Is this a silly amount of money for our food shop?

[lancsgirl85]

Sorry - I know there have been a few threads about food shop bills but I am just astounded by ours at the moment and wanted to see if we are overspending and where we could make savings. We already shop in the likes of Aldi, Tesco, and B&Ms. We are a family of 4 - 2 adults, a teen and a toddler - plus a cat. We are spending in the region of £130-150 per week (circa £600-700 per month). This doesn't include anything like eating out or luxuries/alcohol etc - just the essentials really.

Are we spending a lot? Or is this about average now costs have risen?

Family of 4. I usually shop at waitrose and get through £130 per week.

Per week, we spend £70 on a home delivered tesco shop (with a delivery saver thing) as well as £30 in lidl on top up shops (it's our nearest) and about a tenner extra on the dog. So £110 per week for family of 4 + dog (kids have 3 school dinners each per week as well and we eat out about once a week...although I'm talking cafe meal not restaurant meal)

I've got a feature on my baking app that shows how much we spent in supermarkets and it turns out we spend heaps and far more than I thought. £800 in March and £680 in April. So I've been trying to budget within the confines of fussy eaters, one coeliac diet and two rabid hungry teenagers in a house of 5. It's not going well.

Yes we can afford it. It would just be nice to make savings if possible, that's all.

Always on these threads people mention cleaning products like it's a major expenditure

What is everyone buying that it always comes up?

Everyone knows that discount shops are cheaper for cleaning stuff don't they? I know not everyone is able to use them if you don't drive or have one nearby but how quickly are you all burning through your products that it's so expensive? 😁

Woooowwww thats a lot😲 do you buy organic?.

We already shop in B&M for cleaning products. I'm referring to things like hand wash, toilet rolls, kitchen towel, washing powder, fabric conditioner, bleach, antibacterial wipes... etc

I never understand these threads. Why on earth should there be any ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ with regard to spending on food?

Surely everyone’s starting point is what they can afford. And then, if you have more disposable income you may want to spend it on more, or more luxurious food, or you may prefer to spend your money on vintage trainers or regular Botox or a gardener …

I don’t care what you spend. I won’t judge you to be a better or worse human being because your grocery delivery for a certain number of people costs half as much as mine, or twice as much as your neighbours. Seriously, who cares?

Yep sadly mine is coming in at roughly £140 for two adults, 1 teen, 1 primary and a cat. It seems to have gone up quite a bit in recent months

That seems a lot to me. Do you provide all the teens food?

I'd say ours is about £450 a month but we eat out quite a bit.

hand wash, toilet rolls, kitchen towel, washing powder, fabric conditioner, bleach, antibacterial wipes

Can you reduce how much of these you use? Would an antibacterial spray be cheaper than wipes for example? Do you need fabric conditioner? Can you reduce the amount of washing powder you use in each wash?

@Aixellency

It's not about being judged or me giving a shit what anyone else thinks of what I spend. It's an attempt to gauge if I'm spending way over average and could therefore try and cut back in places, or whether this is in fact about average. From the responses so far the latter would appear to be the case. So now I know I don't need to be concerned that I'm massively overspending.

I'm not sure where people have got the impression that I'm worried about being judged on my weekly spending. I'm really not. I'm worried that I'm frittering money away and wondering if I'm in line with the average weekly spend.

@GrazingSheep

Yes we could probably stop buying wipes and just use a spray - I just find the wipes more convenient when I'm wiping a high chair and bibs down 3 x a day with my toddler.

I'd never considered not using fabric conditioner actually. Would the clothes still smell fresh? We also use those fragranced ball things that you place into the drum of the washing machine - they are around £8 for a large bottle.

We budget £1000 per month but that includes everything (booze, lunches, cleaning products and eating out/takeaways). Two adults, a tween that eats adult portions, a primary child and a cat.

I meal plan and get a weekly Tesco delivery that's usually around 80-£100. £100 in Aldi once a month to bulk buy certain things and a top up shop once a week or fresh fish or meat for a special meal at the weekend. So all in all probably £180 a week ish.

We proritise nice food though. We don't go on expensive holidays and have one knackered old car.

Doesn’t sound ridiculous to me.
Ours is currently averaging £150 a week for two adults and an 18 month old. That doesn’t include pet food or alcohol but it does include nappies. I honestly do not know how we spend so much! We meal plan and cook from scratch each day!

These. They're pricey (but the washing always smells devine!)

It sounds about right if you are buying nappies and formula plus snacks for a teenager. You could cut it - sausage casserole rather than sausage and potatoes and veg, veggie chilli rather than meat chilli etc and by being flexible with your meal plan so if something is on a good offer switching to that (and buying an extra for the freezer). Its a good idea to have a night a week using up left overs (eg risotto or frittata with all the bits of veg left in the fridge). One of the big savings I made was to switch from a range of cereals to oats - DH now has overnight oats and the DC have oats with yoghurt and frozen berries or grated apple.

Always on these threads people mention cleaning products like it's a major expenditure

Maybe I don't clean enough but most of products don't need to be replaced frequently! 😆

We spend about £135 on 4 adults, dog, cat, rabbits and Guinea pigs. Helps that our dog refuses all food except Asdas cheapest crap! Doesn't include chicken which we buy in bulk from Musclefoods.

Doesn't include takeaway (1x pw) and alcohol, or when dd1 who lives nearby with her boyfriend manages to tag along and dh is too much of a softy to say no to her! Doesn't include much cleaning stuff as our cleaners bring their own, but does include basic toiletries (dd2 in particular is very discerning in what she uses - she's a beauty therapy student - so she buys her own).

It's certainly gone up in the last few months, I'm sure before Christmas it was about £115-120. We mainly shop at Asda but will occasionally use Tesco.

Similar family - 2 adults, teen and young child. No pets. We spend about the same (including cleaning products and toiletries). I try to keep my supermarket shop less than £120 if possible as I pay extra for school dinners for DD and give DS £20 a week as well for Tesco meal deals. So around £150 in all. And that's with meal planning, buying supermarket deals, occasional shops in Lidl etc. to try and keep costs down. We do eat well although alcohol and more expensive meat like lamb etc. is usually just for special occasions.

We sort of meal plan, but sometimes the plan goes out of the window. I do also get a large portion of mince and batch cook lasagne or bolognese then freeze leftovers for later in the week. I do however (forgot to mention this) always get my mince fresh from the butchers - I don't like supermarket mince. That might bump it up even more actually as I hadn't included that cost in my original estimate.

I think it’s a massive amount tbh. Mine are two adults and 2 primary children. (No lunches as both free atm) and I aim to keep it under £70 and normally succeed. No alcohol in that and some use of cupboard/freezer bits but includes wipes/washing powder where needed.

You don't need all that. Try supermarket own brand softener and just put less in each time until you work out your sweet spot.

Also my teen eats school dinners which are extra on top, so her lunches are not included in that cost.