Grocery shopping on a budget

black-saturn

marieb wrote:

Hi

I too shop week to week and only buy what I need for that week
which has saved us a small fortune- when I spoke to National Debt Line for 2 adults and 2 children under 6 they sais they would allow 445 per month for food and toiletries hope that gives you a rough idea

Blimey, they think we all eat smoked salmon and truffles washed down with champagne all month!! :eek:

Alleycat

I was told at work (though unsure how accurate it is!) that you should budget £25 per person (including children), so a family of two adults and two children are allowed £100 per week. To me that is excessive and groceries including cleaning products etc can easily come to under £60 per week with healthy, homecooked food and some treats. I remember my mum once doing the weekly shop at Sainsburys (only the once as it was expensive) for two adults and three children (including teenagers) for £75.

bonnie_2

i found somewhere, cant remember where that for a family with 2 children you are allowed £461 for housekeeping per month, 13 for health costs, and £38 per child but obviously this would cover food, toiletries,cleaning stuff going, out and ciggys etc.

katglasgow

I budget £150 a month for 2 adults, a 2 year old and a cat. We both take sandwiches into work for lunch but I pay £1 extra a day onto nursery fees for son's lunch.

I started a menu planner last week as I felt me shopping costs were creeping up. I started by writing a last of all the dishes we like to cook / eat and then I put them into categories (cheap, posh, meat, veggie. fish, pasta etc...).
Thenm, I used this information to draw up a 4 week plan - making sure it has god variety and spaces out cheap and more expensive meals and well as planning quick meals for nights I need to get out in a hurry.

Every Saturday when I do my big shop, I go to next week on planner. I also have a skeleton shopping list already drawn up of items I buy every single week (milk, bread etc...) as well as a regular weekly budget for cleaning and toiletries - £1 each and bigger items - £5 each. The theory is as long as I buy something every wewek then you never end up in a situation where you have to buy all of these items at the same time! I buy a big box of Pampers once a month - this counts as my "big item" for 2 weeks.

The golden rule is - if its not on the list or accounted for in the budget - I cant buy it!
I also dont allow myself to go to the supermarket more than once a week.

I have actually really enjoyed working out my planner as I think it will encourage me to vary what we eat more instead of having the same thing everyweek.

When we pay off our loan I will increase to our budget slightly to allow for a box of beer once a month and a bottle of wine every week!