Have you updated your food budget?

Pooky

We're a 2 adult, 2 kids (like bottomless pits), 2 cats, 1 parrot family and I've upped our budget from £45 per week to £50....

We are shopping much more wisely and I'm being a lot meaner with portion sizes i.e. a joint of pork that I'd normally cut into 3 (Freezing 2 for another day) was this week cut into 4 - it still did us a roast for 4, trimmings for the cats and sarnies/wraps for DH and I for 2 days (I shoved the last of the cooked stuff through the mincer and mixed with mayo and mustard to make a spread - goes such a long way)

I was just commenting to DH at the weekend that we were sat there with our cupboads full of value items but the cats will only ever eat branded cat food....anything else is a false economy as they just don't eat it....what's that saying...

Dogs have owners........Cats have servants!

Think I can see where my money goes!:rolleyes:

IWantToBeFree_2

rubydoiwannabee wrote: »

Hi, thanks for a good thread.
We have two adults, one teenager (13.5) and a five year old. In the past we got up to as much as £100 a week!!! eek:eek: Mainly from just throwing things in the trolley randomly and not thinking about whether it made up meals or not.

We seem to do ok now on anything between £60-£70 a week. Some week we need lots of household goods, washing powder etc and it may creep up, but on average I would say £60-65 per week.

We shop once a week only and very rarely go for a second visit, I buy enough milk and bread for the week and freeze it and I do meal plan, because I find this helps keep the shopping focussed.

So in a rather long winded answer to your question, NO, we have a budget and we stick to it now, it that means more pasta or soup and less treats then so be it.

x

Thats something we've started doing a hell of a lot, I don't like 'cheap' bread and the one we like is about £1.30 a loaf! Ridiculous! We now get 3 loafs for £2.50 and freeze 2, or two packs of baps for £2 and freeze them.

Its been so much easier since we have moved into our own house, as before we used to be in a shared house and didn't have much room for stuff so used to go to supermarket often, and buy little which used to work out expensive. Now, because the Asda is about a 15/20 mile round trip we go once a week and its much better.

Pippilongstocking

Hiya
Thought I'd join in, we are 2 adults (one of whom is my cake snacking, toast munching between meals brother grrrr - he's lovely really), 2 medium sized kids 12 +13.9 2 dogs, cat, and um yeah thats it!

I try and spend about 200 a month, but it often seems to creep upto 300 (generally with treats) _ Have learnt so much from here, I even get grumpy now if I have to pay full price for milk - I don't think over past 3-4 months I have ever paid full price for bread - and last night caught myself taking things out of packets to put in freezer (cos saves room) and slicing up bread and bagging it in 2 bags (it only cost 10p!!).
Did however notice a difference in my shopping when our local supermarket closed for 8 weeks (we just got a tesco) when it was shut I used the local butchers/greengrocers - I was amazed at how little it cost - I guess cos the stuff isnt prepackaged I found myself just asking for 9 sausages, and the packets of cold meat etc are so thrifty. Infact must try and shop there regularily - although have been sucked into tescos.

Again I buy bread and milk at beginning of a week and freeze - standing joke in our house is that I (Used) to go in for milk and come out with trolley full.

Thanks to this board and the old stylers, I don't think I have chucked food out in ages, which reminds me I need to make a sauce with the rubbery pepper & onions - ahem......

We have alot of kid traffic in our house, you know sleepovers and alike, which is ace - cos it also means my kids go and get fed somewhere else too!! So its a mutual thing!!

Nicki_Sue

Our budget allows £68 a week for all food, veg,fruit, drinks (etc), cleaning mats, pull-ups and wipes (2 adults, one little-un).
I do one online shop a week (Asda - just call me Smartprice Sally!) and have fruit and veg delivered from my local grocer (free delivery, great quality veg and saves me a fortune!). I freeze bread (not milk - one exploded on me once many moons ago and I can still remember the horror of cleaning it) and regularly do any little top-up things at Tescos at reduction time, saving a fortune!

Cleaning mats = cloths (which I wash and reuse) and Stardrops which cleans EVERYTHING! I do have some bleach though for the loo.

Its not always easy but I love to cook and although it can be tight, I always try and make meals that are nutritious and filling (and yummy!).

piglet6

We haven't increased our budget. But we have changed the way we shop. I am much more of a "supermarket tart" these days - split my "weekly" shop between Asda and Lidl, and also check supermarket offers on the net before I go shopping (it doesn't take long - I just search the offers at Sainsbury/Tesco/Somerfield before I go anywhere else to make sure that they haven't got anything I want going super-cheap!!). I also have a Waitrose near to where I work and walk home past an M&S Simply Food, so tend to pop into both of those at the end of the day to check for yellow stickers!

Like others have already said, we too have a lot more yellow stickers now, use the freezer (for the aforementioned stickered bargains, and also for batch cooking) and use up leftovers. Whereas before we may have thrown things out - nowadays, very little leaves my fridge in the direction of the bin... Portion control is better (which is helping with the weight problem :rolleyes:), and we also take lunches to work, which works out a lot cheaper. We also meal plan, because I find having an idea of what is for dinner stops the urge to grab an expensive takeaway!

Piglet

Nicki_Sue

Nicki_Sue wrote: »

Stardrops which cleans EVERYTHING!

I take that back. I put some in the washing machine (moment of madness) to freshen it up and guess what? It froths up.......... a lot! AND comes out of the drawer and all over the floor.

That said, I needed to mop the floor anyway and the froth was as good as the liquid so in true mSE style I class that as economically washing your floor lol!:rotfl:

FrankieM

I used to be able to do a 'tight' budget for 6 ( 7 when we had the lodger) for no more than £70 a week.
I've upped it to £100 a week for the 6 of us,so we've got a bit more lee way. It seems to keep everyone happy.
I've started to exercise portion control for rice and pasta, but can anyone point me in the direction for meat/ veg/ fruit etc???

paper_clip

After reading how much you all spend on food I feel rather red faced to admit I spend around 6-700 a month (2 adults, one pregnant teen, 3 hollow legged kids and a fat,lazy dog(only fat coz he empties the bin evey night!!)

I wouldnt say we buy a lot of luxuries but I know we can sacrafice a few things here and there, but now after seeing how you all manage so much better than me I can feel the pressure of a large boot in my backside to try and do A LOT better.

sistercas

i spend £100 a week:eek: for 2 adults 2 teenagers and a cat. I have tried really hard this week - meal planning /wise shopping (so I thought!) spent £110:eek: :eek: . i dont know how you get your budgets so low. but I wish I could

Gemmzie

Yorkielass wrote: »

Rather than increase the amount we spend on food we're trying our best to be even more savy, using things like meal planning, batch cooking, reduced stickers, taking pack ups into work more etc. For the last year we've done a monthly shop with Tesco for our non-perishables (sometimes online depends on codes and timing etc) then shop each week in Sainsburys or Waitrose (if I'm near one for work) for our fresh stuff.

All of this together means we haven't had to increase the amount we spend and would rather keep cutting back on things than increase the amount of money we spend if possible.

Same, we were spending £400 a month (four adults, three meals a day inc. household stuff). We are still around the £370-£400 mark and I think that means we've being a lot more savvy with the budget we have.