How much do you spend ?

[Justmeandthem]

Just has this conversation with a friend we both have 2 children
and a dog.
our food shopping bills are miles apart
I do small weekly shops and a big quarterly shop.
but averaging it out monthly I spend around 400-450month
this includes
cleaning supplies / dog supplies / treats / hair / soap
basically everything.

This week we have lasagne, chorizo and chicken stew with sourdough baguettes, broccoli and bacon potato bake, homemade burgers and wedges with salad, sweet potato and peanut butter curry with rice and naan, pulled chicken tacos and tuna pasta bake. All homemade and make four portions. I am sure there's something wrong with the ratio of protein to carbs and veg that someone will point out, but I don't think it's too bad!

We also have stuff for lunches (sandwiches, scrambled egg on toast, etc. with veg sticks and houmous), breakfasts (Weetabix (own brand version), toast and peanut butter, porridge, etc) and some snack stuff (biscuits, rice cakes, some chocolate) plus apples and bananas and vegetables, some yoghurts, etc.

We also bought a pack of 9 toilet roll and dishwasher tablets plus some surface cleaner.

It came to £93.70. Obviously some stuff I have in cupboards but that just gets replaced when needed as part of normal budget (for example this week I needed to replace cumin, oregano and paprika and some mayonnaise, which don't happen every week but next week it will be some other store cupboard ingredient).

Six months ago we were spending about £160 a week because we were buying branded, not planning food so stuff went to waste, not buying enough bread and milk or not freezing stuff in time so we then had to use the local shop for expensive top-ups. We switched to meal planning, Aldi, pretty much zero brands, and banned the local shop! We are saving a fortune and have much less waste.

3 kids, 2 adults and 2 dogs and we spend £600 a month.

I cook mostly from scratch and meal plan.

Just mentioned this in my previous reply... Or cleaning supplies!

I last bought washing up liquid months ago, and it is still going strong!!! I am now running out of dishwasher tablets, but the last time we bought some was a year ago!

i bought some deodorant last month... But everything else has been MONTHS ago!!

Two children and a dog. We have our budget set at £440 for the month for all food and supplies, we do sometimes go over this.

Mine is because he's bloody massive not fat just big

About the same as you, ours is about 350-400 a month, and we have one child, and a cat. It makes me wince, would have been not much higher than 200 a year or two ago

I include cleaning stuff as a sort of catch all so that might be washing up liquid or foil or bin bags, don't buy it every week but usually need something even it's it's just washing up sponges or toilet rolls

I buy persil powder online £20 for 130 washes which lasts me around 10-12 months. The one branded thing I won't give up!
Cat food comes from Amazon (purr and miaow dry) and blink wet food

Some these numbers are incredible. We have 3 older primary kids, 2 adults, and 2 pets and easily spend 200-250/week, more around the holidays or if we are hosting people. I shop at Lidl, try to buy produce that’s in season, cook from scratch, and am not a brand snob. I’m clearly missing something. 😳

I think this often. What are people buying? We spend about £380 a month and eat very well. But it's all homemade quick dinners mostly, and not brand name stuff.

£200 - £300 per week on average I’d say .

that’s 2 audits full time, 2 kids just over half the time and 2 extra kids 3 nights a fortnight

Just me and DH here.

We spent around £120 a week and sometimes top up with fresh milk/bakers bread.

We bulk buy online - loo roll, coffee pods and cleaning products every 4/5 months on top of the above - we find this much cheaper and convenient.

I know we could spend much less, but we like to eat fresh rather than frozen (although we are partial to a chicken dipper!!) and we work hard for it. We figure, neither of us go on nights out or drink, so, why not enjoy our money through delicious wonderful food instead

2 adults , teenager & dog.

Per month our food/household shopping:

Main shop £250
Milk delivery £45
Farm eggs £10
Mid week bread/corner shop run £20
Dog Food £50
Takeaways £75
DS school lunches £100

All in £550pm

This sounds absolutely on par with us.

We always have something, soap, shaving gel, tampax, moisturiser, shampoo, toothpaste and brushes, razors, conditioner, deodorant, on and bloody on!

What do you eat all week? Toast?

