Do our food shopping bills seem reasonable?

Burp_2

I'm intrigued!

Myself and my OH bought our first house together in March so food shopping on the whole is relatively new to us! Prior to living together we both lived with our parents and had to shop for our own lunches/evening meals/toilettries but not the things like household cleaning products and toilet roll etc!

My OH is self employed and the credit crunch has really hit his business (perfect timing with a new house!) so we're looking into everything to see if cuts can be made! I've just spent the last few minutes going through our online bank statements adding up what we spend on a) food/toilettries/cleaning products b) Kitten food/cat litter and c) treats/take away....

Here is what I found:

May to June
Food - £270.73
Kittens - £68.90
Treats - £10.99

June to July
Food - £313.93
Kittens - £66.00
Treats - £19.00

July to August
Food - £302.24
Kittens - £69.24
Treats - £18.40

The above excludes meals out as they come out of our personal single accounts and we usually go halves!

We shop at Tescos because we collect their points on food and petrol... however more recently we have started buying our meat from Aldi as we found Tesco meat was going off before the sell buy date - funny colour/smell etc!

I'm interested in what other couples spend on the shopping per month? Does ours sound reasonable for a young couple (OH eats a rugby player appetite!) and two kittens?

I think cuts will have to be made or maybe switching all our shopping to Aldi etc?

Cheers
Burpp x

Farway

To me it seems a lot, but then I eat fairly frugally, no processed foods or loads of meat, cakes, sweets / chocs etc, and also a Lidl fan, so maybe I am not a good judge of these matters

elle_gee

I'm no expert but I think the resident experts here will say you can get this down by 50%. Shopping around, making use of special offers. Don't forget to look at the Pets board (sub board withing Families board).

Check out the Grocery Challenge, at the top of the list!

calleyw

Firstly if you can afford it then I would not worry about it.

I spend on average a £100 a month to feed both my husband and myself. But I am lucky and did get a lot of reduced to clear very cheaply. But no more new manager and over heard on bread and cakes etc no more than 50% reductions. Oh well nice while it lasted getting danishes for 20p for two. And 800gm loaves of uncut bread for 10p each.

We don't eat a lot of ready meals average days meals are

Breakfast: Porridge, Value bran flakes or what ever cereal is on offer. So it shreddies and sugar puffs and corn flakes at the moment(but only for the swimming vouchers)and apple juice

Lunch: For me is a salad, bagel or sandwich. Husband will anything from leftovers to ready meal (only once a week) a sandwich or tin of soup.;

Tea: Spag bog, Steamed veggies (most of my veggies are frozen)with sausages (real or veggie depends what is on offer) or chicken breast or fish and chips or left over meat from sunday. Sorry frozen chips and breaded fish from the supermarket. Once a week I and Salmon with wedges and salad etc. I know we are really exciting when it comes to food :rotfl:

Sunday I try and have a roast. I did pick up a pork joint the other day for £1.34 so that will do sunday and left overs.

The snacks for my husband are microwave pop corn, toasted crumpets (from freezer)and scones and fruit.

Seem to be eating a lot of citrus fruits at the moment as that is what is on reduced to clear. Bags of satsumas 10p each.

I don't do tiny portions but think that will happen soon as I need to lose some weight :rotfl:

You might be able top cut back a bit but don't see it as a competition. Also if you have ethics that only allow you to be free range chicken and free range eggs then you might find it hard. When you have a low income some times you can't afford to do what you really want to.

All the best.


Yours


Calley

Chell

If you look at the Grocery Challenge thread you can see what people spend. If you need to cut back then you could by an awful lot.

I shop for two adults, a five year old and a three year old. I budget for £60 per week to include food, cleaning products and toiletries. I don't have to budget like this but I find we eat as well when I do and spend less. I can easily get into the habit of buying for the sake it.

CoD_2

I shop at tesco online (am housebound following a car crash), buy "happy" meat in bulk online or send H to a nearby butchers, have 2 chickens for eggs, grow veg, and get milk from a milkman and we spend a maximum of £140.00 a month for the 2 of us, all meals, no takeaways and we don't eat out or go to the pub. the budget also includes buying 2 or 3 bottles of wine a week and toiletries, cleaning stuff, loo roll.

lots of cooking from scratch and i'm mean with meat, veggies are much cheaper! (free if grown obviously) chickens don't cost much to feed, £7-10 a month?

