Monthly shopping bill for a family of 3

[gastonthebabyshusher]

We have just had an offer accepted on a lovely family home and are doubling our mortgage. Which is really scary!!! So for probably the first time I'm going to have to stick to a budget rigidly. So just out of interest I wondered what you think I should be planning to spend on food and household goods each month. At the moment we are really silly and spend waaaay too much in the supermarkets.
It's just DH and I and DD who is 2.

[derekthehamster]

£200 -£250/ month

I have a 9 yr old, dh and me.

[Fluffycloudland77]

Just shop at Aldi and it'll be fine.

[gastonthebabyshusher]

Thanks ladies, I will check out the ereconcile app! I had originally thought about £100 pw with a couple of weekend treats. So hopefully that'll be ok.

[countydurhamlass]

we spend about £200-£300 per month (usually closer to £200). We buy our tinned items, biscuits,jams,marmalade, washing up liquid, kitchen roll, pasta, rice, minced beef (Really nice and only £2.49 for 800g - its much better tasting than the other supermarket brands), some of our cereals and flour from Aldi, toilet rolls, soap powder and fresh stuff as we go from morrisons or tesco (They are the closest). i am a bit fussy when it comes to some things such as softner and soap powder but only buy them when they are on offer and so stock up a little, also ds is fussy with his cereal and we go through a box of weetabix minis a week at £2.90 a box. one of our big expenses is ds's packed lunches because we buy him fruit shoot drinks and sandwhich meats/cheese etc for his lunches so probably adds on another £40-£50 a month to what we would spend if he wasnt at school. i have started baking at the weekend- cakes, scones and biscuits, pizza, bread which saves money and is healthier than the shop bought ones

[Mum2Fergus]

I budget £430pm (or £100pw) for DP and DS who is 3...that is to cover everything except household bills and petrol. If I underspend I dont roll over, it goes into savings ac.

[NiceCupOfTeaAndASitDown]

We spend £100 every 2 weeks on 2 adults and a (very hungry) 20 month old. That includes nappies and wipes (albeit very cheap asda ones) kitchen and toilet roll. I very occasionally top up cleaning supplies from wilko at around 80p per spray and that total excludes bread, milk and salad. I do an online asda shop every 2 weeks and meal plan religiously. I think you'll be fine with £100 a week, I'd be able to feed another couple of people on that!

[nannyl]

£200 - £250 (prob nearer £250 a month)

but we have either a take away or eat at MILs once a week, so thats 6 main meals (cooked from scratch) a week, + all our lunches + toiletries + cleaning etc etc (but no wipes / nappies / formula, as i BF / use cloth)

shop with ocado once a week and top up at the co-op. We eat meat with almost every meal, and eat a lot of organic food.
The only frozen food i buy is peas, and ice cream!

2 of us (OH eats like a horse) and 1year old DD

[Catrin]

Pre separating, we spent whatever we wanted to spend. Now, I spend (for me and dd) about £160 a month. I think that you just cut your cloth according to your means and if you have less, you buy less.

[MummifiedBonkeyMollocks]

I spend £60 a week on 2 adults and ds (4) .

I could bring that down another £15 if I was really tight.

Plan plan plan!

[Blu]

£100 per week????

We manage on about £65 a week incl wine, proper coffee and no 'value' goods, for 2 adults and an 11 yo. I could get it down more if we planned, had more veggie / pulse based meals, etc.

[Inneedofbrandy]

Me dd (7) ds (5) about £30 plus £12 f&v box. About every 6/7 weeks I don't do a shop and use everything up. Sometimes I do a big shop just because I love seeing my cupboards full but that's every 3 months or so, will include 1k rice 1k pasta and 20 tins of chickpeas LOL. Washing powder I buy whatever's on offer when needed and buy the largest amount there is, same as toilet roll ect.

[racingheart]

I'm with Blu. About £70-80 pw for family of 4, three of them with massive appetites, and that includes lunches for everyone, as DH & I work from home and DC don't have school dinners. That's since meal planning. Used to be another £40 a week more than that when I just bought stuff randomly. We throw far less away now.

