How much do you spend on your weekly shop?

[Noglassjustthebottleandastraw]

I am just wondering if what I spend a week on my shop is average?

£160/£200 per week for food, drinks, alcohol, dog treats and usual house stuff like cleaning products and toiletries for 2 adults and 1 child.

I shop at Tesco and don't do top up shops etc.

The reason why I am asking is, my friend thinks this is a really high amount. But they shop in different shops eg Asda/Aldi plus do top up shops. So when I pointed out she must be spending more than me, adding in petrol etc to get to different shops, plus more time going to different places. She was adamant she wasn't. I get home delivery.

Thanks very much wise ones

I don’t think your portions of meat are small, none of my posts mention small meat portions. It’s the other items: cheese, vegetables, fruit etc. that are small, verging on tiny portions. And your claim you “dont like eating too much cheese its full of fat.” As though a normal 30g portion of cheese is excessive, and a portion nearly half the size is a normal portion. That’s not to mention the onions that stretch and stretch.

£150 per week is the basic budget, that is four adults, two cats, sometimes a few bits for the dog (but mostly his food is bought separately from a different account). Waitrose delivery most weeks, Ocado every three to four weeks as my father doesn't like it much! We're all either vegan or vegetarian, which obviously keeps costs down a bit.

Very relaxed about top ups if we want them, but it's not usually ordinary groceries - normally specialist things like coffee beans, vegan cheese, spices, bottled water, etc. Tbh we don't include these in the grocery budgeting but if we did, I'm guessing it would take it up to £200 per week easily.

(Tried to switch my parents onto Asda and Morrison's during earlier stages of the pandemic and they resisted strongly!)

Resist strongly to what?

@Nsky62 I was trying to encourage them to buy from a wider range of shops to save money but they were convinced they didn't like it, for some reason. V frustrating! I do all the online shopping but of course I don't force them to have things from shops they don't like, I just think it's a little bit silly when some products are the same.

I just did a tescos on line shop. £89.10

No toiletries, 1 bleach at about 50p, £1 on x4 hippo choc snacks. Cat food dry and wet - £10, 2 bottles of wine - £12,

No washing powder, shower stuff, no other cleaning stuff, no loo roll, no dish washer tabs.

Veg, fruit, ceral x1, chicken, mince, sausages, bacon, steak (£10) yogurts, milk, tuna, sweet corn, tin tomatoes and nuts. Basically breakfast and 3 evening meals.

No sugar, tea or coffee. No ham or bread, no condiments.

I just don't get how you spend so little (yes I know I spent £30 total on cats, steak and wine).

If you take the dog out of the equation, we probably spend a similar amount.

1.5kg mince even frozen is going to be around £10+
2 onions 10p
2 X pasta 40p
4 tins tomatoes £1.20+
4 cartons passata £1.50+

That's £14 for 2 sets of dinners already.

The. You're saying you all eat 1kg of chicken thighs £5
A pack of peppers 95p
Cucumber 40p
Wraps £1.50
Cheese 100g 40p+

That's £9

You have 6 people X 21 meals = 126 meals
Let's remove the 15 free lunches. 111 meals total.

42 breakfasts
27 lunches
42 dinners

You're Bolognese and wraps are 18 dinners.

You've already spent £23 of your £50.

You have £27 to find all the breakfast, 27 lunches and 24 dinners...

Let's assume you all eat porridge for breakfast every day with water and some how make a cheapy 1kg bag last all week. And it costs £1 max.

I still can't see how you're making £26 stretch to all the remaining dinners and lunches, considering you spend nearly half of your budget on a quarter of your meals...

At the start of the year it was maybe £60 a week, that is for everything bar wine for 2 adults, 2 cats, a dog and feeding a never ending hungry child.

Last month it had crept up to close to £80, I am doing the shop tomorrow and I am dreading it to be honest. Wine budget is £30 for the month, which could include going out for a drink, which is why it is seperate

70 pw in aldi
Maybe 50 pw top ups in asda or tesco.

2 adults 4 dc, no pets Inc all toiletries. Cleaning, meat etc.

Even in Tesco you can buy 1.kg of mince for under £6. Buy 20% fat and drain the fat off.

Shopping list but it's cheaper in Lidl. Plus buy rice on bulk from Costco.
Roast dinner
Pork noodle stir fry
Spaghetti bolognese
Carbonara
Lasagna
Curry
Fajitas
Cereal
Ham sandwiches

4 pages to go

That's my list

You cook fajita bits in a wok? That’s not fajitas then. It’s a chicken stir fry of some sort. The meat and vegetables in fajitas are grilled.

Are you vegetarian as your list is basically fruit and veg

What meals do you make

no mince chicken fish steak pie etc

@Blondeshavemorefun This we’re having

Soy glazed tofu stir fry
Buddha bowl with brazilian style bean stew
Spanish omlette with salad
Roast harissa veg with baked ‘fried’ eggs
Sweet potato katsu with KFC style fried mushrooms
Bhindi masala with roasted cauli
Veg cakes/burgers with bbq sauce in a tiger roll and salad

I make enough so that lunch the next day is left overs. The day after the burgers we won’t have left overs available, so I’m doing roast veg with baked gnocchi and a spicy tomato sauce. Breakfast is usually either omlette, porridge, banana pancakes or kedgeree.

Sounds yummy

and yes kendril milk is costly but won’t be forever

Your shopping list is very similar to mine @Simonjt ( veggie also) but you are doing so much more with it! That menu sounds delicious.Tesco delivery guy was surprised that I always order so much bhindi. Bhindi masala this week for us too.

That list is more than £50 (over £65 by my rough calculation) I bet it would be at Aldi or Lidl too as many of those items are Aldi price matched at Tesco - mince, milk, apples, ham, wraps, onions, broccoli, purée, tinned tomatoes, pasta, passata, potatoes, chocolate cereal…

There’s also no cheese which adds to the price or cooking bacon for the carbonara, and although not essential you have dropped the garlic baguettes.

2 packs of apples and 1 bunch of bananas is not enough fruit for a week for a family of 6.

1 pack of ham is not enough for 27 lunches a week. That pack says it has 40 slices and 2 slices is a portion.

1 pack of egg noodles that says it serves 4 isn’t enough for 6.

If you are having a jar of sauce rather than making your own, 1 jar that says it serves 4 is not enough for 6.

The vegetable and beansprout stir fry pack says it serves 2.

1 pack of onions does not give a normal sized portion per person for 3/4/5 meals (depending on how many out of that list you add it too).

@Simonjt your menu sounds lovely.

To be fair on @IncessantNameChanger dnsll kids won't be eating full adult portions but the lack of fruit and veg stands out, to me. I'm not vegetarian but inviting myself to @Simonjt 's for dinner, though. It all sounds delicious.

Small kids

PickAChew Incessantnamechanger has 2 teens, so even if the 2 younger DC don’t eat full adult portions her list won’t be enough. For example, the sauce and noodles serve 4 so even if the 2 younger DC have half an adult portion they won’t be enough. Same for the e.g. the onions. And even if the 2 younger DC have 1 slice of ham rather than 2 a pack of 40 slices won’t be enough.

@IncessantNameChanger that's more than £50 and definitely isn't enough food for 6 people for a week...

Why are you STILL insisting you're feeding 2 adults, 2 teens and 2 kids on £50 a week? When clearly you just aren't....

I think you could actually feed 6 for £50 by making certain dull choices. But you definitely aren't feeding your family for £50.