How much extra are you spending on food during lockdown?

[Usernamenumber6373]

2 adults, 2 children and a dog - who doesn’t cost us much as she’s tiny and barely eats anything.

Anyway, I normally spend around £80-90 a week on food plus a top up so maybe £110-£120 a week. 😱😱 this is with Tesco. There is absolutely no problem getting slots here anymore so I get my shopping delivered most weeks.

I’ve got a slot tomorrow. I have reached the 95 item limit and it’s costing me £150. Admittedly it’s has things like washing powder and cleaning stuff I don’t buy every week. Plus my freezer is looking empty so needs filling up. Could probably do with more but reached the item limit.

Plus I’ll be feeding the kids lunch every day. Dd is an infant and normally gets free lunches at school and we pay for DS’s school lunches. I put a months worth of money into parent pay on Monday which was a stupid idea. They always want cooked food like they have school for lunch... ££

Partner is annoyed at spending much but spending this much this week might mean I spend less next week...?

Often I get a shop delivered then partner does a top up during the week after work (I hate shopping in store, social anxiety). Trying to avoid doing the top up so is £150 really that bad?!

It’s not like I spend this every week. I’ll probably spend less next week!

Partner is also working long hours still so needs work food too!

I also shop at Tesco's and I spend about £100 there plus too ups during the week. There's only me and my husband. I never know why it's so expensive but it's a lot of fruit/veg/salad and I cook everything from scratch. I always feel guilty at the amount it costs though

No extra. Last lockdown we did, I was shopping 10 days at a time and over bought. But this time I'm shopping no differently, the only change is the children being home for lunch and that isn't adding anything noticeably different and is offset not paying for lunches.

I’m spending a fair bit less I live near a Tesco and used to do several small shops per week and myself and my daughter used to eat out 2/3 times a week whereas now I’m doing all my shopping online so I order what I think we want and meal plan more .We have had much less food wastage and are probably eating healthier than ever . Living here ft are 3 adults (1 gluten free) and a dog . The dog food does not come from the supermarket he has separate online orders so taking him our of their equation I’m spending probably 80/90 on a usual week but that excludes laundry stuff / dishwasher tablets / toilet rolls as they come from Costco . We have really saved by less eating out and only using what we have in . I doubt I will go back to shopping instore ( except M&S which I do miss) .

Spend £120-150 per week on food/toiletries/clothes/flowers/alcohol/washing things on normally a 1/week basis). Family of 4. Think this is may be £20ish at least more (esp as eldest DC not getting school meals at the moment). We spend freely as spending lots less on entertainment and sporadic non-essential shopping. Maybe upto £20/week on coffees etc ( this unchanged or decreased).

Normal shop between £50 - £80. Last lockdown it was around £80 - £120. Family of 4. Rarely includes alcohol. Did everything possible to avoid shopping so put everything in my basket whereas before, I would have popped out a few times during the week for things. Also have an additional £40 a month with milk, bread and eggs from the milkman. Definitely ended up eating more branded stuff as the supermarket own brands seemed to be the ones running out all the time so that would have increased the cost. I would say that since March, I have had refunds on just about every shop - once over £20 with stuff that wasn’t available.

I feel as if we're spending loads on food now too.
Plus I'm working in a supermarket and it's too easy after work to mooch round picking stuff up...

We are spending less.

More time to cook from scratch (homemade hummus, a big bowl for so much less than bought), more time to cook veggie dishes, more time to think out and plan menus.

No Pret lunches or impulse buys at the shops.

Before this lockdown we took cold drinks in chilly bottles or hot drinks in flasks when out for the day / out for a walk because of queues at takeaway cafes. Ditto lunches or snacks.

2 adults and a teen here, dh and I wfh since March, dd was back in school getting cooked dinner and cooked tea there.

Money isn't an issue for us, and dd is very fussy (very sporty and SNs combined), so we don't worry too much about it.

But January 202 I increased my food budget from €800 to €1000 per month as we were spending more generally (different foods, more health foods, and some more convenience foods as work was so busy). But I actually had to increase it again to €1200 per month during the year as:

Prices went up generally in supermarkets

Delivery charges increased on online orders (I've asthma so we do this most weeks)

Availability dropped so we had to change to new brands and spend more

We're buying more in local small shops when we can but they tend to cost more (artisan bakery, fishmonger, fruit and veg shop, butcher) - but we're supporting locals and the quality is very good - but not this month as COVID is rife here too

We're all home all day so eating more (even though we'd bring lunch when in the office mostly, we'd still get a couple of coffees and sometimes snacks or a lunch at work).

And because of lockdowns, I haven't been able to go to stores I get to intermittently like the Asian Supermarket near work for bulk spices. Or some other shops like a DIY chain that has good bulk deals on cleaning materials. And we still go occasionally but less frequently than before to Lidl, which was good to help keep costs down. And because we miss decent coffee at work (and beans available in supermarkets are very "meh"), I am ordering things like coffee, good chocolate (that we get at the farmer's market "down home" on our frequent visits normally - haven't been on over a year), cheese from favourite producers etc, also for delivery straight from the producers separate to supermarket orders.

