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?

We are a family of 4 with a SAHP. We spend about £70 a week on food only. I do find myself topping up fruit a lot, but not much else. This includes mine and Dh’s lunch. We do it by having jacket potatoes and salads a lot! Plus sticking to the same cereal (own brand) and doing an online order so I do deviate from the list.
We do buy some expensive GF foods which I haven’t included.

Don’t deviate

I think that is quite a lot, really. Shopping at Aldi or Lidl makes a big difference. Also cutting out meat and alcohol. My DH is a very good cook and we don’t stint but we would spend a lot less than that.

Tesco tends to be quite expensive so if you can reduce the amount you buy from there you'll probably save, unless you switch from their own brand to premium elsewhere. I know people who alternate between Lidl or Aldi one week and a more full service supermarket the next. Might work here?

Hi OP,
While I’m sure that some people keep their spends very low i suspect that some don’t actually realise how much they do spend and quote their big weekly shop amount while ignoring top up shops/takeaways or eating out.

If your spend includes absolutely everything you sound like you are doing ok. You can think if there are any ways to save more by seeing if you like any of your groceries when downshifted to a cheaper or basics range, batch cooking and filling the freezer, making sure you always have lazy day food such as home batch cooked tubs of curry/bolognaise or a pizza so you don’t turn to more expensive takeaways if you are tired.

We have recently also changed to soap (instead of handsoap or shower gel) as less packaging and lasts longer, and are using and washing cloths (torn up towels etc) to clean up after meals rather than wipes (better for landfill too)

We are also trying to only shop once a week to avoid overspending on top up shops so on this shop I buy bread and milk for the freezer.

I have only recently downshifted our snacks and keep a little stash hidden so instead of trips to the local convenience store I have cheap sweets and chocolate when needed.

It might be worth shopping about and stocking up for one or two things for example in Tesco they have cut the number of sausages in their Richmond skinny sausages to 16 and they are £2. In our local B&M there are still 22 in a pack and they are £1.50.

Good luck with your cost cutting.

Each to their own, but to me that is an insane amount to spend. For 2 adults and a hungry toddler we spend no more than £40 and to be honest we often have to scrabble around to order that much as we get free delivery from sainsburys but only on orders over £40.

It's not for lack of good salaries, we are both high earners, but there's only so much food and junk you actually need!

We are a family of 4 (2 adults and 2 kids) and we spend around £100 per month on a big shop, and then around £30-40 a week on top up bits (packed lunch stuff, fruit, veg, bread, milk, fresh stuff). So around £260 a month. We then also have maybe 1 takeaway a month (£20 ish) and 1 meal out (£60 ish). This can of course be reduced by omitting the takeaway and restaurant but we enjoy these as a treat. The food shopping is supermarket own brands and we have meat-free meals as a family twice a week. An extra £20 a month on toiletries/cleaning products.

I spent £180-200 on a family of 4, plus two cats - so clearly no advice from me!!

I find the things that make my shopping bill sky rocket are individually wrapped snacks. So I try to buy snacks like Breadsticks and cream cheese, things to go with Hummus etc. You can buy special little lunchboxes with compartments to pack these things.

£140 a week
£20. A day
£4 per person per day for 3 meals
Including cleaning products toilet paper etc

I think your doing really good.

Another option is to reduce further the amount of meat you have, beef in particular is usually pretty expensive.

I do most of my shopping in Aldi and toiletries etc from places like B&M or home bargains, toiletries and household stuff I find VERY expensive in Tesco's. I know it's easier to shop all in one place but honestly I've saved a fortune by going to certain shops for certain things xxx

I find that although I can’t get everything I need in aldi, I can get the vast majority of it. I then only need to go to tesco every few weeks to get those specific items.

We’ve also found that to be honest once we got used to it, we could actually make do without those items anyway

My DH was the most fussy about brands in our family. I’ve slowly just swapped for aldi brands and most of the time he says he doesn’t notice/mind the difference. I don’t object to paying more if it’s a brand we genuinely prefer, but not if it makes no difference

You just have to be a bit more saavy - I buy things like washing powder in those giant boxes in places like savers or wherever has an offer on (bulk buy these)

Also dishwasher tablets - there was an offer in lidl the other day so I bought 15 boxes while they were cheap !

