food budget per person per week

JCS1

I have to agree, Riverford are expensive.

As an example, their 2kg chicken is £19-45.

http://www.riverford.co.uk/shop/christmas_meat/large_chicken_2kg/


Marks & Spencers (who are not the cheapest place to buy food) have a slightly smaller 1.75kg organic chicken for £11

http://www.marksandspencer.com/Marks-and-Spencer-Organic-British/dp/B005OSWX6M?pos=PDP_ymal_2/12_text&rrClickthru=PDP

Sandrock

We manage on £20 per person, per week.

We do one big shop at the beginning of the month circa ~£120 and the rest is fresh veg, milk, eggs and so on.

The key is to make a lot of meals yourself and not rely on things to throw in the oven. We don't skimp on food and buy a lot of branded products.

LilacPixie

The small box yould do the 5 of us about a fortnight but I feel I could get more for the £45 at my local butcher and from other online butchers. I often go to butcher auctions

Derivative

Sorry if this seems insulting, but I've seen a few of these posts now and I struggle a bit.

I truly don't understand how £40 can be spent on food in a week. £14 per week buys me two chicken breasts per day. Chicken is the most expensive item of food I buy. Most of the rest, like potatoes, pasta, fresh veg, is so cheap as to be trivial and not worth budgeting. Broccoli costs 50p for two servings, carrots are something like ten pence each, cereal costs £1-2 for a week's worth even if you eat massive servings.

Potatoes, pasta, etc... I can buy a month's worth of potatoes for something daft like £2.

Rather than ask others how they manage, I'd like to see your budget that comes out at £40. There must be something glaringly obvious to cut.

Mooglet71

Sandrock wrote: »

We manage on £20 per person, per week.

We do one big shop at the beginning of the month circa ~£120 and the rest is fresh veg, milk, eggs and so on.

The key is to make a lot of meals yourself and not rely on things to throw in the oven. We don't skimp on food and buy a lot of branded products.

Yes we are similar. On pay day I go out and visit B&M, Cool Trader, Pound Shop etc and buy all the stuff that lasts the month, loo roll, cleaning products, dried goods etc. I also use the remainder of the £120 to buy the first week's shop to try and get as much as I can in the freezer. I then take the remaining £120 (we budget £240 per month for two adults, one child and two cats as per CCCS) and I put it into a pot. I stick to a budget of around £30 a week for fresh things and if I don't spend it all, it goes back into the pot. Any left over from the month goes into an emergency pot.

I cook everything from scratch and avoid ready meals. I take sandwiches to work and daughter has packed lunches. We get by and still get to eat nice food.

I think what most people are trying to say to you is that if you are serious about your debts, you do have to make changes. It is hard. I haven't had my hair done since July and it is killing me! For many of us, myself included going on a DMP is the 'last chance saloon', if we don't get this right then we stand to lose everything. For me that is worth far more than eating the best of the best.

Good luck!

gambledandlost

My total shop for the month comes in under £80 a month for one person.
I used the Tesco site to draw up 2 lists - a monthly shop and a every other month shop (EOM). The monthly one contains stuff like frozen and fresh food, 4 bottles of milk etc. The EOM basket has cleaning products, toiltries, big boxes of tea bags etc.
I divided the cost of the EOM basket by 2 and add that to the cost of monthly shop. I then go shopping with a list of what I need and enough cash to pay for it plus an extra tenner just in case. My shopping sometimes requires me to go to more than one shop for the cheapest stuff but I live in town so it is walking distance.I often buy value foods but I always compare the ingredients and have found certian things, such as premium brand pizza contains a lot more ingredients I cant even read that the supermarket and the taste is the smae.
Also try Poundland, I get stuff like richmond sausages for a pound which are coming close to the use by date, so bung them in the freezer