Weekly food shop… AIBU or is it still costing more?

[Foodshopthoughts]

Can’t get it under £100 for two of us. We shop at one of the cheapest supermarkets. That does include every meal though, and all toiletries etc. I don’t eat meat and DH rarely. Family of 3 but baby won’t be adding to the cost us for a while due to breastfeeding. I thought prices were supposed to be coming down yet it seems to be going up and up?!

It feel like just normal things but maybe not 😬 the kids easily eat £5 of berries a day, need to move them to bananas clearly.

£5 of berries a day? 😮😮😮😮

I don't know how people are spending so much unless they are buying stuff you don't need

I shop at sainsbury.

We spend about £125 a week. Family of 4, 2 kids & 2 cats so it includes cat food. We eat meat regularly. It includes cleaning products, loo roll, shampoo etc.

We make things from scratch so our shop includes fresh veg & fruit, meat (typically some combination of beef & pork mince, chicken (often a whole one), better quality taste the difference sausages. Rice pudding, cake & custard etc, home made.

Porridge for breakfast
Soup or sandwiches for lunch
Family meals for dinner - roast chicken, pasta and sauce, fajitas, teriyaki fish with veg

We eat an unrestricted diet so buy dairy etc.

Stuff we don't buy

• crisps
• any other packaged snacks
• ready meals or semi ready things like pre made beef Wellington that you put in the oven
• processed stuff like dairylea dunkers
• jar sauces
• much alcohol
• chopped/preprepared fruit & veg
• fizzy drinks etc
• shop bought cakes, desserts, biscuits

the kids easily eat £5 of berries a day

So don't fucking let them, that's sheer gluttony. Give them a portion.

48 bamboo 370 sheet toilet rolls are £48

This is double the price of the supermarket

There's only two of us and our food shopping bill was eye watering. We now have baked potato night once a week and one night have something like egg, beans and chips. I try not to waste any food I buy. It's a real pain in the arse because I think I spend far too much time thinking about food, trying to find bargains and have switched to doing a lot more cooking from scratch. And I hate cooking. I think I have probably saved about £150 a month. So I'm spending about £80 a week, that doesn't include any alcohol.
It's such a worry. When I go shopping I'm adding it up in my head as I go round. We aren't short of money but as everything has gone up, don't get me onto car insurance, I felt like our bills were just spiralling out of control. Previously if I ran out of something I would buy a replacement. Now we just don't have it until the next time I go food shopping. I think I sound extreme but I'm worried about the winters heating bills so felt I had to do something.

I don't think you're alone in this.
It's 💩 having to think about it all so much, but in some ways it can also help us feel a bit more in control of things. 😬

Where do you live? England Wales etc. This gives us a better idea of area and prices

We usually spend about £60 a week. We've just cut down on treats, don't drink, don't eat takeout and meal plan like crazy. I've started to make the cakes and puddings. We don't shop in discount stores because we end up getting tempted. We find shopping in a supermarket rather than a larger superstore means we spend less too. A superstore shop will easily top £100.

If you really want to save on the weekly shop, you can economise an awful lot of money if you don’t use disposable nappies on your baby. At least you have a washing machine which grandmother didn’t have so it will be easier for you than them before the 1960s and it’s kinder for the planet.

Around 400-450 a month for me, dh, teenage vegetarian dd and ds. Plus the 3 cats. We don't buy top quality, but don't go without.
Ds is still on free school meals and normally has 3 a week. I find shopping online keeps my shop lower as I'm not tempted by offers or nice things I spot whilst in the supermarket

Family of 6 and buying the basics and meat fruit, veg and cleaning things and packed lunch items for 4 kids. We are averaging between £220 and £240 a week. But it still feels like we aren't getting much for it and I still need to get top ups. And my kids aren't teens. One is on the verge if being a teen and his appetite has sky rocketed recently

I spend around £130 for 4 of us but do a couple of top up shops and the washing/dishwasher stuff etc is separate. Plus the two teens are rarely home.

A big pack of supermarket nappies is £5, or less for the small sizes. Nobody saves money on cloth.

It's just me and the cat at home now. I spend about £30 a week for all our requirements excluding petrol. I'm a vegetarian but, obviously, he's not. He probably eats better than me.

Why don't you find out how much it costs to get set up with a full set of everything needed for cloth and report back?

Didn't you know all special mumsnet children just can get enough berries 😂

Pretty tome deaf to think is that's a normal shopping basket in COL crisis

I buy everything at Aldi for 2A and 3 teens it's adding up to £150-180 pw plus school lunches. It's scary how much it costs and no I don't buy much processed stuff now any ready meals

How much pasta would you put in for 7 people? 500g at Aldi is about 70p, wondering if our portion sizes are wildly different.

yeah I’d do half a bag for the family. No one goes hungry though 🤷‍♀️. Just do a yogurt or some icecream as pudding.

but honestly, even if I did a whole bag, it wouldn’t be that different.

I have two adults and 3 primary school children and spend about £100. My point wasn’t about whether or not some people spend a tenner more than me. It was that some people are literally spending triple and complaining/ worrying about it. £100 a week is not a particularly tight amount and plenty survive on much less. We are a higher income household, there’s just no need to go nuts on the weekly shop.

Brexit voters were warned about price rises from economists. But no they read everything in the Daily Mail and believed in every word.

Also most commodities are bought with the US$. That exchange rate is rubbish.

Many people moaning about price rises and look at their trolleys - branded items. Many people still believe that supermarkets own labels are rubbish. That was 30 years ago. Now most supermarket brands are made by the brands. Sainsburys custard - Ambrosia, Holly Lane cakes (Aldi) - Mr Kipling.

Eat seasonly too as cheaper and nicer. Don’t eat foreign strawberries as twice the price and no taste

Copy from the which report
Reusable nappies have a higher upfront cost than disposable nappies, but they work out cheaper in the long term, particularly if you use them for more than one child.
The cost of reusable nappies varies depending on the type and brand you choose. In 2024, Moneyhelper.org, the government’s money advice service, estimated the average overall cost of using leading-brand disposable nappies at £1,000. It puts the average cost of reusable nappies at just £400 (including laundry costs), giving an overall saving of £600 over the first two and half years

And if you don't have the money for the upfront cost? Which was my point.

Google secondhand nappies, there is, renappy, gumtree, littlelamb, etc.. there is even a Facebook page or food banks.
Start with a few and work up to 24 full kit. Parents ask for one as their own birthday and or Christmas presents.