to think £200 a week is not excessive shopping bill wise for a family of 6?

[sweetkitty]

This is part of a wider issue of me being fed up of DH and his penny pinching can’t afford it attitude.

DH and I and four teenage DC who eat well like teenage DC. DH has for a while been in charge of doing a weekly Tesco online shop as in his words “I go far too much over budget” so this week he spent £96 on the online shop then I went to Asda with him - the total was another £94 which he wasn’t happy about as it was apparently far too much as he is usually £60. The reason he’s been going to Asda is Tesco keep missing things/don’t have the range. Now I said to him I think we should start buying in bulk to try and reduce costs a bit instead of for example buying the smallest box of Ariel pods he always buys as he think they are cheaper let’s buy a huge box of Persil powder instead. I also stocked up the good cupboards. Bit as the DC are always saying there’s not a lot in for quick snacks etc.

That was no alcohol or pet items as I buy all the pet items out of my money and usually go to Home Bargains and stock up on cleaning products and the like once a month. I don’t think £200 is a lot for 6 essentially adults, it used to be about £140 but that was before everything went up plus the DC are eating us out of house and home.

To put it into context our annual household income is 115-140K we have no household debts and a smallish mortgage so we are not scrimping by thankfully. At one point I picked up some new chocolate bars just to have a look and he said to me “put them back you are not getting them” exactly like I was a child. I was so angry I said I am a grown woman with a job if I want them I will bloody well buy them.

Depends where you shop op, I am a single parent to 4 lads from 11 up to 21 and I spend nowhere near 200 per month that’s with catfood and cleaning stuff probably 90-100 at the absolute most
mine eat me out of house and home too it’s expensive but 200 per week would be my entire wages just on food

That sounds fair. Mine is £120 a week with two adults, one dustbin of a teen, one teen with a bird like appetite and one picky primary school kid.

Could do it for less, certainly, but don't think £33 per person for a week's meals is excessive. Your DH sounds like a knob. Why not just hand it all over to him for a month and see if he still feels the same way after shopping for, preparing and cooking 3 meals a day for 6 people.

YANBU. I spend roughly £120 a week for me, two teens and a dairy free 6YO. My income is around 42K.

That doesn’t include the c.£60 a month I spend stocking the pantry with cereal bars, brioche, other snacky bits, or the c.£20-40 a month I spend on toilet rolls, toiletries, cleaning products.

I buy a massive box of laundry powder - the 75 wash ones - cost around £20, I last bought one at the end of July, will need to replace it around the end of October. I’ve got a metal laundry tin to decant it into, which has its own scoop, is less than the box tells me to use but our clothes come out clean.

I think Tesco in particular (which is the only decent sized store in my wee town) has gone through the roof recently so I get the frustration of 'oh this trolley-load used to cost £100 and now it costs £130' because that is frustrating and worrying, no matter what your income.

But I would expect a fully grown adult human to appreciate that a £20 box of washing powder is going to last a lot longer than a £7 box of 15 washing tabs, and that if your partner wants some chocolate they can have some chocolate ffs!

I cannot stand meanness though, it's my absolute red flag.

I’m struggling to keep it under £100 per week for just two of us. 21 meals a week, snacks, cleaning things and toiletries adds up. I used to do it on £45 a week. DH is also extremely picky and won’t eat reheated food so batch cooking is out although I do it for myself so usually gave dinner for next in the freezer if we aren’t eating together. It was £97 this week.

We’re a family of 5 but 3 dc ages 11-14. 14yo is taller than me and eats loads. We spend about £180 a week on the big shop then top ups will probably take us to £200 if I added it all together.

Dh wouldn’t dare suggest what food we buy as I do the shop.

Why would your weekly shopping be less than £200? You can afford it. Would saving £50/week make any difference to you? I don't think £200 for 6 people is not excessive. Why not spend a bit more on food than the bare minimum if you can afford it.

Have him do the shopping for a few months. Do not do top ups. Every complaint should be aimed at him.

Has he ever had money issues in the past, where he didn’t have enough?

We earn very well in my house but as my life was difficult as a teenager (money-wise) I have to remind myself that we have enough and it’s ok, because I probably often think what he does, but I rarely vocalise it.

And FWIW my Ocado shop is being delivered this morning, my bill is over >£340 and our last big delivery shop was circa two weeks ago, so we spend similar.

Three adults and three teenagers boys live here.

It seems a lot to me if it doesn't include pet food and cleaning products!