I used to spend much more in store, the ongoing total and ease of picking different options really helps. i also do the online shop over several online visits

belfastgirl23

We're two people not being particularly frugal (esp DH ) and we're spending between £130- £150 a month. Both veggie and try to have a lot of fruit etc. Do you buy much processed food? And do you have time to cook if your normal fare is ready meals etc?

Also what on earth are you feeding the kittens? is this really what they cost? No pets myself but this sounds like a lot of money...

Doom_and_Gloom

Over £200 on food etc per month. Is this for 2 people only? This seems a bit excessive in my opinion. You should get yourself over to the grocery challenge and have a look at what people do there. That could save you a lot. Try to go down by about 10% of your normal spend only so you don’t feel deprived.For example if you now spend £270 you would reduce down to £243 then £218.7 etc until you come to a happy balance. If you buy branded products this will have a great effect on your spending as you pay more when most of the time if you bought the non branded product it’s the same for less money.

When it comes to the kittens how many do you have? Is this for 2 or more? I’d say that over £60 per month is a bit too much. Pouches are more expensive than cans and a can could feed 2 kittens for a whole day. Even whiskers selection 12 pack for 2 kittens would only cost you around £20 per month give or take a few pounds. It depends what you feed them etc I think. However £40 per month would be enough most likely but again it does depend.

I think your treats budget is fine as it is. You may want to make your budget up to £15 per month only but under £20 is fine for 2 people a month anyway I‘d say. This could get you a Chinese/fish & chips/Indian/pizza/cinema trip (if that is included in treats and not entertainment) etc every month that way.

When it comes down to it whatever happens you have to make sure you pay your mortgage and necessary bills first. If you look at the worst case scenario and take the mortgage and bills away and what you are left with you will be able to work out how much you have for the kittens, your food (aswell as other house and personal items) and then treats if you have enough money. No point in having treats if they make you go into debt etc.

Hope that helps you.

D&G

Sunnyday

Hi there,
you are spending almost the same as we were before we started doing the grocery challenge last year.
We are a couple with 2 dogs and 1 cat and we now spend between £100 and £150 per month to feed us all.

I stock up on food for the animals whenever it is on offer and i usually have enough to see me through until the next offer, if the offers are close together i still stock up. Currently in the spare bedroom i have approximately two and a half months of cat food :rolleyes: but i`m waiting for the next offer on dog food:D

By building a storecupboard and batch cooking for the freezer i`m amazed at how little we spend compared to what we used to.
I could never go back to doing things the way i did before even if we could afford it.
Have a look at the grocery challenge.
Good Luck
SD

Burp_2

Thank you for your replies everyone

I have taken a look at the Grocery Challenge and I reckon we could cut shopping bill down!

Its not desperate that we do .. but every little helps I suppose and as money is becomming tighter while the OH has less work at the moment I think it would be a good move.

We don't buy ready meals as we can't stand them ... we usually make things like pizza, stir fries, casseroles, jajitas, enchiladas, rice dishes, pasta dishes etc ... I know one area we can cut down on or buy cheaper is cleaning products i suppose!

The kittens costs is cat litter and food ... they're getting though litter at £5 a bag at a rate of knots because they arent old enough to go outside yet! And their food is £2 for 4 mini tins and a big bag of biscuits at about £12.

I may investigate into online tescos shopping maybe .. I can track the total .. all offers in one place and stop being tempted to buy things I don't need! lol

Burp x

CoD_2

stretching meat can also help, you list pizza, fajita, stirfries, pasta and rice dishes. I'd buy a free range chicken (£7) and have that with veg for a roast dinner.i then bag up all the leftover meat into 100g bags, each one of these will then do fajitas for 2, or a stirfry, or 1/2 of one will go on top of a pizza, the other half in a risotto with stock from the bones. packaging up the meat stops any picking, and then means i never ever buy chicken breasts or portions which pound by pound are expensive. 25-50g of meat is enough for these kind of dishes, then bulked out with veg. it makes that one chicken cover at least 6-7 meals for both of us.

I make wraps, for about 10p, then add a "bag" of chicken, an onion, some sliced courgettes and a pepper if they've been on offer. or make a pizza base, blitz any leftover tomatoes and add whatever i can find, or rice and cheese and peas and chicken, sweetcorn, mushrooms, tomatoes..... lol

I make our bread too which seems to save money