Average cost of family grocery shopping

sticher

Wow now I definitely know I am spending too much on my shopping! I spend almost £200 per WEEK on 2 adults, 3 growing boys, a dog and two cats!!! This week in an attempt to cut down I planned the weeks meals and hoped it would come to around £50 - - - £128 later...... I think alot of mine goes on fresh fruit though. My eldest son will eat a punnet of plums in one day! Bananas by the bunch and so on. Trouble is I would rather that than crisps, etc. (He won't drink milky drinks though).

Where am I going wrong? I don't buy ready meals or anything expensive really. I think I will start pricing stuff on line and making sure I spend less.

SnowyOwl_2

Hi everyone

I'm on a wander from the Old Style board and found this thread. This sort of conversation is loved and adored by the regulars on Old Style, and we just love it when new people join in! Can I point you in the direction of a current thread:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=237050

How Black-Saturn stretches her budget really makes my head spin! It's just me in my house and I spend about £120 on just me per month (I have to admit I am terrible at planning and budgeting...in fact I am a disgrace!!) and I spend around £20 per month on cat food (two cats who get only the best).

There is also the Old Style index and conversations about topics such as using a slow cooker, home baking, batch cooking and so on, which all lead to cheaper food bills.

Another area that it's easy to cut down on is cleaning products. I only use Stardrops, salt, bicarbonate of soda, vinegar and cotton cloths (microfibre cloths are very "in" at the moment...and they are good at shifting dirt). Again, this is discussed in depth on Old Style.

Regards washing powder and fabric conditioner - I have received a sample of soapnuts and am going to try them - they are dirt cheap, contain no chemicals at all and dispense with the need for conditioner. While using powder I stopped using fabric conditioner and switched to a couple of spoonfuls of vinegar instead. It doesn't pong, it softens, it doesn't irritate the skin and it's cheap.

Corey - I'm in NI as well but down by Newry, so can't specifically help with your query about fruit and veg. However the board guide on Old Style is from the Ards area, and I'm sure she'd have some advice for you - she's called Pink Winged.

Hope that's useful everyone - it'd be fab to see you in the Old Style forum.

SnowyOwl

abbecer

We are also a family of four with 2 young children. I was spending very similar amounts to you and decided i needed to try something else to save money. The biggest change for me has been limiting my shopping to once a week and i have saved a fortune. I use to nip out for bread and spend £30!!! Now i buy bread to freeze, i freeze milk or buy longlife. I buy salad for early in the week and vegetables that will keep a bit longer for later in the week. I buy a selection of fruit that is ripe and some that needs ripening so that i is fine for later in the week. When i do the shopping i buy special offers and quick sale items that can be frozen. In a morning i look at what i have and decide on the evening meal. It has also made me be more creative with cooking and we've had some lovely meals. If i run out of something i try to use something else as a substitute and i only allow myself to go shopping if it is absolutely neccessary. My next bit of advice will go against everything that MSE is about. If i desperatly need bread or milk i will go to the local shop for it. It is more expensive than the supermarket and has a very limited range but this is good as i doesn't tempt me to buy something i don't need just because it is buy one get one free. Hope this helps.

Good luck with the money saving

Rebecca x

gaultie

Thanks to everyone for their interesting and useful replies to my original post.

My main conclusions are the importance of planning the week's meals and making lists which we then stick to in regular shops, rather than the fairly random approach we currently have. For us that will also mean more internet shopping as it is the trips to the supermarket for a couple of things where we get tempted by extra stuff. Might have a different approach to fruit/veg though as prefer to see that before buying.

And in reply to abbecer (most recent post) I agree that when it's just one or two things that are needed in the end it is cheaper to go to the local shop even if those items cost more. I think the main thing that's inflating our bills is those ad hoc visits that then turn into 50 or 60 quid.

gingerdad

We spend 250-300 per month 2 adults and 2 children (5 and 4), we shop in aldi and morrisons (my dd1 is on soya milk and will only drink one brand it's 99p in morrisons and 1.30 in the local shop) once a month, milk is delivered and the rest is from the local butchers and veg shop. very lucky as we have some of the best local meet in the country, and a very good organic home delivery service, but menu planning is important and we know if its going to be a tight month we can half the above.... but i can't buy meat from the supermarkets any more it's all just c***.

GD

Kelinik

gingerdad wrote:

We spend 250-300 per month 2 adults and 2 children (5 and 4), we shop in aldi and morrisons (my dd1 is on soya milk and will only drink one brand it's 99p in morrisons and 1.30 in the local shop) once a month, milk is delivered and the rest is from the local butchers and veg shop. very lucky as we have some of the best local meet in the country, and a very good organic home delivery service, but menu planning is important and we know if its going to be a tight month we can half the above.... but i can't buy meat from the supermarkets any more it's all just c***.

GD

Oooooh I've been wanting to start the whole farmers markets/butchers and organic veggie box thing but am just priced out down here, might have to move up to not-quite-Scotland!

gingerdad

we have three good butchers in one village near us and a very good farm shop just up the road. and you can't beat any of them for quality or value against any of the supermarkets, execpt maybe booths.

GD

pitdog

the only help i can give on this one is never go shopping on an empty stomach you buy all kinds of crap you wont eat !!!!!!!!, only half jokin !!!

betws

You can find the national statistics on food and other expenditure here: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/CCI/Nscl.asp?ID=5153&Pos=1&ColRank=1&Rank=16

samizdat

My wife and I spend around £520/month, I think. This is an estimate based on £10 per dinner for two, £6 per two lunches and £40/month on cleaning items and toiletries, not including my wife's cosmetics.

I am trying to get a grip on things but my wife is unbelievably fastidious. She has recently stated that she won't eat anything that is not organic; she won't drink tap water; she now believes that "ironing water" (e.g. Comfort Vaporese) is a new home essential; she always shops at Waitrose or Marks & Spencer; she feels that salmon and tuna are the only edible oily fish and should be consumed twice a week.

At least our alcohol bill has come down to roughly zero from £170/month (one bottle of wine per night) previously because we are trying for a baby.

When I read what people manage to achieve on these forums, it makes me despair really. However, I am doing my best - menu planning, bulk cooking to freeze, eating leftovers, doing most of the shopping (at Sainsbury's) so I get special offers, doing most of the cooking so I can exert some control over what we consume etc. It is hard though without any cooperation from my wife.