Weekly shop cost!

[Thehonestbadger]

I know it’s nothing new. I see these threads every few weeks but yesterday I had a proper ‘what the hell?’ moment. I sat and worked out how much we spent in supermarkets last month. Honestly felt sick when I realised. I won’t start this telling you as want to see what others are spending before I own up to ours 🤦‍♀️(it’s bad)

So my questions.

1. how much are you spending per week/month in the supermarket?
2. Do you do ‘big weekly’ shops or multiple smaller shops?

To avoid a drip feed, two of our household have allergies and one has ASD. Two adults, two children both in nappies and a cat. clothes (rarely for us mostly for kids) and gifts/special occasion items included in supermarket shop. I used to do big weekly shops but now do multiple smaller. Definitely think that’s made it worse.

i dont do a big shop
i dont do online
i shop in lidl on the way home
or asda for particular things
and tesco for a treat, their salad and their wine

I did similar OP and was shocked at what we’d spent! Am on a mission to really cut down.

Weekly it was about £150-£200 on a big shop, £50 butchers, £40 meal subscription and eat out once as a family plus the odd coffee out. Maybe a £20/30 top up too. Pet food is £150 a month.

2 adults, 2 teen DS, dog and cat. DC take packed lunches and DH and I at home so covers all meals and cleaning stuff.

We have 2 adults, 3 kids (youngest is 19 months. I buy meat every 3-4 months and stock my freezer. I don't tend to buy meat outwith this time frame. It can cost about £100-£150. Our actual grocery shop can be done on £60. If I have to buy cleaning products and nappies then we are looking at £100. We have fresh fish once a week and then 2-3 days are vegetarian dinners. The kids have lunch at school apart from baby who eats the same as us. No pets, no alcohol. Takeaway maybe once a fortnight.

£180-220 a week for 4 of us. We do a big weekly shop but top up mid week on some things.

It does include lunches for us two adults but dh likes soup which is homemade and I have easy stuff like eggs or sandwiches.

do you have brand foods op?
heinz?

get shop's own, save money

Two adults (me and 16 year old ds) plus two cats. I probably spend £100 or so per week. I’ve really noticed pet items going up lately.. 40 cat sachets £15, one bag of cat litter £9 😱 I stocked up on some things in Lidl yesterday, I did include meat and fish to portion for the freezer, which will save me money later, but it was over £80, so even the cheaper stores are going up.

Since 1 Jan 2023 I have tracked my spending and it averages out at £93 a week.

Two adults (one with ASD) and two teens (one with severe ASD) have no pets.
DH works from home and I am a carer for our dc. Our shopping covers all meals at home and packed lunches for school/college, it includes cleaning and laundry and some beer and wine.
I alternate between deliveries from Asda and Morrisons and also pop into Aldi or Lidl. I generally buy ingredients and mostly cook from scratch. I don't buy branded unless that is cheaper and we eat small quantities of meat bulked out with veg and pulses. I buy seasonal fruit and veg and stock up my freezer when meat is on offer.
Nothing is wasted, a gammon joint will do a main meal, some sandwiches and a pasta bake with the rest, I will make soup with the stock it was boiled in.
I'm a good cook and we eat well.

2 adults and 2 young kids here. We are very short of money at the moment. I have a limit of £80 a week. It used to be £60 but everything has just gone up so much, it's really hard.

That doesn't include clothes or gifts, I get clothes from charity shops and gifts just have to be purchased as and when.

1 adult, 1 child and 1 cat. During lockdown I spent £170 per month it's now £270

Two adults, varies between £75-£100 big shop depending on what we need. DP works nights sometimes so most weeks I end up eating out too.

price weekly hasn’t changed but I’m buying less, less treats and meat. Tend to buy cheap meals when it’s just me eating, less coffee pods, fizzy drinks etc and also less salads as it works out very expensive

800-1000 a month, every family member has multiple allergies/or intolerances,asd with sensory processing disorder which makes for some family members meal choices limited and things like diabetes and celiac disease.

I would say a few years ago we spent 500ish a month. Some prices are going up very quick,like bag of nuts increased 50p one week and two weeks later another 40p, coconut milk went up 35p- food inflatation is way above the official 11percent.

Our family is 2 adults and 5 children.

This is probably our ball park figure, possibly a bit less.

Our dinners this week are/were -
King prawn linguine
Lemon chicken & egg fried rice
Beef stir fry
Home made pizza
Swedish Meatballs with mash/chips & gravy
Baked scotch eggs with salad
Easter roast.

Lunches during school time are probably a 70/30 split packed lunch and school dinner over the three of them. We send them with anything other than sandwiches as they don’t get eaten. There’s a 5 item rule in our house so they get main, fruit, veg, side, treat. A typical lunch probably looks like homemade pizza roll ups, bear yo-yo, cucumber sticks with houmous, handful of popcorn and a home made flapjack. In the holidays, like now, I’m more likely to make them stuff like scrambled egg, corned beef hash, leftovers from dinner as well as some typical lunches they grab themselves.

Breakfast is cereal/toast/bagel/soft bake/muffin etc with fruit & milk/smoothie. We don’t have time for cooked breakfasts during term time. We do have bacon every Sunday though!

