Forum home Babies Baby

grocery bill

I know this isn't completely baby related, but can I be nosey and ask how much you spend on groceries each week, and how big your family is. I know there has been a couple related comments, but just wanted to see if I am spending a reasonable amount or if I really should push myself harder to spend less. I feel like I spend a horrible amount.


I spend usually 60 pounds just on food and formula (not including nappies and wipes that is about 10 pounds more each week) for a family of four. I do make a menu but I do also let us get a couple of treats too.


Thank you
«1

Replies

  • TBH I'm not sure how much I spend. I usually only go to the supermarket about once a fortnight as I get all my fresh stuff from the butcher and greengrocer. I would guess I spend about ??100 a week for the four of us, maybe a little bit less but that includes all the nappies and stuff.
    xx
  • We are a family of 4, OH, Me, Kelsie & Jack. Kelsie is 15 months and Jack is 10 weeks. An average shop up per week including meat, veg, fomula milk, nappies, wipes etc etc costs us prob near enough 120 a week. We do get all our meat fresh from the butchers, and we dont have any value items.

    We couldn't get that down anymore if we tried too, so I don't think 60 a week is to bad at all!!

    xx
  • I do it mostly because I hate the supermarket!! I'm lucky that the little town near us has a very good green grocers and butchers and a lovely coffee shop so it makes a nice morning out :lol: I think it works out cheaper for us as we waste less, as nothing is prepacked you can just buy what you need, so if I only want 3 chicken breasts I don't have to have four because that's how many are in a packet. The quality of the meat is definately better though, especially for things like steak and joints, supermarket meat seems really crap now!.
    xx
  • I think you're doing a brilliant job of budgeting - my family consists of me, hubby & Lily who only consumes breast milk, and our weekly shop excluding baby bits is ??50-60 (more if we buy beer or wine). We don't really buy desserts, either.

    We certainly don't eat gourmet but we do like our food and cook fresh every day.
  • For us the butchers is slightly more expensive, but not overly as you cater for how much you want, but with the butchers you know where your meat comes from. Produced all locally. I had real problems with animals being killed for meat (and how they're treated) as I was growing up, but knowing the exact slaughter hall where the animals are killed, and sometimes even the people who have done it, make it a lot easier for me because I know they've been treated well.


    OH is a butcher and has seen some things in abbatoirs/meat halls that has put me off ever eating meat from supermarket again.

    x



    [Modified by: Garfield on January 09, 2009 03:05 PM]

  • i used to get my meat from the butchers but i find it easier to just go tesco and buy everything in one place! i need to get organised coz i end up in tesco t least 4 times a week getting bits i have forgotten i need! i never write a list nightmare! there fore never knowing what ive spent on shopping coz its x amount here x amount there maybe that can be my new years resolution! xx
  • There are three of us and I spend probably abut ??100 a week, I go to my butchers for meat and the fishmongers for fish but the rest is bought at the supermarket. I think Sainsbury's are very good value at the moment.
  • There are 3 of us, me, oh and Isobel who is 7 and a half months and we roughly spend about ??80 per week. May spend slightly more on the weeks I make up batches of Isobels food to freeze. I generally shop at Tescos xx
  • there is 3 off us and we spend around 80 thats including his milk ans sometimes nappies, we vary from where we shop, sainsburys, tesco morrisons and somtimes asda, asda is far more the cheapest we find xx
  • There are 3 of us & we spend about ??100 a week but I like nice meats and we dont buy the value ranges either, So I suspose we could get it down if we tried but to be honest we both just like Good food! & I'd rather cut back, if we had to in other areas.. x
  • We do a 'big' sainsburies shop once a month where we spend ??100 - we buy enough chicken breasts for the month if they are on offer (which they always seem to be). We then top on on fresh foods during the month, the amount we spend then depends on where we go and what we treat ourselves too! If we're good I think that only another ??10 a week would do but it's usually more!

    thats not including nappies/wet wipes. No need for formula!
  • I'll be honest I am not keen on a lot of the value range stuff either and being a vegetarian I think we do save a touch on some products... we eat lots of dried beans and lentil which are quite cheap really. It seems appropriate to guess that sort of 60 - 100 pounds a week is quite normal. Thank you ladies.

    xx
  • I'll be honest I am not keen on a lot of the value range stuff either and being a vegetarian I think we do save a touch on some products... we eat lots of dried beans and lentil which are quite cheap really. It seems appropriate to guess that sort of 60 - 100 pounds a week is quite normal. Thank you ladies.

    xx
  • We find that if we buy value stuff we either throw it away because it's not as nice or you need more of it so not such good value!

