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.

Where do I shop? I have a weekly Ocado delivery. Buy cleaning products every couple of months from Aldi, have washing and dishwasher tablets, coffee beans, cat food pouches and little tins on subscribe and save from Amazon. Dried food and cat litter from Zooplus.

1ltr Shampoo and conditioner about once a year online. I buy nice toiletries online from wherever has them on offer.

So a variety of places for both economy and convenience.

We eat lots of fish and fruit and veg. Probably three pieces of fruit a day for me but my teen takes three pieces to school every day and has more at home.

Food costs have gone through the roof. I was only thinking yesterday when I went to add a tin of salmon to my shop - £4.75 for a tin of salmon.

£100 Asd a and at least £30 Home Bargains Savers etc. This includes cleaning supplies toilet roll fresh flowers. Me and 18 yr old ds.

2 adults, 2 DC I think we spend £150 a week but in reality once you add in wine, toiletries, coffee it’s probably closer to £200.

2 adults and 1 preschooler here. We spend around £90 a week including cleaning stuff/household toiletries and top up shop. I’ve found that cooking for 6-8 ppl saves us lots of money. Less ingredients over all but larger quantities of the things you do get seem to cost less. We put 2 portions in the freezer for following week so there is always a variety of home made ready meals available. I only cook about 3 main meals a week.

Can you tell us what? I’m a good cook, barely eat meat and can’t get close!

(Following on from my last post)

Last week for our 3 x 6-8ppl meals I cooked

Korma
2 x jars of sauce £3.50
Packet of Baby corn and mange tout £2.30
1kg chicken £6.49
2x packets of garlic and Coriander naans

Bolognese
750 mince £4.99
2x Chopped toms £1.20
Garlic bulb 24p
2x red peppers £1.10
Mushrooms 89p

Fish Pie
2x Fish pie mix £8.30
Potatoes £1.25
1x Leek 50p (ish)
frozen peas £1.45

Total £33.85

We bulk buy rice/pasta and spices so always have those.

That leaves around £55 for salad bits/breakfast bits/simple lunches like soups/sandwiches/fruit etc etc

(Edited, forgot a couple of ingredients!)

Easy £500, prob more. 2 adults, toddler and a cat

I mean, in our case it’s the fresh stuff that really costs a fortune. That and, weirdly, laundry detergent. Cheese, milk, meat, fruit and vegetables, multi grain bread, etc. We get through maybe a bottle of wine a week, but it’s not extravagant wine. I do try to buy organic, which I know is more expensive, but I re-iterate that it’s mainly from Lidl. My kids snack on fruit, so constantly re-stocking the fruit bowl does get expensive.

My kids don’t get school lunches, and DH works from home, so I wonder if some who are doing it all on 100/week either aren’t eating lunches from the weekly shop or maybe get free school lunches? DH and I get through maybe half of a bag of coffee beans every week.

I am honestly so curious to see what £100/week for a family of 5 adults includes.

A weekly 7 day dinner menu (which I make from scratch) for us might look like:

• spaghetti bolognese and a side salad
• homemade soup with fresh bread
• some kind of meat-based tray bake with salad
• pork chops or pan fried chicken breast with cous cous and broccoli
• tagliatelle in a white wine sauce with broccoli
• homemade pizza with a veggie tray
• a chicken roast dinner with mash and roasted veg (provides the chicken for soup the following week)

We eat well but I wouldn’t call it extravagant fare. We get takeaway once a month, if that.

Ive got a shop coming today , snacks, fruit, milk etc- fresh ingredients for one meal and a couple of freezer bits and it's £100, hello fresh came yesterday and I still need meals for the weekend. Need to have a look at why im spending so much!

How many in your household?

I buy dishwasher tablets more frequently than washing up liquid, but they come in a box of 50 (from Lidl) and the dishwasher is on at least once a day, more at weekends/holidays/if we’re hosting guests. So I buy those every other month at a minimum. Washing powder, bin bags, kitchen roll, new sticky rollers for pet hair on clothes, kettle descaler, new cloths/sponges - I’ve bought all of those in the last 2-3 months.

