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.

£60 is amazing. I'm interested in how you do this..where do you shop?

It's between £700-800. Adult and two teens.

We like nice food and I could definitely cut back on items but it's manageable for the mo. I tend to have stuff delivered but do go to Aldi for things like crisps and biscuits because they're better value.

Me too, I’d love to see a list for the £60pw

£550 for 3 adults, 2 children and one cat. For everything, cleaning products etc.

We just can’t spend any more, it’s not there to spend. No alcohol anymore. Shop in Aldi, cook everything from scratch.

I am coeliac so I don’t have
bread/pasta/cereal/biscuits anymore as processed gluten free food is far too expensive for the tasteless crap it is.

We can get by on a lot less if we really try though.

Dh is fantastic at making indian food. You can make lovely things with lentils and potatoes, huge amounts of curry that can be frozen. It’s boring having the same meal days on end but it’s health and cheap.

Or they don't spend money on 3 different types of rolls, shop at Aldi and are probably more savvy than the OP. £250 is a huge shopping bill even with everything going up.

Ok as this was posted in AIBU I'll take a deep breath and say yes OP YABU. That's outrageously lavish imo. Do you ever say "sorry, no" to your DC about getting stuff they like? They are risking growing up with an "I want it so I get it" belief. Do you have no awareness at all of the damage to the planet of your sustaining the market in imported fruit, apparently single-handed ? Is there any sense of moderation, of the life-lesson of deferred gratification, in your family? Did you grow up in a family with poor food availability and poor food choices?
Why post the thread? You know you're buying an absolute shit-ton of food your family LIKES but doesn't need. Ok fine - but why ask if YABU? Why do you need the validation?

This is serious- £94 in 3 months - this is for just me - including food and cleaning materials. Does not include alcohol ( virtually teetotal) or takeaways/eating out which adds another £200 over the 3 months. Cupboards and freezer virtually full - could live for a month on what I have stored.

HOW?

Olio has been my friend with at least 10 food warriors near me. Can pick up veg fruit and bread every week plus croissants for breakfast. Also finding vouchers and extra nectar points to spend.

One adult, one teen, I spend £55 a week, so about £250 a month. Plus school lunches.

For five that would be about £625.

But I don't buy brands or alcohol, or processed stuff like fruity yoghurts or cakes. I cook mostly from scratch. It's definitely getting harder though, ds has hollow legs.

Summer is easier - I grow a lot of our salad & veg

@anythinginapinch that's a horrid post. We spend similar amounts to the op for three adults. We don't need to count the pennies and whilst my DC are grown up now I believe it's a mother's instinct to feed her children well. Good food and a good diet doesn't make children grow up greedy or selfish. It teaches them good nutritional values and that food is important.

Our dinners this week have been: enchiladas, baked gammon with all the trimmings, spag bol, chicken casserole, burgers with buns, gammon, egg and chips. There is always a side salad or veggies, there is always a fruit bowl, cheese, ham, milk, bread, butter, cereal a well stocked larder cupboard and good supplies of cleaning stuff and toiletries. That's how we chose to live and I very much hope how my children and their families will always live.

Sorry but I agree with @anythinginapinch - I am so dismayed when I read about people eating berries all winter without any thought to the impact on the planet. It's really depressing.

My teens would be delighted to have fresh berries every day of the week but they know the environmental cost of flying them half way around the world so they don't get them. What's wrong with looking forward to British strawberries and raspberries and them gorging on them in summer when they are so much cheaper and far more delicious than imported ones.

I really despair when virtually daily we are warned about climate change but people are unprepared to change their shopping or eating habits.

(Dons hard hat😡)

@ElinoristhenewEnid - but £94 plus £200 is £300 ish for one person. That’s more than many people here are spending as many spending £500-600 for family for 3/4 people.
£300 a month for 1 is the same as op spending £1200 for 4. And way more than people spending £600 for 4 (£150 each a month). Yet yours is mainly from olio?

The thing that always fascinates me about these threads is the "cleaning products" people refer to as a big proportion of their weekly shop. What are people buying? Am I really grubby? I have a floor cleaner (lasts ages) and a multi surface cleaner (likewise). Laundry liquid is about £3.50 once a month in the refill shop. Everything else is bar soap or vinegar....pennies. I'm not House proud but the place is clean enough

I don't buy loads but
Washing powder, washing up liquid, toilet cleaner, window spray, daily shower spray (method), white vinegar, laundry sanitiser for sports wear, carpet cleaner (cat prone to being sick!), sponges, washing up brush refills, bin bags

Well there's at least half of those things I've never bought and some I've never heard of 🤷🏻‍♀️

@Caspianberg

That’s £300 over 3 months so £100 per month for food, cleaning supplies takeaways and eating out - less than £25 per week.

food and cleaning supplies less than £8 per week.

You buy all that every week?!

l buy:

Washing up liquid once a week
binliners once a fortnight
Bathroom/kitchen spray every 3-4 weeks
window spray every six months
Use washable microfibre cloths for everything. Buy a new pack once a year.
Dishwasher tablets once a month

About 100 a week for 1 adult, two children. Factor in 2 dogs and a cat and that adds an extra 26 a week.

£400 per month including alcohol and toiletries. 2 adults and 2 teenage children. We cook from scratch and don't eat meat or dairy so that keeps the costs down.

That includes cleaning stuff, loo roll etc. Don't buy much cleaning stuff compared to some on here! my MIL knits cloths for me and they last for ages. Mostly use bicarb and vinegar to clean. Dishwasher tabs and laundry liquid are the main expense here.

@ArseInTheCoOpWindow god no not weekly! definitely not Mrs Hinch
But that's stuff that I buy, as and when needed if that makes sense. So one week might be washing up liquid, the next window cleaner etc

Amazon had a bathroom cleaner glitch so I have 12 bottles of the stuff for £1

I only mentioned cleaning things were included, because if you don’t, you’ll always get someone asking if it’s included. You can’t win really.

And i’ve never thought about it too much, but it’s just loo roll, hand soap a couple of bottles of multi surface cleaners (I use tea towels/cloths for cleaning), washing up sponges, bin bags and the cheapest clothes washing detergent and washing up liquid I can find once every few weeks.

For just this month I’ve spent £128.04 that’s for 5 cats 1 dog and 2 adults I do our shopping weekly it use to cost more than that when I was getting the shopping delivered by Tesco but now I’ve swapped to Aldi and I only buy enough meals to last 7 days and pet stuff.

I would honestly love a shopping list/meal plan from those who say they manage on less than £100 a week. Me, teenager and cat. Spend £130 a week on average on online shop and then top up during the week. And prob 2/4 takeaways on top. Teenager has small amount of cash for lunch. But mainly lunches at home. I wfh. Mainly eat veggie.

I've just bought four days worth of food for 5 and three bottles of wine (friends coming round) and a laundry basket. Was 157 which I didn't think was too bad (tescos)