How much a week to feed a familly of 4 ????

MadMat

Looking for a little help with my weekly shop, the bill for our weekly delivery from Tesco's seems to be getting out of control!!

over the last 18 months or so the weekly shop seems to have escalated from around £100 a week to the point where it is now nudging £150 a week!! (this does include all household items such as washing up liquid soap powder etc)

Admittedly we do buy quite a lot of convenience foods, as up untill recently both my wife and I were working full time, but now I'm "between jobs" I have a bit of time on my hands, and could do with smaller bills!!

What sort of target figure should I be looking at for the food part of the shop? I need breakfast and evening meals for 4 all week, and packed lunches for two along with a lunchtime sarnie for me stuck at home (oldest child has school dinners) and three meals a day for 4 for Sat / Sun

Regards

Mat

timeou

I had the same problem - we are a family of 4 and like you our bills escalated to well over the £100 a week mark.

To try & downsize a bit I started using mysupermarket.co.uk which you can do your shopping through and compare between ASDA, Tesco, Sainsburys and Ocado. Theres a tool on there that will give you alternative products that are cheaper (swap and save) which can knock a few pounds off the bill.

I have now discovered a site called Rosspa.co.uk which sells groceries online and have managed to reduce my shopping bill even further using these by stocking up on storecupboard items (and the fresh fruit, veg, meat & eggs are very good too).There are separate threads about using these sites, approved food, rosspa etc.

I have started meal planning more - a typical weeks menu is as follows

Sunday - Full roast dinner (chicken/pork steaks) - Sandwich for tea
Monday - Left overs from Sunday (another main meal using the veg & meat from Sunday (we like sunday dinner!) Kids have sandwiches in school
Tuesday - Packed lunch for kids & us in work - evening meal curry made with last of chicken from Sunday
Wednesday - Packed lunch for kids & us in work - evening meal - freezer item like sausages, crispy chicken, kievs & chips etc
Thursday - PL again in day - Evening meal - spag bol
Friday PL in day - evening again something out of freezer with potato/pasta n sauce or savoury rice
Saturday - sandwich lunchtime - evening either a supermarket takeaway in a bag or a chinese takeaway

By doing all of the above I've managed to get the bill down to about £80 - £90 a week x

ska_lover

HI Madmat

I agree wholeheartedly with timeou. Mealplanning is definately the way forward.I started doing it around 3 months ago as I realised i was wondering aimlessly around the supermarket buying whatever I fancied, and spending a fotune. Now I shop fortnightly, so i write out a list of meals using I have in the cupboard to start with then adding other things I need to make meals.I stick rigidly to this list whilst shopping - unless I see an amazing bogof that I know is something that we will definately use.I dont always buy bogof's because sometimes they aren't that great value.

Now I spend £90 for a fortnight for three adults, including home cooked meals each evening, breakfasts and packed lunches for all three of us. The quality of meals has improved loads as well.This cost also includes food for a medium sized dog, and all cleaning/clothes washing products.There is always fresh fruit and veg in the house. If I had started doing this years ago I would have saved a fortune.

Homecooking will save you an absolute bomb, try and cut out the bulk of convienence foods. Now you are inbetween jobs, you will have more time on your hands. All three adults in my house work fulltime and still manage this, so when you go back to work don't let your new good habits break, take it in turns to cook meals. There will always be those evenings where everyone is exhausted, so is always a good idea to have a pizza or similar lurking in the freezer.

Slow cookers are a boon for when you are working fulltime, you can do a stew/casserole and a million and one things by just whacking it all in the cooker in the morning and put on low and hey presto a hot meal when you come home.

Also what about downshifting your brands? Such as instead of heinz beans buy the supermarket own brand. Or if you buy the supermarket own brand, how about trying value?

