to spend £280 a week to feed a family of 5?

[TempleOfBlooms]

I spend about £280 a week on food. This includes my work lunches which tend to be salads from places like Leon plus coffees etc. The rest is food eaten at home.

Breakfast for all five of us tends to be things like Bircher muesli or chia based stuff with fruits and nuts. Fresh juice too.

Lunches in summer are usually a selection of dips and cheese and meats and salads.

Dinner is usually fish or chicken with a selection of salads and grilled veg.

So fresh food but not caviar or ridiculous indulgences.

It seems like everyone else on here can feed a family of four on tiny amounts. How? We certainly could eat more cheaply but that would mean fewer veg, fewer fruits, less fish etc.

Is it really so unusual to spend so much on food? I never see anyone else admit to it.

I had friend who spent £220 for family of 4. Both she and her dh bought lunch and coffees out most days. Then he lost his very well paid job. They had to go 11 months before he got another job that paid well but nowhere near previous job. My friend told me several times she wished she had saved more and spent less. She had to borrow money from her parents just to keep paying mortgage. She now spends £120 on food and only lunch out once each week. If you can afford it fine but I would make sure you have savings too. We spend £160 for 5 excluding 1 dc school lunches.

stop doing 'lunch' 'coffee' 'dips' 'cheeses', expensive Muesli., and you will save about half of that.
it's not rocket science is it?

That's what you've taken from it whale. I really don't think it's quite as black and white as you are painting it, or that CC was being insulting to anyone.

Of course you can buy "fresh healthy food" on £30 a week. But you can buy a damn sight less of it than for £80 a week, or £120 a week. So you have to - through choice or circumstance, doesn't matter - bulk out the fresh food with more carbs, more pulses, cheaper cuts etc.

Look - I don't think chia porridge is somehow more virtuous than oat porridge, or that a steak salad with Jersey Royals and all the trimmings is nutritionally "better for you" than a baked potato with a beef mince chilli and some frozen broccoli on the side. But you just are restricted to the cheaper options of food if you spend less. If you spend more, you have more options. Just like everything in life.

You seem to be taking it personally.

How can you be PROUD that you buy expensive food?!

It could also conversely be said how can you be proud about scrimping and saving on feeding your family every day just so you can afford a fancy two week holiday every year?

While the OP's expenditure is clearly high due to eating out and buying convenience foods it should be recognised that as long as you have enough money to pay for the absolute essentials then we all make different choices about how we spend our money and that is fine as long as your children are adequately cared for. I earn well above average, we spend both time and money on nice food (homecooked, nice meat and alcohol). I also spend more than average on clothes and shoes and cameras and bikes and our mortgage. But we spent far less than average on cars (only have 1) and haven't been abroad for years, holidays are spent visiting family in the UK. I can't ever imagine spending £5K on a single holiday, for me that is a really frivolous way to throw money away. But I know other people have different priorities and that is fine.

NoSquirrels
Not taking it personally at all like I said I could spend 120 pounds on a food shop if I wanted to I chose not to on principle because no matter where it's from its basically the same.
I am however taking offence for people that cannot afford to spend that every week on shopping.
I am glad I found that comment though as it has clearly proved that you were wrong and this was said, now though you have just changed your mind to you don't think it's offensive, well I do and I bet a lot of other people on this thread do aswell.
Don't assume because someone takes offence to something that it is because they have issues. (Also offensive)

We are a family of 4. Our grocery shop is avg 115 a week, not including all the mid week shop runs, butchers etc. And the occasional school dinner. I bring food to work. My husband is like you op ame buys every day. He enjoys getting out. He spends about £6 a day I think. So if there were 5 of us I reckon our food would be exactly the same.
We also spend about 50 or 60 a week on eating out.
We both have crazy hours and 2 young children.

Save on taking your previous dinners to work the next day.

All brands are the same at the groceries, may it be value spag or Jamie oliver spag. it seems like a lot of money tbh. that's £1120/monthly your spending.

On the other hand. if you can afford it why the heck not.

OP - I think that is a lot to spend on food. I earn about that much per week, and I admit I am envious.
Not sure what answers you were expecting.

I’m sure frozen veg and fish is supposed to actually be fresher than fresh if that makes sense? It’s frozen within hours to retain all the good stuff rather than sitting on a shelf for days? And it’s soooo much cheaper

I think that’s probably twice what I used to spend when both adult children still at home. It would include my work sandwich but not DH as he is on separate budget.
I shop at Aldi but buy “ special” things at local farm shop or butcher. We always have fresh fruit and veg but we do eat out/ take out at least once a week so that’s extra.

If you can afford it why are you asking this question?

Don't assume because someone takes offence to something that it is because they have issues. (Also offensive)
Blimey @Thewhale2903, you have made way more insulting remarks to me than I have to you!

