To how much you spend on food each week, including eating out?

[Butterflyeffect567]

A relative of mine recently called in whilst I putting shopping away, and the conversation got onto the cost of food. She couldn't get over how much we spend per week on the food shop (approx £110 per week). She spends about £40. However, she refused to acknowledge the fact that she only has one of her children half the week as he's with his father the rest of the time and she gets takeaway or meals out at least 5 times a week. Her eldest also gets free school meals.

We could probably narrow it down, however that £110 includes formula for my youngest and nappies for both children. We shop mostly in Lidl or Aldi but go to Tesco etc for other bits and includes:
Formula and nappies as stated
All breakfasts, lunches and dinners (we rarely eat out, DP takes lunch to work 5 days a week and so on).
My son (3) has ASD so can be fussy with food/snacks, despite numerous attempts at homemade snacks etc.
Lots of fresh vegetables, fruit, salad etc
Lots of cheese (we all love cheese!)
Few treats thrown in
Organic eggs and dairy
Meat from local high quality butcher

We eat Normally, as in spaghetti Bolognese, chilli & rice, fajitas, pasta and sauce. Most stuff is homemade except for certain things for DS. Meat approx 4 nights a week, plus odd bit of ham from butcher for lunches. Takeaway is handful of times a year. Yes, we could cut down but we eat well and enjoy our food, plus we can afford it.

Relative spends about £30-40 a week as I mentioned then McDonalds, Chinese takeaway, breakfast out, etc several times a week so probably spends more than us in general but wouldn't have it 😂
The recent threads on MN have also got me thinking. So how much do you spend on everything (normal food shop, lunch/coffees out, takeaway, etc) on average each week?

Including eating out? All the coffees, snacks out, take aways, school dinners on top of the main shop and top up shop plus occasional trips out to restaurants? Oh God, I dread to think. More than £200, I don't want to know really. Family of five.

Too much! Food shop about £70 for three (two adults, one pre-teen). Cat food bought separately in bulk every couple of months, averages about £5 per week. Booze also separate, varies wildly but the last order was about £150 in November. But the killer is eating out, we do it a lot and easily spend £150 a week, sometimes more .

2 adults, 2 teens with ASD and extremely picky about what they will eat. Generally 150-200, including booze.

Your relative is being an idiot if they’re NOT inc takeaways, snacks meals and drinks bought out - especially as these are usually WAY more expensive than eating at home! What a knob!

Those of us who watch see it all the time on “eat well for less” where the couples estimate of what they spend per week on food is massively UNDER estimated as they’re not including:

Top up shops (I think iirc one family were only “counting” their main shop but “mum” was doing FOUR top up shops a week!

Takeaways

Eating out

Coffees, snacks and other drinks bought while out

Lunches bought at work

It’s naive at best wilfully ignorant at worst.

I’m housebound and so restricted somewhat at the moment and I shop with Sainsburys online as I find them the most reliable in terms of few subs and good dates on perishables which can be a real problem for me just now.

It’s just me and I only eat once a day but mostly convenience stuff at the moment as I’m also really struggling with cooking and keeping on top of the dishes (both mh and pain reasons) at the moment. I’m TRYING to counter the limits of this by also getting in fruit and veg that needs no prep or very little to eat.

I also have ocd so spend a LOT on cleaning products and periphery items like kitchen roll and sponges.

If I discount the effect of the ocd in terms of cleaning stuff I spend around £30 a week on groceries - but that’s EVERYTHING Because obviously I don’t ever eat out and I very rarely have takeaways as I simply can’t finish them and it’s really a waste of money and creates too much mess for me to cope with.

That’s food, drinks, toiletries, paper products (tissues etc), cleaning products and even things like stationery.

I need to sort my food waste too as I’m throwing too much away cos it’s not getting used before it’s out of date (and I’m not over cautious on this) it’s just sometimes my appetite goes weird on me and something I’ve been enjoying - perhaps even craving - suddenly turns my stomach! Difficult to predict that though.

No meat though as I’m veggie and very very rarely buy alcohol as I’m not supposed to drink on my meds but very occasionally I will fancy a cold lager or wee tot of rum. Mainly I keep to celebratory occasions. The meds just mean I feel the effects a little quicker than I do without.

If your relative having takeaways/eating out 3-4 times a week for 4 based on prices here (a cheap part of the country!) then I’d estimate they’re spending easily around £100 there alone! Maybe encourage them to check their bank statement and tot up how much they’re REALLY spending on food!

The amount will range hugely depending on income and availability

Exactly this, unless you have an extremely strict budget that you must stick does anyone really spend the same amount each week? Am I the only person whose shopping is never the same amount from one week to the next?

It seems to me that posters on MN are weirdly invested in how much everyone else spends on their shopping, this thread comes up every other day, what do you all do with the information?

