£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.

Yeah things look really good since we left, not. 🤔 Do you know how many millions it cost and how much prices have gone up because of it? No we are no longer part of Erasmus which is just for students anyway.You can only get a work permit or visa if jobs can’t be done by Europeans which isn’t likely. Coming out of Europe was bonkers, the rest of the world thought we were nuts, we were and are now paying the price. Buckle up as it’s going to get a whole lot worse and we will be literally begging to rejoin not too far in the future.

2 adults and a 9 year old. Adults each lunch at home: child at school. Very little meat. Around £120 a week plus top ups (probably around £30 a week) so sounds right

My mum is horrified: but forgets that she is only feeding herself. And she lives on frozen ready meals or going out with her pals for lunches. She also has a lot less of an appetite than she used to

We're a household of 10, including 3 teens and 3 adults, so you can imagine our food shop budget 😬

It sounds like your DM is completely out of touch with both prices and feeding teens and young(er) adults so I'd ignore her.

Your £800 is only excessive if it's creating problems in your family budget. Food is such a big part of our daily lives - our health, our enjoyment, and our time - that it's a reasonable place to spend a decent chunk of our household budgets IMO. We stick to a monthly amount that makes sense for our family, try hard not to be wasteful, and do look for easy ways to save, but our goal is certainly not to spend as little on food as possible.

As I said a whole lot worse- £311 billion to be exact. Enjoy!

Brexit is predicted to worsen for the UK through 2035 with significantly lower job growth, reduced investment, and decreased trade compared to remaining in the EU, potentially making the UK £311bn worse off by that time. This long-term economic impact is attributed to the UK's changed relationship with the European Union.

Specific Areas of Worsening Impact

Economy: A report from Cambridge Econometrics projects that the UK could have:
Three million fewer jobs by 2035.
32% lower investment.
5% lower exports and 16% lower imports.
An overall economic cost of £311 billion by 2035 compared to a scenario where the UK remained in the EU.
Underlying Reasons

Trade and Investment:
The economic changes stem from the UK's departure from the European Union, which affects trade relations and the flow of investment into the country.
Job Market:
The reduction in jobs is tied to the broader economic downturn, as businesses may struggle to grow or create employment in the new trading environment.
Long-Term Projections

Future Scenarios: These forecasts suggest a sustained negative economic effect, with significant economic disadvantages expected to persist for decades after the UK's exit from the EU.

And in the age of AI, working from home, think of all those European jobs we and our youngsters could have been applying for and are now shut out of.

Brexit was literal madness.

Depends doesn’t it, somewhat on how shit it gets,it hasn’t even started to bite yet. But hey you sit there in cloud cuckoo land. When the impact really starts to bite, there will be plenty more doing the begging for you.

I was cooking for 4 adults Monday to Thursday and for 3 adults Friday - Saturday and 6 adults on a Sunday. Only lunch for one person as everyone else eat lunch out, apart from weekends. One bottle of wine was added for Sunday lunch.

I was shopping at Lidl and making cottage pie, roast chicken dinner on Sunday, Burgers and buns with chips on Mondays, Tarragon Chicken casserole on a Tuesday, Chilli con carne on a Wednesday and Thursday pasta dish, often pasta and pesto with garlic bread, or cauliflower macaroni cheese then home made pizza on Friday. Breakfast was bacon sandwiches with one pack of bacon and then cereal and egg or jam on toast for the rest of the week, I make brioch bread for toast to go with the jam.

Literally rotating that same menu with only slight variation, as I could manage to do it for £80 per week, did this for 3 months. That was last year, this year I have started doing the same again the same is costing £105

the5thgoldengirl

it wasn't as a democratic vote needs a larger margin

but its done and we all have to suffer the cost

Really, you couldn't make it up could you?

Eating out? Yay or nay?

No way for me.

That’s not bad I think we spend more , 2 adults 2 kids and a toddler .

We had a divorce from the EU, paying outstanding commitments goes both ways and some is research we very much want to be part of.

The NHS is struggling due to 14 years of under funding by the Tories.

The nhs is not working because you lost so many EU workers and still have the same number of migrants / refugees coming in but not working .

It is very nice you have this budget and yes if you want good portion and give as much nutrients, you have to spend that.

was probably £200 less a year or two back.

Family of 1 adult 2 DS age 17 & 15 (aka the locusts)
Spend about £150 a week
Teens eat MASSIVE portions ie 12 meatballs should be enough for both of them, but I caught DS2 eating the whole lot for his tea yesterday 🙈
DS1 is just as bad
Ive stopped buying snacks. They get a couple of packs of biscuits and a six pack of crisps. Anything else they can buy themselves.
Your mother is totally out of touch with amount of food needed for younger folk.

For many many reasons now and in the coming months and years when Brexit really bites the answer will very much be to rejoin. We’ll all have to get on and pay for it though until the Brexiteers die off and younger voters with more sense increasingly vote for it.

I agree
There is plenty of 2 for £10 on meat/ burgers ( nice ones) and Oakham chicken thighs are £10 a kilo( 12 thighs) 3 for £12 on fish/ meat

So that would be £32 for 6/7 meals

Fruit and veg £40
Milk cheese yoghurt -£15
Lunch meat £8( 3 for £8)
Porridge/ bread £7
Butter £2
Rice £2
Potatoes £1.80
Salad Potatoes 1.75
Eggs 4.25
.
=113.80

Still leaves £6.20 for cupboard stuff /sauces/ treats or 16.20 if spending 130
If PP has pretty basic lunches
Eggs on toast/ sandwiches etc I can see how she does it

The NHS is overrun because of the aging population aka the baby boomers hitting their 70's and developing the diseases of old age, nothing to do with EU immigration in the 00s.