To think it's too much?

[Ellatreetop]

We spend £400 on our weekly shop, granted we have a family of seven, shop at Ocado and try to stick to organic fruit/veg/meat but still it seems ridiculous!

How many people in your family, where do you shop and how much do you spend?!

@SmileyClare genuinely intrigued, turns out that this thread does show that there are others who agree with me!

Oh come on, no adult needs to be told how not to spend £400 on a weekly shop

You'd think but Eat Well for Less seems to be able to find similar clueless families

Yes I’m sure you do. That’s my budget for a month, that’s petrol too

It's seems a lot of you to think that I should refrain from posting about my personal circumstances to avoid offending you! I can't relate to everyone but if I see something that doesn't apply to me I don't become aggressive and abusive and say I don't believe what I'm reading because it doesn't apply to me!

Tell me please, what is an acceptable amount to spend on food on Mumsnet without being hung out to dry?! This is ridiculous.

We're not far off you - there are only three of us, and I spend £100/110 a week at Ocado and then £30/40 more at Riverford, but this includes lunches every day for me and DH as we work from home. We mostly eat organic too.

A lot depends on how much you are cooking from scratch and buying ingredients vs buying ready meals. If you cook, then switching to a veg box and producing more veg based meals will help; also batch cooking big quantities of cheap fillers like dal and spag bol, and stretching out meat with pulses.

I could probably spend that much on a weekly shop if I threw caution to the wind and bought lovely food and a bounty of snacks and fruit, maybe some fresh flowers, luxury toilet paper, some ready prepared food and that cashmere jumper I've had my eye on in Tescos and didn't add it all up carefully as I filled the trolley. ..

I'm quite jealous actually.

Maybe stop buying for the freezer.

Cook one meal only each night 2 if you have to.

Go vegan (or at least vegetarian) for some meals. A bag of soya mince (£1.99 per bag) lasts me a week.

Also why are you feeding all and sundry with fruit, nuts and cereal bars. Let them eat toast if they are hungry or let their friends parents feed them once in a while.

Even by buying organic.

Lidl do a lot of organic fruit, veg and meat (I am sure I have seen organic meat but can’t be certain as I don’t buy meat) and cleaning stuff (even some branded products)

How about seeing what you can get in there and then shopping else

There are places you can save if you chose to

OP People just think you're gloating- that's why they're getting upset.

Like your monthly food bill is my monthly income.

Jealousy is ugly.

I'd say we spend in the region of £150 a week. That's for two of us (adults) and two (spoilt) hounds. We buy mainly organic.

An acceptable amount would probably be X percent of your total household income. So all relative.

Family of 5 (3 adults, 2 children with one in expensive nappies) and a cat, we spend around £55-65 a week which includes home delivery, all cleaning and toiletry products.

I actually don’t think I could physically spend that if I wanted to.

I have a tiny kitchen so where it would all go would be the question.
I have to do 2 shops per week so I don’t run out of room in the kitchen

OP- you're never going going to spend little enough to satisfy the people that seem to post on these threads. There's always some that insist they eat like kings and only spend 35p a week.

I would say that you could still shop at Ocado without spending more than you would at Tesco. As long as you don't choose all the Waitrose and Duchy branded goods. They price match on branded products like Kellogg's and Heinz and they offer more budget options in the Ocado own brand range.

I think you maybe need to meal plan, that's what I do and only buy what you need to make those meals. I wouldn't be encouraging other people's children to snack at my house either. You will need to buy snacks for teens, but I'd make them really boring things they don't want that much and encourage them to eat at meal times- cereal bars are unhealthy and expensive- ditch those! Buy cheap bread instead of bagels, a big vat of peanut butter lasts ages and fills kids up, wholegrain crackers and cheese spread, bananas etc. Try to only cook one meal a day- you'll save time and money. Look at what you waste each week.

