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Your weekly grocery bill... how much?

148 replies

Uwilalalalalala · 07/11/2006 09:06

Okay I'm always trying to economise at the grocery store. But, the best I seem to be able to do is around £150 per week. We have three adults and two kids (18 months and 3 1/2 yrs) in the house. I shop at Tesco, and I don't buy overpriced kiddies foods (like disney yogurts or Thomas pasta, etc.) I don't buy already prepared food (unless it is for me to take to work for lunch because it is cheaper than buying lunch at work).

If you live in greater London, how much do you spend on groceries? Am I going wrong somewhere?

OP posts:
noddyholder · 07/11/2006 19:08

No cheap loo roll or washing powder.We have 2x5 packed lunches.Usually a roll or pasta with pesto and a piece of fruit and homemade flapjack.\dp sometimes takes a can of beans and 3 slices of granary bread and has beans on toast God we sound really stingy!Porridge in the mornings We eat quite a few pulses adn couscous Organic chicken homemade soups etc.No ready made stuff at all We eat out twice a month-ish and have given up take aways unless desperate as we all agreed they were a waste of money.I make lots of smoothies and milkshakes myself they are really yummy and not expensive.If my ds(12)askd for something in particular I get it otherwise he doesn't really moan.

ggglimpopo · 07/11/2006 19:14

Message withdrawn

soapbox · 07/11/2006 19:27

That's a lot of money Uwilla!

We are two adults and 2 children, but have nannies meals during the day too, but DH and I eat lunch at work.

I spend £30 on the organic fruit and veg boxes and extras - milk, bread, baked pots etc.

I then spend maybe £20 at the supermarket on bits and pieces. The rest of it we buy from Costco - meat, canned foods, wine ect - probably £250 a month on average.

TBH - the best value thing we buy is the fruit and veg boxes. I could probably feed us all for £50 a week if I really needed to, as the veg box would provide the basis of so many different meals - but you need to like veggies!

I make at least 3 meals a week which are veggie based (non meat) - curry, chilli, fritatta, roast veggies (served with couscous or pasta) jacket pots and cheese, soup - and I always have loads of veg left to serve with meat based meals. As long as you can think of imaginative ways to serve up the different veg, then it is very cheap to feed every one with.

It really is the best £30 a week I spend!

brimfull · 07/11/2006 19:28

no idea what ours is

flibbertyjibbet · 07/11/2006 19:40

We spend about £60 per week 2 adults one toddler baby not on solids yet. I never go to tesco as personally its expensive. Tend to split the shopping as different places are cheaper for different things. Adsa and Morrisons are miles cheaper than tesco. We have a small sainsburys nearby which I use for some luxury goods. Fruit and veg can get from local market. We have proper porridge from cheap bag of oats 45p for a bag to last a week. Netto is good even if you don't want to 'lower your standards' (but we don't care!!) as they do branded goods. When they have a special on I just buy a stack of whatever it is, coffee, beans, sauces etc. Recently they had 50 wash persil boxes for £5 so I bought 8! Their loo rolls are darned cheap! We don't eat meat every day and what we do is from the butcher as its cheaper and better than supermarket plastic packed stuff. I don't have a lot of time, I just know which places are cheap for what goods and go when passing, ie Lidl near work, Netto near parents. I have a breadmaker and use that all the time, and slow cooker. Tonight its cheap braising steak been in there all day with onions and carrots. Going to try that Acapulco chicken from earlier in the thread later this week! I don't menu plan I just know what we will eat and don't buy extras. Do nannies eat a lot perhaps thats where we save money

frogs · 07/11/2006 19:45

We're under £100 per week as well (central London, two adults & three children).

I do a big shop at Lidl every three or four weeks, which comes to about £90 a time, with occasional forays to wholefood shop or Sainsbury's for more specialised things (no more than £10 per week). Most Lidl stuff is pretty good quality, I find, you quickly learn to avoid the few duff lines. It's very hard to spend more than £100 in Lidl, even if you do a massive stock-up on eg. Christmas/birthday things.

We have milk delivered (approx £10 per week) and I spend another £10-£15 in the greengrocer. Bread comes from the breadmaker, flour is included in the above. I usually buy a roast for Sunday lunch, up to about £10 unless it's a special occasion, but generally get three meals out of it, so seems like a bargain. I also stock up on meat at the farm shop near my parents in Devon, which is v. good value.