    We do buy store brands though and save money there. And go for whatever is on offer brand wise.
  • My dad (retired now) used to have his own butcher's business. He goes to the abatoir every few months and gets meat for us and them. I usually just give my my ??10 when I go over an dtake ten quids worth of meat out of their freezer. We spend about ??30 a week at the suppermarket and also do a monthly shop when we get paid about ??130. That includes formula.. I usually go to Tescos.
  • Our budget is ??50 and we CANNOT spend more than that on EVERYTHING for the 3 of us (Max is not on milk anymore but eats like a horse!) or we will not be able to pay mortgage and bills - it's hard we have changed to ASDA shopping and I do a shopping list online on their website the night before I go so that I know exactly how much it will come to and then I can only buy what is on the list. We have had to stop shopping at the butcher as although the meat quality was FANTASTIC it was more expensive for us and we just CAN'T afford it, we have also had to switch to some frozen veg which although it wouldn't be my first choice most freshly frozen veg is pretty much as good as fresh.

    It is tricky but it was my choice to return to work partt ime and we have to be VERY careful! We have NO luxuries or treats unless there are less essentials to buy that week!
  • hello,
    We bulk buy, so say sharwood Indian sauce half price we will buy like 10jars. 8bags of bread flour etc.We buy online, you can compare prices/weight....also I spend less.
    We make sure we only do a monthly shop for groceries. I do weekly shops for fruit+veg from local farm shop which totals to less than ??10 a week. Plan our meals ahead so no vegetables go off/to waste. Buy from butchers in bulk too.
    Ilovemygeek...see if they do deals. Our butcher does 5lb deals. I usually buy 5lb and they out into 1lb bags for me....mince, bacon, chicken breast (2 per bag), sausages (6perbag). Sometimes get pork chops. Hubby family live on farm so it has to be nice and fresh meat we eat!

    grocery monthly bill ??60-80 (depends what we are out off). ??50butchers (lasts 1-1.5mths) ??35 vegetables. This is for hubby and I and 8mth old daughter. xxx

    If any one is interested...its costs 28p a loaf to make it homemade, a yr to get your money back for breadmaker...really worth it (my friend asked me to work out costs for her!). We also have our yogurt maker now which means yogurt for weaning is real cheap too.
  • Ours works out to roughly ??120-150 a week depending on if we need our bulk-buy stuff like toilet rolls/nappies/washing or dishwasher stuff. I sometimes need to pop to the corner shop by the weekend but not often and generally if I do, it's just for a cpl extra bits (like cucumber which ds1 eats like it's going out of fashion!!).

    There are 7 of us - me, dh, dd1 (8), dd2 (7), ds1 (4), ds2 (nearly 2) & ds3 (nearly 7wks)......oh, and Melody, the cat image We shop at Sainsbury's, (I like Asda too but don't go there unless I know I have enough to look at clothes lol a lot of the kids stuff is lovely!).
  • EEK I spend loads as oh eats expensive stuff (parma ham, posh cheeses etc) & eldest son eats for britain (he also drinks the booze cupboard dry as he's 18). I easily spend ??120-150 each week for 3 adukts a toddler and a breast fed baby.
  • there are three of us and a dog at the moment - soon to be four image My OH eats enough for 4 people himself (So not kidding!) and Ollie isnt doing too badly with his share of the food either!

    we do a big shop every other month which costs anything between ??200-??250 depending on how many treats we allows ourselves to have.
    in between shops we get a top up of fresh veg which we'll spend about ??40 on, so in total, breaking it down into a monthly cost it is about ??150 a month.
    We do a lot of bulk buying when things are on offer, we grow our own in summer and freeze it if we can do, and we tend to buy own brands and/or value ranges - eg the tesco value chicken breasts are NO different to the branded ones and they;re half the price... go figure (they're also mahoosive compared to branded ones...)
    occasionally we'll buy a lamb from the local butcher, or a meat pack from the market guy but we mainly use netto, lidl and tescos for our food.

    xxx
Sign In or Register to comment.

Featured Discussions