Grocery Shopping budget thread

*Louise*

We are around £90 per week for a family of 5. That includes toiletries and cleaning products.

I remember just over a year ago it was around the £70 mark, hate things getting so expensive

sparkle76

Wordsfan, I understand you have OCD and want to keep everything clean, but why use really expensive brands of which most of the cost of the product is packaging & marketing rather than real cleaning?

Could you make your own, this is what I do put into a spray bottle:

A few drops of Starburst (which is very concentrated)
A few drops of Fairy liquid or similar
Top up with water
A splash of vinegar sometimes
Around 8 drops of tea tree oil and lemon

Tea tree is so much stronger and healthier than so many of the commercial detergents. You can buy it on ebay and get so much use out of it for many purposes. Rosemary essential oil is also one of natures strongest anti bacterial oils I believe.

When I use this the kitchen isn't the only place that smells fresh, the whole front room does too.

I estimate one refill of my spray bottle must cost around £0.15p this way, and have not bought any of these commercial sprays for 3 years now. I use a similar spray for the bathroom but with a tea tree scent only.

Fiver29

Don't know about just food, my supermarket shop which includes all cleaning stuff and toiletries comes to £50 a week for 3 of us, plus one cat, one dog and 2 hamsters

candygirl

Anything from £45-65 per week for us 2 and two pooches.Quite a bit of it is beer though:beer::beer:

Bayonetta

£50-70 a week, depending on whether we need washing powder etc. That's for two adults, including most toiletries (unless I forget something) and a cucumber for the guinea-pig (I buy her dry food separately.) I try to buy things on offer that can be frozen and then work around that. It's worked out pretty well recently!

candygirl

Bayonetta wrote: »

£50-70 a week, depending on whether we need washing powder etc. That's for two adults, including most toiletries (unless I forget something) and a cucumber for the guinea-pig (I buy her dry food separately.) I try to buy things on offer that can be frozen and then work around that. It's worked out pretty well recently!

lol the cucumber comment had cracked me up big time:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

mandragora_2

Around £75 for three adults most weeks, but every now and then my husband goes into panic mode if the freezer isn't in a state to feed a third world nation if they dropped by for dinner, and I catch him now and again heading towards the butcher with empty shopping bags and a full wallet muttering' Must have meat; must have meat; must have meat'. Those weeks are a tad more expensive.

wordsfan

The meat fiend made me laugh! As to the Dettol addiction, cos of the ocd I don't trust other products, I prefer chemicals to natural disinfectants its part of how the condition affects me and I'm not willing to push myself too hard. I was diagnosed 5 years ago and have gone from being so affected I was agoraphobic to the point I could barely go into my own kitchen. So I've come quite far, ups and downs. I've learnt where I can push and where I can't and my life is relatively normal, if expensive in this one area and continues to improve. But I do appreciate the sentiments behind the advice given, its a complicated condition.

Eric_Pisch

we avg about £175 a week for 2

we eat almost no processed food and i eat huge amounts of quality meat and veg which costs fortunes ...

but this is all our meals as we do not buy any other food during the week or go out / have take aways and this also includes all our toiletries and cleaning products etc

Derivative

£15-30 depending on how I feel on the week. Usually leaning towards the low side though.