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?!

Family of 4, shop at Tesco this weeks shop was £40 we get milk from the milk man. We average about £60 a week in total. We could afford more but I enjoy the challenge of cooking healthy tasty meals for as little as possible 😂

Ffs we are family of 7 and spend nowhere near that!!! I’m not a cheapskate either. Wow that’s a second mortgage !

I'd love to know exactly what you are going to cook and what you bought bobbetybob

Freakstar this week, weetabix/granola/porridge for breakfast, fruit snacks for kids at school and cheese crackers/crisps for various after school activities. Cheesy pasta with sweet corn and peas, burgers in buns with salad and chips, veggie fajitas, tortelini pasta with vegetable sauce, curry night tomorrow, spinach and paneer masala chickpea curry and rice, salmon with potatoes and green beans. veggie sausage with mash and veg, quiche, baked potato salad, soup for lunch and leftovers. We've also made our own ice cream this week.

I feel like I'm beating the system some how if I can feed my family well for as little as possible use that money for other stuff 😁

I'd rather spend more and buy decent healthy food personally.
I could buy chicken costing a couple of £ for a pack, but that's not healthy.

And people always conveniently forget all the other items such a dishwasher tablets, toothpaste and so on. It does add up.

We shop at lidl, and spend about £100 pw.
Family of 9, average weeks meals include a spaghetti bolognese,
pork loin steaks with roasted winter veg,
pizza chips and beans,
sausage mash Yorkshire and veg,
chicken kiev new potatoes and veg,
ribs onion rings chips and corn on the cob,
sunday roast with all the trimmings.
We also get toiletries and kitchen products included in the shop.
Sometimes I will do a top up shop which comes to about £20-30 but not every week.
The above covers breakfast, lunches and dinners.
There are 4 adults, 16yr old boy, 14yr old girl, 2 13yr old boys and an 11yr old boy, so the boys eat well all of them, and all but 11 yrs old have full adult meals. 11yr old only just smaller than the girls plate.
If you feel your spending too much, see where you can cut back.

Sorry Bobbety, but I just went onto the Tesco website and added the items and ingredients to make what you have suggested from your list and I only got to the curry before my basket totalled £40- I chose the cheapest versions of everything as well! I don't believe you can feed a family of four well for £40 a week! Especially if you are cooking salmon!

And I certainly wouldn't call pasta with cheese sweetcorn and peas eating well- yuck! DH and DD would certainly have something to say if that's what I served them for dinner!

You dont need to spend £400 a week to eat healthy food!

OP, you can’t complain that ‘good food costs that much’ and then continue to pay that much for good food 😂

Freakstar
Havent you heard of special offer, red or yellow label knock.down prices at the end of the day?
Its easy to cut costs if you shop savvy. Bobbity didnt say she bought everything on her menu in one go.

I got a loaf of bread, 2 large baguettes, 3 pastries and 10 filled donuts (treats for puddings) all for 60p last week to put in freezer to use later.

I get mince and make 2 different meals for us all from it and use one put other in freezer for another day. The next day we might have mac cheese if i have cheese to use up or anything else frim ny
Just because i have spag bol today doesn't mean i bought mince this week! I have seversl meals in freezer which means i dont have to buy as much one week so I might only spend £30 on main shop.

Sorry freakstar. One of my children has ASD cheesy pasta (mac n cheese sound more appealing for your husband) is one of the few things he eats with any certainty. And last time I checked peas and sweet corn were two your five a day no? Salmon also in the freezer which is why some weeks cost more and why this week was less. We also don't eat much meat and my shopping budget does include what I pay for the kids school meals. I batch cook bolognese/chilli/pasta sauce so didn't buy that this week. I never buy sauce in a jar especially cheese/cooking sauces. Everything I make is from 'scratch' except the tortellini which is beyond my skill level. I only buy things like fajita kits when they are on offer. I meal plan everything and only buy what I know we will eat. I hate waste and so turn most left overs into some kind of soup or pasta sauce.

It's fine you don't believe me. I don't have to prove anything just telling you what I cooked. You did ask after all!

Sorry it doesn't include the kids school meals!

@Ellatreetop maybe you should spend as much time concentrating on meal planning as you are on avoiding the question from posters asking to see your receipt.

