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, some things have gone up hugely, I've noticed - and the specials had all but stopped to reduce people bulk buying.

Some things have become better again (Fruit and veg in Australia is priced according to supply and therefore varies hugely in price) but today's big shop came in at nearly $300 when it would normally have been around $220.

A lot of supermarkets have stopped doing deals (buy one get one free or two for the price of 1), because of restrictions on quantity purchased.
So theres no longer a cheaper option. Or buying two one week because they're on offer so you dont have to buy the week after. No buy one get one free so if you buy two..you're paying for two

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)

I spent £200 this week. Everything has gone up.

Spending more but also only paying for fuel in one car rather than two, I'm not buying any lunches in work, etc. So I'd say it balances out.

I posted we are spending £160 a week which is probably close double our usual grocery bill. I’m also buying more Kindle books and pay per view tv.
But we are saving on takeaways, restaurants, pubs, coffees, Pret sandwiches, theatre (I normally see at least 4 plays a month so it gets expensive!) DH and DD are WFM which is saving them £50 a week each on train fares. I can’t get my botox topped up. No hairdresser or nail bar costs. Zoom yoga is less expensive than my normal class. DD’s gym membership was suspended and she has hired a spin bike instead. I would estimate that despite higher the grocery bill we are probably spending about £250 a week less than usual.

The obvious downside of that is that all the theatres, gyms, restaurants, salons, cabs etc are losing out. The thought that when all this is over thousands of small businesses will have gone under and many, many more people will have lost their job is horrifying.

@Derbygerbil I usually spend 55-65 on a family of 4 for the week and we eat very well. I meal plan and portion plan! I also don't buy juices, fizzy drinks or biscuits etc though

£105 with Ocado this week and it looks like very little. DH will spend another £30 or so at Tesco in the week - that is for two of us! Before all this it was £70+ £15. I must say that eating very well is about our only pleasure now.

Yeah, we're spending about 20% more than usual. Fewer special offers, no shopping around and no routinely dropping into the coop at 7pm to clean up the stickered stuff.

We have used this opportunity to really cut down on the junk food, home made lunches means I don’t have any Pret or EAT bills, and not paying £3 a day for coffee etc. We don’t drink anything other than water during the day, maybe the odd infused water and a morning coffee. So the bills haven’t really changed that much.

Definitely spending more here. Per PP, lack of choice in the shops, not being able to get our usual online delivery slots, plus being at home all the time. Usually I buy a coffee on my way to work in the morning, have lunch at Pret on a Friday, and we either go out or have a takeaway once a week, so I guess there is a bit of balance there.

We are spending shit loads at the moment, family of 6 but we are eating really well and have had some amazing meals. We are averaging £250 a week but we are not paying for school lunches , takeaways and meals out.

We are a family of 7 (all children 8 and under so not huge eaters) and we generally spend £125/wk. Last week we spent £300 - over two shops. However I am definitely putting in nicer food and branded snacks I know the children with enjoy as we're not spending on anything else. We live rurally so saving about £50/wk on petrol, no kids activities on the weekend and no eating out. That said that's still an obscene amount of money to spend on food and I won't be doing it again.

My weekly shop has increased from about £90 to £130 but I'm spending less overall. We would do an online food shop and then pop into Tesco or Asda to get some weekend treats or a bottle of wine. Now I'm anticipating what we might fancy and stocking up. I am also trying not to run out of things to avoid going to the shops so buying the odd bottle of shampoo or dishwasher tablets when what I've got is about half full. I never used to buy more until we'd nearly run out. 2 adults (one coeliac so £££ pasta and bread) and 1 DC.

Yep. A combination of not going to Aldi as am mostly doing click and collects and not being able to do my usual yellow sticker hunting. Plus drinking more wine. I do think prices might be going up too.

And yeah, the increase in the cost of groceries has been offset by DH no longer using a tank of petrol every 10 days to get to work and back.

Yes our food bill has been much more expensive, but for the next two weeks we are determined to use up as much as the freezer stuff as we can! And this week the food bill has been less than half the usual cost.

I must say that eating very well is about our only pleasure now.

Yes, same herre. Cooking nice meals and having wine with dinner is something to look forward to!

Same here really @PickAChew. We used to spend £40 per week in diesel for work and now only use the car once per week to collect the shopping so haven’t filled it up for weeks! It does make it more bearable.

here not herre!

@cultkid I do a lot of baking , more than ever at the moment and have switched from using butter to Sainsbury's baking butter which is 60 pence a block. I was using Lurpak before

Not at all, in fact our bills have gone down!

All the subscriptions for swimming, gym, cinema, sports clubs etc have all been suspended so we are saving monthly outgoings that way.

Online shopping slots are like gold dust & we've not managed to do an order since early March, so it's been individual trips to the supermarket at strategic times when it's less busy e.g. one of us goes in the last hour before closing. Have managed to get lots of bargains & reductions that way!

Overall, lockdown has been a time to tighten our belts and actually reduce outgoings, not to mention cancelled holidays/flights which have, so far, been refunded.

Usually shop at Aldi and spend £80-90 a week for 2 adults and 2 children, and then often need a couple of top up bits during the week. Have now switched to ASDA as I can get click and collect slots, and am spending about £120 a week. That’s with no top up shops though. Plus, kids usually have lunch and snacks at school or nursery, so those are extra meals we’re having to account for.

One adult and 2 teens, our bills have gone down, we spend £70 a week on groceries, have been cooking more from scratch, baking and no take aways. Usually we have a take away or eat out once a week and I usually buy food whilst out of the house working. I’m not allowing the kids to constantly eat, they are not doing much exercise so don’t need more than 3 meals a day.

I have noticed the price of food has gone up and their are less offers but we are managing to keep shopping costs pretty low. I have a budget for £100 a week but we rarely spend that.

Ours is astronomical, I can't bear to add it up because I know it's £££. 5 people at home all the time instead of cooking a maximum of 5 evening meals per week for whoever was at home.

It's a combination of things - prices definitely higher, having fresh meat delivered and using local companies for veg. boxes, baking with youngest DS and everyone just snacking more. I am also buying more treat foods and wine as we all miss going out and having a takeaway.