Food shopping budget

[hayu19]

We are a family of four, DH, myself, DS6yo and DS 5mo. Our current budget for food shopping (includes toiletries, cleaning products, nappies, wipes and formula) is currently £500 pm. We seem to struggle towards the end of the month, I do meal plan, batch cook and freeze meals etc. We do our shopping at asda online (I know aldi is cheaper but I just end up buying more than usual and overspend when in there)

Do you think £500 is enough? Are we just spending too much?

Thanks

Two adults and a baby: last month was £660 from Supermarket, plus dogfood (£70) and wine (£50) from elsewhere.

We cook 100% from scratch, use lots of brands, and aim for a huge variety of fruit and veg.

Budget for a family of 3 is £300 a month in Sainsburys. I've noticed prices coming down slightly.

We spent over £700 last month. Family of 4. It's ridiculous.

£600 a month here for 2 adults and 4 children (2 teens, 2 primary school). This includes toiletries and cleaning supplies.

We shop almost exclusively at Lidl, do packed lunches, cook from scratch. Not big drinkers. Home bargains for dishwasher tablets, etc.

We're about £200 a month up from what I used to spend a couple of years ago, when i had more adults to feed as well.

https://www.mob.co.uk/recipes/garlicky-spaghetti-with-anchovies-and-breadcrumbs

https://www.deliciousmagazine.co.uk/recipes/easy-tarragon-chicken/

https://www.tamingtwins.com/slow-cooker-chickpea-curry/

https://www.tamingtwins.com/slow-cooker-chicken-curry-recipe/#recipe

These are the types of melas `I am cooking, the chicken thighs in Aldi are presently under 33 for a kilo so buying two packs and lardons for £2 I can make the chicken tarragon up in batch and freeze. The spaghetti meals is cheap but filling and the chickpea curry tasty but cheap as the coconut milk and 2x chickpeas tins is around £2 and the rest of the ingredients. minimum and double up with the other meals, so a bag of onions will do for many meals, the chicken dishes made into slow cooker dump bags to put in slow cooker

Family of 5 here.We have a 19, 15 and 12 year old plus myself and DH. I cook from scratch every day at the moment as trying to cut back to save for a holiday. I am spending £150/£160 per week on my food shop.

I have tried shopping around and can’t seem to get it down. Even my old friend B&M’s seems to be expensive now. I try and take advantage of any vouchers I find for online shops but it’s still extortionate.

@LoisPrice I shop at Tesco and Aldi. I eat meat or fish and a large salad or mixed roasted veg for dinner, and for lunch I have salad, a bit of Brie or mozzerella, bit of antipasti.

DH meal preps as he lifts weights so eats yoghurt, fruit and nuts and and 3 eggs for breakfast (on the weekend he has a mid morning brunch of bacon and eggs instead of the eggs ), chicken breast or other meat for lunch with veg.

3DD who eat a lot of fruit (they are constantly in the fridge...one day last month they ate a kg of strawberries in a 24 hour period without my knowledge, the constant grazing has become a bit of an issue, but I've asked them not to a million times and it falls on deaf ears). We don't really buy many chocolate bars and biscuits, they have one in their lunch with a sandwich, and a pack of crisps and an apple.

Not many UPFs at all, but I think that ends up costing loads more.

@LoisPrice I didn’t know that you can do click and collect from Aldi? I will have a look and see if my local one offers this, thank you :)

We spend £500 per month too and no baby stuff!

Those who are spending £250 please give me an example of your shopping list/ meals.

We do get some brands so I wonder if that's where it's going wrong.

3 adults and 1 sporty teen who is always hungry and 2 cats who like to eat a tin of cat food every day and 4 pouches between them and 2 small dogs who have 1 tin of meat a day and dried food. The cats turn their noses up at the dried food. I spend at least £160 on groceries and cleaning products and toiletries each week and a milk, fruit and bread top up mid week of another £12. That doesn't count any take aways or eating out. During term time, teen has £5 on his card for lunch too every day. He's broken up from college now though and spends a lot of time looking in the fridge. We eat quite well but I shop at Aldi/Lidl and Morrisons. Aldi/Lidl for big shop and Morrisons mid week top up.

About 350 per month. I mix it up and use morrisons and lidl mainly. Sometimes asda but the quality has gone down hill.

I use B&M for toiletries and cleaning stuff although going in there is fatal and I have to really discipline myself.

Top tip: anyone doing online shopping, check on cashback sites such as top cashback or kidstart to see if you can claw some cash back. It builds up over a year.

Forgot to add, it's just me and 2 primary aged boys

We are a family of 5 (two adults, 7 y/o, 4 y/o & 6 mnths).

Shopping this month will be £550 including cleaning stuff, baby wipes, nappies, school dinners etc plus about £60 on takeaway (which comes from the “entertainment” budget.)

No alcohol and normally no takeaways.