250£/week on groceries for 2 people!

[FrogOnSaturn]

How crazy is it? We buy everything organic and don't have ready meals.
Strictly speaking, we can afford it (i.e. we still can save some money at the end of the month), yet it seems to me quite of a huge amount. Unfortunately it's not something I can control, since she manages the orders. I read that 2 people should spend around 100 a week!
We are in London.
Note: the bill also include shower gel, toilet rolls. etc...

That's insane.

We could afford to spend £1k a month on food but it would be madness and we wouldn't necessarily eat any better than we do now - I'd spend less time in the kitchen and we'd be far more ethical.

Our food spend for 4 is around £600 a month!

Not too much meat but lots of fish actually.

It would be easy to get that number down if you changed where you shopped or reduced the amount you buy there. I'm a bit baffled that your partner thinks it isn't possible.

We spend £250 at Ocado and Waitrose per week for 2 adults and 3 kids. Yours sounds a lot

I buy a lot of organic and spend much much less than that for a family of four.

Alcohol?

Currently a household of two people. I cook everything from scratch (with reference to your ready meals comment). We spend £250 a month.. don't go without at all, includes food treat's etc.

I want to cry.

We do one weekly shop for about £150 for 2 adults, 2 children and 2 cats. From Sainsburys to include all food for every meal for all of us. And some booze plus loo roll etc.

We're also a family of 4 who spend around £100-130 per week on food.

We mostly shop at a mix of Tesco, Aldi, local greengrocer, odd bits from the local butcher and health food shop. I

You could reduce your food bill dramatically by not buying everything organic and choosing a more budget supermarket.

Good grief, what are you buying? I spend around £60 per week for one person and that includes toiletries.

That would be it then.

You take over the shopping and try to get the cost down. See if you can. Cheap shower gel etc.

Post a list on here of what you buy if you'd like suggestions of how to get the cost down. I tend to spend £70 a week which is for 1 adult and 2 primary children for roughly 4/5 days, and 2 adults for the rest of the week. We may get 1 takeaway as well on top of that for around £20-£30 every fortnight-ish. Sorry if you've already answered but do you go to the shop yourself or get it delivered? How about trying a different supermarket for a few weeks?

Why are you so judgemental about it?

Some people spend £1000's on clothes, takeaways, hobbies, whatever.

If some people want to spend their money on higher end food from the supermarket then so what?

I don't do it personally but I really don't see the big deal.

Someone who spends £30 a week on shopping at Aldi might say that my £100-150 a week at Waitrose is crazy.

Everything is relative.

Two adults here - no kids yet but we do have a dog. We’re at around £120 a week. Similar, we cook a lot from scratch and don’t buy the cheapest of meats, have little treats and the odd bottle of wine etc. Would absolutely change to Sainsburys as the quality is just as good as Ocado. Included in that is a veg box and eggs from our local farm which is £15 a week and covers all the basics. The cost of shopping has gone up, but try a different supermarket to start making some savings.

Volunteer to take over for two months.
Do the cooking and the shopping, take the pressure off your partner and then reassess.

A Able & Co veg box is about £15. Their fish is quite pricey.

I spend that much every week. It is just 2 of us and then 2 grandchildren twice a week. They grandchildren are young. This amount includes wine, a couple of bottles twice a week. I shop at Ocado and really I just buy what we want. Not much meat but fish quite often. On the plus side we get about 1 takeaway a year, usually when someone comes unexpectedly.

If you are worried about how much it is coming to I would suggest you do the online ordering for a few weeks.

We are a house of 2 adults 2 teens . I buy all cereals and toast for week stuff for cooked fresh brekky at weekend , send my partner and teens with packed lunches to work and school and cook all our dinners from scratch and spend 100-120 per week I can see why 250 for 2 would concern you. Is there any scope for you to say take over the shopping and cooking for one month and put the change from 250 per week in a jar so you can both literally see what you could save ?

I'm miffed if my shop for 2 adults and a toddler comes to more than £50. £250 is quite astounding to me. We will top up this week as we haven't bought ingredients for 1 meal evening meal but today I spent £34 on our big shop. Admittedly it wasn't organic and we eat vegetarian but there were no ready meals or only occasional frozen sausages or chips.

Maybe you could suggest reducing the amount of fish you eat and suggest vegetarian /vegan a couple of days a week. Argue its for environmental reasons if the organic thing is for this reason. Also if she says its impossible to reduce the cost then take over for a week and prove to her it is possible.

Pre lockdown we were spending similar amounts. I enjoyed grocery shopping in Waitrose and M & S and spent far too
Much time browsing the aisles in Waitrose. My fridge was always full of goodies just in case anyone popped in.

During lockdown I realised just how much I was spending and how unnecessary it was .
At least £5 k per year after tax better off and probably much healthier.

Also two adults here, we average £100-125 per week including wine. More if we are having guests round of course. No kids at home still. We never buy organic (think it’s a bit of a con tbh), we do eat meat and fish. Shop predominantly at Aldi with some top ups at Tesco, but I also use the local greengrocer/market/butcher at times.

If I didn't keep track of things and ordered whatever I fancied I could probably do it easier.

However, I'd probably prefer to watch the shopping bill a little and have a nice meal out weekly instead

That's a ridiculous amount. Why don't you go shopping together at the weekend and see where the money is going. Or try doing Asda online.

Ignore the jealous posters.

£250 seems a ridiculous amount.

Do you have any food waste?

Organic food is going to cost much more.
Could you try the same shopping list but a different supermarket?

£13,000 a year on groceries for two people sounds crazy to me. I probably spend a tenth of that (just for one person though). But I think the ratio of grocery spend versus money put into savings every month is very important. I mean if you're spending over a grand on food every month and only putting £100 into savings then that would be really stupid. If you're putting an equally large amount into your savings, then fair play. I just wish I could afford to spend as much on food as you!