How much does YOUR family spend a week on food?

[MickeyMixer]

How much do you spend each week on food and cleaning products? We are a family of five and I'm really very organised with detailed lists and recipes etc. We don't have any waste at all either but I still seem to spend a lot. What's normal?? Do I have to resort to LIDL or ALDI?

It varies a lot, but about £50 a week I guess, for 2 adults, 2 kids, 2 cats! DH buys wine separately (and drinks 90% of it).
I look forward to my bargain hauls in Lidl around once a month, and don't think of it as 'resorting' to anything! Fantastic value and great quality for most things, just pick and choose the good stuff, and don't expect to find all your usual brands, but do try the alternatives! Train your children not to be supermarket/premium brand snobs now, they will thank you later!

2 adults, 2 children.
We spend about 100 pounds, more sometimes

2adults 2 children. One fortnightly online shop about £100, tops up of £10-15, plus wine and school dinners. Probably averages about £70 per week.

I spend about £130 per week.
That's for 2 adults, 4 children (2 teenagers) and a cat. That also does 5 packed lunches per day during the week. Takeaway at the weekend.

Oh yes, that doesn't include wine

We spend £300 a month. We have an Ocado delivery every week and pay for the delivery pass. Anything left out of the £300 is then spent on meat for the following month (usually from the market)

2 adults, 2 children (one in nappies). About £100-£120 pw (usually split as an £85-£95 supermarket shop and a top up), including all toiletries, cleaning stuff, nappies etc. I could do it for less if I planned more and used cheaper shops - this is a mix of Ocado and Co-Op.

Makes a lot of difference how often you eat out and whether your dc have packed or school lunches. Mine generally have school, which adds another £20 a week to the food bill, and also eat at after school club 3 nights a week. And we probably eat out as a family or get a takeaway once a week on average. Maybe that's why I only seem to spend half of what others do!

So, what exactly is wrong with Aldi and Lidl then? They do very good deli/continental meats and cheeses etc, as well as good fruit and veg.
I get a 3 monthly fish delivery, I do a monthly meat shop and a weekly shop for other things. Our spend includes dog food, cat food, cleaning items and toiletries. It averages out at around £350 per month.

Jaffacake79 - where to begin???!!!
The depressing lighting..the depressing layout..the battered looking veg and fruit..the high salt and fat content of the pre-packed food..the low farming/welfare standards..the poor/non-existant customer service..the lack of toilets/cafe..the fact my nearest one is ten lies away and petrol is dear..the dirty flooring and shelves..
I could go on...

Oh dear, well that does sound dire. Ours is the polar opposite! But it did have a refurb last year, and the staff there are lovely and very helpful. Go out of their way to help in fact.
Lack of toilets and a cafe, well I go shopping to buy food and sundries, I don't generally like toilets out anyway, and a cafe? Really? I make better food and drinks at home!
High salt and fat content of pre-packed food is quite often bad in most supermarkets, it's about what you buy, not where you buy it from.

Toilets and cafe essential with DCs in tow!

I have never been to a supermarket cafe! That must add to the bill, did you remember to count it? Have had to make a dash from Lidl to the nearby leisure centre or use a tree in the car park a couple of times(small ds, not me!)
I also buy nearly all (high welfare only!)meat reduced and freeze it. Make big batches of veg/lentil soup which feeds me mostly all weekdays (lunch and dinner!) while dh gets in late and just has cheese and biscuits or something meaty if he is home earlier.
Our 2 cats live on dried food which costs much less than tinned, more like £13/month than £20/week!
Cloth nappies (days gone by)and mooncup naturally...

It averages out at £130 a week for 2 adults, 2 kids (one in nappies still). I maybe spend around £10 on top ups during the week. Food prices have definitely gone up - my shopping has remained pretty constant over the past year but my bill has risen by at least £25!

£150 per week with ocado - 2 adults, 2 children, 2 cats. GF and DF diets or would be cheaper.

However IMO food has gone up lots in the last year, as we're not buying anything different / anything more yet it used to be nearer £120 last year

Have a budget of £70 for each week 1 adult, 3 children, 1 cat. That includes top-ups during the week and my tobacco

MIne has dropped rapidly since ex moved out.

For me and DS1 (6 but eats like a teenager) and DS2 (4 but eats feck all) I spend now about £70 a week. It used to be about £150.

However, I stock up when things are on sale.

Tesco are having thier big cleaning sale so for £9 I got 84 Finish Dishwasher tablets which will last a few months and a Giant Persil washing liquid and a Lenor giant softner which again will last a few months.

oh yes - my shopping bill dropped dramatically too after I split up with exH

Although DS1 and 2 eat almost as much as their dad now so it's kind of cancelled it out a bit now

About £300 a month (two fortnightly shops of about £120 and weekly top ups of fruit/veg)

That's for 2 adults and one 3 year old, all veggie. DS still wears nappies at night. We have one bottle of wine a week.

It should be less. The top ups are our problem, especially for DP as he'll decide he wants fajitas, for example, for dinner and go and buy all the ingredients, when we've got ingredients to make something else (and a freezer full of leftovers) at home. Drives me mad!

About £150, not including cleaning products.

Me, dp and dd.

In Italy. Where everything costs an effing fortune, despite what Mr Oliver would have us believe.

About £100 - £120 a week. 2 adults and a teenager.

We eat out about twice ot three times a week (not included in above sum).

We don't make sandwiches for lunch.

I don't do a weekly shop - I just pick up stuff on the way home. I spend more this way but when I did a weekly shop there was so much waste. Plus I can't be arsed. Is a lot better to have a 10 minute visit to Sansibos with a basket a couple of times a week.

Hm - I reckon it's about £80 per week, for two adults. We'll occassionally (like every 4 months) do a big shop, but most of the time it's picking stuff up on the way home. I make my lunches about half of the week (depending on level of busy-ness) and DP always buys lunch at work. We eat kosher, so things like meat/wine/cheese etc. is muchos more expensive (averagey bottle of wine around £10, steak is around £5 for 200gr) which adds to the total. We eat out about every two weeks or so.

It has gone down a bit, as I've started bringing in lunches (used to get everything from outside before) and DP has finally discovered the joy of using up stuff we have at home rather than prattling around the shops buying stuff at a whim.

family of 5.2 cats
between £70-£90 a week.i do what i can in lidl's then the rest in tescos.
were veggie and lidles doesnt really do vegetarian bits.cat food and cheese comes from tescos as its cheeper.

forgot to say.im stict.i make a list of meals for a week,make a list and stick to it.i dont look at offers etc.i do it weekly and know exactly whats in the cupboards.i am analwe'd be buggered if we were snowed in etc,we'd run out of food on shopping day!

I have been trying to work out why I spend SO much more than anyone else (£300-£350 a week on 2 adults, 2 teens and a dog) and have some answers.

I worked out that I spend £1000 a year on that Benecol drink that lowers cholesterol (yummy), about £1000 a year on Nespresso coffee capsules (DH loves them), hundreds of pounds on cherry tomatoes out of season (£14 per kg and we all eat them every day on toast for breakfast), and ££££ on wild salmon every week.

That, and only buying organic stuff and that only from Waitrose or specialist suppliers, probably accounts for the difference. Hmmm....I am not sure whether to cut back, as it is a lot of money, or whether to take the attitude that we can afford it, so why not? I ought to save the money and pay the difference to charity.

Sigh, I ought to save on the £50 a week to get the dog walked when I am at home, live next to a park and do actually have legs of my own. I don't because I would feel TOO GUILTY sacking the dog walker as she needs the money and loves doing it.