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Another boring question - how much do you spend on your weekly supermarket shop

109 replies

handlemecarefully · 16/02/2004 10:06

I only ask because dh reckons I am profligate. There are 3 of us currently (including 19 month old dd) and I currently spend £90 ish / £100 ish per week. It does seem a lot.....

If you guys do better than me it might inspire me to analyse a little further to see what economies I can make

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JeniN · 16/02/2004 10:08

£110 yesterday, eek. Also three of us, used to manage about £70. Can't believe nappies cost that much...must be profligate too

Hulababy · 16/02/2004 10:16

There are 3 of us (DD is 22 months)are we spend anything between 70 and £100 on the 'big' shop, plus loads of extras from local shop during week. Far too much I think but not sure where to cut down.

marialuisa · 16/02/2004 10:16

It varies wildly. can be anywhere from £45 (last week) to over £100 for 3 of us. We shop at Sainsbury's always (no Waitrose up here).

twiglett · 16/02/2004 10:21

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handlemecarefully · 16/02/2004 10:21

This is encouraging (i.e. I don't seem to be way out of line with my spending)

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nutcracker · 16/02/2004 10:26

There are 5 of us including 14mth old. We usually spend about 95 and then i'll probvably spend about another 20 during the week.

CountessDracula · 16/02/2004 10:46

There are 3 of us (dd is 17 months) and I think I usually spend about £90 a week on a big shop and then two or three bits and pieces shops of around £15 each. Again way too much.

Have decided in attempt to save money that I will try doing some planning before I go shopping, ie decide what meals we are going to have and exactly what I need for them and write it down or do on the internet. I'm sure I could halve our bill if I did that.

Galaxy · 16/02/2004 10:46

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Hulababy · 16/02/2004 10:48

Is it me or have supermarkets gotten ore expensive recently? I am sure we didn't spend anythig like this a couple of years back and I am sure DD doesn't make tht much difference. We used to shop at Sainsburys too (which was dearer) and now at Asda but still spend more.

handlemecarefully · 16/02/2004 10:52

Hulababy,

Exactly how I feel - weekly shop seems to have shot up in cost over last couple of years

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zebra · 16/02/2004 10:53

There was another thread about this...
We (2 adults, 2 toddlers) don't do most of our food shopping at supermarket, but spent £90 last weekend in Tesco's which was a massive spend for us. That will probably last 2-4 weeks, with top-ups for milk, fruit & veg, meat from butcher, stuff that Tesco's don't sell we buy from other shops, etc., before we do another big supermarket run.

On the UKP budget forum there are loads of people claiming to spend less than £100/month on their family food bill; I don't know how they do it!!

Galaxy · 16/02/2004 10:56

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miranda2 · 16/02/2004 10:56

I agree. Four years ago dh and I spent c.£50 a week at Asda. Now its around £100 (when you include bits from local shops) - OK, its not all Asda now, but a mix of Safeway, Morrisons, Asda and local shops, but the local shops aren't expensive - Kwik Save for milk and occasional ownbrand yoghurts, bread etc, and a greengrocer who is much cheaper than the supermarkets. I'm sure ds (2.5) can't account for a doubling of our bill, and inflation hasn't been high. Plus we eat less meat now. Shops do seem to have just got more expensive. Or is it that my standards have just been imperceptibly creeping upwards, so I buy more expensive things? I'm still an ownbrand or special offer purchaser, not brand loyal, though.

Hulababy · 16/02/2004 10:59

I think you're right Galaxy. WE do seem to be paying for the bigger, more interesting looking choices avaiable.

Mind, I though being on a diet would help wioth the bills but it really doesn't. Eating healthy is much more expensive unless you just have potatoes and carrots as yur veg every meal.

Pre diet I could buy a huge pizza and pot of coleslaw for tea for less thn £5 and easily feed us all, and maybe have a slice eft for the next day's lunch. Now there isn't a chance.

handlemecarefully · 16/02/2004 11:01

Yes I must admit I buy Sainsburys 'Taste the Difference' range sometimes

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emmatmg · 16/02/2004 11:03

5 of us here(the boys being 4, 2 and 5 months) and ours is between £70 and £110 per week.

We shop in Asda and always buy the 'big saver' stuff so that's probably ours isn't to high. I never buy the really cheap shite that they do so it's the 'best quality' Asda do.

Oh DS1 just pointed out that there is 6 of us......No.6 being Jessie our dog!

Enid · 16/02/2004 11:05

Four of us (4 year old and 1 year old dds) - I try and manage on £100 a week for shopping, coffees out, swimming lesson and bits and pieces. Some weeks I manage it, some I don't (expensive weeks are when I have to buy nappies/dishwasher tablets). I save money by shopping at the greengrocers and butchers (not necessarily cheaper per pound but you can buy as much or as little as you need (three onions instead of whole sack, four sausages instead of eight). If I plan the whole weeks meals in advance it always seems to work out cheaper than if I lurch from day to day.

We shop at Sainsburys because the quality seems much better than Tescos, although Tescos is definitely much cheaper. I buy a few things from Waitrose every now and again (Pizza Express pizzas, their meatballs, nice honey and jams).

We are still living on wine left over from our wedding so haven't had to buy that for ages -definitely a money saver!!

dejags · 16/02/2004 11:07

I am quite shocked at how much you all spend. We have a weekly budget of £65 per week. We shop at Sainsburys and I don't buy much own brand stuff.

We don't eat that much meat admittedly (beef once a week, pork once a week and the rest of the time chicken) and I can add another £15 per week for takeaways to this. So £70 in total for us.

DH did go shopping a couple of weeks ago and spent £104 I nearly had a fit!!!

There are 3 of us btw...

Galaxy · 16/02/2004 11:08

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Enid · 16/02/2004 11:13

dejags - does that include wine? nappies? dishwasher tablets? Meat isnt necessarily expensive, organic fruit and veg and cheese is expensive - I think that's where my money goes. But 65 a week is very good...but I would never ever spend 15 a week on takeaways so I guess it depends where you want to spend your money...

Galaxy · 16/02/2004 11:14

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Hulababy · 16/02/2004 11:17

That's very good dejags. Our bill includes food and household, but we tend to go out and eat out at weekends on top of that. Household does include dishwasher tablets, etc. But not wine. We buy our wine separately and that averages out at about £50 every couple of months, sometimes more, sometimes less.

marialuisa · 16/02/2004 11:17

I think our expensive weeks are when we buy meat because we're a bit picky about what kind we buy e.g. only label rouge chicken, even TTD stuff is not as good. Have to confess that we spend an average of £75 despite me buying Sainsbury's own brand for pretty much everything. Fruit and veg seem to have got more expensive, over £2 for a small aubergine etc.

Hulababy · 16/02/2004 11:17

Also, I worked out that DD's nappies and wipes stuff must average out at around £40 a month at least.

WSM · 16/02/2004 11:23

5 of us in our house, DH, me, DS1 (11), DS2 (10) & DD (18 months). We know how much we spend per week as it all goes onto DH's credit card and gets cleared at the end of the month. We've had to start being sensible and doing a 'big shop' as we used to go to Tesco every evening, the bill was between £200 - £250 per week. I was sooooo shocked when DH told me as it isn't like we live on organic champagne and caviar !

Anyway now that we do a weekly big shop, we have it down to around £150 per week, which is a VAST improvement !