Food / shopping budget per month

Clowance

for 2 adults 2 teens and a cat I average £400 per month for food, toiletries and cleaning. it doesn't include 1 takeaway per month but does include sarnis every day for all of us. I struggle to keep to this budget and use vouchers wherever possible, buy only a few branded items where taste is important (marmite, branston etc) and buy value if possible (sains teabags, ketchup). Everything else is own brand. Also search for offers everywhere. I home cook (cheat a little) almost everything and never buy ready meals. for example home made sweet and sour costs more than a jar - esp when jar is sains basics. If I can I get bread at 7pm when reduced to 10p and freeze it.

Aim for a maximum portion cost for meat of £1, less if we have sausages, corned beef etc. Use some jar sauces but only if they cost £1 or less say twice a week.
It amazes and humbles me that people can keep their budget so low. I don't think I can get much lower without reducing quality too much. For

mirry

2 adults , 2 teens & 1 dog

spend no more than £70 per week on everything

chase every bargain, whoopises, use coupons, approved foods, market and bake things .;) We eat lovely food and it amazed me when I asked my mother in law how much her and my father in laws shopping came to each week, and she said £150 :eek: .

Edwardia

jen_79 wrote: »

I have no idea how you do this, I buy for myself and struggle to keep within my budget of £120 for food alone!!

My chosen diet does mean I eat quite a lot of fresh fruit, vegetables and not cheaper fillers like rice, bread, noodles, pasta etc so I guess I'm missing out there.

I must be doing something very wrong!

Nope, you're definitely not doing anything wrong by avoiding the refined carbs and junk food, jen_79 ! Huge numbers of people on MSE rave about the yellow-stickered bargains they get and out-of-date stuff from places like Approved Foods.

BUT and it's a huge but, not many people seem to think about the fructose in that supposedly healthy fat free yogurt, or the sugar in the breakfast cereals, the E numbers and hidden salt in ready meals.

Yesterday I went to my nearest Poundstretcher and found no real food at all. The day before I visited a large Poundland and it could only offer me tinned tomatoes at 3 for £1 or milk. Nothing without additives, preservatives, E numbers etc. In the same town I visited a small ASDA. It had a smaller produce section than my local Tesco Express yet aisles of sweets, crisps, and ready meals.

Eating healthily isn't wrong. The crime is that so many people feel forced to eat cr*p to save money. We're all getting sicker and fatter and the UK is the second fattest country in the world.

rachbc

Edwardia wrote: »

Nope, you're definitely not doing anything wrong by avoiding the refined carbs and junk food, jen_79 ! Huge numbers of people on MSE rave about the yellow-stickered bargains they get and out-of-date stuff from places like Approved Foods.

BUT and it's a huge but, not many people seem to think about the fructose in that supposedly healthy fat free yogurt, or the sugar in the breakfast cereals, the E numbers and hidden salt in ready meals.

Yesterday I went to my nearest Poundstretcher and found no real food at all. The day before I visited a large Poundland and it could only offer me tinned tomatoes at 3 for £1 or milk. Nothing without additives, preservatives, E numbers etc. In the same town I visited a small ASDA. It had a smaller produce section than my local Tesco Express yet aisles of sweets, crisps, and ready meals.

Eating healthily isn't wrong. The crime is that so many people feel forced to eat cr*p to save money. We're all getting sicker and fatter and the UK is the second fattest country in the world.

JUst FYI in my last Approved Food order I got oraganic wholemeal cous cous, organic sesame seeds and pumpkin seeds, organic dates, low salt pop corn, organic pasta etc.

Yes I feed my family reduced yellow sticker food - meat and veg reduced - why wouldn't i? 5 bunches of asparagus for £1 - yes please.

My fat free yoghurt has nothing added to it except the fruit I add - my kids get whole milk yoghurt.

You don't have to spend a forture to eat well so stop judging before you know what is in peoples shopping

cazj80

rachbc wrote: »

JUst FYI in my last Approved Food order I got oraganic wholemeal cous cous, organic sesame seeds and pumpkin seeds, organic dates, low salt pop corn, organic pasta etc.

Yes I feed my family reduced yellow sticker food - meat and veg reduced - why wouldn't i? 5 bunches of asparagus for £1 - yes please.

My fat free yoghurt has nothing added to it except the fruit I add - my kids get whole milk yoghurt.

You don't have to spend a forture to eat well so stop judging before you know what is in peoples shopping

I buy yellow sticker food and food from approved food, but the only real bad food I buy is crisps, which my girls have a couple of times a week and my husband eats, and he is big enough to make up his own mind.

I cook 99% of my meals from scratch, making double so that I can freeze them. My last approved food order was a lot of risotto rice, pasta etc, not boxes and boxes of cakes, crisps, biscuits etc. Yes they do sell them cheaply, but you don't have to buy them, there are a lot of other stuff to buy.

