How much realistically for 2 adults

ITGuy1

Hi Everyone,

Just wondering if someone can help me here, My wife and I have had a blazing row this morning when it came to light that she spends £400 a month on food shopping for 2 adults and 2 cats.

I think that is utterly utterly crazy. How much is reasonable without going too cutting to the bone or cheap.

Its problematic because she is very picky about what she eats.

I am interested to know what people think and what sort of budget would be reasonable ?

ITGUY1

Alphamare

We spend between 200 and 300 a month and eat very well. All my meat is bought on reductions though. We could cut back if we needed too which I think is the right level for us for now. There are many threads on cutting back, and not wasting food! One of them is in old style money saving stickied at the top. Grocery challenge.

klittlewood

My partner and I spend about £60.00-£70.00 a week maximum on our food shop and that is with a crate of beer included. Most weeks we can normally do about £40.00 if no toiletries or cleaning products as we only need to top up fresh food like bread, milk, fruit and veg.

We normally freeze leftovers and portion out meat and freeze down as to not waste any. Example: minced beef come in large packs. We portion it out into about 6-7 portions and each one is enough to use for a meal for 2.

Treevo

It depends what you eat. If you're eating high quality organic meat, fruit and veg then that's going to cost more than eating genetically modified, sprayed-with-god-only-knows-what, kept indoors and pumped full of genetically modified maize, crap.

Some on here are always claiming to be able to eat healthily on thrupence a fortnight. It's not really difficult when you consider than the human body can get by on pretty much anything and a muti-vitamin. It doesn't make it healthy or good for you.

I spend £30-40 (depending if I'm bulking) each week on food. I buy fresh fruit and veg every other day from the market (all locally grown and organic). I get free range (and for all intents and purposes, organic) eggs from the local allotments - chicken and duck. I buy my fish from the fish man who comes every fortnight - wild, line-caught in the main. My cheese comes from my local monthly farmers market and I get some game from here too.

You might not have time to do that so you can pay a premium in the supermarkets.

You've been eating the food so if you have a problem - you do the shopping.

mouseymousey99

What does the money include, is it purely food? A lot of times a s/market shop bumps up as you buy things you would normally buy somewhere else.
Do you cook from scratch? If you are buying ready meals that does add a lot to your basket; the supermarkets call anything prepared 'added value' and it certainly isn't too you!

PlutoinCapricorn

It depends on many variables.

Where do you shop for food? How much do you waste? Does this include cleaning products, toiletries etc.? How much is spent on biscuits, sweets etc?

You can eat quite well on very little: plain porridge oats for breakfast do not cost very much for example. Baked potatoes with baked beans or cheese are good.

I am sure that you could cut down a lot. It is best to see this as a challenge not a lowering of living standards. Good habits take time to establish.

Perhaps you could refer her to the Mean Queen website.

DPJames

It sounds like your Mrs isn't the sort of woman that does 'cut backs' on anything. If she's spending £400 on food, what's she spending on clothes, going to the hair salon, having nails done etc?

rachbc

Perhaps you could do the menu planning, shopping and food prep for a couple of months to see what you spend and get a relaistic idea of the figures involved

Edwardia

Two adults eating organic and one Labrador here. My budget would be £100 a week to include dog food, toiletries, laundry and cleaning supplies.

Some weeks I only spend about £50, others £120 - depends how much is in the freezer and whether I need to stock up on Ecover washing powder.

I'd say that if the £400 is just for food then you could be eating organic for that if cooking from scratch.

I shop at Ocado, Abel & Cole mostly plus Sainsbury's and Waitrose. I buy 6 rolls kitchen roll for 99p at 99p Stores and I've bought non-food stuff from Shorters Club https://www.shortersclub.co.uk when it's cheaper than offers - I check on https://www.mysupermarket.co.uk

Many people on MSE menu plan. My husband doesn't want to know on Monday what he'll be eating on Friday so I have to buy things every week that form core fresh veg and larder staples from which we can make lots of things from scratch.

ITGuy1 if you and your wife live on premium ready meals then your wife could easily spend £400 a month.

I would suggest that you get au fait with prices of things you buy on the supermarket's website or by doing the shopping yourself. You might find that you could get the same stuff cheaper in another supermarket.

Many people on MSE claim to eat healthily on YS (reduced) price food and spend almost nothing. But like Treevo says, that stuff isn't actually healthy. If you don't need to buy cheap junk food then why eat it ?

Have you cut expenditure elsewhere ?

ITGuy1

Hi Everyone,

Thanks for the input.

To address a couple of things, I don't mind doing the shopping or the cooking, as long as I am left alone to do it. I do also like cooking and do cook from scratch. We don't always have time. One of the healthiest things I have enjoyed cooking is Curry Queens curry, modified to our tastes and that's pretty damn good

I do realise food isn't cheap but im sure we could modify it down a little bit. I think £50 - 60 a week should be doable. That includes washing tablets etc.

I would be happy to do a shopping list but my wife refuses

Edited to add that we don't need to cut back, just I think we are spending a little to much on it when it could be spent on other things.

Lip_Stick

ITGuy1 wrote: »

Hi Everyone,

Thanks for the input.

To address a couple of things, I don't mind doing the shopping or the cooking, as long as I am left alone to do it. I do also like cooking and do cook from scratch. We don't always have time. One of the healthiest things I have enjoyed cooking is Curry Queens curry, modified to our tastes and that's pretty damn good

I do realise food isn't cheap but im sure we could modify it down a little bit. I think £50 - 60 a week should be doable. That includes washing tablets etc.

I would be happy to do a shopping list but my wife refuses

Edited to add that we don't need to cut back, just I think we are spending a little to much on it when it could be spent on other things.

I've just recently changed from washing tabs to powder and I'm saving myself a small fortune! I'll have probably managed 3 times as many washes for the same amount of money. Good luck with getting the wife to let you do the shopping!