Anyone else’s food bill gone up?

[Lovemusic33]

I won’t ask the question “how much do you spend a week?” As it’s been done to death but was just looking through old treads on the subject and saw a thread in 2013 where people were feeding families of 4-6 for under £50 a week.

I have been doing my shop online but this means using Tesco as no others deliver in my area, I thought I would save money by meal planning.

So it’s me and 2 teens (who eat like horses), dd2 has a cooked meal at school so doesn’t really need a meal in the evening but often asks for one. My food bill includes dog food (£5 a week) and I can’t seem to get the bill down under £70-£80 a week, I used to only spend around £60 and get plenty and now we are running out of food at the end of the week. We don’t eat much meat, I buy a whole chicken to last 2 meals and maybe one other meat item or fish, other than that we often eat jacket potatoes, the dd’s eat a pizza and dd2 will often have a fish finger sandwich or some noodles. We are not really buying any expensive items, mainly fruit and veg. No alchol and only a small amount of chocolate. Why is food costing us so much more?

I know I should probably start going shopping instead and maybe go to Lidl or Aldi bit I struggle to find the time and often end up buying stuff we don’t need.

Is £80 a week a lot for 3 people?
Anyone else seeing a increase?

I’m really worried if prices go up more due to Brexit (sorry to mention it) as I’m already spending over budget.

Thank you for your responses, I don’t feel as bad knowing what I’m spending is probably about right for 3 of us (plus 1 dog and cat).

£80 is probably the most I spend a week, last weeks slightly more as it was half term. I do eat fresh fruit and veg (I don’t like frozen and don’t have freezer space) and some items are not own brands as dd1 notices if I try and give her a different brand of crisps or fish fingers. I rarely buy anything else in the week, occasionally need to buy a loaf of bread but that’s it, we probably eat out once every 2 or 3 weeks. I buy the odd ready meal as I work 2 evenings a week so don’t have time to cook.

I’m looking forward to getting the new Aldi near by, I do like Lidl but the queues in there are always really long and I’m pushed for time (which is why I like shopping online).

Red I agree, it is worrying, deffently getting a lot less for our money and the price of fruit and veg is crazy, I am worried about Brexit and how it will effect prices.

You van get some realy good deals on meat at Muscle Food.

They sell in bulk packages and ive always found the quality good. It does mean you have to be a bit organised and package it up.into meal.sized amounts to freeze then remember to defrost it in time.

www.musclefood.com/meat.html

What kind of Snacks are you eating? They can really add up

Surge I mainly snack on fruit, I have to say I buy pre cut/prepared fruit so then I grab that instead of a biscuit (if I buy hole fruit it doesn’t get eaten), so I buy a bag of mango fingers from Tesco for £3.50, they last me a few days. I buy crisps for the dd’s and either kit kats or wagon wheels, other than that most of my shopping is fruit, veg, a whole chicken, a block of cheese, 2 loafs (one white, one brown), yoghurts, cleaning stuff and dog food.

Its gone up a lot. I always buy tinned tuna steaks from Lidl. They've been 83p for ages. Suddenly they went up a month ago to £1.09 That's a huge leap. I noticed their veg is only a few pence cheaper than Tesco too, whereby it used to be about 2/3 of the price. Example: Tesco red peppers 54p each, Lidl now 52p each.

I do think food shopping is expensive, totally agree OP that it seems to have increased in the past few years.

I've definitely noticed my food shop going up and I shop in Aldi. It's still cheaper than Sainsbury's, Asda and Tesco but I'm getting nowhere near the same amount.

Whilst wages stay the same. Complete travesty.