What are families honestly spending on their weekly food shop?

[Catty21]

cost of weekly food shop - Our food shop cost is crippling me. Our weekly food shop is £300 for 2 adults , 14 year old and a cat. My husband thinks that’s normal and is just the cost of living when I know my friends are paying half that. His response is well they are not being honest and they are actually paying more.

I can’t continue paying £300 a week, it’s insane I know . I’ve tried talking to him that it’s too much and he’s blaming me stressing over it on “ time of the month” as usual.

My question is , honestly what are families spending on their food shop weekly.

We are two adults, two young teenage girls and I’d say ours is about £120-150 a week though my husband buys beer separately on line. That includes meat from the butcher and some farm shop spend (eggs, milk, fresh bread, nice fruit/veg to supplement Sainsbury’s.)

We have either a meal out or sushi from the supermarket once a week as well.

Other than that I avoid ready meals and expensive items like £12 bags of nuts from M&S. I do look at the prices of things and try to avoid buying snacks. We are not regular wine drinkers though like a nice bottle occasionally.

It's going to depend so much on your .. values, weird word but I can't think of another way to describe it OP.

We're vegan for ethical reasons. But setting that aside, I feel really strongly that new research on how ultra processed food affects the gut, and how the gut affects everything from hormonal issues to mental health, is a game changer.

I'm also not wealthy and am pretty frugal. It's a grim place to be lol - I reckon we realistically spend £250 pw for 4 adults, but that's with me doing a shitload of extra work cooking from genuine scratch (marinading tofu anyone?) that my dh and adult children simply wouldn't bother with.

TLDR: you could spend a lot less, but you would be poisoning your family. So dramatic I know lol, but I genuinely believe that the research on this is solid and will be considered gold standard in 20 years time. This is regardless of whether you eat meat or not.

£150-£200 a week for food, toiletries, cleaning stuff, wine, cat food
2 adults, 10 yo, 2 cats

Those people who are able to do their food shop for £150-£170 - I love to know what you are buying? I just don’t know how people are doing a weekly food shop for under £200. We are 2 adults, 1 teen, 1 primary school age.

We don't eat UPFs and I cook 98% from scratch and don't spend anywhere near that - admittedly not vegan but do buy meat from the butchers so we can know the chain and most of our store cupboard things from the zero waste shop.

2 adults, 2 young children & 1 cat, we spend £60 a week on food & £40 a month on kitchen & bathroom essentials

Today was a win! 80euros for me and 2 kids and I scored a bread maker free whoo! Usually is 120 per week.

Interesting. That includes alcohol - 3 bottles of good wine (we are quite social) and also 'naice' sourdough bread from the local bakery which itself comes to £35 pw. And I included not just food but household stuff so maybe I overestimated

TBF, I make my own sourdough which is much cheaper! And we don't include alcohol. But it does include all toiletries and cleaning stuff.

£60-£70 per week for myself and my 12yr old, i tend to cook from scratch and buy a lot of fruit and veg. But if i need cleaning supplies/ household sundries that rises to around £90.

We aren’t vegan but we cut out UPF for around £550 a month. The weekly shop is at Aldi and once a month we’d do a £200ish Ocado shop to top up on the non UPF things that other shops don’t sell.

We are 2 adults and 2 young children so would probably be similar to you if we were cooking for 4 adults.

When we don’t have money or the energy to cut out UPF we can comfortably stay in a £450 a month food budget.

Family of 4
2 adults. (1vegetarian)
16 year old girl
8 year old girl mostly eats carbs
1 dog. A bag of dry food and 2 packs of chicken

our weekly delivery is £100 from Tesco
then we do a couple of top up
so I’d say it’s between £120-170 a week

3 adults here. £100 a week. Lots of vegetarian food, a paupers supper one night a week. Packed lunches for one. Don’t really buy alcohol.

Ours with top ups etc, is about £750 a month for 7 adults, 1 13 year old, a dog and a hamster

Wow! 3 adults here & we spend around £100 at Aldi per week. Doesn’t include washing powder , dog food or toiletries. We mainly cook from scratch & eat a healthy diet. I don’t buy fizzy juice, biscuits or cakes. We do buy crisps though but stick to own brand. £300 worth of food wouldn’t fit in our fridge/freezer/cupboards!

£150 for 3 adults and a 16 year old

Around £140 a week, two adults.

About £45 for me and my adult child. I just don't have more to spend.

I honestly don't believe these shopping costs. Way too low IMO. I've looked and ours is about £250 a week all in. This is for 2 adults, 2 teens, a 9 year old and a baby. Small amount of alcohol and some treats, toiletries and food. None of us are particularly big eaters nor is there much waste at all.

Jeez. One adult, one cat. The cat’s food is an expensive kind as his digestion is fragile, and costs £60 a month. Realistically mine is about £70 a week, so say £350 a month.

I think we are spending about £200 a week, family of 5 with 3 teens. That's adli/lidl, 2 vegetarians, one does not much variety and eats all the same things.

178900 snacks, because 3 teens and one is about 80% crisp 🙄😂

I am not including the dog in this price. Her food is bought separately

Around £350 a month (2 adults).

That's an insane amount of money.

I can only assume you're choosing pretty high-end and branded stuff that's pre-prepared? Basic ingredients cost very little in comparison.

Or bottled/canned drinks? They add up pretty quickly.

My kids are adults now but as hungry teens they knew that if they insisted on devouring vast quantities packaged snacks, energy drinks and frozen beige food for the air fryer it was coming from Aldi.

£115 a week for two adults and two young children. That includes cleaning products and most toiletries. We shop mostly at Asda and Aldi (sometimes Tesco), and don't eat a lot of processed and pre-prepared food, and we mostly only drink tea, coffee and water. I've been tracking it meticulously the last 4 weeks due to a drop in income, so I know exactly what we are spending.

I don't understand it either.

We are a family of 5 and budget £280 a week and it's never enough 😮.

DD buys school dinners on top and dog food is in addition.

I actually don't now how to do the shop for less.