Weekly food shop.. how much?

[babyblueblush]

How much do people spend on a weekly food shop?

I spend 40-45 in Aldi, sometimes a bit more if I need cleaning products/washing powder etc. Sometimes it's less if I've been organised and batch cooked. I also spend about a tenner a week in Home Bargains on toiletries and cat food. 1 adult and 1 10 year old DS who eats me out of house and home.

@Tabby21

Those that only spend £50 a week, what meals do you cook? Looking for tips on some cheaper meals!

Our meal plan this week: Monday & Tuesday: chickpea & vegetable curry - so this was a tin of chickpeas, 2 peppers, a few mushrooms, a sweet potato, frozen spinach and an onion. I was in a rush so used a jar of sauce but would have been slightly cheaper with coconut milk, tomato puree and spices. Served with brown rice. Tonight & tomorrow: mixed bean chilli - 2 tins of mixed beans, chopped tomatoes, carrot, peppers, mushrooms, onion and spices, served with brown rice on one night and jacket potato the other. Friday & saturday: lentil bolognese - red lentils, chopped tomatoes, herbs, mushrooms, onion, pepper, wholemeal pasta and a side of broccoli Sunday - we usually have leftovers of some kind from during the week so I only plan 6 days. If we don't, I'll rustle something up from the cupboard which is likely to involve pesto pasta or nut roast from a mix.

For breakfast we have porridge, cereal (own brand malt wheats for DP, raisin wheats for me) or toast with peanut butter or avocado. I don't like milk so we only need 1 pint a week for DP's breakfast.

For lunch we usually have homemade soup with wholemeal rolls - this week I'm having corn chowder and DP is having a mega chunky lentil/split pea concoction. Plus bananas, biscuits and DP also has a cinnamon bagel.

I try to stick to £150 a week but it's more like £175 now. That for 2 adults and 4 children aged 12 to 4 (youngest doesn't eat a lot)
Do bulk of shop at Tesco and do a bit at Aldi
Buy beer every week but it's from Aldi and mot expensive
Also then spend about £100 a month on top for a nice takeaway then a cheaper chippy tea and also put some on eldest parentpay for bits at school
Surprised by some of the amounts on here to be honest. Shocked that some manage to spend so little then some (with smaller family than mine) are spending £300 a week!
To those who spend a lot, is everything big name brands? I do like a lot of branded stuff but buy aldi washing powder, dishwasher tablets etc

About £80 for two adults and two primary age children. Usually end up doing a fruit top up for about £10 too.

[quote HelebethH]@MrsKDB We spend £40.PW. 2 adults, retired and all meals at home. Bottle of wine each week and cook from scratch. Batch cook lots and freeze and meal plan. We don't generally bother with desserts unless we really fancy one. Online shop in Tesco so no impulse buys. I also budget for an 8 day week and that way I gain 6 weeks extra food money to use at christmas. Every couple of months we use up freezer meals. Also buy a lot of frozen veg. Fine in stews, casseroles, etc and works out a lit cheaper.
Each week we have
1 egg meal
1 fish meal
1 mince
1 bean/pulse meal
1 rice based
1 pasta based
I lucky dip using up bits and pieces[/quote]
Two retired adults is VERY different to two adults and two growing teens - they eat more than we do so it’s no wonder I’m spending about double the amount you do

About £150 for three adults, 8yo DD and two large dogs. Sometimes it's less, sometimes more if we're stocking up on expensive things like dishwasher tabs, etc. It works out as around £600 a month. We are fortunate not to have check every penny.

£125 for two adults, 2 primary kids from lidl

2 adults, 1 toddler. We spend £40 - £50 a week now we make our meals from scratch - it used to be a lot higher when we were sleep deprived and had a lot of processed stuff but now we're focused on paying the mortgage off.

Takeaways, alcohol and meals out come out of our personal accounts.

About £60 per week in Lidl for 2 adults and 3 children under 10.

DC2 eats a school meal at lunchtime and DC3 eats all meals at nursery twice a week.

We don't eat much meat and this doesn't include DH's alcohol bill or our coffee which we have delivered separately.

Approx £250 a week. Mix of ocado, m and s, milkman, local butcher, organic veg box

@Jmaho

I try to stick to £150 a week but it's more like £175 now. That for 2 adults and 4 children aged 12 to 4 (youngest doesn't eat a lot) Do bulk of shop at Tesco and do a bit at Aldi Buy beer every week but it's from Aldi and mot expensive Also then spend about £100 a month on top for a nice takeaway then a cheaper chippy tea and also put some on eldest parentpay for bits at school Surprised by some of the amounts on here to be honest. Shocked that some manage to spend so little then some (with smaller family than mine) are spending £300 a week! To those who spend a lot, is everything big name brands? I do like a lot of branded stuff but buy aldi washing powder, dishwasher tablets etc

I spend a lot compared to most on this thread. I don't always buy big name brands, I do look for special offers and cook lots from scratch but buying gluten free stuff pushes the cost up. I buy organic fruit, veg and meat. Not much meat. I don't do top-up shops during the week. I think many on this thread probably do. We also rarely buy takeaways so the V weekly shop will usually include ready meals or pricier items for Saturday nights.

@MrsKDB
Your budget sounds reasonable for four teens/adults, it would be hard to go lower than £20 per adult per week unless you were living on porridge and vegetables/pulses/rice.

