Poll: how much do you spend on a weekly food shop?

Just me and I spend about £25 a week.

I buy all my meat and fish from the local market once a month and then just have frozen veg with it and ocasionally a potato waffle or potato cake with it.  I also buy a couple of home cooked ready made meals from the local deli.

There's two of us and we spend around £60 a week on our food and toiletries for all meals.

However, we're eating healthy right now and if I weren't I could eat for much less a week :'(

Weekly shop for 3 of us is ~£120, plus usually 1 takeaway. I do the occasional bulk buy of meat such as chicken breasts, sausages, etc. which probably adds another £10-£15. One meal a week will be a big roast for 5 people, one of whom has special dietary requirements.

I could probably reduce the cost of the food element through various methods but working full time whilst also being carer to my parents means that my spare time is worth more to me than any savings I could make.

About £56 a week including household items and the rare takeaway. I normally budget for £10 a day but almost always underspend at the end of the month. 

About £55 pw excluding alcohol* but including toiletries, cleaning agents etc.  We cook all our meals from scratch and aim to get at least two meals for each of the two of us from each cooking session.  We don’t do takeaways unless as a “can’t be bothered to cook” once per month-ish.  Similarly with meals out.  We discovered Aldi, Netto and Lidl about 10 years ago and have shopped at one of those almost exclusively for our main shop ever since.  We get cold meat eggs cheese dates and tomatoes from the local weekly market.

But…..and it’s a big but…..we were brought up poor long ago and had to budget and scrimp from an early age.  (We absolutely don’t have to now but though you can take the individual out of poverty but you can’t take poverty out of the individual.)  We both did ‘home economics’ at school (me for two years my wife to A level) so we can cook and understand nutrition, the evils of salt and sugar in everyday packaged goods etc.  So we never buy ready meals.

Sometimes a hard start can be an advantage later in life.

*We spend a spend awful lot on wine, a bit on spirits and nothing on beer.

Edited by Carlos

I do find this interesting, to the level I may start another related thread. We're a couple, brought up "old school" and can't understand where all this money is going with others on food. Ever since we've had the Lidl Plus app we struggle to get to the £100 a month "reward point". Ok we will indulge in an odd carvery, ( £25 for us both,) and do buy some food from other sources. However, I'd doubt we ever exceed £200 a month, unless we're away and in "holiday mode". 

We spend between £150 and £200 per week for my wife and myself, with some food for our granddaughter as well. We shop at Sainsbury’s and M&S. 

Tarmoo said

We spend between £150 and £200 per week for my wife and myself, with some food for our granddaughter as well. We shop at Sainsbury’s and M&S. 

At last an average shopper who spends about the same as us.  How the hell are these other peeps shopping so cheaply. If midweek I pop into our local Co-op for say a loaf of bread, milk and a few other odds and ends, it always costs like £25 plus. Probably have to do that a couple of times a week and then add that to the main supermarket shop, we are probably spending £175 to £200 plus.

Then there's the weeks when you need Washing detergent/conditioner, dishwasher tabs, toiletries and other necessities and the bill goes through the roof.  We do shop in Lidl but also Tesco as Lidl don't have many of the branded items that we love and need.  We don't buy luxuries often but still our costs are way above what most have commented here.

Then of course, there's the odd takeaway a few times a month, but they are getting fewer and further between as they are just getting ridiculously expensive as well.

Edited by Fantasia

Fantasia said

Tarmoo said

We spend between £150 and £200 per week for my wife and myself, with some food for our granddaughter as well. We shop at Sainsbury’s and M&S. 

At last an average shopper who spends about the same as us.  How the hell are these other peeps shopping so cheaply. If midweek I pop into our local Co-op for say a loaf of bread, milk and a few other odds and ends, it always costs like £25 plus. Probably have to do that a couple of times a week and then add that to the main supermarket shop, we are probably spending £175 to £200 plus.

Then there's the weeks when you need Washing detergent/conditioner, dishwasher tabs, toiletries and other necessities and the bill goes through the roof.  We do shop in Lidl but also Tesco as Lidl don't have many of the branded items that we love and need.  We don't buy luxuries often but still our costs are way above what most have commented here.

Then of course, there's the odd takeaway a few times a month, but they are getting fewer and further between as they are just getting ridiculously expensive as well.

Edited by Fantasia

I got over not having branded items in Lidl, I have got used to the bread and the cheese, etc., and I am mostly happy with the quality of the veg. 

And I can no longer really afford to eat meat, just some canned fish and frozen Quorn (both of which are protein-rich and cost-effective if you’re sparing). I switched from olive oil (which I like) to vegetable oil (which I don’t).

I don’t drink alcohol.

I get Lidl’s cheap UHT oat milk, crap tea, awful coffee, I don’t have sugar, I don’t eat breakfast (cereal costs money and wastes milk), I no longer drink fizzy drinks, get through two cheap packs of biscuits each week maybe. I eat cheap pasta and rice; even their healthy steamed microwave meals that I resort to once a fortnight if I am working late cost less than £2.50 I think. Quite often lunch is a single chicken pie slice or something like it.

Two big bags of shopping — what I can carry home basically — is rarely more than £22. This time last year it was routinely less than £19.

One of the things to bear in mind is that the smaller the store, the higher the prices. Mini Sainsbury’s and Tesco express, small Co-op, all have higher prices than their equivalent larger stores.

