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...

Wow Tobi, I'm in awe.

Where do you buy sacks of washing powder?

Star, we easily manage on £45.00 a week for food (two adults, one teenager), I look for the best prices in Lidl and Tesco, often buy packs fruit/veg as it's much cheaper and buy certain things while on offer. Last week I bought:

3 breakfast cereals £3.38
Packet pitta breads 42p
2 loaves bread £1.59
Cakes, biscuits £3.32
5 Cadbury creme eggs in box £1.65
2 packs crisps £1.00
2 packets pasta £1.18
3 packet/jars sauce £2.24
2 cans tomatoes 50p
1 can kidney beans 30p
1 can tuna 65p
26 pieces fruit £2.27
Packet peppers 78p
1 carrot 11p
Packet potatoes 65p
Lettuce 50p
Packet parsnips 49p
Packet green beans 59p
Packet tomatoes 60p
Milk x 2 1.98
2 large packets of cheddar £2.98
8 yogurts £1.09
Spread 75p
15 eggs £1
Pasty £1
Birds Eye - 5 chicken steaks for £2
Sponge puddings £2.00
Toilet rolls £1
Clearance wine Tescos £4

This cost me approx £40/41. We have packet lunches/eat at home so includes all meals.

The diary, cans, bread, fruit and veg are typical of what I buy every week. I'm well stocked up on cereals, biscuits, chocolate treats, crisps, easy sauces for meals. This week I'll be looking at stocking up on mackeral (often on clearance in Tescos 2 fillets for 90p), salmon often reduced in Lidl £2.21 and chicken fillets in Lidl 2 for £1.79. Also, some frozen peas £1, broccoli £1 and fishfingers £2, chicken slices for sandwiches £2, value rice 45p, maybe another packet of pasta 59p and an extra can of tuna, clothes washing liquid Lidl £2.29. Again clearance or cheap bottle of wine in Tescos!

£160 per month. 1 adult two dc maybe less. prices are edging up so not for much longer.

Moneysavingexpert has a thread 'Feed a family of 4 for £20 per week'. We spend £80.00 a week for 3 adults including lunches. That doesn't include food for two dogs.

About £75 a week so £300 a month on 2 adults 1 preschooler, 1 cat, 2 snakes...and a 12 year old every other weekend or so 😊

But what are your meals there Whiskers? I can see a couple of pasta sauce meals, chicken and veg, maybe a veggie chilli. What else are you planning?

Okay, maybe a couple off egg based meals too.

it's possible to slash your shopping budget if you are prepared to ignore all ethical shopping considerations adn eat battery eggs, cruelty chicken and pork etc - free range is a significant uplift as is fair trade

We have various IBS type gut issues in our household. Some people aren't great with beans and pulses, some people can't tolerate dairy. And I suspect that gluten isn't great for them either. I think this adds a few quid to my weekly shop.

KatyBerry - this doesn't have to be the case. As mentioned upthread we have a vegan house, and the bill is usually 25-35 without compromising on ethics. I'm very careful about palm oil as well.

indeed twenty - i should have said any non-vegan household will have to compromise ethics to go super cheap. And yy to palm oil - hard to buy many supermarket budget line packaged food without it. I'm in the fortunate position to be able to pay more for the reassurance on most products (particularly hard with Dairy I think)
I am currently particularly p*ssed at M&S with their "Oakham Chicken" which they stick lovely pictures on and talk up like it's some premium brand with prices to match when in fact it's intensively farmed, horribly raised cruelty chicken with branding. That doesn't come from oakham.

We are embarassingly bad. We spend probably way over 800 a month...me+DH and 3 young DC and no pets, but weekend guests once or twice a month.

Meat and egg has to be free-range or organic. (big luxury, I know - could be much cheaper if vegetarian)
Everything else from Lidl/Aldi and can't bring myself to buy from Sainsbury's or Waitrose regularly, so it's not stuff from Planet Organic or Holland and Barrett. Don't even go there.
Breadmaking machine daily (well, almost)
Washing up liquid is Ecover and spray is also Ecover/Method but I buy them only on sale, but washing powder is Fomil and dishwasher tablets are from Aldi.
We don't drink alcohol.
DH has expensive high street coffee habit and eats out for lunch daily, Pret A manger sandwiches, Itsu sushi, one lunch at some not too expensive place with colleagues. I do that three times a week.
I also have cafe lunch with my toddler once a week and that's £6 in total.

So you can see, really easy to haemmorhage money...

We average about £100 a week for 2 adults and 2 children, it includes our lunches for work and some packed lunch bits for DD, she has packed lunch 2-3 times per week.

