Grocery Shopping budget thread

JulieGeorgiana

We have a £60 a week budget for two Adults a teenager and a toddler (plus £20 a month for nappies/wipes until she potty trained recently). I have health issues meaning special bread, and pizza bases which costs a bit more. And we eat more meat/veg because I'm not allowed potatoes and very little rice/pasta. Oh and there's the cat

Before DD we were on £50 a week for 2 adults and a older child, and back then we had 4 animals.

So I'd say without nappies you should be looking at £50 a week.

Some can do a family of 4 on £50, but I suggest joining the grocery challenge. And set a high target this month, then if it worked lower it next month...

When I started MSE I was spending £75 a week on 3 of us x

When my baby is born/weaned we're going to go to £65 a week. Plus nappies.

That's just an idea, but there does seem some room for improvement x

Ps. There is no right or wrong amount. Just what works for you x

flyingember

Hi

There seem to be a few threads on feeding a family of 4 plus but I can't find anything on shopping for fewer people.

I shop/cook for myself and my daughter, 2 nights a week we also have 1 or 2 friends and/ or family members come round for dinner. I try to be careful and don't buy ready meals or expensive branded goods. I try hard not to waste food and find some of the figures on the amount thrown away difficult to comprehend. We do eat a lot of fruit, veg and salad and probably too much meat, with fish only once a week and a veg only meal once a week. My daughter has school meals which I pay for by cheque so I know it does not end up at the local chippy.

I am currently spending around £60 per week plus £10 on school meals. This includes toiletries, cleaning materials, light bulbs etc but it seems a bit excessive.

What do others spend?

fe

Linda32

Its swings and roundabouts really. I mean do you want to drop the amount? do you need to drop the amount? What suits one won't suit another.

Is there a particular area where you think you spend a lot, perhaps looks at that. Or say if you spend £60 per week, see if you can come in at £55 one week

Its myself and OH at home, we go to Aldi once a fortnight and spend about £75-80 then I do my Mum's shopping on Wednesday at Tesco/Sainsburys where I might spend a further £15-£20 depending on whether we want wine or not. This seems to work for us and its very rare that we have to buy anything extra.

But you see we are fortunate that we both work at the same place and get a free proper dinner at lunch time. So we don't need a proper dinner at night.

willow23_2

Hiya, I don't have a teen but do have two little ones, aged 9 and 5. This time last year I was spending around £60 a week, but once we got through Christmas I decided to see if I could get the costs down and for the last year or so have been spending around £35 a week on everything - so that covers food, toiletries, loo roll, washing powder etc. My daughter has two school dinners a week and then the rest of the time she joins me and my son in our packed lunches.

To be fair though, I don't often cook for many other adults. We eat two or three non-meat meals a week (beans and egg on toast, jacket spuds with beans and cheese) and then the rest of the time we eat meat or fish but I've cut the portions as the kids don't notice. Luckily they love veg so I can pile the plate up with that and then add a smaller meat portion. I cook everything from scratch and am trying to get the costs down even further this year whilst I can get away with it.

JulieGeorgiana

It depends what you can afford. If you want to cut back then I'd say start slowly and see how low you can go.

We have 2 Adults, a teenager and a toddler, I have special dietary requirements which means I can't eat potatoes, and very little rice and pasta. Which definitely costs more. I also need special bread, pizza dough etc... So that adds to costs too (we've noticed a £10 week increase from the dietary requirements).

So taking that into consideration our costs are £60 a week, which includes 3 meals a day for everyone, plus toiletries and cleaning and everything...

DD is potty trained so it doesn't include nappies/wipes.

Once apon a time (3/4 years ago) we were spending £75 a week for 2 adults and a child. I decided it was too much and used the grocery challange to cut back to £50 a week...

Good luck if you do decide to cut back x

maman

I'd say, not including alcohol, you could probably bring that down a bit if you needed to.

I shop for just DH and myself and I think we eat really well for about £50 a week, that's almost all home-cooked meals unless we're eating out. So I could probably save £10 on your budget, maybe more as no lunch for DD for you to budget for. Mostly my own lunches are HM soups or LOs. DH is more likely to have a sandwich. We have a decent breakfast every day and a large supper but puddings are a rarity except for fruit and the occasional biscuit/slice of cake for DH (I don't want the calories).

I think you probably could save by cutting down on meat. For example, we had a lovely chicken stir fry last night: loads of veg, rice, HM chips, HM stir-fry sauce and a few spring rolls from Iceland BUT just one small chicken breast between the two of us (slices up very thinly just after I take it from the freezer).

The other way I save is by shopping around which you may not have time to do. So my main shop is in Aldi with a few bits from Sainsbury's but I also go to Iceland, Farmfoods, £shop and others to stock up on things that are good value.

happy35

I think your spend is quite high, I feed 3 adults each day and provide 3 evening meals for DS girlfriend per week. I spend around £50 a week at the supermarket and we eat really well.

I could spend less but buy loads of fruit and veg and this tends to be why I cant cut down any more.

Ali-OK

I'm a long time lurker and possibly my first post on OS, but thought I'd reply as the household is just my 13 year old son and myself and 2 doglets.

I budget and usually come within £20 per week, but it's been baby steps to get it there over the last 7 years. I shop in Aldi mainly, with a bit of Farm Foods and Sainsbury basics thrown in too - easier now as there's a comparison website for costs covering Aldi and Lidl which didn't use to be the case. My equivalent shop in SB would be approx £33 a week based on what I buy.

My main challenge has been not repeating a meal two or three days running, but still using all foods up.

For cleaning, I pretty much only use Stardrops which saves a fortune in not having separate products. Toilet roll I buy in FF - 24 rolls is £4 and sugar is 2 for £1.50 - even Aldi is 85p per bag.

The boards here are invaluable and a good time for me to say thank you to all the posters and recipe-sharers who've contributed to make this an amazing place.

flyingember

Hi, thanks to all who have replied.

I have been looking at all our spending as I need to cut down across the board, currently there is more month than money and we are living month to month with no emergency savings.

It doesn't help that there is no ALDI, LIDL or farmfoods in my town and I think a trip to the nearest city which contains them all would probably cost as much as shopping at ASDA.

Thanks

fe

JulieGeorgiana

We have no ALDI, LIDL or farmfoods near us either. Nor any of the big supermarkets

I use the MySupermarket to shop between Sainsbury's, Tesco & Asda and get them delivered once a month and then buy fruit, veg & Milk weekly locally. It makes it possible to cut back still.

I did used to pop into Lidl once every few months for nappies when DD was in them, and collect a few odd bits that are cheaper there. But as it's so far away we'd time it when we were close by.

I also get my Tesco delivered through a friend who gets it weekly, and I order her bits she wants from Sainsbury's in my monthly. Saves us both money on delivery

If you do Sainsbury's monthly, their delivery is free midweek if you spend £100+

Good luck cutting back x