£800 pm on groceries for a family

[popsickle555]

recently had a conversation with my DM (lighthearted) but I explained our weekly shop is now around £200 for a family of 2 adults and two teenage children during summer school holidays. She said she thought me ‘overspending’.

Anyway here’s what we spend:

£150 ish weekly shop (has to be weekly during the holidays as they eat so much)
£50 on top up shops fruit and veg and occasional extras eg wash powder and such things. This also includes cat food (1 cat on cheap food).

this includes lunches for me and DH (wfh) and also packed lunch stuff for DC’s who have been on a drama camp.

AIBU to think it’s actually quite hard to eat reasonably well (I do cook most days and I am buying decent ish ingredients but also plenty of ‘basic’ range options) for less than this sort of price now for 4 full portion people eating 3 meals a day? We hardly ever eat out unless on holiday.

For reference my DM hardly eats a lot now she’s older and when she does it’s really simple and generally quite boring stuff eg omelette, jacket potato etc. My DH and DCs needs more protein than that as are all very active.

I just came away feeling like I’m wasting money but genuinely can’t see how I can do it for much less without really scrimping on ingredients and protein.

For anyone looking to compare food prices between shops there’s a website called
Trolley.co.uk

it doesn't have Lidl though

I spend about that on 3 adults and two teenagers. I’m lucky enough to be able to take advantage of some tactical shopping, though. At Easter and Xmas, when the big joints and gammons are reduced I stock up the freezer. Also when I see discounted meat. I use the Lidl app to make sure I spend exactly the right amount to get the 10% off, then do a big shop. I have big garden full of fruit trees. And I take advantage of friends who have allotments - I currently have loads of frozen squash to be used over the next few weeks. And I use the too good to go app, freezing lots of stuff. I couldn’t do that if I only had one freezer, and was limiting my spend each week. I am lucky; not everyone is.

Where we live we only actually have Lidl, Tesco and Coop, alongside local (mostly more expensive) shops - no markets, no M and S, no other big supermarkets, no Home Bargains, no B and, no Iceland, no Farmfoods and so on. For a family of 3 adults I spend considerably less than what many folk with access to all the cheaper shops seem to spend, and our food is by no means boring or unhealthy. We didn't grow up eating steak or salmon regularly though, so it's more of a treat for us, and luckily we all like/don't mind a lot of non-meat meals. I do honestly struggle to see what people spend £200 per week on - a £200 shop would definitely last us a couple of weeks (some items longer).
If you can afford £200 and you're buying things you enjoy then I don't honestly see any issue with it, but I am not sure it's realistic to say you absolutely have to spend that to eat healthy and interesting meals. As for the folk who say their kids 'eat a packet of berries a day', well that's because you let them - there are plenty other fruits which are just as nice (I might argue nicer tbh).

You seem to be me 🤣
Im happy to meet another one!

Yes, 2 sausages each!
And Bolognese and chilli are improved by the veg and beans. My kids said no to lentils though.

I definitely don't top up shop as I don't ever pop to the shops. I have a list every week of what I meal plan which is why I can price compare.

One thing we've dropped is desserts, I always used to make those for the kids, but I don't really any more, I might make one or two and we'll just eat fruit the rest of the week if we want something sweet.

Someone else mentioned chicken Milanese, I used to do these a lot too, works well with pork chops too. They're quick, cheap and if you use a meat hammer to tenderise they look flipping massive on the plate even if you only do half a chicken breast. Sides would be salad (Caesar or rocket usually) or saute potatoes and veg, or pasta in tomatoes. Corn on the cob, wedges and coleslaw works well too.
(I have never figured out what to do with the fat from trimmed pork chop though, the cats get it)

Frozen king prawns are £2.69 for 170g in Tesco. This is easily enough for 2. In rice, pasta, tempura.

We do eat a lot of cheese though.

Portion sizes make a lot of difference and can make a food bill add up significantly.

We are an 80% vegetarian household which lowers the cost anyway but I bulk out a lot of our meals (around a third of the plate) with salad or roasted veg (the latter I chop up at the end of each week of what we have left over and freeze). Further to this if we have something like toad in the hole we all have just two sausages. I know many households where adults will double that per person. Instead of buying a pack of 8 for 4 people you are buying an additional pack. Do that for each evening meal and you've added a lot extra to the weekly cost. You don't need those two extra sausages per plate when there are cheaper extras you can add as sides.

Ours is roughly £80-90 a week. However I get the majority of our cleaning and toiletry products in bulk elsewhere, cat food is separate and DH buys his own weekend alcohol as I don't drink. Kids don't get individually packed items in their lunches. They get Greek yoghurt from a large pot, share a bag of crisps, a wrap, longer life fruit which is bought in bulk and no snacks.
If you averaged it out would probably be closer to £100-£110 a week.

Edit to add we rarely eat puddings either. If we do then it's usually crumble and it's blackberries I've picked myself or apples that I've picked up from someone in the village giving any away. I freeze it and bring it out throughout the year.

We spend that easily for 2 adults and 2 children (8&10) Doesn't include cat food, kids school lunches or stuff like toilet roll/kitchen roll/dishwasher tablets.

We could cut down if needs be but not by much but once the boys hit their teens they will be eating more. I need to get them eating more filling snacks!!

Freedom of movement has ended immigration is at an all time high, our children cannot study and work in Europe. How can this be seen as a sucess ?

I asked Mrs Google and she tells me ......

