Grocery bill getting out of control

[Gardencentrevoucher]

I've just had a major row with DH over the credit card bill. Its his card that I don't see the statements for and he is really bad at letting me know what the bills will be. The money comes out of a joint account and this is the third month in a row the bill has been way higher than I expected. Apart from a one off big purchase the entire bill was food shopping and petrol. DH does a weekly online shop at Asda and also drops into Aldi most weeks after his football practice. I need to somehow get the next bill much much lower without another huge row!

I've worked out we are spending £20 per day on food on average, or £5/person per day.

We're a family of 4 (2 adults/2 kids at primary school) and I just can't believe we need to spend that much on food. We don't drink alcohol or eat out often. It seems like a crazy amount of money for just normal family grocieries.

What is a reasonable amount per person per day or per week to budget for spending on food? Ideally I'd like it to be £10-£12 max to get the credit card back under control

We're a family of four - 2 x adults, 2 x children (4&6).

We spend a maximum of £550 a month, and that includes cleaning products, toiletries, protein powders and supplements for DC.

I meal plan every week, breakfast, lunch, dinners and snacks.

Cooking from scratch and sticking to whole foods is more cost effective imo - although it's quite time consuming.

Food prices have really shot up!

Family of 2 adults now, budget £150 per person per month. £45 ish per week general groceries, £45/£50 per month bulk purchases at Costco.

Really doesn't sound like much to me. We spend £150 a week minimum on food for 3 people. Including lunches. Not including cat food or eating out or takeaways.

That sounds really reasonable and I can't understand why you would have a big row. Food prices are high at the moment

It's crazy isn't it, I can't believe how much grocery shopping has gone up. I've started doing click and collect because it's easier to only get essentials/what we need rather than adding bits in just because you see it in the shop, but even then I'm over £100 on a good week now, usually with a trip to the local shop at £20/30 too during the week.
Unfortunately I think £140/week for a family of 4 is probably not that bad

I allocate £240pm for me alone
That includes toilet rolls, bin bags etc
I buy washing powder in bulk separately as it's cheaper

I probably spend around £85 per week for myself and one child. Plus around £100 per month for his school lunches.
I don’t think yours is bad but I agree that grocery shopping has increased a lot. When my eldest was still at home I was spending similar to now but with one more person. I don’t eat meat either, so there isn’t that expense, but I’m not especially careful.

When DC left home 5yrs ago and it was just me, I'd struggle to spend the minimum £40 for delivery, once every two weeks.

Still just me and I'm now spending £70 every ten days/two weeks. That includes cleaning stuff and toiletries as it did before.

A month? That's a massive amount.

£140 a week is cheap. I know I have 3dds aged 12-16 and 2 adults but our weekly shop is £188 on a really strict week and £250 on a week we need to restock the cupboard stuff. Not even luxuries. It’s bonkers but that’s the cost of food.

I am spending about 1 and a half times what I did in 2019. Food prices really have gone up.

I used to spend about 25 a week - now it's closer to 40.

(For one adult)

would it be more useful if we shared out weekly meal plans and costs? It's so hard to know what is reasonable or comparable otherwise?

2 adults and 2 primary DC here, about 110- 130 per week depending on toiletries/washing detergent etc. No more luxuries like wine etc - it's ridiculous.

It is not much at all. We spent about the same but for a family of 3 plus pets

Family of 4 here .. £140-£160 a week .

We are 5 and I spend between 160-200 per week. Which is approx £5 each per day. That does include toiletries, cleaning products, loo roll etc. we are fairly frugal - sadly I think that it's just what stuff costs nowadays.

The only way we can afford meat and fish regularly is because I work next to a supermarket and pop in most days to pick up the marked down yellow labels and freeze them.

And I'm still completely shocked at the original prices buried about 2 labels down even though this has been going on for years now.

And when I say 'afford', I mean it still goes on the credit card but I'm just trying to keep that down.

Food is extortionate at the moment. I am so afraid.

I can’t comment on Asda but Aldi doesn’t feel cheap anymore. We used to shop a lot there but now do much more at Tesco.
We spend about £20 per day with eating out atm: 2 adults + teen DD. I think we have space to get it down a bit. I cook a lot from scratch but there are some products we love which are quite pricey.

Family of 4 but older teens so feeding 4 adults on a portion size level

Our shopping bills budget is £165 ish a week

I've tried to get it under and on the odd week it will be lower but not often.

Drives me mad that we spend so much and that's part Aldi part tescos

We all eat different stuff as work different hours and eat at different times etc so we aim for three meals per week the same and made by me and then we all add to list throughout the week for shopping day

We spend about £700 a month. Family of 4, two teens. This includes wine. I shop mainly at Lidl and Aldi.
On Sunday I make a roast dinner and the meat stretches to another dinner. We had a pork joint this Sunday and made a stir fry yesterday and still have some meat left over.
I don’t online shop as I like to look at what there is and if I can get yellow/orange sticker items and put them in my freezer.

DH and I were talking about this the other day, how we just don't / can't buy any of the nice add ons to our food shop anymore. We used to buy fancy yogurts, snacks, nice meats and cheeses etc. Our grocery shop used to include alcohol, wed regularly buy nice flavoured gin etc. it's right back to basics now, I meal plan and we buy what we need for 3 meals a day, we don't drink at home ever anymore, dessert is an apple or an orange, we might buy a cheap trifle at the weekend if we really want to push the boat out 🙄 we don't eat well at all anymore. It's really fucking grim.

WTF that insane. We’re two and spend about £300-£350 a month

I think that’s an odd way to run your household budget, you should both have visibility on a credit card if it’s being paid from joint money. Are you planning all meals? Looking at what cheap snacks you can have, the minimum necessary.

For Dd and I, I spend about £150 a week including snacks, wine, cleaning stuff and toiletries. So probably the same as you. I honestly don’t think £600 for a family of four is a huge amount nowadays.

Best way I’ve found of cutting down the food bill is making a meal plan and sticking to it 100%. Then only buying what is on your plan. You do have to get the children on board though so they don’t eat Wednesday meal components on Monday afternoon!