How much realistically for 2 adults

Edwardia

On the shopping list point, my husband has to tell me before 6pm Friday for Ocado and before 5pm Saturday for Abel & Cole what he wants or else he has to either go without or go buy it himself (if he can) locally. That soon made him get organised

Although I am an ex chef (college trained) my OH likes to cook (his father was a chef) and he prefers to be left alone to do it. He told his boss, also a commuter, that cooking is a good way of de-stressing.

Maybe your wife feels you are trying to take over her kitchen ?

HappyMJ

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.

£400 a month for 2 is a little high. What does she spend it all on? Are you throwing food away? Buying expensive cuts of meat?

To prevent arguments I'd be suggesting that a meal plan would be an idea or buying less of the expensive items. Would she willing to shop at Aldi to pick up the majority of items?

quintwins

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.

It's worth taking into account that washing liquid, laundry stuff, dishwasher tablets, toilet roll and smellies could easily cost you £30-£40 a month on there own if you insist on branded and don't shop around.

Maybe try shopping online do a dummy shop and see how it goes, also look in your bin and see if your acually using all your food.

I am one of those people who buy alot of reduced items i try to keep it mainly to meat, like todays dinner is made with reduced mince, tomorrows will be adapted leftovers from today (spag bol turned into chilli) and then fridays is reduced fish, ok not that healthy but alot better than a chinese if we got one instead.

Mojisola

ITGuy1 wrote: »

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

Of course, it all depends on what you're eating.

You could do a pretend shop using an online store and see how much your shopping basket comes to buying what you normally eat.

You could then experiment with ways of reducing the bill.

Do you use everything you buy? Are you throwing food away every week?

Would your wife be more amenable if you offer to share the food planning and therefore planning? You didn't suggest that you should take it over because you could do it better, did you? :rotfl:

Mojisola

quintwins wrote: »

Maybe try shopping online do a dummy shop and see how it goes, also look in your bin and see if your acually using all your food.

Mojisola wrote: »

You could do a pretend shop using an online store and see how much your shopping basket comes to buying what you normally eat.

You could then experiment with ways of reducing the bill.

Snap! ............

quintwins

Mojisola wrote: »

Snap! ............

Great minds think alike

Mojisola wrote: »

You didn't suggest that you should take it over because you could do it better, did you? :rotfl:

Oh dear i really hope not, nevermind a nice hot expensive dinner you could be sleeping in the dog house :rotfl::rotfl:

Idiophreak

It depends what it covers, doesn't it.

Personally, wife and I have cereal for breakfast with berocca and probably 5 evening meals per week (eat out/with parents the other days). (we buy lunches at work)

Including dishwasher tabs, washing machine tabs, loo rolls and cleaning supplies, our food comes out around £250/month and we eat quite well.

frugal_shopper_2

ITGuy1 wrote: »

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 would agree that £400 per month seems high to me but if you can afford it & are happy with the type of food you are eating then the first place to look for savings would be wastage. Do you end up throwing uneaten food out? People vary an awful lot in this, take a look in a few council food waste collection bins & you will see that while some people just discard things like vegetable peel, eggshells, teabags etc... other people discard fruit & veg which looks better quality than the fresh stuff in most shops along with full packets of unused foods (not necessarily past their best) & vast amounts of leftovers from meals.
If there is anything you do end up wasting then it is simple to cut down on or cut out completely those items.

Meadows

ITGuy1 wrote: »

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

Walk a mile in her shoes before you complain about what she does. Yes you can budget on food and spend a lot less, but that all depends on what you like to eat and the quality of your food.

I am not saying that all cheap food is bad or tasteless and all expensive food is good or incredible in flavour but you need to discuss with her what you want and what you are prepared to eat!

Many people rate M&S but I personally think the food is very overrated, I don't mind paying for quality but if I am paying I want something that taste good for the price I pay.

I spend quite a bit on food (probably more than your wife) and we have no cats just two adults.
I am constantly on the look out for bargains be it offers or the little yellow labels (reduced goods) to get as much as I can for our money, but that does not stop me buying a piece of meat/fish that is not on offer and that will not make a cheap meal.
I can feed us for around 80p a meal and that will be good food nothing cheap or processed, just good clever shopping, healthy food, meat and vegetables. Or I will put a meal on the table that cost us a lot more than that. Swings and roundabout.

I cook everything from scratch, no jars or packets so I know what goes into our food, often thought it is healthier and no additives it may cost more than a packet, jar or ready produced meal, but at least I know exactly what is in our foods.

You say the shopping comes to £400 a month, that's not just food! Your clothes need to be washed, the house needs to be cleaned, your cats need to be fed, all these products cost money.

Yes we could all eat for far cheaper than we do but I am not yet at the stage where I have to scrimp every penny to turn out a meal and eat foods I would be less happy eating.
You say she is a picky eater but do you enjoy the food she puts in front of you. Do you waste food (then if you do that's where bills can be cut)?

So I will say again walk a mile in her shoes first, why not spend a month or two doing all the shopping, looking for offers and bargains and making the pennies go as far as they can and then you can decide how utterly crazy it is (or not)!

flubberyzing

It really does depend on what you eat now, and how much you are willing to go down in price on.

Have you looked at 'The Downshift Challenge'? (You can find it in the Shopping tab at the top of the page). I found it was very useful for when I was trying to cut my food bill dramatically.
I used to pay about £150 a month to feed just me. Now I've got it down to £50 (although some months I come well under, some months I'm well over) a month for me (so £100 for 2 adults).

Personally though, I'm very good now at stretching food out, making it go further. So perhaps £200 a month is more reasonable for 2 of you.

You can just make little changes though. Things like cleaning products. Buy washing powder rather than tablets. It's less convienient, but you get many more washes for you money and have more control over the amount of powder used relative to stains.
Swap your branded toilet cleaner for supermarkets own. There's no difference, but it's often quite a few quid cheaper!

Best of luck! Try not to get too mad at your wife though. This is something you can look at together. For me personally, it's turned into a game. My desire to save money is morphing more and more into a challenge between me and the supermarket. I want to give them as little of my money as possible!