Family of 5.... are we spending too much

julietaow59

Hi......

I am a mother of 3 children ranging from 7 to 2 years of age..... I currently spend between £180 - £200/week on grocery shopping..... Which I feel is Crazy!! I do buy allot of value products.... But I do like to eat healthy and so allot of fruit a veg/salad is bought on a weekly basis also.

I have a couple of questions:-
1. Do you think I am above average for a family of 5 on my weekly spend?
2. Bearing in mind I work 3 days a week and looking after 3 young children... spare time is not a word used commonly in our house. I need a one stop shop and currently use the largest online supermarket to do my orders (not sure if you can say names). Any other suggestions on one stop cheaper shopping?

We have some big expenses coming up, and with not wanting to compromise on the fresh stuff (I have also planted, strawberries, tomato, green beans in our garden, but with not being a very green fingered person have not gone to crazy being my first growing experience, so that may save me a bit when they are ready)... how I can still do a one stop shop but save a bit more.

Look forward to opinions and responses. :j

Carer

Wow, that seems a lot!
I have family of 5 (all adults/teenagers) and spend about £75 a week.
This includes everything except pet food which I buy online in bulk - oh and cheese, which I buy in bulk at the cash and carry (12kg for £25).

I do my main shop once a fortnight in Lidl and then top up inbetween (milk, salad, veg) at Tesco/Asda/Morrisons or local market if I'm in town.

We don't eat much meat, the odd chicken and pork steaks, but we do eat well. It was a huge transition for us all moving to Lidl and it took some trial and error finding stuff that we liked, but now, we much prefer the taste of most of the Lidl items.

We started this about 9 months ago, and the first shop we did, I came home and put the shopping list into mysupermarket, and the same shop in Tesco came to almost £60 more!

dasophster

We're a family of 6 and spend anything from £40-£100 a week (60 average) so yes £180-£200 does sound like rather a lot. We did used to spend a lot more, but now I buy nappies, wipes, cleaning products, toiletries and other non-food items in bulk when on offer and/or I have money off coupons for them. I do buy value/basics stuff as well but it isn't always the best value for money, sometimes the normal range version of the item on special offer will work out cheaper. I also cook most stuff from scratch, if you get enough practice it isn't really any more time consuming than cooking pre prepared foods. Also we rarely eat meat so that saves us a lot too. Roughly planning meals and what you're going to be using in the next week can help save a lot of money, it doesn't need to be really formal, I don't even write my plans down but just have some recipes in mind and a list of items that can go into many different dishes. Xx

Chris25

if you have a look at the Old-Style board http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=33

& the gardening one http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=134 y ou'll get lots of tips

pollyskettle

We're a family of 5 (2 adults 3 children 14/12/10) plus 1 dog, 2 cats and 3 fish and we spend ~£400 a month. I do two grocery shops each month, one big one on pay day (which I sometimes split between two supermarkets if that is cheaper - I do it online using mysupermarket.com and split the checkout) and then a smaller one a couple of weeks later. I cook a lot, bake a lot (although tonight we are having freezer pizza and chips :eek:) and always do the shopping online as I don't drive and OH can't be trusted not to buy complete crap for the month! I don't set foot in lidl/aldi as they don't deliver and I can't carry it all home on the bus and a taxi is ~£25.

quintwins

We're a family of 5 (2 adults, 5 year old twins and a 2 yera old who can eat more than me) we spend between £200-£250 a month so for me that also seems alot, however if you can afford it and are happy with it theres no reason why you can't spend that, personally i'd prob cry at the till :rotfl: and i could easily afford it but nothing would go into my savings that month or any month lol.

Unlike everyone one else we do eat meat pretty much everyday, however we get free sunday dinner at the inlaws, i buy from the butcher, or i buy from tesco i don't mind value mince as i bulk it out with frozen veg so the small amount we get balances out the high fat content, i buy alot of yellow stickers and freezer (which is what is allowing me to do this month on £70) however i was housebound when i was pregnant and did all my shopping online at tesco and still came in around £150, and alot of that was 'easy' food hubby could make on the days i couldn't stand.

kittycat204

i was going to say the same as chris, get yourself on the old style board.

meg72

I would say that is above average, come over to the grocercy challenge on Old style, lovely helpful people and loads of recipes.

jap200

I would say that it is a bit above average for us MSEs, but probably pretty average for non-MSE people. As others have said, it's not a problem if you can afford it, but the good news is that you can easily reduce it.