I suppose the question is, if you want to save money will you cut back or quality or quantity? Something has to give... that's how other people spend less. If you don't want to make those changes and you can afford it, then crack on.

We spend an average of £130pw for a family of four and 2 pets, incl. nappies, lunches, all household cleaning stuff and toiletries, pet food, some snacks and treats. Very little alcohol. Some weeks are closer to £150-60 if we have guests or happen to run out of loads of the expensive things at once but sometimes as low as £70. We buy a few premium items like very good ground coffee and the odd "luxury" ready meal but otherwise pretty standard and basic items. The huge advantage of online shopping is if you are of a mind to, you can take time to run through your basket and see if you can change items for cheaper options and check offers - I flex my meal plans around what's on offer which is easier to do when you see it all online rather than in store.

I have done what someone above suggested and tested the equivalent of an Ocado shop with ASDA, Tesco, Morrison's and Sainsbury's online. They actually all came out very similarly priced - Morrison's only being exactly 60p cheaper and Tesco about £4 less (Ocado price match Tesco, after all). The only way I have been able to reduce our shop cost is downgrading some things we buy especially for items I can't really tell the difference or don't mind a lower quality - sometimes Ocado simply doesn't offer a "budget" version for some things which is why it seems more expensive. I now do a monthly (ish) Aldi shop for bulk on various items I'm happy with their quality on, still do the main shop with Ocado and then top up in other places as needed. I'll be binning Ocado after 13 years though when they switch to M&S, as the bulk of what I buy is Waitrose essential items and I don't see M&S filling that gap!

No receipts or order copies then. What a surprise.

As I said, I think I could easily spend that much let loose in Waitrose, but your tone and general posts (and repeated ignoring of receipt questions) adds up to wide eyed goadiness much more than it adds up to £400!

I don't believe for one minute a grown adult with a family of seven doesn't know how to reduce a food budget of £400 per week (please note I'm not saying you're a troll but I'm really questioning the motives behind this).

I did our weekly food shop today in asda and spent £48 for two of us for 6 days worth of food, and that includes two bunches of daffodils and some chocolate and other treats that I wouldn’t normally buy. I’ve just put the same food into an online basket at Ocado and it’s come to £61, so £13 difference.

There are ways you can save on that, especially as a lot of my stuff at asda was own brand. If I’d bought the branded stuff my shopping would probably have been around 60.

2 adults, four kids. Ours comes to about £85 and I'll do a couple of top up during the week costing around £20. £400 a week sounds extravagant.

By weekly shop I mean food for 7 breakfasts, 7 lunches, 7 main meals, the odd dessert thrown in, all cleaning products, laundry detergent, alcohol and soft drinks, handwash, shower gel, toilet rolls, teabags, coffee, a few snacks etc. NO WAY can that lot total £50!

Here is how you do it.

You cost up a fornightly rotating meal plan.

Swap for cheaper products. For example, own brand coffee, tea etc. Swap shower gels for soap, these last months and there are lovely ones available. Handwash isn't essential, soap will do or buy cheap handwash and put it in a posh container. You can save money by using the Laundry egg.

Also invest in a second freezer, so you can batch cook. Mine is in a cupboard!

We're not far off you - there are only three of us, and I spend £100/110 a week at Ocado and then £30/40 more at Riverford

How on earth is £110-£150 p/w "not far off" £400 p/w????

How on earth is £110-£150 p/w "not far off" £400 p/w????

Because £150 a week for 3 people would be the equivalent of £350ish a week for 7 people.

Im not surprised with 7 we are a family of 4. Soon to be 5 we are £150 a week I've tried to cut back but then always need to nip to the local shop stuff when we do.all big eaters and loads of healthy stuff.

£1740 is a ridiculous amount to spend on food per month. You must have an extremely good income!

I don't think shopping bills work like that Coffee- Doubling the amount of people you are feeding doesn't double the bill because buying and cooking for more is more economical, plus some things like cleaning products remain the same no matter how many there are in the house.