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How much is the weekly food shop?!

88 replies

Keenbean22 · 24/02/2026 12:24

I understand it’s variable for everyone depending on number of people etc but my food shop keeps going up and up! Is this normal these days?!

family of 5 ( 2 adults, 2 children. 1 baby). Tend to cook 90% from scratch with the odd pizza thrown in. I do cook dinner for my grandmother 3 nights a week. Kids eat the same meals we do. All have breakfast at home, one DD has school dinner so the rest of us need lunch too. No pets. need nappies but no formula.

we seek to be averaging £150-£200 a week. Am I going wrong somewhere?!

OP posts:
Forty85 · 24/02/2026 12:25

Ours has been around 130-150 since January. Two adults, two teens and a cat and dog.

REDB99 · 24/02/2026 12:27

No, it’s only me and my DD aged 9 and all shops including top ups and picking up bits and pieces is averaging £100 a week, sometimes it’s more like £70. Food shopping is expensive.

NewYearNewMee · 24/02/2026 12:27

I’m spending more than that for two people 😂 you’re doing fine in comparison!

changedusernameforthis1 · 24/02/2026 12:47

I'm having the same issue.

2 adults, 3 children. We do have pets but bulk buy their food separately.
Usually around £140 weekly but finding that we need to do a top-up shop much more often.

We recently had a birthday party so added some extras (more bread, sandwich fillings, crisps etc) and it came to just under £200!

CloakedInGucci · 24/02/2026 12:50

Two adults, two young children (youngest eats lunch at nursery, oldest gets the universal free school meals), we spend about £70-80 a week for everything. No pets, no nappies, we don’t drink alcohol.
When DD1 goes into yr 3 next year it will go up a bit to cover her packed lunches.

sweetpickle2 · 24/02/2026 12:51

Two adults, no kids, 1 cat, we don't budget as such (ie I just potter round the shop with little/no food plan and chuck what I like into the trolley), and it's £100 a week.

molifly · 24/02/2026 12:53

Two adults, two children and I aim for £100 a week but I’m getting less and less for that money. For example no more treats for the cupboards etc. with top up shops I bet we spent £150 a week

Growlybear83 · 24/02/2026 12:56

NewYearNewMee · 24/02/2026 12:27

I’m spending more than that for two people 😂 you’re doing fine in comparison!

Me too! Im probably spending £200 a week for two of us and a cat. I could reduce that quite a bit if I needed to, but at the moment I can still afford to feed us on a mainly organic diet.

GoldenCupsatHarvestTime · 24/02/2026 13:01

About £60 for 2 adults. Could cut it down but don’t want to. When we were struggling I could do the week for £40

MrsQuigleysWig · 24/02/2026 13:04

My grocery shopping for just me is £30 a week. No alcohol, a little meat, some fish, mostly veg and fruit.

ThiagoJones · 24/02/2026 13:06

2 adults, 3 kids. 2 of them have school dinners. We spend about the same as you OP, usually closer to the £200 mark.

goz · 24/02/2026 13:07

Same here for 2 adults and 2 young kids. I think the same shop 2 years ago would have been about £120. I shop for all breakfasts, lunches, snacks for the kids, (not all packaged but as in it’s all eaten at home rather than from school), DH takes lunch and all dinners.

We do home made most of the times, a few ‘fancier’ if you could say meals with salmon or prawns but then a night or two of pasta or a frozen pizza. Some basic toiletries, cleaning products and a bottle of wine and we’re pushing £200.

Sometimes I feel like I’ve spent less and it’s £90 but then I need a £70 top up shop for missing things!

humptydumptyfelloff · 24/02/2026 13:09

2 adults one teen
£185-£225 per week it’s eye watering

Jellycatspyjamas · 24/02/2026 13:09

Two adults and two teens and all in I’m around £200 a week - we eat well and have a varied diet, some bits of food waste but not much, I could cut back if needed but we can afford it so I’m not worrying.

mumonthehill · 24/02/2026 13:10

3 adults about £120 a week but that is no wine. When ds was away I got it down to £100 or just under with a couple of bottles of wine in it. We seem to need so much more milk, cheese, coffee and bread as well as meat with ds here.

Clubbiscuit · 24/02/2026 13:14

About 900 per month. Too much. Mainly due to lots of weird needs (eg lactose intolerant members plus one autistic person) The cat food alone is £60 a month. That’s for DH, me and two large sons aged 16 and 20. I cook mostly from scratch, make all our cakes etc and we’ve cut down a lot on meat. Also given up on organic food. Not much else that I can think of to cut back on tbh. Food prices have soared since Covid/Brexit.

goz · 24/02/2026 13:16

mumonthehill · 24/02/2026 13:10

3 adults about £120 a week but that is no wine. When ds was away I got it down to £100 or just under with a couple of bottles of wine in it. We seem to need so much more milk, cheese, coffee and bread as well as meat with ds here.

I feel like we go through £15 of milk, cheese and butter and another £15 in coffee a week alone!

Holymolyrigmorole · 24/02/2026 13:18

I’ve just ordered £150 shop to top up the £227 shop I did on Friday! Fair enough we eat well and can afford it but it is noteworthy. According to my banking app we spend £1100-£1200 each month in supermarkets (so includes cleaning stuff, toiletries, dog food etc). 10 years ago I remember being alarmed when we spent more than £600 a month. That’s a huge rate of inflation!

We are 2 adults, 2 teens (one with ARFID) and a large dog. 3 meals a day most days as we all take lunch from home. Eat out or have takeaway once a week though.

