Is £150/£160 per week too much for shopping for a family of 4 (2 adults, 4 year old and 1 year old and 2 dogs)?

[Biosblbay]

My husband thinks that I spend too much on food shopping, this is including absolutely everything, toiletries, formula, nappies, dog food, food, wine etc. I’ve worked out in average we do about £150-£160 a week on food shopping, so works out about £650 a month. I always shop at Asda and I get online delivery as I work full time and have 2 young children and my husband is rarely home so it just saves me so much time. He reckons if he shops at Lidl and gets the named brand stuff we get like the formula and nappies from Morrisons that he can save us a ton of money but I don’t think he will. I think most places are expensive these days and this is an average amount.

Curious to know what people think and how much other families with children spend per week/ month on shopping.

We spend around £100 - £130 a week for 2 of us. Sometimes we spend more when we top up cat food / cat litter. We don’t scrimp but are not extravagant at all.
Perhaps leave the shopping and cooking to your DH for a couple of weeks and see how much he spends?

No it's not too much - that's reasonable for all of that! Gift him the task of doing the weekly shopping for a few months and let him see how much things cost - give him the list you work from, get him to do the menu planning and send him off to the computer with a cheery 'goodbye'. Don't let him wiggle out of it with'I'm too busy either my important job' and do let us know how he gets on! 😃

I shop at Lidl - different family composition as older kids but I’m happy if I get our weekly shop in for £160. I don’t think you’d shave much off but obviously depends if you’re buying much meat and fish and expensive fruit. If I were you I’d definitely invite him to take himself to Lidl with your last Asda receipt and re-create the shop ideally accompanied by baby and toddler.

We have 2 adults and a 13 year old I go shopping every 10-14 days and spend about £130 then will do a top up fruit veg and snack shop half way through that that comes to roughly £25 . I think you could probably get it for less than £160 a week to be honest

I think I that's a very reasonable amount but, I also think if he wants to try doing the shop himself at Lidl/Morrisons then let him try! No harm in trying.

Write him a list, and let him experiment by going and buying all the house food / toiletries etc for a couple of months.

I think unless you do the shop, you know quite how much more expensive things have become.

Also - it isn’t just about doing it as cheap as possible. You could spend less, but have a very limited diet and zero preferences on what you are. But obviously, that isn’t most people’s preferred way to eat…

Ridiculous comparison unless your 13 year old is in nappies and drinking formula. There's 2 children and a dog in OP's family.

@Soontobe60@SirChenjins@Aviarythebird@NuffSaidSam@MidnightPatrol so the plan is he is doing all the food shopping going forward. But I’ve told him he needs to be on top of it and make sure he has everything we need & I need and the kids, especially as I am the one at home that cooks, does the meals for the kids etc and my own lunches at home. I am going to write him a list of everything we get and have and use and he just needs to make sure it’s always stocked up! I just don’t think he realises how expensive it can be.

But ypu don't have nappies, formula and dog food. The first two are expensive, and unless you're feeding your dog cheap crap, dog food costs a bit too.

Your h is in for a shock but if he hasn’t done food shopping for a long time (years?) then I can see why he thinks prices can’t have changed much because food inflation has been crazy the last few years.

Yanbu to spend 150 a week. I can totally see how you’d spend that.

Ours is about £140 here but we have no nappies or formula to also buy. Two adults, two teens.

Good plan @Biosblbay - but make sure he does it for a sustained period of time. It's easy to have a cheaper couple of weeks buy simply buying cheaper versions, using everything in your cupboards, or eking something out that you already have.

For an all in shop for dogs, nappies etc that sounds normal, even economical.

Ask him to go through the receipt or order and highlight anything he believes he can get cheaper at Lidl - and despatch him to get those items.

There is a balance to be struck when working, looking after little ones and dog walking. There is less time for cooking cheap ingredients from scratch, shopping around for bargains and batch cooking with bargains, and all the more labour intensive ways of getting bills lower.

Aldi nappies are reputedly good, but cheap nappies that leak or need changing more often are a false economy..

Ditto things like toilet rolls and kitchen roll that is cheap but turns out to be fewer sheets loosely wound.

And beware Lidl shrinkflation.

"My husband thinks that I spend too much on food shopping..."
Why doesn't he try doing the shopping list? Lidl don't do deliveries. You both work.

I'd get him to find the cheaper items and arrange for them to be delivered.

You can save money by shopping carefully - own brand items like toiletries, formula, nappies, dog food, food, wine etc are cheaper or the same price in Lidl, but you need to go to the store to buy them, and they may not be in stock.

FWIW, my cat won't eat the dry cat food from Lidl but will eat the Tesco one.
If I go to Aldi because I want a few particular items (e.g. washing powder, salad and cat food) they might not have any at the time, which means I have to stop in Tesco or Lidl on the way home. I find that annoying and I don't have 2 DC in tow.

I'd be looking at buying more own brands, and I'm happy with the substitutions.

Depends if you can afford it. The big savings would be probably to buy nappies from Lidl and not use formula as now over 1 (or switch to their formula) plus buy monthly all your longer life goods too then only pick up fresh weekly

I think it’s reasonable tbh . If you OH thinks he can do it cheaper let him show you .

@hahabahbag this! I was so excited to get her off formula just to save us £50 a month but she hates cows milk! I have tried 😩 but now it’s replaced with more food anyway and she loves fruit which is so expensive, especially berries which are her favourite!

Brilliant. Although I'd suggest he takes over the cooking too so he's always aware of the stock levels. This needs end to end systems delivery by a competent male. Hand it all over and buy a kindle so you can relax while he cooks. After all he'll be saving a fortune.

I actually tried shopping for my list at Lidl expecting it to be loads cheaper. It was only £5 less than the same basket I had logged at Waitrose so I'd be awaiting the results with glee.

@DarkForces I would love him to come home and cook but he doesn’t get home until 8pm most nights. He works 12-14 hour days including his commute. Everything is just so tough these days!

I think that’s fine. Honestly I’ve started embracing paying what I need to pay to have a good quality diet. I feel like we’ve been chasing getting our food bills down as cheap as possible at a cost to our health and the environment. I know it’s one of the most flexible elements of a family budget so an easier target, but honestly if you are buying food for a varied diet and can afford it, just do it.

I think you are doing well go get everything for £160 per week. I have 3 teens (1 on a high protein diet) and DH and me and 2 dogs and 2 cats and I spend well over £200 every week and cat food comes by delivery service I pay separately.

Noooo - don't get into an expensive berry habit! Everyone loves berries because they are delicious, but make sure you don't get caught into a trap of expensive things just because the DC like them - their deliciousness os what makes them expensive!

Cut out all his toiletries and treats plus all alcohol for a few weeks and see what he says.

If you're buying formula and nappies of course its going to cost a fortune.

We’re 3 adults and I average 500 per month (including Christmas). We hardly drink, don’t have pets, don’t use nappies. So I think your spend is pretty reasonable.

and I’d value the home delivery hugely.

wish him good luck from me.

That’ll take a load of you see how it goes but that sounds brilliant though