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 is hard for me to say exactly as DH works at a supermarket and gets staff discount. But for 2 adults, 2 teens and an occasional other adult child, I think we are about £150 to 200 a week

Everyone is different, so I don't see the point of the question. Some people spend less on groceries, but more on eating out. Some people have preferred food/brands/shops. Some people include things like cleaning products, or alcohol, in their grocery shop.
You spend what you need/want to spend. Yes, it can maybe be changed, but only the individual can decide that.

Family of 6, we spend £150 per week. To budget, I buy a £600 gift card for Asda via Sprive, the cashback goes to my mortgage and it means we always have the food money ringfenced. Happy to share my referral code if it would help

No way you only spend £75 per week , unless you're all going hungry. We spend £200, probably could get it down to £170.. But no lower

£57.54 this week. Meat and veg, had cupboard staples in.
We’ve had a gammon and a whole chicken, they made four dinners, pasta and tonight we had homemade flatbread pizzas. We eat tonnes of veg.
We’re not going hungry at all, we don’t waste, I meal plan, we cook simply.
I make a pan of porridge for breakfast usually or scrambled eggs and toast. Cheap, kilo of oats is £1 in Aldi, made with water and milk.
I make a big pot of soup for lunches - white bean soup this week, cost £1.50 in beans and then some spices I had on the shelf.
DS has pack up at school - cheese sarnie, cucumber, grapes and a biscuit. DD gets free school lunches.
Snacks are fruit or flap jack or biscuits I’ve made, I use dried fruit in these.

@LadidahdiCan I suggest that if you had gammon, that you reserve the water it was cooked in and add split peas (plus more water if salty). It makes an awesome pea and ham soup, especially if you have any leftovers of the gammon to shred back in. I do it in the slow cooker. I consider the 8-10 portions of soup I make as virtual freebies, as all they cost is about a pound or so in dried split peas!

I also think 'good' fruit is pricey. We have tried fruit from many places and the cheaper stuff( though still pricey) has very little taste etc.

Two adults and 3 children here and I'm really struggling now with £100/ week budget. Tends to be slightly over that with a Tesco delivery and then small maybe £10 top up shop in addition.

Ooh I will try that next time. I often make soup from the chicken juices in the slow cooker, I’ve always got a bag of broth mix and split peas open in the cupboard. Chuck a load of veg in and it’s heavenly.

I admit that I don't tend to keep track, but I usually do one big monthly shop (sadly, it's now around the £200 mark, and that's just for me, my reptile and little treats for my dogs) and squeeze as much of it as I can in the freezer. I occasionally do little top-up shops for fresh fruit and things in between. I buy a lot of reduced items, e.g. meat and fish, if I'm on an in-between shop, and pop those in the freezer, too. I try to make a lot of homemade meals and cakes, so I tend to have a lot of leftover ingredients.

If I'm visiting family, I go to a big market a few miles away, and cheerfully blow around £50 or more on fresh fish and meat. I portion it all up and freeze to make it last longer. It's of better quality than supermarket equivalents.

Between £250 and £300 a week.
That’s for 6 of us. 2 adults both based at home so lunches too. 20 year old that dips in and out but seems to always come home to eat, 15,12 and 10. The three youngest do a lot of sport and eat a ridiculous amount.
That’s also all toiletries, cleaning stuff but no alcohol.
Main shop at aldi and a few bits at Waitrose.

2 adults and 2 children (8yo- very sporty and will eat adult portions, and a 5yo) We spend around £110 per week on the main shop (that includes loo rolls etc) then probably another £20 per week on top ups. So about £520. More in the school holidays!

I do try to look for offers and cook from scratch when possible but actually we do use convenience snacks/food too so just bite the bullet with the cost.

I have found meat and fish have hugely gone up in recent months. As have fruit and veg! Every food shops something seems to have 40p or so added on!

Pasta and rice are my staples for filling the kids and husband up so luckily they are reasonably cheap! I’ve looked at getting it down a bit but find I tie myself in knots for a couple to quid!

You haven’t said where you shop, that’s one of the main things.

I never write a list I see what is on offer, it’s Aldi, Lidl and Asda for us.

It’s all about less meat and more seasonal stuff. I’m bloody ancient so remember when stuff like blueberries were rarely seen in the grocers. Strawberries were in June and that was about it. No little kids either now so none of those tiddly little yogurts that per ML cost loads, it’s huge tubs of plain yogurt. Always look at the price per gram or ML .

Also cleaning products, unless you have an animal that’s dragging its backside along a counter top or your chopping raw meat on there, there is really no need to spray counter top spray everywhere all the time. I swear a lot of illness is contributed to by the over use of chemicals, air fresheners trigger my sisters asthma for example. My dettol spray lasts a year, I chop everything on a board and there is a no non food items on my food prep area rule.

