How much is your food budget per month?

Makkusu

Really interested for some current examples of what people budget/spend each month groceries.

I admittedly have lacked any budget for food for the past 2 years, I work a stressful job so I just by what, when I want and make sure it's healthy... But I'd like for that to change!

Currently we budget £400 a month for us a couple (28 & 25). Shop at Sainsbury's mainly, I buy lunches at Tesco if I don't have energy to make it the day before. Takeaways are emergencies and have krept up to maybe 2-3 a month in the past few months (oops).

zak2012

When i was single my food shopping was only £20 a week shop at Lidl and Aldi and was healthy and tasty..but now with partner i spend £60 a week on food at tesco and food isnt that great.

GwylimT

Ours has gone up a little as some things are a little more expensive here.

But generally if I was still working in pounds £20 per person per week including lunches at work. As we have to avoid both nuts, dairy and gluten the only processed things we buy are tinned tomatos, tomato puree and tomato pasatta.

Mnd

I reckon £50 a week for the 2 of us, 1 vegetarian

RG2015

I am way above these figures at £600 per month for my wife, my mid twenties son and me. However that does include moderate alcohol, household supplies, magazines and toiletries for my wife and me.

I do not believe that we have a lavish lifestyle but some of the figures quoted above are less than half of our spend. I am now going to analyse my Tesco receipts to see what our spend is on just groceries.

Edit: I have calculated that my spend on groceries over the last month is £400. This works out at about £30 per week per person.

Moonshine14

I’m way above these figures too. Maybe I need to start analysing and budgeting better.

Lomcevak

£250 per month for family of five, which breaks down as roughly £220 per month groceries and £30 'treats'.

edit: just checked in YNAB, and I've spent £18,091.92 on groceries in the 86 months since I started using a budget - so £210.36 a month average. Has ticked up a little since the early days

Pretty much everything home-cooked (we both like to cook), helped a fair bit by a local farmshop which does good quality fruit and veg at very reasonable prices, and make lunches for work. Also tend to make big batches of things like stews, pasta sauces, etc., which get frozen - not only cheap, but easy to heat up and helps avoid the temptation of takeaway or junk after those busy days at work (e.g. bung some pre-made stew in oven with some baked potatoes, takes moments, then add some winter veg, yum)

[Deleted User]

For 2840 kcal/day:

£2.95/day
£89.81/month
£1077.65/year

So for the recommended 2500 kcal/day it would be nearer:

£2.60/day
£79.08/month
£949/year

glider3560

For one person, I spend an average of £125 per month on groceries (food, drink, supermarket alcohol and toiletries).

This has gone up since changing job, as I used to travel a fair amount previously, so wouldn't be needing to buy food for a few days every month.

Typically have 1 or 2 takeaways per month which are not included, otherwise the £125 includes all my meals (including lunch). I typically buy the "value" brands unless I don't like the taste and split my shopping between Lidl and a larger supermarket (for things they don't sell or are expensive in Lidl). My meal portions are large (or so I'm told), but healthy, since my BMI is good.

Zola.

At the moment there is just two of us, so £200 or slightly less. We do a lot of bulk cooking.

EachPenny

Makkusu wrote: »

I admittedly have lacked any budget for food for the past 2 years, I work a stressful job so I just by what, when I want and make sure it's healthy... But I'd like for that to change!

Currently we budget £400 a month for us a couple (£28 & £25). Shop at Sainsbury's mainly, I buy lunches at Tesco if I don't have energy to make it the day before. Takeaways are emergencies and have krept up to maybe 2-3 a month in the past few months (oops).

I don't budget as such, but shop on the basis of spending roughly £20 per week per person (including household essentials, but not alcohol).

My actual weekly spending varies significantly. Tesco regularly send me vouchers for "£x off when you spend £y". So my shopping one week could be whatever 'y' is (say £80), but over the following weeks I might only spend a few pounds on milk and bread.

I had a similar kind of job once, I was 'too busy' to prepare food so ate takeaways and snack food. Regardless of the health issues, the cost of that kind of living was enormous - I would often spend at least £25 a week just at McDonalds

That is why thinking about budgeting is realy important.... lots of people seek higher paid jobs and then spend all of the additional income facilitating the job with convenience food/drinks and commuting. If you spend £3 on a coffee on your way to work because you couldn't spare 5 minutes to make and drink one at home then your work/life balance is seriously wrong.

I also find Sainsbury's to be one of the more expensive places to shop. Typically I expect to pay around 10p per item more than Tesco, which itself is not the cheapest. I would only shop at Sainsbury's if the cost of travel to another supermarket exceeded what I could save (i.e. I'm passing a Sainsbury's or else only need a couple of items). Getting the occasional money-off voucher with Sainsbury's can be an incentive though

I also don't understand your "£400 a month for us a couple (£28 & £25)" figures. £400 per month works out at £46 per week per person?