So I too would ask that you don't judge, I know people who spend a lot more than me and eat a lot more rubbish, mainly because they don't cook from scratch.

Edwardia

Pasta made from organic wheat is still refined carbohydrate. Real yogurt is not fat free - fat free yogurt is full of fructose. Low salt popcorn is still manufactured carbohydrate. Organic wholemeal couscous is misleading as couscous is a more processed version of semolina.

What's interesting is how people leap at me (former researcher, ex-chef) and tell me off for judging them because I point out that much of what people on MSE are eating is chemical laced cr*p.

I didn't attack either of you rachbc or cazj80 personally but you feel quite happy to attack me. Defensive much ?

I don't care personally whether you eat healthily or not, but what you shouldn't do is give people on this thread who eat healthily the idea that eating unhealthy cheap food is somehow better. You wouldn't suggest to a non-smoker that s/he start smoking.

It's sometimes difficult to find really healthy food but I manage it in Lidl, ASDA, Morrisons, Sainsburys and Waitrose.

cazj80

Edwardia wrote: »

Pasta made from organic wheat is still refined carbohydrate. Real yogurt is not fat free - fat free yogurt is full of fructose. Low salt popcorn is still manufactured carbohydrate. Organic wholemeal couscous is misleading as couscous is a more processed version of semolina.

What's interesting is how people leap at me (former researcher, ex-chef) and tell me off for judging them because I point out that much of what people on MSE are eating is chemical laced cr*p.

I didn't attack either of you rachbc or cazj80 personally but you feel quite happy to attack me. Defensive much ?

I don't care personally whether you eat healthily or not, but what you shouldn't do is give people on this thread who eat healthily the idea that eating unhealthy cheap food is somehow better. You wouldn't suggest to a non-smoker that s/he start smoking.

It's sometimes difficult to find really healthy food but I manage it in Lidl, ASDA, Morrisons, Sainsburys and Waitrose.

I didn't attack you Edwardia, all I asked is that you don't judge. How is that attacking? You could say that your response to us was attacking us, if you look at it from another point of view.

And I don't see how I am giving the idea that eating unhealthily is better. I haven't told people what to go and buy. All I have done is answer the question that was initially asked and say how I manage it to keep to my budget.

Moving on now...

cherrypies

Just ignore Edwardia, she's a sanctimonius twit who cannot possibly fathom why anyone would not eat a diet absolutely identical to hers. She can't form a sentence without the phrase 'low-carb' and spends her days sneering at peoples shopping baskets.

Rachbc& cazj80 it sounds to me as if you're both doing a fantastic job feeding your families good food on a budget, keep up the good work

cherrypies

Getting back on topic, we're a family of 4 and my spending is erratic to say the least but generally we spend about £500 per month ...that's EVERYTHING, food, wine, cleaning products. It's expensive here as I don't live on the mainland and everything has to be shipped in so is about 20% more expensive than standard UK prices. I shop around, cook everything from scratch, buy local and in season where I can and I grow what I can in my garden. I'm not averse to buying yellow stickers and if I see a deal, I buy in bulk. I'll be honest, sometimes the shopping and cooking alone feels like a full time job, I'm out on the hunt most days, but I do love it. There are some great threads on reducing grocery spend and cooking more frugally on the OS 'old style' MSE board, definitely worth a look over there for hints and tips. Good luck.

hamsmith

cazj80 wrote: »

We're a family of 4 (2 adults and 2 children - 2 and 1) and I spend £140 a month, including toiletries/cleaning etc.

I would say that when you find something on special, if it's something that can keep, stock up. I look out for yellow stickered items and freeze them if needs be. I make my own bread (by hand and by bread machine). I try and cook everything from scratch.

Meal planning is a big key to budgetting I think. I do try and be flexible so that I can fit any yellow stickered items into my weekly menu, if they can't be frozen.

I do occasional shops from Approved Foods/Rosspa to stock up on items there when they are cheap, but you have to factor in delivery.

I use a market for fruit and veg, unless cheaper on offer at supermarket. I use Lidl for their half price weekend offers and will stock up on these. I don't spend much at Tesco/Sainsburys etc, and when I do I buy mostly Value/Basics, unless an offer on branded works out cheaper.

I mostly use bleach for cleaning etc, and buy the value one, it was 30-odd pence for 2 litres when I last bought some.

Sorry for the long response!

I often find we can miss out on fresh fruit and sometimes not enough fresh veg to save money. I always think a meal planner is the way forward but maybe I should be more flexible. I never think of the market stalls for fresh veg.stocking up when things are on offer is a great idea. You have some good tips for Eating a healthy diet on a budget.