AIBU Weekly shopping spend

[Thebig3]

Hello, I currently spend £140 a week on shopping for a family of 5 (3 kids, one still in nappies). I think this is an ok amount but my husband thinks it could be reduced further.

In that £140 it includes all household things not just food, so washing powder, shower gel, shampoo etc. I am also a sahm so I obviously eat all my meals at home. My husband also takes a pack lunch every day as does my daughter so this is covered in the food I buy for.

I often hear people say they spend a lot less each week and wonder how they do it!! Do they only include food in that weekly figure and toiletries etc is classed under a different spend? Do they only cater for breakfast and dinner each day??

Can someone help? Is it too much each week and how do I reduce if it is?

You would spend less if you had no choice imo people spend to their means. I have 3 kids and me ones a teen and eats more than me he also has a special diet which can cost more I spend £50-60 a week all in including toiletries / cleaning products etc.
Meal plan - every meal,
Batch cook,
Cook from scratch,
Try online shop - no impulse buys, I use midweek saver plans so for tesco that's less than £4 a month you'd recoup that on one impulse buy a week,
Don't buy lots of snack foods - I'll make a cake /brownies once a week, have fruit, bread sticks, toast, tea cake, veg and hummous in but not all available at any one time,
Pudding if wanted is fruit except at weekends we may have cake, rice pudding, something and custard, fruit with moose/yoghurt,
Reduce the amount of meat /fish and bulk meals up with vegetables and pulses,
We eat well on meals like jacket potatoes with tuna mayo and salad, chilli/curry and rice, stew, meat/fish with mash and vegetables, occasionally a pizza or all day breakfast, soups, don't cook Sunday dinner each week.
Buy a few toiletries / cleaning products each week to even out over the month and also keep in front.
Eat one 'cheap meal' a week eg beans/ egg on toast, we do this on a night with afterschool activities as it's quick to sort.
Planning is the biggest one so your using what you have in and adding to it.
Also look at what you are buying are you just buying the same things each week, do you really need it, how much waste do you have?
Look at what you have for breakfast, are there cheaper options we alternate between museli, granola, sugar free cereals, crumpets, yoghurt, toast, porridge and fruit.
Whats in packed lunch can it be altered?
I think even with nappies it's doable for £80 and definitely under£100 a week eating healthily.

We’re a family of 5 but one is a (weaned) baby. We spend around £90 a week but that doesn’t include any alcohol and my DH buys his lunch at work. Mainly we shop in Sainsbury’s as we have a big one around the corner; occasionally we get deliveries from Ocado. We eat a lot of fruit and veg and I try to buy in season. I’m quite conscious of the price of things so will know if something is often on offer, and so won’t buy it when it isn’t.

You can get a lot more at Aldi than you used to be able to. If it's just things like cordial or other non perishables, you only need to go to Tesco every so often for a few week's supply at a time.

wow 60 I am honestly shocked!!! I dont feel I could even get mine close to that at all

You could if that was all that you could afford to spend. It would be very basic but no-one would starve. The cordial would have to go for a start. Anything except tap water is a luxury if your priority is buying enough food so that people don't go hungry.

@Thebig3 I know how much mine is because I have kept all my receipts for 3 months. Maybe you could do the same and see where to cut back?

I think £140 for 5, including all the extras like nappies, laundry etc isn't that bad tbh.
Food is expensive nowadays if you have a variety and enough fruit, veg, protein etc. Yes it can probably be reduced if needed, but if you can afford the above, I wouldn't be worried that your overspending.

£140 is a lot for 3 young kids, that’s £20 per day. When all 4 of mine were at home I never spent more than £100, look for cheaper alternatives, batch cook and freeze, don’t buy snacks marketed for kids.

Well obviously you could shop much cheaper than that but you'd probably be compromising on quality or eating food you didn't like as much. Whether or not you should bother cutting down depends on your situation and whether you actually need to.

I spend around £80 on the main shop of the week and then £30-40 on extra bits over the week

That feeds Me, DH, and two DS's ( 11 & 16 and eat like horses!). I'm vegetarian so having to buy additional bits for me bumps the cost up a little

We a family of 5 and spend between £500 and £600 per month and that all meals bar 1 or 2 meals my middle may have at school. Children are 15,12 and 10.

This includes all food, household products and personnel hygiene items. The only thing I don't buy is alcohol.

We are a family of 5, DC are 5, 8, 10 so none in nappies etc. They take packed lunches to school & DH to work. I spend £40-£50 per week including toiletries, cleaning stuff.

I shop at Aldi & top-ups at Co-op (included in above sum). I would say we eat well. For breakfasts I offer cornflakes or Weetabix or porridge, with honey or fruit (I keep some berries in the freezer). Lunches are cheese spread/marmite sandwiches, salad, hm cake, basic fruit (Aldi super 6, apples, bananas, pears etc), sometimes crisps. Snacks are biscuits, hm popcorn, fruit, seeds, crackers & cheese, hm cake/flapjacks. Dinners can be cottage pie, casseroles, wm pasta, risotto, fishfingers, scrambled egg & baked beans, hm pies, fish pie, quiche, curry etc. All with salad & jacket, veg (broccoli, carrots, leeks, green beans, parsnips, cauliflower) & jacket, wedges etc. Variety of desserts, tonight is hm apple & BlackBerry crumble & custard.

