How much?

Annie_Fanny

Hi everyone!

Hope you are well?! First post on this board. Just wondering how much you would recommend to spend per week/month for a couple who are vegetarian? I am trying to curb our spending and want to have a budget to aim for! Please include a few pennies for the odd bottle of wine!

Also if anyone is in Manchester - can anyone recommend a market to go shopping for fruit/veg?

Thanks in advance...

Annie

RacyRed

Kinda hard to answer that one Annie as everyone has different ideas.

You might be best starting off by keeping a note of how much you currently spend and what on. Then you might be able to see ways to cut back.

There are some really good tips in the indexed collection on menu planning and how to shop. There are HERE

My household is vegetarian and the greatest savings for me have come from batch cooking meals so that we don't do the "grab something in the shop on the way home from work" thing. It is so easy once you start.

Good luck

sarah0404

Hi! It's hard to say what an average amount would be. I was looking into having an organic vegetable box delivered. It was going to cost £22, but that was for the largest sized box, as we are a family of 5. I was thinking about having one delivered each week and making our meals around what ever was in the box. Just buying lentils, rice, milk, cereal etc from the supermarket weekly. I was thinking of a £50 a week sort of budget (for 5 - 2 adults and 3 children) I've not done this yet as I am also new to budgeting. I've just stuck to ordinary supermarket buying for now.

Have a look through all your bank statements and add up what you spent on food over the last month. That will give you an idea of what to base your budget on. Over the last month (mid March to mid April) I spent £348.98 on food! A lot of that was on take aways and "top up shops" that end up costing £15, because i just can't walk past the cakes and not buy some! I knew a lot of that was spent on stuff we didn't really need, so I set a new budget of £200 for the month instead. I'm on the last week of my month, and I've spent £206. Not too bad for my first month. Hopefully I'll get better! You need to set a budget that is realistic for you. If you find the May grocery challenge thread it has some good tips for setting a budget. Good luck!

Annie_Fanny

Thanks for your replies...

I will look into how much we spend in a month and take it from there! I fortunately love cooking so don't see it as a hassle to cook from scratch - well may be the cleaning up afterwards is a pain!!!

Cheers

Annie

tr3mor

Fruit and veg markets in manchester aren't all that great really, the best one I've found is in Gorton, and that's still reasonably expensive.

I get a lot of fruit and veg from a big asian grocer's at the north end of Longsight, no idea what it's called, but it's got huge green signage and piles of fruit and veg outside. Occasionally they do huge boxes of things for around £3. Last year I bought 35 red peppers for £3, sliced them all and froze them!

Dunno if that's any use to you!

Chell

We are all veggie. My grocery budget is for two adults, a 16mth old and a 3yr old. I include nappies and toiletries in my budget.

Linda32

What I did first was to list down everything food wise / drink and smellies for four weeks on a spread sheet.

It came to £320.00 :eek: for two of us

Then by reading on here and looking a different foods I got the bill down to £200.00 at the end of the next four weeks.

I'm now into my next four weeks and am still keeping a check. For me it would be nice to come in lower than £200.00, of course, but it does give me a idea.

kittiwoz

I don't find it much of a problem getting decent fruit and veg round here. I shop at English and Continental Superstore of Ayres Rd, Old Trafford (because I live a few minutes walk away). I used to live in Rusholme and there are some really excellent grocers on there of which I particularly like Fine Foods Superstore. They supply to the local restaurant trade which is always a very good indication of quality in a greeengrocers. I also lived in halls in central Manchester for a couple of years at which time I used to shop at the market on Church St which I thought was good. Where is best for you to buy your fruit and veg probably depends a lot on where is most convenient for you to get to.

Dobie

I don't know Manchester but Asian grocers are fantastically cheap for lots of veggie staples like pulses, nuts, rice, herbs etc. I live 16 miles from Leicester but it's worth the drive to stock up on these things. Cashews in particular are horrendously expensive in normal supermarkets but 'cheap as chips' at Asian grocers.

kittiwoz

Yeah. the two stores I mentioned are Asian grocers and are great for that kind of stuff. I'm sure there are plenty of others around if you're not near Trafford or Rusholme.

melancholly

a good idea for veg in manchester is getting the boxes from https://www.limited-resources.co.uk, or to look at unicorn in chorlton (http://www.unicorn-grocery.co.uk/).
Unicorn may not always be the cheapest (it's usually close), but it does have a big range of veg/beans/fruit etc etc so you'll at least get variation. it's also a co-operative so has nice ethical policies too!