How Much Do You Budget For Groceries?

EssexHebridean

Healthinmind wrote: »

We are two adults and a cat. I am hyper sensitive with inflammatory conditions, and have to have a mostly unprocessed, fresh cooked balanced variety of food to reduce pain and stiffness and prevent intolerant reactions. I budget £130 a week, to include all household items, toiletries, groceries, snack treats, packed lunches, any lazy day ready meals, and wine (essential for the mind!). Even this is hard to stick to, so I am really surprised at how little you all seem to be able to spend, I buy just what we need on a daily basis. When I need to replace face cream and hair stuff I go for a natural brand that serves me well, but this has to be an additional expense. I guess the wine is roughly £30.00 of our weekly budget, and that's going for the half price and other bargains. And no, we can't give up the wine, that is too sad :rotfl: and I am no angel :A

£130 per week? wow - I can't honestly imagine spending that much - genuinely I can't imagine what I'd buy. On the flip side, toiletry stuff we buy for ourselves in any event, we don't buy processed foods at all, really, other than things like sausages which I guess count as processed in theory - never ready meals though, we like neither the taste notr the ingredients that go into most of them. Our alcohol consumption is a long way below that too - I barely spend £30 on wine in a year, never mind a week! :rotfl:

Just goes to show how different everyone's budget is I guess - and let's face it, if you have no debts, and owe nobody anything, then nobody should criticise the way you choose to spend your money.

EssexHebridean

determined_new_ms wrote: »

I agree it is a matter of finding what works where. I know s**nsbury's value teabags are almost as good as the pyramid variety. I never buy sweetner in a1di as it's horrible! There is a degree of testing things out in different ranges to work out what works for you. I can personally vouch for L1dl's thai green curry (the fresh version not the frozen). I think it's about £1.50 a meal. I love thai food so try often to have 1 of these in the freezer for a day when I want thai food. At £1.50 v £15 (for take out, minimum) it's the lesser of 2 evils

They are! While T's ones are VILE!

I think making foods "roll over" is a bit of a key thing for us - so Friday night's tea was a fry-up - I bought a pack of Aldi sausages for this - £1.39 and very tasty, but only needed 4 of the 6. I grilled the lot, and the other two were thinly sliced into a tomato sauce with lots of veg last night. Cheap, healthy and very tasty indeed. :T Chicken does the same - will do a roast at a weekend, something like spanish chicken or chicken & mushroom lasagne for another main meal, then the pickings and the carcass (cooked down for stock) will get turned into risotto for a third.

Moonlustie

I don't have a set budget but look at spending around £30-£40 per week. Like someone else, I switched to Aldi last year and it's made a big difference, cutting my food bill in half. I also cook from scratch and try not to buy anything pre-prepared/processed - my bill is small because I live on my own.

keithtmoir

we spend about £70 a week on all our shopping we eat meat and always have steak once a week. I don't know how people can eat well on such limited budgets. We are 2 cats 1 dog and 3 adults we do include all our booze in that budget as well. I work on eating for £5 a head per day apart from the days we have steak. We make our lunches for work off this as well.

darwins_mum

DrWatson1 wrote: »

I have to say I'm surprised by some of the comments here about Aldi. In my experience, their fruit and veg is fine - better than Asda, and not quite as good as Sainsbury's.

Some of their own brand stuff is a bit hit-and-miss - Nachos and Gold Label coffee are excellent, chocolate digestives....not so much!

But for everyday fruit, veg and meat, I would challenge anyone to "taste the difference" in a blind taste test.