"There has been no significant overall increase or decrease in the number of UK students studying in Europe pre- and post-Brexit"

And definitely don't do all your shopping in one place - it's convenient but costly. And you have to keep your eyes open for things changing too.

I used to get our dog poo bags in lidl (50 strong for 59p) as same price as HB, but adds to monthly Lidl spend - but they've now gone up, bigger pack but still a lot dearer, so back to HB again. Plus get most cleaning stuff, toothpaste etc from HB.

We drink Nescafe Azera, but get each 140g pack for £5.50 in Farmfoods plus use the money-off coupons. Occ HB is cheaper.

When it's Amazon prime day, while everyone else is after tech gadgets, I'm bulk ordering the dog food & my face creams @ 30 to 75% off!

I do a loose meal plan based around what's in the fridge & freezer and what's on offer that week (check your app / emails / hotukdeals), but can easily adapt if I suddenly come across a quality bargain.

A large chest freezer is your friend & at any one time about 5% of our space is occupied by bananas - the very ripe ones are usually almost free and they are great in cakes, flapjacks, muffins etc and you can do protein versions of all of these too.

We had to join in 1975 - there was no other way to ensure our future prosperity - the IMF was sick of bailing us out, the country was on its knees, there were daily power cuts, a three-day week, a speed limit of 50mph to try and conserve oil and constant strikes.

Leaving was always going to be a mess - and those campaigning for Brexit hadn't given a single thought about how they could make it work, because if they had, they would have known it was impossible. They also conveniently 'forgot' the issue of the Irish border - there's no way of dealing with that, that wouldn't contravene the terms of the Good Friday Agreement and neither is there any way that we can profitably replace our European trading partners either.

And the really ridiculous thing is that Brexit is being slowly dismantled. Every week, papers cross my desk from associations representing the broad sweep of UK industries, who are asking their members to detail all the barriers that are currently hindering their trading endeavours with European markets. The associations' are feeding the resulting data back to government and slowly, the rules and regs. affecting export/import from and to the EU are being dismantled. Bouyed by the fact that recent surveys reveal that if the vote were held tomorrow, only 29% would vote leave, the pace is picking up, and doubtless, behind the scenes, lots of adjustments are being made in other areas too. One day, hopefully in the not too distant future, we'll discover that we have actually as good as rejoined by stealth, but sadly, the terms won't be anything like as advantageous as previously and we will still have lost the influence we once had.

I still feel furious with everyone who voted for Brexit, but I feel especially furious with older people who enjoyed all the benefits of membership - the EU money that helped to regenerate de-industialised communities, the freedom to move, work and live anywhere in the EU, the opportunity to retire somewhere warmer or to enjoy visiting a holiday home and come and go as they pleased. These are all things that they have denied their children and grandchildren. When they are all dead, the 29% will dwindle to nothing and at least two generations will have endured all of this pain for no purpose whatsoever. I'd advise everyone to think on this when Farage and his cronies do their best to stoke hatred and xenophobia in their bid to return the UK to the 50s - a period that was even worse than the 70s - but which is where we will be headed if we are ever stupid enough to allow a Reform government.

That spend sounds pretty good to me @popsickle555, especially as it includes lunches at the moment.

I think that the only way it can be cheaper is if you bulk buy cheap chicken online, but that would be a very boring diet. My DD did this for a while when she was really hard up but said that she lost all interest in food whilst she was doing it.

I spend around £140 (sometimes it’s less) a week for 4 adults (2 andult children still at home) and 2 toddlers. I try really hard to keep it low though, if you don’t keep track of it I can see why it would come to £200. I use every offer available and do my meals around that.

I'm still waiting for HansHolbein to come back and tell us how she shops so cheaply at M&S - and without any Upfs too!

I spend the same, 2 adults and 2 toddlers. We spend quite a lot because they sometimes won't eat what we give them, so have to cook a different dish

M&S has a fair few things reasonably priced. Their dog treats are so cheap and if you look carefully many have a lot less shite than other brands. They’re clearly copying Lilly’s Kitchen but soooo much cheaper. Gk yogurt is good too. Have heard their butter and spreadable butter is too. I find avoiding UPFs and less meat dramatically cuts my bills. There are so many expensive things you can live without and can’t buy when cutting UPFs. I then buy some of our fruit in M&S as it will definitely get eaten.This week I only spent £90 in Sainsbury’s and £30 in M&S for 3 adults and a dog. Included Ecover laundry pods and dishwashing tablets, loo rolls, all meals,lunches, snacks etc. Stocked up on M&S 5 ingredients only bread, fruit and dog treats.

Aldi and Lidl 😀👍

I actually find Waitrose online reasonable if you’re mostly veggie and go for their offers or basics when possible. Spend similar when I do a shop there. It has the added benefit as being more ethical and environmentally friendly too. Their online shopping system is a lot less faff than others I’ve tried.

ssh dont broadcast it

I do too to be honest. Spending £200 on a weekly shop would include a lot of cleaning products, toiletries and treats. Our shop usually comes to about £100/120 for one adult and 2 teens including lunches. We eat a lot of varied food, vegetables and fruit, some frozen which is fine. We eat meat 5/7 days - by no means are my kids restricted in what’s on offer. £200 is a pre-Christmas shop for me.

I try to keep it nearer 120 a week at Lidl for family of 4 (DC 14 and 11) and this can be hard to stick to. I have a separate milk/eggs delivery so yeah more like 135. I could easily spend 800 a month if I have the budget though.

i remember a thread around 4 years ago, where someone said £600 for family of 4 and folks thought that was a lot. Prices just have gone up so much…