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.

Wow.. I am way too tight to be spending that much..But, we still love our food. 2 adults and 2 children, £60 a week. I batch cook meals and snacks a lot though.

I honestly couldn’t spend that much - andzwe eat incredibly well - all m&sand Waitrose - I do cook from scratch maybe 4 nights a week and then things like battered fish with salad or prawn salads or ramen. Theres only 2 of us and I maybe average £120 ( including bottle of £14 wine) but even with a child still at home or even a teen I don’t think I would spend more than £150 - is it large slabs of steak or salmon etc?

Family of 2 adults, 2 older teens, about £850-£900 a month. Struggle to get it lower. That includes a lot of chicken and eggs, nothing extravagant like beef/lamb! We do eat big meals otherwise we cruise the cupboards later - combination of manual labour, a lot of exercise and height!

I’ve already replied but just to say it was £110 this week for DH, me and our 6 year old. That included a few household bits (top up of toothpaste, loo roll etc) but mainly food.

We’ve all had a Gousto account in our names at various times and every so often get a good offer, this week we went for one that gave us 4 x meals for 4 people for £27 including delivery. Getting for 4 people generally gives us enough leftovers for either a second evening meal (bulked out with extra veg/ carbs if needed) or a lunch the next day.

Also have a meal out tomorrow for a family birthday.

So we’ll have more than we can eat this week, but kept the usual food shop so I can stock freezer/ cupboards as I like having a backstock.

I do think the Gousto type boxes are worth looking into when you can get a code/ discount/ free box. For us they’re not worth the regular weekly price but worth it if you can get them reduced.

@AliasGrape I’ve just had a guosto box for 5, for the 4 of us at 60% off. My 6ft5 son eats 2 portions and we have to top up with added veg for everyone as they consider a “salad” to be a bag of rocket between us, and give us one relatively small potato each to be made into chips. No chance for any leftovers here. Maybe we’re greedy but we’re all very slim.

I do think you need to add veg to it definitely.

I find their portions a bit all over the place honestly, there's always one meal when we're left with absolutely piles (generally anything rice based) but some are much more stingy.

We're only 2 adults and a 6 year old though, DH eats a lot - and I do mean a lot, he's a textbook mumsnet greedy husband, so easily does 2 of their portions, I'll have 1 and DD will fart about with around a half portion, so what's left will usually do at least one of our lunches as leftovers, or both of us depending on what it is. Not to say DH won't be raiding the snacks later, but he'd do that however much he ate at dinner. And he's perfectly slim as well, the swine.

Around £150-£180 a week probably. £100 ish on Tesco delivery and the rest on top up shops from Aldi and Lidl. Two adults, two children (4 and 1, both love their food) and includes a lot of fruit, veg and meat 😅 includes most cleaning stuff and toiletries but no laundry detergent, if that makes any difference.

@Catty21 im same as you. 15 year old, dog and DH and me. We spend £300 most weeks but that includes a majestic wine run and some beer for the month too. I don’t limit or restrict why we choose and it’s very meat based. I could make cheaper meals or more vegetarian meals but my family would not eat them. They are both big meat eaters and we eat tons of veggies as well. With usually desserts once or twice a week. When I want to spend less I find it almost impossible because we are not willing to change what we are eating. You can spend less but you’ll need to change your diet.

I would always use half a pack of mince for spaghetti bolognese for a family of four. But I agree that the bolognese is the sauce stirred through the pasta. I can't imagine eating plain spaghetti with a big dollop of bolognese on top but plenty of people do and I can see why they'd then use much more.

Anyway our shopping bill for a family of four is maximum £150 a week. I have a set in stone budget of £100 a week for the main shop so will not go over that. We then do a fun top up shop at the weekend where we may get a bottle of wine and some extra treats but I'd say on average we're spending about £120 a week and then some months it could be more if we need household stuff like a bulk load of dishwasher tablets or whatever.

We eat a lot of vegetarian meals and only have meat maybe three times a week. I prefer to buy organic or at least high welfare meat and fish so I mainly buy it on yellow sticker and put it in the freezer. I got organic meatballs in M&S this week for £2 so bought a few packets for the freezer as part of our top up shop.

We are very aware of UPF so cook mainly from scratch and not too much processed stuff which keeps the costs down. If people are buying bags of Doritos, branded flavoured yoghurts and packets of Wagon Wheels or whatever the cost of those can be insane and would really rack the price up.

We use a lot of frozen veg and fruit which means there's no waste. Fresh fruit and veg tends to be the cheaper ones like apples, pears, bananas, easy peelers, potatoes, cabbage, carrots etc.

We eat a lot of beans and pulses that are cheap and nutritious.

DH and I don't snack (helps keep our weight stable) and DDs snack on fruit or something simple like oatcakes and cheese.

It's an interesting topic though because I'm bemused by posters saying they simply can't get their shopping below £200 or whatever. I suppose if you think dinner has to include fresh meat or you buy a lot of alcohol or branded, pre-packaged food then that's where it starts to really add up.

I budget about £125 per week for me, adult DS and a medium sized dog.