Grocery Shopping budget thread

Breast_Cancer_Survivor

shegirl wrote: »

I swear teens (boys in particular) eat as much as one and a half adults:rotfl: I don't know where ds puts it,he' s a little twiggy (with well formed muscles!) lol

Meg only weighs 8 stone so is a tiny thing to look at but eats more than either of my boys did. :eek: I have no idea where she puts it all. :rotfl:

tori.k

Have you taken stock of what you already have in, it's probably more than you think, we are a family of four i spend probably an average of £35pw, but i have no waste, everything i don't use is frozen for another meal. I deal with my food budget annually so i can bulk buy when things are on offer, like when branston do the beans four for a £1 i grabbed 10 last time they were on offer, i use approved foods (short dated site) a few times a year and roughly meal plan if i have fresh food that wont keep like salad stuff.

I budget 1.25 per person a day doesn't seem a lot but the key is getting your head around costing the portion sizes your family needs, and freezing or mealplanning to use the excess. I never bulk buy junk food, i used to be in the supermarket trap of thinking the bargain bulk by things like crisp's where saving me money but the kids would just graze on the extra over the week so i was effectively buying twice, things like that i buy only what i need for the week, the kids have the understanding when it's gone it's gone..have a banana instead

mummyroysof3

I spend about 100 a week for 5 of us including nappies, cleaning And alcohol but not Petrol or pocket money...or baby milk( forgot how expensive that is) how much you spend on petrol?

[Deleted User]

I live alone so my food budget is around £25.00 per week.I don't have to make Sunday dinner as I go to my DDs for that.I can live comfortably on this amount and at times even have cash left over.I do only buy what's needed and if I have left overs I always turn into another meal or two and freeze.I usually have porridge/cereal or toast for breakfast a sandwich for lunch or soup and cheese and crackers and for dinner it varies last night I cobbled together from the fridge some ham that needed using up a couple of tomatos,some mushrooms and a fried egg with a few chips from the freezer.total cost around 70p-£1.00 I supose.Most main meals cost around that tonight I have a couple of sausages that were in the freezer (leek and mustard ones that were reduced to 60p) some salad potatos and some left over baked beans.Costed out at around a pound.I usually either have HM soup as a starter or a pudding or a piece of fruit but never both. I suppose I spend about 25% of my food budget on fruit and veg as I prefer fresh F&V to compliment my meals.I never waste anything and my freezer is my best friend ,especially when times get a bit lean as I can always find a meal in there.I had £30.00 at the beginnning of the month and haven't spent a great deal in food stuffs since then as I am using up some of the left over Christmas stuff.My food cupboards are stuffed with bits at the moment as I did buy quite a bit before Christmas in case the weather turns bad and I can't get to the shops.I always have bread in the freezer for this reason.I suppose living alone I can easily cobble together something to eat as I can please myself what I eat.I do cook a lot for the freezer, and make my own biscuits and cakes

Pooky

Our budget was £80 per week for 4 (2 adults, 2 teens so basically 4 adults). This has to include cleaning/laundry stuff etc and we have 5 cats and a parrot so their food comes into this too. I'm trying to cut this to £60 per week at the moment as we want to over pay our mortgage so it's a challenge to come in under that.

We eat meat 4/5 times a week normally a chicken that's stretched for a few meals, chilli (meat or veg) stews/casseroles, home made burgers, curries, pies, jacket spuds, home made soups. Lots of variety.

We are big veg eaters but not so keen on fruit, I try and stick to what's seasonal or on offer and meal plan around it. We don't eat a lot of bread but make our own when it's needed. Both DDs take packed lunches, normally a rice/pasta/couscous salad or a portion of left overs.

We don't use a great deal of milk, maybe 8/10 pints a week so no great expense there. We don't have fresh juices, yogurts, individual packs of snacks or biscuits/cakes as they're not essential or particularly liked. I'll bake something now and then but we're just not snackers.

I think we're doing ok on what we have to spend at the moment, It's all relative to what you can afford and how you want to live.

Josslette

For two adults we spend £180 a month(my Jan GC is a bit odd because we only had my money for the first two weeks of Jan and the figure in my signature is to last us until the middle of Feb).

For the £180 we eat very well, we buy lots of chicken breast from Makro when OH gets paid and they only cost £10ish for 2.5kg and they're nice quality.

We buy lots of tuna for OH's lunches, we buy this from Home bargains for £2.99 for 4 tins.

We do most of our shopping at lidl and it saves us a fortune, we buy their passata(29p), sweetcorn(32p), wraps(69p), mozzarella, bread flour, yeast, pizzas, pasta, part baked bread, lettuce, cucumbers, kale, spinach,onions, potatoes, olives, cooked meats.

I do try and meal plan to keep costs down and use up things we already have.

GreyQueen

One female (nearly 6 feet of me and a hearty eater). Not veggie, fairly traditional diet.

Weekly spend averaged over 2012; £13.69 (food and cleaning materials) and 82p toiletries.

This spend inc copious stockpiling of storecupboard foods, cleaning materials and toiletries. Have a year's supply of many staples included in those price.

Your spend seems a bit high to me but I'm not up on child-related costs like nappies etc so I may just be clueless.:p

kerrypn

I can do a shop for £50 a week for the 5 of us when needed but more often its around £70 because I like to get lots of fresh fruit/meat when I can. I used to do it regularly for £50 but must admit prices have gone up so much recently I would really have to think it through to stick to that now

I find making a list of exactly what we need and sticking to it keeps costs down

OrkneyStar

I don't think you are doing that badly tbh. As someone said, if you NEED to cut down, then there might be some areas to work on, otherwise it seems ok.
We are 2 adults, and a DS aged 5, who is eating more and more and more (healthy stuff though) these days.
I find it hard to compare with other folks budgets though as we live on an island where we have Lidl, Tesco and a few smallish Coops. We have no Aldi, we have to go instore and then can order delivery but cannot order from the internet like normal online shopping, we don't have markets really or places like Home Bargains, B and M etc. So it is harder to cut it down. That said we budget about £50 per week for the 3 of us, food and cleaning and toiletries, and tbh would struggle to reduce it much if we still eat healthily. We do buy whoopsies when we can, I bulk cook, use a slow cooker, have a non-meat night or two, DS and DH take packed lunches, I bake (though mum sends me biscuits every now and then as a treat for us- we come from the home of a famous biscuit maker!). I also try to eat in season foods and not over-buy offers etc, if we don't need them. We spend very little on fuel, DH walks to work, I try to walk with DS, but we do need to drive to Tesco/Lidl as 15 miles away!

bossymoo

If I'm not scrimping is usually £60-£70 per week for me and two kiddies. But we do like our meat, they are still in nappies at night time, and DD won't drink milk so we have a lot of yoghurt
Don't tend to get alcohol, and cleaning stuff is the simple bits like white vinegar etc. we are not fussed for branded stuff but I'm not one for padding out meals with starchy foods, so our main expense is meat and veg.

I could cut that down further, but I figure the littlies eat we'll and its less hassle, so it works for us.