Has your weekly bill gone stratospheric ?

[ladybirdsarelovely33]

We are a family of four - 2 adults and 2 DC. Last week we paid £260
This does include household cleaning stuff but still....
Just shopping at Sainsbury's and a top up at the Co op.....

There are 2 adults, a huge teen, a 12 yo and a 7yo in my house - and a dog!
We used to spend £110 ish a week but now it’s more like £180. We are crap at meal planning at the moment and buying much more convenient/ pre prepared stuff as we are working 90 hours a week between us in key roles with dc at home full time too. We can afford it and we are not wasting food so it doesn’t bother me at all that we are spending more.

I was at the start, first couple of weeks of lock down I spent £150-200 each week on food, my monthly budget for food is £250 normally and I must of spent £450 in those first couple of weeks stocking up on food, household essentials, etc but since then my food bill is just £30 every two weeks for the veg box to be delivered plus whatever I've run out of and had to buy on amazon,

My food bill is about 50 more a week, I just feel for the people who couldn't afford shopping when things were 'normal' let alone now.
I know they have had to stop 3 for 2 but I do think supermarkets are making a mockery of us whith how prices have gone up.

Mine is up this week as I made the mistake of doing a click and collect with Morrisons. No way to refuse substitutions and they charge you the more expensive price - I'd never buy Jordan's muesli normally!

Not really. We are still buying and eating much the same. Everyone who says their bills have jumped massively because they and D.C. are now at home by day, did you not eat lunch before? Or did you eat out, in which case your bill hasn't really gone up because your lunch money has just been added to your shop.

Ours hasn’t really changed. Still around £120 a week for 2 adults and 2 DC. It’s gone up a bit due to prices and fewer offers, but we’re still eating the same, whether it’s at home or at work. Actually spending less on food overall as kids had started having school dinners .

Yes. Currently getting a fortnightly delivery which is £££. However, all meals are now taken at home and the includes light bulbs, batteries and all sorts of things I wouldn’t normally include in my weekly groceries. Anything to stay away from the shops as adult son is in a vulnerable category.

Yy our bills have increased as with PPs it's because there are less to no offers anymore. We're also using local suppliers for fruit, veg, butchermeat, etc - which are all more expensive. Ironically, even the wholesalers we're using are more expensive because they have put their prices up too.
Having everyone at home all the time is obviously impacting too. We're getting through more food than we would have pre-coronavirus.

Family of 5 adults and we spent £1700 last month, up from average of £1300. I would love to know where I’m going wrong, the people who spend £120 ish a week please tell me what you are eating. We do buy good quality food, cook from scratch, no frozen food etc but the difference is eye watering so I’d love to know.

Just me and DH. It fluctuates. Sometimes it can be a £40 shop for the week. He recently returned from Sainsbury's having spent £140! But that included a lot of treats and more expensive things - a few nice drinks, coffee beans, etc.

We try and alternate where we shop (we're in the vicinity of Aldi, Lidl, Sainsbury's, and Tesco and Asda slightly further away). Generally a big Sainsbury's every few weeks and then top-ups in Aldi or Lidl. Always come out of Aldi/Lidl in disbelief at the difference in price, but we can't get everything there. We've also been using some smaller indie shops who have free range eggs, nice bread etc.

I really miss a potter into town and in the bargain shops. I love Poundstretcher, Savers, etc and have the odd thing that I always get in there.

To be honest, no it hasn't. I put everything on a spreadsheet and I cancelled or cut out everything that we really can do without ; like just using the one car , club, magazine and gym memberships, Sky Sports and loads of little things like the dog walker and window cleaner. I then got out some old cook books my granny had left me with all her notes and recipes and only bought the ingredients I need culling the continental cheeses, Prosseco, M&S convenience stuff, crisps , snacks , Lindor Chocolate balls , Lloyd Grossman and Jamie Oliver branded bollocks. Result is expenditure has come right down. But then there's just the two of us now and two can eat as cheaply as one, like cooking just one baked potato. Good preparation for whats to come I fear.

