Question about grocery budget

tishywish

I'm trying to help a friend out with her budget and need to know what the grocery budget for a family of 3 - 2 parents, one child of about 10 - should be? And does this include things like washing powder and cleaning stuff? My friend needs to cut her outgoings dramatically and I think the £500 or more a month she spends on food should be cut! That's about as much as I spend feeding two adults in 6 months How much extra would you add on for a further adult in case her son decides to come and live at home again?

Thanks in advance

Broken_hearted

Not sure what the amount is buts its higher than I need, we spend £200 a month on food/cleaning stuff.

98jdougl

send her to the old style boards!

tishywish

She hasn't got an internet connection otherwise I'd send her here I'm sure even £270 a month would be plenty?

newmoneysaver_2

I think she needs to reduce it gradually, over the next few months. Maybe start by cutting it down by £30/40/50 a month until she reaches a level she is happy with.

Penny-Pincher!!

Hi!

She needs to make a mealplan each week and just buy what she needs. A good start would be to write down everything she already has in the cupboards and work from there. For example, each week I write down meals for 6 days, then on the other day we use up what we have in, so really having a free meal IYSWIM. Goes something like this and we are a family of 3 also:

Roast Chicken (Chicken, spuds, cabbage, carrots, yorkies & gravy)
Curry & Rice (Leftover chicken from yesterday, sauce or HM & rice)
Shepherds Pie (Minced lamb, baked beans, onion, spuds, cabbage & carrots)
Sausage & Mash (Sausages, spuds, sweetcorn, onion, gravy & peas)
Stew & Dumplings (Meat, swede, carrots, peas, onion, spuds & dumpling mix)
Fish Pie (Fish, parsley sauce, spuds, carrots, peas & cheese)
Egg, chips & beans (Free meal using up stuff already in)

All the stuff in brackets is what you need to buy to make the meals.

Also you will need breakfast items-bread, butter, jam, ceral, juice, yogurt etc , whatever you would normally eat and the same for lunches. Sarnies, jacket spuds, soup and leftovers.

We spend around £50 a week and eat very well. We have our quota of F&V too.

HTH

PP
xx

sarahs999

1. Mealplans - cook from scratch as much as poss. Batch cook and freeze.
2. Gradual reduction - it's all about retraining your eye and what you look for
3. Get her excited about what else she could do with the money she spends.

DOes she have debts? Want to go on holiday etc? She could put the extra cash towards those.

tishywish

Thanks, I'll pass the suggestions on to her. I think she's finally realised she just can't afford to carry on spending the amount of money she is and I've offered to have a look at her finances (we're very good friends!) and see where I can help her save money. Looking at what she's written down the obvious one to start with was the shopping.

misspoppy

Hi

the other thing is that if she's spending that much on food what else is she spending on that she doesn't realise eg magazine, sweets or coffee's.

A good way to help someone see whats going on is a spending diary, get her to write down every thing she spends every day for a week but its better if its a month and she will see where extra money is being spent/wasted and can be hit as well.

Miss_Piggy_2

In our house its two adults and a three year old and we spend, on average, about £130-£160 a month on food. I just cannot imagine what anyone BUYS for £500!

I agree with the poster that says to get her to cut down gradually. If she halves her budget immediately then she'll feel deprived and depressed. I would say just do it gradually and see how she gets on.

Miss P
xx

ragstoricheswannabe

my suggestions would be a spending diary, meal plans and trying the downshift challenge. i am assuming from the amount spent a month its not on value stuff........

also printing out the budget planner to cover all her finances.

hth
rags to riches wannabe

plus check out mbaz's feeding four on £20 for the month,(old style board) its left so many people in awe and proves it can be done!!!!!!