I just spent £101 on a week's shopping for two people

[Henerlo]

... and it feels like a tipping point.

Admittedly it included cleaning bits and bobs, two bottles of booze and some fresh fish for the friends we're having round tomorrow but still having friends round is a fairly normal activity. No other luxury items, no ready meals, no extravagant deli snacks etc, just a normal shop.

I don't need advice on budgeting, I can do that. I wasn't shopping to a budget today. I'm just noting that for me at least I've reached the point where I can spend £100 on a weekly shop for two without even trying and it's pretty worrying.

My weekly shop has gone up by £30-40. In the meantime it's recently been announced that i won't be getting a pay rise. Again.

I'm managing to stay just below £100 a week (£90-95) for 2 adults and a 4yo. Most cleaning stuff and washing powder I order separately online (septic tank friendly) and dog food I buy separately. We don't drink alcohol or eat meat at home, but we do get through a lot of milk which had gone up an insane amount this year.

I've given myself the threshold of £100 a week for when I'm going to have to sit down and cut expensive or more luxury items.

£170 here for one adult and two children
no booze

But an obscene amount of organic fruit and veg.

so I have no one to blame but myself!

We recently had £100 worth of shopping delivered from Asda, and the pile of food was so small we initially thought we were missing a few crates. I can't believe how little you get for your money now.

I spent £120 yesterday on a shop for 2 adults, a toddler and a 10 month old who eats 3 meals a day plus snacks. That included various cleaning products and alcohol and was in sainsburys. You're just choosing to buy expensive products.

Some items have inflated in price recently but some have reduced too.

Do you buy a lot of meat? Ours is usually £80-100 for 4 including every thing. Veggie here though

Did our weekly shop yesterday and it was £70 and that didn't included any fruit or veg as we have plenty of frozen at home and I'll pick up the fruit today.
Didn't include any treats, any drinks.
Did include baby formula though.
We are a family of 3 but baby is only 4 months old.
Prices are shocking these days

2 adults, a 7 year old, a 16 year old and a dog £140 per wk! Theres no way I could spend any less!

I'm utterly baffled when people say things like this because I've been shopping at Aldi and Lidl since long before it was socially acceptable to do so and in my experience, their veg is exactly the same as any other supermarket.

But how much was the fish?

How much was the booze?

What cleaning 'bits and bobs' did you buy and how long will it last?

Grocery shopping is very much a 'how long is a piece of string' matter because there's a huge range of how much it can cost without any noticeable difference in taste, quality or nutritional value.

But yes, if you wander around the shop buying what looks nice without looking at prices and trying to pick the cheapest/best value options, it will cost a lot.

I looked at my £100 of shopping on kitchen table yesterday and thought
“ Is that it ?!”

Bacon was the only meat and one meal deal at £12 ( Rather than a take-away)

Next week will be higher as I have a Birthday cake to make for mil birthday and have also put ice cream, cornets and flakes in for homemade 99s. Guess how old she is going to be?
I do her shopping separately in Marks and Spencer as she likes soft traditional food and their jellies and rice pudding. Her shopping bill is very high!

Um no.

Because some people care about other people too.

Yes! I get my shopping from different places which keeps the cost down a bit but it's still a lot now.

Mainly just the two of us and I budget £50pw (doesn't include cat food!). I'm still managing to stick to it and there's the odd change here and there I could make. Not sure it's going to be so easy to stick to it by the end of summer though. Whatever our budgets, it makes you think when you're having to be more careful, or even when you realise you're spending more than usual and how much that's coming to.

I spent £100 for two of us in Aldi last night, but that did include lots of sun cream for our holiday and DH put something in from the aisle of bad decisions. We don’t go to the shops, at all, for anything else through the week and DH takes a packed lunch everyday.

I will never understand people who moan about the quality of fruit and veg from Aldi. I’ve just moved from the East Midlands to Yorkshire and haven’t had a problem. I’ve still got strawberries I bought last week that are fresh. I remove everything from the packaging as soon as I get in before I put them in the fridge so maybe that’s why it lasts.

