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.

I spend a bit more than you, op, but I could bring it right down if needed- we could eat fine on £100/ week if required.

I’m also finding the people who claim not to understand how people could spend this much a bit disingenuous. Imagine your weekly shop. Now make it all organic. Now add in a few bottle of wine for £25 each. Now imagine you have a teenage son who aims to exist on organic salmon, steak and berries etc etc. Your food bill would rise markedly. Of course these things are all optional so maybe what they don’t understand is how you could spend this much without wanting to. Is your husband a protein bro?

For the people asking, the “save from landfill” place I use is in Wigan and it’s called Fur Clemt. It’s fantastic and I’ve been a member since just before Covid when it first started. It’s £5 a year membership and you can shop twice a week ( more if they say they have a glut). The fruit and veg is typically 5 portions for £1 /1 red sticker but thurs/fri they tend to do 10 as they close over the weekend. Bread is always free. Tinned Heinz stuff is 4 for £1 ( local factory). Best of all though I get loads of commercial size meat from them and process it down for the freezer. A few months ago I got two entire full slabs of belly pork for £15 so cut it down and froze it into 12 10x10 inch pieces. I often get 2.5kg of diced chicken for £3-5. The best I’ve ever was two 6kg pork joints for £5 each. One I used for my daughter’s wedding which I catered and the other is in the freezer for Xmas.

you can find furclemt on facey. They really are amazing and a great example of a community initiative. They run all sorts of classes and have a gardening programme and furniture upcycling.

Thanks so much ! Never heard of company shop - I'll check that out x

I'd say we probably spend close to £1k per month for 2 adults and 2 teens (on food, toiletries, cleaning and laundry products) so don't feel embarrassed. My DH also likes a drink....good job I'm not bothered but I make up for it in chocolate and crisps!! 🤦🏼‍♀️

Exactly. We are big meat eaters too which doesn't help keep costs down 🤦🏼‍♀️
Need to look in to some good high protein veggie recipes for sure!

Brilliant - thanks so much for this! X

This is exactly it - if you’ve got adults who just shovel it down them regardless of where it’s from or quality, it is to be honest a heck of a lot easier - if like my H you like to exist on salmon, high end granola, good juice, good quality organic chicken , ramens, prawns and only from M&S, Ocado, waitrose or farm shops it’s a lot more difficult and yes he can tell the difference and prioritises great food - luckily it’s only the 2 of us these days- mine is around£140 a week including 2 bottles of £13 wine and we don’t snack which helps and I cook from scratch a fair bit. To balance out though we literally cut any takeaways out apart from maybe one every few months and we only really eat out at night on holiday or away from home with work - we do always though have Saturday breakfast out. Like you I could easily get it to £80 if we cut the wine and bought other more basic stuff

Thanks @EvieBBthat makes me feel better!

I think the problem for us as a family is that (like others on this thread)my kids are conscious of healthy eating. They are all into the gym and play sports to pretty high levels. Their coaches drum into them the importance of protein and healthy diets.
I like cooking and food and am fortunate that on the whole they eat well and like good food but it also becomes expensive.

Its not so bad when they are little and you watch them fondly eating a great variety of food but then all of a sudden they are adults eating a ridiculous amount of chicken breasts ,huge roast dinners
and demolishing the weeks fruit in pretty much one sitting!

This is what I got today from Fur clemt. £13.50 and I got 5kg boneless chicken thighs, 4 packs of chicken sausages, 4 frozen chip type thins, two packets of painini, a loaf, various fruit and veg, Parkin, mini cheddars , cakes and two bunches of roses. In spring the meat to freeze most of it but tomorrow is chicken and sweetcorn soup then a roast on Sunday so very happy.

I know exactly where you're coming from! Despite the talk of alchol and chocolate etc we also think about the importance of sufficient protein so tend to make sure we eat plenty of chicken and fish (and love red meat too), but often buy fresh bluberries and raspberries (not cheap) nuts and avocadoes and spinach etc. Thankfully by daughter is happy to opt for the frozen blueberries or raspberries instead of fresh for things like smoothies and we buy all our nuts from Aldi these days as much cheaper than standard supermarkets,but yes I'm amazed how quickly it all adds up. Plus we just all like to eat/have good appetites in our houshold and the home food bill has definitely gone up in light of the cost of eating out (the frequency of which has reduced). Additionally my DD is gluten free and the cost of biscuits, cereals and crackers is ridiculous and really annoys me. Why should you have to pay more for an intolerance? So unfair.
At the end of it's definitely cheaper to eat junk food than organic, fresh, quality food which is really unfortunate :(

@cuckoolodger this seems an excellent place. A proper community centre, not a CIC or a charity or some such money making scheme.

There won't be much to cut back soon.

I'd be stuffing a crumpet somewhere.

Ours is just brilliant. They also run activities like clay group, yoga, diy for women, and get back into work groups. It’s a really brilliant resource and the amount of petite that don’t raise that these places are hidden in plain sight in their own communities are shocking.People think they are food banks but often they are not at all referral based food banks. Is always worth asking and seeing if they can sign pay you to actual save from land fill places. Mine is an absolute god send and they have a very very firm ethos to support everybody regardless of income to save food waste. I even saw a Porsche in the carpark last time I was there, it’s a really lovely mix of different types of People from all walks of life.