You originally accused me of not being able to "read between the lines". Reading between the lines is the definition of assumption. Assuming you can see what is not there.
I try not to do that. I try to read what is there, on the page.
You're welcome to be offended by CC. I was not.

now though you have just changed your mind
Read my posts. I haven't.

I bulk buy and batch cook. Family of four and I usually spend £60 per week with one week at closer to £80 per month for buying extra bulk items.

I wonder if you have fallen into the trap of buying 'superfood' food, instead of just buying normal in season standard food. I personally love Leon, but most of their foods are quite cheap to produce really, roasted squash, brown rice, kale etc. Why bother with chia stuff really? If you eat a locally produced, in season food, you will get just as much goodness, than from airlifted/refrigerated 'exotic' fruits. Get a decent cookbook and and box delivery service.

It's completely up to you how much you spend, but as @caringiver said, you could be saving all that money for a rainy day.

Your reasons for buying takeout salad are very sound - it gets you away from your desk and frees you up from the chore of making lunch. I spend easily pro rata what you spend but i value good food so i don’t begrudge the money. I have friends who scrimp on food but would think nothing of spending £150 on a pair of shoes. Also, i like wine so spend money on that but never drink in pubs which is much more expensive. Food is important and therefore money should be allocated to it as a priority imho.

Family of five here.

£80 a week (Aldi - they do everything healthy that the big stores do)

£100 a month extra on toiletries and my diet stuff (allergic to Aldi products)

Could not imagine spending that much.

Brand buying?

LIDL and ALDI are your friends.

It is easy to sneer but also I can see it would be easy to get into certain habits and spend over budget, (if you can)

Honestly just for a start, ditch the chia porridge and get normal porridge.

£280 can be easily done , but also it can easily be done on less with planning and preparing food yourself

NoSquirrels
Pointless, you spent a long time telling me they didn't say what I said they did, i proved you wrong by showing you.
Also I told you not to assume I had issues because I had taken offence.
Also you are agreeing with someone who has offended people which makes you just as offensive and insulting. I take that as I can insult you back with my opinions on you. Although I don't actually know what I said that you would be insulted by?

Do stop showing off. It's as plain as the nose on my face (pretty plain) that you have a good shopping budget. That's nice for you.

This

I think what extra money buys you is more variety in months which are lean for locally grown fresh produce.

So strawberries / out of season green beans are no healthier than swede / turnip / winter cabbage, but being able to buy out of season produce does allow greater variety of foods - or perhaps greater variety of 'mainstream' foods, because any allotment / veg garden grower will tell you that what is sold in supermarkets is a tiny proportion of the variety of edible vegetables.

Also, spending money on 'a hunk of animal protein' is simpler - but no healthier - than assembling a day's protein requirements from a wide variety of animal and vegetable and dairy sources. The latter is often cheaper, but balancing the overall meal (in terms of fat, carbohydrate etc) as well as getting the right amount of protein, requires some cooking and planning skill.

So those of us who eat seasonal local veg, rather than imported fruit, and assemble protein requirements from different sources, rather than buying it in the form of a single hunk of meat, do eat equally healthily, just more cheaply and differently, from the OP.

i also find the suggestion that 'spreading' protein from e.g. chicken across more than 1 or 2 meals means '4 days of bland food'. The OP's diet sounds impossibly dull to me, because it is in the sauces and seasoning and addition of a wide variety of different ingredients to stews, casseroles, pasta sauces, stir fries, curries, tagines, kebabs, pies, risottos etc which to me is the essence of my cooking - not grilling a hunk of bland protein.

I am also puzzled by 'protein is better food than carbohydrate'. if you eat the recommended amount of each per day, with no excess, then you have the right amount of protein and the right amount of calories - job done. if you choose to eat 'excess calories' - ie more than you need - in the form of protein because it is excreted more readily, then more fool you for cooking and eating excess calories.

There is just me and 4 boys. I spend about £80 a week in Aldi, £12 on school lunch for one (one has universal free school lunch) £10 on travel and lunch for 1 at college (mostly buses so free travel). DS1 and I take packed lunch to work.

Thewhale I could afford £120+ a week too but I'm mindful that everyone is only a pay check or two away from very different circumstances.

My dh is well paid, I don't work due to health issues and being utterly crap at pacing myself and I've been a single mother to 4 working full time to provide, I've been there having to scrimp not by choice. I now choose not to be extravagant just like you. We eat a well balanced diet and in fact where I live, most families, even those on higher incomes that I know, shop in Aldi.

Oh and we're having risotto this evening made from left over chicken and mushrooms 😂

I spend about £150 a week on food for 3 people, possibly more. Am lazy and don’t like cooking so that accounts for most of the costs (eg buying ready meal style mains and side dishes etc). I would like to spend less but the thought of preparing food from scratch and spending time in the kitchen over rides the desire to save money! Am a bit ashamed though, am definitely not bragging!

I think it’s all relative. I probably have a similar ish spend and had almost same meal as you last night. Here is tonight’s-a treat for DH because he’s been away