CarryOnRewardless · 24/02/2026 13:31

2 adults, 11 year old and a dog. I budget £150 a week, sometimes spend it all sometimes have some left

LeavesTrees · 24/02/2026 13:39

2 adults, 2 DC and a dog - £150 - £180 per week.

When I had 2 children in nappies 10 years ago it was £100 - £120 per week.

It’s unbelievable the speed it’s all increased. It’s happened with everything where people have little choice but to have it - food, gas, electricity, council tax.

ffsgloria · 24/02/2026 13:47

£5-600 per month for 3 people, no pets, limited alcohol. We eat really well but do have cheap meals (jacket potatoes etc) couple of times a week. Includes all cosmetics and cleaning products. Everything is so expensive at the moment, it's depressing.

tooloololoo · 24/02/2026 13:49

Me and ds 3 around £85 weekly

KnickerlessParsons · 24/02/2026 13:52

I don’t keep track of what I spend, but a new Lidl has opened up close to us and I’ve switched to it from Sainsbury’s because it’s so much cheaper.

Pineapplewaves · 24/02/2026 13:56

£125.00 a week for 2 adults and 2 DC at primary school (one has school dinner, one packed lunch). I cook most meals from scratch and we eat out once a week. No pets and we rarely buy alcohol.

hamsterchump · 24/02/2026 13:57

We spend £50 a week at Lidl for 2 omnivore adults (I'm 5'9 and DH 6'2 so we are not tiny eaters) and a cat for all food/household/toiletries/cat food/litter/everything really etc. That includes a bottle of gin (£12) and tonic every two weeks and a bottle of wine (£4.50 - £5) most weeks. I am very frugal though and focussed on getting the most for our money. We shop once a week, no top ups.

I do pick up some stuff on Olio sometimes if I can but it's only about once every two weeks and is usually just bread and maybe a bit of veg.

We usually eat Lidl weetabix (DH) or porridge with golden syrup (me) for breakfast. I usually have something like a sandwich or egg/beans on toast or leftovers for lunch and my OH has a cold meat and mixed bean salad (he does weight lifting so this is his choice, something to do with protein).

For staple dinners we have things like roast chicken (I always buy the heaviest "medium" chicken in Lidl for £4.25 as they vary in weight by about 500g) then cut the raw bird in half and roast half at a time. We have the half a roast chicken as one meal with veg & homemade gravy or salad and then I strip the rest of the meat for something like a curry/thai curry/casserole/sweet & sour chicken/chicken fajitas/chicken pie. So I get 4 good dinners out of one chicken for example.

Or we have things like spaghetti bolognese, pasta bake, burritos, chilli, smash burgers (I buy the cheapest 25% fat Lidl mince for £3.10 for 500g and generally use a quarter at a time for a meal for two people).

I also buy the Lidl cooking bacon at £1.99 for 1kg (if you pick through the packs there is usually one with good slices rather than big chunks in, sometimes it is just all streaky slices which is great, but sometimes it's gammon so if you wanted that it's a good way of buying it. I split that in to quarters and a quarter is enough for either a pasta dish like a carbonara or for our bacon sandwiches at the weekend.

We don't buy much branded stuff I suppose generally because it's more expensive and we find Lidl's own is so good. We use lard instead of oil for roasting/frying which is very cheap at 50p for 250g. We only use butter (no spread). I only buy whole milk (3 x 2L bottles a week). I buy coffee beans (we have a grinder and espresso machine at home) from lidl at £10 for 1.2kg). We always have some chocolate (I like Dairy milk so try to get as close to £1 per 100g as I can, I currently have some chocolate coins from Christmas that I bought reduced) and sweets (DH likes jelly sweets so I get Lidl's own) in the house. I buy the 24 pack of toilet rolls for £5.99 from Lidl because it works out the cheapest.

I try never to throw anything away, we either eat leftovers or repurpose them. For example I made a big cauliflower cheese to go with our roast chicken last night, that will either get saved to go with the next roast or blended down into a soup we'll have with homemade bread (I have a breadmaker which makes bread for pennies, I buy yeast sachets in Lidl and regular plain flour as I found it works just as well as strong flour and is half the price). I still buy some sliced bread for bacon sandwiches, why does it have to be sliced bread for these? It's just not the same without.

We also do Lidl plus and when we get a free item I try to get one of the more expensive items in that class. So for the free veg item, the best value thing you can buy is a 7.5kg sack of potatoes for example. I have had free razor blade refills/car screenwash/etc in the past which have saved £4 each instead of perhaps 40p if you bought the cheapest item the voucher would count against.

If I see a good reduction on a non perishable item then I'll buy it in bulk so I currently have 3 x 40 wash boxes of Daz powder (more than a year's supply for us) in the cupboard because I noticed them half price. I colour my roots every two weeks because I hate seeing the grey at home. I use Derma V10 colour which is £1.10 a box and I buy the whole year's supply of 26 boxes at once from Wilko so then I don't have to think about it restocking very often.

We probably have a takeaway every two weeks ish, usually Dominos or fish and chips on which we spend £20-£25. Even then, the Dominos we usually get a large pizza, a garlic bread and a chicken side (use vouchers to get at least 40% off) and that will often provide two dinners, the second one with salad and maybe chips added. At the fish and chip shop we share a fish and a large chips and 2 jumbo battered sausages. If we have chippy chips leftover I always freeze and reheat them later.

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