I do add the delivery charges for food into my budget.

You still need decent food, a few treats to cope with the stresses we currently face, cleaning materials (generally and particularly at the moment), and also want to avoid going to shops as much as possible. So while it may be a lot this week, hopefully it will be offset by staying healthy (with decent healthy food and clean house and not going out unnecessarily) and being able to keep working and getting back to more normal habits soon.

That should have shown I increased my budget in Jan 2020 to €1000, but Dec 2020 my budget was 50% more than the previous year (€800 up to €1200). Some months I go over that a bit and some under, due to big shops for cleaning materials or big events in the family or extra treats for holidays not happening every month. And some months I have more time to be frugal in my shopping and batch cook properly and have veggies from the garden etc. But I had found things crept up in 2019 needing the increase, and then massively increased along with changing lifestyle in 2020 because of COVID.

I'm definitely spending less this lockdown than I did last March. Last year it was a case of 'we have a little spare money as activities have been cancelled so we can use that money' so was spending around £130 on a Tesco delivery every 10 days or so.

This time, 2 of us have lost our part time jobs and while activities are still cancelled, there is just less money coming in. However, my mental health is in a better position this time round so we are doing a lot more meal planning, as well as getting DDs to help plan and cook. Tesco shops now average around £70 every 12 days, with a butchers delivery of £50 once a month, and a fruit and veg delivery 2 x £30 a month. I did tot up the fruit and veg at Tesco and it actually worked out cheaper (for slightly more) than the fruit shop, but I feel happier that I am supporting a local business. Hopefully I can manage to keep that support going, although if money gets even tighter then I may have to reconsider.

We're spending less overall as DH is now working from home and having lunch with us. Also less as not having any meals out and less takeaways as well. So down to about £60/70 a week for three of us shopping at Aldi

No extra on food. Alcohol however...

I'm spending less because it's cheaper to make food here than it is to buy food I can take to work.

Also washing less clothes so not as much spend on detergent etc

Definitely spending more as 4 of us at home now plus cat! Have noticed that food prices have steadily been increasing so a combination of increasing prices plus increasing amounts of food needed has added at least £80 to our weekly bill. Thankfully we’re not doing anything else and rarely have takeaways so it’s affordable.

Same, 2 adults, 2 boys under 5 who eat us out of house and home. Dreading the teen years! £130 or less every tesco shop, which could be every week or every 2 weeks. Top up shops as we go through shit tons of milk.
DH has a readymeal for lunch most days which I judge but choose not to make a big deal out of it. Snack after snack for the children. C'est la vie for now!

The same, but we're both still working as normal and don't have children to feed.

£90 a week for two adults.

Less at the moment, because I’m using up everything out of the (3 drawer, under the fridge) freezer. Except for random fossilised crumbs and spilt frozen peas, that is.

Tbh I find these sort of threads pointless without meal plans and shopping lists. Your bill will increase as your children grow for example. If you by branded items instead of own brand. Include cleaning products. Have takeaways often... Your supermarket bill will be less, but your overall spend more. Our supermarket bill will drop massively next month when DH is living at work during the week, but his work food bill will increase. Vegetarian food can be cheaper.

We spend around £120-£150 a week for a meat loving man with an active job, a woman trying to lose weight, a 9yo who eats an adult portion but never puts on weight, and a 7yo with an appetite for fruit and veg. Including cleaning stuff, other house/supermarket clothing as needed, and alcohol.

I'm definitely spending more with two adults and two hungry boys home plus weekday lunches for my Dad and often we'll have a cooked lunch, also multiple requests to make cakes etc. Usually around £150 on the online shop then about another £150 when I top up midweek (at the time of doing my mum's shopping). That does include toiletries and alcohol (couple of nice bottles of wine per week) and dog food though.

Mines the same. I’m feeding DD lunches but saving on school lunch money which is £12.50 a week.
There’s 5 of us, 3 kids under 7. We usually spend between £120-£160 a week depending on whether we need cleaning products.

We're spending more at the supermarket but less overall as no lunches / coffees / dinners out. Plus teen is not meeting up with friends do no money going on their starbucks/ McDonald's habits at the moment.
Last year we spent more on alcohol but this year we're not as being more mindful of being healthy
We eat really well with home cooked meals 90% of the time & the other times we might get a takeaway.
We're both working from home & busy

Our children are still at school and we're both out of the house for work so no different but first lockdown when we were all at home it shoot up. 2 adults, 2 teenagers and a baby. Used to be about £100 but went up to about £140 when we were all home.

I think over all we are spending less on food as we're not eating lunch our at restaurants, coffee and cake out etc. We are getting take away and take out coffee still but the actual supermarket bill has gone up as we're eating more at home. So it probably feels like more at once but if you looked over bank statements for a year ago it would just be different patterns of spending. So all t

I have absolutely no inclination to do this! As we're comfortable enough for it not to matter. But also eating us one of my few pleasures right now!

I spend 300.00 a month in total on 3 kids 3 adults and a dog.
I now spend 350.00 because the kids are eating lunch at home. But that 50 would usually do to school for school meals so suppose it hasn’t really made a difference to my budget at all.