We aim to spend £80 a week mostly in Aldi with the odd thing from Morrisons. Breastfeed and use reusable nappies so don’t have that cost but do have packed lunches for my older three DC to consider as well as lunch for me and lots of fruit and veg.

We don’t really eat out much and only get a take away once a month.

Also should say we’re not skint but we don’t eat meat which probably helps the overall cost and Aldi definitely helps.

what do you all do with the information?

Nag my dh about his coffee and lunch habit

2 adults, 5 dc aged 13, 11, 9, 6 and 5, 2 cats. We spend about £100-£120 each week at the supermarket. I buy nappies and sanitary towels online, not sure how much they cost. We don't eat out or have takeaways.

Forgot to add dc3 has school dinners so that is another £13ish a week

Depends.

I do a delivery shop once every 10 days or so, it ranges between £60 and £110. Never more than that except at Christmas. We are a family of 5, one still in nappies.

I’ll do top ups of milk and bread in the week but nothing else. We eat out once a week roughly, sometimes a big meal of about £70, sometimes chippy at £20 or Toby carvery.

My tip for keeping it down is shop online. I only buy what I need, no distractions. If we go in to the shop we’d spend £200 a week.

We spend around £100 per week for two adults and two cats inc. household products. This is a lot higher then it could be, but we enjoy food and buy what we want, and we don't need to spend less although we're both perfectly capable of budgeting and cooking lower cost meals if we did.

I do think that we overbuy and through things away (not a lot, but any is wasteful). But when I consider that we eat breakfast everyday, both take lunches into work, eat out once maybe twice a month, and almost never have take-aways I think this is fairly reasonable.

£50-80 depending on what I need to stock up on, any special ingredients I feel like buying/new things I want to try.

Me, 2 "always starving" boys and 1 dog who has 1 meals a day + stuffed kong.

Would love to say I homecook everything - and I'd LOVE to because I enjoy it - but the boys are so fussy I end up throwing 80% of it away and it's such a battle and such a total waste I end up wishing I'd just given them fish fingers.

We're having fish & chips tonight because it's an "after swimming" thing (Thanks to Grandad for inventing that!)

I'm making cornish pasties tomorrow though even if it's just mean eating them!, yum

Ah yeah 3 year old in nappies for bedtime too, that really adds up - has a habit of #2s in the night so always need wipes too, and I don't buy the big brands!

We usually spend around 100 a week in supermarkets
Plus 60 or so for lunches at work, generally buy on the way in. Could be more if I go out for lunch.
Usually go out for dinner every weekend so another 100 to 150. Maybe 300 on an average week

For 5 months a year when DC are home from uni I spend £250 per week on food shopping and about £150 on eating out, lunches out etc.
For the other 7 months when it’s DH and I the eating out is the same and the shopping around £150.

Approximately £50 between the two of us for shopping, including all toiletries.

About the same on convenience food. Usually 1x takeaway or pub style meal out, 3-4x lunches.

Probably about £100 a week and, at the moment, we're only 2 adults!

One £30 from Aldi, a £35 from Tesco, and then bits and bobs here and there...

Are we the only ones to spend so much? I mean, toilet paper is blooming expensive, as is laundry liquid. Nut butter adds up, as does some tins of tuna. If we want a treat tea, then that's easily £15.

... how is everyone else on here able to be so frugal?

(oh no- just read some more recent comments - I'm glad we're not totally overspending.) - although, those of you who do only claim to spend £50 a week - how do you do it?!

We spend approx 100 a week for a family of 4 and a dog. We don't get takeaways much but we do eat out a fair amount. Approx 5 times a month at about 80 pounds. So quite a lot but we can afford it.

We aim for £400 pcm but it’s more like £600+ not including school dinners and the odd Macdonald’s / fish supper.

£150-200 online a week, includes packed lunches
£500-1k a month eating out

There are three of us, it’s higher when dd is home from uni

what do you all do with the information

I just use it to illustrate how a badly conducted survey generates totally useless data

No control for family size, budget, dietary needs, prioritisation within other discretionary spends (obviously food isn't discretionary, but when you spend a lot more than average, there's a lot of 'discretionary' included in your spend), available shops and a whole load of other variables.

So you just get a load of people listing what could equally be random numbers.

I don't do a weekly shop, never have. I buy stuff on the way home from work as and when, and have never added up the cost.

those of you who do only claim to spend £50 a week - how do you do it?!

Well, obviously I'm spending another £50 on convenience food, but:

• once a week we have flatbreads, salad and a dip for dinner. All homemade, costs under a pound altogether.
• curry night, veg curry and naan made from scratch, costs about £2pp max.
• I'm afraid I'm an advocate of the MN chicken. One largeish rotisserie chicken covers a couple of dinners for two, a couple of lunches for two, and stock at the minimum. Free range bird costs £6, often in a 3 for £10 with other meat.

So quite a few meals come in at under £2pp. 27 meals a week x 2 = £54.