We try to keep to £130 per week - have tried Lidl etc but didn’t actually find it much cheaper than Sainsbury’s

Shocked that some manage to spend so little then some (with smaller family than mine) are spending £300 a week!
To those who spend a lot, is everything big name brands?

I don’t know if big name brands is the cost -
2 x Cawston Ginger Beers are £8.40
2 x Daylesford Organic Chicken fillets packs are £18.40
DH eats 1 x Kimchi tub at £5
Naice coffee for espresso machine
I don’t eat meat so a couple of Soulful one pots £5 per week
DS eats huge amounts of organic veg and avocados
Organic Cashew Butter £5-6 per week
Gluten free foods are also organic so gluten free organic cereal with organic almond milk for DS - 1 box is about 2 to 3 servings for him
Organic free range eggs Daylesford are £5 a dozen - 2 of those
Organic grilled artichokes in oil same with olives and sun dried tomatoes
Tuna in olive oil
Clearspring baked beans £1.40
Gluten free rolls and also frozen M&S grilled Mediterranean vegetables with olive oil and make 2 or 3 meals for me with Mediterranean spices
Parma Ham, prosciutto crudo £3.30

About £650 pcm. Two adults and two kids 5/3. Toddler in nappies overnight only, her sister was dry by 2, cheaper model
We get weekly shops from Morrisons and top up with M&S nearby. We are Costco members but not getting our money's worth out of membership at the moment. I use YNAB for budgeting and split out alcohol so that figure is just groceries and household stuff.

£125 per week for 4 adults and one teen, plus 2 cats. Includes cleaning products, pet products, alcohol, a few treats, and almost all meals for 5 of us.

I literally just buy everything from Ocado I don't go to other shops

I buy things like chicken for £15 or the chicken breasts for £9 for 2 always organic and free range meat all of it

I buy two or three packets of apples
Grapes but the expensive ones like muscat
Eggs that cost 4.20 for 12

3-4 oat milks
Organic butter
Organic cows milk x4 litres

2 loaves of bread

Proscuito and sun dried tomatoes

Aerial detergent and Lenor fabric softener

Method and other expensive more natural cleaning products for the kitchen etc

Kitchen rolls and toilet rolls wet wipes
Pull ups

Sweets quite a few bags like 2-3

Puddings like cream slices

Pomegranates strawberries blueberries

2 melons

Expensive oranges and vegetables

Bananas

Organic yoghurts

Few of packets of cereal like granola and other all branded cereal

Fizzy water
Still water
Soft drinks like lemonade and other cans of pop

Prawns and coleslaw and expensive cheddar etc

Yes I spend a bomb on food

We spend 40 pounds. Our meal plan
Monday 2 day, so toast for tea. Child eats at childminders
Tuesday we had haggis, turnips and mash potato - Burns night
We'd - I had pasta, son pizza, husband haggis. stuff from the pizza I have previously batch cooked.
Thurs - we will have homemade turkey mince burgers and veg
Fri 2 day so toast for tea and son eats at childminders
Sat will probably have fish and chips. The four pieces of fish from the fridge section for 2.40 at Aldi type of fish.
Sun typical tea is pasta bake, lasagna, or toad in the hole. I always batch cook extra and freeze. I always cook everything from scratch, no jars, and I always add in tons of veg and dont use much meat!

Lunches, mostly son eats at school, I have a slice of toast, and husband doesn't bother with it. Weekends, son loves toasties.

I honestly do spend 40 a week a shop. I meal plan, have a no waste kitchen, always buy the cheapest lines, and look at the price per gram to get the best deal. I always try to extend time between shops. I work out how much I spend by clocking the monthly total and dividing by 4.5. 200 is an expensive month, 160 is a good month.

£200 for two adults, one WFH full time plus one packed lunch a day. Feel a bit sick about it tbh had no idea it was so much. It’s everything though - toiletries, household bits, cleaning etc. Ocado with top ups at Sainsbury’s.

£200 just on groceries. We eat out a few times a week and get pet food separately. 2 adults, 3 young DC. We don't drink alcohol but there's a few individual food items that DH and I like that are quite pricey.

About £80 for 2 adults and a cat, but I'm coeliac so have to buy lots of expensive stuff for staples like bread, pasta, cereal etc

@Tabby21

Those that only spend £50 a week, what meals do you cook? Looking for tips on some cheaper meals!

I eat a mix of really cheap and some more expensive meals.

My cheapest two meals are tarka dal (from the Jamie Oliver site), I add a tin of coconut milk and it costs less than £2 for two of us and red lentil bolognese which is around £1 for both of us.

Tonight we had egg fried rice made by DD. It was around 40p of rice, 70p of prawns, 30p of ham, 40p for eggs, 10p for a handful of frozen mixed veg and some sesame oil and soy sauce.

I also regularly make roast chicken which has a lot of leftover meat for sandwiches, tagine using a fairly small amount of lamb, vegetable tomato pasta, creamy mushroom pasta and kedgeree.

I only eat two meals and lunch is normally simple sandwiches or toastie with crisps and fruit.

Eggs are 0.55 cent each here. So when people talk about egg meals costing 40p, is that just one egg, or are eggs super cheap in uk now?
If we had a basic scrambled egg and toast meal, I would use 2-3 eggs per person.

70-80£ 2 adults, 2 primary school children.

@Caspianberg

Eggs are 0.55 cent each here. So when people talk about egg meals costing 40p, is that just one egg, or are eggs super cheap in uk now? If we had a basic scrambled egg and toast meal, I would use 2-3 eggs per person.

They are about 15p in Lidl/Aldi