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What's a reasonable food budget?
wigginsmum
Posts: 4,150 Forumite
I'm committed to clearing our debts as quickly as possible (thanks to the excellent advice on this site - it'll still take me years), but I need help with the food budget; if I can get that down I can snowball the creditcards even more quickly. What's a reasonable weekly/monthly budgeting amount for meat-eating 2 adults, and 2 children every other weekend?
I've realised I traipse mindlesly round the supermarket flinging things into the trolley - I couldn't even tell you what a loaf of bread or 6 eggs cost. I could also do with some wheatfree packed lunch suggestions - I spend an absolute fortune working in central London. We're members of Costco (primarily for cheap catfood and laundry products) and live in Walthamstow (near the longest street-market in Europe), so I've got no excuse to always shop at Sainsburys; there's a LIDL a short drive away, I think. I'd estimate our monthly shopping/household bills come to around £350 including £70 on catfood, with ready meals and takeaways, and I'm horrified to think I spend roughly £6 on lunch and breakfast at work.
Help!
Jules
I've realised I traipse mindlesly round the supermarket flinging things into the trolley - I couldn't even tell you what a loaf of bread or 6 eggs cost. I could also do with some wheatfree packed lunch suggestions - I spend an absolute fortune working in central London. We're members of Costco (primarily for cheap catfood and laundry products) and live in Walthamstow (near the longest street-market in Europe), so I've got no excuse to always shop at Sainsburys; there's a LIDL a short drive away, I think. I'd estimate our monthly shopping/household bills come to around £350 including £70 on catfood, with ready meals and takeaways, and I'm horrified to think I spend roughly £6 on lunch and breakfast at work.
Help!
Jules
The ability of skinny old ladies to carry huge loads is phenomenal. An ant can carry one hundred times its own weight, but there is no known limit to the lifting power of the average tiny eighty-year-old Spanish peasant grandmother.
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Comments
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Have you looked on Moneysaving Old Style? Look at this month's Grocery Challenge for ideas on what others spend. I shop for six (four adults and two children) and have cut down to £75 a week - you need to plan. Make a list of seven meals preferably using stuff you already have and make a list.
Listing not flinging!0 -
Will go and have a look - thanks! I have cupboards full of tins and packets.
JulesThe ability of skinny old ladies to carry huge loads is phenomenal. An ant can carry one hundred times its own weight, but there is no known limit to the lifting power of the average tiny eighty-year-old Spanish peasant grandmother.0 -
Hang on £70 on cat food! What have you got - lions?0
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No - 7 hungry moggies. 6 tins a day between them and anything they can wheedle off our plates! Fortunately the snakes are easy - we keep a tub of dead mice in the freezer.
JulesThe ability of skinny old ladies to carry huge loads is phenomenal. An ant can carry one hundred times its own weight, but there is no known limit to the lifting power of the average tiny eighty-year-old Spanish peasant grandmother.0 -
Don't give the cat any more ready meals and takeaways with its cat food................................I have put my clock back....... Kcolc ym0
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If we run out of money, we might end up with cat casserole one night ...
JulesThe ability of skinny old ladies to carry huge loads is phenomenal. An ant can carry one hundred times its own weight, but there is no known limit to the lifting power of the average tiny eighty-year-old Spanish peasant grandmother.0 -
Dried cat food would probably work out cheaper - you won't be paying for the water! You have to 'wean' them over to it gradually. It also makes cat feeding quicker and easier!0
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I spend around £45 for the month for 2 adults & a 6 year old including items for hubby's & DD's packed lunches.2025 - finally back comping after a stressful house move - send me fairy dust please!
2026 winnings!!!
January - £10 The Spin Off
Ayumi Shilajit Resin0 -
Not much help I'm afraid, but we're a pair of wrinklies and we eat well on approx £50 a week. No cats or reptiles, but we do feed the fox every night, so cheapest tinned dog-food.
Aunty Margaret[FONT=Times New Roman, serif]Æ[/FONT]r ic wisdom funde, [FONT=Times New Roman, serif]æ[/FONT]r wear[FONT=Times New Roman, serif]ð[/FONT] ic eald.
Before I found wisdom, I became old.0 -
No they had to come off the dried catfood completely because one nearly died with crystals in his bladder, so we're stuck with tins (and when we did buy Iams it was costing us £100/month). We pay £4.50 for 12 tins of Whiskas in Costco (186 tins/month), as opposed to £5.49 in Sainsburys, so saving about £15.
Thanks for the tips, everyone.
JulesThe ability of skinny old ladies to carry huge loads is phenomenal. An ant can carry one hundred times its own weight, but there is no known limit to the lifting power of the average tiny eighty-year-old Spanish peasant grandmother.0
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