£76 a week for food for a family of 4 frugal?

Hardup_Hester

I think it depends a bit on where people live too, if there is a local market, a Poundlant, a big supermarket or only a small one, for me the cost of petrol has to be factored in if I wish to use some shops.

[Deleted User]

I suppose it depends what you eat and where you buy it If you shop around and find the best bargains and manage to get quite a few reduced things then it would seem a lot but if you shoped in M&S or Waitrose and wern't so careful then it would be easy to spend that sort of cash I allow £100.oo per calender month for 'food' shopping that includes cleaning stuff and toilet rolls and I usually spend far less and have cash left over .but then again I am a canny shopper who can make her pennies streeeetch quite a bit.My major spends are on fruit and veg I don't buy processed food as I prefer to make my meals from scratch as I then know whats gone in them I have a decent butcher near to where I live and also a good 'wet fish' shop.I forage for stuff in the autmn for pies apples,blackberries ect and rarely does any food get thrown away in my house Its far too expensive to bin.Stock management of the cupboards is essentila and if you see a bargain that you KNOW you will use then buy it,but not just because its cheap.I amek my own soups at home (yesterday I did a huge pan with veg that was past its best and in it was carrots,leeks,onions,swede,parsnips,red and green peppers some lentils some lazy garlic) all together and with a bag of chicken stock from my freezer (which cost nothing as it came from a chicken I had cooked) I have made around 2-3 litres of chunky vegetable soup.This will be my lunch for the next three or four days with some crusty bread and an apple.Cost was minimal as the veg was past its best anyway.There are so many things you can make that don't cost the earth and are full of goodness,far better for you than 'instant meals' I once made my late OH a vesta chicken curry back in the 1970s when they first came on the market and he said 'I think the box might have tasted better than the stuff on the plate' no more meals like that ever came into my house .It really dosn't take much to knock up a nice nosh without too much effort at half the price of the processed stuff and twice the taste

anguk

I think it's about average, I spend roughly about that, maybe more, for me, OH, DD17 and the cat & dog. That's for everything we'll need, food, pet food, toiletries etc.

I must admit I am sometimes surprised when I read on here about families of 6 spending £40 a week on their groceries when I spend probably double that on a family half the size but I guess it's down to personal preference. We don't spend money on alcohol, going out, clothes, flat screen tv, holidays etc but we do like our food so that's where our money goes. I don't just throw anything and everything in the trolly (I have a friend who does that and her shopping bill is :eek:) and I am still very frugal (lamb is off the menu now because it's so expensive) but I can't see how we could cut back to £30-£40 a week without doing without many of the things we like. Obviously if I only had £40 to spend that's all I would spend but as long as we can afford it I'm happy to continue spending what we do.

tessie_bear

i think it depends what you buy and what the money needs to cover meal wise...i make 15 pack ups a week out of my grocery budget....i can spend as little as £20 and as much as about £80 depending on what i have in ...i like to have plenty of fruit and veg on offer and like to make nearly everything from scratch...we dont have much in the way of processed stuff.....eating seasonal fruit and veg would bring down costs a bit

i think £76 is doing ok to buy nice food for a family tbh

chaosweddings

we are a family of 3 and spend on average £35 per week on food, that is for breakfasts, packed lunches and cooked evening meal and snacks and drinks.
every year when dh gets his bonus we go out and and buy a years worth of household and cleaning products and stock up on drinks, we spend roughly £65 on this

GreyQueen

I'm not sure if it's helpful if they just say "family of 4".

4 what? Two adults and 2 preschoolers or 2 adults and two teenage boys. Children very hugely on the amount they eat at different ages.

Or one small Mum and three strapping lads?

I spend about £45 a month on feeding myself and any cleaning materials would be included in that spend, I do grow a few bits and don't have anything like baccy or booze in there.

If they were older children I'd personally condsider it quite frugal.

mama67

I average £80-£85 per week for 2 adults & 2 hollow legged teenage boys, this includes everything from the supermarket including cleaning,laundry & toiletries, an organic veg box weekly, a doorstep milk delivery, farm gate eggs and a monthly butchers delivery. It also includes a packed lunch for DH and school dinners when they have them for the boys.

tessie_bear

chaosweddings wrote: »

we are a family of 3 and spend on average £35 per week on food, that is for breakfasts, packed lunches and cooked evening meal and snacks and drinks.
every year when dh gets his bonus we go out and and buy a years worth of household and cleaning products and stock up on drinks, we spend roughly £65 on this

thats fab...would u mind posting a few details of what u buy for the pack ups and what sort of evening meals u make up

thankyou

goobergirl

chaosweddings wrote: »

we are a family of 3 and spend on average £35 per week on food, that is for breakfasts, packed lunches and cooked evening meal and snacks and drinks.
every year when dh gets his bonus we go out and and buy a years worth of household and cleaning products and stock up on drinks, we spend roughly £65 on this

I would love to get my spend as low as that too. Thanks

Almo

Hovel_lady wrote: »

My OH came home with the free paper (Metr*) tonight.
In it were the results of an "alternative census" that's been carried out. Amongst the things discovered was that the average family spend £76.02 on it's weekly food shop and a further £12 a week on alcohol.
The CEO of the company that did the survey is quoted as saying "Forking out £76 on a weeks grocery shop for a family of four is fairly frugal"

Do you agree?

I'm a little out of touch with UK prices as I've been in Oz for 4 years. It would certainly be frugal here based on current exchange rates and the price of food here!

It seems reasonable to me, I can see that plenty of people could get it lower but, as has been discussed on here many times, people have different priorities. This family might prioritise organic and/or free range, local produce, etc.