3 adults, 1 huge eater teen - £130 a week, slightly less if adult DS is at Uni. 3 meat eaters and 1 veggie (I eat a lot of vegan food)

£50 pm on dog food.

1 take away/meal out a week.

It is expensive, but we like nice food and aren't big drinkers so food is our treat.

Shitloads. About £200-250 a week. 2 adults, 1 toddler and a cat.

We don't even drink so its not alcohol pushing the spending up!

I love shopping for food and cooking. I tend to do a daily shop for what we need - oddly I spend more overall if I try and do a big shop and plan ahead.

Occasionally have a Maccy Ds but no real takeaways either.

it’s not just about expecting poor people to be happy with cheese and broccoli pasta

You've somewhat spectacularly misunderstood my post.

Because, when people state they have an extremely low weekly spend, and it's queried, the typical answer tends to be none of the points you have made.

It's never "well, that's actually our budget, so that's all we can spend, and it might mean soup and a roll for two nights but so be it."

Or "I don't actually have the time to cook/don't know how to cook, so we generally have freezer food for dinner, and this is really cheap"

It's when people almost scoff "you spend how much?! I feed 8 of us for £40 a week I'll have you know, and it's very easy if you are an accomplished cook"

Then when you drill down into how on earth this is possible, a meal plan of "cheese and broccoli pasta" followed by "cheese and fried egg on toast" tends to be produced. Then it's like, "ohhhh, fine, I get it now, that's what you call a meal, well yes, you can probably produce that for £40 a week"

It's not "nonsense". If it was my preference, I could serve my family ham sandwiches for dinner all week, and it would probably halve my food costs. It is just somewhat misleading to compare that meal/cost to someone cooking a nutritional, balanced meal as cheaply as possible.

No @genesis92 we don't 'live off toast' we have very substantial meals, thanks for your concern.

We are definitely £250 a week (Waitrose)
However m, we are a family of 4 children, 29,18,17 & 13. Two dogs and 3 cats.
my cats food included in this as they only eat fresh whole chicken and tuna!
yes I do spoil them rotten, but they also can’t eat cat meat as it upsets them.
this also included a bottle of spirit, bottles of lager and 2 bottles of wine.
we freshly prepare everything every day and two youngest have pack ups.
it used to be under £200, food and drink has gone up hugely.

I’m ashamed to admit I spend £100 a week tesco delivery on just myself and my four year old. It wouldn’t be so expensive but I’m vegan, he isn’t so I technically have to buy two lots of everything to meet both of our dietary requirements. It also includes all laundry stuff, cleaning supplies, health and beauty things. Basically everything as I’m disabled and don’t go to any other shop, so there’s no added costs. I don’t drink, I don’t smoke. I don’t really get any luxuries for myself. It’s essentially just basics each week that I cannot get the shopping cost any lower. Two years ago my costs was half of what I pay now, but prices really have gone up.

We were spending roughly £600-£850pm this is for 2 adults, a baby and 2 cats. We are now down to £500-600a month because I was banned from doing the food ordering 😬

This all includes nappies, formula/baby jars, toiletries, cat biscuits and wet food etc. My spending did get really silly on a couple of occasions but it was usually last minute online ordering when I realised we had ran out of things and getting to the shops is sometimes alot harder with a baby.

I’m actually heartened by some of these posts. We are 4 adults, a seventeen year old, a dog and a cat and I’m spending the best part of £200 a week. Around £160 for a supermarket delivery and £40 ish top up shop at the Co-op, mostly fruit and milk. We don’t eat out or takeaway so that’s everything for the week but it’s twice what I was spending pre Covid. …And my cat is tiny but has a big appetite.

I spend on average £300 a month on food shops but that includes a couple of top up
shops. There is only me and one 12 yo. He has meals at school so no packed lunches. Today I spent £50 in Aldi for the week but I didn't need loo roll, washing powder or other cleaning products. I meal plan and batch cook and that keeps costs down.

Around 350-400pm for me and one primary aged kid. We eat a lot of simple meals that you dont need a lot of ingredients for, meat and 2 veg type meals or pasta. Then will make a few nice meals too but not everyday