I cook a lot from scratch. We don’t buy alcohol, fizzy drinks, snacks other than biscuits & crisps: I make everything else.

This week is the first time I’ve been truly shocked.

Two adults and it was £90 for 5 days worth of food. No alcohol, no meat and no fish.

It did include a big butter that was on offer, big olive oil on offer and toilet paper but it barely fills the fridge for that price!

2 adults + 2 young kids (no nappies or pets) £80-100 per week online. Plus sometimes a small top up shop for bread etc mid week. I think online helps as I do spend a bit of time looking for cheaper alternatives etc.

Approx £100 per week from Sainsbury's for 2 adults, 2 teens. (Teens have school dinners included in fees in term time)

Meal plan and try to shop seasonally and take advantage of offers. Rarely buy anything branded (unless it's on offer and better value than the non branded equivalent). I do put some thought into cost into the meal planning process - i.e. I wouldn't be putting steak and salmon and duck all in the same week - I'll plan a balance of cheaper and pricier meals. And I'm very good at starting my plan with stuff I already have left over from the last shop that needs using. No dietary needs and no fussy eaters. We do eat a fair few veggie meals.

This was our latest Sainsbury's delivery, cost £102 and will last us a full week of healthy meals, all of us 3 meals a day as it's Easter holidays. It's gone up from around £70-80/week a few months ago.

£150-200 a week. That includes a couple of bottles of wine and lagers. Usually one shop of £150 and then £50 of top ups. It’s gone up by about £70 a week. Madness.

This is for 2 adults, a teen and a DC. Doesn’t include the 2 dogs as I order their food in bulk.

We spend less than this. £80 per week for 5 including top-ups. A rough weekly meal plan:

Breakfast M-F: Cornflakes/Bran flakes/Weetabix/Porridge with honey & blueberries/raisins. Or wm toast with Clover & jam/Marmite. Milk, apple juice or tea to drink. All Aldi brand, all value where possible.

Breakfast w/e: Aldi Coco pops or crumpets with marmite or Golden Syrup. Fruit - apples, bananas, satsumas or berries/mango etc if I have found some reduced.

Lunches: 3DC have marmite/soft cheese sandwiches, Aldi mini meatster or cubed cheese, crisps of some sort, choc biscuit of some sort or a couple from the tin, salad pot (carrot, cucumber, plum tomatoes, pepper), piece of fruit (usually apple or banana). Adults at home have toast with tinned tomatoes or eggs or cheese, plus salad.

Dinners:

• Tomato & garlic pasta with cheddar grated on top
• Spaghetti bolognese (pack of 20% fat mince from Aldi, with mushrooms, lentils, carrots, tin of tomatoes, onion, swede) with grated cheddar on top
• Risotto with 1 chicken breast, few slices of ham from Aldi value pack 75% off, frozen mixed veg, onions, Aldi value rice
• Aldi value fishfingers with jacket & cheese, baked beans or salad
• Egg & hm chips for adults, DC eat at my mum's
• Sausage casserole with 8 sausages, tin tomatoes, carrots, onion, parsnip, swede, mushrooms, green peppers. With rice & baguette (19p from Co-OP at end of day)
• Pizzas x 5, 95p each with ham from reduced pack, chorizo ring which is also used in other meals
• Sausage, mash, gravy, broccoli cheese, carrots, green beans

Puddings:

• Rice pudding with jam or frozen berries
• Hm crumble with frozen fruits picked when available or bruised apples
• Fruit
• Bread & butter pudding using ends of bread etc

Snacks:

• Biscuits
• Cheese & crackers
• Raisins
• Toast
• Hm banana flapjacks or cake

That is one week, but it can vary depending on what I pick up reduced, mostly at Co-OP 1-3 times per week.

My partner is a high earner, but a combination of bad financial decisions and buying a wreck of a house means that consistantly more money goes out each month than comes in

I've always had to budget before meeting him, so we have scrapped weekly shop and just buy rolling essentials like milk, bread when we need them. Every few weeks we buy meat, fish and frozen veg and put them straight into the freezer so nothing is wasted / dates expired. I buy yellow sticker ready meals when I see them and they are frozen so there's convenient food to go; and there's a few frozen loaves of bread and pints of milk to space out top up shops

Estimate we spend £60 a week average plus £15 top ups since stopping weekly big shops - this covers 2 adults, 2 children, 4 guinea pigs and a couple of chickens

2 adults, 2 children in nappies, 2 cats. Normally between £70 and £90 with a £20ish top up and lunch out a couple of days a week. This week we had lots of stocking up and it was more like £120 but don't think we'll need a top up.

2 adults, 4 DC but one is an EBF baby. Spend around £150 a week but the DC have school dinners. Usually eat out once a week and have 1 takeaway a week.
Alcohol & toiletries bought separately.

@Thehonestbadger

Time for you to be honest and share your costs?

£150 weekly average with Ocado. 2 adults 3 kids.

I think it is around £1K/month. This includes Hellofresh, butchers, a fair amount of wine/lager (that DH drinks every day and I am trying not to), most toiletries and cleaning supplies. Most of it is Waitrose (closest shop). No real routine - shop every 2-3 days. This is for three adults and one dog.