How much does it really cost to feed us

flyonthewall_2

Afternoon everyone

I saw something briefly on Tv about money saving and costs on food budgets this morning as I was flicking through channels which made me stop and think.

I get a bit flustered when trying to explain things so please bare with me.

So when someone says I have for example four mouths to feed lets say ( 1 adult 3 kids ) and and lets say kids ages are 11, 6 and 3.

Does that mean that you expect them to be paying more for food per week than a family with 3 mouths to feed lets say 2 adults 1 child aged 9 or roughly the same.

The debate was about portion sizes per adult as opposed to portion sizes per child depending on age, the debate was something along the lines of 2 smaller child portions average 1 decent adult size portion and costs accordingly.

So what do u think ? Its random I know but it just got me to thinking

tango

This got me thinking that there are two adults and four teenagers in our household. The teenagers eat more than the adults is there a portion size for that ?:rotfl:

BitterAndTwisted

My feeling is that the average food-budget for one adult and three kids wouldn't be that different to two adults and one kid. The real budget-busters are snacks, treats and soft drinks. In some families that can be as much as the food.

cherylim

I think it can vary a lot. There are just two mouths to feed in my household, and costs come out at around £50 a week. £40 of that is my grocery shopping, £10 is my fiance's.

If we were to have kids, I'd be able to make some bulk savings and find ways to 'scale up' meals without spending a proportionate amount more, but you can't scale up the meat like you can carbs and vegetables I suppose!

flyonthewall_2

haha so I guess for debates sake you're teenagers would be classed as adults anyway

flyonthewall_2

the debate ( I think ) !! was about large families on benefits and how comes the government say 2 adults can live as cheap as one but yet every child gets the same amount or something like that as I say just caught it briefly

JodyBPM

I have a 6 and a 7 year old, and their portions are approx half a good sized adult portion, so I guess from the point of view of the food cost of the main, cooked meal, they cost about half as much as an adult. However, they have *a lot* more in their packed lunches than DH or I eat for lunch, and their lunchbox stuff costs quite a big chunk of the shopping spend. (typically DH and I will have soup OR a sandwich for lunch, they will have sandwich, yoghurt, fresh fruit, veg sticks, cheese portion, penguin/cake etc). They eat almost all the fresh fruit that I buy (which is a lot, typically spend £15ish on fresh fruit per week, DH and I probably only eat about 10 pieces of fruit a week between us, where as the children will have 3 or 4 portions each a day), the children also drink a lot of milk and juice which is expensive, where as DH and I tend to drink water or tea/coffee which is much cheaper.

All in all, I'd say that we spend more of the overall shopping budget on the two children than we do on the two adults, but I suspect they eat healthier than we do. I'm in no doubt that the children eat well in excess of their 5 a day, whereas I'd say its hit and miss whether dh and I do (although that's because we're bad at remembering to eat fruit rather than because of cost)

patchwork_cat

I suppose the best way to look at it would be calorie requirement per age group. An active teen will eat more than an average adult. They are also growing and cells are dividing rapidly which means more nutrient requirement than an older adult. http://www.weightlossresources.co.uk/children/nutrition_calorie_needs.htm

So in answer to your question 1 adult 3 youngish children vs 2 adults 1 youngish child, the 1 adult 3 children will IMO cost more to feed, although the youngest is only 3.

Ofcourse you could be unlucky and have a child like my DD who when she was young would eat protein one day and carbs the next, and not a child's sized portion. We never knew what day it was and neither did she, so she got a full adult meal! We did recycle and having a dog was beneficial, but still!

margaretclare

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

My feeling is that the average food-budget for one adult and three kids wouldn't be that different to two adults and one kid. The real budget-busters are snacks, treats and soft drinks. In some families that can be as much as the food.

And that explains how DH and I, pensioners, not the richest but not the poorest either, can eat well and healthily at reasonable cost. We don't buy snacks, treats or soft drinks! Nor do we buy takeaways, ready-meals or convenience foods.

jason1231972

For 2 adults, we spend around £50 per week on groceries. Actually, it's pretty much exactly £50 (we buy the same old things each week).

The breakdown is:

£40.00 on proper food (evening meals), breakfast cereal, juice, fruit, etc. Evening meals consist of at least 5 servings of meat per week (3 x chicken and 2 x beef or lamb, depending what's on offer). The other two meals would generally be a frozen pizza, jacket potatoes, pasta, etc.

We won't buy the absolute cheapest cuts of meat (frozen, etc.), we usually go for one rung up from 'Tesco Value'.

We don't buy fizzy drinks, crisps, desserts etc. Not because we don't like them, but just because of the cost.

£10.00 per week on work lunches (£5.00 each). We don't bother economising to the point where we make our own lunch, as we'd save just pennies. We buy nice sandwiches from a local bakery at £1 a go.

Every 2-3 weeks, we'll buy toiletries, cleaning products, etc., adding between £5-10 onto the bill, depending on what we need.

So, £60.00 per week max. on our whole shop on a 'bad' week.