Family of four, how does our grocery shop compare?

aric

Hi,

We are a family of four and our kids are 5 and 8. We are currently spending between £120 and £140 a week on Tesco or Sainsbury shops and it seems really high to me.

We buy quite a bit of fresh meat, veg and salad and a mixture of stuff for the kids packed lunches for school.

Is £120 -> £140 a week high?

Thanks,

Anthony.

mirry

Family of 4 here (3 adults , 1 child & a dog

we spend between £50 - £60 a week, but I work hard at bargain shopping/cooking from scratch & coupons.

*zippy*

We are 4 adults and spend £70-80 a week, that includes packed lunches for 3 of us. We don't buy meat though and Veg is all fresh and meals cooked from scratch. I split shopping between different supermarkets to get the best out of offers and buy some stuff in Home Bargains. Takes more effort, but there are big savings to be made.

Just aim to bring down spending a little more each week, work the offers and bulk buy stuff you use regulary if you see it at a good price, look at what the meals you eat are costing you, are there cheaper alternatives, could you bulk out meat? Drop to supermarket own brands and try their basic stuff, if you don't like it just don't buy again. Check out the Old style board on here, loads of advice there

rachbc

4 - adults - kids 5 and 14 (eats more than the adults) £240 pm - £50-60 pw

Inc breakfasts for 3 , 3 packed lunch plus hubby's at home and evening meal for 4

georgiesmum

aric wrote: »

Hi,

We are a family of four and our kids are 5 and 8. We are currently spending between £120 and £140 a week on Tesco or Sainsbury shops and it seems really high to me.

We buy quite a bit of fresh meat, veg and salad and a mixture of stuff for the kids packed lunches for school.

Is £120 -> £140 a week high?

Thanks,

Anthony.

I really, really, don't know how the others do it. We spend about £80 a week on food and we are pensioners and 3 cats,:D so well used to having to take care with spending.
We don't eat badly but not luxuriously. I think you are doing very well.

rachbc

georgiesmum wrote: »

I really, really, don't know how the others do it. We spend about £80 a week on food and we are pensioners and 3 cats,:D so well used to having to take care with spending.
We don't eat badly but not luxuriously. I think you are doing very well.

I do it by shopping around, bulk buying offers, buying reduced and ys, using approved food, amazon subscribe and save and not buying 'luxurys/ unneccessary items - crisps, biscuits, sweets, cakes, over packaged individual anything, Meal planning and cooking from scratch

valk_scot

Take yourself over to the Old Style forum where we talk a lot about this sort of thing. There are some folk managing to healthily feed a family of four on £40-£50, though it's hard work and there's no room for fussy eaters or luxuries.

As for my family there's two adults, one hulking 16 year old lad that plays rugby at prop, a very sporty girl of 11 that can eat more than her dad and our three cats. I spend about £80 on food for us and another £20 on things like cleaning and laundry products, cat litter and basic toiletries. We do eat meat regularly, we have three lots of packed lunches and I eat lunch at home. No one has any special dietry needs or allergies and I've raised my kids (and trained my OH) not to be fusspots about food, they all have their preferences of course but I'm not one of these mums who cooks four different meals every night, or has kids that won't eat vegetables or an OH who insists on a pound of meat on his plate at every meal.

I am a SAHM though so I have time to bargain hunt, menu plan, cook from scratch as much as possible, make my own bread and such and just generally be organised about things. I take my hat off to anyone who can cut the pennies right down while coping with a full time job and kids though, it does take quite a bit of extra effort and commitment. Sometimes it's not worth the extra time and stress to try to shave another £10 off the grocery bill tbh, many folk have to live to a tight food budget of course but you can manage to afford a little more for food and groceries and cut down somewhere else ie takeaways or carry out coffees or booze then it does help. You do have to look at the groceries as part of the bigger picture and your picture won't be identical to other people's.

Edwardia

Two adults and a Labrador here. I spend about £100 pw but that includes organic food plus toiletries, the odd book/magazine, loo rolls, kitchen rolls, dog food, a DVD or a tshirt.

Mostly I get deliveries from Ocado and Abel & Cole now with top ups from Sainsbury's. I do still buy organic olive oil in ASDA, organic tomatoes and prosciutto in Lidl, kitchen roll in 99p Stores and Winalot in Poundland.

We cook from scratch, make soup from organic YS veg for example.

mummyroysof3

there are 5 of us here including 1 in nappies and we have pets and spend about the same. i know full well its because we have alot of extras such as fizzy drinks and snacks.

bigfoodie

At first I thought OMG - that's a fortune but I guess it depends on what you want to buy.

If you buy fresh meat and veg, this is ridiculously priced at the moment I feel. Plus ready made stuff for lunch boxes is a no no for me - too unhealthy and expensive.

Maybe by cutting out the lunchbox stuff the price will come down a bit and then you can go from there?

quintwins

If your happy with it and can afford it then spend it. it's not a huge spend but not a low one either.

We are a family of 5, 2 adults, 2 6 year olds and a 3 year old, we spend £50 a week and alot of that goes on meat, fruit/veg and milk, kids drink alot of milk and eat alot of fruit.