We eat a lot of fish, I eat a hell of a lot of fruit. Both are expensive, plus we buy lots of veg for the Guinea pigs. For now we can afford it but it is frightening how fast the cost of food is increasing.

We spend about £90 a week in Aldi for two adults, a teen that eats like an adult, a pre teen and dog. It used to be £70 a week. Guess it’s only going to go up more. Dread to think what that shop would cost me in sainsburys.

We're a family of 4 and fortunately don't need to budget as such. Nonetheless, I keep asking the Sainsburys driver for the final crate as I only used spend over £100 on a "big" shop and there would usually be 3 or 4 crates. Now it I spend that much routinely and only seems to fill two crates.

2 adults, 2dc
I try to spend no more than £90 a week
This includes three meals a day whether at home, work or school
This includes all snacks

I do majority shop in Lidl and buy the remainder at Sainsburys/Tesco

I’ve been mixing and matching a bit - we shop at Waitrose but their 4 pack of salmon has gone up AGAIN and it was £8.75 whereas it’s £6 in Sains, so it’s worth it to me to pop in there when I’m passing to get the things that I know are meaningfully cheaper.

I had to do a top up shop, 2 adults 1 school ages DC and toddler and it was £80 in aldi, no nappies cleaning stuff just normal meals for a few days

For 2 of us it’s been between £80-£100 most weeks for years and that was over buying, treats, extra house bits but now I’m spending £80 just getting the basics for the week and maybe a treat for a Saturday night. If I shopped like we used to it would be £110-£130 easily. Our basic bill has gone up by £20 at least I’d say and I’m even making cheaper swaps to things like Tesco laundry liquid

Is that all? My Ocado shop was 130 and that doesn’t include meat which I had frozen and top ups

We too have lovely fish, fruit, veg and organic meat which lasts on our Aldi and Lidl. We are a family of 3 adults and 2 teenagers and are now spending £300 a week. This includes cat food, cleaning products and a bottle of wine. I used to budget about £200, then £250 and now i have just given up. We have a new food store opening that is apparently like Iceland but bigger so I may see what they have to offer when it opens. I really want to do something like Gusto but we are a mix of meat and veggie eaters and there isn’t an option for 5 people.

I'd got into the habit during lockdowns etc - and a routine with weekly shops i.e.

• always use a cashback website like Quidco - and check on it to see which supermarkets offer a bigger discount/cashback. It varies and I save the cashback for Christmas.
• stashing items with lower prices i.e. currently ocado lowest price on butter I've found own brand (this week)
• always using checkout discount - services like honey or microsoft can shave up to ten pounds odd off the shop - regardless of what supermarket it is.
• also trawl near sell by date websites for bargains for store cupboard
• Too Good to go app not so much - would like to use it and think it would be good if there were stores nearby that did it - but there aren't near us.
• Likewise Lidl is quite a distance away and not worth it for that reason.
• I also have five supermarkets I shop at. If you rotate them - you will find if you don't shop somewhere for a few weeks they will send you a discount voucher as they want to retain your custom!
• Don't do stickered searches in store as the bus fare/taxi fare negates the savings due to distance.

But as others have said total prices are going up - so it is taking more and more time and effort to search - for best prices etc. It's a lot of work.

And as others have said if you have someone in the house who changes their eating habits i.e teen - or someone gone vegetarian/vegan and you aren't - it is tricky.

In theory you want to avoid food waste obviously, but it is nice to have a treat now and then - or variety. I've found it hard work with food over the past few years - constant stocktaking etc.

Unfortunately one of the first things to give when people are struggling to afford their own shopping will be donations to the food bank. perhaps not worry to you but certainly one for me

^^a worry to me because it will be a trickle down of misery to those who are the very worst off. We can continue donations for now but the trolly looks emptier every time