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!

2 adults and 1 toddler here and we spend about £80 weekly on a Tesco delivery. I use the app and often get Aldi price matches and any offers when they have them.

I'm spending £60-70 a week at Lidl plus get hello fresh fortnightly (3 meals) which is £30 for 2 of us. Just acquired an adult dd (we've got a few between us) for lockdown (great) so will go up but she's vegan.

Should say doesn't include wine as dp buys that from majestic

As a family of four we are spending around £150 a week. We all have different preferences and some dietary needs too so won't all eat the same. I could economise if I really wanted to but at the moment fine as we're not spending money on much else.

Should add, probably about 20-30 a week more compared to before lockdown but we did then pay for one lot of school meals also

Food prices have gradually been going up all year. We never really spent much on food out of the house (maybe a meal out on birthdays) so our food bills haven't really changed that much. OP is obviously a specific case because she's not getting free meals that she would normally get, but I'm surprised that many are seeing food bills go up as it's likely that eating at home is cheaper. I think we are all eating less these days as well, as more sedentary.

@SpikeTheDragon
I used to use morrisons all the time and then switched to Lidl. I did have to get stuff from morrisons' that Lidl stock but eventually this stopped happening as overtime I tried different things and adapted accordingly and it did pay off.
Bit of a pain initially but worth trying if you can persevere.

Yes, definitely spending more but it's offset by fewer other bills like school dinners, fast food, eating out etc.

We too are cooking from scratch more but have got fancier with the ingredients so have been buying more in that respect. We are wasting less.

I think with extra bits thrown in I spend £120 a week.

We were spending slightly more in lockdown. Basic costs were the same - we always took packed lunch to work so wfh costs the same in that respect. We hardly ever ate out or got takeaway pre covid so that is no different.

However we started spending loads more on wine. We used to go to the gym most evenings so never drank during the week. That changed when the first lockdown was a few weeks old. The appeal of sitting in the garden with a chilled glass of wine after wfh all day was just too appealing.

We are now not drinking at all during the week (and I'm doing dry January) so we should start to spend less

I am always shocked at how much my online shop is considering there is only me and DH and it is costing more than when we also had DS and his GF here.

But I have to then remind myself that we now only shop fortnightly (apart from minor weekly top up on bread, milk etc) and that this includes food for all meals, quite a lot of alcohol and dog food.

Prior to Covid I would shop in Asda each week, then we would by lunches and little top up shops daily and get dog food from the pet shop. Plus we would eat out or have a take out at least once per week .

Our food bill isn't that different. When it's higher than usual, it's because we're cooking a special meal but that is offset against not eating out.

We are spending about £90-£100. Up from £70. Family of 5 with a dog and a cat.

I was just looking back at my spending in supermarkets over the last 6 months in Sainsbury's, Tesco, M&S and Super Valu (we're in NI) and it's worked out at about £700 p/m for a family of 4. I do buy clothes for the kids, home stuff, cleaning products, toiletries etc. in those stores too, so I'm not 100% sure what's the exact amount on groceries alone. I think probably between £500-£600 a month (more in December). Don't think it actually went up during lockdown though as we've always spent that much.

The same, about £80 a week and then a couple of little bits in the week, less than £100. 2 adults and teenager, those 2 at home all day and I'm at work

I spend £10-15 a day for 5 people plus pets including toiletries and cleaning stuff.

We're spending much more on food shopping, I'd say £100 pw average, only two of us, but before Covid we had coffees and often a pastry or cake out a few times a week, so taking that into account, probably we're actually saving money. And there's precious little else to enjoy.

Spending less because we've switched to Aldi/Lidl & Morrisons. Morrisons do delivery twice monthly & tops up from Lidl.

I found it helpful to write/type down a list of everything in your cupboards / freezer / fridge. Then group those into meal combinations so you can see how many meals you can get out of them. Then meal plan for the week based on what you have in already. Shopping should only be for ingredients to make meals & fresh produce.

Watch old episodes of Eat well for less on BBC I player or you tube. They helped give me ideas to save money. Do you batch cook or do you rely on ready meals a lot?

More on the the weekly shop, but less on eating out and on bought lunches, so probably cheaper overall. We can use leftovers better when working from home.

I think it looks more because it’s not spread out

Before the pandemic, the teen boys had school accounts which I topped up and DH ate at work canteen. We’d occasionally go out or get takeaway, sometimes the boys would eat out with friends using their pocket money...

Now we have one weekly shopping bill.

We are spending 150-200 for 2 teenage boys, DH and me (+ big dog) but worryingly that is actually less than what we spent all totted up before Covid

I spend about £150 a week for 2 and 2 cats.

I do Mindful Chef 5 meals a week though as it is hard to get delivery slots where I live. I get a veg box and eggs from the local farm, bake my own bread and buy meat from the local butcher.

When my DH was surprised how much we spend, I got him to do shop and it came through almost double. 😂 I am spending more in lockdown but one only luxuries now so sod it. That said spend £80 to £170 online Morrison’s or Asda. Also include cat and dog and baby milk, nappies. One week is always £170, then reduces. Must be £500-£600 month. Also top up milk and bananas in week. Family of 5

I think al lot has gone up and I tried to do my monthly pay shop at tesco to see they had introdued the 95 limit again which is a pain when you buy loose veg , I don't want a whole bag of carrots just 2-3.
If you have washing powder , loo rolls , dishwasher tabs or anything like that it really ups the price so
Its easy to do £150 and actually not even have that much stuff

One way a few years ago how I saved a bit on food shop was to do a weekly menu and then just buy what we needed to make main meals ( taking into account what was in cupboard) then lunch items , bfast etc. We didn't always have meals ok the night I wrote as could move it around but did stick to the meals on menu.
We def spending more as 2 teenage boys home all day , just eat, normally they would be out.
Also we have all snacked a bit more as bored so this week i have really limited snack items and freezer broke so no freezer food but still spent £95 but 6 full meals and lunches and bfast , fruit and loo rolls in that , so if that lasts us will be a saving.

Around £100 a month more. Not sure how as actually DCs are often eating 2 meals a day (brunch or lunch and dinner) rather than 3 as they've been sleeping late. I think I upped our spending when we were getting the school vouchers because it meant I could buy more treat stuff and better meat, fruit juice, frozen fruit etc. So I got used to that and haven't cut back again.
Food prices must have gone up as well, because my Lidl shop is more than it used to be.

I do have a very well stocked freezer and pantry though that we could eat for nearly a month from.

We budget £430 a month for food as 2 adults, 2 dogs and 1cat. We eat well, but that’s more an attempt to avoid takeaways which end up costing even more and are obv. more unhealthy. Some weeks we spend more, then the next week we won’t