Budget for 2 people..?

Essex22011

Hiya I am just about to move into a my first home with my partner and have done a food budget of £50pw, this will include cleaning products, breakfast, lunch and dinner for 7 days.

Does this sound too much/too little to everyone?? We like a lot of fresh meat, wholemeal pastas/bread, veg and fruit in our diet.

Typical Meals for week something along the lines of:
Breakfast- cereal and porridge (English breakfast on a sat)
Lunch- salad or sandwich, fruit and crisps
Dinner-
Spanish omelette and salad,
lasagne,
chicken, mash and veg
Ham egg and oven chips
Roast beef dinner and trimmings
Chilli con carne or pasta bake
Chicken fajitas


Thanks for your help!!

Tiglath

That sounds very reasonable to me. I've been tracking our spends for 2 adults over the past few months, and we average £40-50 per week for all meals & household stuff. Now I know what we're likely to buy on a regular basis, I shop around to get the best deals. Farmfoods do 1kg blocks of mature Cheddar for £5, for example (also very good for Nicky loo roll 18 for £4, and basic potatoes 99p/2kg), and Lidl is our go-to shop.

Essex22011

Thanks for suggesting farm foods - didn't even think about going there.
I'm quite lucky we have 2 big Aldis, 2 lidls and a big pound shop near us. I'm guessing the key is to shop around and then use Asda for any other bits I can't find.
What sort of meals do you get for your £40-£50 a week if you don't mind me asking?

ljaybrad

Hi, we spend roughly the same, perhaps a little less.

We use farm foods for loo roll, and lidl for things like bread, milk, jam, fruit juice, fruit and veg, as well as some meat - especially on their weekend special offers. Especially good there are their yoghurt, cereals, dark chocolate digestives and bread.

I tend to visit different supermarkets depending what is on offer compared with what I need to buy. - I do a MrA run most sundays at about 6.40pm to pick up yellow stickers, and keep my eye out through the week at the local tescos( picking up a kilo of mince for £o.80 because it is short dated is a regular occurance.)

As well as fresh fruit we keep a selection of tinned ( in juice) and frozen fruit and veg. This means we can still eat relatively healthy even if we have little fresh food.

I also use approved foods, once ever few months we will do a delivery, any thing that is a good offer and things like tins and packets.

I like to batch cook and will often make a huge pan of something like spag bol or roast/boiled chicken on a sunday and then either use it throughout the week or store extras in the freezer.

Usual meals are
Spag bol
Lasagne
Chilli
Shepards/cottage pie
chicken in various sauces - mustard, creamy, mushroom
sausages - usually in a sauce such as marmalade or apples and syrup
stir fry
slow cooked beef


as well as joints that we pick up reduced

hope that helps

Tiglath

Chops/steaks or chicken legs, mash or roasties, Yorkshires, frozen peas, extra veg like cauli/cabbage/broccoli. Lasagnas, the odd curry. Pork belly slices done in the oven with a Chinese/BBQ sauce and veggie rice. I fry an onion and mushrooms, put in dry rice & peas & stock, and let it simmer down. Roast portions of meat but surround it with chopped onions, mushrooms, peppers and sweet potatoes drizzled with oil & herbs. Mashed celeriac is a fabulous change to spuds. If I roast a joint at the weekend, I chop or slice leftovers and freeze. We don't often do desserts.

This weather I'm doing lots of stew-type things in the crockpot. My local butcher is doing bone-in lamb neck chops for £3.75/kg at the moment, and they look very decent, so I'm stocking up today. Doing lamb stew with pearl barley, onions, carrots, leeks and homemade dumplings tonight. We try to eat seasonally with veg when it's at its cheapest. If we have a can't-be-bothered day or forget to take something out of the freezer in the morning, it's a jar of pesto stirred into pasta or a cheese omelette. I'd happily eat beans or eggs on toast or a fishfinger sandwich, but DH prefers a proper cooked meal.

We tend to buy the meat for the month around payday and freeze it, then top up weekly on veg. I wouldn't really recommend Farmfood's bags of pork and lamb steaks - they dwindle to nothing when you cook them so we find we double up on portions, but their salmon and chicken portions are okay.

