How much do you spend on food?

I think asking how much a person spends on food is extremely subjective and for this reason I really hate this type of thread.

I could spend next to nothing if I foraged all my food, or I could spend a vast fortune if I ate out every night in high end restaurants.

And then we have those who can feed an entire family on a shoe string. I still can't get over the poster who claimed to feed a family of six on half an onion, half a pepper, a couple of mushrooms and a sixth of a bag of noodles for one meal!

What does it matter how much you spend as long as you know you and/or your family are eating healthy, nutritious meals and making good use of all the ingredients available whilst minimising any waste? Surely this key to good household management?

Nothing ever gets thrown out in my house. If it's not used when intended it gets frozen. Meal leftovers are frozen if they can't be utilised within the next 48hrs. I never meal plan, I just open my fridge and see what needs to be used first so make a meal using those ingredients.

I have a very well-stocked store cupboard so can improvise at the drop of a hat. Without this I can see people might struggle. Also, those newly venturing into cooking might be put off when initially buying seemingly expensive herbs, spices and other store cupboard ingredients, but these are very infrequent purchases which usually last a very long time. I've got stuff in my cupboard I bought 10+ years ago and still use occasionally.

We spend on average £80 a week for two adults and two children. Here is a quick breakdown of our lifestyle:
The children have breakfast and lunch at school/nursery.
Me and OH bring lunches to work from home
The figure includes top ups and cleaning/laundry products
We shop mainly in Lidl/aldi and bulk buy from Costco.

I think we could knock £10-15 a week off easily, £20 if we made the effort. The children don't eat meals and are constantly snacking on processed meats, cheese strings and expensive yogurts. ,I guess, we've taken our eye off the ball and let our shopping creep up. We spent £90 in lidl today - although we spent about £40 the week before.

I'm going to monitor our shopping a bit more closely for the rest of the month, to get it back under control.

I think it's tricky without a bigger picture, such as whether someone has an active or sedentary lifestyle, what they consider healthy (or healthy enough) etc.

I struggle to keep my food budget down to £100 per month. I'm very active, have always had to eat a lot to maintain a normal weight, and eat whole grains, lots of vegetables and a fair amount of protein (mostly beans, pulses, some dairy and eggs, some nuts and seeds). I mostly cook from scratch, with some prepared food when it's an end of day bargain at the supermarket. Hardly anything I eat is organic and I wish it was! When I'm rich...

I don't drive, don't have a lot of storage for bulk buying and don't have access to Aldi or Lidl type shops, so that has an impact.

The £100 is pretty much all my food, though. I always take my own lunch when I go out, also other meals if I leave early or come home late. I take water in a container or a hot drink in a flask. I eat out at a restaurant maybe once a month (from my "social" budget). I eat at friends' houses, but then they eat at mine so I think that balances out.

I'm a bit stunned by the idea of not taking a home-made lunch because of the risk of eating it too early in the morning. I suspect you need to eat more for breakfast or have a mid-morning snack, but if you would still eat lunch too early for no good reason surely you can just find a way round it? Give your lunch to a colleague to look after, anything!

Doshwaster wrote: »

Well, this calls for some kind of experiment. Next week I will try taking sandwiches/leftovers into work and see how it compares for a) cost b) enjoyment c) effort. I've recently changed jobs and my commute is longer than before so saving some money on food at work would be useful.

As for throwing stuff out, I'm not that bad (I've always have a disregard for "best before" dates and prefer the sniff test) but when you live alone some waste is unavoidable - you can't really buy half a lettuce and you can't freeze one either.

Let us know how you get on.

Are you planning to have breakfast (if you don't already) or take some fruit in case you're tempted to start on your lunch too early?

I found that sandwiches were more interesting if I used a range of different bread types but I appreciate that if you're on your own and have limited freezer space that's not always possible.
My sandwiches were the envy of everyone at work.
One lady's OH used to put her sandwiches up and it was usually plain white sliced bread and a scraping of whatever so no wonder she found lunchtimes boring.