Food shop costs?

[nepetaracemosa]

Re-doing our household budget, and trying to understand if we are being extravagant or not with our food shop.

How much do you spend in a month on your food shopping? And for context, how many are in your household, and roughly where are you?

We are a family of 4, two under 5s. Central belt of Scotland.

Both of us work full time, so there is not a lot of efficiency in terms of batch cooking etc - DH reckons £800-1000 per month, which I'm horrified by as we are not particularly comfortable.

We are 2 adults and a 2.5 year old. Living in the south east. Spend approx £100 a week- we could trim that to £80 if we wanted too.

That's great if you have room. We only have a small fridge freezer so can't store more than 1x 4 pint of milk at a time.

About £700 a month. There’s me, two young adult sons and a girlfriend who stays here fairly often. Oh, and a cat.
It’s enough but not extravagant. Booze comes from a separate budget if we want it.

Family of 5, one teenager, one junior and one pre school. We spend about £300 a week but that includes everything inc cleaning products, toiletries and alcohol. We often host which bumps prices up and buy meat from the butcher.

This week our weekly shop was £243 - that included a bottle of aperol, some beers and 2 bottles of wine for hosting.
Butcher £45
We will probably need a £20 top of fruit, bread and milk around Wednesday

To add of the £243 the alcohol value was £43

Top up shops for bread and fruit/ salad as we get through them. Bread is expensive if it's the non upf. I should probably make my own but have a busy job and too much on. Also we online shop for the same reasons so sometimes they don't deliver something and we need to go in person.

We probably around £800 a month, but we are 2 adults and 2 teens and I recon the teens eat more then the adults.

We have no pets and don't drink a lot of alcohol maybe a bottle or two of wine a week.

Average 95 a week for two adults and two teens.
Including toiletries and cleaning stuff (those weeks it's about 100)

School dinners at £120 a month.

Our lunches are either bought seperately out of personal spends (when on the road) or just bagels etc so included in the weekly shop.

cuwins I do understand that, for a long time we had our freezer in the bedroom as there was no room anywhere else. My dsis uses a mixture of fresh, dried and uht milk so she doesn't need to top up. I appreciate for some people it may be impossible but for a lot the slight inconvenience of storing milk under the bed for example is worth it for the savings

Just me, NW. £240pm
Includes most cleaning stuff, toilet roll, the stuff I get distracted by in Aldi middle aisle etc but not toiletries or washing powder (buy that in bulk separately

Family of 4:
2 adults, 2 preschoolers + 1 dog
Everyone at home for 3 meals a day.

Less than £500pcm + £45pcm dog food

South East. Shop at Tesco + Waitrose.
1 take away per week (not included).

Nappies + cleaning products bought separately. Costco shop once a month for toilet/kitchen roll, water etc.

High income, cook from scratch, finest/organic meat every evening meal, lots of fruit.

Well I’ve just totalled the last 4 weeks and I’ve spent £570 , that is for 3 adults , mainly gluten free , very little meat but lots of fish . We don’t buy any alcohol . I have lots in the cupboards and freezers . I shop mainly in M&S and Tesco , both are local and also go to Costco every few weeks . I don’t have a set budget and I’m pretty sure the amount varies a lot from month to month , we also eat out a fair bit .

2 adults no children... £600 a month (does not include alcohol but does include toiletries needed)

Family of four here...two adults, two teens. I reckon easily £1k a month. It's obscene. However I think people should remember that it's not them spending recklessly, this is how much food costs nowadays. It's ridiculous.

2 adults, about £600 a month, that includes cleaning stuff and basic toiletries

Just me - about £30 a week including all houses and cleaning stuff, no meat or alcohol and no cat food since July 😢. I shop at Sainsbury’s and take advantage of Nectar prices and points.

Just me, SE.

Around £220 per month for everything. Perhaps a bit more over the past month as I’ve got into the habit of stopping off at the supermarket on my way home when I’ve been working late to look for bargains and inevitably leave with treats.

yeah, we don’t have enough space in our fridge freezer to buy 4 pints of milk in one go. I’m more amazed you would go to the effort of buying 4 pints in one shop and freezing 2 rather than just popping into the corner shop to buy a pint when it runs out.

anyway, between £90-£150 for a weekly shop at lidl dependent on whether we need toilet paper and washing stuff as that’s pretty expensive. It usually lasts us 2 weeks though with popping into smaller shops for bits and bobs through the week. My partner also buys his beers separately as I’m not drinking atm but when I start again the budget will probably go up again haha

A family of 4 and paying 200/300 a week prior to both children. Now being school aged. We have tried farm foods this week(may be a northern thing or worldwide) it’s been great for getting coffee refill at 1.75 and some snacks cheaper, also the milk being 2 for 2.00 has helped as we go through so much milk. I’ve even started opting for own brand items more and trying to stock up the freezer more but this week before we are due to be paid, freezer has never looked so bare.

Family of 3, DD11 eats more than I do, and with snacks etc we spend approx £100/wk including most alcohol, cleaning stuff & toiletries.

Same. And there’s 5 of us, it’s a real pain. We usually manage on 2 shops a week, with extra milk bought in between them.

I don’t do ‘top up’ shops but I shop at least twice a week depending on what else I’m doing . During Covid when I was shielding and reliant on my sister or deliveries I managed fine on once a week and planned more but now I’m doing it myself I’d rather do little and often although I’m sure it costs more .

Probably about £200 pw. I get a delivery but also nip to the shop as I run out of ham, lettuce, tomatoes, bananas, and the food vanishes with the teens banquet lunches! I also run out of steam meal planning!

Maybe £50 a week, but, I only have dc 50% of the time so only 2 or 3 packed lunches a week, and I own a food business where I work full time so eat my meals at work/bring food home, and often feed the dc at work, so makes a huge difference. I often buy toiletries in bulk online so no weekly spend, and take advantage of cash and carry access for personal use

I’m more amazed you would go to the effort of buying 4 pints in one shop and freezing 2 rather than just popping into the corner shop to buy a pint when it runs out.

@Begaydocrime94

As seen people who do top ups don't spend £2/3 on just milk or bread

They wander in for 1/2 items and spend 10 times as much 😂

They spend £30/40 on top ups

Hence i asked what are the top ups ?