Weekly shopping cost...

[TeniBear]

We spend roughly $150-$250 a fortnight buying things in bulk, and that's our whole grocery shop, not just food. Nappies are about $60 every two months or so, meat about $80 once a month. I have a weekly meal plan but it can change easily depending on how I feel on certain days. A great deal of things I don't cook from scratch. Especially chicken, I'm not sure I've prepared anything with chicken that didn't involve a packet recipe base in the past year or so We eat at my mum' since or twice a week, sometimes I'll cook there.

Occasionally I'll do a top-up shop at Coles or wherever, that's usually about $50ish.

[~Kim~]

$150ish weekly for 1 adult and 3 kids (though one eats nearly double what I eat, and the second one eats near as much as me - Miss 2 is well on her way too lol). I however have no choice but to buy at one of the big 2 supermarkets at their price mercy. We have no bakery or fruit and veg place sea pate to those. We are remote.
I pack all school lunches except for maybe 2 lunch orders a term. We eat out about once a week.

[PumpkinZulu]

I agree with the well stocked pantry - but to get down to 100 average (I wish I could find where I read is achievable), if you have nothing in your pantry to start with I think it takes alot of months before you would get near $100 a week average. Some weeks we definitely are as low as $100 if not lower - but have now been recording for 2+ years (my figures are an average across that time) and now have a reasonably stocked pantry but to get to an average of $100 we would need quite a few months of only spending $80-$90 but then pantry items run out - personally I think an average of $100 a week starting from empty cupboards for a family of four (especially once you get to the point where both children eat a decent amount) would be pretty hard to achieve with current food prices. An average of $130, 140 is probably more reasonable.

(Most sites with info about food budgeting do all talk alot about the well stocked pantry, but not all seem to take into account the cost of the items in that pantry to start with, but they are not free they should be taken into account when budgeting)

Totally agree. It takes time to build a good pantry. Ours is huge, and it's great because you look at almost any recipe and go yep, just need to buy meat. Ours has everything from pickled ginger to quinoa. Makes life much easier (although keeping it organised is another matter entirely!). But yeah, it annoys me when you see "$10 dinner" recipes that don't account for pantry items. Just no.

[Rouge]

Get yourself a good grocery app. We add stuff as we are close to running out. We only buy what we need. We also have lists of where to buy everything we buy cheaply. So shopping is all about replacing the standard food items. The same things are bought each fortnight. I find I save more money by buying standard items than if I meal plan. Or if I do meal plan it's with ingredients I already have or know I'll have not with recipes I want to try or make that require ingredients I don't have.

I have done $120 a fortnight before. Crazy but true. I even did it once with 4 adults and 2 kids. I see most things that aren't ingredients as luxuries though. And generally steer clear. And I shop around between the woolies, costco, Aldi, our budget butcher and budget fruit and veg. These days probably about $150/week.

[Miss.B]

I spend $200 one week at Safeway, and then a mini shopping at Ritches the following week ($130-150) and then back to Safeway etc. That's for 2 adults and 1 child. Very little meat in there, as I buy meat as I go (I usually get plenty of fruit and veg in the weekly shopping). I am hopeless at freezing things, I never know how to do it properly, and prefer to have it on the day ready to cook.

[Abigail]

$150 a fortnight so $75 a week. 1 adult, one school boy. Both eating gluten free. That includes pull ups when needed, meat and cleaning supplies. I actually go around with my list and calculator while I shop. $150 is our limit for everything.

[ladybirdflies]

Two adults and 4 children aged 12years down to 15 months... we spend $300 per week including fresh food, groceries, household items. We eat mostly organic and bulk buy almost everything. I am part of local co-ops that allows us to purchase organic flours and grains etc for cost price. We don't really eat takeout buy if we do it comes out of the weekly food budget... i think people should add takeouts to their total amount as that is food.

[peanutter]

About $100 for 2 adults and 2 kids when we're behaving ourselves, plus meat which we buy in bulk.

When we're not keeping an eye on it, it can get up to $300

And a Costco run can be anything up to $800 ... so I've been avoiding it, lately!

[Astrolady]

2 adults and 3 kids aged 7yrs through to 12yrs. Anywhere from $250 to $350 (that includes everything). It depends on what we need for the week, but if it is hitting the $340 mark I go through and delete what can wait another week. I do online shopping.

[trishalishous]

$550 a month for 2 adults and 2 kids. We eat out twice a week (take away Chinese on Wednesday as we all have a 12 hour day, and junk food for lunch once on the weekend/chips after swimming lessons) and spend another $50-$80 on that though.