To ask what your weekly or monthly groceries cost?

[judemom]

I'm wondering if I'm spending more than necessary during the lockdown.

Anyone care to share what your grocery bills are weekly during the lockdown?

Loads! On average over £100 since lockdown for four of us (more like £80 ish before lockdown). I am buying snacks and things much more freely, weekend treats. Plus every single morsel for two DC age 4 and 14 months, who snack often. I'm buying snack options as it's every single day, so expensive things like Organix snacks, cheese strings, more crisps etc. DC are usually in nursery some days, so I don't mind having a limited snack option because it's not every day. And on the weekend pre lockdown we would usually buy treats from local bakery or what have you instead. Also buying more alcohol! Only one bottle of Prosecco a week but still.

Nope don't buy it, that's only £20,each for a whole week of meals and snacks.

@LagunaBubbles what's not to believe? I used to spend about £10-15 week on myself and ate out 1-3 times a week. Now we're two adults at home and we'd be hard pressed to spend more than £50-60 a week and that's with some going straight to the freezer and one takeaway (£20) a week.

I'm really shocked at the amounts i'm seeing here, maybe we're depriving ourselves

2 adults, 2 primary age children.
Shopping weekly at Aldi, spending £80 each time on average.
Before this we spent a bit more due to going more often/not planning as carefully/sometimes going to bigger supermarkets.

@M0chaJoes porridge, veg omlette or fruit/toast in the morning, feta or tuna cous cous salad lunches, and dinner alternates between chickpea/prawn curries, pork stew, homemade burgers and pizzas, roast dinners, chilli con carni etc. Tonnes of veg, lentils and beans are cheap bulkers and healthy. I make a banana loaf and cherry cake most weeks too.

I do make everything from scratch and batch cook. I thought £40 a week just for 2 adults was quite a bit! Sometimes I'll spend a bit more (bottle of gin, dark chocolate) but sometimes less if there's plenty of pre-frozen food to eat up.

Oh and bottles of pop for us adults which I would never normally buy! Two 2lt bottles, loads of fresh ground coffee. Pre-lockdown I would save quite a bit buying certain things in Lidl, but we are having one online delivery a week from Asda (same as before) so trying to get as much as we can there. And then DH drives to Morrison's once a week to get anything that was unavailable. Lidl was a shop I used to mooch to on a walk, have a browse in the middle aisles then buy any bits that are more expensive elsewhere eg fresh ground coffee, nappies and wipes, some fruit, fish etc, fresh coffee! I miss my Lidl mooches.

More than normal at least £150 a week on four of us , eating more and also I think prices of pits has crept up

@ImPeckish there's no way you thought £20 per person per week was excessive. It's not a race to the bottom you know..

For that £20 to cover all meals, snacks, drinks... nah..

Before lockdown it was £75 a week - but covered only lunches for half of us and no weekend meals. It’s now £200 a week as we’re eating home constantly. 5 of us , but the baby eats nibbles.

Omg, for me it's a bit of both - mainly because I want to go shopping less often but also because getting deliveries from the butcher or local shop is not cheap. I'd spend much less if I was going to Aldi rather than the corner shop.

£100 a week, up from £60.

No nursery meals for DS1, or random cafe snacks at the weekend, plus buying more non-food stuff along with the supermarket shop (e.g. new babygrows for DS2 that I might bought in Matalan or Next, DH picked up with the food shopping instead)

I'm really pleased with DS1s Asda trainers if anyone's DC have recently outgrown their shoes. They seem sturdier than a similar pair he had from Clarks last summer.

@Lippy1234

Mine is £400 minimum per week for two adults and one small child.

More so if I need extra cleaning supplies. Or more toys to keep dd happy😬😬😬

Definitely going to scale back reading this thread.

But to be fair, I'm not wasting any food, we are eating most and not eating out much. With eating at home, I've also started paying for premium meats, poultry, fish, veggies and fruits.

I literally don't tell myself no, even if it's overpriced treats like chocolate.

By eating our much, I meant to say takeaway. We do have takeaway once a week

No does anyone only spend £40 a week for a family of 4?!!!

This thread is making me feel awfully guilty.

Before Coronavirus about 65 a week!
Now...about 90-100

Family of 4...two dc under 8

I meal plan and portion plan though. We have very little to no food waste.

Eggs from our own chickens too.

And we grow some of our own veggies and herbs.

We also have an orchard with apple and pear trees.

@judemom
That’s absolutely ridiculous for 2 adults and small child!
Yes you can afford it but very wasteful, nobody needs to spend that, you’d be in shock if you lost your income.
You could even with some treats save at least £250pw

Pre lockdown £100 max

In lockdown £150-200

Per week.
A lot of the extra spend is booze!

We cope on around £40 because there isn’t an alternative. Sure I could spend more but there isn’t the money, so I don’t.
Cereal and defrosted frozen fruit for breakfast £3 for the week. Sandwiches for lunch, £5. The rest goes on evening meals. We use a shampoo bar that lasts around 4 months and costs £2.50. I use aldi face cream at £1.50. We don’t drink, smoke or need more than one small pack of nappies a month.

We were £50 p/week for two adults pre-lockdown

Nearer £75 now due to lack of choice/lack of offers, BUT neither of us are buying lunches at work (both still working) and we're not going out for dinner so probably saving.

2 adults 1 DC

I used to spend about £70-90 a week for two adults, a dog, two cats and two rabbits, but since lockdown it’s probably about £100 a week now realistically as we’re snacking more because we’re in the house all day.

Thing is, if you need to save money, you will. I have a friend who isn't well off as her DH isn't working and her salary isn't great, they are probably not spending any more, as they're just not buying the snacks, alcohol etc. But if you can afford the extra (and we can as we're spending zero on petrol, eating out etc which we did a lot before!) then it's nice to treat yourself. Like pp I never would've indulged in half stuff that's going on the weekly shop now!

Yeah to be fair, I wouldn’t even know how to make our food bill that high unless I was buying loads stuff like fizzy drinks or alcohol. Which we don’t, although some weeks I do get a bottle Of red and a takeaway which obviously bumps it up to about £250. I must say we are wasting much less though:

@JKScot4

I am hanging my head in shame. I'm definitely going to start budgeting groceries. I feel ridiculous

£120-£200 inc cat food/litter for 2 cats and toiletries/cleaning products/detergent. We tend to have 1-2 expensive ones then the test lower end.

That’s 2 adults and a weaning baby, all meals and snacks. We only eat free range/high welfare meat though and I’m buying a good variety of things as introducing new things to baby.

Eg the jar of organic nut butter for her to try was about £5 - not something we’ll need to buy all the time but we are working through allergens and cooking from scratch.

We love food so not something we skimp on, but we also have very full cupboards in case we have to isolate again (already had to do 2 weeks when the baby had a temp).

@M0chaJoes

Yeah we don't snack really, thinking about it. And not much meat, so I guess that makes a difference? I'll enjoy a gin now and then but other than that we both just drink Adam's ale.

I feel so naive to see the average spending on here, really hope I haven't offended anyone; like a PP says, maybe I'm depriving us!! Or our eating habits are unusual and I never realised