How much do you spend on groceries?

[confusedlots]

I’ve been spending a lot of time since the start of the year trying to really get to grips with our finances. Analysing exactly where our money is going, knowing what it is my pension pot, making a savings plan etc.

I never really used to pay a lot of attention to our grocery spend each month as in my head it’s all essentials, and I thought I just bought the essentials with maybe a few little treats here and there. We are spending around £600 a month on groceries for a family of 4 (kids are under 10) and I can’t seem to get it down and still feed us all. Help! Do I have to accept this is what it costs or does anyone manage to get it much cheaper than this?

It will be competitive under and over spending responses on this.

We are a family of 2 adults and 2 kids aged 8 and 5.

I run a budget of £65 a week and £10 extra top ups for extra bread and milk etc as needed.

I cook from scratch 80% of the time, we have simple evening meals, or I’ll do a gammon, chicken in the slow cooker and get two teas out of one joint. I regularly make a big meal, like spag bol and then the next night I’ll make it into a chilli over a jacket potato.

I bulk out meals with loads of finely chopped veggies, carrot, celery and then lentils as well. Cheap and cook down nicely.

Tea tonight was pasta, cooked in milk, with tuna, peas and cream cheese stirred through and fruit and yoghurt for afters. Not expensive, but a balanced meal.

@Ladidahdithats about half what I’m spending! I’ve given up alcohol so I hope that’s going to make a bit of a dent in it. I do make dinners that last a couple of nights where I can. When I do spag bol I always make double and put one in the freezer for a quick dinner on work days, and I bulk my spag bol out with lots of veg. I did a big pasta bake last week that did 2 dinners, and when we made a roast on Sundays it always does Monday night’s dinner too.

If I could get it down to £100 a week I’d be happy, but it just seems so difficult given the cost of everything.

Hi op our budget is £150 for 4 adults..to include toiletries,washing stuff etc.1 person is gluten/ dairy intolerant( also no mustard,soya,pulses) and 1 veggy. I try not to go over but it is tricky! Dogs x2 budget is 60-80 a month( depending if their grub is on offer).I am going to need to reduce our £150 a week after June quite significantly and it is going to be very tricky.

I find it is the snackerels that are a problem really. I do bake etc but need to find a way to have snackerel stuff available more cheaply!

We spend £120/£130 every 2 weeks (top up maybe £30 in between).

2 adults and 1 child

I think it is very difficult when people have differing dietary requirements. I would love it if we could all eat the same meals...this is very rare in my house.

£450-£500 a month, two adults and a pet. We’re finding it REALLY hard to get it below this.

What the hell do you live on if your only spending £65 a week, like please tell me!!! Do you meal plan or anything?

OP were the same150-200 per week and I have really struggled to get that down. We do eat a fair bit of meat though, two boys in the house who scoff everything. I home make healthy snack bars rather than buy, we cook from scratch every meal, use a chicken over two days etc but three meals a day plus snacks (&I dont mean shite processed packeted stuff) and I struggle with other bits to get it down. We eat simple meals, nothing fancy, normal portion sizes etc.

2 adults, 2 children.
Approx spend is £100 per week.
Shop at Aldi.
Meal plan.
Write shopping lists - and stick to them!
Cook from scratch most meals. Batch cook when possible.
Packed ups or leftovers for lunch.
Snacks tend to be 'healthy' so not much spent on treats / junk. No fizzy drinks / cordial. Hardly any alcohol.
Non-branded everything!
Only buy what we need. No food waste.
Make use of the freezer. Buy reduced items.
Meat seems to be the most expensive thing in our trolley so we reduce that.
Don't shop hungry!!!

We are 4 adults and I spend around £850 a month. We cook every day, not extravagantly but get though lots of fresh ingredients plus lots of fruit.

It might be useful to really examine your food bills - I was shocked how much was going on coffee compared to fruit and veg.

Look at items and look at meals - how much for each meal.

Make sure you plan lots of cheap meals each week / macaroni cheese, egg and chips , jackets and beans - normal
meals that happen to be veggie tend to be cheap

a roast can often stretch a little further - if you can make a stew out of the left overs with beans or lentils you might get 3 days

We all usually eat the same thing. Sometimes I make the kids something different if we’re want something I know they don’t really like. And I think we eat all the usual things. Usually have fish at least one night a week. Spag Bol, pasta, meatballs, chicken, fajitas, stir fry etc. I take a lunch into work, usually something like homemade soup, wraps etc. Going to sit down at the weekend and write out a plan for next week’s food shop and see if I can try to get it down a bit.

I think if we all ate the same thing I could maybe do it for 110-120..Maybe!

About £150-200 a week. That pays for three adults most weeks and four when dd is home from uni. I make my dog’s food from scratch so that covers him too. Plus alcohol. Sometimes we use Gousto for our evening meals but other weeks it’s a combo of Ocado and Aldi.

Edit to add: we are all massive on protein so this covers meat from butchers too.

