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's a lot more. Supermarkets are doing very well out of us.

I try and keep to £100 per week for a family of 4 (although I guess we'd count as 3 due to DS eating at his Dad's some of the time and DD only being 3) and don't find it too tough. It doesn't include alcohol but includes nighttime nappies and food for one cat. I shop at Aldi.

For a while, I shopped online at Asda and planned all meals and that was helpful as I could see exactly how much I was spending and add/remove items or change meals around. I also shopped up to £90 usually so that there was £10 a week for extras like milk, few extra veg etc. I might start doing click and collect at Aldi instead.

Mum of four here- two teens, two toddlers. We spend between £250-£300 a week on groceries. I try and shop at local butchers and independent shops too but the costs are just astronomical. I spent £17 on three pork chops last week. I could have cried!! I also bought a loaf of cheap white bread from my local village shop and it was £2.64!!!!! WTF?!

of course it's costing more? Inflation is still going on but slowed down. I instead of the steep rises, prices go up much more slowly. But nothing is coming down.

Wow, you literally spend 2.5/3 times as much as I do for the same amount of people.

I used to do Click and Collect at Aldi but the fruit and veg was pretty bad and I got fed up.

Too true!

Sadly, they can. When inflation is lower prices don’t come down, they just don’t go up as sharply.
We spend approx £200 per week for a family of 5.

If she's buying from butchers and indpendent shops she will be.

We regularly spend £250 just at Tesco - this includes non-food as well. 5 adults a dog and two cats.

Oh yeah YANBU. They will NEVER bring prices down again. Even if the costs related to providing the stuff is halved, they won't. They know people will pay it, (as they have no choice if they want these things.) So like hell will they drop the prices now.

It's the same with everything - including petrol. The British public are being ripped off on a daily basis, we don't need to be charged these prices, they COULD drop them and still make a profit, and that's a hill I will die on.

Your costs are astronomical because you are shopping at local butchers and independant shops - most people wouldn't be able to afford £17 for 3 pork chops or £2.64 for a loaf of white bread. Tesco Finest pork chops are £5 and a loaf of Hovis white bread is £1.39.

I keep to around £70 for two adults ( excluding pet food ) but only as I have three main supermarkets with 2 mile radius and buy and freeze reduced items and mainly cook from scratch , now i am ( mostly ) retired and have more time . If paying full price this would be nearer £100 per week . I do shopping for my elderly neighbour who relies on more ready meals / pre prepared food and her weekly shop is usually around £70 for one person so dont think £100 is unreasonable OP .

I shop for me and DS(16 & hollow legged).

It has cost about £55 a week for the last year, which seems to be holding steady. That covers everything except his school lunches. A typical week would include

Two large loaves decent wholemeal
Two pints milk, eggs, butter, creme fraiche
Breaded cod, chicken breasts, pork chops, good quality butcher-made sausages, frozen seafood, beef mince etc.
All the normal pasta, couscous, rice etc herbs & spices
30% spent on fruit & veg
Ds' endless snacks
Basic toiletries

I don't buy brands or alcohol, cook from scratch, bake occasionally. Shop across Tesco, Waitrose and our local butcher. Strictly no top up shops.

I’d love to know how?! I cook almost everything from scratch, eat seasonal veg and buy all cleaning products, toiletries and some alcohol. My kids eat tons of fruit and I bake a lot of sweet treats from
scratch. My little ones don’t go to a nursery yet so we are home all day and we host family/friends at least twice a week.

Of course they can, prices can't just stay the same forever. Inflation falling means tthat prices won't rice as sharply but they will still rise.

It's ridiculous how much is costs now, I rarely am able to do a weekly shop for less than £120 - 3 adults.

Because you shop at local butchers and independent shops. It’s not rocket science, they’re more expensive than Aldi/Asda. I also shop at butchers/farm shops etc but accept that it makes our shop more expensive.
You also host twice a week and buy alcohol. Costs more than someone who doesn’t host or buy alcohol. It’s really quite simple 😁

That's a lot. I can do it for £60 for two. All in no top ups. Maybe look at what you are buying.

Easy to do £90 on just food for 2 people without booze.

Add in a bottle of wine or two and god forbid we need dishwasher tablets or laundry detergent!

Hard to see where its all going to be honest!

Tesco Finest pork chops are £5 and a loaf of Hovis white bread is £1.39.

Tesco baked in store bread is a lot more though. One of their loaves is like £5 or something.

It annoys me that it costs so much more if you are trying to go down a not ultra processed route. Then you have to also buy more bread as fresh bread doesn't last.

I make things from scratch but a lot of times it would be so much cheaper just to buy the frozen version and microwave it, particularly when you factor in the energy cost.

I spend £240pm for just me not including cat food or washing powder which everyone says oh that's high
But I'm including everything in that, every meal and cleaning stuff, bin bags, toilet roll, washing up liquid etc etc

I'm not sure what you are buying but I mainly shop a mix of M&S and Waitrose for 2 of us and including top ups and a bottle of good wine and loo roll/cleaning cloths etc and rarely spend over £120 and we eat really really well - we don't have loads of snacks in though - just meals plus fruit/bread/crumpets/soup/hummous etc.

This is so true. Not much joy in living anymore which is why I am going back to work full time. I am lucky to have this leverage.

I think that sounds about right, not high. Ours is twice that for DH, me and DD, but DD eats at school most days so doesn’t add much at all. We spend £5-600.

YANBU - 2 adults & 11 y.o. for half of the week. I’ve just looked back over my bank statements and can see a full weekly shop in 2018 cost around £90-£110 dependant on what we were buying. Last weeks shop at the same low budget supermarket (including one big bottle of fabric softener) cost £168. Although our wages have gone up slightly they have not kept up with inflation. It is a struggle now, we rarely buy treats and or puddings, have changed most if not all items from branded to supermarket own brands and have drastically changed our meal plans to include at least 2 or 3 cheaper meals per week I.e. jacket potatoes & beans / egg on toast etc. Makes me feel so hard done by, especially as we both work bloody hard!