This week we have had/are having:

Sunday: Lamb joint with potatoes and cabbage
Monday: Spanish omelette with chorizo using the left-over potatoes and cabbage
Tuesday: Lamb casserole with chickpeas and couscous (leftover lamb from Sunday)
Wednesday: Roast vegetables (aubergine onion and courgette) with tomato and pasta
Thursday: Pizza (dough made in breadmaker) with the rest of the chorizo, and salad or broccoli
Friday: Haven't got that far yet, but will probably involve jacket potatoes, tuna and salad/broccoli (whichever we didn't have on Thursday).

This week is unusual in not having soup at some stage -- any kind of boned joint or chicken is almost invariably followed by casseroled leftovers two days later, and usually soup a couple of days after that. Other dishes I often make are: risotto, chilli con carne, pasta bake, sausage casserole, tuna rice and lasagne.

I did have a slow cooker for a while but never really used it -- I don't want to cook in the morning, and I never really worked out what the slow cooker could do for me that an oven couldn't.

flibbertyjibbet · 07/11/2006 19:48

What the slow cooker does for me that the oven doesn't is only use the same amount of power as a lightbulb so yet another opportunity for me to be a complete scrooge.

myermay · 07/11/2006 19:53

Message withdrawn

auntyquated · 07/11/2006 22:50

right - off to look for receipt

auntyquated · 07/11/2006 23:01

i usually shop twice a week --wed and friday
here is a wednesday list, can't find a friday one

milk 1.11
apple juice .98
apple juice .98
beans 1.79
tissues 1.48
jaffa cakes 1.18
dried pasta .49
branstn .79
wine 3.71
worcs sauce .87
winw 3.48
flowers 3.48
bread 1.24
floor wipes 2.47
chkn kievs 1.72
chkn kievs 1.72
sprts 1.00
blu tak .63
rolo puds\ .71
rolo puds\ .71
cond soup .49
cond soup .49
kitchen roll 2.00
cheese .85
face wash 2.56
pickle 1.21
shower gel .75
ibuprofen .33
paracetemol .16
bread .98
pancakes .98
tissues 1.98
tissues 1.98

£44.86 for 2 days!!!!

flibbertyjibbet · 08/11/2006 00:29

lotta money on tissues there...!

Clary · 08/11/2006 00:54

AQ about half of that shop is face wash/shower gel/tissues/flowers/wine, none of which really count as groceries in my book.

Also maybe not things you buy every shop?

There's not much to eat on that list, is there really (IYKWIM)? Could you cut out some of the processed stuff (biccies, tinned soup, desserts) and the flowers and get some fruit and veg, might find yr money goes further.

(sorry, don't mean to be rude)

clemsterdarcy · 08/11/2006 07:36

Approx £100/week -- live in Tunbridge Wells.

The UK in general is so expensive; we are overcharged on so much. It infuriates me.

VanillaMilkshake · 08/11/2006 11:21

I live in the South East and do my shopping in Tesco - except washing powder and other cleaners as I go to Costco and get large packs that last me the best part of 6 months.

I also shop on-line 5 out of 6 weeks so add on £5.99 delivery.

Including delivery charge I can normally get my bill in just under £55, inlcuding nappies. We are a family of 2 adults and 1 toddler, two cats and two goldfish (a tub of fish food cost nearly £3!)

Am expecting another baby in Dec and expect to see my bill increase by £10 a week if I end up with formula and disposables. Although am hoping to be able to breast feed, and have bought reuseable nappies with the intention if using them as much as possible instead of disposables.

If I actually go to tesco I can expect my bill to soar to about £80 as all three of us are impulse buyers so on-line is more economical.

I am also planning to look into local box delivery schemes in the near future so that will make a difference to how, what and where I shop and spend.

twoisenoughmum · 08/11/2006 11:37

Really pleased someone started this thread because DH is about to be made redundant so at the weekend we sat down and talked economising. We decided to see if we could keep weekly spend on food/wine/cat food/DH lunches & coffees at work/DD school dinners/milk bill - down to £200!!! I honestly thought that would be quite hard. Reading this post makes me feel .