I used to automatically do a monthly online order from Asda for store cupboard stuff and toiletries, but they mess up so frequently I now just buy what I need on a Saturday for the following week, and keep a list on the fridge door of things we're running out of like shower gel and gravy granules. I don't do complicated meal planning as such but I usually have a good idea of what we have in the freezers.

marlasinger

We eat meat most nights and end up spending between £60 and £70 each week, including toiletries, etc. So, we are a bit higher than most other people on here. I suppose it depends on how frugal and canny you are at searching out bargains. I think if you don't meal plan and write a shopping list, then you may end up spending a bit more than £50 a week.

theGrinch

The two of us (2 adults) get by on £40 a month for food. The key is a bit of forward food planning, minimal wastage, flexibility on brands and knowing when your local shops reduce down to pennies just to clear.

I know one person can spend £60 a week, so its all down to choice.

iris

theGrinch wrote: »

The two of us (2 adults) get by on £40 a month for food. The key is a bit of forward food planning, minimal wastage, flexibility on brands and knowing when your local shops reduce down to pennies just to clear.

I know one person can spend £60 a week, so its all down to choice.

How do you manage on £10 per week (£40 a month) for food for 2 adults. That's only 71p per person per day. We are 2 adults and spend approx £140 per month. This is for all food and toiletries.

We generally eat meat every day.

Breakfast is porridge (half milk and water) and DH has a crumpet/toast
Lunch is a sandwich/egg on toast/salad plus 2 portions of fruit DH also has crisps & a kitkat
Dinner is chicken/beef/lamb - sometimes roasted sometimes in sauce with pasta/rice/potatoes/veg. We usually also have a pudding.
We drink tea/coffee/water
We also buy chocolate biscuits (Aldi)

We look for special offers on items that we regularly buy and also use coupons.

I use the Mysupermarket to check prices.

I never find any food reduced for pennies except perhaps bread.

FrugalFranny

£50 is a good amount, if you cook from scratch a lot it will be more than enough if you know where to shop (L*dl do good prices on mince at £2 for 500g, which is a bit over 1/2 lb)
My OH and I spend about £70-£80 a fortnight (I do one big shop online), which includes 8 loo rolls, cat food for 3 cats, 12 bottle of milk which I freeze and defrost when needed, 2 loaves of bread to freeze (he won't eat homemade for some reason...my bread is nice though ) and cheap mince/sausages/flour for homemade pies/toad in the hole. That's with all the bits and bobs to, like frozen veg (which is excellent/cheaper), canned goods, rice, porridge, sugar, tea etc
You shouldn't have to buy cleaning sprays, sponges and so on each week, just now and then (there is a lot to be said for hot water with a few drops of bleach for most cleaning). Same with tin foil, large 30+ 'chefs' fresh eggs, tea bags, cling film, kitchen towels, light bulbs, washing up liquid, washing powder and things like make-up, 'feminine products', ketchup/B.B.Q sauce/Mayo etc if you buy those sort of things.
Also look up in the forums somethings called "Star Drops" and "white vinegar ", people here swear by these most for all-in-one cleaning agent.
Beyond that, just keep a close eye on the supposed 'bargains' on offer, quite a few times you'll find two smaller items for less than one big one.
Only the other day I saw 2kg of spread going for £2.50, when the same spread was £1 for a 1kg tub right next to it. This happens a lot in all product ranges.
Any money left from the shopping I pop into a jar and use for shortages (the "Arg! No milk/bread/sugar!" situations that crops up now and then) or as an added bonus for xmas food/gifts.

I hope my ramble will help, good luck!

Essex22011

theGrinch wrote: »

The two of us (2 adults) get by on £40 a month for food.

Is this a typo do you mean £40 a week?

Essex22011

FrugalFranny wrote: »

Only the other day I saw 2kg of spread going for £2.50, when the same spread was £1 for a 1kg tub right next to it. This happens a lot in all product ranges.

This is why i was thinking it might be better to shop online so you can spot the better offer, my plan is to probably go to Aldi/Lidls once a week and get any other bits i need from Tesco or Asda'

FrugalFranny wrote: »

Any money left from the shopping I pop into a jar and use for shortages (the "Arg! No milk/bread/sugar!" situations that crops up now and then) or as an added bonus for xmas food/gifts.

This is such a good idea- I am nicking this idea, maybe when we have enough saved up we can treat ourselves to eating out or a takeaway