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!

you see wanting to make bake prepare and write lists are too 1950's housewifey for me - it gives me a rash.

I have my weekly shop down to £30 and that is buying mostly organic and local but with the occasional supermarket shop, a habit that i am desperately trying hard to break.

But, i have a veg box (12) once a fortnight. Cooking from scratch is the only way i can keep it low and be able to buy the things i want. I also keep £10 a week for extras from the farm shop/deli - or if i run out of milk.

No extra money on cleaning products though - all vinegar and bicarb with oils for the house and whatever is in the fridge or kitchen cupboards for me and the ds. This is a BIG change from even 4 months ago though!

so that is really £46 pw for 3 people?

£70-£80 the organic bumps it up

Me, DP & DS

We spend about £125 a week on groceries, toiletries, cleaning stuff etc. That's for 2 adults and 2 young children. I am pregnant and have diebeties so have to eat little and often.

I think it is too much to be honest and we are trying to bring it down. I have started to use moneysaving old style on the moneysavingexpert site and also some of the other boards on there as well. It's definatly well worth joining the site.

forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.html?f=33

only if i spend the extra £10!

FiveFingeredFiend i don't have a problem with you buying junk food for your family but i would rather give my family food made from scatch.

"pizzas for £1.50 with chips £1.00 feeds 5 big people" fine i can do this for less then £1.50 from scatch.

Oh and by the way i don't mind being called a 1950 housewife, i enjoy cooking and baking for my family.

mascara - post it on here... pleaaaaassee

for me, DH, 3 kids, 3 cats and a dog, it between 60-90 a week, depending on if I need cleaning products. It used to be 120 a week, so I am happy, that I have managed to get it down.

too much. About £65 p/week including fags and alcohol (about £15 for those alone). But me and dp both buy lunch 4-5x week. That includes everything though (including nappies, cleaning stuff etc).

2adults, 1 toddler and 2 cats.

Dp makes his own alcohol but still buys some. I drink very rarely. We usually buy one ready meal each a week and everything else we cook from scratch. Lunch when we're at home is leftovers.

Squidette, that's good going. I could shop at our local butcher and still keep under £50 lert alone £40! lol.

3 people here and I buy about 50/50 organic (meat and dairy I buy organic)

I also make lunches for all 3 of us.. definitely better to make sauces from scratch.

Casseroles/Stews and Roasts are great then on the other days simple things jacket pots/spag bol/spanish omlette with salad etc

dd and dp generally have rolls/pittas for lunch with fruit & yogurt/rice pudding and I tend to take soup.

I also buy multigrain bars and innocent smoothies for dd's lunchbox

I don't find it too difficult to be honest now I've got the hang of it.. I wonder how I used to spend so much lol

I could save alot if I didn't buy juice, squash and cola (for me and dp).

could't shop local

oops.

I don't buy fizzy drinks but do buy juice and/or smoothies

£30 ish for me+2 dds

Family of 5 - £500 per month for everything!

lizziemum, why take it personally. it wasn;t aimed at you fgs.

i haven't got the time or the skills that you have.

I wanted to point out that we are all different before the lectures on feeding a family of 18 for under 2p on pulses began.

You never registered on my radar. Believe me dear if i wanted to be cutting, i would do it directly.

I eat a vegetarian diet now - but this is recent (in last few months) so i dont buy meat a lot. I went to our butcher a couple of weeks ago and bought some organic minced beef for the children as they had been hounding me for a cottage pie.

I bought enough for them to have a cottage pie one night and the rest for a spaghetti sauce the following night for ONE POUND

Mind you, there is only me as the adult in the house though, and we dont drink fizzy drinks apart from mineral water with a cordial mixer, no crisps or biscuits really apart from crackers and ginger snaps.

The biggest change for me has been writing a menu plan for the week. The children choose one meal each a week that they would like (stress desire here, not a sure-bet!) and then they know that if they are hungry, they help themselves from the fruit bowl.

To be fair, they are away from 2 nights a week. I usually make a soup or salads for me and i take a packed lunch on the days that i work.

I buy a lot of stuff for ds lunchbox but thinking about it, I could stop doing that and make it myself for a lot less.

We dont drink alcohol now and have cut out red meat. we eat a lot of pulses and chicken and mince.

If I need milk I tend to get it from the garage so I dont end up spending £50 on nothing!

Around £60 a week on average for me, DH and DS. This includes formula, nappies, cat food for 2 cats and household products. I'd love to buy better meat and cheese from farmers markets etc. but can't see how we can afford to at the mo.

About £100 for 6 people.

Cooking from scratch is much cheaper, more filling and better for you.

Why spend £1.50 on oven chips when you can get 5kg of value potatoes for the same price and make your own chips?

Baking cakes and puddings saves loads of dosh too. Especially doing stuff like rice pudding for dessert... how cheap is that?

The above doesn't require masses of time, or special skills. Just a bit of common sense.

Couldn't agree more about the bag of potatos thing I use a lot of potato. very versitile, cheap and filling..

We spend way too much.For me and Dh and ds's 15.8 and 11.6 and dd's 2.9 and 9 months we spend around 130/140 quid at supermarket per week.Also spend around 40/50 quid at the bodycare shop for toilitries for the month.A lot of that is hair/skin stuff for my teenager tho.

We seem to run out of milk bread yoghurts all the time so they are topped up at least twice a week.I go to scottish slimmers and buy a ton of salad stuff every couple of days too.

Am skint atm(just paid huge deposit for hols) so am gonna meal plan today and see how that goes.Ds1 won't eat what i prepare a fair bit of the time so tend to buy pizzas etc for him,but won't be buying them this week!!

Our weekly shop is around £50-60 on average thats for me,dh,DS[3.6],DD1[17mths] and DD2[4mths] so includes formula but not nappies as we use cloth.Oh and we have a dog

just thought maybe a top up of around £5-8 a week for milk and bread as my kids drink 6pints milk a day.