How much do you spend on shopping each week?

[wheelycote]

Budgeting within an inch of my life. please share how much spend on shopping each week/month?
and how many of you in household?

There are four of us 2adults 2dc(teenagers)
We're spending around 100 pound a week but to be honest it doesn't buy those nice things. I'm looking to see where I can save more money. I don't know whether I'm not shopping wisely enough (although shop between home bargains and aldi) or whether I'm being unrealistic that I can chop more off the shopping budget.

Watching with interest.

£110 a week for 2 of us. Need to get it down but can't

Between £40-£50 although we budget £70.

2 adults, 2 cats, one big dog (his food bought online every two months)

All home cooking, lots of fruit, veg, salady stuff, meals cooked from scratch, cakes and puddings home made, no crisps, sweets or crap or ready made meals.

We shop at Aldi, Lidl, Poundland, market and occasionally asda, tesco.

Just me and DP (DC1 due today but appears to be running late ), we spend about £40-£45 per week. Used to spend nearer £100 but have to budget as DP has been made redundant and I'm on maternity leave. Meal planning saves us a fortune and any leftover veg gets made into soup and frozen. We shop at Aldi and have just started buying meat from muscle foods. Used to use Morrisons for meat but muscle foods is cheaper if you get a deal (there are always deals on Groupon or the Facebook 'feed your family for around £20 a week' page and you can delay delivery by up to 2 months)

2 adults one toddler in nappies.

£120 a week. This includes all toiletries, toilet roll, washing powder, nappies and wipes

2 adults no dcs £150 a week. That includes all cleaning stuff, wine and toiletries.

2 adults, 3 dc under 6. £120 a week including nappies, dinner for 6 nights and maybe half mine and dh's work lunches.

Around £100 pw, occasionally it's higher. Me, dh, ds1 (8), dd (6) and ds2 (8mo). That includes packed lunches for ds and dd. I'm at home with ds2 so all our food too, plus nappies but am still bf so no extra milk and he eats small bits of our meals.

I get a tesco delivery and shop for special offers as much as possible, but there are certain things I will pay more for every week, eg always get free range chicken, organic milk and some organic fruit and veg- not all. So I buy say a salmon side when it's half price and portion it for the freezer, this week I got a big piece of pork fillet as it was a third off etc.

I do meal plan too, this week's meals-
Roast chicken dinner (roasties, carrots and broc)
Chicken risotto with leftovers
Pork fillet, rice, broc, sugar snaps
Salmon new pots carrots peas
Jkt pot beans cheese salad (every week)
Veg pasta dish plus salad (every week)
Something with sausages not decided yet

I don't go elsewhere for household /toiletries stuff so that's all in. Also includes some chocolate for me, sometimes beer or wine for dh.

If you search for similar threads, there have been useful ones where people say how much they spend and what meals they eat for that budget. I'm Not overly extravagant, but other people would come along and feed my family for half my budget. Tesco delivery works for me as I don't have time to shop around (as well as ds2 in the daytime, dad has recently moved to a care home and me and sis were previously caring for him at home, so are still very much involved in that).

I really love these threads for ideas, and I think it helps to know what types of meals people eat when they spend thriftily / wisely.

I spend about £50 per week for one adult, one 10yo, one baby formula milk and 2 small dogs. Includes cleaning stuff too. I shop at aldi and lidl, and go to 99p shop for kitchen rolls.

Have just switched to washable toilet roll (for number ones only!) and that is saving a lot too as I'm at home in the day was going through loads of toilet roll before

These threads always end with people getting cross and saying it's not possible, btw

I have 2 adults, 2 teens during term time and my 19yr old ds when he's home from university.
During term time I spend about £45-50 in my weekly shop. Probably average of about £10 a week in various top ups or buying bits from elsewhere.
1 dc has packed lunch (as do dh and I) and 1 dc has school dinners.
No pets.

When ds is home, it seems to add about £15 pw to the bill

Backforgood , people do have the hump about this, it makes me .
I could spend £60 for 3 full sized people but I don't plan as I should.. I spend more as I add in lots of nice (crap) that I shouldn't buy.
I spent that on Friday in Saintsbury's ( with 2x wine) and if we weren't on holiday count down I'd buy more today.
My plan is £90 / week and no more when we come home, that seems less than usual and with no compromise on some brands DS & dh like.

£150 pw - 3 of us ( but I buy organic meat )

I'm amazed at how low the shopping can go

For those that spend under a 100 for 3 or 4 of you....what meals are you cooking please??? I need to be doing whatever it is your doing

£120-£150.

That's for 2 adults and 2 small DC.

£70-£90 per week. 2 adults, 2 teenagers for all meals and packed lunches. It was a revelation once I stopped shopping In Tesco where I used to spend nearer to £130 per week. I meal plan now and only buy what I need. In Tesco, I would often just pick things up to put in the freezer/cupboard. I don't do that now as the range is much more limited in Lidl.

I spend less than £100 per week for 5 of us. Easily. I've said this quite a few times but you have to change your mindset about what is "acceptable". We eat much less meat than, for instance, than my mum would serve as a portion size. I'd cook say 3 large chicken fillets for the 5 of us rather than say 5. Usually serve it as strips etc so goes much further. I also put food in the middle of the table for everyone to help themselves. Meals this week :

Pasta with homemade tomato & mascarpone cheese sauce, salad garlic bread.

