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?

@Gncq I might do but how do I get up the poll results ? Thanks guys you have all made me feel better . It makes me realise that I’m not going mad prices have gone up . I had a lot of “yes “ screaming moments . My main shop is always lidl but I since the lockdown I do a top up in Sainsbury’s because the one in my area is so well stocked . I find it really annoying queuing for an hour and then you can’t buy eggs as they have run out in Tesco’s. No queue in Waitrose but I saw a case of 6 eggs for 1.80 and I promptly reached into my bag for the smelling salts .

That's really good. Our monthly average for 2019-2020 was £614 pcm. 2 adults, 2 kids but one child eats like and adult. 2 cats.

Our £614 spend is everything that is bought from a supermarket so includes cleaning products, booze, toiletries, toilet roll, tissues and kitchen roll, gifts, random items. It's not all food!

Sometimes it includes clothes too, paper, ink.

We shop at Tesco, Asda, Lidl, Iceland, Home Bargains, Aldi.

That's £25 per person per week, for 21 meals, plus snacks and (no doubt) toiletries & cleaning products.

We are currently spending £100 per week for DH and I, plus 5 month old (nappies & wipes) and 2 cats! We also have 1 take away a week additional to that!

What do you buy to keep it under £100? We spend £300 a week. No alcohol, cooking from scratch, not that much meat, I try to make vegetarian dinners. We buy lots of fresh fruit/berries/veg. Make own bread.

£100 a week would leave us with lots of cheap simple carbs and some tinned food. How do you manage to have healthy diet unless I’m missing something

With us all being at home for every meal and the cost of goods, our shopping has got much more expensive.

Your post tells me that your DH is quite disconnected from the realities of meal planning, food and household necessity shopping, and actually seeing how much his own children eat. And he couldn't even recognise that normally 5 meals a week are taken up at school, as well as snacks?

Make him do it all for a couple of weeks: meal plan, shop and cook and be the one who provides snacks.

Why is it always men who are so fucking ready to jump on their partners for being 'extravagent' when feeding their own children.

£300 a wk? What do you buy for that- where do you shop ??

Worriedmum97 my comment was for you

he also needs to get a look at how expensive 'basics' are now in the stores. It's quite shocking if you're not the regular shopper I imagine.

I'm spending about £125 a week on five of us and not being at all extravagant so it seems reasonable to me.

Another support for you OP, we are two adults and two teens and spend at least £150 per week....suggest he takes over for a month and see what happens

Mines usually about £650 for 2 adults, a 1 and 2 year old and 3 cats

Why not suggest DH shops and feeds you all for a week. He'll then understand how far £100 a week goes....

Suggest he takes over for a few weeks.

We are averaging around the same for 2 adults! Has gone up from around £60 to £110 a week since lockdown but that is for every meal at home. If you added work lunches, takeaway coffee, takeaway, top up shop, the odd meal out onto our usual £60 a week it would total more than £110. It’s just alarming for some (including me!) to see the whole amount go in one transaction, you don’t notice the smaller ones so much.

£100 a week for four is fine, normal if anything. We spend maybe £120 a week and have four DC.

@Worriedmum97 you could probably cut out quite a lot by not buying berries.

My parents had a load of soft fruit bushes so I was used to eating raspberries, currants etc without thinking about it. First time I thought of buying some in the supermarket I practically fainted...

No we are currently spending 150-200 a week atm on food there's me my partner and three kids one is just on milk.

Sounds perfectly reasonable, we are a family of 5: 2 Adults and 3 teenagers and spend £120-150 a week. I think when you do the food shopping you have more of an understanding of how much things cost. The kids eat more when they are at home all the time.

I'm about £120- £140pw with younger kids. Before lock down it was about £90. We are buying significantly more meals per week, and more snacks. Also, we are sometimes buying more expensive brands due to availability.

Sticking to £100 with teenagers must be tricky.

I have more expensive weeks when I'm topping up on things like dish washer tablets and wash powder but I don't buy these things every week.

Family of 5, all adults or late teens. Our grocery bills (including cleaning stuff, toiletries, alcohol, cat food etc, basically anything from a supermarket) have gone from an average £700 per month to £1,100 over the last few months. Thankfully we can afford it but I am trying to bring it down a little having now realised the extent of it!!

£400 is pretty good I think.

I think that's really reasonable.

I'm spending £450 a month (2 adults and a 13 and 9 year old).

It's much cheaper than when I spent money on restaurant meals, school dinners and lunches out.

You have to add up the overall food budget.

*What do you buy to keep it under £100? We spend £300 a week. No alcohol, cooking from scratch, not that much meat, I try to make vegetarian dinners. We buy lots of fresh fruit/berries/veg. Make own bread.

£100 a week would leave us with lots of cheap simple carbs and some tinned food. How do you manage to have healthy diet unless I’m missing something*

Meal planning and bulk buying for me- I make more than I need and freeze. Every so often I don't need to do a full shop for a while because I have a freezer full. Checking reductions etc before I go and making adjustments to meal plan and shopping list. I start at the reduced to clear section- but I only buy something there if I was going to anyway.

It seems like the price of food has really increased in the UK. I'm an expat living in Sydney and food was always very cheap in comparison when I returned to the UK, but these monthly bills are much higher than I've seen before.

Is this Brexit/Covid do you think?