To ask what your weekly food shop bill is?

[princesspeppax]

We are currently spending a fair bit more than we would like to on our weekly shopping - and are looking to save some money in the next few months for moving to our new house and this seems like a good place to start

Its me, dp, and our 3 year old and 1 year old.

So if anybody could give some advice on:

What you spend and how many of you it feeds
Where you shop thats cheapest
Meal plans for the family

Any help much appreciated
Thankyou

£100-£140 depending on where I shop I always go to Aldi then Tesco for the stuff they don't sell. This is for 2 adults and 2 dc 14 and 5 I'm always trying save money on shopping too. This is for all of us having breakfast packed lunches and dinner.

I do a 4-6 weekly shop for non perishables and we buy everything else as we go, when we fancy it. We enjoy eating, buy only what we need and we save money.

So do you go every day to the supermarket then? Doesn't that cost you more in petrol?

Two adults, kids aged 7, 5 and 2 (one of whom has packed lunch every day), Still buying nappies and formula milk and wipes.

We spend about £100 on Ocado every week then maybe another £20 a week topping up. Could def reduce this if we tried. Don't buy much alcohol but every couple of weeks we buy a couple of bottles of wine.

What Pinkball said.

Plus take a lunch box to work- saved me £30 a month.

And admire your neighbours’ gardening prowess often. Most are thrilled you want their excess French beans, apples, tomatoes etc All can be frozen in some form and have more taste than veg from the supermarket.

£60/70 a week for five. Two adults and three kids age 9,6 and almost 5. My kids honestly eat more than me 😂😂

We shop at Lidl.

Meal plan this week is
Lentil and bean Chili
Steak with chorizo salad (kids toast and beans)
Cottage pie
Tacos (not a kit)
Homemade pizza
Roast chicken drumsticks and trimmings

Wow, I am stunned about some of the lower amounts and how people manage. We spent at least £200 a week for the majority of groceries, plus one or two top-ups, so in all closer to £300. Plus pet food ordered online on top. We are foodies though and cook everything from fresh with literally no ready-made products. My DH tends to buy even more ‘deli’ stuff than me. But then, my mother lives in the South of France and people there seem to spend a lot more on food than here in the UK. In fact, my mother spends almost as much as us and it is only her but she celebrates food and gets fresh asparagus in season, crabs, lobster, oysters, truffles etc. That is her luxury and I guess we are fairly similar. We spent less in other areas of our life. I reckon that is more typical of our cultural background.

OwlinaTree - no, I use my legs to go to the shops. Sometimes going out specifically, often picking things up as I pass somewhere anyway. Not usually supermarkets - too big, take too long, aren’t on my regular routes.

I manage because I have to like a lot of people. After bills, childcare, travel I’m left with just under £300 a month to spend on everything (food, clothes, days out, toiletries, cleaning products etc). You cut your cloth accordingly. If I had more I’d buy better quality and what I fancied rather than what’s on offer that week. So it’s not a cultural thing, it’s a poverty thing.

Around £150 for four people including cleaning products and lunches etc.

About 120 pounds a week for 5 adults, Asda delivery for food groceries and toiletries. About another 20 quid a week on corner shop top ups like milk and bread. About once a month we go to a Turkish supermarket for tr eats like savoury pastries,hummus & olives and get lots of fruit and veg when there, that's about another 30.
I take lunch from home, DH often buys a sandwich, and DS3 had a tenner a week lunch money.
We meal plan for 6 days, and leave one day unplanned.

@DaisysStew Fair enough and point taken. My comment was insensitive in that context and a bit ill-thought out without further explanation. Where my mother lives in the South of France, childcare is usually far more subsidised, with the great majority of mothers working but having access to quite affordable day care. A lot of jobs tend to have Wednesday afternoon or the whole day off when there is no school, so no added expenses. Public transport seems a lot cheaper too, fuel is deffo cheaper. Also, by comparison, I found energy bills on average lower. Most people in her community have photovoltaïque panels and/or geotherm pumps, so seem to spend a lot less on utilities. And housing cost tend to be a lot lower too. Around her region, it is far less densely populated than many areas in the UK, so rents and house prices are a lot lower in relation to wages. So, even on a comparably low salary people do seem to have a higher amount of disposable income left over and seem to spend a lot more on average on food shopping, compared to other things.

purple sounds nice but I'd definitely not have time for that! Do you live in a city? Sounds like there is lots of choice of where to shop for you.

@princesspeppax yes DCat goes outside to the loo.

Also, just to add, I plan a roast one day a week and then plan for the leftovers. I make sure everything gets used, rarely throwing stuff away.

