Grocery Shopping budget thread

northern_star

£45 for 3 adults, a dog, a cat and a rabbit. Includes toiletries and cleaning stuff. We manage well 'cos we grow lots in our back garden and we try to shop wisely. OH and I cook almost exclusively from scratch and have a varied, interesting diet. Our downfall is DS (19) who likes shop bought pizza, oven chips and other 'strange' foods

threemuttleys

About £200 a month. Thats for two adults, a 7 month old, 3 dogs, and 2 cats. We eat loads of fruit and veg, that also includes nappies, wipes, cleaning, and chocolate!.

I dont thinks thats too bad really

GreyQueen

As a single woman with a hearty appetite and nearly six-foot frame to fuel, I have spent £33.18 thus far on food in May and am not planning on spending any more this month.

I spent a lot of money (by my standards) in Jan and Feb as I was socking things into storecupboards; £78 and £90 respectively. I normally spend about £60 a month/ £15 or less a week.

I know that seems ridiculously low, but I have time to shop around, lots of places to do it, a greengrocer who'll sell me a carrier bagfull of fruit and veg for £1. I always buy bread at whoopsied prices and keep a close eye out for other things which can be tucked up in the freezer. I also grow my own on an allotment; am on the last half dozen of the 2010 spuds and still have some beans frozen and dried.

I'm not one for soft drinks, biscuits or snacks and buy the occasional processed meal if it's reduced to something crazy like 50p or less; will be having whoopsied spag and meatballs for tea today, purchased several weeks ago and tucked away in the freezer for busy days like today.

5 years ago when I worked with professional debt managers, their industry was using a ballpark figure of £25-£30 per adult per week for food in order to calculate housekeeping so that we could work out debt repayment plans. This figure was acceptable to creditors; anything higher would be challenged. With all the increased in food costs, I think this would have been revised upward by now, at least it should've been.

HTH.

valk_scot

About £20 per head on actual food. Two adults and two kids of 14 and 9. We eat pretty healthily with lots of fruit and veg, meat three or four times a week only, fish and vegetarian stuff the rest of the time. I do buy the odd pack of biscuits or crisps or bottle of coke but really, I'd rather they ate mostly real food rather than pointless fattening junk. Junk is expensive anyway!

The kids are both in their spring growth spurt atm though and they're eating me out of house and home. I seem to be buying twice as much milk and peanut butter and bread flour and orange juice as usual. In the winter I usually give them HM soup as a snack when they get in from school but they don't want it atm so it's half a loaf each covered in peanut butter or jam and a pint of milk each. They they ask what's for dinner, sigh.

Penelope_Penguin

It all depends on what sort of shops you have access to In the summer we grow most of our own fruit and veg, and don;t eat much meat, so food bills really drop then :T

I'll add this to the existing thread to give you lots more suggestions.

sb44

I have a problem at the minute, I can't stop buying reduced price food!

I know that sounds daft but I have two freezers full of food.

The thing is, I have to pass a small CoOp store on the way to collect my daughter from school.

Every day they reduce their stock before 3pm, some things to a quarter of the price.

The other day I bought a bag of fresh tortellini for 58p instead of £2.32 so cooked enough for one and froze the rest (was enough for 3 meals in the bag), fresh lean steak mince £1.42 instead of £2.48, tray of fresh burgers for £1 instead of £4, fresh fruit and veg for silly prices. All because they need to be used by the following day.

I know I should perhaps not call in and use up what I have in the freezers already but at these prices I am scared of missing a bargain!

leanneh

threemuttleys wrote: »

About £200 a month. Thats for two adults, a 7 month old, 3 dogs, and 2 cats. We eat loads of fruit and veg, that also includes nappies, wipes, cleaning, and chocolate!.

I dont thinks thats too bad really

Hope this isn't too nosey a question but would you mind elaborating on an average monthly shop and the type of meals you eat?

We have 2 dogs and their food alone costs us £36 - I tried to move them to cheaper food and they didn't do well on it. We also have a 10 month old and I was struggling to stick to £50 a week with his milk, wipes, nappies, food etc.

Am keen to get any help I can as I'm new to OS and taking baby steps!!

tiddly_widdly

Hi
Ive not been around this board for a while but Im after ideas again.

Im feeding essentially 5 adults. I meal plan and cook everything from scratch. I currently spend £160 per fortnight for us all. Which Im happy-ish with but it has crept up in the last year or so.

I would like to get it back down to around the £140 per fortnight mark if at all possible. but we have a new problem.

My DH1 has just been diagnosed with a wheat allergy. This is proving costly.

So the question is this, do you think I can reduce my overall costs at the same time as having to spend more for my daughter?

any help and suggestions would be appreciated.

redlady_1

Until 2 months ago I could only spend £15 per week on everything. Now, admittedly from time to time my mum would buy me £50 worth of meat from the butchers for my birthday or something, but I had to shop with a calculator. If it went over then something had to go back. I didnt go without and I ate very well. Lidl was my friend!!! Plus I grow my own. No biscuits, snacks or anything like that. Crisps were my downfall so I bought Value ones. I make all my own bread too. Shower gel was value bubble bath or presents I had been bought. I must admit, christmas and birthdays really helped me out no end. I discovered Twinks and the takeaway cookbook so I didnt feel as if I went without. I have stacks of rice and pasta. Once a month if I had enough food (milk etc) to keep me going I would buy a veg box as that fed me for at least two weeks.

mama67

penelopedee wrote: »

Two teenagers, two adults - including dinner money it works out approx £30 per person for food and soft drinks.

Its worse over the school holidays with snacks and icecreams etc.

we are the same for 2 adults, 2 teenagers and school dinner money it is approx £80 per week for us all for everything so £20 per week each, this includes an organic veg box weekly, and milkman delivered milk, obviously some weeks it is more and some less, and depending on the time of year as we grow our own veggies and salads during the summer.