How much do you spend on food shopping? Would you share your shopping list?

[Notsure2023]

We (Me, DH, DS who is 1 and dairy free) spend around £120-£140 per week.

We’ve always had to go to Tesco for DF things and tried shopping at Aldi for the rest. The bill is around £120 p/w. If we do a full shop in Tesco it’s £140 p/w. This will include nappies, toiletries, a bottle of wine, crate of beer.

we try to eat healthy with lots of fruit, veg, fresh meat and fish. But it’s just getting too expensive to maintain 😞

how much do you spend? Would you mind sharing your shopping list?

thank you x

Oh, and what we buy? In addition to the above, this week’s shop was £160. That included laundry liquid, cat food, nappies x 2 (as one kind was on offer), chicken breasts, mince, a pork fillet (will do me and DH two meals), veg (carrots, broccoli, spinach, onions, green beans, cucumber, tomatoes), fruit (apples, bananas, some grapes), bread, fish fingers, cold meats for packed lunches, crisps, cereal bars/snacks, milk, some yogurts, pizzas for an easy dinner (on offer), some cleaning bits…..quite a typical first shop of the month.

Two adults and a 2 year old. I don’t tend to eat breakfast & DS is at nursery 4 days pw, plus DH gets lunch at work for free 1 day pw, so we basically do about 34 weekly adult meals and 17 toddler meals per week.

I spend about £40-45 pw on food & get nappies, wipes, laundry/cleaning/toilet roll and toiletries separately but in bulk.

We do a freezer/cupboard meal for one week in 8. Dinners from 5-17th are:

Souvlaki pork wraps
Creamy mustard pork with mash and veg
Spag bol x2 (and will also do a couple of lunches)
Steak sandwich & chips
Pesto cod traybake
Salmon teriyaki noodles
Sweet potato rice bowl
Spicy cauliflower and halloumi rice
Beef stew & dumplings with veg
Roast beef dinner
Cod & chips
Honey soy salmon with brown rice and veg

Breakfasts are normally Weetabix/Porridge and fruit, Greek yoghurt and fruit, baked oats or American pancakes (I make in bulk and freeze).

Lunches tend to be leftovers, soup and toast or scrambled eggs.

This is quite a meat heavy couple of weeks for us, but that’s what we’ve got as leftovers in the freezer. I buy meat and fish on special or yellow stickers & build the meal plan around what’s on offer.

I do a payday shop once a month for long life items - cat food, oat milk, tuna, tinned tomatoes, tea/coffee, toilet rolls, etc - around £100.
Then meal plan for the week and buy protein and veg - around £40.
It is definitely going up all the time. My monthly shop this time was £120 and I forgot the toilet rolls! The cat food I buy (a supermarket brand) has gone up twice since last summer - first from £4.25 to £4.45, then from £4.45 to 4.95 since my last stock-up in October - 16% increase.

2 adults 1 teenager and 3 under 2 one large shop every 2 weeks for us 165 including fresh fruits and veg we eat a lot of mince,chicken etc and I bake and cook alot. Get our delivery from tescos

Usually £50 for two adult sized people. No alcohol, I hardly drink, but I can't afford to anyway as there isn't the money for it after paying for food. We buy mostly fresh food.

Can't share a shopping list as don't do online

But it's just me and H and I spend on average about £95 a week

Around £65 if that will be in M&S where I get juice, milk, bread, packets of rice, pasta, couple of ready meals, packs of breaded chicken and fish, and a chicken and sausages frozen and fresh veg, yoghurts,

Then about £30 in waitrose or sainsburys which will be some tinned and packet stuff,

Once a month will be about £30 more when I buy dishwasher tablets , cleaning cloths and cleaning stuff and washing tabs in bulk on Amazon

I was thinking this. Not saying people shouldn't drink at all, if I liked wine and was struggling with rising costs but wasn't skint then I might buy a bottle between two for a Friday or Saturday night. Though, I wouldn't be buying a bottle and a crate of beer every week if I was struggling to afford fresh food.

2 adults, 2 primary aged DC. Spend about £80 per week Tesco delivery plus milk delivery. DC have school dinners most days. Delivery this morning consisted of:
Sausages, chicken breast (smallest free range pack), breaded chicken, bacon, prawns, smoked salmon.
Garlic bread, pizza, filled pasta, cocktail sausages.
Cheddar, soft cheese, sour cream, creme fraiche, Greek yoghurt, kids' yoghurts, chocolate mousses, cheese dippers.
Sliced bread, bread rolls, croissants, pains au chocolat.
Tea bags, sultanas, eggs, custard, tinned tomatoes, passata, tinned sweetcorn chickpeas, mayonnaise, kitkats, jammie dodgers.
Mushrooms, peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, butternut squash, sweet potatoes, green beans, red cabbage, stir fry veg.
Bananas, grapes, strawberries, Blueberries, watermelon.
Dishwasher pods.
Think that's everything.
Buy mainly own brand and a mixture of value, standard and finest depending what it is. One non-meat eater and one DC who doesn't eat a lot.

