£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.

Please share some of these recipes and meal plans!! I’m in a similar situation. Really need to improve!

Yes everything has gone up so much. We don't tend to scrimp on eating well but I'm always wanting to bring it lower. I spend £250 per month at Lidl, that's one big shop of £200 ( which is around 50% meat to freeze) using their 10% discount to bring it down to £180 then make up the rest over the month to £250 to get another 10% voucher. The big shop also gives you vouchers for 3 or 4 free items. Otherwise it's top ups through the month on fresh stuff, salad, milk, bread etc. I try and keep this low but once DH is involved it always creeps up. Also spend £180 per month on dog food online. We have 9 dogs and they eat a grain free 80:20 dry food from wholeprey.com. Occasional stuff from Amazon, noodles etc. Usually buy 24 cans of pepsi max if there's a deal on Morrisons or somewhere. Dogs also get meaty bones occasionally from Morrisons and I bake my own charcoal biscuits for them. Apart from Lidl all home delivery. So not including the dogs probably around £500 depending. 3 adults, me DH and MIL.

How can it be steep if you're spending not much less per person?

Cooking from scratch isn't 'the bottom'.

Seems reasonable to me.
2 teenagers = 3 adults !

Food prices are insane.
I spend about 100 a week on 2 adults and a toddler 🤣🤣but we aren't "struggling" and I like to cook nice meals.
I do stock up when things are a genuine offer etc and we buy basic pasta, rice, food cupboard stuff as its all the same in reality.
I could cut more costs but I don't really want to at the moment. I think the top up shops is where ive noticed the biggest cost increase. Just popping to asda for a few bits normally leaves me 25 to 40 quid lighter rather than the 15 to 20 quid of a few years ago.

One adult and one teen (and a dog) here and we are about £120pw - dd eats loads of meat atm which gets pricier as well as the constant snacking and added 2am meal. We look for the offers and I do a lot of batch cooking and dd snacks on ramen which are quite cheap compared to healthier options like eggs or fruit (not ideal I know). we bulk buy ramen to get the price down to something like 70p per packet

Teenagers, especially 14 year old boys, have huge appetites. If your spend includes household items as well, (and perhaps a couple of bottles of wine 😂), then I think it’s not outrageous. I think you should be proud that you’re giving them good home prepared food.

Yes, we're at that level - 3 adults. Our DS, 22 yrs, is very active both at work and in his hobbies, plus he is very tall. He eats enough for two average adults so our food bills are a minimum of 800 pcm, often more.

We do an Aldi shop Monday evening when I take my two with me (16/23) they choose meals for the week and snacks etc - comes to about £80 - including toiletries, cleaning stuff etc

I get a Morrisons delivery of about £30 - mainly cat food and stuff

might spend the odd bit on wine or backing ingredients through the week as well

3 people and 5 cats 😃

Plan, plan, plan
Batch cook
Yellow stickers
Stock up when items you use are on offer
Less meat
Hearty stews and soups
Cheaper fruit (avoid berries etc).
Olio
Food pantries (close to date stuff)
Good luck.

Well that doesn’t even make sense. How can 350 per month be ‘100 a week more than 5 years ago’

Controversial perhaps, but do people really need to eat three meals per day?

I've been eating just two meals a day now for years and much prefer it. I think people get very into revolving things around meal times when it's not completely necessary.

As well as feeling much better, I also spend considerably less by having 2 instead of 3 meals per day. I make sure my diet is very high fibre and avoid processed foods as much as possible.

You need to try Aldi. 2 adults, 3 big kids here and I spend £450 a month

Are you familiar with teenagers ?

Such a huge future saving there

You were spending £13,000 / year
Now it’s £5,400 / year

Thats a £7,600 saving a year !

Part of it is getting economies of scale on the expensive stuff. Like Olive oils, pepper. I buy bulk of that and decant it.

Part of it was being super strict with the meal planning and avoid top up shops. Like I literally cannot walk into Sainsbury’s without spending £40 even if I just went in for milk.

I have cherrypick pro so it’s a meal planning tool and rationalises your ingredients. I I do click and collect once a week so save on delivery and do not enter store. There are good recipes on there and you can tweak them also. With pro you can add your own recipes so I have found lots in Jamie’s 5 ingredients, Rukminis traybake books. Searching online in cheap recipes.

The trick is really to roll over when you’re planning. So if recipe A has chicken, cream and mushrooms then you want recipe b to have a few of these to use up extra and get economies of scale. Getting clever with lunches and actually cooking. So those spare mushrooms and cream, add a bit of Parmesan, nutmeg and a small of white wine and that’s an incredible mushroom on toast.

Herbs bought in pots rather than cut. I only use half and then put it in a regrow area and cycle a few around. Garlic/ ginger etc all adds up. Have frozen for garlic and onion. Also garlic paste, or ginger paste. The Asian and Indian brands are cheap than home brand if you go to the exotic aisles. Same for coconut milks.

Also cheaper cuts of meat. So pork loin, bacon instead of pancetta, if buying beef it has to go the extra so brisket in ragus which can be frozen or in a stew which can be turned into a pie next day. Mince dishes usually freezable so even if it’s a cup full it’s good for a kids meal. Chicken whole or boned (so unboned thighs or legs) - not without risk as I ate a chicken bone last week hence the name 😂 Fish cheaper option species (although none of it’s that cheap these days). Thick Cooked ham offcuts also super cheap to make into pies. Sausage is cheap.

Get the clothes liquid, toilet roll and household bits and bobs in Lidl or Aldi. Buy washing liquid buy the pouch rather than plastic bottles. Bought 100 micro clothes from Amazon so now never buy wipes. Bought 10L vats of white vinegar. Buy some more technical household bits from home bargains (like limescale remover, specialist cleaning stuff, whitening powders etc.). So there is some investing required for that part.

The only thing I haven’t figured out is coffee pods. I tried cheap ones. Nasty. There is a reusable metal pod you fill yourself but haven’t tried it.

Hope that helps! Defo try a cherrypick trial and play around with it until you can get a week which works.

😂😂😂

Posted too soon- mine DO eat two meals a day, rarely bothering with breakfast … but also snack all day!

Yes - just because they want to eat, doesn't always mean they need to eat. If they want something in addition, there's always fruit, wholegrain crackers or natural yogurt available. If they don't want that, they're clearly not that hungry. A lot of eating unnecessarily is actually just boredom.

2 adults 6 and 4 year old and a dog spend about £140 a week plus top ops.

We’re similar OP. We spend £200 - £250 per week for the 4 of us, 3 adults, 1 teen.

Teeny tinies arriving I see.

There's no way I could get my current teen to not eat 3 (or more) meals a day. Last year, yes fine, my food shop was also about £70-80 per week back then! Some years kids will just eat more than others, no need to restrict their food and give them hang ups about not being able to eat meat and get protein by forcing them to cut it out or eat things they don't like. I'd rather spend and cut in other areas - no coffee pods in our house, for example!

We easily spend this for a similar size family, and more. No hunk, all unprocessed foods, high protein, minimal alcohol if any. YANBU