Supermarket shop how much do you spend?

(92 Posts)
magazinefiend Sun 24-Feb-13 13:45:05

OK so its nosy to ask. But I am fed up of arriving home with weekly shop and having to confess to DH how much it cost. We are family of 5 (me, DH and 3 DS ages 7, 5 and 2) and if I count evrything including nappies and washing powder ( and the midweek topup for milk etc)that makes at least £145 that I am putting into the superms pockets every week. and we are not eating lobster. a weekly shop includes stuff for kids packed lunches, a bottle of whatever wine is on offer, and food that i cook- no ready meals unless you count fishfingers! i make a list and all the other tips telly give you. Please don't tell me to go to 3 diffrent places to get bargains because I really haven't time. and yes, I know there will be those of you on benefits etc who are now saying £145!! She doesn't know shes born etc, and Ladies ( and Gentlemen) if you are in this situation I applaud you because i don't know how you manage.

roughtyping Sun 24-Feb-13 17:15:21

Sorry - ours includes packed lunches. DS and I have school meals once per week (I'm a teacher!) so that's another £4. Doesn't include stuff for 2 rabbits.

Sulawesi Sun 24-Feb-13 17:16:25

£10 per week??


roughtyping Sun 24-Feb-13 17:32:29

Yes sulawesi! It was hard going. Not something you could do long term. Lots of value beans and baked potatoes and veggie stir fries.

I've done £10 a week, lots of value tinned tomatoes, 9p noodles, kidney beans, bacon trimmings and square bread.
It's not sustainable long term, but it can be done in a pinch.

ouryve Sun 24-Feb-13 19:04:18

Those struggling with the relentless cost of nappies and wipes - if you're not adverse, Amazon is a great money saver. If you're a member of Amazon family, you get a one off £20 off £50 to use, as well, plus an extra 10% discount on nappies. I recently ordered 12 packs of pyjama pants (DS2 is still in nappies at 6 and the 4 a day I get from the NHS are nowhere near enough) plus a 12 pack of wipes and it cost me about £27 after the voucher and all the discounts.

Two adults, one toddler a dog and a cat - £65 per week which is everything including snacks, lunches, cleaning stuff and washing powder plus the odd treat like posh ice cream or a bottle of wine.

tilder Sun 24-Feb-13 20:06:44

Am impressed inmyspare. I don't think I managed that even as a student.

Thanks for the nappy tip ouryve, will check it out.

forevergreek Sun 24-Feb-13 20:31:49

£70 a week. 2 adults 2 toddlers. We eat organic butchers meat,veg, dairy .prob veggie meals 3 days. Shop Waitrose. However,None of us snack, no alcohol, no cereal apart from nice porridge, no excessive cleaning things. We also only cook one meal, not several options.

So we eat very wholesome and well but the lack of other things mean we can spend more on that. So approx £10 per day on food which seems plenty.

Today we have all had:
Breakfast: porridge with honey and nuts and grated apple.
Lunch: mushroom Spanish omelette.
Dinner: lasagne with mixed green veg
Late desert: tin peaches and ice cream.

Sulawesi Sun 24-Feb-13 20:51:02

Forevergreek, our eating habits seem quite similar to yours so why does mine cost £130 a week more than yours shock.

We had porridge and bagels for breakfast.
Lunch was ham (free range), tomatoes, cheese, apple, kiwi fruit, pitta bread and houmous.
Dinner has just been fresh pasta, free range chicken with courgettes, peppers, pak choi, tomato and mascarpone sause plus fresh parmesan cheese.
They (DC's) are now chomping their way through ambrosia custard pots, slabs of cheese, oddities, slices of melon ....

This is a normal day, so not much in the way of snacks - apart from a couple of slices of toast and marmalade with my tea. We do seem to eat a lot of food but most of it is healthy like yours.

I will probably have a bowl of cereal before bedtime.


everydayaschoolday Sun 24-Feb-13 21:10:56

£90 - £100 per week. DH, me, DD (primary school) & baby. 3 packed lunches x 5 days.