With regard to ariel pods / washing powder you need to point out to him the cost per wash!!!

The difference between spending £160 a week and £180 a week does not sound a lot but it is £1040 over a year!

It seems a lot to me if it doesn't include pet food and cleaning products!

With regard to ariel pods / washing powder you need to point out to him the cost per wash!!!

The difference between spending £160 a week and £180 a week does not sound a lot but it is £1040 over a year!

You can obviously afford it but tbh I think that it’s all to easy to be complacent about spending when you can afford to just spend.

Just because you can afford to spend £200 a week on groceries doesn’t mean that you have to.

The reality is that a lot of spending is based on branding and advertising. You can buy Heinz tomato ketchup etc but actually if you buy supermarket own brand then you end up with the same product for a fraction of the price. Some products that doesn’t work, but with others it most definitely does, e.g. spending £1. £1.50 on domestos bleach when you can buy supermarket own for less than £1, and there is literally 0 difference in the product you have been drawn in by branding if you then go for the domestos.

So while I wouldn’t necessarily scrimp, I would look at whether I am spending that money wisely or whether I could actually get the same shop for less by cutting down on some of the branded products.

She wasn’t asking for your advice on how to cut down was she, any idiot can work that out.

She was asking if in the context of their household earnings, is it unreasonable to spend that much per person. And it’s clearly not.

£33 per week, or £4.72 per day per person, in total for everything is not a lot at all.

The Jack Monroe’s of the world who maintain you can do it for less are utterly deluded tbh. Nowhere near enough calories - and pretending that I’m this climate, with food prices going up, you can as she has said feed one child and two adults, enough calories to live on for circa £20 per week, is plain rubbish.

I spend on average £70 a week for 3 of us,

Your dh does the shopping and spends 40 to 50 less when he does it by himself you added that much extra into the trolly

I also hate when my dh comes shopping as he just throws crap in and the cost gets doubled,

However if you paid I don't see the issue and your dh was being a prick

Oh and tell he to move from tesco plenty of cheaper supermarkets around

Sounds a reasonable amount to me. We still end £130 for a family of 4, and we don’t waste, so multiplying it up that’d be about right for 6 adults.

Sounds normal to me. Our budget is similar and our income is less than yours. I imagine your mortgage is smaller than mine too. The real issue here is that he is financially controlling - plus he’s right! Not attractive at all!

*tight and not right. Def not right!

The whole weekly shop idea is a bit misleading though.

Some weeks I may need flour, mustards, vinegars, spices etc as I have run out of them and other weeks I may need mayo, marmalade, jam etc

Unless you eat identical and quite basic meals
Each week there is always going to be a difference in amount spent.

We spend about £100/week for 2 adults and a toddler. That doesn't include any lunches out/the odd takeaway but does include extras like loo rolls, toiletries, booze and I buy some expensive things like fruit Smoothies for dd. Like you, we could cut back but like you, we can afford it so why not? Your dh sounds very miserly.

I'm reading these posts with my jaw dropping. I spend £75 / week at the supermarket, just for me. I probably cook a 'nice meal' a couple of times / week for DP. Obviously works out at just over £10 / day for breakfast, lunch & dinner, which I thought was extreme frugality. Clearly I am wrong.

We have same size household and we spend around £130 per week.

BUT we only have cheap meat - mince, sausages chicken drumsticks etc. Most of our fruit and veggies are value range and we buy virtually no brands.

If you want nicer stuff like salmon, brands etc it would easily be £200. Salmon for 4 people is around £15 alone.

Ah, @Mascia , those are my weaknesses too, nice bread & nuts!
I spend about £10 per week on myself just on nuts. I suppose it says a lot about me! ;-)
Then there's all the stuff for the wildlife, to keep my youngest happy.. !

I don't think that's crazy.
We are two adults, two teens, two cats. I spend approx £110pw on a weekly delivery, and then 1-2 top-ups of £10-20 each. So somewhere in the region of £120-150 weekly, which covers pretty much everything - toiletries, cleaning products, pet food/litter. I don't watch every penny, but equally we are not having steak every night.

I have started trying to shift the balance between the online shop (Sainsburys) and top-ups (Tesco/Aldi). The latter tend to be a bit cheaper so I am now trying to get more dried goods and general household stuff there, but I prefer the quality of food at Sainsburys.

Overall we could definitely shop more cheaply, but we like how we eat and can afford it for now.