How much does your family of 4 food shop cost?

[Ginbutholdthetonic]

For context:
two adults, I’m on maternity so home all day, DP works so takes lunch everyday.

one 2.5 year old.

one 3 month old on formula.

We started seriously budgeting our money.. we did a £50 a week shop and it was seriously tight on the weeks we needed washing up tabs/toilet paper/kitchen roll/kitchen things(foil, parchment ect)

we’ve now gone ahead and sorted out our finances after selling our house, paying off our debt and buying our family home. Now our monthly outgoings are considerably lower we can afford to be less strict on the food shop budget.. but I also don’t want to go wild. So I’m looking for similar size families to tell us what you budget a month.

we currently have about £1000 left a month after bills, after maternity that will be +£800 so we don’t necessarily need to budget. But I know if we don’t there will be so much waste.. and we want to start savings for the kids, holiday and emergencies.

how much should we be spending on the food shop?!

But similarly a family of 4 spending £50 per week. What on earth are they eating? That doesn't sound like anywhere enough money to have a variety of filling and nutritious food.

Two adults and a teen here. This week I got ours down to £88 including one bottle of wine and a pack of eight beers. BUT, we didn't need any snacks, toiletries or cleaning stuff this week. It's always been closer to £110-130 a week. It includes lunches for me and DH, DS uses £20 a week on school breakfast and lunch. I have now swapped a lot of things I would normally buy without batting an eyelid, so cheaper cuts of meat, no microwave rice or pre-prepared vegetables.

£80 per week
two adults, a child, baby and a cat.

Quite incorrect you see. Loads of berries, seasonal fruits, different kinds of veg, plenty of eggs, chicken, Omega-3 rich fish, and the odd day of red meat as we like to not consume red meat. Plain greek yoghurt. Milk. Lentils. Beans.

My country of origin has trained me well to cook nutritious meals like Rajma Chawal (a dish of curried beans, with tomatoes, and lots of spices), with wholegrain chapattis from our massive bag of atta that I can make in a jiff because of watching mum/grandma for years and years, a side of Raita with plain greek yoghurt. Or - from spouse's country of origin - chicken casseroles with various root veg, and colourful mash with swedes, carrots and potatoes. Fish - which can be expensive - is always bought after 5 pm - yellow stickered straight from fishmongers, and is always, always Omega 3 heavy fish, at a third of the original price at the start of the day. Children love their muesli, with yoghurt, and a berry compote (fresh, or frozen), and poached eggs.

None of these meals out of my repertoire cost a huge amount of money. None of the ingredients are organic, or branded though. Naturally - the cost is low. If the yardstick to these food options are "were the berries organic? the eggs organic and free range? was the chicken organic and from Taste the Difference? Was the yoghurt you mention Yeo Valley organic?" Absolutely not.

One adult and one 5yo here. I shop daily rather than weekly and average spend per day is £10. So £70 per week. I buy as much yellowed sticker fresh stuff as I can. 5 yo has sen and is a very, very picky eater but eats like a horse with the few foods he will actually eat. One trip to McDonalds a month and a lunch out maybe once every 6 weeks. No takeaways. Shop mainly in Asda but pop to sainsbury's once a week and Tesco once a week. 5 yo is also still in pullups due to his sen so 1 - 2 packs of those bought each week (included in the £70 per week). I try to get own brand for majority of items but have to buy branded for 5yo (eg fish fingers, ketchup) as he won't touch own brand identical foods!

National average is £100 a week plus £50 food out of the house/take away. We spend - bit more than that on groceries. A good diet is not something to skimp on if you don’t need to.

Ours is £120 a week in Morrisons
We eat well though. We have a 14 teenage boy and a 6yo so our consumption levels are going to be a bit higher than yours and that usually includes £10 of food for the foodbank. Kids and DH eat lunch at school / work weekdays, I work from home though so includes my lunch.

For two adults and a toddler who eats mammoth portions, we spend about 45-65 a week, depending on how many nappies, laundry, dishwasher etc extras we need.

Currently we have 2 extra adults staying with us and it’s definitely more like 60-70.

That’s for all all breakfasts and teas, and most lunches but not all.

2 adults and 2 teens. Probably around £130. £100 main shop at lidl then £30on bits and bobs and some gluten free stuff at sainsburys or tesco.

2 adults, 2 lower primary DD’s. Inclues all meals for me and DH, the girls get fed at school.

we spend about £100 a week, and we probably over buy. We always have enough left to have been able to do a packed lunch for the DC each day.

generally it’s £75 at Aldi, £15 in Asda and £10 home bargains / b&m.

Because OP asked?

She didn't say 'only reply if it's what I spend or less'.

Haha we just all like having different things, it's disgraceful really but we don't change. I stopped reading the posts as soon as I got to yours, I had what I needed and am not the only one overspending so thank you!

2 adults plus 2 teenage DC. We spend around £120 a week. This includes 3 meals a day for all of us as we either WFH so eat lunch at home or take packed lunches to work/school. I buy higher welfare meat and organic vegetables, which increases the cost, but currently we can afford it.

I would love to know how you can spend under £70 a week for 4 people.

I struggle to stay on my budget of £125 a week (inc a box of formula and a bag of nappies)

Once I've got fruit and veg I've already spent at least £20. I meal plan, take a list and shop at Aldi/lidi and home bargains for cleaning stuff. Any tips welcome!

