help with food bill

diane118

hi how much would a shopping bill (including cleaning items ect) be a week for a family of 5 mum dad 1. 16year old 1. 13 year old and a 6. year old my daugher says she spends £160 a week it seems alot to me they are in debt as her husband is selfemployed and has not had alot of work latly what do you lot think out there is this amount too much. thanks Diane

3onitsway

diane118 wrote: »

hi how much would a shopping bill (including cleaning items ect) be a week for a family of 5 mum dad 1. 16year old 1. 13 year old and a 6. year old my daugher says she spends £160 a week it seems alot to me they are in debt as her husband is selfemployed and has not had alot of work latly what do you lot think out there is this amount too much. thanks Diane

I think it depends a lot on where she's shopping.

I can easily spend £120+ in Asda for Me, OH, DS 11 and DD8.
Usually about £70 in Aldi, but then another £25-£30 on bits you can't get at Aldi.

The prices have gone up noticably - i used to spend about £50 in Aldi til the last few months.

wannabe_sybil

If you ask this on the Old Style Board you will get lots and lots of answers, and there is a thread of feeding a couple on 50p per person per day, including all the nutritional requirements recommended! This does not include any children, and I am not suggesting that your daughter cuts this so drastically, but there is also a Grocery Challenge, which actively aims to cut bills etc and I am sure that you will see equivalent families spending a lot less.

However, that is after a long hard struggle to get there. I am currently failing desperately.

Threebabes

We are a family of 5. I would think around half of that would be sufficient.

I would say my shopping bill over a month evens out to about £70-£80 a week.

Loopy_Lobes

We are a family of 5 and spend roughly £80/£90 per every 8 days which includes food, cleaning stuff and the odd packet of nappies. I think your daughter should be able to significantly reduce her weekly food bill by doing a few simple things:

Make a list of meals for the week, include a couple of 'cheapy' meals such as baked potatoes with cheese and beans or pasta with a basic tomato sauce and crusty bread.

Cook from scratch rather than buying convenience foods. Invest in a good cookery book and a slow cooker which makes cheap cuts of meat edible.

Buy shops own brands rather than branded items. Just because it's cheaper doesn't mean it's less tasty or healthy.

Shop online so she can really see what's in her basket and ruthlessly delete anything she really doesn't need. Also like me, she could set up a delivery every 8 days rather than weekly, it's amazing how you can put together a meal out of leftovers or what's in the cupboard on the 8th day, it's like having a day for 'free'

LilMissEmmylou

its very easy to spend that much.... however just because you can spend that much doesnt mean you have to. My mum would easily spend £150 on a family of 4, I spend about £50 on a family of 3....I would say you could easily do a family of 5 on £80 - £100 so almost halving her bill I agree get her to check out old saver forum

Rosie_Bud

Old style will be a great board to start. I can highly recommend doing a meal plan every week (or I do mine fortnightly). Then you just buy things for your specific dinners but you have to be strict to not buy lots of "naughty stuff"!

Hope that helps

Rosie xx

skintchick

Threebabes wrote: »

We are a family of 5. I would think around half of that would be sufficient.

I would say my shopping bill over a month evens out to about £70-£80 a week.

There are two of us and a cat. We spend £50 a week :eek: but luckily we don;t need to worry too much about money. When I lived alone, at one point I lived on £8 a week so I know I can do it if I have to, I just don;t have to right now.

OldStyle is the place to go for help - and cook from scratch! Saves a fortune.

busiscoming2

I was a family of 5 and now down to 3 of us. I cook most meals from scratch and we have a lot of fruit and veg, and make meat stretch, but I am still spending between £80 -£100 per week (inc toiletries etc). I am not a brand person, but don't always like the basic items. I must try to cut back on something.

sarymclary

I think it's possibly easy to spend that much if she's buying top brands, convenience foodstuffs, and not being careful about buying the bogofs, or value deals. If she's sticking to just 1 supermarket like Sainsburys or Tesco, then it can end up being costly.

I feed 6 on approx. £100 p/w, and £40 p/month on toiletries. I never buy things like toiletpaper full price, I always shop around for deals. My OH buys my soap powder from the 'auto jumble' every few months, and gets very large boxes of this for £15 (brands like Ariel, Persil, etc), and it lasts me months (I average 1 load of washing per day). I use my local Co-Op for their deals, which can be good, but their other everyday stuff can be pricey. I get special offers from Tesco & Sainsburys, don't live near an Aldi, but if I go near one I pop in to stock up. Tesco/Aldi is where I get my bread flour at 50p a pack, as opposed to 79p in sainsburys, and over £1 in the co-op.

This week I stocked up my freezer to overflowing in Farmfoods, and drove 16 miles to it because it's such great value. They do 1kg of skinless chicken breasts for £3.95 - no supermarket comes close to that right now. I get all my frozen veg in there, and pack up stuff for the kids lunches, as well as stor cupboards items like vinegar, salt, Heinz beans, quorn grills, etc. I spent £124, but that lot will last me best part of 3/4 weeks.

You have to learn the art to shopping around, and knowing your prices is the key to not getting conned by the supermarkets, especially as they are putting prices up and down all the time right now.

oystercatcher

There's five of us including three teenage boys.
I had been spending upwards of £120 a week but have reduced to approx £80 a week by reading the Oldstyle board and cutting down on non-essentials. I could save more if I had more time and energy for home baking but this doesn't come easy.
I've stoppped buying things like biscuits and crisps, they easily eat away at money and usually the wrong people (me and DH who both need to lose weight) end up eating them. I've been experimenting with the value ranges. loads of stuff is absolutely fine and no-one notices it's not the branded stuff unless they see the pack!
I guess you can't make your daughter change overnight but maybe if you perhaps did some home baking and took it round it could give her ideas ?
Or show her the OS board ... things like using half the amount of washing powder topped up with washing soda ...

Good luck
Oystercatcher