It is possible to save a lot of money if you get past “preferred” items and focus on “good enough” — and if you cut out extra sugar, eat relatively little bread and never shop when hungry it gets easier too. 

But then I have only had one meal and some bread today, like yesterday. It turns out it’s possible to eat a lot less if you can’t buy it!

Edited by Unfocussed Mike

Fantasia said

Tarmoo said

We spend between £150 and £200 per week for my wife and myself, with some food for our granddaughter as well. We shop at Sainsbury’s and M&S. 

At last an average shopper who spends about the same as us.  How the hell are these other peeps shopping so cheaply. If midweek I pop into our local Co-op for say a loaf of bread, milk and a few other odds and ends, it always costs like £25 plus. Probably have to do that a couple of times a week and then add that to the main supermarket shop, we are probably spending £175 to £200 plus.

Then there's the weeks when you need Washing detergent/conditioner, dishwasher tabs, toiletries and other necessities and the bill goes through the roof.  We do shop in Lidl but also Tesco as Lidl don't have many of the branded items that we love and need.  We don't buy luxuries often but still our costs are way above what most have commented here.

Then of course, there's the odd takeaway a few times a month, but they are getting fewer and further between as they are just getting ridiculously expensive as well.

Edited by Fantasia

We used to be like you and still sometimes are if we can't be bothered to go to Aldi. Love a Tesco delivery! But you can save a serious amount of cash shopping in Aldi/Lidl without compromising on quality. I just hate having the shopping chucked at me at the checkout by the cashier!

No booze, no take away, no meals out, nothing is wasted, only thing in bin is empty wrapping and there's too much of that. Difficult to say the cost as it is continually increasing every visit. The biggest con is the barcode pricing system, you have no idea what items cost previously unless as pedantic as myself keeping note, and the store's old stock is automatically charged at the new price. The swapping and increasing price tickets was previously not permitted.

I tend to avoid overpriced brand lines where possible, and I will not buy processed food or ready meal crap. To be fair I have only taken this approach for past few years, previously paid no attention to the cost of anything as my time had a greater value but now apply attention to what was previously considered insignificant, I was so wrong. Spend has been at least halved.

Family of four and we can get the food shop in for under £50 most weeks (but it goes up if we need to restock the pantry items).

We do a lot of meal planning, and it's really important to disclose that we are generally shopping from a baseline of having storecupboard items in so it's 80% fresh bits and bobs in that £50.

We are hoping to grow our own a bit more this year though. :)

Edited by B.Bunovskyi

Fantasia said

Tarmoo said

We spend between £150 and £200 per week for my wife and myself, with some food for our granddaughter as well. We shop at Sainsbury’s and M&S. 

At last an average shopper who spends about the same as us.  How the hell are these other peeps shopping so cheaply. If midweek I pop into our local Co-op for say a loaf of bread, milk and a few other odds and ends, it always costs like £25 plus. Probably have to do that a couple of times a week and then add that to the main supermarket shop, we are probably spending £175 to £200 plus.

Then there's the weeks when you need Washing detergent/conditioner, dishwasher tabs, toiletries and other necessities and the bill goes through the roof.  We do shop in Lidl but also Tesco as Lidl don't have many of the branded items that we love and need.  We don't buy luxuries often but still our costs are way above what most have commented here.

Then of course, there's the odd takeaway a few times a month, but they are getting fewer and further between as they are just getting ridiculously expensive as well.

Edited by Fantasia

I have to admit, given that my household tends to split the shopping between Waitrose and Sainsbury's, I wondered how our food bills are much closer to A Shot in the Dark than those who claim to shop at Aldi/Lidl.

At a guess, the first difference is that our evening meals are normally split 25% proteins, 33% carbohydrates and the rest vegetables. If you start piling on the proteins the cost per meal skyrockets.

The second I would guess is buying in bulk at the best price for weight. So every now and then we'll have a blip where the cost of one shop is extortionate.

Fantasia said

Tarmoo said

We spend between £150 and £200 per week for my wife and myself, with some food for our granddaughter as well. We shop at Sainsbury’s and M&S. 

At last an average shopper who spends about the same as us.  How the hell are these other peeps shopping so cheaply. If midweek I pop into our local Co-op for say a loaf of bread, milk and a few other odds and ends, it always costs like £25 plus. Probably have to do that a couple of times a week and then add that to the main supermarket shop, we are probably spending £175 to £200 plus.

Then there's the weeks when you need Washing detergent/conditioner, dishwasher tabs, toiletries and other necessities and the bill goes through the roof.  We do shop in Lidl but also Tesco as Lidl don't have many of the branded items that we love and need.  We don't buy luxuries often but still our costs are way above what most have commented here.

Then of course, there's the odd takeaway a few times a month, but they are getting fewer and further between as they are just getting ridiculously expensive as well.

Edited by Fantasia

+1 , we shop at Costco for some stuff too and don't drink!

It's funny, my perception of many of the photographers on here is that they are very wealthy, shooting all the time, buying lots of kit, showing off flash cars / houses in pictures, flying off to do shoots abroad, etc... 

Edited by sepiashots

sepiashots perhaps the only way they can afford the cars, photo equipment, and holidays abroad is by shopping at Aldi?