How much do you spend on groceries? Family of four.

[KB197]

Hi all. Not really an aibu but hoping to find out what others spend.

Family of four and a dog. Two adults, two children and the dog.

We spend around £80-90 on a large shop and maybe a top up later in the week.

I get my shopping delivered with Tesco because they offer the best service.

Mil thinks this is too much and joked around that we should go on Eat Well For Less. She keeps saying that I have to shop at Lidl to save money. The nearest stores are a 30 minute drive away (live in the middle of nowhere) and I order to get my shopping delivered. I hate shopping and I have two DC with additional needs that also hate shopping.

I don’t think we over eat or anything. We don’t buy anything overly expensive or branded but we don’t use budget ranges either.

Is £80-£90 really that excessive? With the top up we may spend around £100-£110 a week?

What do other familes of four spend?

I’ve tried cutting down but we ended up not having enough for and needing to do another bit shop.

The summer holidays have also increased the spend slightly! £££

Is £80-£90 really that excessive? With the top up we may spend around £100-£110 a week?

Sounds about bang on average o me.

Get your MIL to go shopping for you at Lidl and report back to MN what she buys...

“oh MIL, I’ve been thinking about what you said about our grocery shop and I think I agree - it would be brilliant to spend less at Lidl. Shall I give you a meal plan to do the shopping with or will you make your own? So kind of you to suggest going for me - it’s impossible with the DC as you know, so it’s a brilliant suggestion for you to do it, it’ll really help us out.”

I too spend less when shopping online. I don't get tempted by things easily.
However, we are only 2 adults and spend about 100? That includes alcohol. Not household stuff for cleaning etc.

we budget £400 pm for myself, DP (who is fed at work appx 50% of the year overall month on month off) and toddler but we don't usually spend that much until we factor in takeaways and meals out... then we go way over. if it's just me and toddler at home that week about £70-80 max at sainsbury's with perhaps a top up at farm shop for fruit etc. but I don't think it's the sort of thing you can compare so simply for it to actually be helpful.

That sounds about right
I spend about 10% less getting groceries delivered because I'm not picking up random crap.

I wonder if it's more about your MIL, is she tempted by delivery but thinks she can't afford it/isn't confident with technology/has heard the stories about lettuce being substituted for bleach? Is she concerned that you look down on her because she shops at Lidl/Aldi? Is she "time rich and money poor"?

I had a relative who almost constantly had a dig at me about being wasteful whenever I bought something or chucked something out, but it was because she was struggling to pay her bills - after she consolidated her debt (mostly cc) and switched to cheaper utilities/phone etc, she stopped with the comments... most of the time anyway

Family of 3, with another DS touching down at base once every 6 weeks, for the weekend, plus my dd, her dh and 2 children every Sunday we spend on average £50 a week at Tesco. The 2 dogs cost an extra £15 a week for food and treats.

It isn’t excessive no! We usually do Lidl/Aldi as it’s more convenient and spend £40 for three of us but would be double that in Tesco or Sainsbury’s.

We are family of 4 including 1 in nappies.

We spend around £120-£180 per week via online shop. We have 1 delivery Monday and 1 delivery Friday.

That includes nappies, wipes, cleaning products, nice coffee, wine, beer, gin, chocolates, treats, nuts (we go through loads!) depending on the week. Like a PP said it tends to even itself out - some weeks we need some things and some we need others.

We eat meat and fish each week always with 1 veggie day at least. We buy an awful lot of fresh fruit and veg and always buy at least 2 salmon fillets a week. This includes our packed lunches for 2 adults and the toddler (Eldest DS eats lunch at school)

I try and stick to an overall amount of £700 a month which is usually fine unless we are hosting friends/party/drinks etc

I don't think your amount is unreasonable. I probably spend £50-60 but tend to go every 5 days and sometimes get it delivered where I order a lot more.

Our kids are quite young though and don't eat masses.

That said if I really wanted to I could cut it down. Very luckily we are in the fortunate position of being able to buy what we want when it comes to groceries at least. We're mostly veggie, would spend a lot more if not.

youngandfree would you mind doing the meal plan or is it a massive pain? We all eat gluten free bread so that's an extra expense I have. A small loaf (400g) is 1.69 - I have no idea what normal bread costs!

£80-100 a week but we also top up extra roughly £20-30 a week but this does not include treats and takeaways.

Why is your MIL even asking about how much you spend on food? Can you afford your current spend? If so she can get lost. It shouldn’t matter if you spend £60 or £160 a week.

Sounds similar to us (2 adults, 2 teens and 2 cats). It's not excessive. My teens seem to get through loads.

I spend about 200 a week on 2 adults, a teen and 17 month old. Hoping to really cut this down once I go on maternity though and once we get an extra fridge/ freezer as current one is small so it’s really case of buying fresh stuff which then gets wasted.

Also when I am at work most days we end up in the local Tesco superstore and picking up little bits but these little bits always 20-30 quid which add up 3 x a week.

