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.....

Yes, mines gone up quite a lot. I did some rough calculations and suspect it's because none of us are buying food and drinks 'on the go.' at the work canteen, etc. Some of it is because our local, small supermarket often has less of the usual items so we are buying whatever is there - often more expensive.

There’s only me and 14yo ds, but ours has gone up quite considerably. I’d normally shop at Aldi and Lidl, but have been getting deliveries from Ocado or click and collects from Asda these past few weeks (have a shielding dad who I’m providing some care for, so I’m not going in shops etc to minimise the risk to him), plus butchers deliveries/veg box where needed. My normal shop would be £60ish, but I’m now spending more like £100, mainly due to having to buy what’s available and the lack of offers. Plus, obviously, with ds being at home, we’re getting through more food than normal.

However, I’m not tempted by the dreaded middle aisles, so no random purchases of furniture or power tools, and I’m spending less on fuel, so it’s balancing itself out overall.

Yes because I am having to provide breakfasts and lunches and snacks for DD plus for myself. No cleaners so have to buy our own cleaning stuff. Not to mention we are using the dishwasher more so added expense on the tablets.

We usually bulk buy at costco and Aldi with a weekly top up at sainburys but our local Aldi and Costco are packed with people not observing social distancing and they dont do click and collect.

DH is aghast at the cost but I am saving £200 a month on fuel so it balances out.

On another note I am horrified at how much I am saving in my personal money as I usually buy my breakfast and lunches out of my monthly 'me' money.

@ChipotleBlessing see my previous post. We do eat very well. We have a stocked spice and herb cupboard and we just replace as we go etc. I'm actually in Ireland so that's my price in euros (which would be less in pounds I think!) we shop at lidl or Aldi.
These are some of my receipts (I have posted them before I think 🙈)

I am drinking more alcohol. Stop it now.

But salmon is really expensive. Goodness knows how you are doing it that cheap.

Anyway for the last couple of weeks DH has done a "big" shop (really just the heavy stuff) in Sainsburys for about £60. We are probably spending another £60 on top, not including wine through topping up in M&S and Waitrose, which are expensive. DH has always taken sandwiches to work and I work from home so rarely buy a lunch out. I give DS a separate allowance when he is at college and he takes sandwiches on occasion.

We're probably spending a bit more now than we did, but on the other hand what else is there to spend money on? For example, we are saving on petrol, Sky sports is paused, no swimming lessons and at some point DH will receive his season ticket refund.

In terms of what we eat (3 adults in house) cereal or toast for breakfast, sandwiches for lunch. For dinner it tends to be the same stuff every week eg roast chicken dinner on Sunday, cold chicken and (oven) chips on Monday, eggy bread on Tuesday, M&S ready meals on Wednesday (usually from their Italian range), sausages and mash (with veg) on Thursday, chicken curry (home-made) on Friday and home-made cottage pie on Saturday (with turkey mince as I don't eat red meat). I like eating, but I am totally uncreative in the kitchen so stick to what I can do and also we all like different things so it's not that easy to cater for all of us, hence the lack of variety.

We also have some chocolate in the house and the aforementioned wine. And I snack on things like carrots and cherry tomatoes.

Our food bill has gone drastically up. Our only available supermarket is Tesco so cant shop around. They dont have any of their offers on at the moment so there's no savings to be had that way. Their own brand stuff is constantly out of stock so having to buy the expensive branded stuff. I would normally go to tesco twice a week, but now its once a fortnight so our top ups are from the more expensive local corner shop type places. The only vegetable my eldest will eat is broccoli so we go through a head a day, but everywhere seems to be out of it except a local fruit and veg shop who are charging £2.50 a head! We always bulk buy our chicken and normally get a box of 20 fillets for £15 from our butcher but its now jumped up to £22.50. Plus you factor in the fact we're home more, kids having lunches at home instead of in school, we aren't going round to mums for Sunday dinner, and the kids have turned into ravenous snack monsters who cant function unless they're eating 24/7. Our food bill is easily £70-£80 higher.

Also they dont have family size of anything, so instead of 1 big jar of bolognese for example we have to buy 2 small ones which is more expensive.

Family of 6 here, with 3 teen DC and one younger so they eat a lot! I have been doing one big shop a week just under £200 total including everything- food, toiletries, washing powder and a few extras such as Easter eggs, few books, grass seed etc. Before lockdown, we had a small store of basic tinned items, rice, pasta, sauces, part baked bread, so have been supplementing with that.

@Beeep @ChipotleBlessing

Here's some other ideas

Roast chicken and ratatouille
Pineapple tart Tatin
Turkey keema with spinach and cauliflower

Yes ours has gone up. I would say by about £30 a week if not more.