Your posts makes no sense. You're asking how you save money, yet don't seem to want to change what you're buying. Your updates just seem braggy.

It's really very easy to buy a weeks shopping for a family of four for £70 Including laundry products etc.. Shop smart and be organised.

Before you pounce, it's not jealousy. I earn enough to pay your food bill, but choose not to be so wasteful or up myself enough to stealth brag about it on MN.

You have money - woo hoo for you. That's seriously what I take from your post.

@FreakStar I don't go that low myself but you can definitely get special offer veg boxes, lentils for spag bol or wait till the meat is on special offer and stock up the freezer, if there's no meat in the freezer and none on special offer you'd do a veggie curry and probably be healthier for it!

From.my freezer!
Damm page is jumping around for some reason.

X post Bobbety😀

£120. Family of 4 with children over 10

£65 is spent at a supermarket
£35 at the farm shop/fishmonger
£20 at the green grocers
I am v. Lucky to have local shops. Found my weekly visit to the local shops over the years has gained me many cheap deals (needs to sold today Ms Eyelash).

It's definitely more costly shopping at the moment so having to be canny.

@bobbetybob I believe you! I spend on somewhere 55-65 but I always say 65 and I make dinners from scratch! I think mine is more because I have to buy extra for packed lunches!!i shop at lidl too so it’s much better value
This week we had
Vegetable and bacon pasta bake
Pizza, wedges and salad
Spaghetti bolognese
Tonight is chicken curry with poppadoms

Not a jar or premade pizza in sight!!

Although tomorrow is highly processed is fishfingers, waffles, beans and peas 🤣 Freezer Friday!!

Family of 6. £100 a week.

Family of 5, on average we spend about £120 a week, shop at Tesco online. Usually need to pop out for more milk & bread in the week --and end up buying lots of extra crap--

What I want to know is who are these ppl who buy, shampoo, conditioner, detergent and soap etc EVERY WEEK!! I might have ONE Of those to get each week- I call them my variable items.

I cringe when I go to ppls house and see 3 tubs of the SAME shampoo on the shelf or two boxes of opened detergent.
I don’t do bulk buying I’m not entirely convince by it to be honest!! And I hate storing things.

We spend about 100£ a week,1 adult, 3 teens and 3 preteens. Also 2 cats and a hamster,I'd spend well more if we had any money though

We spend around £50-55 per week, 2 adults 1 child (8), includes cleaning products, toiletries and a few treats. This isn't a "look how savvy I am" kind of post, genuine advice if you're actually looking at reducing your bill.
Cleaning products and toiletries aren't needed every week obviously, but its only £3-4 a week (one week might be washing up liquid, toothpaste and shampoo, the next week might be toilet paper and deodorant, week after we might have run out of bleach or wash powder etc).
We have a few boxes of cereal between us each week for breakfast, plus bagels. Daughter has sandwich, yoghurt, cake bar, apple and crisps for her packed lunch, we have yoghurt, crisps and pasta. (Pasta, cucumber, chopped peppers, few jalapenos maybe and half a tin of tuna each or similar), dinners we do a few veggie meals every week and the rest with meat. Usual foods are tuna pasta bake, bolognese, stir fry, pie and chips, sausage and mash, carbonara, fajitas.. that sort of thing. Sometimes splash out and buy a couple of steaks. Might do pancakes on a saturday morning (eggs flour milk). We'll get extra snacks for the naughty cupboard, maybe a pudding and cream. Only time ours ever seems to go above £55 per week is if we need toilet paper and wash powder at the same time.
For us it's all about planning what meals we want and seeing what we already have in the cupboard.

There's always some household items to buy every week though! Shampoo, shower gel, bin liners, cloths, washing up liquid, scourers, washing powder, bleach, kitchen spray, bathroom spray, floor cleaner, glass cleaner, cotton wool, cotton buds, toothpaste, hand wash refills, oven cleaner, foil, clingfilm, sanitary products, deodorant, etc. My shopping list is never just food!

Family of 3 adult and a cat. 4 adults when daughter home from uni.

£120-£130 a week. Plus extras during the week Husband cooks from scratch most nights.

Shop at Lidl, used to be Waitrose but the difference in costs are significant, while the quality is the same.

Blimey OP, you spend £400 more a month than I take home from my (clearly badly paid) nhs job just on food 😂😂