Not enough money for groceries ?

[Cupcakejamlover]

Since having a baby i’m a stay at home mum so we are only relying on my husbands income which is getting a bit tough. (I dont even receive maternity pay). Because of our situation, Dh has set a monthly budget of £300 for groceries. This includes all food, drinks, desert, cleaning equipment, sanitary items, baby wipes etc. To give a little back story: its just me, my husband and 6 month old baby at home who is breastfed so only needs nappies and the odd item from the grocery store and minimal food as we are introducing solids now.
We have implemented this budget a few months ago however i fail to stick to it every single month… i always end up going £30-£40 above, and thats TRYING not to.. now i’m wondering is this an unreasonable amount for a couple with baby? Or am i just not planning/ budgeting correctly? Does anyone have any tips as to how to budget? We live near a large sainsburys so tend to do all our shopping there except meat/chicken.
How much do you spend if you are in similar circumstances?

@DoucheCanoe

We budget £320 a month for 2 adults, 15yo and 9yo.

I don't meal plan and we have plenty of treats 🤔

Where do you shop OP ?

Did he set the budget? Do you agree or understand the rationale for it?

Or do you think he's wrong - just because he's the only earner, it's joint money and you both need to agree the whole budget. If £300 is the right amount, is there anything else that can be cut from eleswhere in the budget.

If he's sticking to £300 - get him to do the shopping maybe.

Sainsbury's is expensive - you will save money (and joy) by going to Tesco or eleswhere by the way. I saved a lot of money (larger family) by switching to Tesco. I also saved money back in the day by switching to cloth nappies - but there's an initial outlay for those.

Give him the shopping list and the baby. Send him off to the supermarket. Might be the wakeup call that is needed.
I think everybody is finding it tougher now.

Aldi do click and collect now so you can easily set your budget and make sure you stay on target by shopping online and just parking to pick up.

It’s one thing having budget because that’s all you can afford, fair enough it is doable. If however it’s making you stressed and you have plenty spare money to go up extra £10-20 week that’s different matter. Some people enjoy meal planning and searching shops for bargains others just want to get it over as quick as possible with crying baby.

The bit about your DH setting a monthly budget caught my eye. How did this come to be his decision? Do you have any decision-making power when it comes to your family's finances? What is your wider financial situation like?

Personally I think £300 is ok.
We are family of 3 ( 11 old child and DH) and I spend weekly in Sainsbury’s £70 max and I think I get a nice food.

Everyone has said it but i think switching supermarkets is your best bet. DH and I shop between Tesco, Asda, Farmfoods, Lidl, Aldi and Home Bargains. We make a list for each shop based on what we like from each and how much it costs.
We buy family packs of fresh mince and freeze it in portions to defrost the night before eating it. Frozen chicken and fish from farmfoods. Freeze fresh meat for defrosting as well. Frozen veg just as good as fresh (we also buy fresh though).

We don't need to buy cleaning/laundry products every month as we buy the massive bottles of detergent, conditioner and cleanser that last a couple of months at a time. Mostly from home bargains...I LOVE that shop!

Sainsbury’s is a treat supermarket. Christmas and birthdays only.

Does he take lunches to work, or purchase them each day? If the later, then he needs to redirect that spending into the grocery budget and start making sandwiches.

Am in the same position as you (2 adults 1 EBF baby no maternity allowance) I would say we spend about the same as you. Maybe £60 per week. Then the rest on extra bits here and there when running out of stuff between shops. I think £300 is reasonable and I wouldn’t want to spend more than that.

However, as inflation is pushing all the prices up it does become stick to that and have also been looking at ways to cut down on food shop.

I am sure there are plenty of people on here with amazing budgeting tips. What I would say is do an online shop for your primary shop as you can do it on the app while BFing and you can see the running total as you go along. It’s much easier to compare price on different versions of the same item. Plus you can easily see what’s in your basket and go through it one last time to assess if you really need each item.

You said you shop at Sainsbury’s. I would shop there for bits and bobs when running out as is closest to me but I try not to do a large shop from there as I find I can buy fewer items for the money.

At the moment I do my online shop with Tesco and specifically look for all the Clubcard priced items which can be a third or more off.

Maybe change to a cheaper brand of nappies if you haven’t already but beware of the false economy of ones with poor fit that cause poo to shoot out the sides and adds to washing costs unless that only happens to me lol

Do a monthly meal Plan. That will give you your answer. Write down every ingredient and product you need.

Why does he get to set the budget?

I wish more and more women would be exposed to threads like these before they marry. A dose of realism and exposure to the pitfalls of our perpetual financial dependence on men when children enter the picture.

OP I would be concerned if we didnt set a budget together, as a couple.

