How much is your food budget per month?

RG2015

EachPenny wrote: »

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?

Me neither, but in the end decided 28 and 25 were their ages and the £ sign just slipped itself in by mistake. Perhaps it was done on a smartphone with predictive text.

trailingspouse

I used to reckon +/-£75 a week for the two of us.

But now I've stopped shopping at Sainsbugs and have become an Aldi convert, I average £50 per week.

Plus Sainsbugs was a 20 minute drive away (on a good day - could take half an hour if the traffic was bad) but our new Aldi is within walking distance - win win!!

meer53

I shop at Aldi, for 2 adults and a teenager i spend about £60 per week. I wouldn't spend anything in Sainsburys unless something was on offer or reduced. I feel as though i'm being fleeced if i shop anywhere other than Aldi now. I buy fresh meat, fruit and veg, i cook from scratch, no processed foods. Take my own breakfast and lunch to work every day, i can't afford to pay for stuff from the work restaurant and my food is much better !

Eco_Miser

I've averaged £73 a month this year, up from £63 in 2012 (earliest year I've got convenient figures for). Over the six years, the highest month was £167 and lowest £48.
That's for one pensioner, and most of the spending was at my nearest supermarket, Asda.

Makkusu

RG2015 wrote: »

Me neither, but in the end decided 28 and 25 were their ages and the £ sign just slipped itself in by mistake. Perhaps it was done on a smartphone with predictive text.

Yes precisely that - edited now thanks!

Makkusu

EachPenny wrote: »

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?

Thanks for the detailed response! Some of these figures are motivating me to heavily focus on a proper food budget, I can’t understand how it’s so high (my partner is medically underweight too). We do have some dietary needs and interests so I’m sure that pushes the cost up a little but still...

I am in total agreeance with the lifestyle costs not being worth it just for convenience.

And as RG2015 said, those were our ages, just a typo from using my phone.