Grocery Shopping budget thread

Popperwell

FairyPrincessk wrote: »

Two adults and both fairly big eaters. We both work out a lot and both have fairly high metabolisms--plus, I make a big effort to keep us very healthy with lots of variety, lots of fresh fruit and veg. So, that said this could be lower.

We spend about £70 three to four times a year on a supermarket order. We then spend about 30-35/week at aldi/picking up milk etc. This doesn't include our booze budget, but does include most other things like washing liquid, toilet roll etc.

At the moment, I would like to focus on getting a stockpile built up again (we moved over summer) and reducing our costs on the non-food items like toilet roll, soap etc.

We were eating a bit more cheaply last year, although it hard to quantify how much as OH had one dinner and one lunch from his parents at the time. However, I've been making an effort to get 7 (not just 5) a day, and to up our protein intake as we both were feeling quite lethargic and were always starving between meals. I think this has been effective, but the budget did go up when I started that.

For a month this works out between 135-175 on average.

If my income reduces I will have to spend less but like you I have tried tp reduce what I spend on food but being single I manage in general to feed myself on approx £1-£2 daily even less but that is mainly by having one/two meals instead of three.

Hopefully stretching what I buy further and/or portioning out what I have, building up a food store so I can replace like for like and avoid big shopping trips and I will be using places like Aldi more.

And yet it is the initial cost of when you buy the food and when I go out the minimum I seem to buy costs me Usually £10 and I can easily spend £30 weekly if I am not careful.

On the other hand I spent more yesterday as those Belvita biscuits were on offer(half price)there are six varieties so that meant it was like getting six boxes for the price of three and normally I would not consider them at the normal price and as I can make them last, I will benefit in the end...but they could last me a minimum of a month probably two months and if I don't eat them every day much longer so they could be a bargain.

I do eat meat but less of it and bulk it out with other items...but I seem to eat enough not to be hungry. And recently I tried Quorn(new to me)and lately fish has been quite a good alternative(4 mackerel fillets for approx £2.75)that gives me four meals if I add other things.

Fruit and veg is my biggest expense too that I have any control over, the usual costs we all face that we have little control don't help you know the usual bills.

So I agree with what you say...

Popperwell

bridgemant wrote: »

I'm shocked and stunned by how little you all seem to spend on food.

Our family of 2 adults and 3 kids (1 of whom eats school dinners 5 days a week), spend on average £120 per WEEK in the big supermarket (this is for food, cleaning and toiletries inc. nappies for our 2 year old) with approx £30 per week going down the local shops for bread and milk etc.

THAT'S £150 PER WEEK APPROX £650 A MONTH!!

I'm doing something seriously wrong here!!

Time to reveiw this methinks!

Well this week I have spent approx £30 and that's for one person so is your bill so high. Then again I did buy those Breakfast biscuits on offer(If I hadn't that would've saved £7)my fortnightly computer mag if dropped would save another £2.

That means my essentials(Fruit, veg, salad, bread, milk, fish and a couple of items for my food store came in around £20 so that's approx £1.80 daily is that good value for a single person? I don't know, I guess what tyou spend varies from week to week.

With a food store I guess some weeks you can spend nothing...

quintwins

bridgemant wrote: »

I'm shocked and stunned by how little you all seem to spend on food.

Our family of 2 adults and 3 kids (1 of whom eats school dinners 5 days a week), spend on average £120 per WEEK in the big supermarket (this is for food, cleaning and toiletries inc. nappies for our 2 year old) with approx £30 per week going down the local shops for bread and milk etc.

THAT'S £150 PER WEEK APPROX £650 A MONTH!!

I'm doing something seriously wrong here!!

Time to reveiw this methinks!

well your in the right place good luck, maybe have a look on the grocery challenge aswell, and a spedning dairy might help aswell as keeping an eye on your waste.

Popperwell wrote: »

Well this week I have spent approx £30 and that's for one person so is your bill so high. Then again I did buy those Breakfast biscuits on offer(If I hadn't that would've saved £7)my fortnightly computer mag if dropped would save another £2.

