Advice on a food budget

Try listing what you have in your cupboards, fridge and freezer.

Then write a meal plan using what you have in first.

Little'un can eat pretty much what you do, great age to start them on exploring food.

Have a look at the Grocery challenge thread, not only great support, but the first few pages have loads of recipe ideas etc

It is so easy to get caught in the 'Ohh that's a bargain' trap when shopping, but stick to your list and you will see your weekly spend drop - good luck

we spend approx £150pm on groceries and there are 2 adults and a 3 (soon to be 4) yr old. It can range from £130-180. We have always offered our lo a wide range of foods, with very little processed foods and she eats everything, her favourite snack being olives

I am vegan my oh & lo eat meat. Planning has reduced our bill drastically (a year ago we were spending an extra £100 pm). Even the meat eaters have 1 or 2 meat free days a week. I tend to go shopping do roughly a week's meal plan and spend between £40-70 depending on what store cupboard ingredients we have run out of and then see how long it is till I need to go shopping again, with just top ups of milk, bread & fruit and any good ys items to freeze. Turns out you can stretch this out pretty far usually between 2-3 weeks

I make muffins, brownies, cheese straws and freeze so I can just grab something out for madam's lunch box. I also freeze fromage frais as found we were wasting them. Now I just grab one the night before she goes to the cm and decant into a small pot. I also make my own wraps which are so easy to make and cost pence.

In terms of cleaning items I never get why people make a point of differentiating this. I buy a box of washing powder and it lasts months. I bought a box of A1di 2.6kg for about £4 in January and I have at least 1/2 of it left. I buy a bottle of bleach every 2 months ish, a bottle of washing up liquid every couple of months. A bottle of polish maybe 2 or 3 times a year, and some form of cleaning liquid stardrops if I can get hold of it lasts minimum a year but even a bottle of generic cleaner lasts months!

As others have said, it's impossible to say what you 'should' be spending - we're all different. But if you think you are spending too much you can do any or all of the following -

- downgrade to your supermarket's 'basics' range
- change from a mainstream supermarket to Aldi or Lidl
- make a note of what you don't use - what do you throw out? Is there a pattern? I find that in my house boxes of fresh juice get opened and then forgotten about.
- meal plan, even if it's just a 'broad brush' plan (eg 'Thursday we'll have mince' rather than 'Thursday we'll have chilli con carne' - then decide on the day what you actually want to do with the mince. I've just remembered you're vegetarian - but you get the idea).

And to answer your OP, I reckon to spend appx £50 per week on two adults (I shop at Aldi).