Average weekly shopping bill INCLUDING non food items

[streetface]

Hi we are a family of 5. I meal plan and only spend around £50-£60 on evening meals for all of us a week. But my bill is coming in at around £100-£120 a week. This includes:

Showergel, shampoo, conditioner, deoodrant etc
All stuff for packed lunches (rolls, fillings, bars, youghurts etc)
Washing stuff (fabric softener, tablets etc)
Nappies and wipes
Lots of fruit for breakfast and snacks (cherries, blackberries, strawberries, bananas and satsumas)
Bacon, sausages and cereal for breakfasts.
Milk 9 litres and cheese for random things (sandwhiches, toppings on muffins etc)

If you include EVERYTHING you buy in a week for the house can you tell me how much and how many people in your house so I can see if I am overspending please? Thank you very much.

[dairymilkmonster]

£100 or bit over.
2 adults, 8yo, 4yo and two cats

[Coop14]

2 adults, toddler still in nappies, formula fed baby and 2 cats about £140 pw which I think is extortionate this is for food toiletries and household items. Get a lot of own brand stuff and check prices so not sure how I can save apart from divorce lol. Not keen on Aldi I like to go the one shop and get it over with (Asda)

[thedaysrunaway]

About £175-£200
2 adults, 2 kids (6 & 8) & au-pair. Includes about £70 at farmers’ market every week. 1/2 french family (other half) so food tends to be high priority.

[TeddyIsaHe]

It really depends. It’s juat me and dd but I often have friends over for dinner etc which bumps the cost up. I’d say on average about £80-£100 for everything.

[JanetLovesJason]

£80-£100 a week for two adults, both have special dietary needs due to medical stuff, it’d be about £10-20 cheaper if I didn’t have to get dairy free (me) and gluten free (him). I end up just getting everything gf and do so we can eat the same meals and it saves someone being unwell after making a mistake.

[Xiaoxiong]

I come in around £80-90 for 2 adults, 2 children, supplemented by restaurants/cafes on the weekend which probably adds another £100 all told. This could easily be eliminated/reduced if we wanted or needed it to, in which case our weekly shop would probably go up to £100-120 if we were eating at home 7 days a week and/or taking picnics instead of eating out.

[Bloomcounty]

£60 - £70 weekly for 2 adults and a cat who likes the expensive stuff. I think he eats better than we do, at times. All food prepared at home.

[GetGemma]

Hi,
You’re doing really well on your budget. Food goes further with fillers like lots of veg and rice I find. That’s how I can always include an unexpected friend or two for dinner.

We budget £60 for two adults cooking from scratch x3 meals a day and a bottle of wine £5-8. (Spirits not inc). I also pick up my doggy bits like snack bars and the odd toy. I do notice this takes me over.

I think I could if needed drop to £30-40 (exc dog) but that would be tight and probably no alcohol. Only if I cook from scratch and condider using meat for two meals i.e. a roast can feed us for Sun & Mon.

A meal planner for the week with groceries list is helping to keep us on track. Otherwise both my husband and I nip to the local supermarket and we end up wasting or freezing food! That’s the main reason for us budgeting the waste was upsetting.

Great job and keep going.

[ginghamstarfish]

About £60 for two adults. Mostly cooking from scratch, and making packed lunches. No pets, and we don't drink much alcohol which keeps it down!

[MaverickSnoopy]

Excellent thread. I have just recently started thinking about this after our shopping bill has gone up (in the last 6 months). We are a family of 2 adult + 2 children (soon to be 3). We were spending around £60/week 6 months ago, but now spending about £80/week. We shop in Aldi and the only things I think we're doing differently are stocking up on extra nappies and wipes (have also been buying a few extra bits in preparation for Brexit prices - although not massive prepping).

I actually want to bring the cost of our shopping down and so have decided to plan backwards. I'm choosing a budget of £300/month and will allocate £100 of that on top up shops - leaving us £200 for a big monthly shop (which is everything we need for the whole month apart from milk, bread, fruit and veg). So I need to work out how much we spend on household products and split that out, as well as the cost of breakfast and lunch and then that'll leave me with a budget for dinner. Then I need to work out the budget for dinner each day. I'm going to start really looking at receipts so I actually know the cost and also check that we're not buying unnecessary stuff. I've started costing up a few meals and it's actually really interesting. It looks like cooking large joints of meat (instead of packs of chicken breasts/diced meat) will be far more cost effective and batch cooking in vast quantities with it...eg tagines, casseroles etc.

