Do you think £400 a month for groceries is too much

[emodi]

We are a family of four, two adults and a 14 and 11 year old . Since the lock down our grocery and household bills have increased to approx £400 a month. I have tried to explain to my hubby that the kids are not eating in school so it’s 3 meals , snacks no restaurants or takeaways and he thinks I’m being extravagant. I think this is perfectly reasonable as this includes all food plus cleaning products etc . Is this reasonable or am I being hopelessly extravagant?

That’s very modest indeed.

I think £100 a week on a family of 4 is fine! We are a couple with a dog and a cat and we spend £70 a week!

I think it’s about spot on with everyone at home, and having teenagers.
Where do you shop?

YANBU - Ours is £150 per week for 2 adults and 2 tweens. No brand names, no alcohol, bought from Lidl. I swear prices have gone up.

Mostly lidl to try and keep the cost down and Sainsbury’s for the few things I can’t get there

I’m following this with interest because we have been spending between 400-600 I’m estimating and I’m in shock of where our food money goes. Family of 4 but the girls spend half their week at the other parents house so no idea. We cook from scratch a lot.

Yes, we’re spending about that, sometimes a little more. It is from Waitrose though...!

Sounds very, very reasonable to me.

Sounds like it's only you who does the grocery shop since you say he thinks you are being extravagant? If so, tell him he is welcome to do it and see if he can get decent food and cover all toiletries and household items needed for less.

Mine is about £1200 for 3 adults. Includes toiletries and alcohol.
Normally for 2 of us its about £700

Absolutely reasonable. Show him this or let him do the shopping.
Prices have definitely gone up.

I don't think that's extravagant at all. I think you must be a careful shopper to be able to keep it around that amount.

That's perfectly reasonable, ours is just over £100 a week for two adults and one six year old (though we are buying a bit more 'fancy' food to cheer us up)

Also family of four, children exactly same ages. My weekly shop is up to £130 now- almost doubled- both children are growing, so always hungry, they eat more than I do!
That includes groceries for my MIL, and all toiletries/cleaning products, but last couple of weeks I've had to do a top-up shop of around £30 midweek.
Three meals a day instead of one or two adds up! Plus normally DH works away in the week, so we get through far less food.

We're averaging about £120 a week, including treats like craft kits and books for DDs, alcohol, and nice food like fresh berries.

Good food costs money. It's perfectly possible to just buy apples, carrots, small amounts of meat, pasta etc and eat cheaper, or you can splash out on joints of beef and raspberries. Just need to decide your priorities.

Mine are around £150-170 for 2 adults, an 18 year old and 2 primary age children. I would ordinarily spend £120, with the kids having free school meals, and the eldest being out quite a bit. Then add on any take aways or eating out.

I think £100 is more than reasonable. Not denying I'm not overly happy with the excess expenditure, but there will be savings in other areas.

I think that is very modest indeed.
I cannot spend less than £250 a week in our Ocado shop. Bonkers!

That’s about the same as mine - 2 adults, a 12yo and a 14yo.

I wish I could get mine that low! Mines almost double that for 4 of us!

That's how much I spend usually when the kids are at school for lunches and DH is working away half the week. Currently I'm spending around £170 a week.

Unfortunately I seem to be spending £120ish a week at Ocado and a further £60 ish a week at Aldi. I’m not sure how or why, we meal plan, DC are small, we eat a normal amount of food. In normal times it’s around £110 a week. So £100 a week sounds very reasonable and doable.

Mine is about £250 for myself and teen.
That's def up from before too.

Think yours sounds very reasonable!

Prices have gone up so much! I used to spend £80 a week for two adults and two DC (8 and 6) now it’s almost £120 a week! That’s with no alcohol. Granted in a lot of cases I have had to switch to brand names because the cheaper things haven’t been available.
I was speaking to my dad the other day and he said his shop in Tesco was £70 for just him and my mum.

Family of 4 here (2 adults and 2 teens). I'm spending about £150 a week on shopping. It's usually more as I tend to go every day normally and buy crap we don't really need. Online shopping has meant I've spent less. Plus we've not had a takeaway or eaten out since lockdown so that's saves us another £30-£40 a week.

Tell your DH to do the shopping for one week and see if he does any better (odds on he'll spend less but you'll run out of food before the week is out!)

Ours is about double that - two adults, two kids and a cat.

There is alcohol though and a lot more snacks than usual but nothing extravagant.