Average monthly spend?

somner

Just wondering if others in a similar position to myself could give me an idea of what their average monthly food spend is? We're a family of four - me, OH, and our two children who are 2 and 4 years old.

Using the Money Manager service on TSB internet banking I have worked out that our monthly food spend is averages about £500 per month, and I'm convinced that we could reasonably cut this by at least 25%. We try to do the majority of our shopping in Aldi however convenience sometimes dictates that we end up doing an online shop at either Tesco or ASDA which invariably costs more.

I think our biggest problem is that quite often we buy fresh food which never gets eaten - either it ends up at the back of the fridge and gets forgotten about, or it gets put in the freezer before it goes out of date - and then gets forgotten about! As well as this my job means I work shifts and the way these shifts fall means that more often than not I'm at work or asleep during evening meal time. OH uses this as her opportunity to cook the things she likes but that I won't eat, which is fair enough. However this then means I go for the convenience option whilst at work, and during the middle of the night the only places open are McDonalds and Tesco!

Just wondering what other peoples opinions are on the £500 figure? Am I right that it is ridiculously high or am I just being tight? What can people suggest to help us cut our monthly shopping bills?

Peggybabcot

Hello. We're a family of four plus one cat and we spend about the same. We cook everything from scratch, try to meal plan where possible, rarely have takeaways and don't drink. We mainly shop at Aldi too with the odd thing from Sainsburys on staff discount. There are lots of tips on the old style board where you'll also find the grocery challenge but basically the advice I was given was meal plan, cook from scratch, ditch the takeaways (if any) and use places like Aldi or Lidl. Reducing grocery spends is no mean feat at the moment as everywhere you look prices are shooting up but by having some vegetarian evening meals, a soup and pudding night and taking packed lunches is a good place to start. There are plenty of people who'll tell you they live on way less and feed double the number but it's up to you how far you want/need to cut back. Others have suggested using cash rather than cards to pay for your weekly shopping as it makes it more real. Also keep a tally of what you spend and look over a few weeks and see what, if anything, you could cut back on. Hope some of this helps. I'd just like to point out that none of the above were my ideas just information I've discovered from all the wonderful helpful people on this forum x

DPJames

Family of six, and we spend around £400 on groceries, toiletries etc.
So I'd say your spending is a little high, but not overly so. I'm sure if you sat and thought about where you could make savings yourself that you'd soon trim it down a little.

Try own brand goods. Plan your meals weekly and buy accordingly. Stop buying too many treats (junk). Shop around for bargains. Check your weekly basket on Mysupermarket to see where is cheapest.
Stock up when there are good offers on. Make large batches of food, and freeze. There's all sorts you can try. But get your lass on board first, otherwise it'll be like banging your head off a brick wall. Explain why you need to make little cut backs and ask her for ideas so you work as a team.

[Deleted User]

I live alone and have a food budget of £60.00 per month and with careful planning and only buying what I need and menu planning I find that I usually have a small amount left over at the end of the month True I only shop about twice a month Yesterday was the first time this month and I bought all I needed for around £28.00.odd.This included fruit and veg of which my budget accounts for about a third.I make everything from scratch at home ,but then I do have the time to do so.I make my own home made soup weekly which I have for lunches or as a starter for dinner in the evening.My rubbish bin doesn't see any food in it as I won't overbuy and have honed my shopping down.I used to shop and spend around £150+ per month,then I decide that I was just spending too much and throwing away food is like throwing away money.I do my menu for the week on a Sunday morning so I know roughly what I shall be eating during the week.True I got to my Dds every sunday for dinner so I rarely have to make one.But the rest of the week I have a cooked meal most nights.breakfasts are usually cereals in summer or porridge in the winter.Lunch is usually soup and crackers (I no longer eat bread as it goes off too quickly)This week's dinners will be
Monday :large salad with either grated cheese or egg.Fresh fruit

Tuesday: Carrot and coriander soup.veggie curry from the freezer with rice.

