How much do you spend on groceries?

hazeldreams

missalooni said:

Hi - just shocked to realise that we have spent around 1400 quid on groceries this month. Family of four (two teenagers!). Just trying to get an idea of how much is average so what we  should aim for. Thanks

We could easily spend this if we ate meat every day. We’re mainly vegetarian. We’re also 2 adults and 2 teens. We spend £800pm roughly inc all toiletries, cleaning products and alcohol. This does not include takeaway or meals out (which we spend too much on too). It has been as high as £1000pm though so I can quite easily see how you can get to £1400pm. 

We cook from scratch and eat lots of fruit and veg and we don’t throw a thing! If there’s any veg left over it goes in a soup or gets fried up and frozen to go in a pasta sauce. 

I’m desperately trying to reduce our grocery bill to free up more money for debt repayment but it’s proving challenging. Reading this thread has thrown up some great ideas so thank you!  

I love the idea of keeping a shopping diary for a month to track spending. I’ve been doing this with the energy and managed to reduce our spend by 1/3 over the last week, so I’ll definitely be tracking everything we put in our mouths in September! 

We spend roughly £90 per week in aldi but then it feels like we’re at the local Tesco every 5 minutes topping up the shop! I’m sure that’s where the money disappears…. 

hazeldreams

Longwalker said:

missalooni said:

Hi thanks so much for all the replies everyone. Makes me realise that we ought to try to halve our bill to 700 or maybe 800.  Though saying that, we cook everything from scratch, often batch cooking, nor do we drink much at home. Suspect it is all the kids' snacks and ice creams which are mounting up.  

Thats an awful lot of snacks and ice creams 

The only way to get your food shop down it to itemise everything you buy. Keep a shopping diary for a month, every food or drink item that is bought, you log it. Be it a cup of coffee or a mars bar, to a round of drinks down the pub to pop corn at the cinema, if it goes in your mouth or any of the family's mouth's write it down.  Even within two weeks you should see a pattern emerge , where you are spending without realising 

So going to keep a diary throughout September. Thanks for the tip! 

Langerhan

givememoney said:

I applaud you single people only spending £80 - £100 per month.
Do you work though and if you do you buy lunch out. Being retired with hubs we eat lunch at home mostly which is a sandwich accompanied by salad. I admit if I want it, I buy it, but cook our dinners from scratch, so I spend in a week, what others spend in a month.

I take lunch with me into the office - apart from on a Friday, where I get free lunch from Gregg's with the O2 app as my weekly treat.

chanie

We are a family of 4, two adults and two tweens and spend about £600 a month on groceries, shopping mainly at Lidl.  I remember a few years ago, we would spend £80 a week, but today, it was £130 and we were being really considered!!

Longwalker

hazeldreams said:

missalooni said:

Hi - just shocked to realise that we have spent around 1400 quid on groceries this month. Family of four (two teenagers!). Just trying to get an idea of how much is average so what we  should aim for. Thanks

We could easily spend this if we ate meat every day. We’re mainly vegetarian. We’re also 2 adults and 2 teens. We spend £800pm roughly inc all toiletries, cleaning products and alcohol. This does not include takeaway or meals out (which we spend too much on too). It has been as high as £1000pm though so I can quite easily see how you can get to £1400pm. 

We cook from scratch and eat lots of fruit and veg and we don’t throw a thing! If there’s any veg left over it goes in a soup or gets fried up and frozen to go in a pasta sauce. 

I’m desperately trying to reduce our grocery bill to free up more money for debt repayment but it’s proving challenging. Reading this thread has thrown up some great ideas so thank you!  

I love the idea of keeping a shopping diary for a month to track spending. I’ve been doing this with the energy and managed to reduce our spend by 1/3 over the last week, so I’ll definitely be tracking everything we put in our mouths in September! 

We spend roughly £90 per week in aldi but then it feels like we’re at the local Tesco every 5 minutes topping up the shop! I’m sure that’s where the money disappears…. 

Another tip which I use, which works, is not only write a shopping list so you buy what you need for the week in one trip, is if you find you need to go buy milk midweek - buy it from the corner shop/petrol station. 

Get into the mind set that its an "emergency" buy, not an excuse to pop into the supermarket

For me the difference is - loaf of bread in Tesco is £1.20, nearest shop - £1.30 - but after Ive paid that price Im not interested in buying anything else

hazeldreams

Longwalker said:

hazeldreams said:

missalooni said:

Hi - just shocked to realise that we have spent around 1400 quid on groceries this month. Family of four (two teenagers!). Just trying to get an idea of how much is average so what we  should aim for. Thanks

We could easily spend this if we ate meat every day. We’re mainly vegetarian. We’re also 2 adults and 2 teens. We spend £800pm roughly inc all toiletries, cleaning products and alcohol. This does not include takeaway or meals out (which we spend too much on too). It has been as high as £1000pm though so I can quite easily see how you can get to £1400pm. 