I'll buy the big bags of carrots & onions etc, chop them up into bags & freeze them. Of course I appreciate that not everyone has the time to do this!

I spend about £80pw for 2 adults and 2 dc aged 8 and 10. This also includes cat food. I get the shopping delivered from Tesco and this has reduced the overall spend quite a lot as I only buy what's on my list. Before I do the order I write a meal plan and then I try to see what meals I can make with what I already have. Then I let the DC choose one or two meals they would like to have that week and then plan the rest. We cook from scratch about 5 times a week and the other nights are things like fish fingers and chips or pasta and pesto. We get through a lot of fruit which I think is the most expensive part of the shop.

I shop at Aldi/Lidl and Sainsburys mainly and also Asda occassionally and places like Heron foods and Home Bargains.
Generally for 2 adults and 2 massive cats we spend around £70.00 per week on food. I like lots of fruit and veg/salad and things cooked from scratch.
That £70.00 doesnt include household stuff like loo rolls and cleaning products. I get a big shop from Asda every 3 months or so and buy loads of loo rolls. I get cleaning things at Aldi and Home Bargains.

2 adults
we spend about £70-80 per week
it’s mainly organic though and we cook from scratch

Approx £75 a week at Lidl. Family of 4, no pets.

We are family of three (ds is 1). We spend 70-80 a week this includes nappies, shower gel, dishwasher tablets etc. Meal plan for the week and do online shop with Asda. Sometimes we top up with bread and fruit towards end of week (only shop in village is waitrose) so that adds another 10-20. Waitrose is so expensive!

We could do it cheaper but we add things like alcohol, orange juice, treats etc. I take lunch to work and DH fasts.

I shop everywhere but predominantly Lidl and Aldi and Waitrose.

Meal plans.....

Breakfast.....porridge with proper oats not instant are cheap as chips. Top with syrup and banana.
Toast
Eggs

Lunch.....my boys have gone to school with bog standard peanut butter sandwiches today. Their choice.

Dinner

Roast chicken with all the trimmings
Spicy chicken rice using chicken leftovers
Broccoli pasta with pesto
Jacket potatoes, cheese and beans
Lentil dhal with naan and rice
Chicken fajitas with cheesy nachos
Spaghetti with meatballs in tomato sauce

About £150 pw for a family of 4/5 depends who’s home but all are teenage to adult and 4 dogs.

Around £75/80 a week in Tesco, if I can be bothered with driving a bit further it’s about £60/65 from Aldi.

We eat meat/fish 2/3 nights a week and veggie the rest which definitely helps keep costs down.

There’s me and DH, DSs 4&2.

Milk man delivery on top or around £8 a week

2 adults, 2 teens. All packed lunches.
Shop at Tesco £90 per week is my “limit”
No takeaways, no meals out.
Feed adult daughter and 18 month old grandaughter once a week aswell.
It’s hard, wish I had more money but tax credits stopping last year really put a strain on our budget.
Ideally I need about £140 pw so atm it’s a struggle but it can be done.
I do go without sometimes in order for the kids to have enough xx

Two cats & and 2 guinea pig are included in that budget

Like temptress, we like our high-end foods and spend a large amount on food (I’d say somewhere between £200-300 a week for 4 people, but that includes cleaning products, cat food and other non food groceries)... lots of wild fish, organic meats, organic veg etc - it’s not cheap, and we are incredibly fortunate to be able to eat this way.
There have been times in the past where we’ve had to live on a shoestring budget but we still tried to prioritise fresh food as much as possible - for us cooking and eating is social/cultural activity - entertainment- so even on a budget lots of effort on presentation of food and table. I guess we are “food is life” types but I know not everyone is interested in food beyond its bare refuelling value!

I do think it’s a little sad that lots of people (through CHOICE, not through necessity) value having the lowest possible food budget rather than choosing the highest quality nutrition they can afford. I’ll emphasise again I’m not talking about people who have a very tight food budget, but people like my own dear relative who prioritises having a ridiculously high car budget over having a decent food budget for their family.

Depends on the week; when DP is on earlies he eats dinner with us, so we spend about £80 for 2 adults & 1 child - that gets us 3 meals a day including pack lunches. When DP is on lates it's just me & DD so it's around £50ish.
We used to be terrible, popping in to Tesco for a browse & spending stupid money each day. Now I stock take the freezer every week, do a rough meal plan & we shop accordingly...then add £15 for 'shit' like beer, crisps & treats for DD. Our weekly spend has dropped massively just by making sure we have what we need for meal planning...less likely to wander in & fill a basket 🙈