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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

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

338 replies

emodi · 27/05/2020 09:35

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?

OP posts:
Stannisbaratheonsboxofmatches · 27/05/2020 15:16

I definitely agree you should just give him the job and then he can see how extravagant you are!

zonkin · 27/05/2020 15:31

We spend way more than you OP. We are a family of 6 (including 2 teenage boys). I agree that food prices have gone up.

We cook from scratch and I think our appetites have reduced due to not exerting so much energy during lockdown. Goodness knows what the food bill would be during normal activities times.

copycopypaste · 27/05/2020 15:35

Ours is about £600 a month, 2 adults 1child. That includes alcohol etc and we no longer have take aways and eat lunch at home now too

greathat · 27/05/2020 15:41

We're a family of asthmatics so I've been doing all mine online from Tesco. It's been about £120 a week. Usually no where near that

speakout · 27/05/2020 15:44

Your "hubby" is the problem, not your spending.

Let him deal with feeding the family for a month.

Vik1ng · 27/05/2020 15:55

Sounds reasonable to me. Certainly not extravagant. Does your DH actually realise how much food costs nowadays?!

Bebbanburger · 27/05/2020 15:58

It's definitely gone up. I am used to spending £100 per week for our family of four but now it is nearer £150.00.

SantaMonicaPier · 27/05/2020 16:00

We're also a family of 4 and are spending at least 600 a month at the moment. I'd be delighted if we could keep it down to 400 but with various dietary requirements etc I'm not able to go for the cheaper options as I'd prefer to

dottiedodah · 27/05/2020 16:26

Sparepantsandtoothbrush Exactly the same here!

dottiedodah · 27/05/2020 16:31

Men are terrible! DH went shopping last week ."Couldnt believe " the queue(even though had seen it on TV!) Also didnt have everything he wanted (well I asked for).Also bill was more than he thought it would be!

Franticbutterfly · 27/05/2020 16:42

The prices have definitely gone up. We are a family of 5 and spend about £150 a week.

speakout · 27/05/2020 16:42

Men are terrible!

You really think that?

pourmeanotherglass · 27/05/2020 16:43

Sounds quite low to me. We are spending on average about £120 per week for 2 adults 2 teens. This includes some alcohol, toiletries and cleaning products.

3LittleMonkeyz · 27/05/2020 16:43

That's what my shop costs. 1 adult 3 kids.

VeganVeal · 27/05/2020 16:43

Ha Ha, you're all rich on MN, hop over to MSE and you'll see many people feed 4 adults, 3 dogs 2 cats and a goldfish for less than £20 per week!!!

startpraying · 27/05/2020 16:48

Get him out shopping let him show you how it's done! 2 adults and one dc here and we spend around that on weekly shop plus top up with few bits in the week. We don't drink and we have meal plan to get it that low.

Reader1984 · 27/05/2020 16:49

I think that's a good budget, possibly would expect somewhere nearer 120.

Aveisenim · 27/05/2020 16:56

YANBU ours has gone up massively for a family of 3 :(

RibenaMonsoon · 27/05/2020 16:57

Family of four here with two children under 4 who went be eating as much as yours and I spend about the same.
Agree with others, give him a list and get him to do the shopping. At best he realises he doesn't want to and shuts up and if not then let him see if he can do it any cheaper. Sounds like he won't be able to if you are already using LIDL. I do love LIDL!
Prices have definitely gone up as well.

thesedaysarescary · 27/05/2020 16:57

That is very modest! I spend a lot more than that for 1 adult, 2 teen boys and 2 younger children.

manitobajane · 27/05/2020 17:05

@RuudGullitOnAShed

It seems very modest to me. Two of us and we’ve spent an average of £500 a month since lockdown started.
Only on Mumsnet would £400 a month be considered to be very modest!

What are you eating if you spend £250 per person on food in a month?

Cheeseismylife · 27/05/2020 17:08

We're currently on about £100 pw so £400pm. However that has gone up from £75 before lockdown. What we are buying hasn't changed - we meal plan from a bank and stick to our shopping list so I can only assume the shops have increased their prices substantially.

Jimdandy · 27/05/2020 17:09

I don’t know how your managing on £25 a week each for all food 7 days a week if I’m honest!

Overall we’re spending about £200 a week for us 4 one stepdaughter alternative weeks and a cat. That does include all household stuff like toilet roll etc and 1 takeaway a week.

spagbog5 · 27/05/2020 17:12

We are a family of 5.
4 adults ,14 yr old and a cat.
We are spending £250-£300 a week !! and last weeks was an eye watering £498 but included lots of alcohol.
We seem to have very expensive tastes and I'm thrilled to have got this weeks order sub £200 !!
It's amazing how much they eat and I'm sure when their at uni / own flat there's not as much cured meats , cheeses,fine wine and organic stuff on the menu !!

Beautiful3 · 27/05/2020 17:14

I think that's fine. We spend £140 per week.