How much is your weekly shop?

[MidoriNoRingo]

We’re a family of 4 and ship at Sainsbury’s. It’s costing around £170 a week and o just don’t see how this is sustainable, especially as prices are only going to go up. What do you pay and where do you shop?

Roughly £180 in Sainsbury’s each week, plus £40-50 in M&S and local bakery. We eat out about once a week (£98 today in Wagamama for 4) but could be sandwich and drink so £50 other weeks. About £25 a week between us on coffee. It’s embarrassing writing it down.

Breakfast for my dc is a choice of
bran flakes
weetabix
porridge
Potato waffles
hash brown
crossaints
and they always have a piece of fruit too.

lunches-
rolls with chicken and another filling like cheese or lettuce
chopped veggies- carrot, cucumber, pepper, olives.
a piece of fruit
a yogurt
crackers/popcorn/pretzels

i will have salad and brown bread or cous cous salad, egg on brown toast and I buy lunch in work some days. Soup and brown bread is €2.

£70 for 2 adults we cook from scratch every day and I wfh and oh takes lunches so every meal comes from home. We don’t really snack but we do eat loads of fish and meat. Also 2 dogs (large) @ £45 pw

About the same, family of 4 & Sainsburys between £150-£200 I think it’s pretty standard now for it to cost that. I wouldn’t shop elsewhere as Lidl/Aldi are rubbish tbh

@Loveduppenguin - well I would use eggs to make something like hash browns.
boiled eggs for breakfast at least once a week, maybe an omelette for lunch once a week, waffles or pancakes for a weekend breakfast. If we have biscuits or cake they are baked. Often in things like homemade burgers or to make breaded chicken.

We all eat all meals at home which I think also makes a difference. No office meals or school lunches or other family members houses for food

£80 a week for 3 of us- that's for a weekly big shop in Sainsbury's and a top up of some fresh bits from the corner shop.

Meal planning, buying what is on offer and not going for the convenience stuff saves money. For example, we buy the 2kg packs of chicken breast and seperate it into freezer bags, takes a minute or two but it's a fair bit cheaper per kg than buying the smaller packs. I'd say we eat fairly 'clean' and have decent meals. Eggs with sourdough and either avocado/tomatoes for breakfast or porridge with frozen berries for breakfast; a wrap/pitta with some form of protein and salad with fruit and some crisps for lunch or a baked pot/cous cous with protein; dinners. We choose a pack of chocolate each for the week and that's all we buy in that regard.

Tesco 2 adults and a young teen. Plus a cat. About £180 a week but £40 or so of that will wine and beer

You can reduce the cost of your meals:

prawn and chorizo linguine
I'd do a tomato & red pepper sauce using Paprika, Smoked Paprika & chilli flakes for extra flavour (the spices from the chorizo...) no need for prawns either.

chicken and mushroom pie with mash
leave as it is
pork belly with winter veg
you could just do a wonderful wine vegetable bake with hallomi cheese. Use the spices that you'd use for the pork belly & layer vegetables with thinly sliced potatoes.

chicken Katsu
again, you can do a cheaper vegetable version using butter beans or chickpeas.

meatballs with mash and peas
leave as it is
Beef stroganoff with rice
mushroom stroganoff
Roast Chicken
Leave as it is.

My menu is:
Lebanese spiced rice with mixed vegetables, hallomi & black eye beans.

Pork chops with mash & vegetables
Chickpea curry & rice.
Pasta & Tomato sauce with peppers & mushrooms*
Spinach & Potato bake.

Couscous burger* with salad- leaves & potatoes.

Moroccan chickpea & lentil tagine*
Breakfast is cereals, toast, or plain Greek yoghurt with frozen fruits.

Lunch eitherleftovers or a sandwich/ bagel usually with cheese & lettuce or tomato.

I spent 76, on shopping yesterday but have 2 freezer meals this week, and pulses are from the store cupboard.

• I can batch cook & freeze to make my life easier.

£80 for the week two adults. Shop at Lidol and Farm Foods. We do get eggs from own chickens and grow veg.

We probably spend £90 a week for 2 adults but £55 of that is gousto.

If you scroll down here a bit it gives you UK averages, if that’s any help?

https://www.nimblefins.co.uk/average-uk-household-cost-food

This is brilliant. Thanks for replaying/sharing.
I need to get involved and plan meals similarly. I’m going to try it out this month and see how it goes.

Just checked - I spent £160 yesterday but bought 8 bottles of wine / coffee / dog food £12 of bog roll. Every week there’s something like dishwasher tabs / washing powder / olive oil that bumps it up.
we are family of 4 (2 adults 2 teens - one of whom is coeliac) we eat well - pretty much from scratch (although I bought ready made curries and pizzas too).
I’ve semi meal planned in my head - and had a lot of stuff already in. I spend more than £10 a week on fucking yoghurts (for marinading / my protein ones for pre gym and smooth ski ones for the kids ) it used to be about £100 all in - I think it’s closer to £200 now.

Which is great if you have a family who will eat that - I know my kids wouldn’t - nor would I willingly.

