What would be a realistic food budget for us?

Ex-Spendaholic

I posted in this forum about a year ago about how we spend too much on food, throw out too much food and give too much money to M+S. I had great intentions to start with.

1 year on I can confirm that I have totally done away with M+S so I am bound to be saving money as I'm not going in there 2-3 times per week spending £20-£30 a time on nothing.

I'm looking to start again. What would be a realistic budget for food for us?

We are 2 adults, 2 kids (9+5) plus a 9 month old baby.

I should point out that I'm not the best cook in the world and don't have a lot of time for faffing around either.

I have read tips about drawing out money on a Monday and making it last the week etc. I'm all for that.

I have to be honest and say that at the minute I have no idea what we spend on food on a weekly/monthly basis. I want to set myself a budget and stick to it from Monday.

Any thoughts?

BB1984

On mysupermarket.com you can go to your favourite supermarket and click on all the things you want to buy, and it will tell you how much it all comes to, as well as giving you alternatives for cheaper items, and you can compare between supermarkets too. It also does other stuff as well i think, but that's all i've used it for so far!

I try to plans meals for the week before doing my shopping - that way I don't buy things I don't need, and there is less waste.

I would say reduce your target spend gradually, so it's not too much of a shock to the system! My OH and I take out £30 a week cash, and we find that's easily enough to feed us, well. So I would guess maybe £50 would be ok for your family? But only you can really be the judge of that!

Good luck!

bb

lynzpower

Why not start with planning a weeks worth of food with what you have in and just buying the basics. I too have been off the planning radar for a while and have quite a healthy stash of bits & pieces. You should then be able to write down EXACTLY what you need to make a weeks worth of meals& extras ( nappies, toiletries etc)

When you know what you need for the week ( is it predominantly meat? Or veg? O etc) then have a gander at the comparison sites or use local knowledge for where those items are cheapest. If you have a market and you need mainly F&V then obv choose that option, for store cupbaords you could locate ethnic shops, or maybe tescos/ asdas are chepest for your tins ( depending what you buy)

misskool

Can you try and find last week's or the last month's worth of receipts and total it up?

Then set a realistic target, otherwise it'll seem like too much hardship, demotivating you.

Cooking isn't all that bad, you just need to get the idea that there will be food disasters and you will either bin them or eat them grimly.

Start by trying things you love to eat and then gradually your confidence gets better. Have emergency food in the freezer for when something goes wrong. I always have some sort of frozen meal just in case something I cook isn't great or I'm too tired to follow the meal plan.

And it's not such a big deal to slip up.

hope this helps.

Magentasue

How about - draw out what you think is enough on Monday. No more than £75 though! Shop on your own and buy only what you need and only take the cash. Bring home the change and keep it in a separate purse. Use only that money for food but if you need more, withdraw it. Note how much you've spent at the end of that week and take out £5 less for the following week. After a few weeks you should have an idea of how much you spend over a week or a month. After that, it's up to you to decide if you want to trim that or if it seems right to you.

moo2moo

How much can you afford to spend each week? Perhaps taking that figure and deducting £10 for a treat (or as a saving towards something you want but can't afford) would be a better way to start.

If you're on a DMP what does that allow you as a food spend?

Cooking with kids can be fun, it gives them somehing to do over the holidays. I posted a recipe for Fishermans Pie on Weezels 50p thread. Its quick easy to do. So easy that my 5 year old made it with a little bit of help. At the same time she made the dough for Artisan Bread (see the thread devoted to this for the recipe) which amazed her with how fast it grew. We're baking that tonight. Have to admit I was sceptical as I thought bread making involved an awful lot of hard work and mess but not on this occasion (yet!).

katiecoodle

Gosh I should think that £50 a week isn't very much for a family of 5 - we're a family of 5 (3 adults & 2 kids) and spend around £70 a week - however that does include washing up liquid, washing powder etc.
Baby formula is dead pricey & I must admit when mine were young I ditched it at 7 months in favour of full fat regular cows milk due to the price of formula. Also nappies are dear - I do use MySupermarket.com & find it very useful for spotting where the best nappy deals are. Also we've taken to having 2 - 3 vegetarian dinners/week in our household since food prices have been rising so dramatically. I find the absolute best tool in budgeting is to plan meals very well - work out what you're having when - make sure your meat is frozen if it will be out of date on the day you want it, and freeze the portions which are left over - it all helps.

juliejay

I've been trying to get control of our spending this year and what has really helped me is keeping a spending diary.

