How much is your weekly shop?

Mrsroxylush

We are a family of 4. There is myself and the husband, my daughter who is 4 and my son who is 8 months (he is blw so we don't buy baby food but we do still buy milk at £8.49 every 4-5 days!)

Our average weekly food shop is about £65 this includes sons baby milk.. Was curious to see how much everyone else's weekly shop was so I can see if mine is a lot or about right! We have tried shopping at Aldi but I always have to go to asda for extras Aldi doesn't sell and I spend even more than planned! We are currently shopping at morrisons as their fruit and veg works out cheaper! X

Thanks for reading!

retepetsir

Two adults plus our 10 month old son (make all of his food ourselves) is around £50-60 a week from Aldi including nappies, loads of fruit/veg and meat too. We try and make most things from scratch. Switched from Sainsburys a couple of months ago as that tended to be at or above the £80 mark!

We don't buy alcohol and tend to stick to the middle-of-the-road food, not premium or value.

I think you're doing pretty well

passion_flower

That's amazing we spend that and is just the two of us :eek:
I was wondering of maybe looking at our weekly spend and try and get it down but I am not sure I want to start.:rotfl: I really should as we are moving into a new bigger house so all our outgoings will increase

FireWyrm

No, that's about right. I have managed a family of 5 on £150 a month, but that was tighter than a ducks...well, it was tight. I prefer about £250 a month for 5. I dont always hit it and certainly this month, we busted the budget royally because of holidays, but I'll get it back on track again next month. I've just bought half a pig from a work colleague and I'll have a lamb off him spring next year. I buy food in bulk where I can, so I go to Costco once a month to stock up. I dont bother buying rice in piddly little 1Kg bags, I buy it in 20Kg lots, same with flour, sugar etc. We have a pantry of sorts so I can lay in extra on a monthly basis. My stockpile is sufficient to feed us for at least 2 months, possibly more with the half pig we have now. I consider it a 'what if I lost my job' fund.

monz

There is just me and my boy and I spend about roughly (if I am being good and strict) about 30 a week. One week out month though I spend 50 for proper shop x

lithe_mind

I'm spending too much, it looks like it! Something like £80-90 per week for two adults and one child for food and cleaning products and some basic toiletries (tooth paste, etc). My mother is living with us until Christmas so I give her about £40/week to buy veggies and fresh fish from a local market, and I do Tesco online for another £40-50/week. I don't understand what I'm doing wrong, we cook everything from scratch and we don't buy semi-prepared or canned food. We don't drink juices or alcohol and we don't buy sweets.

FireWyrm

lithe_mind wrote: »

and I do Tesco online for another £40-50/week.

lithe_mind wrote: »

I don't understand what I'm doing wrong,

This.

lithe_mind wrote: »

we cook everything from scratch and we don't buy semi-prepared or canned food. We don't drink juices or alcohol and we don't buy sweets.

Cakes? Pastries? Bread? etc. All of those can be hugely expensive. The markup on them is outrageous. Also, semi-prepped veg can be twice the price of unprepped/mishapen veg. Mushrooms for instance, 1lb of unwashed, unprepped is about 30p, as opposed to washed and trimmed at about £1.50.

Buying in bulk is the key also. 3.5Kg of pork leg joint is more or less £10 in Costco. Same leg is something on offer at £10, but is usually £20 at least. It feeds a family of 5 for 3 days of meals including a roast, a spag-bol and a risotto. Likewise, a large side of salmon in Tesco is (if you are lucky), £10, but will retail most of the time at £20. In Costco, same whole fish that hasnt been trimmed to within an inch of it's life is £10 max. Roast the main salmon side for Sunday and use the trimmings for fish pie on Monday.

That's how you do it.

Meal plan, dovetail ingredients and recipes into several meals and know what the real price should be. Move away from Tesco and try the smaller shops, markets and wholesalers instead.

Critically

Me and the Mrs,

We always use Tesco delivery service ordered on a Monday an delivered Sunday Evening between 9-10pm because that slot is £1 if done on the Monday before!

Weekly shop including household goods and lunchbox stuff comes to no more than £35.

We find that using online shopping stops us adding things we don't need and also saves time and petrol.

Also Tesco is a bit like a lottery sometimes with "freebies" that end up in the bags. In 6 months of orders they have only drastically messed up once not giving us the bleach that was ordered with no substitute. This came free on the next shop after speaking to them.

lithe_mind

@FireWyrm: No pastries, cake, and almost no bread for us... if we do eat cake it's home-made. I'm a health freak and we try not to eat sugar anymore, unless it comes from fruit. My daughter eats school lunches (currently free) and they do serve dessert so I think that's more than enough sugar for her.

Thank you - yes I know with some planning I should be able to cut down... I use Tesco because I get a cash vouchers from them - I have a clubcard which is attached to my Tesco credit card - which I use for all spending (and pay it back right away). Delivery costs £3 per month (midweek delivery plan) and it also saves a lot of time for me.

FireWyrm

lithe_mind wrote: »

I use Tesco because I get a cash vouchers from them

Yes, I've heard this a lot from other posters, but I have yet to see any 'savings' which rival simply not shopping there. If the food is already 50% more expensive than other rivals who shall remain nameless, the vouchers offer no incentive at all as far as I can see. But then, that's the point. They offer you a small incentive (£1 spent = 1p voucher value) and hope you dont notice that they are pretty much the most expensive retailer for almost everything else. I dont doubt you have your reasons, I'm just saying in my opinion, you could do a lot for your budget by simply not shopping there at all one month and see what effect this has for you.

lithe_mind

I tried Ocado and Asda with similar results except they don't have the vouchers - not the ones attached to a CC anyway*. I can't switch to buying in-person, it simply takes too much time for me which I don't have. I work full-time, I have a long commute and I'm a single mother. Right now my mother is here and she can go to local markets but that's temporary.


*I use the Tesco CC to buy plane, train tickets, including those for work, so I do get a lot of vouchers... it's my main spending card, I don't use debit at all.