Ds has autism and has a very select amount of foods he eats (which are expensive anyway - must only be specific brands ) I've definitely noticed it's these that have gone up the most.

Yes, doubled. We all eat at home vs drinks and food from cafeteria/canteen/nursery + there are no offers whatsoever. I always done my shopping online from Ocado/Waitrose and around offers. But now I am paying almost everything full price.

@PenelopePitstopping

Less than £14 if you include non-food items which can easily add up even if only buying basics, but you kind of made my point. You could survive pretty healthily on your plan but it was very basic and, apart from some fruit, allowed nothing for any snacks, drinks or treats.

Cleaning stuff:

• Laundry capsules
• Dettol spray
• Little sponges with scrubber on the top
• Square cloths
• Washing up liquid
• Shower cleaner
• Toilet cleaner
• Mr Muscle drain unblocker
• Chamois
• Vinegar.

It doesn't add up to much split over a month, but it's not as simple as 'bleach + spray' as some people are saying.
I don't use kitchen roll as I don't like throwing it away, have never bought it really.

Ours has gone up a staggering amount. We buy pretty much the same every week as my son has multiple allergies. Used to be around £125 a week (not including nappies for the baby). This morning it was £170! I feel stuck as can't change what we eat too much because of the allergies, nor can I perhaps to a Tesco shop than an Aldi fresh stock up, as also have a newborn and the whole shopping experience takes too long now. Can't understand how this is happening, as nothing we buy is normally on multibuy anyway.

@skybluee

Also there’s the personal hygiene stuff too:

Deodorant
Shampoo
Shower gel
Toilet roll
Tampons
Tissues
Toothpaste etc

When people say they spend £100 or less on a family of 5, do they include all of this, along with cleaning stuff? If so, they must be eating baked beans and pasta every day.

Prices have definitely risen. Other thing I noticed yesterday was the fresh meat and chicken sections had very short use by dates.

Yes ours has increased massively. I do Ocado shops - gone from about £150 to about £200 then we have gousto also so another £40. It’s a combination of no offers (2 for £4 etc) and having three kids home all the time. On the other hand we aren’t nipping out for mid week shops when we end up buying stuff we don’t need, no coffees, meals out etc... so ultimately probably not increased, but the actual supermarket shop has!

Definitely gone up - but went from usually just two of us, to DH now working from home and not travelling during the week, DD1 back home, and all obviously eating three meals a day, snacks, endless coffee and tea, and lots of wine and gin!

Also, as others have noted, everything now in one shop, so all food, cleaning, toiletries, all in one. I am spending £180 a week on standard food shop, plus a wine and gin delivery every 2 weeks or so, plus a Cook delivery every 2 weeks instead of eating out (add £50), plus a small raid to the local Little Waitrose at the garage for extra milk, bread and salad stuff (£20). Bloody hell.

Our shopping bill has gone up by about 25% (2 adults and 2 children), as now everyone has lunches at home, and we eat more fruit and snacks. Since DH is doing the shopping with a list he gets what he can find, maybe not my preferred brand, or the one with a better price, there are not many offers now, and yes, we do get some extra treats. But since he goes with the list, and usually only twice a week, there are less impulse buys in our house.
However, we're no longer paying for school meals for DS, we usually buy only one take away/week, we don't drink much alcohol, no more lunches at work, snacks, coffees, "hmm I fancy that" things, the odd drink with workmates/friends, no more meals out, no more petrol costs for DH and public transport costs for me. I am trying to plan the meals more (since I have to make sure everyone enjoys them and there is enough variety) and I cook more from scratch (OK, baking too, but that's only once/week)
So on the whole I think that we spend less money these days, even though the cost of food might have gone up.

Where did my paragraphs go?

Yep, up to £50 - £60 extra a week which we can't really afford but have no choice but to spend if we want to eat.

Yes, all kids at home and so eating lunches. Lots of trying to work out how much food we need so some wastage (mainly bread). Limited range so more expensive brands left. Gone up by about £150 from £400 a month.

Ours has def gone up by about 60-80 a week since lockdown. We are buying more treats but largely eating sane meals as before. Everything just appears to have gone up and there are no offers

Yep mines gone from £40-£60 to £90 - £130
Im buying lunches for all,(DH still out working, and normally gets something out, but everywhere shut) 7 meals a week instead of 5/6 and DH picking up a takeaway. Im also cooking properly every meal as i've no freezer space to buy things like a chips and chicken nugget dinner.

The queues at the shops also mean I'm not visiting 5 shops a week to get the best deals, its one or two. There is also a lack of choice in the shops so you have to pick what you can get, which isn't always the cheapest.