Then add 2x teens toiletries - nothing fancy - sanitary protection, toothpaste for a family of 4, deodorant, shampoo, shower gel, seasonal things like sun cream or bug spray, paracetamol etc. It all adds up.

About £100 - £120 a week. 2 adults and a toddler.

Where we shop depends on time/ what else we’re doing/ what particular things we’ve run out of that week but it’s usually between Sainsbury’s, Aldi and an Ocado delivery (the Ocado often works out cheaper, certainly than Sainsbury’s - probably because I’m much more likely to stick to the list that way.

I don’t love how much everything has gone up, but at the same time there are certain things I’m not going to swap for cheaper options. When we buy meat and fish (we eat about 75% veggie meals so it’s not lots) I’m quite choosy for example. I get the expensive yogurts that don’t have as much added crap for DD and the total 5% for me because it’s my favourite and I don’t like own brand ones as much. I also but crosta and mollica wraps and Bertinet or Jason’s breads that meet the non UPF/ campaign for real bread criteria at least most of the time, occasionally get a standard supermarket loaf but trying to reduce UPF overall. The compromise is we don’t eat very much bread!

The ‘weekly shop’ usually comes in from £65-90 but then I get milk and eggs delivered, get cleaning products from the refill place or via smol, and usually top up on fresh fruit/ veg at least once so that’s what takes it over the £100 mark.

In August, we spent £346.28 for two adults.

We had this conversation at work one day and the people who claimed to have such low supermarket bills seemed to forget that they were then paying for 2 lots of school lunches and the adults were buying lunch at work 2 days a week, and they probably have a takeaway most Saturdays! It also depends what sort of dog you have and what you feed it - you can’t compare the food bill for a small dry food fed dog and a big breed that’s raw fed!

Too much 😭

2 adults , 2 school going children

Around €110 euro weekly shop and €30 in butchers
Then top of during the week around €50

Children take packed lunches to school and I take a lunch to work

About £500-£600 a month for two retired adults

2 adults, 2 kids, homemade meals for all (except school lunches). Between £150 and £200 a week. I use YNAB so this includes the weekly shop and top ups; I’m not lying to myself. I’m horrified but can’t seem to bring it any lower.

2 adults, 2 teens, 2 cats and a dog

honestly I can’t believe how much we spend and I go to Tescos and Lidl (and occasionally the market but not often cos it’s expensive), we do get a veg box but I’m prob going to cancel it. We can easily spend £150/week and I’m not drinking at the moment, meat is eaten by only 2 family members maybe once a week, fish by 3 of them once a week, we don’t buy meat replacements

DH and I each put £450/month into our "groceries" pot. So £900 total. It can be tight, and occasionally we'll need to top it up, but that generally covers food, toiletries, etc for 2 adults, 5yo DS and two dogs. Takeaways when we have them 1-2 times a month don't come out of the grocery pot, so that would be extra.

Should add we pretty much cook everything as well - the only Convenience good we get is in the yellow sticker section!

Weekly shop: roughly £180
Gousto x 5 meals: £40 ish
Veg delivery: £15-20
Milk / eggs delivery: <£10
Extras such as bits we’ve run out of, the odd take away or dinner out: £50 a week give or take

I’m sure I could cut down tbh!

About £100-120 a week for 3 adults, which includes all toiletries and cleaning supplies. But
We don't eat meat, only veggies, eggs and pulses
We don't drink
We don't eat a British diet for most dinners. It's mostly Asian food.

Oh, and I have a massive store cupboard of spices and condiments built up over the year.

£600 a month on 2 adults and 2 teenagers

Same family size, also use YNAB and there hasn’t been a month this year where we’ve spent less than £800. If that makes you feel any better!

Family of 4, about £400 a month. Sometimes £350