Just had a shock, how much do you spend on groceries a month?

[FluffyUnionSocks]

For March so far not including tomorrow’s shopping delivery of £230, I have spend £970 on groceries this month. Including tomorrows shop the last of the month the grand total will be £1200! Wtf this time last year it was about half that amount.
How much are you all spending? We are a family of 5 the 3 kids are aged between 11-16.

OP I would like to come to your house for snacks!

I shop every day right now and I’d say it’s averaging £20, possibly a bit more. So 600-700 for myself and DS18 plus two dogs.

Easily that. We are a family of 6, two dogs and a cat.

@FluffyUnionSocks the problem is that if you have an amazing array of snacks and nibbles in, crisps, chocolate bars, waffles , brioche etc teens , pre teens and many husbands too will simply eat it as its there even if they aren't really hungry- it's like a habit thing and it's lazy calorific eating too . Best thing is to buy a set amount of yogurts , plenty of bread in , couple of packets of crumpets, couple of malt loaves. a couple of packs of cheapish cereal bars , bananas, apples, satsumas and once they've gone, they've gone till you next shop. Explain the food bill is now ridiculous and if they want snacks suggest peanut butter or mashed bananas on toast, a couple of slices of malt loaf, a couple of crumpets etc - for lunch a filled roll and a bag of crisps and a piece of fruit is plenty. The fancy fruit out of season will be adding £100 a month at those levels - all the multiple types of baked goods another £100

You might get some moans, tell them when they are paying they can buy their own

Two of us, retired, I spend £80-100/week, occasionally a bit more.

110-125/ week, 2 adults, 1 teenager, 1 child and 1 cat. Rarely manage to spend under 110/week. Almost never under 100. This time last year we were spending on average £100/ week.

We're spending about £500 per month, £550 if you include pet food. That's for 2 adults and 3 primary-school-aged children. We were spending more but we've cut down on alcohol, I'm making meat go further, meal planning more, and paying more attention to what we already have in the cupboards.

Mostly shop at Sainsbury's; top ups at Asda and Lidl.

Someone I know has always been bad with money. Every week, he buys about 5 branded cheeses, on the basis that they like sandwiches (think Davidstow, Boursin, Cathedral City, Edam,grated cheddar). Every single week. Well, it costs at least 20 quid a week just on cheese and most of it gets binned when it goes a bit dry.
We, on the other hand, usually just buy one big block of mature supermarket own brand cheddar for about £3.50 and use it for everything.
I worked out that we're probably saving about SEVEN HUNDRED POUNDS a year doing this, versus his shopping habits.
Just on cheese. 😱

I love fruit and it's a healthy thing to eat so unless you're really struggling to afford it I'd be more likely to cut back on the other snacks a bit as they sound excessive. We have fruit, one sort of biscuit, breadsticks and normally something homemade (my husband likes baking), ice cream in the freezer and I make one fruit-based dessert a week (crumble, clafoutis, pie if I can be bothered with the pastry).

If you want to keep having berries, frozen ones are far cheaper and are less likely to go to waste - frozen strawberries are best avoided as they go mushy, but raspberries, blackberries, cherries and blueberries freeze brilliantly and if you pop them in plain yoghurt in the morning or before a night in the fridge, they defrost by lunchtime and keep the yoghurt a bit cool for a bonus. You can also cook with them or mix them into porridge towards the end of cooking so they defrost. Also if you have any garden space, fruit bushes are amazingly easy to grow and once established a 4-5 bushes will give you loads and extra to freeze. Picking wild blackberries for the freezer and jam is a family ritual for us.

The flavoured water won't be helping your costs either and of course wastes loads of plastic - you could get some of those reusable bottles with a separate section for adding fruit, cucumber etc to infuse into the water. Or just go for plain water.

Why do you have to buy the 'extra special' stuff?

Just buy frozen berries and thaw them out.

