Food shopping bill target for young Family of 5?

spoodz

If I've posted in the wrong place, feel free to move me!

Hi DFW's,

I've spent many an evening reading your posts and using the advice to work on my debt problems. My spending in most areas is under control, but for the frequent trips to tesco, which seem to mount up to a hefty food shoping bill every month. Theres me, the Mrs, and 3 children, aged 5, 4 and 1. The We seem to rack up over £350 when you include bread, milk, fruit and other top ups.

My main question is:

What do you think is a reasonable amount to be spending? (If you say £350, thats ok too)

Meals tend to be quite normal, stews, sheperds pie, pastas, roast dinners, fish and chips on a friday etc. We dont buy ready meals (try to avoid processed food all together) and I'm not eating tescos finest venison/lobster every night, but I'm spending what I think is a lot of cash!

Help me save!

bonnie_2

According to the telegraph on sunday they reckon £483, to include food, cleaning products and clothes per month.I spend £110 a week but only buy organic and that includes £10 on health costs and my course I.e £5 each a week and £10 on tobacco, so it is achievable.Clothes i don't really buy as mum buys the kids clothes and they get them for xmas and bdays and we pass them round.

mrsspendalot

Well I have successfully been feeding my family of 5 (kids age 7,3 and 1) on between £35 and £40 a week now for a couple of months although I did used to spend nearer £300 before I came to MSE.

We have done this by using mostly value brands and planning meals ahead and buying only what is needed for that week. I buy nappies separately though as I get them in Boots for the triple huggies points.

lady_fuschia

Is £350 a month or a week?
To be honest £350 a month for a family of five doesn't sound THAT bad - you could probably get it down a bit though.
Few simple suggestions (no offence if you already do these!):
-Have you tried Lidl/ Netto/ Aldi for stocking up on basics - tehre are some things they are loads cheaper for - not everything is great quality but the pasta and most of the tinned stuff is fine, and Lidl cheese is actually really nice! It's a pain going to more than one shop, but if you do a huge bulk shop every now and then you don't have to do it very often.
- if you can, go shopping not long before closing time (Weekends seem to be particularly good) and pick up all the priced down stuff they're trying to get rid of before closing - this is especially good for bread because you can freeze it once you get home so you can buy all six of those 10p loaves and sort yourself for a couple of weeks!
- Try local/ market greengrocers for fruit and veg - it's often cheaper.
- Julian Graves or Indian shop for herbs/ spices if you have one (And try Holland& Barrett for Mixed Herbs- bug bag for 99p!)
- Get a Tesco Clubcard Plus account (there's a thread that explains what this is somewhere- it's basically an account you open with Tesco, you pay money onto the card and use it like a Switch card at the checkout to pay for shoppin- it won't save you any money but you do get double points!) I'll go find the phone number and come back and post it in a bit.
- Try using dried pulses and lentils - you can make a great bolognesey type sauce with red lentils for use in chillis, shepherds pie etc and it costs a fraction of the cost of a meat dish. (If you use Puy lentils and mash them up a bit the kids may actually be convinced it's meat)
- Soup is brilliant. I make loads of soup, and it costs literally pennies - pretty much anything you like, plus stock cube, plus water, handheld blender - there you go.
- You could think about producing some stuff yourself - hommade bread/ growing own veggies etc - check the Oldstyle board for tips on this kind of thing. Some of it is a little time consuming but you'll probably pick up some good tips.
- Do you know anyone with a cash & carry card? Industrial size tins of coffee and fruit squash are a great saver.
- Buy bulk, lots of the bigger Tesco's now have an ethnicky type section that sells huge bags of rice and enourmous tins of cooking oil that may be worth looking at (and if you like chickpeas they do them ridiculously cheap now! My latest discovery!) .

Maybe you could detail what you usually buy so that people can make some suggestions as to cheaper alternatives?

angelfairy

can I suggest you have a look over on the Old Style board???

they are amazing. there are many posts on how to get your shopping down and also different challenges that may help with recipes ideas etc.

not only food related but cleaning also.

hope that may be of some assistance.

spoodz

Thanks for your replies. If £350 a month sounds pretty ok, thats good enough for me. I'm just trying to free up as much cas has I can to attack a few smaller debts (£200 to a plumber, £300 owed to variuos family members, £60 owed to previos gas supplier) before I make a start on the £3000 creditcard, which is interest free until december.

lady_fuschia

The number for the Tesco Clubcard Plus account is 08457 104010 - just call them and ask for an application form.
The way I use it is to keep the standing order required to keep the account at £1, then pay the amount of money I want to spend in the shop before I start shopping at the customer service desk (the cash gets credited immediately). Like I said, it won't save you any money as such, but if you use Tesco a lot you may as well have all those extra points - you can spend them on a free day out for the family!

rayday2

We switched from Tesco to Netto and we actually eat better more luxuries than at Tesco. Netto really does have more than the basics but we spend about £50 a week, I get my nappies from Tesco once a month and that costs me £12 (I buy Tesco brand super fit much better in my personal experience than Huggies or Pampers put together and I use pampers vouchers against them lol!)

I have to say I am not a good MSE because I buy far more than for the week but we always have plenty in. I struggle with the concept of cooking this thing on that certain day. Doesn't help that I work two evenings a week. I tend to plan on that day!

Mozette

Blimey, there's just me and I average £300 a month (includes wine) though there are various friends & family who get fed quite a bit too.
ooh I'm a bad DFW!