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Original poster

Is £100 a week really seen as a lot to spend on food a week?

211 replies

sweetkitty · 28/11/2008 21:02

Honestly was looking at "that" thread and the OP was being slated for spending £100 on food.

I have nowhere near that amount of income but still spend £95 a week on an online shop and top up during the week fruit etc of about £10, I am always looking for ways of reducing it.

I have me, DP, DD1 4, DD2 3 and DD3 4 months so one in night nappies, one in full nappies, oh 3 cats that need food and cat litter a week.

I use Tesco own label wherever possible including nappies and wipes
I have stopped buying Organic chicken (£9 for a chicken) but buy one £3.79 chicken but it does DP and the DDs 2 dinners
I'm veggie
I BF so no formula
I buy all own label cleaning products and use sparingly
we buy 20 pints of milk a week and 4 loaves of bread thats about £10 in itself
DP takes sandwiches to work so already saves money that way
fruit is a big one for eg we each have a banana a day thats 28 bananas a week!!
I usually have to back through the Tesco order and take things off so that it stays at £95 and the cupboards are empty on the day before Tesco arrives

So I guess I'm asking AIBU in thinking thats not really a lot for 5 people?

OP posts:
deanychip · 28/11/2008 21:43

Actually i pushed the boat out tonight, bought a big bag of crisps because they were 77p instead of nearly £2. DH asked me if it were christmas or sumfink?!

Twinklemegan · 28/11/2008 21:44

On a related topic, is anyone else finding food is still going up and up? Particularly dairy and wheat products. On the news the other day they were talking about food prices falling due to falling oil prices - I have definitely not noticed that at all.

Goober · 28/11/2008 21:46

I spend £100 PW for 2 adults, 3 kids and a large dog.
We never have takeaways.
This includes all lunches and cleaning stuff.
Everything.
It is from Lidl and I do menu plan, mostly budget meals.

DustyTv · 28/11/2008 21:46

We spend approx £45 - £50 a week on food. There is Dh, myself and DD 12 mo, and two dogs. So not as many people as you have to feed.

We get a fruit and veg box delivered every week and buy Sainsburys basics for everything else including the dog food.
I get all our meat from our local butcher and spend approx £10 a week on meat but a lot of that gets frozen so some weeks I spend less.

£95 sounds really good to me for a family of five people and 3 cats.

deanychip · 28/11/2008 21:46

we all have to have a luxury colditz.

Ive been saving Tesco £1 stamps all year and have about £80 worth so i shall be spending that the week before xmas for the two weeks so i will get us some nice stuff.

For me, meal planning is my sanity because i know what i am doing every day.

We just dont have £100 to spend each week for food.That has to see us over 3/4 weeks.

onepieceoflollipop · 28/11/2008 21:47

Twinkle - yes yogurts are so expensive now (among other diary stuff).

Colditz - Huggies pure bogof at Sainsbo's today, in case that is of use to you.

Original poster
sweetkitty · 28/11/2008 21:48

I use the Tesco wipes £3.60 for a 4 pack lasts ages, we use the sensitive ones.

OP posts:
DustyTv · 28/11/2008 21:49

Colditz, the pound shop in my town have huggies pure wipes in, just a though if you have a pound shop nearby.

thirdname · 28/11/2008 21:54

It seems a lot of differences in how much people spent is because some include food only and some include household stuff (like I buy that kind of stuff together with my groceries?

mysterymoniker · 28/11/2008 21:57

I spend between £100 and £150 a week, rely far too much on pre-prepared stuff and probably just eat too much generally!

that's a lot less than I used to spend tho

there's me, 3 daughters and can't count the pets as get their food elsewhere

mysterymoniker · 28/11/2008 21:58

I do feel a bit rubbish when I read about people feeding their family of 28 on about £3 a week but I think they must underestimate what they spend in between their actual weekly shops

deanychip · 28/11/2008 22:01

i dont buy anything in between weekly shops.

That literally is what i spend. £25-35 per week on 3 of us.

catweazle · 28/11/2008 22:14

I don't do a full shop every week. We spend about £320-380 a month on groceries. There is me DH, DS1 (21), DS3 (17) and DD (20 mo) plus a dog and 4 cats. That includes household stuff, nappies fortnightly, wipes and baby stuff.

