To ask how much you spend each month on food, toiletries & household items?

[NeedSleepNow]

I am a sahm and my husband puts £300 a month into the joint account for me to use to do the shopping. This is to cover all food, toiletries, loo roll, cleaning products etc. for a family of 5. I am massively struggling with this budget, even more so at Christmas and other holidays when everyone is home so I was wondered am I just spending too much or is it a wildly unrealistic budget for 5 people.

What do you spend each month on food, toiletries, cleaning products etc.?

£100/£120 a week. Family of 4. We eat well and could make cut backs

We are a family of four one DC is back and forth but we average £150 a week. I think your budget is very tight. I realise I could get my spend down if I tried but equally I would massively struggle to cope with yours. I hope you get an increase as it must be very stressful trying to keep to that week in week out.

Around £350- £400 for four of us, shopping at Lidl. Used to be less, but I feel that good prices have increased a lot this year.

Four adults including household items, toiletries and one small dog - £70-£80 a week. We eat well for that but I cook from scratch and we don’t spend money on unnecessary crap food. We aren’t extravagant with toiletries either and we don’t buy unnecessary cleaning products. Also, that doesn’t include weekday lunches for two of us.

I would struggle on that budget for 2 Adults i think per month.

£300 for food for 5 people, plus all household extras like cleaning stuff, shampoo, laundry etc is tight.

The bbc 'eat well for less' website says that in 2016 the average weekly spend for a family 4 was £81.40. With prices increasing, I would say now, in 2019 its £90. Thats for 4. So for 5 if divided up would be £22.50 each, or £112.50 per week. Thats around £450 per month

I agree it's tight and that you need to discuss the budget; perhaps itemise expenditure for a month as evidence.

But it is only financial abuse if he's living the high life with all of his leftover money. If there isn't much left to give you, it's probably time to rethink SAHM status.

Family of 5, 3 being teenagers. Aim for £300 per month, more like £350. Meal plan and shop mainly in Aldi or Lidl.

Watching with interest, we are a family of 2 adults 2 kids (and 2 cats!) and due to change in financial circumstances, desperately need to keep the budget for anything family related (includes essential clothing, kids activities etc) down to less than £600/month, so ideally no more than £400 on food and then a bit of wiggle room for extras.

Shop at Aldi, but with one vegetarian and one low carber in the household we don't always eat the same foods which bumps things up a bit.

So, It's £10 per day. £2 each. It is do-able but it's tight. Is he ok with budget food? Or is he expecting more? If he's used to living in pasta and tinned tomatoes, he might not see the difference. But, chat to him. He may just not realise. Xx