£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.

2 adults, 2 kids. Pre Christmas it was about 250 a week.

I lost the plot!

Really worked hard on the recipes and meal planning. Spend is now 50-100 a week.

So 400-500 a month depending on no of weeks. Despite recent price rises. So quite impressive really and I am sat here thinking if I had done this from the start of adulthood. How much would I have saved!!!

And yes that’s 30 fruit/ veg a week and little UPF

it’s just me now and I’m about £70 per week and I don’t buy a lot, although I do like a few brand items, that includes all cleaning stuff and washing powders.

I also spend about thirty pounds every six weeks on five Cook meals.

Agree
These sweeping statements are horrible.
My parents and all older people I knew at the time voted Remain.

Blanket statements cause hate

We are the same 2 adults, 2 children. Typically weekly shop is about £110, £50 between fishmongers and butchers and then top up on fresh products during the week. I've tried to get it down and I could by not buying from the butchers/fishmongers but the quality is so much better and I also want to support our local shops as we are lucky to have a fantastic high street and I dont want to loose it!

We are two adults and three six foot skinny teenagers and ours is around £900 - £1k a month now, and that buys a lot less than a few years ago. The cost of food has spiralled, tell your MIL to switch on the news!

I'm constantly shocked by how expensive food is these days.

Luckily it's just me and DH at home now. We are in our sixties and don't have big appetites so we can eat well and still not spend too much (we also eat out quite often and bring boxed leftovers home). Also, like your mum, I'm happy eating the same thing several times a week so will batch cook something like a shakshuka or vegetable chilli that, chilled or frozen, will last for days.

I absolutely dread to think how much we'd be spending if we still had children in the house who required variety and 3 nutritious meals a day.

I think you are doing well to keep to a budget of £200. Your mum is out of date.

we are 3 adults and a cat and we spend £120-130 a week but could easily spend more.

Less than £100 per week for two adults and 2 kids. We buy weekly as most our food is fresh with some food cupboard top up like pasta or lentils.
Ocado is where we shop mostly. So larger cuts of meat are from the butcher, that's where most of the money is spent.

Meat and fish has definitely gone up in price if that's what you're getting at.

Not sure about blaming all on Brexit, Britain seemed to follow Europe fairly closely see chart (GB in blue) over the years. I think Covid had a bigger effect and the wars unfortunately. USA and Australia have suffered greatly from inflation too, so not to do with Europe directly. In GB we’re also v dependent on gas prices which puts prices up. And for reference I voted remain 😝.

I’m really intrigued by this subject. I’ve notice food prices go up dramatically. Feed 4, 2 adults and 2 tweens for around £600 a month but in top of that we have free eggs and beef.

I Can’t work out how people are surviving with things going up so much and how some businesses aren’t going to the wall. I went to get a treat for tonight in front of the tv and noticed that 4 small tubs of Haagan Diaz were £6.50. Daylight robbery. Who is actually paying that!

FWIW my skin in the game is I’m a farmer - a lot of farmers a now on a guaranteed margin system with the supermarkets so if our costs go up, then so does what we get paid. They monitor wages, electric etc and base the price on that. Pretty much all NMW as well. Our electric has virtually doubled. Wage costs going up dramatically. Council tax for the workers houses etc all goes up.

Yet wheat prices are about the lowest they’ve been in a long time.

OP I don’t think you’re doing bad at all.

I spend about £500 a month for 2 adults so your total doesn't sound outlandish. Dog food is separate and costs an extra £60 a month for 2 dogs.

But, I could spend a lot less if I wanted to.

There are always loads of posts on the likes of Instagram which show 5 dinners for £25 from all of the big supermarkets if people are looking for ideas for cheap meals.

Duplicate

I can see it completely. My last stock up in ALDI was £270 - I didn’t buy any meat at all, alcohol was a £20 bottle of whisky and a pack of beers for £10 so even taking those off it was £240.
I nearly fell over at the till.

This week I popped into Morrisons. A piece of beef brisket for Sunday dinner was £11. I could literally fit it into the palm of my hand. A large pack of mince £7.50.

I wouldn’t mind so much if that profit was passed down to the farmers, growers and producers, but it’s not.

We are 2 adults, 2 teens, 1 child. We eat well but all from scratch. I spend at least £220 per week. Fruit is very expensive but the kids like it. We all eat Fage 5% yoghurt which is £4.75-£5.50 a pot. We eat reduced sticker meat or cheaper cuts and we still can’t get under £200 per week. My husband has a physically demanding job so he needs to eat well. They will all happily eat leg, thigh, liver, cheaper slowed-cooked cuts.

Over the years, from personal choice, mine have always had the slightly better stuff, eaten a variety and thoroughly enjoyed it.
My current two, she will only eat one type of biscuits and WILL starve herself if they're not available. He will at least eat two different types of biscuits but will only eat Sheba and then only certain types!

That's steep.
I go once a week.
1 teen and 1 twenty something at home.
Mine is £120/wk.

I use taming twins meal plans which are really very good, I manage 2 adults,1 toddler and 3 boys including a teen on the weekend for about £120/130 a week, sometimes it’s more/less 😄 that includes 3 meals a day for everybody. I shop at Asda.

Quite often it is. We’re getting fabulous beef prices at the moment. Costs are high though.

I can’t reiterate enough how for British produce it’s the cost of raw materials going up. Electric, water, labour. Profit margins aren’t huge but they are there and quite often now they are fair.

We are two adults two teens and we spend about the same, food shopping is expensive at the moment!

Sounds normal to me

We are currently having to budget for £300 a month. I don’t know how we will survive.

How condescending is that statement ! I am 63 and I voted Leave, as did all my family & friends. To imply we are all 'uneducated ' is down right insulting ! I stand by my vote and would vote exactly the same if there was another Referendum. I am sick and tired of everything being blamed on Brexit, and Yes I do vote Conservative. Always have, always will.

It’s tricky with a DH who eats a lot. Mine is very physically active and very tall, so he eats probably the equivalent of what two women would eat. We try to load him up on cheaper carbs but it still adds up!

Special renal food for chronic kidney failure so unfortunately, we’re limited.