Wednesday: Lasagne (from freezer)green beans. fresh fruit

Thursday; chicken thighs,mashed potato,brocolli,carrots.Yoghurt

Friday smoked cod,creamed sweet potato peas.Rice pud

Saturday.bangers and mash with onion gravy.left over rice pud from yesterday

Most of the stuff I have in the freezer I have made myself with YS meat or veg.I make and portion up in takeaway boxes veggie curry,chilli,lasagne etc so I always have a dinner base to use to work around with veg .The soup is either used for lunch or as a starter for the evening meal.If I have a starter I don't need a pudding. If you work shifts obviously its a bit more difficult, but even when I was at work (retired now ) I used to have a morning or afternoon if I could prepping stuff for the freezer as then there were four of us in the family so I had to make sure if I wasn't available the girls or my late OH could have a meal ready fairly quickly.Its more difficult with a family .I look after four of my grandsons before and after school as their Mum and Dad both work long hours and DD has a list stuck to the freezer of whats thier dinner that night.I help out by prepping the veg for her after school each night so when she comes in dinner is ready to be cooked.On wednesdays they always have a mid-week roast chicken so I will put the chicken on for her around 4.30-5 so its cooked and all she has to do is cook the trimmings.I think if you perhaps bought a little less then used up what you have the cost would come down a bit.

Clowance

if you know the next night you will miss evening meal, make 5 portions the day before and cool one and put in fridge. That way, OH can eat what she likes while you sleep and when you get up you can microwave the meal from the night before, hence no extra work and no need for macdonalds.
HTH

DPJames

Clowance, I think we all had the same thought there. Seems obvious. Sounds like Somner is a novice at this money saving malarkey. Don't worry son, well soon have you all living on 50p a week each!

DPJames

This weekend Lidl are selling massive bags of spuds for £2.99. Go and get two bags, and spend a couple hours turning one bag into mash potatoes and then freeze it all in portions for whenever you need it. Saves money, saves waste, saves time cooking.

Do it!

SaraLin

We're a couple and spend Id say about £120 per month on food. However we do eat out about twice per week.

maman

I cook for two and spend about £50 per week but that doesn't include alcohol (that's in the entertainment budget;)).


I'd say you could easily cut your bill by 25% especially as your children are so young.


I think the answer lies in getting organised so that no food is wasted. What I do is write a weekly meal plan basing it on what I've got in my fridge to use up and freezer/storecupboards. then I make a list of only essential extra ingredients. Only buy what's on the list the exception is if I see any YS/offers of things we use regularly especially on meat and fish that I can freeze. This week I only had to buy one piece of meat for my whole week's plan and that's because I wanted to try out a new recipe. All the rest comes from the freezer and then I buy veg to go with it.


I buy in a range of breakfast things (cereal, porage, eggs, bread, beans etc). We are generally home at lunchtime so we have things like HM soup, sandwiches, things on toast, omelettes or portions from the night before. So my meal plan is mainly for suppers and I do a mixture of easy things (HM ready meals from the freezer like chilli or Bolognese) and things that take longer to cook like casseroles or sausage and mash. OP you really do need to plan ahead for food to take to work whether it's a flask of soup or pasta salad or even sandwiches, anything has to be better than buying take aways.


Good luck and just keep asking.

VfM4meplse

£500pm is way too much! There's just one of me, and I spend less than £50 pm on groceries. Mind you, I spend the same again on tea / coffee out - not at all MSE!

[Deleted User]

The problem with asking a sum for the average monthly spend is that it will vary so greatly.

Some people spend very little on food which I suspect is not achievable by most people. I live in a very rural area so I do not have the same access to many of the shops people use for cheaper items. Also, we both work so time for finding bargains by visiting several shops is limited. I may be able to buy apples cheaper at a different shop, but to have to do a fifty mile round trip to do so is not achievable.

As others have suggested meal planning to help save money is the key. I know that after a long week the last thing we want to do on a Friday evening is cook anything. So on Thursday evening we cook two meals and pop one in the fridge so all we have to do is heat it up the next day and there is minimal washing up too.

We also plan easy meals and more complicated meals each week. So on days when we pushed for time we cook one of the quick and easy meal (beans on toast, salad etc) and then cook the more complicated meals on other days, or at the weekends.

We spend about £65 a week on food for two adults. This includes all meals and treats like beer, some nice cheese and a few snacks. It might be a lot compared to some people, but it works out at about £4.60 a day per person and we eat a lot of fruit and veg. and waste no food at all.