Good timing. Our shop is tomorrow.

caveat: All meals home cooked. No organic or free range. Largely own brand. No alcohol or chocolates. And I am a good cook and enjoy cooking. Tescos. Okay so -

PROTEIN BASES OF MEALS -

Butchers choice £2.79 2 kg frozen chicken portions
Pork mince (£2) and Veggie mince (£2) to be mixed together and frozen in 3 portions for 3 meals.
30 (!!) eggs
multi pack sausages
Frozen salmon pack of 4 (£3.50)
Red lentils
kidney beans
6 litres whole milk to make paneer.

FRUIT/VEG

1 kg sweet potatoes for lunch soups 79 p
courgettes 80 p
redmere farm onions 1 kg 50 p
Redmere farm peppers 90 p for 1.2 kg
Frozen mixed veg 69 p for 1 kg x 2
frozen broccoli 90 p 1 kg x 2
Carrots 1 kg 47 p x 2
Strawberries £3.25 600 g
Yellow stickered berries on the spot tomorrow £2
Grapes £2
Apples 69 p for 6 x 2
Frozen sweetcorn 80 p
2 kg potatoes 90 pence

DAIRY

creamfields yogurt 59 p x 3
6 litres semi milk £1.89 x 2
creamfiekds cheese £2 for 400g
mushrooms £1

BAKERY

Howard Neville croissants 8 for 95 p x 2
howard Neville brown bread 36 p 800g
Strong wholemeal atta already at home

————

These basic ingredients - with my spice larder will generate

Egg curry and rice
Rajma chawal, rice and raita
chicken biriyani
Sweet potato carrot and lentil soup
sausage and broccoli pasta
Steamed fish with veggie pilaf rice
Chicken and mushroom fried rice
Pork and veg Keema pilaf
pork and veg chilli
Mini jackets with cheese and chilli
tarka Daal with rice and Indian stoke scrambled eggs.

You have to compare like with like, the people spending less than £70 probably don't have formula and nappies to buy. Formula and nappies are expensive and are going to put the cost of your shop up, you're probably spending at least £15-£20 per week on those alone.

Also if they are veggie then they are not buying meat which had gone up a lot I think.

Our assessment of tomorrow's shop above would also include Fred and Flo Size 5 nappies (£3).

It does not however include much red meat if at all - as we dont tend to eat red meat. We do not drink really (once or twice a year now) - and the kids' snacks tend to be constructed out of what we've got in the list above one way or another.

DD is 2, and there's no formula - just nappies.

In terms of cleaning stuff - I started a thread about this recently and got many useful tips. We use hot water with dish washing liquid now for the sides, and bleach for loos. Seeming to work fine in the limited time we've had so far!

Thread on budget cleaning products here.

I did the sums yesterday.

Over past 6 months for a family of 2 adults and 1 DC our average was £305/month (£70/wk) on food/grocery shopping (a mix of Aldi/Lidl/Tesco/M&S/Wholefoods) and £125/month (£29/wk) on takeaways and eating out.

We eat pretty well on that, meat most days, a takeaway most weeks, and a good meal out every month. It includes laundry/cleaning materials but no pet food. I have a big freezer though and look out for reduced meat, either yellow stickered or discounted and stock up when I see it.

@lady725516 alot of fatty mince consumed here which helps keep our cost down to around £70/week. It costs only about £4/kg so £2 per meal and the fat makes it really tasty and filling (lean mince isnt nearly as tasty), great in shepherd's pie, chilli, burgers etc. We have a mix of cheap dinners and other nights when we have a roast or steaks or something fancier.

With bulk buying cleaning stuff at Costco the food is about £80 pw for 6. If I buy snacks and cola etc its £100.

I'd say £100 pw for 4 is pretty standard. I could easily spend £150 a week but I live to my budget which is small right now.

Around £150 pw for me, DH, ds1. (15), dd (13) and ds2 (7). That’s for absolutely all our meals, incl .packed lunches / wfh lunches. Some weeks it’s £130 on Tesco delivery, and most weeks I’ll need to top up on bread, milk, fruit / veg.
washing machine / dishwasher tabs from smol.
I do meal plan, but to avoid waste and help with awkward work hours, rather than driven by budget. If DH did the shop every week, I think it would edge over £200 every week.
typical evening meals this week:
roast chicken, giant couscous salad
turkey, veg stir fry noodles
lasagne (made from half frozen bolognese from last week) carrots broc
slow cooker beef stew
Salmon, roasted med veg, rice
leftover roasted veg, blitzed with tomatoes with pasta / Parmesan
jkt pot, beans cheese

we eat out / have takeaway for special occasions only.

Thanks for all the tips and examples!
Looking at these it seems I spend quite a bit on fruit and fresh veg (I always buy jazz apples for example which are around £2)
I've tried some frozen begs before but always found it quite watery. I will try again.
I will also try some frozen meat. I'm trying to eat more veggi meals so hopefully that will reduce my weekly food bill!

I’d be interested to see the shopping list of a family who spend upwards of £100 a week on the shopping. We did a shop in the end, wasn’t careful as I thought I’d just do a shop, add what we need for dinner that week, add things for lunches and snacks and we managed to spend £72. I’m starting to wonder what we’re missing out on 😂

I do wonder if it’s fizzy drinks/flavoured drinks. We’re pretty much a water only family, occasionally give DD squash with her dinner, but we only ever buy bottled water occasionally if I fancy it, and fizzy drinks are only ever brought if I’m doing a meal for family/friends.

prob about £200 pw for 2 adults and 2 teens. Never eat out or get take aways but do drink wine