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.....

@LuminousAmber - It is very easy to spend this in a family with a few teens and to have absolutely zero waste, all be underweight and eat no convenience or processed foods or crisps, biscuits etc and no ready meals or take outs!!

Obviously it includes eating expensive fresh foods including shellfish, smoked salmon, home made sushi, avocados etc plus expensive organic fruit and veg deliveries plus separate meat, fish deliveries, using milk man so paying high prices for all local organic foods and in our case paying for someone to shop for other foods as shielding when not using local suppliers. Spending lots does not mean eating junk or being overweight just spending money that used to be spent elsewhere on enjoying healthy luxury meals to cheer us up for not being able to leave the house for at least 12 weeks. Obviously those who can spend this are in a fortunate situation but when shopping locally are at least helping local farm shops and local businesses.

God yes we’re spending a fortune on food.

We’re definitely spending more because we’re now buying everything from Tesco and previously I shopped around for deals and reduced items. I’m quite enjoying it short term. Yes it’s more expensive but click and collect is very convenient and it’s been quite fun to buy some branded/luxury goods again.

@luminousAmber I agree with Springsummer22, this is not about eating processed food which on the whole is so much cheaper than homemade meals. We don’t eat any of that stuff, or pizza, nuggets etc but high quality ingredients so it mounts up really fast.

@luminousamber I’ve just spent £65 on artisanal cheese, that takes my weekly bill north of £300 this week and we won’t waste a crumb! It’s still far less than we would have spent on food previously if you include lunch out at the weekend, out for dinner at least once a week for me and DH, kids tea in local cafe. And no we aren’t overweight (but may be post lockdown, thanks for the reminder 😆). Just enjoy good food.

2 adults and 2 teens
Weekly Fruit /Veg and salad box £60 (it's an enormous box)
Weekly meat from a butcher £30
Extras £50

However, our petrol bills are zero compared with about £100 per week

Ours has gone up a little but some of these sound so high to me! Family of 5, one veggie and we spend around £100 a week. Cereal/ toast/ fruit for breakfast, soup/ sandwich for lunch chilli/spaghetti bol/curry etc for dinner. The odd frozen pizza/fish fingers. Panckes/roast dinner/wine at the weekend. Biscuits and other snacks... We sometimes bake as well. Mine has gone up as I'm trying to not need any top ups but we're saving elsewhere.

@foodbill

I actually don't think I could spend over 100 if I tried

You clearly aren’t trying very hard! Do you only buy basic stuff, and then in small quantities? I would have to try very hard to spend just £100 per week of four - possible of course and I’ve done it when I’ve needed to, but would be penny-pinching the whole time. As for a week of Christmas food at just over £100 - it doesn’t sound much fun tbh.

I've spent £140 this week on two adults three kids I think it will last around nine days before I have to do it again but their having and extra meal and snacks which they don't have usually so that's why I think .
We aren't going anywhere so I'm not spending more then I usually would in a week if you know what I mean so I can afford to spend that.

We are spending more on groceries and alcohol but no meals/ drinks out so saving money overall.
We are 4 adults who are eating and drinking very well - but spending well below £260 OP, not sure what you are buying?

Yes!! Last week’s bill was £250, this week £150 but I’m still short on some bits!! We are a family of 6! I have 2 teenage boys eating me out of house and home.

Yes mine has shot up but when I factor in I'm not spending on 3 dc school dinners and I'm not paying for parking every day and grabbing lunch every day at work kind of works out the same although it does make me vomit handing my bank card in Tesco every week

@Derbygerbil the thing is I went to Aldi at Christmas WITH my list...I got everything on my list and then I had a wander around and threw in bits n pieces-snacks, juices, fizzy stuff, box of Chocs etc, I wasn't counting, I wasn't penny pinching and it still only came to 113. I don't do it on purpose. I just naturally don't spend THAT much. If I want something I buy it! I don't deprive myself or my family. We eat very well, we eat a very varied diet and for some reason (before Coronavirus) my shopping would always be 65 or under. I usually shop in Lidl or Aldi. As I said I meal plan and portion plan too...but that's for wastage reasons.

Shopping in lidl or aldi is a huge help to keeping your bill low, because overall, it's cheaper and they simply don't sell the very high price artisan versions that make shopping somewhere like Waitrose so much more expensive unless you are very careful.