Monthly spend of about £350.
2 adults, 5 year old and a 6 month old but have my in-laws to stay once every 4-6 weeks for 4 days at a time

We cook everything from scratch as the 5 year old has a lot of food allergies which has pushed our budget up.

We shop in a mix of aldi, Tesco and Sainsbury's as we find it impossible to get everything from one store. Sainsbury's is often online which comes from the bigger store about a half hour drive away. The local Tesco is quite small.

We buy in bulk as much as we can and make things go as far as possible.
I do my best to buy joints of meat or a whole chicken as it's cheaper and we get multiple meals out of it. I buy seasonal veg and fruit.

Oat milk is one of our big expenses as we go through 30-40l a month and my daughter needs oatly barista which is £2.20 in the supermarket at the moment. We get it on Amazon subscribe and save at a discount. The last order was about £1.40 a litre.

I always make a list not just of food we need but food we have so I know that something isn't included because I haven't checked but because already have it.
I vary the size of the shop and I try to do an empty the fridge we once every 3-4 weeks where the aim is to have an empty fridge by the end of the week and only buy the few things necessary to turn what is left into dinners.
We have days where we cook both tomorrows dinner today as we have leftovers that need eating but also come across something in the fridge that needs to be cooked that day.

roughly £250 per week. 2 adults, 1 teen, 2 almost teens & it’s all means & snacks (all 3 take packed lunch to school) drinks, as well as cleaning supplies and toiletries. 3 are vegetarian so meat us limited & i do meal plan but my husband hates things like stews.

i spend a largd chunk on fresh fruit & veg & we eat a lot of salads etc. i could do it cheaper but we like what we eat. I also have various breakfasts throughout the week e.g cereal & fruit yoghurt & pancakes or croissants, granola & yoghury, porridge or overnighr oats & usually mix the cereal up. Again one box, less fruit, less options would be cheaper. We are particular about coffee & both like different ones & spend over £10 a week on that which again could changed to a cheaper brand. If i had to cut back i could & would & my husband would just have to eat what he isn’t as keen on but whilst we can afford it & i do cook most meals myself bar the odd frozen pizza or micro meal (for me and my husband not the kids) when its a busy night or i just can’t be bothered. We also have a quick dinner one night due to clubs so pesto pasta, beans on toast, baked potato so it’s not only expensive food that i buy!

Shameless derail for the snack bar recipe please pp x

What ever you spend, it will go up...again..Just back from Tesco ...porridge gone up 35p in a week and multi pack of choc bars gone up 60p in a week !! And still the middle east impact to push inflation higher !!

I started using the trolley app because baby items seem to fluctuate massively and when I'm spending money on nappies I don't want to see them half the price in a different shop after I've paid.
I pop my shopping list "regulars" in that and it does the store price comparison for me and shows the off brand alternatives. It can be a bit more awkward traipsing round different shops to get the lowest price so I use it for the premium bits like scent beads and bulk nappies and wipes and most branded stuff and it does knock a fair few quid off.

Food prices have rocketed. I used to spend £150 a week in Ocado, now it’s £250
and sometimes £300. This is organic meat, milk and eggs and a nice bottle of wine but normal everything else. Eat chicken/fish most days, red meat once a week. 2 adults 1 teen boy 1 tween boy and a dog. Cooking from scratch. Also top ups of £30 ish quid so even more actually.
Luckily it’s doable for us and I wouldn’t know where to start with £65, in awe of those who are doing it for this.

I don’t think you’re doing anything wrong, OP, we spend around £600 a month at the moment (used to be expensive if we went over £500). We’re also 2 adults, 2 primary aged DC and a cat.

I could get it down a bit if a) nobody ate bought snacks (the amount of crisps we get through is embarrassing), b) everyone would eat the same thing (DH is mildly fussy, DC1 has ASD and sensory issues around food, DC2 is fussy), and c) every meal was cooked from scratch (which, being honest, it isn’t because of time, etc).

Things I do notice really up the cost of the shop are fizzy drinks (we don’t generally buy them), bought ice creams/lollies in summer, crisps and bought snacks, fresh fish, and beef (pork and chicken are much cheaper).

I find it hard to believe these ‘2 adults and we can’t get under £150pw’ well yes you can if you shop in different stores/make better choices, MN and it’s faux naïveté at its best.

We spend £160-£200 a week for 2 adults, a 9 and 13 year old plus 2 cats. Thats for everything, we all need lunches so 3 meals a day for 4 plus all toiletries, cleaning products and cat food/litter.

I don’t keep a close track but we are definitely over £800 for 2 adults 2 kids and a dog. I buy as much organic as I can and it’s more expensive. Mostly cook from scratch and lots of fresh fruit etc consumed. Everything is expensive just now it seems. I’ve cut down on takeaway coffees and lunches to save money in the last few months.

@HortiGal we cannot shop around 3/4 diff stores each time. We live in a rural area and it would probably take a good few hours traipsing round various shops and be pricey petrol wise. I also have limited mobility. We tend to shop at Asda/ Ocado...online. and co op and rarely sainsburys for top ups It does mean we miss out on yellow label stuff but that is how it is for us.