I live alone, meal plan and quite often skip lunch and am spending about £110 on a monthly delivery with weekly top ups of fresh stuff (milk, fruit and veg) which come in at around £20 a week. So just under £200 a month and this includes cleaning stuff, loo roll and washing powder. I often wonder how on earth families are managing, the cost of essentials is shocking. I used to regularly donate to our local food bank but have had to cut back. Got my council tax bill the other day, I knew it was going up of course and by how much but it is still shocking seeing it in black and white. There is nothing I can cut back on but at least it is only me having a tough time, must be so hard with kids to provide for. I live in a rough part of a fairly deprived city, something has to give and change, I do not know how people can take much more

Definitely cut down in the massive array of branded snacks. Try own makes if you must buy them.
The amount of fruit is crazy and all extra special stuff too. If you can afford it then that’s okay but if you’re looking to cut down that’s where the biggest saving will be.
Its lovely the kids friends like to come to yours for the delicious snacks but I would be cutting those right back. Plenty of normal bread with peanut butter, jam or banana will make a massive difference to your budget(and maybe less child visitors😀) but I wouldn’t like to be feeding all the neighbourhood kids all my expensive snacks.

"Flavoured water'? Come on, they saw you coming. Try squash or water.

£500 - 2 adults, 1 teenager and a dog.

We do 2 big shops that are approx £170 each, then the rest is used for top up sopping.

Big shops: £350 for a month. But I feel like we've done a load of top up this month. So probably more like £450-£500. 2 adults, 1 toddler.

Post your full itemised shopping order.

I can only imagine you buy everything branded/premium lines (already spotted the ‘extra special’ fruit), lots of expensive meat and snacks. Your non food shop is probably also premium rather than sticking to own brand cleaning products and choosing to stick to what you usually get vs what’s on offer.

About £350 - £400 a month for 2 adults and 2 cats. We don't buy snacks (because we are greedy) and I batch cook for both of us for work. We also don't eat meat, which brings the price down.

Spend about £350 a month and that includes toiletries and toilet roll etc. And I don't scrimp with what we eat. I plan every meal and we eat well, with branded stuff such as cereals thrown in. There's only 3 of us though.

I budget £100 a week for food and basic bits. Usually need to do a top up of 20-40 at the local shop. 2 adults 1 child and a baby

I've started using gousto and find I'm saving money and getting 4 meals a week

Not going to add it up, I do Tesco online, I put what I need in the basket and checkout, we were very broke for a very long time, so my shopping habits are not exactly frugal but I am aware that at one stage money was very tight and shop accordingly.

I also spend about £50 on meat from the butcher out at the farm, I bought a gorgeous looking burrata in their cheese shop last week and it didn’t get used, I am still kicking myself and felt guilty when I had to junk it. £5 gone to food recycling.😟

So in essence, I don’t really know, but I am generally very tight on food waste and I am enjoying the financial freedom, twenty years ago we had to cash in our nectar points to pay for a 40th birthday dinner for me and we could only invite two people. So I try and find a balance.

Sorry that was long.

Monzo tells me that DW & I spent £275 in March, including a bag of protein powder (around £50), all cleaning & toiletries, but not including the animals as we buy their stuff separately.

It all comes down to shopping habits eg are you eating more meals in eg making a fakeaway to save on takeaways? I spend a lot less but we eat out a fair amount and dsd buys some of her snacks etc so if I add that in I dread to think the bill. Groceries for 3-4 people (varies) we spend circa £150 a week plus he does a wine shop every 2-3 weeks on his way home from work (and usually buys chocolates, I'm a lucky girl )

£170 on weekly delivery (morrisons) and £30-40 for top up shop weekly usually tesco or asda. I try to get to Aldi when I can but it's a bit of a trek and time/convenience tend to be the priority. £800-900 /month. I used to budget £600/month last year.
That's for 2 adults and 2 children (10&14) with adult appetites. And a large dog.