2 adults and 2 young teens about £165 a week including stuff like cleaning products and loo roll etc . Two of us are vegetarian, and about 75% of family meals are vegetarian. If you are trying to save I would recommend eating vegan or vegetarian a few times a week but don’t buy the frozen pre-made protein sources apart from
maybe mince and tofu .. bbc good food website is a good source of recipes

I hear you @Notsure2023

I did a small basics shop for my neighbour yesterday,

Margarine, Peanut Butter, Cheese, Teabags, Coffee, Bread, Milk, a couple of packets of Biscuits and a Mr Kipling Cake, and some Fruit and Veg

It took only a few minutes, didn't fill two small bags and it was almost £50.

It was the kind of shop I still think I ought to be able to do for under £30.

My brain hasn't caught up with inflation yet.

Small sourdough loaf
Tortillas
Hot cross buns
Baps
Crumpets

Potatoes
Carrots
Red onions
Kale
Mixed salad
Mushrooms
Avocados
Tomatoes
Grapes
Bananas

Milk
Cheese
Butter
Yogurt
Ham
Kabanossi
Falafel
Mince
Diced steak

Eggs

Icecream

Total £46
We have store cupboard staples so this is not strictly one week, though these tend to be cheap

Around 50 pw but it's just me and 11 yo DS. He has free school lunches. Sometimes it's a bit more, sometimes less depending on toiletries, washing powder etc. That also includes cat food.

2 x pack of biscuits
Crumpets
Porridge
Rolls
Bread
Crisp multipack
Variety of fruit and veg inc potato
Whole chicken
Chicken thighs
Mince
Pack of sausages
Couple of pizzas
Cheese
Salmon portions
Eggs
Lentils
Chickpeas
Tinned toms
Chicken dippers
Tinned tuna

I have normal store cupboard ingredients such as rice and pasta but they take a while to use up. Same with things like ketchup and mayo. I make my own chips and sauces where possible. I can also usually make four meals from a pack of mince and two from a whole chicken so that cuts costs down. I sometimes buy a curry sauce and do a slow cooker curry and freeze leftovers. Same with bolognese. Today we're having a roast chicken but DS won't eat roast potatoes so I don't bother and just do 3 veg and Yorkshire puddings. The leftover chicken will be frozen and into a pie or a slow cooker casserole. I have made a concerted effort to cut down on food waste so that has kept my bills manageable.

I forgot milk and squash but things like teabags, coffee, sugar, loo roll are monthly purchases, not weekly.

The other thing I do is a Sunday clear out the veg drawer and anything that looks a bit withered goes into a soup with chilli flakes and a tin of chopped tomatoes. That'll last me for two lunches or dinners.

Family of 4, me, DP, DS9, a 1 month old and a dog, we do a weekly click and collect at Tesco and I set myself a budget of £90 a week. This does us breakfasts, lunches all week and 6 dinners (we usually get 1 takeaway or meal out a week.) it also includes general toiletries for us all, dog food (wet and dry) cleaning products etc. I will then usually spend another approx ten pounds mid week on another loaf, milk more fruit etc normally in Aldi as I walk past on the school run.

I carefully meal plan and buy ingredients accordingly.

pre Covid I spent £70/£80 absolute max per week on everything so have really noticed the increase!

Good grief some of the bills are massive!
1K per month !
We spend £60-70 week for 2 people, only £20 more if adult DC are around.
This includes pet food but no alcohol or nappies.
We shop locally, buy a whole FR chicken,bake own bread.
Breakfast is porridge or eggs/ toast.
Rarely snack.
Lots of daal, chicken, fish and veggie stuff.
Fresh fruit in season so pears, apples. Oranges.
Buy frozen blueberries for porridge plus frozen green beans as 4 x the amount for the same price as fresh.
Batch cook and freeze.
Lots of UPF on people's lists which we avoid

I usually shop daily for fresh food and then every so often do a supermarket run for products that work out best in bulk. I then usually batch cook on a couple of days a week, freezing fridging and preserving the fresh stuff which I nearly always get marked down.

I like to cook so I enjoy my batch cooking days, and it means running the oven etc only once for many dishes so saves on energy costs.