Another reason ours has gone up is that when DH and I are at work, we often don’t actually have lunch or just some fruit due to lack of time. Now we are at home we are having a sandwich everyday. Also meal planning is out the window because I often can’t find what I need for our usual meals. I usually buy chopped tomatoes costing 45p a tin (multipack) the only ones I could get last week were £1.60 a tin! I usually get Ocado deliveries but struggling to get slots at the moment. I do have one booked for the week after next but lots of what I wanted is out of stock.

My spend has gone up but I suspect that this is more to do with the fact that prior to lockdown, I shopped mainly in ALDI and purchased certain items from Sainsbury/Morrisons whereas now I shop wherever I can find a slot which for the last few weeks has been Ocado and once, Tesco.

@foodbill Seriously?! It must be very very difficult to eat an adequate diet on that amount. What do you buy and eat in an average week?

@bellsbuss is it good? Ocado don't have an alternative it's because I use organic butter but I might need to change its over the top isn't it? I feel guilty xx

The prices have shot up in the shops I'm sending at least £50 a week more (on the same things )

@Molly499 spreadsheets are your friend.

We have one which details everything (rent, car, food, utility bills, insurance etc) so we know where everything is going and where we can cut costs.

Admittedly we are Aldi shoppers, not Waitrose etc. We tried online deliveries but the difference in prices is shocking.

@foodbill
I can do my entire weekly shopping for my family of 4 for 55-65 and now it's gone to 80. I don't mind though as we are eating that bit more I suppose and I have bought some treats too. We are a family of 4 (two adults and two dc)

That’s crazy low. Do you grow any food yourself. What sort of things do you eat? How old are your kids? I’m going to faint if they are teens 😅

My kids had friends manage on very little at university but their diets were not very good. They didn’t eat much fresh fruit for example.

@Molly499 Wow, that’s a lot... I think we eat pretty well for £120 a week (which includes toiletries). I have always meal-planned. In a week we might have a roast, spaghetti bolognese or lasagne, jacket potato with scampi or prawns and salad, pizza, chips and salad, sausage pasta, chilli and rice, stir-fry etc. Fairly normal meals.

Breakfast is toast or cereal usually. Lunch would be sandwiches, wraps, pita bread, bagels. At the moment, being at home, we might have soup.

Lots of fruit like strawberries, grapes, kiwi fruit, melon, pineapple, blueberries. Usually buy some crisps and biscuits. Then things for desserts like small cakes, ice cream etc.

I tend to buy own brand, although not everything. I never feel like we’re scrimping at all.

Just totted my grocery spend up for April (single woman) = £146 (so £34 a week) including cleaning supplies, takeaway and the odd plant. Spend in supermarkets up a bit, but spend on food overall definitely down as I used to spend £70-80/month on work lunches.

It's definitely higher, but we have factored in that DH and DS1 would normally spend extra money on lunches at work/school

Averaging £150 a week currently - 4 people ( all eat fairly adult portions) and a dog

Usually spend roughly £100/£120 a week

Also I think a lot of the supermarkets stopped promotions and I often only buy something on offer!

@Beeep nope we don't grow any (yet) I do plan on it. I cook from scratch and meal/portion plan.
My dc are 4 and 7. We eat anything and everything( we are right foodies!) these are the first 3 food pics I had on my phone! I'm always taking pics of food so I can remember what we liked etc.

The first is a pork meatloaf (Jamie Oliver recipe) served with salad and pasta,the second is just salmon with salad and the third is one of the lunches my dc has last week- Homemade wrap pizza.

I looked at that analyse thing Barclays banking and it said March was £400 in food shopping and £400 in other shopping and then April was £600 in food and £800 in other shopping. I nearly passed out. Plus my levy bill has gone up by about £50 a month. Part of that is the hot tub being on 24-7 but with both my sons being home all day and night they are using their triple screen duper duper pc systems all the time. Then my daughter can't turn a light switch off. The oven is going 2-3 times a day.

I've spent SO much money ☹️