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)?

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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.

My basic shops is between 130-160 a week and that’s only for mom-Fri without dinners. I order gousto or hello fresh which is then another 40-60 a week (depending on discounts) then a top up shop through the week for fruit bread milk etc and then we grab dinners for the weekend as we go! That’s 2 adults and 2 kids 3&8

I think that sounds about right. I spend between £120 -£150 a week for 4 of us (2 adults and 2 teenage daughters)

Me, DP, 4 year old and 1 year old and I get annoyed when it goes over £90/100 at Lidl xx

No its not too much.

I have just come back from doing my weekly food shop for two of us. £103 in Sainsburys for three bags for life full.

Only meat I bought was a raw chicken and some sandwich meats (3 for £8), one bottle of wine. Everything else was fruit, veg, yogurts, bread, ice creams (own brand) and some bits and pieces to add to dinners.

My shops are generally that amount - they rarely include meat as we buy that from the butchers, rarely include alcohol and never include cat or dog food (I buy that elsewhere).

Grocery prices are shocking at the moment. Send him along with your shopping list and see how he does. If he saves loads of money, great - one less job for you to do each week!

Tell your husband to go and do the shopping. Don't do a meal plan, just send him but remind him he needs 28 breakfasts, 28 lunches, 28 dinners, laundry products toiletries, nappies,drinks, loo rolls, bleach etc and all of the dogs food and poo bags.

We have two adults, a one year old and a two year d and a dog and ours comes in on average around £130 week for everything, sometimes a bit more sometimes a but less so sounds pretty normal to me!

I would say pet food has doubled in price over the last 5 years. I think your spending is very reasonable.

My eldest didn’t like cows milk. He did like (plain) yoghurt and I mixed that with milk in gradually increasing amounts until he drank milk. Might work doing similar with formula.

I'd be insisting he commits to doing it for 3 months. The first month of things is always novelty and easy to motivate yourself to.

I shop at Aldi and spend about £140 for 4 (2 adults, 1 teenager, 1 10 yo). There will then be an extra £10-20 or so on other bits such as bread and fresh stuff later in the week. I don’t scrimp but equally it would be hard to do it for much less given current prices.

I mealplan and provide packed lunches for 4 people and then we also have 1 dog. One weekly shop costs me about £175 and that's with no luxuries like a bottle of wine or nice puddings. The only treats I will buy is a tub of ice cream for the kids and a couple of packets of cheap biscuits. About 2 years ago the same shop was costing about £120.
Food prices rose by 38% between Nov 2020 and Nov 2025 and I can see that they have gone up again since November due to all the geopolitical and climate influence on the food chain.

Just to add my DH is also clueless as he hasn’t food shopped for 15 years. He occasionally mentions his £15 a week food shop to feed himself before we lived together (yes, he did seem to live on rice and chicken and now has a much more varied diet). Having said that he does accept prices have changed and never has any issue with what I spend. He is always horrified when he occasionally goes in a supermarket.

I spend 80-90 for one adult and one teen. Some but not all toiletries. Dog on top. Let him try?

It sounds completely reasonable to me - we’re two adults and 3 under 5s plus a dog and a cat and I’d say spend we between £650 and £750 a month, depending on when expensive bits need topping up. Everything is just so expensive nowadays - we’re spending the same as we have for a long time, more or less, but where I used to think nothing of having chicken breasts and nice cuts of steak at least a few times a week, it feels like a treat now.

Well he's being a bit of an idiot isn't he. Pretty soon you're going to run out of food and will resort to take aways or ready meals from the corner shop, because he doesn't have time to go to 2 shops a week when he doesn't get home until 8pm

I'm not a fan of Lidl foods tbh. I do shop in Aldi but their range is limited and I'm getting sick and tired of them being out of stock of things I need each time I go in, like coffee, steak, cream, cheddar. Basics that are much cheaper at Aldi but their poor stock control forces me to a better more expensive shop.

According to AI.. £160 is good price.. usual average price is £190.
You would save £20 at lidl or Aldi.. but you could waste some money on poorer quality..

I'd say that's pretty average for these days. We are a family of 4 adults and 2 cats, with another 2 adults who eat with us about twice a week, and I spend about the same as you on my main shop. But when I account for a weekly chippy tea and the odd top up, it's probably about £180-£200 per week for us all.

I certainly think you could trim a few £ off by cutting luxuries etc, but your husband is kidding himself if he thinks you could get the shop cost down by a considerable amount. Particularly if you're including everything - nappies, milk, pet stuff etc.

For comparison, 10 years ago, when I was shopping for me, DH and 3 kids aged 9-16, I was spending about £70 a week. That's how much grocery prices have gone up in a relatively short time! 😳

I’m sure you could spend less on it. But why bother. Can you not afford it. If not you need to lower your standard of living. If he thinks you can spend less by getting things from different shops and that’s a good use of your time then he’s welcome to do it.

if he’s going to take charge of the shopping he needs to take charge of end to end including meal planning. Don’t write him a list or manage it for him.

for absolutely everything we do 180 a week 2 adults 3 children 6,4&2.

Can’t you mix formula with cows milk and slowly ween her off the formula? That’s what I did with my eldest who was a milk guzzler. Just reduced the formula over time till she was fully on cows milk.

Get him to do it and he can make the list as well! He lives in the same house, he knows what gets used!

I think you could spend less,but do you need to?

Theres me and 2dc (who have packed lunches) , but a few pets (some of which eat loads of fresh veg) and spend about £100 a week.

I don't think Nappies need be a great expense though.

You know one year olds don’t have to drink milk, either formula or cows milk? They can drink water and get calcium, vitamins and fats from food, or other dairy sources. Goats milk is also an option.

That might save a few quid.

My sentiments exactly

Let him try then but if you end up doing top up shops keep the receipts and add the weekly spend. When did he last go food shopping as i think he’s in for a shock at how expensive things are these days