To think £56 for a food shop for a week is expensive?

[uhohhereweego]

It's just me and my 8 year old daughter. I've been trying to save money and usually shop daily so decided tonight to do an online shop at Asda for Monday. The total came to just under £57 for the week, that's for 10 breakfasts, 5 lunches (for me as daughter at school) and 10 dinners and some snacks. This included two bottles of wine (£10) and two cat foods (£8) so I suppose these could be ignored.

However, I still think it's an excessive amount for the amount just the two of us. Is that a lot or pretty average?

Some people spend ludicrous amounts on weekly shopping so compared to that your not doing too bad.

For two adults and a baby we tend to spend £60 but I do buy bits here and there in the week so maybe 72 is more accurate.

If money is tight maybe cut down from two bottles of wine to one as drinking every night is not great health wise anyway and it’s recommended to have at least two ‘dry’ days a week.

We spend about £100/£120 a week for 7 of us. We shop at Lidl. Two adults and an older teenager at home all the time, two teenagers who take packed lunches to school, a 4 year old who has free school meals, and a 3 year old at home. No alcohol, and it includes cleaning stuff.

£40 for 5 days is more than we spend per person, but it's obviously more difficult to buy a lot of different products for that amount. It's all relative.

It's quite tedious isn't it? Pretty much every thread on food budgeting and someone assumes that just because you spend less than them you must have 'forgotten' all these extras you must have bought 😆.

so its £39 for a week. Jesus.

Ofc thats good -_-

also if your buying 2 wines a week then maybe cut down? i think even 1 a week is too much but then i dont really drink and think 1 a month is more than enough but thats just me

thats Amazing value. We are a family of 2 adults, and 2 under 4’s and we spend 100-150 a week including booze/washing powder/cleaning stuff/toilet and kitchen roll

Not any more!
my lidl food shop has gone up from £70ish to £80+ recently. Same food, more expensive

I think £39 is cheap. I shop in Aldi and it depends how much I need. I spend more than that there's me and DS I spent £50 in Aldi yesterday £20 in poundland alone.

I don't spend £70 each week though.

Or if you spend less you must be eating an unhealthy diet because 'we spend that amount on fruit and veg alone, it's not possible to get your 5/7/10 a day on that little'.

Plus the tone deaf posts from the 'we spend over £200 pw because we have hollow legged teenagers' crowd. Just because they can afford to give their teens free rein of the fridge and cupboards doesn't mean everyone can, or that it's necessary for them to have unlimited access to expensive food choices.

We spend about £55 week for 2 adults no cats or wine tho😩.I think your price is fair

I think that's cheap. When I was a student 28 years ago, my food budget for myself and my boyfriend was £35/week.

You know my budget?
Making someone feel like they should be cutting their already low budget is not helpful.

Save your wrath for Boris and the supermarkets. I’m guessing Tesco won’t be making a loss this year.

£56 for a shop including wine and cat food sounds really cheap to me

Exactly my point, people with genuinely low budgets are being made to feel they are over spending by those who make out their budget is lower when it isn’t

Try £120 a week - 2 adults and 2 children (12 and 9 boys)

I think our food shop might be about that for two adults. The problem is we also get troilet roll, cleaning products, laundry det, etc, and often about a tenner on alcohol, it all adds up.

Thank And I know that the uk is such a shit place that I am privileged to allow my children to eat when hungry.

Why assume that other people with genuinely low budgets are either lying or forgetting things?

£40 a week = roughly £6 a day. That's for 2 breakfasts and a dinner (assume your DD gets free school meals?)

If that includes 5 portions of fruit and veg for each of you, every day, it sounds cheap.

To be really blunt, your diet sounds unhealthy. You are also close to the 14 units a week limit for alcohol if you are drinking 2 bottles of wine (yourself.)

Maybe look at some ideas for healthier meals, with more veg, and cut out the pizzas and pasta. Your daughter doesn't seem to be eating much fresh food and neither do you.

We're a family of two (most of the time). Like many, I've been looking to make cutbacks and have been keeping a note of our weekly spending. It's averaging out at cat food £16 per week for two and £49 for food, wine, cleaning products and toiletries. Under no circumstances am I compromising on the cats (even told DH I'll have cat food instead of presents!). We could cut back on the £49 about £11-12 pw by cutting out wine as I usually buy two £4.50 bottles pw, and I've bought a couple of ready meals every three weeks, items like blueberries when a pack of apples on offer would be cheaper and more filling, bought some Dolmio jars on offer when I could have bought shops own etc.

See posts in this thread. OP has said she only spends £39 then drip feeds another shop at the weekend. I don’t know why you think I am having a go at those with genuinely low budget.

Probably best that I don't say how much our supermarket shop for 2 adults is. It does include wine though. I think £56 is very reasonable.

My adult DD allowed herself a budget of around £40 a week when she took on her first mortgage not long ago.

Her breakfast was / is greek yoghurt and fruit, or porridge.

Lunch is homemade (she microwaves it at work) and might be left-over veggie curry or something like that (she batch cooks)

Dinner is always home made- again, veggie curries, fish, stir fries, roast at a weekend, etc.

The £56 includes wine and cat food? In that case you're not spending enough on food.

That does seem high but there might be reasons, special diet, only eat organic or maybe you are worn out with baby and buy alot of convenience stuff. The main thing is can you afford it and are you happy with it, if the answer to both is yes then it is fine.

We are 3 adults and this week I spend £60 for 3 meals a day but some weeks it will be £100 so I guess it averages out at £80 and everyone seems happy with what we have.