How much should 1 weeks groceries for a family of five cost?

MortgageMamma

Hi All

Please don't laugh at me but I've recently started my own company and I'm trying my best to budget on household expenditure but having a really bad time trying to do it

At present our shopping bill is spiralling out of control every week - we ALWAYS seem to be going to the shops for more stuff which wastes petrol and is costing a fortune

There are five of us and two small dogs in our house. The kiss are 10, 5 and 3 and one is a really fussy eater

Last week we must have spent about £140 on the weekly shop which, correct me if I am wrong but just seems TOO much to me?

I'd like to know what all your budgets are, and what you do to keep costs down on your shopping bill - ideally I'd like to get it down to £90 a week does that sound reasonable?

Tam_Lin

We've been doing £30/week for 2 adults, but I expect that to reduce now that I've gone veggie. What kind of things do you normally eat? Do you cook from scratch?

lebly

My weekly shop is getting more. we are five in family. What I buy gets less but bill gets more! Four years ago I could buy for around £70 what I spend on average £110 for now!

MortgageMamma

lebly wrote: »

My weekly shop is getting more. we are five in family. What I buy gets less but bill gets more! Four years ago I could buy for around £70 what I spend on average £110 for now!

Funny thats exactly what I'm feeling - I used to be able to do the family shop on £80 every week and now its much more expensive

What do we eat?

Well we all have cereals and toast for breakfast
We all have a packed lunch - sandwiches, yoghurt, crisps, biscuit bar, fruit

At weekends we have bacon butties for breakfast]

We have a roast every sunday

We eat stuff like, gammon, baked potatoes and salad
Roast chicken based potatoes and salad
Tuna Pasta
Carbonara
Home made lasagne/spaghetti bolognese (jar sauce tho!)
Chicken curry rice and nan bread
Home made shepherds pie
Chicken/steak fajitas (which we all love and can't give up loL)
Pizzas
Burgers and chips
Sausage mash and gravy/beans

We go through a hell of a lot of milk (about 4 pts a day)

Me and the hubby are a bit on the fat side, so I suppose we should cut down...:o

lil_me

Could be worth looking here http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=413854 there is also the meal plans thread on the same board.

BernadetteN

I am currently on my own with 4 kids so there are 5 of us, kids agfed 10,8,5 and one. The weekly bill appears to be around £90-£100 a week. That is food and household essentials like toothpaste and washing powder, and also food for one cat. I also pay around £15.75 a week for 9 school dinners on top of that bill. We eat fresh food mainly, very little frozen and processed type meals which could make it much cheaper to eat.

conradmum

We're a family of 5 and spend about £80 on the weekly shop then top ups of another £10 - £20, BUT we eat a lot of organic food which is of course more expensive. I make a weekly meal plan (which I then keep to refer to for ideas). I make a chicken last three meals - chicken curry, chicken stir fry, chicken pie, chicken noodle soup are some of the dishes. I make stock from the bones too. Other meals we have are tuna pasta, kedgeree (with smoked mackerel), stir fried pork strips & rice, baked potatoes and tuna, roast (if we have a roast I get a big joint, have half of it in the roast then make the rest into a curry).
I think the biggest expenditure is meat - if you can cut down on this and any processed food you're going to save money (and you'll be much healthier too!)
Why do you use so much milk? I think we drink too much milk - it's ideal for cows, not people!:rotfl:

tarajayne

Our house has 5 and a cat, kids are 13,7 and 3 and good eaters. I get all my toiletries and such in our weekly shop as we have no choice because of where we live. We spend £80-100 a week depending on the what's needed but agree that it's about £20 more than I was spending less than 2 years ago.

Mandles

I have family of 5 with 2 cats and it costs in groceries £90 - £110 a week . I have taken a tip from martin that works. If you see something buy one get one free or reduced that you normally eat or use (hair products etc) buy a load of them I do this and save bundles in the long run.

tarajayne

:eek:

Nearly choked when my neighbour (husband, 2 kids, 7 and 2) told me she was spending £200 a week. I think she thought that was normal, she's been working really hard to try to get it down, god knows what they were eating !

:eek:

poe.tuesday

There are 4 of us (two kids 7 and 9), 1 dog, 4 cats and some fish

I make all my food from fresh, I do not buy any ready meals or anything like chicken nuggets, I also give the children packed lunches

I too used to spend about £150 per week on food, sometimes more, but now that I have menus set up and only do a weekly shop, which involves buying only the food we actually need (thus no waste or eating just because it will go off if you don't type of case) I have got this down to between £50 and £80 per week, I also buy fresh organic meats and dairy produce.

It is amazing how much you can save just by getting to products you actually need and you will only know this if you plan ahead - cutting back on cost does not mean you have to cut back on quality of on the amount you actually eat, you are cutting back on the products you don't need.

Once every 3 months or so I will do a mass cook up making chilli, curry, paprika chicken etc, as with conradmum I use the chicken bones to make stock, ok so stock cubes are not expensive you may say, but you wouldn't want to make chicken raman with stock cubes :eek: just chuck in some chicken, baby spinage, sweetcorn and noodles and you have a great raman, little cost, hearty and homemade.

It's all about planning, being savvy and resourceful