Hi, Just wondering how much people spend on their weekly shop. My husband has told me I’m spending too much. Our organic box delivery came today and it was £80 but that included some meat, pastries, croissants and extra veg because he’s off work. I can’t get out to a supermarket so use Ocado for other stuff. There’s a minimum order of £40. If my husband does the shopping he goes to Waitrose. The bank recently cancelled my credit card because fraudulent entries had appeared on my statement. While I’m waiting for my new one, my husband has had to pay for the shopping on his card, but he was reluctant to do it because he’d already paid the housekeeping money into my account. Heather
It is expensive hun. I dont have a limit i just buy what I need. My pets cost me more to be honest.
How long does your organic box last?
Your shopping doesnt sound expensive to me.
I would hate being given housekeeping. The thing is he isnt using money just for you is he, he is using it for you both. I run the house hold if I didnt we would have no money lol.
I also buy all my meals from Wiltshire Farm foods, I spend about 25.00-30.00 for all my weeks meals I dont do cooking much any more. My husband just eats rubbish. I used to cook good food for him but he never ate it. Now he just eats what he can find in the fridge. I often put him some chops, mash and stuff he is very easy to feed.
Anyway it sounds to be as though you are spending ok. I buy from Tesco online I am sure there is no minimum order with them.
Hi, your husband sounds otganised with his housekeeping money, I can understand where he is coming from because I like to organize things like money too. However I don’t see what else he could do in the circumstances but use the credit card. Anyway, I use Tesco.com, minimum order of £40 but as many deliveries as I want for paying £60 for six months. How much do I spend ech week. It varies but, on average , probably about £130, this is for two adults, two children, it includes all food, stuff for packed lunches, cleaning stuff, toiletries etc, if I was taking someone a present of chocs or wine it would include this too, also any household stuff, e.g a new pot, frying pan, new towels, sheets, which admittedly I don’t have every week. Cheryl:-)
I do exactly the same as Cheryl
I use tesco home delivery and my spending amount is very simular to Cheryl as well. (2 adults/ 2 children)
My hubby does not give me ‘housekeeping’ budget as he trusts me to buy what we need and when we need it.
It’s hard to stick to a strict budget with food as some weeks i need more than others. Sometimes i bulk buy on some things i use frequently when there are good special offers on, so i save in the long run.
Got to bag the bargains when you can! … got loads of heinz beans in cupboard at the moment…was half price before xmas! lol!!
Teresa.x
Er…too much.
Even since losing my job, I still resent stinting on food, and I like my Waitrose and my M&S. I have given up on the Ocado deliveries though, as they were invariably so much more expensive than the equivalent shop elsewhere - and I don’t think they were always better. Though I did like the Ocado system where you get a printout of when everything has to be used by. I did find that helped me plan, and cut down on waste, compared to checking things manually, and realising some were already out-of-date.
I used to have the organic veggie boxes, but not only did I find them expensive, but all the cleaning and preparation was a challenge, and finding new ways to use up vegetables I didn’t particularly like. I used to spend ages making vegetable soups, and the end-result wasn’t really worth it. I used to end up smothering them in salt and herbs, or even adding an oxo cube or two, because basically, they tasted of nothing! After all that effort!
I know you can veto stuff you don’t like - either permanently, or just because they keep bringing it every week, and you got sick of it. But somehow I always ended up with a lot of spare beetroot, or butternut squash, or something else I’m not a big fan of. I used to always use the onions and tomatoes, and usually the cabbage or green veg, if there was any. But I was often left scratching my head what to do with the rest.
It IS expensive, there’s no doubt about it. I think groceries are my single biggest expenditure, even ahead of utilities, as dear as they are. And it does ramp up the price if you’re paying for home deliveries, or for a lot of pre-prepared and ready meals, because you can’t stand there for hours, doing it all yourself.
Tina
I think we spend between £60 & £80 a week but not sure to be honest. There’s only me and my husband now and I have a weakness for M&S…we also like the odd chinese take away. Oh and chocolate and icecream…good quality of course. I think we spend more on toiletries.
Our children are grown up now. I don’t drink, don’t smoke, a girl gotta have some pleasures in life
hiya
prob around £100 for me and 3 kids. carer cooks in bulk and puts in freezer at my request. i would rather get 1lb of good mince from butcher than cheap frozen burgers. i have always been good with money but we dont go without. its taken me several months to get my head round all this but i have no choice any more. i still struggle to plan ahead sometimes but am getting there. tesco deliver and all the guys+one woman are brill in helping get shopping into my house-if only they would start putting it away!
ellie x
What an interesting subject. Your post led me to do a bit of digging on the web and here is a link to the pdf of the very readable ‘Family Food 2012’ which gives the official gov.uk facts and figures for the UK.
This gives the typical spend figures for anyone who wants to check whether their family is ‘normal’! There is also some good stuff in there about what kind of foods people are spending their money on and how this compares to the ideal healthy ‘Eatwell’ mix of food types that the Government would prefer us to be eating for the good of our health. (Hint: it does not compare very favourably…)
I was interested to see that the typical proportion of ‘all household’ income going on food and non-alcoholic drink has held fairly steady over the past few years and is now a bit over 11% (although it remains a higher proportion for the lowest income households - 16.6%).
Anyway, food and drink will certainly be the last thing we cut back on in this house, if I know us.
Alison
Alison - thanks for the link to the government report - daughter doing Food Nutrition course and will be useful!
Heather - I don’t have a budget but my Scottish blood makes me look for bargains and get the most for my money.
