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...

Thanks about, I will remember that! We also used pampers for ds so imagine we'll start with those again this time.

£320 a month, four adults, near enough. 17 yr old buys his lunch out weekdays.
We eat out once a week, not included in that.

About £350 for 2 adults and 3 teens,doesn't include school dinners but does include all cleaning products and alcohol.

That is at Lidl with a few odds and ends( Ecover)at Sainsburys.

2 adults 2 teenagers menu plan buy meat and veg from local butcher / green grocer. Everything else Aldi. Not big drinkers and kids have school dinners. We spend beteeen 50-70 per week.

We found menu planning to be the best way to save money. Don't cut any corners on quality.

I get 3 meals out of a chicken, meal plan, home cook everything, do our big shop in Lidl/ALDI, top up locally in farmfoods/co-op and bulk buy at discount in the butchers but it's still be well over £125 a week!
We do eat a lot of fresh food and a lot of it, my husband and I both run marathons among other sports and kids are very sporty but I wish we could spend less.
I spend £20 a week on milk alone bog standard 2ltr bottles from the co-op, but we go through 4 ltrs a day plus 3ltrs a week of oat milk.

About £150 a week for 2 adults and 2 small children. Probably too much but we don't all eat the same things (I'm vegetarian) and I like Sainsbury's. We don't do any top up shops though so that covers everything inc nappies and toiletries etc.

About £400 a month, two adults and a huge cat who eats loads. It has been £800 when 2 grown up boys living here and a weekly extra 3 adults on a Sunday.

Teenage boys can chomp through a whole shop in a weekend and vast amounts of beer.

How do people get 3 meals from a chicken? Are they serving tiny portions or portions with only a very small amount of chicken? Or are these some kind of super turkey sized chickens?
I haven't cooked a full chicken in at least a couple of years as I prefer to cook thighs or drumsticks but when I have cooked a full Chicken it has been a medium sized one and has only lasted one meal (2 adults And 2 Teens).
When we go to Nandos we order 2 full chickens (Nandos chickens are quite small) and all that is left is a pile of well picked bones.

Chickens seem to be really scrawny these days. I'd rather use pieces now.

Back in the day, I'd boil all the meat off the carcass and make it into a pie. Nowadays there's nothing left after one meal!

I can get two off a chicken. Roast and curry. Could just about get enough for a meagre soup on top if it was a non free range monster bird.

Pad roast chicken out with stuffing.

If I'm honest I'd rather just spread it between two meals and go free range. The Lidl free range chickens spread ok between 2 meals.

I tend to get the biggest chicken I can find, which for a free ranger/organic tends to be about £12. It will do a roast for 4, a curry, soup from the stock, a sarnie or two and maybe a stir fry.

£240 to £280 per month, 2 adults, 2 children, a baby and a cat. We don't eat meat though. I don't understand how people spend so much. We don't make everything from scratch either!

Around £70 per week on two adults, one child and two cats (including food and litter).
We swapped to Aldi and Lidl and cannot fault the products. Our eating has never suffered and we still enjoy everything we did before swapping but it saves us well over £100 per month.

I also buy meat and freeze it to stop wastage, as well as meal prepping and sticking to a shopping list. A typical weekly shop will be about £40- £50 minus the cats and then I top up with bits and bobs for DS as I see them.

I'm amazed at how low most of these are. I spend at least £150 a week including wine and toiletries/ washing powder etc. 2 adults and 2 children. This doesn't include weekday lunch as DCs are fed at school and DH and I buy our lunches at work.

I use up all leftovers, menu plan and batch cook. I only shop at Tescos. How on earth do you feed a family of four for £50 a week?

How on earth do you feed a family of four for £50 a week?

It's s complete mystery to me too. A few people have now explained how they make a chicken last several meals but my DH and 2 greedy teens could seriously eat a large chicken between them in one meal (I would probably just have a leg off it and the toddler would have a few tiny strips) and there wouldn't be anything left over for stir fry or curry or soup as they literally eat everything except the bones. If I just have them one thigh each or a couple of thin slices of breast meat they would not be happy or full no matter how much beg I pad it out with. None of them are overweight either - the 13 year old is probably borderline underweight, the 15 year old has BMi at the low end of normal and DH BMi is bang in the middle of the normal range.
Im guessing some people don't add the cost of takeaways or meals out into their weekly food spend either. We only eat out once every other month and we never have takeaways so our weekly shopping cost of £125 plus £15 for one set of school meals covers all food, nappies, drinks, toiletries and cleaning products.

£60-70 a week, 2 adults, 2 teenage boys. We shop in Aldi and meal plan , freeze leftovers, don't buy any convenience foods/ready meals and cook from scratch. Both work full time and use our slow cooker a lot!

I buy a big free range chicken from the butchers, must be close to 2.75kg, and I pick every bit of meat off it that I can.
I get a roast for 5 (2 adults and 3 DCs) which rarely even uses all Breast meat then I can make 2 of a chicken and leek pie, curry, risotto, pasta bake, mixed salad etc with the remainder. The chicken does cost about £8 but it's free range and non intensively farmed so tastes amazing.

my DH and 2 greedy teens could seriously eat a large chicken between them in one meal

Hear, hear. A chicken doesn't even feed my crew. And we are all slim to skinny. I'm trying to put weight onto the 12 year old.

I budget £400 a month for two adults and 12yo DS. I love to cook so there's no ready meals or convenience type food in there, and we generally try and have a couple cheaper meals a week like jacket potatoes etc.
Doesn't include dog food but does include cat food and cleaning materials.

£4-500 a month, for two adults, two teenagers, a seven year old, a dog, two guinea pigs, and a tank of tropical fish(!) We're in Glasgow.

I got a big online shop delivered yesterday and I spent £116

That's for me, two DC and four cats

When it's gone, it's gone, can't afford to buy again til next payday

£60 a week for 2 adults so with a few extras probably around £270 a month for all our house products and food.

I meal plan, shop at aldi, eat mainly vegetarian dishes. Use lentils, beans and other pulses to bulk out dishes. Tend to have most meals with rice, pasta or bread. Cook lots from scratch and put leftovers in the freezer for lunches and teas later in the week/month.
I couldn't begin to consider spending £500 on food alone. That's more than my rent

Approx £50 a week - two adults and two cats. Includes all meals and toiletries.

About £1000 a month for 2 adults, 3 DC.
Sounds a lot but I generally spend £200 a week and then put lunch money on dds account and buy lunch out myself so comes in around £250.
Doesn't include meals out.