BexieID · 08/11/2006 11:43

I'm in Scotland and we probably spend about £70 a week. Thats for me, my Fiance and almost 7 month old! Thomas only has formula when i'm working (3 evenings and a Saturday morning) and I use Terry nappies 99% of the time. We do tend to buy steak every week though.

I work in Tesco, but we shop in Morrisons, lol. Thats only really because theres a Morrisons where we live and the Tesco I work in is 8 miles away! Oh and Morrisons have nice big cucumbers lol.

jigger · 08/11/2006 12:18

If I go to tescos I spend so much more than I do if I shop from home. The savings easily outweigh the delivery charge. In addition you can see how much the bill adds up to & if it is too much just review what you have bought & take a few things off that you are happy to delay buying until next week. We are entertaining a lot this week so the original bill came out at £116 compared to the normaly £60. I decided that was too much & went in an took £20 of stuff that I could do without for a week or more off of the bill no problem so am now back to £95 including all the entertaining.

Piluncha · 08/11/2006 12:20

We did a shop last friday in Tesco and spent about £130 - most of it was supposedly for a weekly shop but we ended up buying bits that we needed (toiletries, etc) and a few treats. Will need to go to buy some more milk, bread & fruit towards the end of the week though and it normally amounts to about £10 if that. Having said that we don't live in a city - just a market town in west Wales.
We do have loads of friends over and I do tend to organize a menu lunch/dinner. DH's loves crisps, biscuits and chocs. But when they're gone, they're gone - for a while... I'm pg with 2nd one and sometimes cravings for sweets. DD eats what we eat normally and loads of fruits as well...

NAB3 · 08/11/2006 12:23

I have been to Asda today and spent £110. Felt like I got a lot for my monsy. Lots of fruit and veg, fish and meat plus some pizzas for hubby and cat food for the cat. Though the kids might get that if they cheek me again tonight....

gscrym · 08/11/2006 12:26

£20 per week from Lidl. Once a month I get a big shop from Asda or Tesco (about £60 - I get flour and larder supplies). I buy toiletries from the local soap factory outlet (high street stuff, very cheap). I use wash balls and that vinegar cleaning spray that was on Anthea Turners programme.

I'm really skint at the moment so it's the cheapest way to do things.

mammaofthree · 08/11/2006 14:18

Think I need to start doing budget shops too!

I spend approx £130 per week on tesco or sainsbury's deliveries, for family of five (two adults, one 3 1/2 yr old and two 16mth olds). On a 'cheap' week I can get it down to about £90. Our shop includes lots of fruit & veg, chicken, fish, nappies, and cleaning stuff etc, but on top of that I'll spend about £20 every couple of weeks on wipes and toiletries in Boots, £10/£15 on takeways once a fortnight; extra shops every week for more milk / bread.

Think I need to start doing proper meal plans too! I stay at home, so am cooking fresh meals for lunch and dinner every week day. Usually go out for lunch at least once or twice a month.

Have definately noticed that we spend less getting deliveries than going into the supermarket, and also that the weekly shopping bills definately started going up once I'd weaned the twins onto solids.

We're in Edinburgh, does where you live really make a difference to the price of the weekly shop?!

Marne · 08/11/2006 14:25

I have been to Tesco today and spent £65 for 4 of us plus food for the step kids for the weekend.

That also includes nappies, baby milk and food for the cat.

NotAnOtter · 08/11/2006 14:48

up to £150 a week is not excessive but then we all eat lunch out every day ( children at school and me and dp in coffee shops) £200 would be with really nice stuff for christmas maybe

stoppinattwo · 08/11/2006 18:24

I shop for 2 adults and two DC's

Spend £70 for average weekly shop
and £100 for once a month shop incl toiletries etc.

Always take a shopping list and plan my meals for the week or i would spend a fortune, oh yes and i dont take the DC's with me or i would leave them in the freezer section

SpookyMadMummy · 08/11/2006 18:58

I have £100 per week for 2 adults and 2 dd's and a brother who eats here 3 times a week and drinks endless coffees!
Thats for everything! The grocery supermarket shop which includes nappies for 2 dc's, the day to day extras like bread etc, and paying my milk bill... If we run out its tough! but usually I come in under budget