The type of things I make on my batch cooking days are -
Batches of different curry sauces
various pestos and Hummous, raita, tapenades and dips
pasta sauces
bread dough, naan breads and pizza dough balls for the freezer
soups, French onion, pea and ham, cream of chicken, white bean and rosemary all favourites but I do others too depending on what I find fresh.
Breading chicken and/our pork schnitzels
chillis, shepherds and cottage pies, hotpots
cheese straws, various tarts for lunches (feta and fig, bacon and cheese, creamed broccoli etc)
breakfast pots, muffins and cereals
puddings - scones, rice pudding, bread and butter pudding, sticky toffee, fruit pies, cheesecakes
jams, chutneys and pickles

Basically our budget varies per week depending on what I can pick up fresh each day on offer and if it represents good value, I’ll buy it and cook it up in some way to store/freeze/jar/preserve. When we have cupboards full we will often have no spend weeks where we don’t shop to use everything up. December is always a no spend month in that I don’t buy any food other than the Christmas food, all normal daily food comes out of the stores.

On average I’d say we spend £10 a day on fresh food and £75 per month on bulk buys. Family of five with two teens. Maybe £400/month or £100/ week so not super high and not super low but we eat very well and host others very regularly.

I don’t like the “weekly shop” supermarket model. Most of my food budget is spent in the baker grocer and butcher.

the above doesn’t include alcohol but does cleaning products.

I've managed to only spend £32 this week, I'm pretty impressed with myself! That doesn't include pasta or rice as I had some already. Will need to buy milk and bread by Thursday but otherwise I have shopping until Friday in the fridge

That's for 2 people

This is how we shop.
Local but I appreciate not everyone has that.
For example a medium bag of nice red pots is £3 in the supermarket, I can buy a sack for £10 at the greengrocer.
Your food sounds lovely btw

Family of 5, £100pw. 2 are small and dont eat much.
£27 on an organic fruit and veg delivery
£15 on a large free range chicken
£6 two packs of free range sausages
Organic mince
Chorizo
Bread flour
Mozzarella
Cheddar
Pasta
Bagels
Own brand cereal
Eggs
Baked beans
Frozen peas
Stock
Tinned tomatoes
Greek yogurt
Frozen berries x2
Mushrooms
Garlic
chilli
salad veg
8pts of milk
Porridge
Biscuits
Squash

I shop in Tesco - me and hollow-legged teen DS. I spend £50-£55 a week. Yesterday's shop was:

Satsumas, apples, plums
Carrots, cabbage, peppers, cucumber, fresh beetroot, broccoli, leeks, mushrooms
4 pints milk
1 rainbow trout
6 chicken thighs
4 x burgers
4 x pork shoulder steaks
350gm frozen mussels
1 garlic butter baton
6 x hot cross buns
2 x tinned toms
1 x tinned sardines
1 x bottle lemon barley water
large jar peanut butter
1 pkt fig rolls
1 pkt choc digestives
1 x large frozen pizza
2 small cartons apple juice for cooking

2 large wholemeal loaves from M&S

The wholemeal bread in our Tesco is horrible, hence M&S. And Tesco have just announced they're closing our fresh fish counter so I'll have to find another source for that too. 🙁

£70 in Lidl today
2 of us (no kids)

Stewing steak, chicken breast, few types of cheese
The rest fruit and veg and basics
No toiletries, no booze
Will last all week but we may have a takeaway too

This week we spend £54 at Aldi, 2 Adults, DS aged 18mo.

We eat meat less often than we used to and very rarely buy alcohol (we tent to stock up from gifts at Christmas and birthday.

DS is in reusable nappies during the day and disposable pull ups at night, my sanitary products are all reusable.

We have chickens so don’t need to buy eggs and we didn’t need anymore pasta or rice this week as we had it in the cupboard.

Raspberries
Apples
Easy Peelers (satsumas)
Bananas
Tomatoes
Sugar snap peas
mini sweetcorns
Potatoes
Aubergine
Carrots

(We already have some greens and some peppers left over from last week)

6 pints Milk
Red Leicester Cheese

(Already have an unopened tub of yogurt at home)

Chicken thighs, I think 8? Maybe 6
A gammon joint for roasting

Mixed beans
Kidney beans
Cannalini (sp) beans
black beans

Large jar of Passata
small carton of Passata
Chopped tinned tomatoes x2

Kitchen Roll
Pull Ups
Paracetamol
Another pack of reusable wipes

Frozen Pizza x 2
Frozen breaded fish

Caster Sugar

I think that’s everything!

Oh I forgot wheatabix and granola

Also we make our own bread so don’t need to buy any