Totally with you on that one Dr. I love their fruit and veg. I make my own fruit and vegetable juice most days and it works well for me. I find that it goes off quicker than produce from Sainsbury, but the trick is to use it quickly. I have had chicken from there and found it satisfactory.
I converted my Dad to Aldi last year and halved his shopping bill!

darwins_mum

I have enjoyed reading the posts, thanks for sharing. I am going to reduce my shopping spends to 15 pounds a week for 1 person. I will be at home, so will be doing lots of cooking from scratch. mainly veggie meals made from whatever is in the cupboard and in the freezer. I have an abundance of cleaning and toiletries, so no need to buy any for at least a month.
I have recently been a bit wasteful - buying stuff and letting it sit in the cupboard/fridge until out of date and then throwing it out. I hate wasting food - it really is a waste of money.

darwins_mum

I have enjoyed reading the posts, thanks for sharing. I am going to reduce my shopping spends to 15 pounds a week for 1 person. I will be at home, so will be doing lots of cooking from scratch. mainly veggie meals made from whatever is in the cupboard and in the freezer. I have an abundance of cleaning and toiletries, so no need to buy any for at least a month.
I have recently been a bit wasteful - buying stuff and letting it sit in the cupboard/fridge until out of date and then throwing it out. I hate wasting food - it really is a waste of money.

determined_new_ms

darwins_mum wrote: »

I have enjoyed reading the posts, thanks for sharing. I am going to reduce my shopping spends to 15 pounds a week for 1 person. I will be at home, so will be doing lots of cooking from scratch. mainly veggie meals made from whatever is in the cupboard and in the freezer. I have an abundance of cleaning and toiletries, so no need to buy any for at least a month.
I have recently been a bit wasteful - buying stuff and letting it sit in the cupboard/fridge until out of date and then throwing it out. I hate wasting food - it really is a waste of money.

If you're going to do this I think it's doable but would recommend doing 1 monthly shop. That way you can make use of bulk buying and cooking & freezing.

I totally do get where people are coming from re thinking that spending a low amount isn't possible to eat well but honestly I have to respectfully disagree.

What we have eaten this week (geek alert!)

Today:
B: toast for breakfast
L: baked beans on toast for lo, a home made twinks biscuit, a yogurt and a apple (foraged); me a bit skewed today as I had a ms restuarant assignment so free fast food snacks an apple & a satsuma. Not sure what oh did...
lo ate at the child minders, I've not been hungry

yesterday:
B: toast again!
L: lo - sausage roll, yogurt, fruit, twink, olives & gherkin (it's her favourite!), me parsnip soup, hm roll, banana, apple & twink. oh lo goulash from previous night
home made ham and split pea soup

Wed:
B: porridge with stewed apples & cinnamon
L: lo & me curried lentil, parsnip & apple soup with hm roll & fruit/yogurt (a biscuit for afternoon snacks...) cracker & fruit for lo for morning snack
beef goulash, mash & hm grown runner beans and pattipan. Ice cream for desert (for those who wanted it)

Can't really remember any further back! Tomorrow we will be having spaghetti bolognaise (I will make a double portion and freeze one for in the week). Sunday we will have roast pork with potatoes, stuffing, yorkshires and home grown veg. Likely I'll knock up a apple something (as have so many - tis the season...). I usually make a cake/muffins every other week & freeze half so we have a sweet something with lunches or when we fancy.

I'll grant you we don't have steak every week - my oh would love that. we usually have about £15pm for either a takeaway or a few different night with something that feels like a treat. So it might be steaks one week and a p1zza express pizza (from a SM)

Personally I love quite simple meals but oh prefers a much heavier meat diet so we both have to make compromises around this

Healthinmind

Economising on proper food intake also means economising on health. We need a variety of minerals and vitamins to be in good mental and physical health. Without that we can't work well and we need to generate an income....for rather longer these days!

suki1964

Healthinmind wrote: »

Economising on proper food intake also means economising on health. We need a variety of minerals and vitamins to be in good mental and physical health. Without that we can't work well and we need to generate an income....for rather longer these days!

I can still eat a balanced diet on my budget

We eat home grown veg, free ranged eggs, lots of oily fish, chicken, offal , small amounts of processed meats such as ham and sausages. We use whole milk and proper butter

I know I personally could do better, I don't like fruit so the only fruit I eat are frozen berries in my yoghurt and I drink a glass of orange juice a day, but there is always fruit in the house for DH and grandkids ( more when they stop)

So what is it you are calling proper food?