We’re having jackets / pizza / salad / slaw tonight.
roast pork all trimmings inc cauliflower cheese / red cabbage.
left over pork will be turned into ramen for Mondays dinner
we’ll eat the cauliflower cheese with something like sausages and veg on weds we’ll do pasta (I hate pasta but can tolerate it once a week) either carbonara or with meatballs
peri peri (either chicken or salmon) with spicy rice / salad or med veg
ive got chicken breasts - likely to marinade them in yoghurt / cumin / coriander/ sumac and have with salad / halloumi / hummus/ flatbreads etc.

soup and sandwiches and things on toast for lunch (beans cheese eggs)

About 80 for 2 adults, 1 child and 8 veg-eating critters (who account for c. £25 of veg per week).

I guarantee a good amount of what you consider 'normal basic shopping' is what many see as a luxury. You could probably half what you spend without significantly affecting the nutrition or amount that you eat.

The OP gives her main meals, but what about breakfasts, lunches, snacks, cleaning products, toiletries etc? There's a huge difference in cost between what looks nice in Sainsburys or Ocado and cheaper versions of the same items. Or getting toiletries and cleaning products in Home Bargains, eating less meat etc etc.

We're a family of 5, 2 adults one 6ft5 17yrold that gyms a lot and two cats, our youngest has AFRID so a very restricted diet and I have to buy his food whatever the costs or he will end up tube fed again.
We get it delivered by Sainsburys and it's between £230- £300 depending on the week and if it's the holidays etc.
Sometimes we need to top up bread and milk but not much else.

This week's menu:

Sunday: pasta Bolognese, butter leaf salad and GB
Monday; pulled pork buns with homemade wedges, coleslaw and a corn and black bean salad.
Tuesday: bacon, mushroom linguine with herby salad and garlic bread.
Wednesday: chicken shwarma, flat breads, Greek salad and beetroot.
Thursday: paprika and garlic spatchcock chickens with butterbeans and roasted courgettes and carrots.
Friday: salmon parcels with new potatos and a cucmber dill salad.

This time 2yrs ago we were spending about £150 - £190 max on the same shop.

I’m sure there are people struggling to make ends meet but food is still relatively cheap in this country if you want it to be.

I imagine they can afford to live by going nowhere near Ocado, using Aldi/Lidl, doing some rudimentary planning and snacking minimally.

I can't seem to do it for less than £180 p/w for two adults and two pre-teens. It includes lunches and they snack a lot. I find when I don't spend this, we end up doing a top-up and spending the same anyway.

Cheap here?! From Italy where we have lots of fresh veg and fruit and great charcuterie. Weekly shopping Double here compared to there. £100 + top ups. Family of four. And pets

About between 100-120 a week. 2 adults, hungry pre-teen and a dog. We don't really drink, but otherwise don't really restrict ourselves much. X5 packed lunches for pre-teen, and x3 packed lunches me. Leftovers or soup/toast/noodles for me & DH on wfh days.

Dinners this week have been:

Hoisin turkey mince with sticky rice and edamame beans
Lemon chicken pasta
Chicken curry
Greek pork wraps with wedges & salad
Jacket spuds with beans & cheese

There is generally salad with everything- we go through a lot of veg, so any top ups are usually salad bits and bread.

Ah yeah well that’s exactly why people asking these questions is almost pointless because everyone eats differently and everybody uses food differently 6 eggs would do me for a week six eggs would do somebody else for a day depending on their activities and what they do. Homemade burgers is not something I would tend to make. I don’t do much baking if at all the hard time I might make banana bread. Pancakes like I say that’s the most I would do with eggs. The hard poached egg maybe. We are not an omelette Family my kids will die if I handed them an omelette 😆😆. I don’t have time to make my own hashbrowns. It’s not something I would do either good old frozen from Lidl will do me 👍
I do the best I can with the budget I have, I try to make good dinners.

2 adult, 2 teen, 1 child… I rarely keep it under £100, though I can if I’m careful. We have adjusted how we eat in order to keep it lower. Lots of veg, meat in bulk then split and frozen. From scratch almost entirely. Following offers. For example a roast tomorrow
£5 discount joint with club card discounts for other stuff too
15p potatoes
15 p carrots
£1.20 Yorkshires.

lots of splitting veg packs and a changing seasonal typical meal. It’s rare to have a joint. The other week was a side of salmon with deals for £7. Lots of bulk veg/ pasta/ noodles here

I’ve considered doing a few veggie meals but I just find vegetarian food quite miserable a lot of the time. It’s also really important I get a certain amount of protein a day and with my sons allergies meat is the best way to make sure we’ll can eat the same meal.

Lunches are provided at work and school. Lunches if we are home are usually sandwiches, noodles, jacket potato etc.

The food sounds very nice on the quoted post but it is cheaper than expected only because it doesn't include half the essential weekly meals on the list (no lunches included and a takeaway and a meal out every week so hardly a low budget option). I'm not sure how many people this is for either.

If you are on a tight budget, I think meal planning really helps, reducing meat, not buying brands and going shopping very regularly so that you can get the reduced items at the end of the day.

We are a family of 6 (including 2 adult 'children' and 2 teen) and spend over £200 a week, including household items, but we do eat very well.