One Tesco online delivery per week - no topups (resort to frozen veg at end of week).
meal plan around 50% off offers.
Cook from scratch (other than frozen pizza and emergency bag of chicken nuggets!).
Bulk cook and freeze in portions.
No wine etc but sometimes couples of bottles of beer for DH if on offer.
Meat for every supper (DH's insistence!).
No nappies - we use reusable cloth ones & doing well on second child.
No biccies, cake or crisps (holiday treats really). Little bit of baking at home but not much.
Never buy ready meals.
I like Aldi & Lidl and would switch, but use Tesco online for convenience as we both work f/t.

willoughboobs Mon 25-Feb-13 00:44:01

about £60-£75 pw for 2 adults and 2 dc

all home cooked food, some of the things i cook are...
shepherds pie,pork curry,sea bass, sunday roast, Bolognese,carbonara, chicken chasseur, sausage casserole, pasta salad and Chinese sticky pork.

i also buy daz and comfort and andrex toilet tissue
the only things i buy in the value range are beans, passata and toms. i also buy apples, pears, grapes and bananas.

i think i do rather well on this budget, we are very lucky that both our dc don't like juice and they are not that keen on sweets or crisps either, so this saves me a lot of money smile

flubba Mon 25-Feb-13 05:57:40

sulawesi the foods you mention are £££ which is probably why your food bill is so much more expensive than others;

We had porridge and bagels for breakfast. - bagels aren't cheap for how many meals you get out of them
Lunch was ham (free range), tomatoes, cheese, apple, kiwi fruit, pitta bread and houmous. fruit and veg, cheese and free-range products are expensive. Sad but true.
Dinner has just been fresh pasta, free range chicken with courgettes, peppers, pak choi, tomato and mascarpone sause plus fresh parmesan cheese. Your ingredients are expensive. Why fresh pasta as opposed to dry pasta? Fresh parmesan cheese is a massive luxury to me. envy grin
They (DC's) are now chomping their way through ambrosia custard pots, slabs of cheese, oddities, slices of melon .... ready-made puddings, cheese and melon are all £££

The reason I looked at yours is because lots of friends of mine have asked me how we keep our costs down too, and they have similar shopping habits to yours - so spend a lot of money on really nice food. For us, we're saving for something big in a few years' time, so we're really trying to stick to a budget. We do eat well although I wouldn't ever class our food as 'luxurious' smile

forevergreek Mon 25-Feb-13 07:24:25

Yes I would say the same.

Your main things would be:

Not seasonal veg- We tend to stick to what's in season

Too much at one meal- we have fresh pasta but would be with a little bacon maybe and a couple of veg. Instead of chicken and 4-5 veg. Chicken would be for the next day. For example we ate fresh pasta last week with fresh leeks, mushrooms, courgettes and frozen broa beans - only courgettes aren't really in season. Was in a carbonara sauce. With parmasan ( sold as a huge block). No meat

Individual portions- we don't buy individual yogurts/ custard/ etc. just large pots of organic Greek yogurt that we add honey/ frozen berries to.

Maybe too much choice again/- small custard pots/ cheese/ melon etc. from your menu everyone already had cheese at lunch and at dinner. Then more cheese after dinner. Maybe one portion of something a day. so desert if you have is just melon and a late pot of custard decanted/ homemade. Melon is also out of season right now. I know bananas aren't but much cheaper still.

As from next month lots more things are around

OhTheConfusion Mon 25-Feb-13 09:25:39

Dothraki, could you possibly tell us all what you make/eat for £45 a week? Where you shop and if that includes any snack at all?

There are 5 of us, 2 adults, 3DC's aged 10, 8 and 18mths. Our Sainsburys shop is roughly £140pw (including £10 worth of wine), we then spend around £30 during the week on top up milk, bread, extras. Also £25pw on school lunches and DD2 and I have lunch with friends once a week so another £10.
So a whopping average of £205pw on food blush and that's before we take the kids out for a coffee or ice cream at weekend (£18 yesterday!).