Beef casserole, new potatoes, sugar snap peas.

Salmon fillets with cous cous & roasted veg

Chicken fajitas

Chilli with wedges & sour cream

Broad bean & lemon risotto, homemade foccacia and salad

Chicken stir fry & noodles.

We don't really do puddings, besides yoghurt & fruit, cereal bars. Buy the usual treats (crisps, biscuits). Children have school lunch, DH and i have pack up if we remember. Weekend lunches are picnic style - cold meats, baguette, crisps, various salads, etc. Cake!

£40pw averaged through the year - for teenage DS who is with us weekends and holidays, plus DH and me. We buy a lot of yellow sticker reduced food. And DH gets work lunches & breakfasts for free, plus my mum loves batch cooking and will drop us off a surprise food parcel around once a month . We eat out about once a week for a lunch/dinner (not included in food budget, but one less meal to cook).

We don't really do puddings either, and no snacks except fruit, and only DH drinks wine at home (averages 2 bottles a month). It doesn't include toiletries or cleaning stuff as we get those elsewhere. I walk home with the shopping/take public transport which helps limit what we buy as there's only so much I can carry!

It used to be £250pm for two adults, one school aged child plus one cat inc cleaning products.
Since we've had the baby it's increased to £400-£450pm. He is breastfed but obviously needs nappies and wipes. I'm too tired to meal plan like I used to and am at home for lunches and snacking a lot. I don't have the time or energy to shop around anymore either as used to do Aldi, home bargains, poundland etc as well as a big supermarket. I used to use up all leftovers or freeze but am more disorganised.

I have to say that you have to dedicate a lot of time to keeping your shopping bill down with meal planning, cooking in bulk, shopping around for bargains, going to supermarkets for late night reductions etc. My husband likes that the house is full of food now and we are eating more expensive foods.
I need to get back to my baking though as everyone loved that.

It does depend on what you eat, those people spending £110-120pw for two must be eating fillet steak and caviar every night

Seriously, I spend £40-£50 a week for 2, maybe up to £75 if I'm being extravagant. I think I would struggle to spend more than that and am genuinely interested on what people actually buy to get to the higher amounts.

Mine doesn't include any alcohol though.

£70-100 a week depending on what's needed. I can do petrol and food for £100 if it's a tight week but it's not fun.

2 adults, 2 children, 2 toddlers. Packed lunches for 1 adult and 2 children, toddlers and I eat at home.

We do eat meat in our budget, roast chicken or a joint at the weekend which always gives us another meal the next day.

The twin pack of bacon in Lidl for £2.75 is enough for breakfast for two of us for three days (with egg and halloumi).

I have chicken breasts (small one or one cut in half for two meals - I'm not a huge fan of meat) or goujons and DH has belly pork, we quite like the Deluxe quarterpound burgers (we have one each so one pack is two meals) sometimes we get pork chops instead so again 4 chops would be two days main meal.

A large pack of mince is split into two, one half for shephards pie (can get one main meal for two and lunch for two out of this)
One half for chilli or spag bol.

We quite like crudites and hummous/dips for lunch or homemade soup.

We always have apples, bananas, pears, tomatoes, peppers, onions, mushroom, carrots, sweet potato and butternut squash, DH gets aubergines when they're on offer and I get other fruit when its on offer.

The cats prefer Aldi cat food to Lidl (both pouch and tray) but will only eat whiskas dry food (as treats) so I get them from poundland or wherever has the best offer on.

I agree with the portion thing Mandy 123 ,but I think that comes with my chef training, from my former life. 500g of mince will do 8 bolognaise/chilli portions and a chicken has its legs removed for roast for 3. Legs turn up in a pie for 4.

Our meals this week have been

Hunters chicken, new potatoes & veg
Gastro lime chilli fish, spiced potatoes & salad
Rump steak chips mushrooms & peas
Spicy chicken (curry) breasts savoury rice naan bread
Pork roast veggies cauli & broccoli
Steak pie crushed potatoes & cabbage.
Tonight is a mixed BBQ, lamb, pork chicken fillets & sausages with sauté & salad.

There's a lot of meat there!! Dh takes pasta bolognaise chilli etc to work plus fruit & yogurt.
Now I see why iyts lots of ££s

There's no way on earth I would serve 3 chicken breasts for 5 people. It's simply not enough.

Purple no we don't eat caviar. We do eat meat/fish most nights and only buy organic/ethically reared stuff.

I find it scarily easy to hit the £100 mark. Evening meals for 7 days plus lunches. Weekend breakfast supplies. Snacks for kids. Throw in a few toiletries and maybe some treats of chocolate and wine and bingo.

I love food and feeding my family well far too much to sacrifice on my shopping spend and luckily I don't have to.

Nomi there's about 32g of protein in each 100g of chicken. 3 x large chicken breasts (@150g or thereabouts each) provide 144g of protein.

A man needs about 55g of protein per day, a woman needs about 45g per day (all based on official nutritional advice). Obviously children need alot too as they're growing. But it doesn't all have to come from meat (which is obviously expensive).

So thats what I mean when I say you need to change your mind set out what is an acceptable portion size for meat - obviously we all get other sources of protein during the day so 3 chicken breasts for a family of 5 is absolutely enough. Obviously if I were only serving chicken, I'd have a riot on my hands but I was just trying to say you may need to consider how you eat (and therefore what you buy) to budget better.