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?

Saying it was £56 for a weekly shop when you have two £10 bottles of wine and expensive cat food, is a misleading title ...
If you spent £38 for five days, then it likely would be about £56 for food for seven days anyway (assuming weekend was supermarket food again).

@Imsittinginthekitchensink To be clear, what I meant was beans on toast is not so much a snack, but if it's for a child's tea/ dinner, then it's tinned food, and doesn't include fresh fruit or fresh veg. I'd think of it as a snack lunch, not suitable as the main meal of the day for a child.

I know that beans are very healthy (we eat lots in veggie curries and chunky soups) but without knowing that the child has had for a school dinner, I'd be putting at least 2 fresh veg on her plate at tea time, and ideally more.

School dinners are notoriously unhealthy and no one can be sure what kids eat.

I feel really concerned that the OP is ok about drinking two bottles of wine a week yet her child appears to get almost nothing in the way of fruit and veg (and neither does she.) She is unlikely to be getting much Vit C at all, and unless she eats dairy foods, not enough calcium.

This is a bit of a strange thread.

Of course it's cheap and you know it.

I think it’s a lot for 15 x2 meals when 8 of them are toast and 5 of them are soup. I think it’s a pretty decent amount to feed 2 people an ok diet.

What is the point of the thread OP?

Are you looking for ideas about meals or how to make a saving?

Obviously the wine, but what does your cat (one cat?) eat? Perhaps it would be cheaper to buy in bulk.

@LoveinTheFastLane I too included beans on toast with cheese on toast (another dinner mentioned) as not being a substantial dinner.

Absolutely see how some choices affect cost, but it still baffles me how 2 adults and a baby spend £150 regularly. We have a lot of nice food too, dried fruits, fresh fruit and veg, it’s not all value by any stretch and we eat meat every day

They probably buy the more expensive products from more expensive supermarkets.

Purple sprouting broccoli is about five times the price per kilo as standard broccoli.

The price per kilo for something like mature cheddar could vary by 3/4 times depending on whether you get supermarket brand or a high end one.

Are your soft drinks Bottle Green or supermarket own?

For every product where the average person is buying the 'normal' product, there's someone buying the 'posh' version that's easily 3/4/5 times the price and while their shopping includes the same range of groceries that makes the same meals, with very similar nutritional value, if the former is spending £80 pw, the latter £250+.

Yes I’m more this end of it too.
i spend a few hundred. No takeaways, no alcohol thank god, 6 people one cat.

We spend about 200 a week for 5 and that includes cleaning stuff and toiletries.
I actually think that's a reasonable amount. I find it hard to believe how low some people's shopping is

I'm not sure how cucumber qualifies as a snack!

If you cut it up and put it in a wee bowl it’s a snack.

if you put it in a salad it’s part of a meal

if you stir fry it and put it on your table with other dishes then it’s a vegetable side.

Beans on toast is definitely a meal but it’s a shit one if you’ve only had avocado, toast and tomato soup all day.

Beans are only healthy if you're adding them fresh or frozen, if the OP (I assume) is talking about baked beans then i think you were right the first time - processed junk with lots of sugar and salt. And if you get the reduced sugar then they stick in artificial sweetners instead. I agree school dinners are generally awful, if you think they charge £2 or whatever a day and they have to buy all the ingredients, pay someone for it to be made, pay someone for it to be served and make a decent profit on it.

I agree that dinner for a child really needs to contain two or more servings of fresh or frozen veg. A carb with cheese is not a main meal. Stop the wine which is currently nearly 20% of your food budget (or at least cut down to one bottle) and buy some frozen peas, tinned chopped tomatoes, fresh carrots, broccoli, mushrooms and pepper.

Your breakfast sounds fabulous though OP - and lunch is fine (although I'd add in some wholemeal toast for dunking) but I think you need to work on dinner for both of you.

But it's not £56 for a weekly food shop, as your title says, if £10 of that is wine and £8 is cat food.

I live on my own and always spend way more than that on my weekly food shop at Tesco. My shop this week was nearly twice that but I was stocking up on a couple thing.

I don't buy wine or pet food but I do buy a lot of quite expensive food stuff.

I think £39 for 5 days food is very reasonable.

LOL 😂Seriously? Thanks for a lecture on cutting up a cucumber. Ive got to 55 and never knew.

What I meant is, if it needs spelling out, is that a piece of cucumber (which is almost all water), is hardly a very nutrient-dense snack for an 8 year old. Fine for an adult trying to lose weight or a refreshing snack on a hot day but seriously, as snack for a hungry child?

Take off the wine and cat food, and £39 for a week of food for 2 people seems pretty reasonable to me.

Beans on toast? Cheese on toast? Not really a meal.

We're on the same page @Staynow but I'd differ on tin of tom soup IF that's what it is (fine if it's fresh but not if high in salt and sugar from a tin.)

We are a family of 2 adults and teen son. I’m currently spending about £150 a week on shopping. That’s all breakfasts, I make packed lunches, and dinners. It’s definitely gone up. I think £56 for 2 is incredibly cheap.

I've just done my food shop so here are my notes with what I've bought
I have halloumi in, also I batch cook so the chilli is for 5 portions. The freezer has a pasta bake, beef stew and cottage pie in already
Tend to eat sandwiches for lunch 5 x a week and breakfast is yoghurt or porridge with fruit
This is for 7-10 days for 1 person and cost £63

We will be a bit more relaxed at the weekend and eat what we fancy, will go to shops on day and decide.

The thread is pointless because from your comment above, you don't spend £56 a week on food. That's only for five days and despite being asked, you appear unwilling to say how much you spend on food for the weekend.

I do think it's a lot, even though it's normal.

The cost of living is just astronomical. Something can be normal and still too much.

It could be a case of OP has fallen into the trap of a reasonable amount of processed food, as it's easier to calculate what each meal costs, or maybe they don't really like fruit and veg. We manage on a virtually the same amount as OP and have two bottles of wine, but that's our treat rather than going out - it would go though if we couldn't eat properly.

OP, if ideally you'd like to eat other options without spending too much, this week we've had cereal, toast or yogurt and banana for breakfast. Lunch - DH sandwich and banana every day, this week I'll admit I've had tinned soup, fried egg on toast with a tash of mushrooms, sandwiches and a salad with cheese. We have jacket potato for lunch on the one day we're together. Meals have been breaded fish, chips, peas and carrots, white fish topped with tomatoes and herbs with potatoes and spinach, pasta bake with various veggies and beans, topped with cheese, veggie chilli, sausage with crushed potatoes, cauliflower cheese and peas, tonight is pasta with cream, mushrooms, peppers, onions topped with parmesan cheese and a crusty roll for DH.

I do for two adults and a 5 year old

£39 for 2. I spend. That's more than I spend per person

I think that’s really good. DH and I can be really awful with shopping and need to start using a shopping list. Aldi would probably help too.

Do you mean lard, or margarine?

Lard is no worse for you than butter and in fact contains more monounsaturated fats and less saturated fat.