Families of 4 – how much do you spend on groceries per month?

[ScarlettCrossbones]

Am realising that we're spending between £500-£600 per month in supermarkets, sometimes more, and just wondering if this is reasonable or at the top end? Definitely looking to reduce that if possible! We don't buy any ready meals or anything like that ... Thx x

I would say the same here, unfortunatley.

about the same and that includes 2 dogs - when we turn into 5 in May it will skyrocket with nappies etc

sigh

Wow thats alot! I normally do 2 big shops a month- each one coming to just over £100, then maybe a small 'top up' shop for fruit/veg/bread once a week- maybe about £30. I don't buy ready meals either-

So say £260. £300 tops. But in my big shop I normally throw in a book or 2, a couple of comics for the boys so maybe £10-15 of that is on non-food items.

My boys are 7 & 9. Oh, and I have 2 cats which seem to eat a ridiculous amount of food so that also accounts for around £15 or so.

We're turning into 5 in May as well, mollybob. I second that sigh.

Oh did you mean 4 children? Sorry, misunderstood that!

Can totally understand how you'd spend that with 4!!

Um, no, only 2 children, Invisible . How do you do it?? Do you do lots of batch cooking/freezing? I can see how that would help me, but we only have a teeny freezer atm ? am hoping to get a chest one.

2 adults, 1 adult sized teenager. £100 ocado meat shop, £150 Tesco other stuff, prob. £50 top up shops, so about £300 pm but I'm quite stingy and a chicken will last us 2, sometimes 3 nights.

A ridiculously large proportion of that unfortunately is cakes, biscuits and crisps as ds and his mates are a flock of locusts. Am now trying to limit that to me giving him a fiver a week for junk food which he chooses himself in the hope that eventually he'll buy himself Asda ginger nuts for 29p rather than Caramels for £1.20

No, I think she means 4 - 2 kids, 2 adults.

I spend the same as the OP of it now. I don't buy crap or ready meals and I just cannot get my bills down. Last week I spent £150. Although this week, I did only spend £40 but I literally wrote everything down I needed after going through the freezer.

oops, some of my post is missing...

I spend the same as the OP and tbh, I am getting fed up of it now.

Meal planning really cut my bills - but they're still around £120-150 a week. My DC are teenagers, so I am really buying for 4 adults, and we have two cats who cost me around £8-9 a week.

I cook from scratch (always have done) and buy very few pre-prepared things. I now buy cheaper cuts of meat. Long gone are the days when we would regularly eat steak or pork fillet!

The other thing that can cut your bills by as much as a third is to downgrade your brand. If you buy a brand, buy the supermarket equivalent. If you're already buying the supermarket equivalent, try the Basics/Value option. You will be surprised at how good many of these products are - and they are so, so much cheaper. As an example, Sainsbury Basics dishwasher tablets are £1.72 for 30. And they function just as well as the more expensive ones I used to buy.

I too spend more than I would like on food etc and have found that the only way to get bills down while continuing to eat healthily is to eat a wider range of pulses, grains and carbohydrates (lentils, chickpeas, bulghour, couscous in addition to the usual rice, pasta and potatoes) and to increase our intake of the cheaper vegetables (cauliflower, carrots, onions, leeks etc). Oh, and cutting out wine completely definitely helps control expenditure.

I don't buy any ready made sauces- I mean pasta sauces/curry sauces etc- I make them all myself so I suppose that cuts down alot.

I don't buy ready made things like chicken nuggets/ kievs/ fishfingers. I make them myself.

The boys don't eat alot of sweets or biscuits. If they want biscuits we make cookies.

God, this sounds like I'm never out the kitchen! I do like cooking though (i-pod on/ glass of wine and shut myself away from the chaos little darlings for an hour). We all love pasta and ther's alot of pasta dishes that can be done quite quickly and cheaply.

I keep a small stock of stuff in the freezer for dh to reheat when I'm on backshifts.

Hmm, if we include wine then that's another £100 a month

I am spending about 180 per month on two of us...

I cook beef stew, chicken casserole, chicken curry. Roast chicken then use the left over meat for a curry and a risotto. Buy tomatoes and make my own pasta sauce with garlic etc, make tuna sauce and have with pasta.

Plus I pay for school dinners aswell.

2010 I am sticking strictly to a budget for the first three months...

So I am stoking up the freezer atm to make it easier and bog roll

Invisible that really sounds more or less like what I make, loads of pasta with basic home-made tomato sauces etc, plus I don't eat meat so there's only the odd bit of fish thrown in there ... so I don't understand how you can spend half of what I do!!?!?! No cats, and hardly any wine just now either ? only for DP as I am pg. Grrrr.

I'm pushing £140 a week for 2 adults, 2 DCs, 1 adult DC, 2 cats. Way more when oldest (adult) DS is home. And nothing I can do seems to affect it - I cook everything from scratch, I freeze leftovers, we're eating less meat etc etc.

Thats about the same amount as us. However I do find that I buy the odd things like fish fingers for the DC's every now and again. Not everything is from scratch.

Also do value tinned toms etc. Have bought slow cooker and aiming to freeze the left overs rather than just give them to the dog.

DS1 (12) eats as much as his dad. Before when I made a curry, it would do four of us at one sitting and enough left over for the freezer for two adult meals. Now I only get one meal left over as DS1 always goes up for a second helping even though he has stacks on his plate at the first sitting.

I do all my own baking and do buy some value stuff - like tinned toms and flour/butter for baking.

We don't eat anything out of the ordinary, curries, chillies, spag bol or meatballs, roasts, toad in the hole. I have just made some soup using root veg and chicken wings for tomorrows tea. A chicken would last us one sitting and then some sandwiches and the carcass would go towards making soup.

Our monthly budget for us is £156, which £39 a week. Me, DH and 2 DC.

It's horrid

I have started making pudding - to stop the second helping of the savoury main... I have found it cheaper to make custard and banana or a simple sponge pudding or crumble and freeze the main course left over - so If I make a meal for 6 I serve inot two tupperwares and pop in the freezer before we eat.

Crazy, that's terrible. What do you make to eat?

Roughly £220 a month for 1 adult and 3 children.

between £20 and £40 a day at the moment

we are sliding back into our old profligate ways I fear

I spend about £300 but we are foodies and eat alot of realy good quality meat and Organic veg and fattening desserts.