Echo the above sentiments, £300 is a passably good budget but it is a bit on the small side, absolutely need to focus on one of the cheaper supermarkets.

e.g. nappies can easily vary from below £10 per month to over £25 per month depending on how efficiently you shop in terms of offers, brands, pack sizes, etc.

As others have said, it is tight but possibly doable with strict planning and careful shopping. I’d say you need to switch supermarkets, that will
make a difference.
You need to decide if £300 is the actual amount you can afford or if that’s the amount your husband would like to spend.

Tight really. I managed £70 for four of us about 8 years ago using Jamie’s saver recipes and shopping only at Aldi. How has the budget been put together. Shopping has gone up noticeably in the last 12-18 months; £30-40 in some cases. Does your budget take into account shopping for special occasions or holidays ( I know not relevant at the moment but it’s good to budget and then bank it ready). What is your income and who decides on the budgets?

I spend £100 to £120 a week for a family of nine including five lots of nappies/pull ups and wipes, cleaning supplies etc so approx £500 a month. £300 sounds more than enough for just 3 people especially if one is a young baby.

You need to change supermarket.

Sainsburys is OK for bits and bobs plus specialist items, but for a big main shop you need use Asda, Lidl, Aldi or Tescos as they are cheaper.

In regards to nappies at certain times Sainsburys nappies/pull ups were the better fit but it is worth trying another supermarket own brand.

I don’t find £300 is low. We have a good household income of about £90k and I wouldn’t want to spend more than £75 per week for the 4 of us. And it doesn’t strike me as especially difficult and that’s shopping at Tesco.

Am I therefore being very tight? This is the kind of thing that would be in my delivery basket each week;

• £10-12 of fresh fruit and veg
• £4 of frozen veg - peas, broccoli, chips
• £12- £15 meat. This could be a 750g pack of extra lean mince which will feed us 3 meals in a bolognase or similar, a pack of chicken breasts which will feed us 2 meals, a pack of finest bacon which will do a stir fry, 2 packs of finest sausages which would do 1.5 meals.
• £6-8 bread products - loaf, rolls, wraps, croissants

£5- £6 Dairy - 8 pints milk, big block cheddar, one other cheese

• £6-8 snacks - crisps, cakes, biscuits
• £5-6 cooking ingredients/store cupboard - tinned tomatoes, pesto, stock cubes, jar of sauce,
• £3-5 toiletries/claeaning - loo rolls, 1 squirty cleaner for all uses, shower gel, shampoo, sanitary protection, - most of these bought every 3 or 4 weeks
• £4-5 drinks - tea/ squash

Miscellaneous - each week probably buy one of frozen pizza meal, filled pasta meal. Will probably spend £5 on booze most weeks too….1 bottle of wine or pack of beer.

We have snacks and treats, eat quality meat and plenty of fruit and veg available. We can do it for £65-80 each week so comes in under £300 for month.

Thing we don’t really do is too-up shops. And if we haven’t got something but fancy it, we tend to just wait until the next shop to get it and eat what we already have.

Am I being very mean? I struggle to understand why so many families struggle to do a food shop for less than £100.

I shop at Sainsbury's in the full knowledge I'm paying extra for nothing really, I just like having my food delivered. When money mattered more, I used to shop at Lidl/Aldi, you would easily save £10 a week that way, probably more! They don't deliver though, so it's 2/3 hours out of your week which for me as a f/t working single parent isn't a good use of time.

For me and two teenagers I spend around £400 per month. Probably around £75-£80 per shop and then top ups through the week. I find I spend more if I go to Sainsbury's though so If it's more of a tight month or the end of the month I'll go to Aldi but Asda seems a good mid-price place to shop.

How much cleaning products are you buying? I only top up with cleaning products every few weeks. Things like dishwasher tablets/washing detergent I find Aldi great for (and cheaper).

Oh and I should add on about £3-£4 per week for breakfast cereals. Forgot those.

Family of 4 here and we spend £100 a week, that includes alcohol but excludes lunch mo-fri for kids and they hardly eat any breakfast.
The only thing I top up is fresh fruit and we meal plan, which we stick to mon-fri.
It is tight but manageable.

If you are only going £40 over per month I think you are doing well! £300 a month for food is probably do-able but hard when you add in nappies, baby food, cleaning products etc.

We are a family of 4 2 adults, 2 kids and I spend £100 a week just on food... often buy cleaning products, toiletries etc in b&m as extra! Kids are older so no nappies here though...

I tend to get the best value for money for what we need from Tesco so I shop there... by home delivery.

I think cleaning products can make a big difference.
An 80p multi purpose cleaner will do all my cleaning needs for about 3 weeks, and a 40p bottle of loo cleaner last more than a month. A bottle of washing up liquid lasts a couple of months and we have the cheapest dishwasher tablets which cost about 5p each, and we run the machine about 4 times a week.