everything from scratch and (mostly thanks to my OH) have really varied, delicious, and healthy meals. We use the slow cooker often in winter for really nutritious soups and use all leftovers which are yummy so will never be binned. A chicken does us at least two meals with the carcass making a brilliant stock for soup. (I know it is a standard joke but true) It is amazing how much meat you get from the boiled carcass to put back in the soup too.
Today for lunch we had thick ham and lentil soup with sweet potatoes and squash and big chunks of ham. Dinner tonight was a prawn stir fry with loads of vegetables and nuts followed by yoghurt. When you cook from scratch you save loads of money and eat far more healthily.

£350 or so a month for 2 x adults and 2 x kids. We shop mostly at aldi with also some waitrose or m and s for treats - rarely the middle range.

I eat a high meat/protein diet with lots of fresh food and veg so the cheaper, filler type foods like pasta rice etc are out. It does make my food bill expensive but after having had diet related health problems in the past I prioritise health over money these days.

itsnice I couldn't find cheaper nappies than Amazon's subscribe and save, but we only use pampers. We spend about £20 a month on nappies.