I would love to cut this by around £50 a week!

MrsMarigold Mon 25-Feb-13 11:57:05

We eat meat every day blush and DH says veggie meals don't satisfy him - he works very long hours in a very demanding job and he cycles every day. He prefers white fish, seafood and chicken and although we have meat every day it tends to be expensive last week we had sea bass at one meal at it was £13 for that alone! And he doesn't eat wheat which rules out sandwiches.

When I was single I spent about £25 a week on food - mainly oats and veggies. I was also very thin hmm.

Bacon trimmings are very cheap (<99p/lb) at my butchers, I keep them in the freezer to use as necessary, and 2 or 3 pieces are plenty to make a sauce taste meaty. That way under £1 on meat does 4 or 5 family dinners with leftovers for my lunches.
Risotto, pasta with tinned tomatoes and in-season veg, casseroles etc are good ways to make substantial meals with a small meat content. Add a handful of lentils to bolognese or chilli in place of 1/4lb of mince. Nobody will notice by the time it's cooked.
Roti, pitta and chapatti are cheap and easy to make (just flour and water), to pad out a curry.
Snacks are usually a slice of fruit bread, an oat cake or a couple of cream crackers.
Drinks, usually black tea, water or squash.

grants1000 Mon 25-Feb-13 13:11:24

I love this thread.

I am showing it to DH who thinks I can do everything on £40 per week 2 adults and 2 boys aged 6 & 10.

He's deluded about that and many other things.

OhTheConfusion Mon 25-Feb-13 13:20:18

I bet he is happy to eat more than £40 worth though Grants!

Eskino Mon 25-Feb-13 13:34:20

£90-100 per week for me, DP, 2yo (still in nappies) and 5 weeks old (breastfed) and a cat.

We buy lots of fresh fruit and veg, organic stuff and meat comes from the butcher. We hardly eat processed food I never skimp on groceries really as neither of us have any other expensive habits. I hate for our shopping bill to go over £100 a week.

magazinefiend Mon 25-Feb-13 13:56:11

thanks for your responses everyone. i see that by using the word 'confess' I have given the impression that DH is some kind of victorian tyrant.grin He isn't,but he does always seem to get a nasty surprise at the cost and I think that makes me feel defensive. I am reassured that others seem to be spending roughly the same. i do cook lots of dishes eked out with lentils etc, and always a veggie meal at least once a week and was still feelng like evil spendthrift! so i'm glad it isn't just me and i'm going to blame the suprmarkets especially when they try to charge me a fiver for one lousy block of cheddar.

OhTheConfusion Mon 25-Feb-13 14:05:26

Cheese is a terrible price... I got 1 block of mature cheddar, i half block of low fat cheddar and 1 200g pack of Feta on Friday... for the princely sum of £10.40!

We eat very little cheese, get a block every 2-3 weeks. DS is milk allergic so we save a lot in dairy products.

OhTheConfusion Mon 25-Feb-13 14:33:14

That willl last us 2/3 weeks (full fat for DH, DS and DD2 and half fat for DD1 and I as im at WW and full fat cheddar upsets her tummy [tmi]). It just drives me mad how expensive it is.


I think shopping is just getting more and more expensive.

I spend roughly £90 per week for 5 of us. And that's with up things from the freezer as I tend to baulk cook where I can.


DH was diagnosed with high cholestrol (sp) and diabetes type2 last year and I've saved a fortune on cheese. As he would have cheese and crackers as a supper so I was buying a large packet each week about £8. Now one lasts about month.

OhTheConfusion Mon 25-Feb-13 14:42:21

WheredidI, I have seen a real reduction by joining WW and measuring out 30g for me... DH was horrified to realise his 'bit' weighed 128g. He may be thin but I am sure he must have high cholesterol and solid arteries!

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