Doesn't include DH's wine though.

[BettyBum]

You would think I worked for Aldi the way I go on about it, (I don't).

However, a few weeks ago we were spending about £90 a week for family of four at Tesco, Sainsburys, Asda etc, we were not loyal to a particular supermarket.

Then bloke at works starts RAVING about Aldi. He has good taste, eats and travels well. So I try it...

OH. MY. GOD.

Seriously. Nothing would get me to do my weekly shopping anywhere else.

My weekly shop now costs me £60 a week on average and I love it. There is nothing I don't like. The only downside is that there are a couple of bits I can't get, for example, balti curry paste. This is not enough to dissuade me though, not when I consider the saving.

Just wish I had the guts to put that saving away!

[Fluffycloudland77]

Homebargains and poundland and poundworld are worth a look for curry sauces and pastes. Or an asian supermarket.

If DH has branded stuff now he says "it wasnt as good as the usual one we have" eg he had Pataks tikka sauce instead of aldi tikka. Same with baked beans.

Doesnt stop him moaning about the lack of brands to his family. Git.

[MrsHoarder]

About £200. I do better when I meal plan rather than just go to the shops, and don't deny us any treats (aside from alcohol). Can I suggest though that if you need to cut your weekly shop to the bone you will struggle to pay the mortgage should anything go wrong. Or does this budget include contingency fund saving etc?

[fuckadoodlepoopoo]

About 125 a week, so 500 a month for the 4 of us. I've recently reduced this from 600+!

This includes personal hygiene, cleaning products etc. All pack lunches, snacks, coffee shop stops are include in this.

One thing that came out in the other thread someone mentioned is that some of those who had low spends were not including their lunches as they were bought, and their kids had school dinners which they didn't include, they had a takeaway night etc. It makes a huge difference.

So that's around 84 meals a week not including snacks. So mine works out £1.48 per person per meal.

[vroomvroommum]

Thanks everyone, I have done 1 shop since starting the thread and managed to keep it to £75 by sticking to the list, and without changing any brands. However this didn't include cleaning stuff but did include a little alcohol. So I figure I won't struggle too much sticking to the budget.
Mrs hoarder we are also budgeting an equal amount for savings and another £200 for contingencies. also when DD starts school in a couple of years we will get back a reasonable sum per month from our childcare bill.

[fuckadoodlepoopoo]

Yeah alcohol does knock the bill up

I want to try to get mine down another 100 a month. What I've found helpful is figuring out exactly how much milk, bread, pet food etc we use a week so that Im not popping to the local shop for top ups too often.

It also really varies depending on your shopping options. I have no aldi etc near me, no farmers markets, green grocers etc so everything comes from the local supermarket. I do get it delivered which costs around 20 a month which i include in my budget but i also save petrol and a lot of time so i think that is very worth it. Also online i can plan better.

[vroomvroommum]

I think I am going to go down the delivery route as it cuts down my ridiculous propensity for impulse buys but will try and do it fortnightly rather than weekly and just pop into Tesco metro on the other week for a top up of fresh veg, bread, and milk. I'm also trying to compile a list of 2 night dinners so that i only have to cook every other day and I figure that this will also help with the planning. Think I'll start a thread so I can steal a load of lovely new recipes from you fabulous lot. Easier in the winter to do as its more stews, soups and casseroles.

[GodisaDJ]

bettybum they actually has curry paste in our Aldi this week! I was so happy as it would have meant a separate trip to tesco etc; you can drop on sometimes with the branded stuff. They've had Coca Cola for a few weeks too.

OP - we spend approx £45-55 a week (DP, me and DD 14 months who eats loads!) and I agree with the other posters, plan plan plan your meals.

I only converted to Aldi about 4 months ago and I've saved about £25-30 a week by going there, and started saving more recently when I started meal plans

[Pootles2010]

I think the only rubbish thing that Aldi do is sanitary towels. Honestly. I'd rather use a moon cup then theirs...

[BettyBum]

Godisadj ooh I'll look out for that!

I get on ok with the sanitary towels but should buy another MC really as I threw my old one out...