We cook from scratch and eat lots of fruit and veg and we don’t throw a thing! If there’s any veg left over it goes in a soup or gets fried up and frozen to go in a pasta sauce. 

I’m desperately trying to reduce our grocery bill to free up more money for debt repayment but it’s proving challenging. Reading this thread has thrown up some great ideas so thank you!  

I love the idea of keeping a shopping diary for a month to track spending. I’ve been doing this with the energy and managed to reduce our spend by 1/3 over the last week, so I’ll definitely be tracking everything we put in our mouths in September! 

We spend roughly £90 per week in aldi but then it feels like we’re at the local Tesco every 5 minutes topping up the shop! I’m sure that’s where the money disappears…. 

Another tip which I use, which works, is not only write a shopping list so you buy what you need for the week in one trip, is if you find you need to go buy milk midweek - buy it from the corner shop/petrol station. 

Get into the mind set that its an "emergency" buy, not an excuse to pop into the supermarket

For me the difference is - loaf of bread in Tesco is £1.20, nearest shop - £1.30 - but after Ive paid that price Im not interested in buying anything else

Great tip, thank you! 

Coffeekup

pumpkin89 said:

Brie said:

The other side of this is we very rarely have a take away of any sort. Once maybe twice a month?  

This is really important to factor in - a lot of households spend more on takeaways than grocery shopping and they often don't realise, as it's relatively small amounts several times rather than one big payment at the checkout.

It's also something where there is a very wide range of views on what's normal.  I was surprised you described once maybe twice a month as very rare - we've lived in our house for over 5 years and had 2 takeaways in that time.  But then again, I have colleagues who routinely buy 3 meals a day from delivery apps.

Yes I was I raised my eyebrows when rare was mentioned at that frequency.

In the last 5 Year's I've had 2 takeaways and both was during the second lockdown, trying to make things a bit more interesting for my daughter and I at home. The first one I/we enjoyed, the second one (same order) we didn't enjoy as much it's like I/we never realized how salty and sweet it was the first time round and at a tenner a time it was too expensive.

I'll also treat her to fast food burger chain beginning with "M" once every 2-3 months, she gets a large fries, but buy nothing else from there as I think it's overpriced, over salted, over rated and just not that good for you 

Coffeekup

It's just my daughter and I spend £50 a week, this gives me room for treats like biscuits, crisps and milkshake.
I also shop in different places for different thing's i.e. I won't get washing powder from sainsburys because I know I can get it £2-4 cheaper from saver's or home bargains.

Most of what we eat is fresh.

Practicality eat vegetarian, only meat I buy I good quality dry cured streaky smoked bacon and chorizo, which are used for bases for sauces.

In that £50 it gets cleaning products and hygiene products. That being said I only have a cream cleaner, washing up liquid, white vinegar and soda crystals to clean with (as it better for the environment).
I don't have to pay for expensive dishwasher pod/tablet things, and I won't buy the pod things for the washing machine either I'll just have a big box powder which generally lasts around 10 months (so a £1 a month) with a conditioner which gets bought in bulk 5l and lasts around the same length of time as the powder.

The bulk of the money goes on stuff that's healthy for you like sourdough bread, banana's, strawberry's, grape's and certain other veg/fruits.
But I've been cutting back on this the last 3-4 years by allocating a third of my garden to growing my own fruit and veg. I grow food's I deem expensive things I use alot of.
For example lettuces, mixed leaves, rocket's these get eaten atleast 4 times a week bags of these cost £1+.
Courgettes - 2 plants has gave us anywhere between 5-20 courgettes a week since the 3rd week of may.
Rainbow chard and spinach gets bags of these cost £1.50+, growth these and they just keep cropping 
Strawberry and raspberries although I haven't been self sufficient in these to date it's nice not having to buy some occasionally and the ones you grow are 200% tastier.
Tomatoes although they have a short window where you have nothing all year and then you have multiple kilos worth in 6 week's is still nice to have and they keep really long time grow varieties you can't get in shops.
Kale and broccoli another must have for me I can buy twice a week each costing me at least £5+ a week.
Herb's, basil, rosemary, chives, mint and sage all get used frequently every week and I don't have to spend 80p a packet and throw away the plastic waste.

AnnabelSaves

Try to spend around £75 a week for 2 adults, plus one takeaway a week and cat food every quarter. Doesn't always work and has been a process to get here!