[shiwen55]

Hi, £100-£120 for a family of 2 and 2 cats, including my vaping habit !! I If ever could stop vaping, it would save us about £100 a month, that's about £80-£100 a week for 2 adults and 2 cats :)

[boomboom1234]

£100 per week.
Two adults, one toddler one baby.

[Copperspot]

Just me, about £35-£40 a week including shower gel / shampoo / loo roll / cleaning stuff. I have lots of fruit and veg but not much meat. At least 2 nights a week i’ll have someting like jacket and beans / scrambled eggs on toast. I don’t drink either so that’s a big saving.

Prices are going up though! I used to spend £25 a week

[WorkingBling]

We are family of 4, plus dog. Shop mostly at Lidl with a shop at Sainsburys every 3 weeks or so for things we can't get at Lidl (our preferred dog food, odd treats for kids etc) and top ups of milk, bread, yoghurt at local stores. Our total weekly shop is about £120 per week. Includes all cleaning, toiletries and three meals a day for all of us as we are either at home or take lunches to work/ school. And DH is a human vacuum.

I try to shop smart but this is about as low as I can get it. Pleased to see it's in line with others.

[Tisfortired]

2 adults and DS4 here, we buy all toiletries and household products in the weekly shop. Spend about £50 on a Saturday for the big shop and up to about £20 on top up shops through the week. £70/£80 per week.

[Icequeen01]

Two adults, one teen plus two very spoilt cats - usually around £160 per week (approx £25 of that will be cat food!). I go to Sainsbury's so I know it's not the cheapest but I work full time and don't have time to shop around for all the cheapest deals. We live in a small village and everything is a 25 minute drive away apart from a pretty small Tesco locally. It's something I look forward to doing when I semi-retire, hopefully in the next couple of years.

[LadyDeadpool]

£90 a week max - 2 adults, 1 teen, one 4 year old, 8 rats, 1 dog and a rabbit.
£15 a week of the £90 is spent on the animals food.

[HellsBellsnBucketsofBlood]

£100-120 family of four plus a cat.

[Nulzo]

That’s in response to your question Troika 😊

[Nulzo]

I do a lot of meals from scratch, like pizza, pasta sauces, fajitas etc
I bulk buy veg, cut up and use when I need - I have two very picky eaters so when I do my batches of tomato sauces for pizza bases and tomato sauce bases I blend a variety of veg in and add a load of beetroot to disguise the colour. Make up and freeze in batches. We don’t eat a lot of meat - maybe twice a week. Kids are lovers of scrambled eggs, smoked salmon, curried pasta and fruit and veg smoothies. I love salads with spinach, salad beans, pesto, feta cheese, capers etc. Pre cooking definitely has helped us. We used to spend over £120 then down to £70/80 and more recently £40. I carefully plan what we are eating each week, prepare and store in freezer and always check what we have in cupboards before I shop - buy online as in store shopping made me over spend. Now we waste very little. Bulk buy toilet rolls, laundry liquid, hand wash, kitchen rolls, bin liners, baking paper, shampoo, toothpaste etc on line like amazon, staples and notino- works out about £340 for the year - trying to find cheaper alternatives as saving for home maintenance repairs but one thing is I won’t change is the kids toothpaste even though expensive well worth every penny (biorepair). Hope this gives you some ideas 😁

[BlueSkyBurningBright]

Ours varies a lot.

If I have all 3 teenagers home and DH is not away with work, it can be about 180 a week.

If the boys are away at college and it is just three of us at home with DH away a couple of nights, it can be less than 50. DD and I will happily have soup each night.

I do batch cook a lot, so sometimes I only shop for milk, fruit and veg.

I also get an organic fruit and veg box delivered once a week.

[lubeybooby]

about £140 a week including all meals and drinks for two adults plus four cats, food and litter etc, and all shower gel/dishwasher tabs/other sundries

[Kikashi]

£120-170 a week for 6 (basically adults teens/early 20's) includes all dishwasher, tissue, shampoos, food for lunches etc a couple of bottles of booze ( cheap whiskey/1 wine) but no pets. Sometimes have to buy extra bead or milk during the week.

I could shave some money of that if I shopped around but I hate supermarkets so do online order - stops me making impulse purchases or getting frustrated. I spend quite a lot of time planning meals/lunches really carefully to minimise food waste and bulk buy when something is on a great offer (such as dishwasher tabs). We like nice olives, olive oil, artisan bread, good cheese etc so I feel we eat really well.

My friend has one child and her DH and thinks its an expensive week if she spends over £50 but they eat very small portions and very plain meat and 2 frozen veg type food.