It is rare I buy any premium brands such as heinz, even on a bogof are often dearer than supermarket own brands. I do use value products as well, but depends on the item, I have tried and failed with some, but others - mainly non food things like washing up liquid/dog food/air freshner/cleaning products etc- i continually buy.

saabay

Three years ago two of us were costing over £80 per week. (One meal per day as we were both working) We've managed to cut that down no to less than £50.00 (now for two/three meals). We buy no pre-made meals or processed food whatsoever. We buy no fresh produce from supermarkets at all! Meat is from the butcher (who slaughters it himself and none comes from more than twenty miles away) and fruit and veg from an organic box scheme delivered to the door. We've always got some left too. The quality is far superior than supermarket produce and stretches further, particularly the meat, which isn't pumped full of water to make it heavier. Try using cheaper cuts too - belly pork, stewing beef. They can be delicious. Make twice as much as you need of any dish and freeze the other half for another day or save some for your lunch the next day.

I suggest you get your apron on and enjoy yourself in the kitchen whilst you are there all day. If you can't cook buy an easy cook book. You'll have great fun making a mess of things as well.

jo58

timeou wrote: »

I had the same problem - we are a family of 4 and like you our bills escalated to well over the £100 a week mark.

To try & downsize a bit I started using mysupermarket.co.uk which you can do your shopping through and compare between ASDA, Tesco, Sainsburys and Ocado. Theres a tool on there that will give you alternative products that are cheaper (swap and save) which can knock a few pounds off the bill.

I have now discovered a site called Rosspa.co.uk which sells groceries online and have managed to reduce my shopping bill even further using these by stocking up on storecupboard items (and the fresh fruit, veg, meat & eggs are very good too).There are separate threads about using these sites, approved food, rosspa etc.

I have started meal planning more - a typical weeks menu is as follows

Sunday - Full roast dinner (chicken/pork steaks) - Sandwich for tea
Monday - Left overs from Sunday (another main meal using the veg & meat from Sunday (we like sunday dinner!) Kids have sandwiches in school
Tuesday - Packed lunch for kids & us in work - evening meal curry made with last of chicken from Sunday
Wednesday - Packed lunch for kids & us in work - evening meal - freezer item like sausages, crispy chicken, kievs & chips etc
Thursday - PL again in day - Evening meal - spag bol
Friday PL in day - evening again something out of freezer with potato/pasta n sauce or savoury rice
Saturday - sandwich lunchtime - evening either a supermarket takeaway in a bag or a chinese takeaway

By doing all of the above I've managed to get the bill down to about £80 - £90 a week x

I find this thread really helpful if you want to save money on your groceries:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3188628

Should help any family save money, it does for us
x

MadMat

Thnkas to everyone who replied, and yes I do intend to get going on some homecooking! Although I need to expand my repertoire from Spag bol and sausage cassarole to a few things a little more exciting

Mat

Rolandtheroadie

Probably split it into 4 days home cooking to 3 days freezer. Family of 6, down to approx £110 a week from £140 a week.

Hiddenidenity

Well im a family of 3 not 4, but thought i'd reply anyway.
I spend £25 a week for the 3 of us which includes nappies and formula

Naomim

Hi,

We are a family of 4, two adults DS (age 6) DD (age 2) I budget £350 a month which includes houshold products and toiletries. I also use mysupermarket.com This month am coming in under budget. (see sig)

I find meal planning helps massively as we both also work full time. Try joining the Grocery challenge link HERE

The first couple of posts explain the challenge and there are LOTS of recipes to try out and help if you are stuck with meal plans.

HTH

Naomi

JLL

Can i ask Sazi1990 how do you get your shopping down to £25 a week for 3? There's 2 of us (3 every other weekend) and i've managed to get mine down to average £40 a week, but i'm struggling to get it lower.

geminibabe

Brilliant thread:T:T:T

Ive been struggling lately too, spending far too much money on shopping and falling for all the BOGOFs and BOGTFs!!! They are often a big con!

Im gonna make a menu for the week right now, Ive been inspired!!!

XX