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...

About £80-£100 a month for me and DD

We budget £320 a month for 2 adults, 2 teens and a smaller dc. I find internet shopping is best as I plan more what i am going to buy. Last week I went to Lidl for a change but ended up spending more with no focus on what i actually needed.

£150ish a week on food (mainly in Aldi and Waitrose) and a further |£60 or so in Home Bargains on toiletries and cleaning products. We hardly ever eat takeaways and the £150 includes packed lunches. I would say I spend about the same as everyone else at work.

There are 5 of us, Including 2 strapping older teenage boys (16 and 15 who train intensively in their sports 4 times a week) and a 19yr old DD (who is meant to live at Uni but keeps coming home to raid the cupboards).

We cook 2 chickens at a time now, it's the only way there is ever anything leftover to make a sandwich.

About £250 a month for two adults, excluding lunches. We could spend a lot less but don't need to budget, so we aren't terribly careful about keeping tabs on outgoings.

Average of £30 a week for 1 adult, including toiletry items. I have to buy dairy-free milk/cheese and sometimes snacks which puts the price up a bit- no 40p pints of milk for me! I shop at Tesco- would love to shop at Lidl more but it's a bit far from me, not convenient for public transport at all, and I would still need to call into the Sainsburys opposite to get my lactose free milk.

I tend to allow £80 a week to include nappies, wipes & cleaning products.
£20 for a takeaway once a week but if groceries go over then we forgo takeaway.

food is our biggest expense.

It varies but probably about £450 per month in total for 2 adults and 2 dogs, living in Devon. Includes all cleaning stuff and sundries and most toiletries and less than £20 of it is alcohol, I drink once in a blue moon and DP has a few beers per week. We shop in Waitrose, the Darts Farm shop near Exeter, which is amazing, or Sainsbury's. All meat and fish comes from Darts Farm or a local game dealer and we get eggs from a neighbouring farm. The total includes lunches but we probably eat out once or twice a week on top of that too.

The dogs (2 spaniels) have expensive tastes; they have Millie's Wolfheart dry and Honey's raw food plus raw meaty bones from Darts Farm and 2 or 3 bags of dried game meat/jerky type chews and treats a month too. I think it averages out at about £100/month all in for them.

£1000
2 adults
2 teens
2 children
1 dog
2 cats
too much

£300 a month on 2 adults and 2 kids and a £40 budget for top ups such as bread, milk, fruit, yogurts etc. That includes cleaning materials and toiletries and my 2 dd's milkshake/juice money for their school lunches comes out of the £40 too. I make my OH lunches which saves a tonne of money, most of our shopping is done with morrisons, top ups are done in Tesco express and some toiletries from boots. we live in the south east.

We spend £400 a month on 2 adults a teenager, 2 toddlers and 2 cats . Both toddlers in nappies. That's including food, nappies, cleaning products and self care products.

£650 two adults and two kids. Am
Happy with that, we eat an insane amount of posh fruit!

Around £90 a month for me and 2 cats.

I budget £10/day. I do a 5day online shop which is between £45/£55 every 5 days. No top up shops. 2 adults a6yr old, 2yr old and 2 cats.
I am also a mortgage advisor and this is 1 of the outgoings we have to ask. The variation between families huge! Ranging from very frugal to sill money being spent.

You are happy to spend nearly eight grand a year just on food that you eat in the house for a small family.
How much fruit could you eat that costs that much?

I've been thinking about this too. I find that I spend too much money on food for 2 people. It's around £1000/month.

But we live in an area with a high cost of living. All meals come out of that, too. We rarely eat out. And we eat a lot of salmon, shrimp, low carb veggies, steak. We don't eat canned food, we don't eat carbs like rice, potatoes, etc.

I guess we have an expensive way of eating. But we've lost weight, we generally don't have a lot of illnesses, etc.

I do a mixture of Aldi (bit more of a trek), Sainsbury's (nearest home) and Waitrose (nearest school) - budget is supposed to be £150 per week/£600 per month. If I am strict it can be done easily, with change, it does creep over at times though and it is often closer to £200 a week. 2 adults, 3 dc (8, 7, 5 - including 2 tall boys) and a big dog. I need to do better!

I think it's the same for us, IceGreenTea I think it's the fact that we don't eat rice, potatoes, bread (rarely), that drives our costs up. Nuts, fish, meat, eggs, dried fruit, all organic.

Around £35 per week for myself, 1 DC, 2 cats and 2 Guinea pigs. Shop mainly at lidl, though debating moving to morrisons!

FuckOffDailyMailQuitQuotingMN

Yeah I guess I shouldn't feel bad then that it seems we are spending too much on food.

£70-80 per week for 2 adults 2 teenage ds's (although one seems to eat out more than in at the mo) and a dog ... to be honest I don't like what I buy and if money were good (which is certainly is not) I'd definitely spend double that but hey ho!

About £450 to 500 a month including all household and basic toiletries. 6 people - 3 adults, 1 teen, 1 preteen, 1 6 year old.

I shop in aldi and meal plan, not much meat. No way I could do it cheaper!

About £700 per month for 5 including 3 teenage DS.

Average weekly shop is £80 for family of four. Also get an Amazon shop once a month with bulk buy essentials in (eg nappies) that must cost £40. With top-ups and occasional takeaway I'm going to say £500. We could make it less but we are not on a super-strict budget at the moment. It also covers food for egg/dairy allergies. For example we buy semi-skimmed and full fat milk for two, as well as oat milk and almond milk for the allergy sufferers. Things like that add up.

£400 per month for 3 adults and this includes cleaning products and basic toiletries.
Dog food purchased separately.
Meals mostly from scratch as this saves a lot of money.
£10 but no more on more milk/bread etc per week.

I spend about £300 for 1 adult 2 dc, live in a high cost area with no aldi/lidl/asda nearby. Do my shop at waitrose and Iceland. Rarely pay full price for meat as I have made with the nice man that does the reductions so I time my visits to coincide with his shifts! 😄😄😄😄 if I didn't get cheap meat my shopping bill would be at least an extra £100 a month.