We could get that down with proper meal planning but it's hard enough to find the time to do the shopping, let alone plan it.

TrillianAstra · 28/11/2008 22:14

Men are expensive things to feed, you're right about that. Just me and DP, £50 a week (actually it's about £200 a month which is slightly less) not including wine. I would spend less if there were two of me instead of one of each of us, because I could probably manage to not eat meat every single night. But it would be a lot less fun.

CatchaStar · 28/11/2008 22:16

I spent £50.00 last week on my shopping, but that is just for me and dd and should last a little over a month if I've planned it right. Then I'll do a mid week shop for fresh milk and bread.

I don't smoke, rarely drink and have no pets. Plus it's only one adult and one toddler I'm having to feed. So there is no excuse for my shopping bills to be very high tbh. I try to waste nothing and freeze everything I can to avoid waste.

I do look forward to the day when I no longer have to buy nappies and baby wipes though, they're so expensive!

FairyMum · 28/11/2008 22:20

We are 6 people and our weekly shopping bill is £250. Includes wine, cat food/litter and nappies.

cat64 · 28/11/2008 22:21

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

gemmiegoatlegs · 28/11/2008 22:28

the thing about the money for us is that, yes we can afford to spend as much as we do. We are absorbing all the increases in petrol/food/gas and leccy but the bit left over for holidays /clothes/ luxuries is shrinking. We have to eat and we have to liive. i guess its all about priorities. I could make my own rice pudding, for instance, but some nights I don't even sit down until midnight. if i start making quiche as well as all the other tiny indispensable minutiae of my life I don't think I will sleep!

Twinklemegan · 28/11/2008 22:29

I think it also depends on where you live. For example, I've heard rumours that Tesco is taking the proverbial with their prices in northern Scotland just now. Partly due to lack of competition, no doubt, and partly because most companies see our location up here as an excuse to milk us dry. I keep meaning to create a new identity on tesco.com at my parents' address to test this out, but haven't got around to it yet.

Original poster
sweetkitty · 28/11/2008 22:32

Thats a good point gemmie, I could make more from scratch but thats more time spent in the kitchen and time is in short supply as it is with a baby and 2 preschoolers around my feet although they do "help" in the kitchen when the baby is sleeping.

OP posts:
janet75 · 28/11/2008 22:34

Very interesting topic, I'm going to be new to the UK soon, will be living in London.
Where are the best places to do grocery shopping for value for money? I also have to buy nappies etc, so where is best for these?
What about fruit / veg /meat where is the best place for these?
Is it best at traditional stores or are there farmers markets ect that are good to go to for value?

From this thread it seems like up to 100 per week is about normal????

Thanks!

Twinklemegan · 28/11/2008 22:40

It can be more expensive making things from scratch as well, but it all depends what you compare it with. You'll always be able to buy cheap processed rubbish that's cheaper, but homemade stuff will be good and wholesome and you really pay through the nose to get that ready made.

As I said earlier, in desperation at rising bread prices I have started making my own as I cannot abide the cheap crap that's half air. I don't have a breadmaker, I make it by hand. It takes about 15 mins preparation time, time for rising, and then about 30 mins in the oven. I've worked out it costs me about 50p a loaf which is less than half the cost of an equivalent loaf at the supermarket. And if I do say so myself, it tastes blardy good. And it fills you up - one slice of homemade bread with a little butter and some cheese is my lunch at work.

I've also tried making my own yoghurt with mixed success. I haven't quite cracked cakes and biscuits yet. It is hard though - I end up doing these things at 10 or 11 at night, which is tiring after being at work all day. Sometimes I wish we could afford to buy loads of packaged pre-made food so that I didn't have to come home, put DS to bed, and then spend the rest of the evening in the kitchen.

seb1 · 28/11/2008 22:40

Sweetkitty try lidls for nappies, pullups and wipes they are very good.

Original poster
sweetkitty · 28/11/2008 22:42

seb - I don't think nappies and wipes are that bad £3.50 a week for nappies and 90p a pack of wipes.

I think theres an Aldi near us will have to check it out

OP posts:
bonnycat · 28/11/2008 22:47

We also spent about £100, thats 2 adults and 2 DC both in nappies.Thats everything though,including washing powder,dishwasher tabs cleaning stuff etc.