You will be suffering time wise from being in the throes of small children, the little time sucking parasites, adorable though they ate so less time to shop around. Then they have the affront to become teens who just help themselves and if boys well say goodbye to an entire block of cheese in a sitting. On a memorable occasion my nephew ate an entire family size bag of oven chips as a snack. He was and is to this day stick thin.

Family of 4 with DC aged 13 & 10. We spend between £100 to £130 a week. I meal plan for at least 6 nights a week. Sometimes I might spend another £10-£15 on top ups but that's not every week.

Mainly shop at Morrisons or Lidl.

It really doesn't feel like that long ago that it was around £80 to £90 a week.

2 adults and we spend around £100 a week, we don’t buy alcohol!
My meat from the butcher costs about £30/40 a week!
I cook everything fresh every day, we don’t eat left overs, as we don’t like eating reheated food, my husband takes pack lunch every day and he always takes fresh meat that I cook, I’m wheat intolerant and dairy intolerant but I don’t buy specific foods for me I usually have fresh meat and salad if I’m working 12 hours, if I’m working a short day I have fruit at work, I really don’t understand how we spend so much!

we are similar two adults / cook from scratch / fresh food. Does the £100 include the meat from butchers?

2 adults around £110 pw, shopping at Waitrose for all our meat and a few other things. Rest is Tesco or Sainsbur

Currently budgeting about £130-50 a week (not including lunches or cleaning stuff etc) and we shop in Ocado, 4 of us (2 teens). Mostly cook from scratch and organic where feasible. I don’t really see food as something to be compromised on too much, I know it can be the bill with the most flexibility, but equally, I think food is one of the most important ‘investments’ we make.

Not always, occasionally

Ah yes so very similar then really. We spend between £100&£125 for a supermarket fortnight restock shop. About £60 per week at butchers and then £35 x 2 for top up shops.

so in a month for 3 adults we spend:

circa:
£250 supermarket spends
£70 top ups (milk/bread/ fruit/ snacks etc)
butchers : £200

we do also supplement with veg from the allotment but I don’t work out the cost of that 😂

We have been getting a local fruit and veg box delivered for about a year now. I know I can buy equivalent cheaper from the supermarket but 1) while it's not recognised as organic it does have low/no pesticides which I prefer 2) it tastes better and 3) because it's so fresh it lasts longer so I have more time to do something it it all.

We're a family of 2 adults, 2 teens, 1 almost teen and some spoilt small pets. We budget £165. We have the veg box and free range eggs delivered- £50ish- and then we have a Tesco shop- £70ish and the rest of the budget is for bulk buying green cleaning products, pet food and a monthly takeaway. We vegetarian and all our dairy is organic. I know I could shave £40 a week off if I switched to supermarket fruit & vegetables, standard dairy and non environmentally friendly cleaning stuff but I can afford it for now so will stick with it.

I am lucky to have some storage space so bought 10kg of basmati rice when it was on offer for £11. I purchased 36 tins of good tomatoes when they were 45p, that wasn't a massive saving but they all add up. We eat simply but well. I cook from scratch for 3 meals a day.

@LondonCheesecake Thank you for reply. I have been lookibg at fruit/ veg boxes.We are very rural.I think 2 companies deliver to us.So might give them a go.We have a mix of dietary needs. So I am veggy. Dp is gluren/ dairy/ soya intolerant and celery,garlic do not agree with him and whilst he really likes pulses they don't like him! I cook alot from scratch but usually 2/3 different meals. We all eat gluten free pasta. Asda gluten free is pretty decent and not pricey.

I haven’t read all the comments but on threads like this I often wonder if people who say a low amount exclude all the other stuff you buy in your weekly shop like cleaning supplies etc and whether those with high amounts include all the non food stuff. So actually I think it’s had to get an accurate picture.

So, my weekly shop including all food, drinks, cleaning stuff, bathroom products, loo roll etc (anything you can buy at Tesco) comes in between £130 and £150 a week for a family of 3 (DS 13 is tall and eats adult portions) and we all have daily packed lunches too.

edited to add - I’m gluten free too so buy GF stuff.

Yes our weeklybudget is £150 for food,cleaning,washing,most toiletries and loo roll. Sometimes I can get it to £130! Woohoo. This does not include dog food which is between £60-£80 a month. 4 adults and 2 hounds.

From someone posting their shopping receipt on a previous thread - you can eat really cheaply if you eat a lot of highly processed junk - the general belief that good calories are twice the cost of poor ones certainly seems true - you can go from 150 to 75 by switching your chicken for processed meat and cutting out most veg

it was interesting as that poster then started a new thread about how to improve her family’s diet as she felt they could afford to pay more. I hope she has made some changes for their sake as she wanted to try