On another shopping thread where someone couldn't under why she spent so much, I used the example of the cheapest vs the most expensive types of broccoli available in Waitrose. Standard loose broccoli is about the same as anywhere else at about £2 per kilo but Waitrose also sell Duchy organic sprouting broccoli that costs nearly £12 a kilo, and there are numerous examples like that, eg meat, fish, cheese, bread, so you could have two weekly family shops that both contain basics like meat, fish, fruit, veg, bread, cleaning products, toiletries etc but if a few of the things are the expensive version, it adds significantly to the cost.

I also notice that you don't buy alcohol, foodbill. Some people will be spending more than you spend on food on alcohol alone, eg 6 bottles of mid priced wine each week.

I've been doing a weekly big shop for four of us, inc booze, and max spend £120. Doesn't include dog food though as I get that elsewhere. That's another £14-£20 a week.

My Aldi is like a fucking zoo at the moment. It might be cheaper but the stress of shopping there might kill me! It just wasn't designed for social distancing - the aisles are too narrow. And what's with putting one bottle of trolley spray at the door for everyone to touch after shoppers have already collected their trolleys?
Waitrose etc are undeniably more expensive but you stand a better chance of social distancing in a bigger store with enough staff to manage queues and trolley distribution etc.

@BarbaraofSeville no I don't drink at all...I buy a cheap cider sometimes for cooking with that's all 🤣

You clearly aren’t trying very hard! Do you only buy basic stuff, and then in small quantities? I would have to try very hard to spend just £100 per week of four

Our shopping averages £100 a week for 5 with no particular attempt at budgeting - but like the pp, I detest food waste so I’m careful not to overbuy.

I also don’t like spending for spendings sake so I always buy budget/value options when there’s no difference - I wouldn’t chuck in the £1.10 tin of tomatoes for example when the £0.30 tin is literally exactly the same just without the pretty label.

We eat very well and healthily but I suppose our natural way of shopping is to buy ‘basics’ - lots of unprocessed meat, lentils, chickpeas, beans, eggs as protein. Natural yoghurts, plain cheeses, a ridiculous amount of milk. Porridge oats for breakfast. A fuck tonne of fruit and veg which I struggle to cram into our (2!) fridges for a week. Whole meal bread and pasta, brown rice and a massive sack of potatoes a month that lives under the stairs.

We’ve got a cupboard full of dried herbs and spices and nearly everything is made from scratch.

I can’t imagine how I could possibly spend £200 + a week on food tbh.

I would imagine I’d either have to buy branded items for the sake of it (like tinned tomatoes, porridge oats etc) be buying a lot of premium priced convenience stuff or fancier versions of things, like flavoured yoghurts, branded cereals, coated meat, fancy cheeses, ready made branded sauces...none of which i’d want to buy for health reasons anyway.

Weird how different the same shop can be in different areas.
Aldi by us (theres two) are the easiest and calmest to shop right now.
One way system, everyone has to go completly round the whole shop in one line, spaced. I write my list in the order of when you go past things, and get all we need from there.
Asda is a little less calm, people seem more stressed in there. But I get the rest of our food in there.

Yes but

No school meals to pay for
All meals at home so no pret every day for me, one a week out for lunch with a friend, breakfast or lunch at a cafe for DH, family meals out, nights out in pub etc

So realistically it feels like a lot but probably we are saving loads. Overall credit card spend down 50%

That Aldi system sounds fantastic. Does everybody go at the same pace then? Like a conveyor belt?

If everyone sticks to it I bet that works quite well. That's a big IF though I guess!

Ours has gone up by 100%. Partly we’re eating more meals at home as we’re in, but also I’m sure prices have gone up.

My shopping has gone up probably by around £70 per week to about £170 for 3 of us but that does include alcohol. I agree with pp that good food is more expensive - good cheeses, organic meat, fresh fish, organic fruit and veg. Its expensive to eat well. Processed food is generally very cheap. To eat very cheaply youd have to eat either alot of processed food or a lot of starchy carbs which I just wouldn't want to do for health reasons.

Oh and that 30p tin of tomatoes absolutely does not taste the same as the premium one. Even in a slow cooked dish there is a huge difference in taste. The quality of ingredients really does make a difference to any dish.

Love that it only took 2 posts for the traditional MN competitive underspending to begin