That means my essentials(Fruit, veg, salad, bread, milk, fish and a couple of items for my food store came in around £20 so that's approx £1.80 daily is that good value for a single person? I don't know, I guess what tyou spend varies from week to week.

With a food store I guess some weeks you can spend nothing...

And yet for some reason i never seem to end up spending nothing :rotfl:

Popperwell

quintwins wrote: »

And yet for some reason i never seem to end up spending nothing :rotfl:

Well QT, I keep hoping like you but I can always find something to buy even if its a loaf of bread. If I don't use a taxi I can buy bread for anything from 38p to £1. Doubt I could make it any cheaper if you think of the cost of energy but I do like baking. Being single is it worth it?

Now if I lived a long way from the shops making my own might be cheaper. If I had a larger freezer i could store more bread but it's too small and full. But even in a cupboard if it goes past the BB date it usually still lasts me a week so I am not throwing out food un-necessarily. In fact I need some bread now...

quintwins

Popperwell wrote: »

Well QT, I keep hoping like you but I can always find something to buy even if its a loaf of bread. If I don't use a taxi I can buy bread for anything from 38p to £1. Doubt I could make it any cheaper if you think of the cost of energy but I do like baking. Being single is it worth it?

Now if I lived a long way from the shops making my own might be cheaper. If I had a larger freezer i could store more bread but it's too small and full. But even in a cupboard if it goes past the BB date it usually still lasts me a week so I am not throwing out food un-necessarily. In fact I need some bread now...

Theres 5 of us, and my hubby has a bad family trait of making dinner sandwichs so bread never goes close to it's date here, i find my spends are on milk,bread, fruit and yogurts all of which i could for go if it wasn't for the kids.

LMA1980

2 adults with no children or pets. I try to keep it under £25 a week including food and household and toiletries. Some weeks it goes over like when we need something big like toilet rolls/washing powder/tea bags. We eat relatively healthy though not as much fruit and veg as we should. Try to make the toiletries we get for Christmas/birthday last all year!
Buy mostly Tesco value or own brand products. Lots of Angel Delight/Jelly/blancmange for desserts as they are so cheap. Lots of tinned tuna/jacket potatoes . We do eat meat but usually processed rather than fresh. Haven't bought fresh meat for ages.
I don't drink alcohol, my husband does but we only buy some lager once every couple of months maybe.
We very rarely waste anything, I freeze any bread/rolls/fridge food that are going past their date.
This time last year we were spending £40-50 a week so quite pleased with how we've cut down.

olivia84

Hi there,

apologies if this has been asked a million times before. if anyone could point me in the direction of any previous answers that would be great.

i was wondering if anyone knew of how i should go about planning a monthly household budget? i have dowloaded the budget planner tool from MSE, and it's great but my problem is; i have no idea how much i should be putting in the columns! obviously, the mortgage, council tax, utilities, insurance etc is easy as i know exactly what they are; but i'd love a bit of help for the columns like, weekly food shopping, household maintenence, car expenses (obviously insurance, tax etc - fixed amounts are fine, but tyres, savings for maintenance etc??) in other words; what do other people have for these things? what is an 'acceptable' amount?

we have recently paid off all our debts and have a good amount of money left at the end of the month now after paying bills, but in the last few months of paying off our debts, i feel we have treated ourselves a bit too much and not saved for any of these yearly or once in a while expenses. i don't want to be spending money just for the sake of it or just because its there and we can.

i am 34, female and i live with my 36 year old partner and 2 cats.

i'm just really struggling with the following:

Shopping Food and Household Shopping
Eating Out
Coffees/Sandwiches/Snacks Drinks for Home Drinking Out
car maintenence
DVD/Video Rental
IT/Computing (eg Anti-virus etc)
Hobbies
Pet Costs
Shopping for Fun
Big Days Out
Books/Music/Films/Computer Games
Cinema/Theatre Trips
Family Days Out
Fitness/Sports/Gym
Beauty Treatments
Dentistry
Haircuts-Optical Bills
Complimentary Therapies
New Clothes
Work Clothes
Christmas
Summer Holiday
Winter Holiday
Birthdays
Sofa/Kitchen/TV
Regular Charity Donations


i know i'm asking the impossible as everyone is different, but a guide of some sort would be fantastic.

many thanks for any replies.

x

rising_from_the_ashes

First of all ...... :j congrats on clearing the debt!:D

It's a great idea to put money aside each month so it's there when needed (and it's really easy to raid it etc:o) and it's a case of finding what works for you.

