Normal Food Shopping

tooldle

There are three of us. Two adults and an almost teenager. We also have two cats. I budget £200 each month for all food, toiletries, cleaning items etc. Often I have money left over.
As another poster described it, I also cherry pick my shopping. Meat, from the butcher, fruit and veg from the greengrocer. Other items from Aldi, Lidl, Wilkinsons, Tesco etc. We usually have beer and wine from our £200 budget as well.
The budget provides breakfasts, packed lunches and evening meals as well as biscuits, cake etc for snacks.
Although we have no need to stick to budget, I try to include some low costs meals in our plan, and keep waste to a min. It would be very rare for us to throw out food.

VestanPance

thehappybutterfly wrote: »

We were £23 for 4 suppers at the chippy the other night and that was things like sausage and King Rib. No fish or chicken.

Now the English forumites site in wonder of what on earth is going on in a Scottish Chip Shop.

Just don't tell them about deep fried pizza in batter!

Make-it-3

If you aren't trying to cut down then what is the point of this post apart from to nosy into the trolleys/food cupboards of people here.

Some people have to budget, some chose not to let the supermarkets hookwink them into buying things they don't need, some splurge because its what makes them happy. Each to his own.

If people want to learn how to cut down then follow the Grocery Challlengers over on the OldStyle board for a while. Its not all boring pea soup. Some of the menus are quite amazing and inspirational.

Tiddlywinks

quantic wrote: »

Perhaps normal was a bad choice of word, lets try not to get caught up in syntax though, I think you know what I meant - normal/generally/mainstream.. People who are somewhere in the middle, not reckless and not desperately saving. Common ground.

But... none of us are able to tell if we are 'normal', 'mainstream' or whatever other description you feel applies. Why? Because we don't really have access to the habits of all like-for-like family units to make a comparison.

quantic wrote: »

Believe it or not I'm actually the male . I cook in our house mostly though, to keep things more even, plus I enjoy it.

It was just to try and gauge where other people are at. Not sure if we should be concerned or it is acceptable.

We are all different and all go through different periods in our life that mean money is more or less available to us.

You should only really be 'concerned' if you feel YOUR spending is unacceptable to YOU... if it is comfortable, then happy days. If not, then ask for suggestions as to how to make changes.

Bottom line? We don't matter in this as we are not you and your OH. Just stop worrying unless you have to.

That said... the answers here do show that there really is no easy way to establish an average and that is why companies and the government employ analysts to establish such things in order to identify where they need to target their products or services.

sam959

She was trying to find out if they spent more than the average family!

thehappybutterfly

VestanPance wrote: »

Now the English forumites site in wonder of what on earth is going on in a Scottish Chip Shop.

Just don't tell them about deep fried pizza in batter!

LOL! That's exactly what my daughter had! :rotfl: She loves it! And a whole one too, not a skimpy half. I do draw the line at the Mars Bars and Double Deckers.........

quintwins

Mara69 wrote: »

I don't consider that an evening meal - its a snack! My husband has a very demanding manual job and needs something a little more substantial.

My hubby also has a very physicially demanding job, yet he's happy with homemade potatoe and leek soup, now if it was a tin or a packet he wouldn't be as keen but my soup is lovely and thick and filling, more like slightly runny mash

I can remeber the first i ever had homemade potatoe and leek soup, i went to teh inlaws for xmas dinner, we had soup then everyone was so full we delayed the main course til tea time and everyone was still really full.

Tiddlywinks

sam959 wrote: »

She was trying to find out if they spent more than the average family!

Firstly, 'she' is actually a man - as pointed out earlier by the OP.

Secondly, what is 'average' - that's the point?

A family will spend based on a number of factors:

- budget available
- number of adults / children / pets
- lifestyle - home cooking, TV dinners, snacking, fresh or frozen etc
- health - dietary requirements, sporty types, excess laundry from medical condition or whatever
- general attitude to spending - they could be frugal (regardless of income), frugal (necessity) or just carefree(regardless of income).

So, really, what the average family spend is not really relevant to anyone else.

If you are comfortable with your spending then great, if not then something needs to be done. What others are doing doesn't really matter, does it?

Fuzzy_Duck

As long as you can afford it, it shouldn't really matter.

I used to spend £150 a month at Sainsburys/Waitrose for OH and I, maybe spending an additional £10 a week for the essentials. We can't afford it anymore so I try to spend no more than £100 a month at Asda, but I find it really hard to stick to.

quantic

The purpose of the thread wasn't really supposed to be scientific, I was just curious really, have only been doing food shopping for 2 years now, so just getting the hang of it. When we first started we would spend £150 on one shop and not have a single meal out of it, ha.

We can afford to spend what we spend, but thats not to say that we have money to throw away, if I could be more efficient through any tips I would love to be.

We are getting better though. So, do you guys shop weekly, monthly? Bi-Monthly?