Tesco yesterday bought a Christmas cake mix including marzipan and icing £1.75. Cooked and decorated in two loaf tins yesterday - will keep for ages
1 chicken = 3 meals for 3 people. 1 meal hot, 1 meal cold/rissotto and boil up the boned for one hearty soup with either vegetables or soup mix of lentils and barley.
Just boiled a ham hock (£2.50) meal for 3. Today made pea and ham soup from half the stock leftover potato and turnip and froze the other half with some of the ham bits in - all ready to make another soup or rissotto.
Frozen veg cheaper than fresh and more nutritious like peas and peppers.
Do click and collect at Tesco when it’s free (school holiday times) saves me walking.
Collect vouchers. Lots of ways to save money.
Lots of ideas. and before people think I was born before or during the war with all my food saving tips you’re wrong I’m a 60’s baby!!
Eat well, Jen x
In our household, the big thing about shopping online is that the stuff is carried in up the steps and into the house, I cannot lift anything (the two sticks get in the way) and my wife has to do it all.
Asda - minimum order £25 - some weeks it was hard to get up to that, the 2-hour delivery slot was inconvenient, in six months we had about three orders correctly delivered. What really got me was the way in which if you ordered 3 of an item, that did not show up as a non-delivery (top of the delivery sheet) but as a reduced amount delivered (correct but not very helpful), Told one of their surveys that either they changed or we went elsewhere.
Tesco - no minimum order, 1-hour delivery slot, different coloured bags for frozen, chilled, and normal which does help. Maybe a tad dearer than Asda, but the got the order spot on the first couple of times.
Some things we have to get elsewhere. Some veg you want to choose yourself, we prefer one of Lidl’s muesli packs to anyone elses, and they have the best price on Camembert.
Average weekly spend? Probably around £65-£70 for the two of us.
Geoff
Hi All,
We rely almost entirely on online shopping. I mix the supermarkets I get my shopping from. This week it’s all Asda, other weeks I split the shopping between Waitrose/Asda, Tesco/Asda & Sainsbury’s/Asda. I have signed up for & paid for pre-paid delivery which has saved masses of money & means I can split the shopping or top up when needed. Hubby pops to Lidl once a week & we get lovely fresh veg off a little self service country stall near home with an honesty box.
Because I am not fit enough to go out at the moment I love my online shops as it’s given me choice & I still feel I have some autonomy. I have lost so much of my life & freedom that I find it hard to cope at times so the online shop is good for me. I can also choose the best offers between all the supermarkets & the bonus is you get to know your regular delivery people. Waitrose are the best for this. We spend about £80 - £100 a week for everything for 3-4 of us (our son’s girlfriend is often with us) & 2 dogs. I do miss being able to look round the shops though as even in my electric wheelchair I rapidly get fatigued.
Susiex
Hi, I spend around £30 - £40 per week. Sometimes a bit more when I need cleaning stuff or toiletries. I buy frozen veg cos it’s cheaper and lasts longer, i don’t buy meat cos it’s more expensive than veggie stuff. I do however pay more for bread cos i likely muti-seeded and i buy soya milk and yogurt cos i like it better. I find it’s the naughty snacky, treaty things that cost the most, but am trying to avoid them to save money and loose weight. I should add that it’s just me and my dog here, love Bex xxx
Two adults and two children = £140 ocado shop plus a few pounds for milk and bread to see us through to the next shop. Sometimes it can be more, sometimes less, but that’s the average. I know we could do it for a bit less, but I tend to stick to brands that I know due to allergies on toiletries etc.
Family of 4 plus dog. Usually Tesco shop by husband. Approx £140 a week. Goes up and down quite a bit as he stocks up on brands we use e.g. for toiletries and non perishable stuff when it’s on offer. The clubcard points are fab for family days out. We get quite a few as they also sell our cheapest & nearest fuel and we have 2 cars. Interesting to read these responses. Could probably do cheaper but I do prefer certain labels for cereal, dog food and toiletries. Ann xx
I get everything from Sainsburys on line. Now they have the delivery voucher thing I get a delivery about every 5 days. Spend about £40.- £50.00. There’s just me and mum.
I buy a lot of convenience foods because I don’t have the umph to cook.
Hi, Thanks for your replies. I think I’ve overspent on the last few weeks, getting stuff in for Christmas. I don’t know how my boys survive at school - during the school holidays they’re constantly eating! It costs a fortune. My plan is to used the organic box delivery for our fruit and veg, then just use Ocado for stuff like washing powder and toilet rolls. My husband goes to the butcher’s on a Saturday morning. On the whole, I don’t think I do too bad, though I feel I’ve spent too much when I watch things like Superscrimpers and they can feed a family of 4 for a week for £50. We’re quite old fashioned in that we don’t have a joint bank account. My husband pays money into my account every month, and I guess it’s quite generous, but it has to cover other stuff besides food, like clothes, birthday/Christmas cards and presents, school lunch money and school trips, football kit for my youngest etc. it won’t hurt to cut back though after Christmas. Heather
This is a really interesting thread…
I do all our grocery shopping on-line with Sanisbury’s, and have just paid for the discounted delivery so can order as often as I like for the next year!
For me, hubby and our 18 year old son we spend around £80 per week. This can vary, depending on whether we need things like washing tablets/dishwasher stuff etc. It can some weeks be as low as £60, too. On top of this, we buy our dog food from a local pet shop, which works out at about £12 every 5 weeks.
Usually £120 a week for two adults and two children. My food bill has doubled since I started eating paleo so it seems a lot of money but I make everything from scratch, no processsed food at all, just loads of fresh meat, veg and fruit.