how much do you spend on your weekly shop

[thegardener]

my dh & i have 1 child and are trying to cut back a bit on our weekly shop after a few expensive months which have caught up with us. We currently spend about £65 a week & maybe a bit extra for things we've ran out of from local shop.(making a start having one less bottle of wine a week)

Just wondered what other people spend on their weekly shops and any tips on where we could cut back please before dh has a fit!

It's a valid question? Is junk cheaper? My mother never bought junk and swore that's how she kept the bills down. I'm not sure it's the same these days though.

I spend about £50 a week not including toiletries or cleaning products as I work in Semi-Chem (like Superdrug but only in Scotland and N.I. and sells cleaning products too). I get Nouvelle 9-pack toilet rolls for £1.99 and Thirst Pockets 2-pack for 99p, plus 10% discount. Cheapest anywhere and they're better than value crap!

I always buy things on promotion in bulk and this keeps me going. I have a cupboard in the house that looks like the stock room at my shop!

Whole chicken is cheaper than breasts and stock up on rice, pasta and noodles. Junk food is much more expensive IMO and once you have a cupboard full of herbs and stuff it's really cheap!

Junk, prepacked, just open the packet and heat it up is more expensive IMO, also prepacket individual whatevers when theres a full pack next to it for a quarter of the price.

Yes its a very valid question. Thee are mumsnetters who can whip up a Gordon Ramseyesq delight with 5 pulses and a sprig of parsley at a cost of 2p.

However for those of us who do not posess culinary skills or Who have husbands who think that brown bread is tantamount to foreign muck it makes things difficult.

with no money potatos and bread are always our staple. versitile with beans 9p or can of toms 15p. we have a plethera of meals to delight.

This week i have fed my children smaller meals to make the food go round. We have invented "LINNER" this is like brunch but between lunch and dinner.

so basically i filled them up on toast before dinner. they fell for it.

I have engage in this argument before where other mumsnetter insst that fruit must be bought at all costs.

But whatever which way i cut it. i cant feed 6 people and buy fresh fruit and veg. on £25. I know there will be someone who can feed an army on that however my families food tastes and acceptable meals which 6 people can all eat without me having to prepare seperate leaves a smaller choice. especially if you count that i don't want to be in the kitchen preparing and pissing about after working all day.

Junk food can be cheap, (you know the really nasty stuff like chicken nuggets made from skin and bones!) but we don't buy it or any other ready made or processed stuff at all, we do have tinned beans and tuna but thats about it, and we buy frozen veg instead fresh.

Its much cheaper to make your own pasta sauce than it is to open a jar, and if you don't buy crisps, sweets, or fizzy drinks as a standard shop then you'll save loads.

We get these things occasionally but its the crap stuff that makes our bill higher.

2 adults 5 children
£110 a week which includes nappies, toiletries etc and the odd pair of pants (potty training 2 toddlers who ALWAYS need to 'go' in Tesco!)

well we dont eat much red meat, sometimes beef mince for lasagna or spag bol, or beef chunks for stew in winter) i buy fresh mackerel, trout, haddock, cod or salmon etc and chicken. I notice my sis in law with twins (age 8) buys alot of freezer type food and she says this is cheaper eg pizzas, chicken in breadcrumb type stuff, nuggets, icecream, biscuits cakes etc, her food bill is about the same as ours. I just dont like this type of food and prefer healthier cooked from scratch options cause i know whats in it (plus im sure its better for you in the long run) but the point remains, why doesnt the government lobby for reasonably priced healthier staple foods??
I already do what monkeyandcheekychops suggests....brown rice/couscous/sometimes potatoes plus veg and fish/chicken are our regular (sometimes boring!) staple meals.
Does everyone else eat fish/chicken/meat with every evening meal? if not the meal would just be vegetables cooked in a variety of ways and i dont think my dh finds it that filling.

I agree with charlie cat the lean cuisine esq pre-packed meals are outragously expensive.

but 2 pizzas for 1.50 with chips £1/00 feeds 5 big people.

economy burgers £1.60 bag of baps £1.20

kind of thing.

by the way we dont have fizzy drinks (i buy sugar free squash only, thats the choice im afraid !) cakes or biscuits. if we do eat cake ive made it myself (costs pennies) dessert would be yoghurt/fruit.

when skint we don't buy drinks. when not skint we buy the 15p orange juice concentrate.

We have Spanish Omlettes and crusty bread for dinner some nights and that is cheap too and I find it filling.

BTW I have a DP, DS(3) and DD(1) at home. They eat what is there but mums with older or fussy eaters have my every sympathy and I'm not looking forward to it happening to me!

FFF, what do you drink? we buy the one type of juice (cordial/squash) teabags and coffee. We have a water filter for the tap water. I buy milk. Do you really not buy any fluids?

At the moment it's between £30 to £50 per week depending what cleaning products i have to replace.

That's for Me,Dh and DD i find doing a rough menu plan as in this what i we will be eating at somepoint during the week and taking a shopping list and sticking to it helps. I don't drink so i don't buy alochol if Dh want's he goes and get it.

This is includes crisp(not own brand) and treats, lunches and all dinners.

I spend beteween £80 and £90 a week, but would like to cut it down. There is just me, dh and ds and 1 cat.

I can't confine myself to one shop per week - it's almost every day. I never get out of the supermarket without having spent at least £50 - and often I only went in for some milk.

were spendng about £100 atm including veg / fruit box whoich is far more than we'd like but includes gluten free and dairy free which adds up!

I used to spend around £100-£130 now it's ~£45 including delivery charge

OMG Masacra - what is your secret?

pussycatmomma. no we don't buy fluids for the kids, that is what the tap is for "corporation pop" as it is better known. unless its pay day then i splash out on the 15p cordial.

i have coffee. we dont buy tea,milk and rarely buy sugar.

do you really want to know?

Yes please! Unless you don't eat......

YOU can't handle the truth

tom cruise reference there. ahem.

I also found i spent alot less by only going to the supermarket (Asda) once a week.

I do a big shop about £130 on tesco online about every 3 months to stock up store cupboards.

I also make all our cakes, biscuits and pizza bases, i also make bread at the weekend.

Lol, I started writing but it's a bit long.. shall I drop you an email? don't want to take over the thread, lol

meal planning, boringly, is a good way of cutting down! and during money droughts i cook a lot of things like chickpeas and lentils which are vastly cheaper than meat.