Just for comparison though, we are a family of 5 - mum, dad and 3 boys aged 10, 12 and 14 who eat like horses!

I spend on average £100 to £125 per week at the supermarket including food, beer/wine (modest amount), toiletries, cleaning/household etc. This includes food for packed lunches for 4 people.

If I have a lean week I can reduce this to £75 without too much effort. However, I could also easily increase it to £200 a week with even less effort!

I work nearly full time, so don't have too much time to spend on the old-style way of doing things, but we eat mostly home-made stuff with lots of fruit, veg and pulses. We eat meat or fish no more than 3 times per week (except for me and eldest son who are vegetarian).

The key things that work for me:
1. Write a weekly menu plan before going shopping - check what you already have in cupboard first and then write your list.
2. Be ready to be flexible if other things are on offer, but buy those things instead - not as well. Re-do your weekly menu as you go!
3. Actually look at prices as you shop and compare price/weight (sounds obvious, but most people don't seem to do it)
4. Buy fruit and veg at a market or farm shop if possible - failing that it is usually cheaper to buy the loose stuff than bagged (e.g. loose carrots are usually cheaper than value/basic bagged ones)
5. Down-shift your brands if you haven't already, but keep those that really matter to you (I can't be without my expensive LaVAzza coffee or real Marmite!)
6. Avoid individually packaged things for packed lunches - use clingfilm instead.
7. Visit the fantastic old-style board for many many other useful tips!

Good luck - let us know how you get on!

katskorner

We are also a family of five and I am always trying to cut down on what I spend as we have lots of food in the house and garage (our own personal store cupboard) as well as one giant freezer and a fridge freezer and second fridge in garage too.

I shop at Lidl and Aldi a fair bit and also Morrisons and sometimes Tesco but try to avoid anything that isn't reduced as I am finding them increasingly expensive.

I am a stay-at-home mom and I do cook but the freezer space dictates how much hm food I can do at a time to be able to freeze left overs. The boys are 3,6, and 8. I also have a hubby and two cats. Cats are fussy and will only eat certain brands but I have managed to get them on to Lidl's optimum catfood (dry) but not managed to shift from branded wet food.

We include pretty much everything in our budget and for May I split it to see what the grocery / alcohol split is and for May we spent £388 on groceries and £226 on booze (did stock up on wines and beers and now have a good supply to keep us for a while now!).

I stock up on offers when I run out and the deals are good as I have space for storing which helps. I also get fruit juice, canned pop (hubby) and meat and milk from the cash and carry and this saves money too (e.g. four large chickens for just £8 the other day).

I also like the bargain freezer places like cooltrader and bargain foods as they have lots of really good offers that eclipse the supermarkets. We also love B&M bargains and go once a month to stock up (probably could leave it 7 weeks to be honest but I like it!).

I only buy bread reduced or else we make it ourselves in the breadmaker (unless they have a really good offer again or I particulary want something on the odd occasion).

Good luck on your mission to cut costs - just think of what you can do with that money you save!

kerri_gt

I can only really echo the above, but also wanted to add that although you are busy, have a go at batch cooking and home cooking (Old Style Moneyboard) and get the kids involved. Yes it may get a little messy but they get to spend time with you and it actually gives them a life skill - even the little one could have a bowl and spoon to mimic mum with. The other benefit (without sounding like I'm on a soap box about kids and eating) is that they will become familiar with food and ingredients and more open to trying new foods if they've helped make it (well that's the theory). There's also a lot of pride for a little one to be able to announce 'I helped cook that'.

I find that the local market can be good for cheaper fruit and veg (and often better quality than the supermarkets). Ours often has special offer baskets for £1 - £1.50, I picked up a basket last week with 5-6 of those long sweet peppers, in A$sa it's about £1.48 for a bag of two.