I always buy a giant refill bottle of washing up liquid and it lasts for months!

Then for food I only buy big bags of porridge for our breakfasts - it's 55p for a kilo and lasts ages!

Meal plan - literally buy a huge bag of Rice that also lasts a long time - then make lots of batch meals - get tins of kidney beans,chickpeas & veggies (make veggie currys, soups, stirfrys, chili's)

Have plenty of bread in the freezer!

You deffo seem to be spending a lot

We’re 2 adults and 3 teenagers. One shop a month in Tesco at about £200 for all the things we can’t get in Aldi. We spend about £70 a week in Aldi otherwise.

We’re a family of 4 and I spend on average 65 a week.
I do the following...
meal plan
Portion plan
Shop at lidl/aldi
Don’t buy things like biscuits, chocs, cordial, juice.
My shopping usually includes 1-2 household items.
We eat very healthily, lots of veg and fruit.

We currently spend £50 - £80 and its just 2 adults and a cat so I think when our baby arrives next year it won't be far off from you therefore your shopping budget is great!

Try the other way around. Start in Aldi and what would normally be £100 will be £60 tops and then finish in Tesco. I am a recent convert due to stupid snobbery I suspect and I am amazed!

Hi, we are a family of 3 (me, dp and dd aged 1) and my budget is £50 a week, but shopping in aldi I quite often only spend about £35-40 a week. On weeks when my partners older 3 children stay all weekend I spend probably an extra £15. We still eat healthily and i actually buy quite alot of fruit and not much junk food. I only usually have to top up on milk in the week as we seem to go through insane amounts! I usually meal plan and stick to it rigidly, every other week or so we will eat at my pils

I spend £50 for me & ds, I always make sure I have bulk stock of basics in my cupboard, tinned tomatoes, dried pasta, long grained rice, red kidney beans, baked beans, herbs & spices, I always keep chicken breasts, minced beef,frozen veg, frozen chips, fish fingers, fish portions in the freezer so that most weeks all I need to buy is the fresh stuff like fresh fruit & veg, any meat like steaks, joints etc, bread, milk, cheese & butter. I keep a list of what I have used out of bulk stock & replace it the week after.

We are a family of 5. Me, dh, ds 18, dd 16, ds 2. 2 guinea pigs and a cat.

We spend between £150-£200 per week, including packed lunches for DD.

I’m in awe of people that can spend 50-60 pounds a week on their family shop.

We are two adults and three children with packed lunches. I spend between £70-100 weekly, it’ll be more if we need toilet rolls or whatever.

Last week was £45 because were using up the tins and stuff in the freezer.

As long as that's not every week, I don't see a problem.

On average we spend 50-80 per week and that's for 3 adults, 1 preschooler and 2 greedy cats. That's for food and household products, we buy most of our hair and body stuff elsewhere

Last week the shop was £120 cos we had to stock up on a lot of bits, and 40 went on cat food. This week the shop was only 60.

I work from home so I tend to have leftovers, salads or eggs for lunch. The other two commute and usually buy lunch.

We buy in bulk wherever we see a deal and I buy mostly frozen veg cos it's so much cheaper.

Should also add, we're mostly gluten and dairy free which ends up being more expensive, which is frustrating.

Probably would be cheaper if I shopped in Aldi, but in my experience, we can't get everything we need from there and I'm not struggling enough for us to do two food shops.

Instead of buying individual snacks for after school I would buy something like a couple of the basic sandwich loaves and a few tins of baked beans and soup (Aldi own brands are fine). This should work out a bit cheaper and should fill them up.

I haven't read the whole thread so perhaps someone has suggested this already:

Your DH needs to do the meal planning and food shop a few times to see why it costs what it does.

Mine started doing this recently and now he understands why it costs as much. We could cut costs but I think he has come to realise that neither of us wishes to compromise on certain quality items and also ethical (free range etc) choices.

As a couple you also need to weigh up the cost and time benefits because saving money often requires going to a less convenient shop or shops and this can be time-consuming.