After last maternity I started shopping at Aldi which I actually love now after being a snob about it for a long time, it’s only since March and going back after maternity that I’ve slipped into the bad habit of going Tesco with friend on the 3 days I work.
Only have 4 weeks left before on maternity again so won’t be no more Tesco!! And hopefully food bill will drastically reduce.

Prices have really gone up. A year or so I could do my shop on Ocado and get it to £70 or just below if I was being thrifty, £80 If I wasn’t. Now £80 is a good week and £90-100 growing to be more like the norm.

Similar here. 2 adults, 2 kids, 1 cat. Spend around £100 a week in Sainsburys. We do sometimes split the shop with Lidl and spend less but it's more hassle. There are lots of good products at Lidl but some are worse quality and some they don't have. I think we are a bit extravagant but not that bad.

About 130 for a family for 4 and 2 pets. That's for everything - lunches, toiletries etc. We don't buy anything branded except for coffee (and then only when it's on offer) but we do eat a lot of fresh fish and seafood, organic meat and fresh fruit and vegatables. I would love to spend less but feeding my family as healthily as possible with food we all enjoy is one of my priorities and I make other sacrifices to be able to do it. Bulk of veg, fruit, dairy, toiletries etc come from Lidl. Fish and meat from an independent fish monger and butcher. And occasional ready meals from M&S. Oh and some things From Tesco that I can't get in Lidl - e.g. Tofu, teriyaki sauce and big 5kg bags of rice.

Only 2 of us and we shop in M&S for food mainly but all essentials and cleaning stuff is done on offers from Sains or Tesco or homebargains so justifies the M&S indulgence. No alcohol or excessive treats either. Drink filtered water like it’s going out of fashion and have quite steady morning routines. Lunch I use work canteen which is very very good and dirt cheap (v lucky) dp takes homemade lunch. No takeaways and eat out every now and then. Probably spend 100 a week? We can be frugal but then I have a shopping addiction so all the good work can be blown out of the water by anything crazy on any given day depending on my mood. 🤭 Have quite a high disposable income so it’s not the end of the world but still...

Family of 4. £120 a week. Dairy and soy intolerances so have certain costs associated with that. Also have 12 guineapigs so lots of veg

@Apileofballyhoo
No bother at all
So for that week I had the following meals;
1.Honey and soy salmon with rice and veggies (a mix of carrots,green beans and sugar snaps)
2.Sausage casserole (main ingredients are sausages, potatoes, carrot, swede and butternut squash(which were at home)tinned tomatoes and veg stock(at home)
3.Spring chicken (nigella Lawson recipe; main ingredients are chicken, celery, leeks, smoked bacon rashers, and cider) I already had frozen peas for it at home and dried tarragon
4.Prawns I cooked in a tomato based sauce with 1/3 of each red/yellow pepper, green beans and broccoli. And had with cous cous (which we had at home)

1. Bacon pasta which is basically pasta with bacon and peppers, broccoli in a white sauce made from flour, salt pepper and milk.
2. Fish fingers with baby potatoes, baby corn, frozen peas, carrots and broccoli. Etc
3. Stir fry chicken with whatever veggies are left in the fridge, served with egg noodles.

So my other advice is to possibly start with a “BIG” shop of staples such as
Rice, cous cous, pasta
And items such as chopped ginger, chopped garlic, soy sauce, and then you top up as you go along. It’s very rare that I run out of pasta and rice in the same week to be honest. So I usually only need 2-3 “staples” every 2 weeks. I don’t cook too much although I sometimes seem to have a bit leftover for my lunch at work (for example the casserole, pasta and the spring chicken in that menu.
Hope it helps.

Also @Apileofballyhoo lidl and aldi do gluten free ranges for pasta etc (although I’m sure you know that)

It's such a subjective question though you will get a massive spectrum of answers.

We are a family of three, DH and I and 15yo DS. All pet food is ordered separately so they aren't included in our budget, which I've just whittled down to £100 p/w, this includes packed lunches for all three of us.

We shop at Waitrose and have it delivered. I do menu plan and I'm aware we could cut further back if necessary, so quite a fortunate position to be in.

Around £120 pw food shop, 3 of us and dog, cat, guinea pig. We eat well and enjoy wine at weekends. Don’t do take aways. Plus maybe £20pw for household/toiletries.

Much cheaper than it used to be, thanks to Aldi and Lidl.

Average cost for a family of 4 in the U.K. is just over £70. So technically by that, you're overspending. But as others say it's all relative

Two adults, three teens, one a vegan.
We spend about £75 once a month in Farm Foods then about a tenner a week on bread, milk, soymilk and ketchup.

Last year I monitored our spend and it ranged between 500 and 600 (per month!) for two adults and two children. I suspect it's come down a bit now as I am cooking way more vegetarian food than I used to. Veg box £17 a week, fruit box £14, milk about £6 a week. Supermarket shop usually about £100 once a fortnight plus a £20ish top up shop midweek. So now more like £100 per week. I'm having a big push on eating contents of cupboards/freezer though so could go up again once that stuff has gone.