Average Weekly shopping bill

[AdiVic]

Hello - I was just wondering what others spend a week on shopping. I was made redundant last year and am currently P, so no imminent return to work. My husband has to cough up the money to do the shopping and thinks I am being wasteful asking for about £110 pw - this covers nappies for my dd, and dog food for the dog (about £8pw). We also buy meat from the butcher (which actually works out cheaper). A pal of his, says we are mad and their weekly shop for he and his partner comes to £30 max!!! I do not believe that myself, unless they are really really thrifty. The shop does not include wine etc, and we rarely buy anything extravagant. Just wondering how it compares to others so I can either tighten belt, or whether thats average. Many thanks x

£30. Noo way. Your request is nearer to our spend and there are just 2of us at home+ cat.

There's a thread from last week, a poster wanted to cut down from £150 a week for a family of 5. It has some useful tips:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/1384670-Judge-me-help-me-cut-back-I-spend-at-least-150-a-week-on-food-for-our-family-of-five

I think £110 is high for the size of your family.

Ours doesn't come to nearly as much but we eat meat maybe once or twice a week max and rarely buy any alcohol.

Why don't you show him the receipts/give him a breakdown and see what he thinks you should cut back on? It all very well him telling you it's too much but I bet that he's happy to eat the meat and drink the wine.

Why not try menu planning and then list what you need and just go and buy those items (assuming you have a back up 'store cupboard')

We're a family of 2 with one cat and I estimate we spend £60 - £70/week on everything you can get from a supermarket, food, cleaning stuff, etc. If we had to cut back I'm sure I could get it nearer £50 by menu-planning and cutting a few luxuries. If we only had £30/week I think it would be a severely restricted/boring diet and I would worry that we weren't getting adequate nutrition.

Penny-pinching husbands should be sent to the supermarket for a 'big shop' so that they can see what everything costs. If that doesn't get through, go on 'Operation Economy Drive' and subject him to a miserable week of soup, porridge, cabbage and beans.

We are a family of 5 (one in nappies) plus dog. Our average is about £100pw, i do meal plan but i also refuse to compromise by shopping in Asda or buying basics stuff.

Too much! Probably around the same as the figure you've asked for- 2 adults, 2 children and 2 cats. I am trying to cut this down though, by meal planning and buying fewer luxuries like wine. I think £30 is extremely frugal and not really doable on a long-term basis.

We're a family of 5. We spend about £80 pw, inc nappies and meat but not wine. The boys have school dinners, so I guess you could add £20 to that, but DH and I always take our lunch (leftovers or soup) to work with us.

We eat nice food, but lots of veg and pulses, (and the odd meat meal).

I think you are doing well if you can do it for £110. Maybe your husband could do the weekly shop once or twice so that he gets a better understanding of prices. Prices have gone up even with shopping around.

£110pw that's far too expensive! Our weekly shop ranges from £50-70 for me, DH, a 10mo DD, and that's from ocado delivery. It would definitely be cheaper if we go to asda.

Do you buy lots of biscuits? Or a lot of meat? I just can't see how you can be thrifty and be on £110.

There's 5 of us and 1 dog. dd3 still in nappies. I spend around £90 per week sometimes less, sometimes more but it probably works out about £90 average. I'll spend about £70 on a big shop on a Sunday morning then top up milk, bread and fruit twice through the week. Could easily spend more but we just can't afford to so I meal plan and buy cheaper basics. We do eat well and dh and dd1 and dd2 take packed lunches.

We very rarely buy alcohol and have a takeaway or eat out twice a month. If we're getting to end of month and running out of cash we go to mils for a feed

Oh and I use ASDA and always do the 10% cheaper price guarantee thing. Got £5.01 vouchers last night so my top up shop this morning only ended up costing me 74pence

Just to add both DH and I work and pack our own lunch. So the weekly shop covers it. But it doesn't cover DD's food at nursery.

2 adults + 3yo - £70-100 a week depending on what I buy that week.
Lunch mon- fri is not included, as we all eat out of the house.
Includes a small amount of alcohol, household stuff (cleaning stuff , toilet rolls etc) and beauty stuff (generally garnier )
For that we eat quite well with quite a few luxuries

We're a family of 7 (2 ads, 5 ch) and our weekly shop is anything between £80-£100 depending on what time of the month it is. I then spend another £10 during the week topping up things like milk and bread.

I honestly dont know how much I spend but think it averages between £150-200 a week for 4 of us but it's not about what other people spend as personal circumstances are always going to be different, it's about what your're prepared to forgo to reduce your food bills.

As other posts have said can you swap to basics range? Not have as much meat, do without wine/cakes/sweets/biscuits whatever you consider luxury items.

We spend about £1k a month, including 2 house trained cats. No children in nappies. There are 5 of us. And mainly from Waitrose with some stuff from local butcher.

£110pw is not excessive imo.

Mine includes packed lunches x 2

I try and keep it under £100 pw, we are 2 adults, a 5yr old and a 3 yr old. Usually breaks down into about £75 on an internet shop plus £15 on fresh because I like to buy fruit/veg from our local greengrocer.

We don't have any nappies or pets, and tend to only have meat 1-2 times a week. I bulk buy detergent and other cleaning products roughly quarterly from an online supplier. Maybe a couple bottles of beer or a bottle of wine in an average week.

Since I finished work we have had to go back to having a shopping budget. DH puts £400 a month for shopping will rise to £420 when DC4 is born, I sometimes top up from joint account if needs be to maybe £450. For two adults, an 11yo, 7 yo and 1yo in nappies. We prob spend an extra £10pw on a couple of school dinners and shop sandwiches for DH.

I shop at ASDA and do make everything from scratch (even bread but that is choice rather than necessity). I spend for the four of us, including nappies for DD2 about 80pw. It sounds boring but I make biscuit and treats from scratch, eat seasonally and live on soup! It saves a packet we live on a really healthy diet (apart from said biscuits!) and don't eat much meat at all, except at the weekend. Meat is expensive.

We aren't broke as such but I have to find all the household expenses out of the same budget, so I like to be thrifty with the food and then can justify turning the heating up!

Don't be a snob about ASDA, I used to be until I discovered that some of their offers are amazing, their fruit and veg is fine and the selection and cost of interesting herbs and spices in the world food aisle is brilliant. I made a persian curry with dried limes the other evening, lush.

Anyway, it is possible to spend lots less but you have to be clever about meal planning etc. HFW's new veg book is fabulous for meat free interesting meals and the BBc Good Food website is extremely useful for planning budget suppers.

Hope this helps, can be quite daunting to keep everything so tight but with a little planning it is possible to spend less, promise!

I agree asda is very good. But if you aren't shopping to a budget, and don't eat a typical british diet, waitrose/ocado tends to have a better selection. Work is next to a big asda so sometimes I go there at lunch time to pick up things I forgot. There are many times I came back empty handed. On top of my head, they don't have fresh tofu (in water), mirin, soba, udon and pickled ginger.

Actually chicken thigh fillets. That one I never understood. I hate chicken breasts, and and I don't want debone for a weeknight dinner.

2 Adults, 3 cats and 1 sprog and we pay on average £400 a month BUT that inclusd all our luxuries and I can have expensive tastes

Oranges do you actually find it cheaper to homebake? I always seem to spend loads when I make cakes etc.