Find an old diary or notebook and take five minutes to just note down what you spent and where at the end of everyday. Keep it by your bed and do it last thing at night. Then you'll be able to tot up your weekly totals and get an idea where the money is going. I include everything, food, petrol, going out, presents but you could just do food.

I aimed to reduce my bills by £10 which was easy enough to start with but its quite difficult now so I reckon we're cutting back enough now. I keep ours under £125 a week but that is everything and we're OK with that much.

Its made a big difference to us this year. We've done quite a few jobs round the house with the spare cash. See what you think.

crockpot

I have a cash only purse and spend £50 a week for 2 adults and 2 boys 6 and 9, baby should not cost much. By 1 a baby can eat anything,try cutting down the salt you use now, then when baby is 1, you can give it-sorry do not know if a boy or girl, the same as you all have.

Have you got a slow cooker?
These are good as you just chuck every thing in and leave it-great for non cooks.

Magentasue

We are a family of six - four adults and two teens. I buy pet food separately and eldest son buys us a takeaway once a week. I spend about £60-£70 on food and cleaning at supermarket and £20-£30 at market on fruit, veg, eggs and fish. But we are well-off at the moment and eating very well. Strawberries and cream every weekend, wine every evening! If I had to, I could trim £20 easily and spending £80 a week we would eat well but without the luxuries.

Mrs_Cupier

I spend between £60 and £70 a week on two adults, three children (7, 5 and 3) including toiletries, cleaning products and all lunches etc, or about £300 a month in total. I know that's a lot compared to some people, but at the moment we can deal with it.

The thing I've found helpful is to split the budget into different types of food. So, at the beginning of the month I spend £50 at the butchers. Last month this covered: two large chickens (3 main meals and two lunches in soup format per chicken), 400g stewing beef (one 'big' Sunday meal, braised carefully in stock), 750g mince, 18 sausages (2 meals), bacon for one meal, two chicken breasts (for special-occasion chicken kievs), 5 pork steaks (special occasion). Can you tell we have a lot of birthdays in July? This covers a minimum of 18 main meals in the month, and that's if I'm a bit profligate with the mince and do meatballs or burgers. If I do it as chili, or shepherd's pie, or just in gravy, it goes a lot further (and even further still with oats and grated carrot in).

Then, I go and spend £10-£15 at Iceland on fish - a bag of salmon fillets, a bag of white fish fillets and fishfingers for the children, which covers another 5 meals, minimum (and often leaves a portion of emergency fish in the freezer). Then, we have pasta with a vegetable or cream cheese based sauce once a week (another 5 meals) and things-on-toast once a week if necessary (5 meals). That gives me 33 meals, which covers any month with leftovers.

So, I've spent £65 of the total budget on the 1st of the month; that leaves me £235 for the rest of the month, which translates to £47 a week in a five week month.

£11-£15 of that is spent on fruit and veg in the market every week. This spend has dropped at the moment because we're getting vegetables for at least a meal a week out of the garden.

Leaving £32 for the other bits - eggs, cheese, milk, bread flour, yeast, plain flour, sugar, coffee, juice, cereals, pasta, cream cheese, tinned tomatoes, tinned fish, tinned beans, butter, raisins, loo roll, washing powder, any toiletries. We manage that by looking at where we're shopping - Iceland is much cheaper for eggs, milk, baked beans, loo roll and baby shampoo. Everything else comes from Tesco, mostly value except coffee (one cup of the good stuff is far better than several of the dishwater variety) and washing powder (value stuff brought us all out in lumps; and DH would prefer we used the environmentally friendly stuff while the budget allows).

I find this easier, because our money doesn't come in weekly, but monthly, so I know I have to get 31 breakfasts, lunches and dinners plus snacks out of £300 in any one month. Lunches (which might appear missing from this plan) are sandwiches, 1 veg, 1 fruit, 1 baked thing / biscuit per lunchbox. Lunches at home are mostly veg soup (or chicken if there's been a carcass) or fish salad.

I know this has come out a bit complex; but honestly, that's the way we do it. Once I know the protein in the main meal for the day, I work out veg and carohydrates based on what's in the house and what 'goes' with it. And I don't spend my entire life cooking!

Hope this helps a bit.

Mrs C.