We shop mainly in Aldi and get some bits in Asda that we can't get there e.g nakd nibble packs for our youngest as she loves them and heinz bbq sauce as DD only likes that brand!

About €800 a month. More obviously if you include takeaway.eating out.

Probably all in all with cleaning stuff, toiletries and top up shops around £600 ish a month. 2 adults, 3 kids @ 8, 4 and 3 and we usually have packed lunches and no takeaways.

I spend about £6 a week on Granny Smith apples alone!

Well I am rather sad and write down on an Excel spreadsheet everything I spend and balance my bank account every few days. I always mark grocery shopping in a different colour.

During January I have spent £583.59 at Morrisons, Asda, Tesco and Iceland.

That's for 2 adults, 3 cats and 2 grown up DC who actually don't live here most of the time. One works away during the week the other went back to Uni on the 5th Jan.

I am pretty appalled actually, no wonder I have 2 freezers stuffed with food and we are fatter than we'd like.

There will be odds and sods included in that figure such as tea towels at a fiver from Asda and a scented candle but still .....

I don't really meal plan, just buy certain fish and meats on offer, Tescos sell value white frozen fish which is great for adding homemade white and tomato sauces to, buy freezer stuff again on offer, always have some sort of pulses to add to whatever. This week the following are likely but could easily change:

Spag bol tonight (mince already in the freezer), I'll put a little cheddar on top which will be cheap than parmesan)
Tuna pasta bake later in the week
Salmon with veggies
Chicken with veggies
(both chicken and salmon bought cheap above)
Vegetarian casserole with dumpings (I've got some butterbeans in cupboard which I'll add to that and a little cheese to dumplings).
Veg chilli (adding kidney beans) and rice
Possibly a frittata or something from the freezer on a day I'm feeling lazy

Just picked up a few things from Tescos - pack of fruit 69p, 2 onions 23p, beans £1, broccoli £1, tin butterbeans 50p. Thinking about it, I'll get some more potatoes and carrots when passing Lidl mid week.

We certainly don't skip meals, shake off bugs quite quickly and can count on one hand doctors appointments in the last five years.

Approx £65 pw for one adult and 3 dcs (all under 11). £10 - £15 of that is for a veg box - we eat very little meat or fish. Also have 3 dogs and 2 cats, probably another £40 per month for them, so all told around £300 per month.

That does include laundry/cleaning bits, loo rolls etc. No alcohol (well very rarely) or take aways. Dc take a pack lunch most days, I'm usually at home for lunch and have something light like toast/sandwich.

Be interested to know how much gets thrown away and whether the big spenders are overweight? Or is it that you buy brands? Genuinely curious as we only spend £300 per month for 4 including all cleaning stuff, packed lunches and enough food to cook from scratch 6 nights out of 7. I do shop at Aldi which makes a massive difference and we eat healthily and rarely buy crisps and sweets and cakes etc. We buy and eat lots of fruit and veg, eat 2 or 3 meat free meals a week.

Between £80 and £120 a week big shop depending on if a loo roll etc week. 2 adults, 1 child and a cat.

Then lunch stuff approx £4 a day week days. Plus some salad bits during week.

So all in between £105 and £145 a week. Including shampoo etc

We spend £125 per week for 2 adults, 2 teens and a toddler giddyaunt plus £15 per week for One set of school meals. We waste very little and none of us are overweight. One of the teenagers is borderline underweight. One teenager is low end of normal BMi. DH and I are both in the middle of the normal BMi range (both about 22).

Thanks six so where do you shop and do you buy brands?

I spend over £800 a month for 4 people, not including cat food. Always free range and organic so I think it's not bad. I never shop at Aldi or Lidl etc.

I cook from scratch (raw) every day and we have home made lunches. We eat big dinners but are all healthy weights, my bmi is 19 and DH is leaner than me.

I seem to be one of the big spenders. DH and I are not overweight. Teens are skinny, my 11 year old fairly average.

We eat a lot of protein and vegetables, not too heavy on carbs. So family meals might be:

pan fried spicy chicken thighs with mixed salad (optional crusty bread)
grilled salmon steaks and green vegetables
peppers and big mushrooms stuffed with hot chilli
fish pie with broccoli
etc.

Also, the DC tend to have a cooked breakfast most days, either a bacon roll, or a poached egg on toast, creamed mushrooms and grilled tomatoes on toast etc. (cereal or yoghurt and fruit on other days)

Nothing much is wasted, only crusts and a few bits of vegetables. DH and I fight over the leftovers for work lunches and add extra salad if needed.

I do buy a few treats though, like J2O if they're on offer and nice chocolate.

I think I must be more extravagant than I thought.....