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.

£120 2 x adults and 2 x teenagers. We eat well. There's definitely some topping up in the week of milk or eggs or fruit something.

We cook from scratch a lot. Make our own bread. Don't buy fizzy drinks or crisps or anything like that.

Usually around £70 two adults one child and a cat but then usually spend another £30ish through the week on top up buts

We spend around £200 weekly between Aldi and sainsburys (bulk in Aldi and then a few bits we cant get at sainsbury) probably do around £20/30 on top of that per week in local shop for things we run out of
3 adults (1 20yr do home from uni) and 2 children. Sometimes my 2 sdd are with us too 17y and 5yr) we also have 1 small dog
We get a take away twice a month too at about £70

We just spent half of that (£150) on a weekly shop in Tesco for four adults at home which included some non-food items such as foil and washing powder. We do have pets but get the pet food separately. We also spend £20 a week on a veg box.

About £150 for 2 adults and a child.

Mid range supermarkets and we get pretty much what we want, within reason - some organic/ nice brands of certain things, some cheaper bits and offers on things we care less about. A mix of ingredients for cooking from scratch and ready made stuff/ treats.

We eat mostly fish and veg meals though so we don't have loads of meat, which adds up.

Still don't quite understand how you're spending double that amount.

Are you getting loads of alcohol or fancy treats?

@Catty21 I'd say we're about the same.

Two adults, one almost 7 year old, one fussy old cat and 2 guinea pigs. We mostly shop at Lidl or Asda and get petrol bits from B&M (they do really nice hay for a very reasonable price!)

We can spend literally anything between £80 and £130ish per week with a main shop and a top up shop, depending on what needs stocking up that week.

We've recently tried making sure we rotate so we get food (obviously) then top up toiletries one week, cleaning bits next week, pet bits after that.

I spend about £250 per week at the moment for two adults and a cat. Our food is our main luxury and whilst Im still able to afford it, we will continue to eat a largely organic diet. Once Ive retired completely, we will have to look at making changes.

It's not normal, it's well above average. Plenty on here will be spending that much, but what matters will be whether or not you can afford it.

If not, you can still eat well for far less than that, so you need to work out what you're spending money on that you can reduce and/or how to get what you're buying for less.

Cherry picking a few items to illustrate differences in cost and possible ways to reduce the cost.

Sprouting broccoli - 11.25/kg, standard broccoli, 2.19 kg
Wet cat food varies from about £3 to £13 a kilo
Dishwasher tablets from about 8 p each to over 40 p each

Crikey that is insane. We spend about £140 on average 2 adults 2 children and a dog. Sometimes a bit more if getting dishwasher tabs ect sometimes less.

£170pw
Very little UPF
Quite a bit of higher welfare meat and lots of seafood
Not much organic as can’t afford it
One bottle of wine and a few beers each week
Doesn’t include occasional takeaway
Aldi and M&S
2 adults and 2 young children. No pets.

Ive got this as low as I can without compromising on quality. £300 is higher than it could be.

Yes that’s a lot. Ours is £70ish for two adults and a baby for a week. One vegetarian, one big meat eater. That price covers breakfast, lunch and dinners and nappies/wipes etc.

I'd say about £170 for us (2As 2 DCs), but that includes household essentials and special diet items which are more expensive. I dont think I could ever spend more than £200 a week on food, your £300 for just 3 of you and cat spends insane.

• Where do you shop? (Huge difference from Aldi to Tesco, let alone Waitrose)

• What items do you buy? (e.g. lots of expensive meat and desserts, special brands etc?)

• How much and how often do you all eat?

250-300 for five all in. Had a friend who said hers was £60 - I mean I knew it couldn’t be as her lunches were not cheap ones. She was inspired to go through her receipts and it was about £400!

We're between £100-£150 a week as a family of two adults, two children and one dog. The lower cost weeks are when we eat less meat and buy no alcohol, higher weeks are when I buy in bulk or need more expensive staples like oil. Despite being pretty careful, cooking from scratch and using everything up, not buying luxury things, etc, the cost seems to go up every week.

Although we don't have the budget for it, I can see how you'd easily spend £300 on a weekly shop, especially if you're eating meat or fish at most meals, buying wine, and branded items.

We are two adults and one 5 year old. We spend £110-£120 a week and I don’t shop carefully. We use Sainsbury’s and one of us has a special diet which costs more. We spend a lot on fruit and include the odd treat such as ice lollies.
I top up £10-£15 mainly on fruit

That does seem high.

We spent about £140 on two adults and two children (15 and 8).

However we have three cats and a dog, and buy their food/cat litter/treats etc separately so it's probably closer to £180-£200 per week.

We’re around £200/£220 for two adults and kids at 12, 10 and 8. We eat fresh 80% of the time and don’t bother with ready meals. From this have salmon, chicken, beef, hake when on offer (cod is simply ridiculous) and never feel like we are scrimping.

Talk us through your main items. I bet I could feed you for £200 very well.

2 adults and 2 kids (7&2) it’s £500 a month inc. top up shops
I meal plan and batch cook - online shopping has been invaluable for helping stay organised and in budget as I add / take away from the shop all week before it arrives

OP - what does your weekly shop cover? If it covers absolutely everything you eat and drink in the week, then it's not quite so over the top. I'd guess some people on this thread have a takeaway, buy lunches at work, pay for school lunches, have a pint at the pub, buy a bottle of wine or whatever on top of their weekly grocery bill. Also, do you have people round or does your child invite friends over? Most people on mumsnet seem to never have guests for a meal!

£150 to £200 per week usually for 4 adults.

We spend £150 ish on a big main ship the typically £20-30 on a top up. This includes all household products, most alcohol, packed lunch stuff. Yours does seem high - do you want to break it down?

2 adults, one toddler.
Budget just gone up to £350 a month. Recently stopped nappies and wipes so they're out but includes DD toiletries and household cleaning items, and laundry products.

I uploaded a month of receipts to ai, got it to make a list of everything I buy and check off what I need from this weekly.

Only use lidl. I'm highly boring and we mainly eat the same meals.

I try to keep ours at £150pw. Two adults, one teen and one at primary. We don't drink but I'd say we eat well. We don't really eat out or have take aways. I do often by coffee out though, which I am hoping to reduce.

£60 a week for two adults, one child and a cat.

That includes breakfast, lunch & dinner as we both WFH and child has packed lunch.

We are vegan and don’t buy much mock meat hence our shop being much cheaper than the majority of people’s. I don’t budget but I do meal plan and it pretty much always comes out at the same price no matter what. I come away with full fridge and cupboards so no skimping.

If it wasn’t for the cat it would probably be around £45 as she eats expensive food and the litter is biweekly.

Two adults and one pre-schooler.

I could spend £300 per week, to be honest, but our monthly housekeeping budget is £700. It doesn't last the month, though.

We usually do a bit of entertaining within that but everything is from the supermarket - no shopping at the butchers - and it doesn't include much alcohol. We have a lot of space (three fridges, three freezers, lots of cupboard space) so I bulk buy and batch cook which helps it stretch.