How much to budget for shopping?

jo101_2

Hi

How much would you reckon to budget monthly for food shopping incl toiletries and cleaning things etc, we are 2 adults and 2 young children and tend to cook from scratch 95% of the time? I thought we were doing ok in this area but this month I have totted it up and it is just over £300.00 which I think is too much. What do you think?

Many thanks

Jo

garret1

Sit back and wait for some great replies....
How much you spend is really dependent on shops you use and your personal tastes but everyone on here recommends cutting back slowly. I didn't, I set myself a challenge to keep the weekly shop under £50 and cut back from £100. So far so good....
I'm a relative newbie but have slashed our shopping by menu planning like a crazy person, shopping in cheaper shops, bulk cooking for the freezer and padding things out with pulses and veg.
Buy stardrops 58p from Semi chem and microfibre cloths and you don't need any other cleaning materials.
Join pigsback on the freebies thread and get a voucher for boots to pay for your toiletries.

lizzie12_2

Hi, Welcome to the excellent site.
We have our bill to just under £200 for 3 of us.
I cook from scratch most of the time, stews, meat sauces etc batch freeze to use at later date.
Bake all cakes instead of buying them.
For cleaning - stardrops, which i found out about on this site and white vinegar.
Instead of buying lots of air freshners i use a t light candle in burner and add a couple of drops of rose oil to the water for a fresh fragrance.
Hope this helps

joannasmum

Our bill normally comes in at about £200 for 3 adults, 1 toddler and a cat thats rather fussy. It would be alot less than that but my sister lives with us and is fussier than the cat. She makes up the short fall with her rent really so its not costing me anything

sunnth

Our shopping comes to about £200 a month. Thats for 2 adults and 3 children, however that doesn't include the kids weekday lunches as eldest has a school dinner and I haven't included the cost of that in my food budget and the youngest two eat at nursery but it does include 2 adult packed lunches.

I have been working full time for the last 10 months and have gradually stopped cooking from scratch every night. I do though cook from scratch 4/5 nights a week. I vary between shopping at tesco to use all my vouchers and gain points and shopping at Aldi which is very local to me.

Today I did a weeks shopping at aldi and spent £32 (plus £7.50 on my organic veg box) but I will need to top up on milk, bread and fruit during the week. I don't spend the same amount each week but it does even out over the month. I just go round the kitchen each week and list basics that are needed then plan 6 main meals and list those ingredients too. I figure the 7th meal will be left overs or fish and chips. I try to plan meals around seasonal veg and try not to waste anything - I'd rather have to go back to the shops midweek than let things go off.

Mind you, none of my family are fussy or have any food allergies and that does help keep the cost down. I also think that sometimes now we can go overboard in the variety of foods we eat. Sometimes my family has a 'sunday tea' of jam sandwiches, fruit and a piece of cake, - cheap and easy to do and filling, as is cheese or beans on toast, jacket potato, quiche etc.

swizzle_2

Hi

We are 2 adults and 2 children- both out of nappies during day- but youngest is still in at night and older one does wear pull up`s sometimes.

I now shop weekly as i had to get rid of my 2nd freezer- sad that i can`t always get bogof`s.

I make a list of what tea`s we might have during the week, add sandwiches/beans on toast/soup for lunch.

I no longer have a car-when i did ,i just to shop around for stuff- but ended up buying more in the end.

We spend £200 a month and this includes everything, nappies, odd bottle of wine or 2, cleaning stuff,shampoo etc. I buy long life milk so I don`t end up having to pop to the local shop for a pint, and then see something else!

LearningToSave.

we spend £160 per month for 4 of us....2 adults,2 kids...one in nappies fulltime and one in nappies at night.
this £160 covers all food...and we eat well and all toilettries.