Food budgets

Redbedhead

As part of our New Years Resolution my H and I are looking to be more economical generally and particularly in relation to food.

We are pretty good at the moment in terms of picking up food when they are on special offer (generally bogof and the like) but what we are quite bad at is waste, particularly of fresh fruit and veg. We do eat quite a bit of fruit and veg but I think we tend to overbuy. I am trying to introduce H to meal planning and thought at the same time we would look to do a food budget as well.

Neither of us are in debt and we earn decent salaries so it is more for us about reducing the waste and ensuring we eat healthily rather than saving money. We are both a bit picky with foods and prefer to buy free range / farm shop etc where we can, so I do expect our food bills to be higher because of that.

Can I ask how others set their food budgets? I don't want to do something unrealistic that we can't stick to. We currently spend about £50 per week for 2 of us, most of which is meat, fruit and veg. We each have to take a packed lunch in to work and also breakfast / mid morning snack due to the time we leave home (6.30am).

We got a slow cooker for Christmas so can use that and also have a George Foreman grill. We tend to work long hours (both out of the house from 6.30 - 18.30 minimum) which has meant in the past we have resorted to takeaways which due to our expanding waistlines and reducing bank balance needs to be knocked on the head:o

I am also interested in any tips re saving money on food and household items that can be given. I have been on here quite a bit lurking so have already picked up some tips!

Thanks all

moggins

Our food budget is £50 for 2 adults, 1 13 year old boy and 1 little girl. Also includes 2 cats and 2 guinea pigs. We manage very well on this especially with the slow cooker which means we can buy cheaper cuts of meat.

Redbedhead

moggins wrote:

Our food budget is £50 for 2 adults, 1 13 year old boy and 1 little girl. Also includes 2 cats and 2 guinea pigs. We manage very well on this especially with the slow cooker which means we can buy cheaper cuts of meat.

Thanks. What sort of cuts do you use? This is one of the things I was hoping to do as at the moment meat is one of our main expenses.

moggins

Shin of beef is lovely if you can get it. Wonderful taste and it falls apart done in the slow cooker. Also if you cook a chicken in the slow cooker with some stock then wait until it's just cooled enough to handle you can get every scrap of meat off giving you enough meat to use for 2 or 3 meals.

Redbedhead

Great - I will look out for shin of beef in the butcher. We do tend to use whole chickens now, as once cooked it tends to do for a couple of dinners (roast then a risotto) and for sandwichs. We made sure our slow cooker was big enough for a joint so will be trying that one soon.

Redbedhead

How much do you budget for food? How many people is it for? And how many meals does that cover? (i.e. are lunches taken to work / do you eat at other peoples houses regularly)

Just being nosey really!!

To start off, ours is for 2 people, all meals, packed lunches for work and also breakfast taken in to work. We currently spend about £50 per week and I looking to reduce that.

Pink.

Hi Redbedhead,

I have added your thread into your other thread on food budgets as it helps to keep all the replies together.

If you look at the January 2007 Grocery Challenge it should give you some idea of how much other people spend on food.

Pink

janeym8

a bit off the original subject here but i went into iceland tonight to get a few bits and pieces-havent been in there in years and they had good prices on their meats-£3 for 2 chickens is the price that sticks in mind-fresh not frozenso i will be going back there when i do my "big" shop.. im gonna start doing a proper budget for my shop come the new year as i spend way way too much eg my bill in asda for xmas was gulp £373 which is for 5 of us ok nearly £100 was for booze but even at that we dont drink much and dont expect that many people in over the festive time.janey not being very os there was she???
i also feel although we eat loads of frsh fruit and veg i buy too much and a lot went to waste but i recently bought a juicer and u can use up a lot of things that are going over-ripe in it so cuts down on the waste and you get a healthy drink at the same time.juicing is amazing and yoiu would be surprised at what you can put in it.

janey xxx

LJM

we spend on average £200-£250 a month which works out approx £62.50 a week approx if my maths correct,that is for 2 adults 2 kids and a cat.

Redbedhead

Ok, I think I am going to start by trying to reduce our shopping bill on a month by month basis.

I estimate we pay £50 per week, although some weeks are a bit more:rolleyes: so I am going to try and keep it to £180 for a calender month for January. If I manage that I will drop it by £20 a month until I get to a comfortable level.

Just need to sort out that meal plan now............

seraphina

We spend around £50-£55 a week on household stuff for two adults. About £6-£10 of that will be non-food, eg washing powder, toiletries, clingfilm etc. The food will do us for breakfast, packed lunches and dinners, and we'll maybe have a bottle of wine in there as well.

I find packed lunches the easiest thing to do cheaply - I take a flask of soup and some homemade bread, and maybe a yoghurt. H will take sandwiches and if he's feeling extravagant these can get expensive (brie and salami anyone?) but equally well he can boil a ham which will do him for sandwiches for a week.

We meal plan, but not in the sense that if it's Monday it must be spag bog night - we come up with enough meals for the week and get everything we need for it - then when we get in from work we'll decide what we fancy.