So lots of home baking. Own brands unless not available (eg Marmite etc). No ready meals/ready made foods or individual portions eg if I give cheese in lunchbox I chop from large block, not individual plastic portions. Also hardly any waste, I freeze leftovers & we have a pot luck meal every few weeks, where everybody has different leftovers.

I buy reduced goods where possible, often bread, veg etc. No alcohol.

I have to shop this way because of our budget, but I'd probably do similar if I could afford more.

I'm a family of 3 I spent at least £140 a week ? Not sure how you can manage on less ?

we spend 80 to 90 in general but I think that is alot as it was about 60 less than 2 yrs ago.

Too reduce costs no biscuits, crisps or snacks only meals and lunches - its basically 3 adults, all meals for 2 and everything but lunch for the third plus dog

@Thebig3 i spend about 150 euro a week.And thats in Aldi.I do have 3 adults but adult ds doesnt really eat here.And 3 kids.Ages 11.10 and 8.And they can put away some food.

If your dh thinks you can get it down further,let him do the weekly shop for 1 week.I didi that,he didnt get half the stuff and spend more.But he realised how expensive things are

We're a family of 3, I'd say on food we spend about 80 quid a week on food, cleaning products, loo roll, kitchen roll ect. Nappies aren't included, we tend to bulk buy them once a month if needed with wipes.

That shop depends though, if we shop in Asda it's the higher end, if we shop in Aldi I can tend to get it down to around 60 quid.

Do you buy lots of snacky bits? Lunch box fillers and crisps etc? I'm always surprised by how expensive those are. I spend £50 on a supermarket shop with and extra tenner maybe on bread and milk through the week. I bulk buy pulses, rice, oats etc separately. We eat home cooked food every day. I don't buy drinks, snacks, biscuits etc. Just meat fruit and veg really.

Two adults and one 8 year old - we manage for food, packed lunches for everyone, toiletries, cleaning stuff on £50 a week.
We have a few veggie meals every week, we all take packed lunches, meal plan religiously, do a lot of cooking from scratch. Neither of us drink alcohol often, once every three months or so, that makes things cheaper I suppose. Shop at Aldi for everything except yoghurts (for allergy reasons) and milk roll bread which we get from morrisons.

@itcoldoutside you say that, I say I'm not sure how you manage to spend that much? I can load a trolley full and it still come in at under £80.

Sounds like a lot to me, sorry. I have 4 DC and we aim to spend no more than £80 a week. Not because we’re on a particularly tight budget but we prefer to spend cash elsewhere and find it pointless spending more than you need to. The £80 covers packed lunches and toiletries. I shop around for toiletries, most often get them from places like Home Bargains. We shop in Aldi.

I use reusable nappies so that may help although Aldi nappies are cheap as chips. I’ve never used formula, again maybe that helps. We’re also veggies so no meat.

I was spending £200 a week at one point, now it just dd and I I'm spending £60

Did my spending summary for last year and we spent £14k on food (just under £38 per day). In there I included all amounts from our credit/debit cards that go for grocery shops, takeaway lunches. We are in London, 2A+2 kids, cook from scratch, lots of fruit, veg, meat. We never buy ready meals or frozen food. I probably need to look into cutting the costs down, but struggling to see how that’s possible if I work full time and can’t cook soups, stews, etc that I think may bring this bill down

@worriedmum
That’s a horrendous amount, people live on less. Get a slow cooker, batch cook & freeze.

You could get it lower yes. Can't really say what's 'too much' as it's all relative really. You could be spending twice that and if you had the money and all parties were happy with it there's be no problem, you could be spending less and it still be unaffordable.

Would your DH be willing to accept some of the responsibility for reducing, ie eating cheaper food himself and perhaps assiating in shopping around, coming up with ideas for cheap meals etc? Or does he just see it as something for you to sort? Cost reduction efforts tend to work better when everyone is on board and invested.

Thank you everyone for your replies. I'm surprised that there is a slight mix of answers with some saying it's about right/average.

I am, however, spurred on to try and reduce it. Like whattodabout said we can afford 140 a week but would like to spend it on other things instead.

I think although I do buy a lot of fruit and veg I tend to buy a lot of snacks for after school as the older 2 are always so hungry so I buy things to grab and take with me more for convenience than anything else!! I could however, reduce this by making something myself instead.

Thanks again everyone!

We are a family of five (3dc 6,5,5). We also have 3 dogs and 2 cats. Our shopping for the week comes to £90. I never go over that. I cook from scratch and also batch cook and freeze leftovers. I do things like get a large whole chicken and use it for a roast and then keep a breast and leg back and do a chicken and bacon pasta bake the next day. Mostly do a combination of Lidl and Asda. Kids are on school dinners (free school meals) so they only have breakfast and dinner at home. We definitely go heavy on fruit and veg. I won’t compromise on decent meat and free range eggs (won’t get value meat) so I use stores own brands and meal plan according to what offers are on. I also browse the reduced meat and freeze it for a later date. It’s doable and leaves us extra cash to go out for a meal every couple of weeks.