When I first started, I ended up with around 15 budgeting pots and was terrified of combining them / losing track but I've now managed it and have 3 budgeting pots now - House & Car (landline advance rental, house insurance, car insurance, car tax, car maintenance/service), Pets (dog & cats) and Others (dentist, hair, clothes, specs etc) ..... working pretty well but hard work to get them up & going for when they've been needed during the year.

As for budgets - any way you can go through your statements for the last year and see what you've spent?

It can vary so much eg I budget £30 for car maintenance / service but some people think that's a lot - this is based on an average of servicing costs over 2 years as year 1 = small (cheap) and year 2 = big (expensive!) and needing new tyres every other year .... but obviously depends on the costs for your car / how many miles you do etc.

Pet costs - this is one of the best things I ever did (and have actually had this in place for years as was worried when things were really tight that they'd need something and I'd have no money aside for it) as it means I can bulk buy their food etc when it's on offer. Might not seem worth it but I can get their food for £3.50 / kg for 10kg sacks on offer, compared to £8.50 / kg if I have to buy small sacks at the pet shop ....

Both with the pet costs, being able to pay house and car insurance in full, rather than monthly and getting a discount by paying my landline in advance for the year ..... I've saved a fair bit:)

Hope that helps a bit.

GreenFairy

I'd start with keeping a notebook in your bag, and write down absolutely everything you spend, right down to a pack of mints or an extra pint of milk on the way home. This will give you a better idea of what you're actually spending per week, as opposed to what you think you're spending a week. I started keeping very tight records of my spending at the start of the year and was a bit disgusted when I worked out how much I was actually spending, compared to the rough figure I had in my head - very rough, as it turned out

I totally second the cat food bit. I couldn't believe the difference in buying the 10kg bags, plus the brand I use regularly sends out manufacturers vouchers for €10 off a big bag - it's one "spam" email I'm actually happy to receive!

I'd also strongly advise putting aside an emergency fund - even a tenner a week into a jam jar. Makes a huge difference if something breaks down or needs replacing. I had a bad flat tyre two weeks ago that I had to get replaced. I'd normally have had to put on my CC, but instead it came out of the fund.

olivia84

aww thanks for your reply RFTA, that's a good idea about reducing the budget pots to just a few. we recently sold our flashy car to pay off our debts - helped by the fact my partner has had a couple of pay rises in the last few years, but we've always been in debt since the day and hour we bought our first flat 15 years ago and i really don't want to go back there - my partner is always worried about his job as well as they are very quiet at the moment and i would really like to get budgeting down to a fine art incase the worst happens.

as we sold our lovely big, new car - i am now running about in a 10 year old puddle-jumper (which, by the way - i totally love!!) so i guess maintenance and stuff might be a wee bit higher, but fortunatley OH is good with cars and can do most things and i work for a large garage so i can usually get parts with the trade discount so i shouldn't be too bad.

i just struggle with what our weekly food budget should be/is acceptable; what we should put aside for christmas, entertainment etc. i know its hard to judge and that everyone is different but i love looking at what other people spend in these areas cos i need to be guided in these things and 'told' what to do! if someone said to me "for 2 people, a weekly food budget should be £70 - that's including toiletries and cleaning products and £20 for a take away at the weekend" then that's what i would put down and try my damdest to stick to it - but i have no perception of what things should be! (it's terrible - i need my hand held for these things!)

thats a good suggestion for the pet food as well - i really should buy online more but i am so unorganised that i run out of food and have run to pets at home cos i wouldn't be able to wait the few days for it to be delivered! my cats only eat a particular type of dried food (they are house cats and it really helps with fur balls and smelly litter trays) i can't get it out of the supermarkets - so i really need to organise myself better!

i have also found a few links to other threads on MSE about food budgets and stuff so will have a look at them as well.

xx