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

"cry" = veg!

That's an odd autocorrect

Ours is about 500-600 a month so between 125 and 150 per week (assuming a 4 week month). 2 adults, 2 smallish children and 2 pets who eat way too much and are looking chubby! Also dcs have packed lunches.

I am always trying to reduce the shopping bill! I now shop on line which I find helps as I can plan better, but it's all the little extra pops to the shop that add up. What doesn't help is that my dcs are a bit slim and I've been told to allow them to snack as and when they like to get their weight up. The snacks really add up. Perhaps the person who put that they bake their own biscuits could put up a recipe? Pleeeeaase?

That amount also includes all household items/cleaning stuff/deodorant/shampoo and also tights and baking dishes/kids beakers etc which I get from the suprmarket.

My amount included those things too.
Biscuit recipe(reasonably foolproof)
100g sugar
200g marg
300g plain flour

Customise as required.
Can be frozen, cooks in about 15 mins at 180C gas 4

Thanks very much for that. Might try it later.

Try and use the dishwasher, my electric bills halved and my water bill went down 30% when we got a dishwasher. It costs a lot to heat water for washing up. If it's beyond repair try freecycle for a new one.

wrt your shopping bill smartprice cleaners such as washing powder are just as good as branded but cost pennies, ecloths are brilliant and save time cleaning too (starter pack is £10 in tk maxx)

If you did a weekly shop at aldi you would save more than the cost of your petrol and you could always do a really big shop to last you for a month on things like beans (DH prefers them to heinz now). I used to drive past aldi thinking thank god I dont have to shop there but I love it now. I cant believe how much money I must have wasted over the years shopping at sainsburys.

OP you say you don't like frozen veg - does this mean perhaps that you are buying expensive out of season fresh veg shipped in from Peru etc? Frozen veg has all its goodness and if you don't overcook it honestly is very little different. And there is less wastage as you can take as much or as little out of a bag of frozen veg - nothing left mouldering in the fridge.

I've just done our last shop for the month, £155 for the month.

This weeks menu will be;

bacon topped stuffed turkey breast with home made roast pots and peas etc
fish and chips with mushy peas
gammon joint, boiled potatoes and veg (drool)
meatballs with spaghetti in pasta sauce
roast chick with all trimmings
beef and mushroom pie, mash and veg
sausage and mash veg etc

puddings will be things like home made rice pudding in slow cooker, banas and custard, fresh fruit for me.

Dh takes soup to work and I'll make a stew tomorrow out of turkey and potatoes, onions etc which I can portion up and defrost every day.

Sandwiches for me are egg or tuna, I make my own bread and it is so much more filling than shop bread. Dh has sliced (philistine).

I've got a bowl full of fruit downstairs and plenty of frozen veg so I make sure we eat lots of veg.

If anyones interested frozen veg tastes more like fresh if you steam it rather than boil.

Bananas even fgs.

That all includes the cat too, £4.40 a week to feed him from aldi on pouches, tried him on felix and he was ravenous, 5 pouches in one day! Nearly wormed him till I realised his food was no good!.

Did the weekly shop for 3 in morrisons yesterday and spent under £50. Bought loads, don't eat meat or alcohol though. Dd has pack ups but dh buys lunch at work. But enough for dinners all week, two lots of cereal, snacks, bits and bobs, lunch stuff for me and dd.

inmysparetime I made biscuits using your recipe, I also added some out-of-date choc chips (bbe feb2011 ).

Very nice.

Average £110 pw, higher if people coming over. 2 adults, 2 primary age children, 1 cat. Online shop at Sainsbo's and meal plan a week ahead, fuit and veg fro local van, DC have packed lunches and I work from home so just DH buying extra lunch.

I cook mostly from scratch, occasionally home bake ( which is cheaper if you already have the flour, sugar, butter eggs in anyway, and make something like a lemon drizzle or fruit loaf but not cheaper if you need to buy in extras and 3 bars of 70pc cocoa choc etc ), incl all toiletries and alcohol.

Meat and fish push it up. We try to have eggs/veggie 3 x pw.

You can make the biscuits look posher if you want to impress people, or need quick cheap teacher presents.
Same recipe, split the dough in half and add a spoon of cocoa powder to one half.
Roll out both halves into rough rectangles the same size and put one on top of the other. Roll them up like a Swiss roll and when you slice them, they make bi-colour spiral biscuits.
You can freeze the "roll" and slice from frozen with a bread knife.

Hello Ladies

Thanks for your contributions. What an eye-opener.
My household consists of:

• Me only

I run and go to the gym most days, so prefer lean, higher protein meals and lots of fresh fruit and veg. 10 a day, rather than 5 a day. I take lunches to work and I rarely buy alcohol now and no junk food or even marg or sugar.

My weekly food bill was:

• £110, until around Feb 2013 (and I thought I was fairly frugal, cooked in bulk, bought items on offer or reduced price when I could)
• £95, by June 2013, (buying bread for 15p and making it last 2 weeks, no alcohol now)
• £75, mid July 2013 (slightly less meat, added lentils, no fizzy drinks, trying to make berries last longer, going to supermarkets towards closing time)
• £52, this week (buying different cuts of meat, buying frozen meat, and using more pulses, definitely buying Savers products where quality seems good, slight reduction in fruit, meal planning)

*picture attached of latest 3 receipts, part of the week's shopping*

• £43+, planned lowest for me (switching to cheaper types of fruit, reducing meat consumption a bit more, but eat meat most meals, eating more pulses, move to frozen berries)

My biggest issue is getting fruit cheaply, but that's down to about £9pw hopefully. Also, I buy fresh potatos rather than brown rice or wholemeal pasta, so might alter that sometimes.

According to official ONS data, the average British spend is £25 per person. I thought it couldn't be true before.

Adivic's '£110pw for 2' seemed heroic to me. Most of my friends seem to spend £110 on themselves, or £220 for couples.
I'll see how £43+pw pans out, and then...
...because I read this, I'll try and go lower.

Solidarity sisters. Solidarity!