How much do you spend on food per month?

Sayschezza

I do 2 delivered shops per month from MrS as that's my preferred smk of choice. I usually spend about £70ish each time and rarely shop in between. OH buys bread and milk as I can't store either between shops. He would also buy anything else I ask him to if I am running out and it's needed before the next big shop but it's rare this happens. BTW he never takes the money for what he buys.
I don't meal plan but instead I have building blocks so we always have the ingredients to hand to make favourite meals. Ie. Freezer holds beef and gammon joints, chicken breasts (OH won't eat dark meat), sausages, mince, braising steak and fish. Also vegetables, garlic bread etc. You get the picture I am sure. Cupboards likewise so all I do for my order is to top up anything we have depleted since the last order. I mostly cook including soups etc but if we eat out or have the occasional take away OH pays.

Mistral001

My local Tesco's have reduced price food (yellow sticker). They keep reducing the price, Dutch auction style. Very little moves off the shelves until the items are down to about 20% or even 10% of their original price and then they fly off the shelves.

No matter what way I try to time it there seems to be the same people who get there before me and end up filling their trolleys leaving the rest of with very little. My theory is that there is a staff insider who tips them off when the final reduction is just about to be made, but maybe I have been watching too many conspiracy theory TV programmes.

suki1964

Enough that we don't go hungry

Enough that the freezer will give a few meals if Im feeling broke

Enough that we eat a pretty balanced diet

I have found that Ive been pushed towards cheaper meats to keep the budget down to the £35, more sausages, mince , stewing beef dishes for example, which isn't really healthy or sustainable. I do try to do a meat free day and still try a vegan meal now and then, but as mum is getting older and more picky about what she will eat, Im constrained a lot

I have to admit Im no longer finding it easy to keep to a healthy ( in my mind ) diet for less then £45 a week for 3 and possibly more



I used to say £35 a week on average for 3 adults but that is slowly changing, food prices are rising, pack sizes getting smaller, and reductions not worth picking up as a whole

kimplus8

We are a family of 9 and I budget £150 per week for our food/groceries shop, however, I rarely spend that much on food. I usually have money left over that goes into my savings. I think I spend around £400-£430 per month.

mardatha

Agree Suki, food prices are definitely going up and not by a couple of pence a time either.

Poppy1984

I love posts like this! I know a lot of people say what's the point as everyone's different or there's already umpteen threads like this. But I have to say I find these threads so so useful for ideas and yes there may be others similar but they go out of date as prices change so I hope people keep posting them.
I budget £50 a week there's 2 of us. That includes all food, toiletries and Huss cleaning products. I try to stay under if possible some weeks I manage some weeks I find it a stretch. I'm always looking for tips and ideas on how to stretch the pennies further for groceries.
I shop in Aldi mainly but will pop in the other shops for the things I can't get from Aldi. I cook from scratch and batch cook often but DS has hallow legs and is a very picky eater so I know I could spend less if he would eat better but never mind!

LittleAnn

We budget £100 pw for food, petrol and wine. Food around £50. We do eat well tho. Fresh fruit, meat and fish. So £200 just for food seems ok

markin2

LittleAnn wrote: »

We budget £100 pw for food, petrol and wine. Food around £50. We do eat well tho. Fresh fruit, meat and fish. So £200 just for food seems ok

I cant see how you can effectively budget if you don't know what you exactly spend on food, petrol and wine.

The wine budget may even save your liver :beer:

£50 a week for 2 isn't that bad.

[Deleted User]

well last month as I had quite a few bits of left over stuff given to me from my two DDs (they know I never bin food if I can help it )
.My youngest DD sometimes has stuff that she just has bought towards the Christmas break and just no been opened or eaten ,so it ends up in my cupboards (I had a nice wedge of edam that she had bought ,bless her for me as she knows I like it and it had been forgotten at the back of the fridge )
So last month my food budget came to just under £50.00 so a tenner ended up in my holiday funds.
So far this month I have not had to food shop at all as my third shop was almost at the end of January and I managed to get a good it of fresh fruit and veg.
Fingers crossed I won't need anything yet until perhaps the middle of next week.Plenty still in my cupboards and freezer. As I was away for 10 days over the Christmas break and used up stuff in the fridge to make dinners for the freezer .Made 4 veggie curries and 2 veggie lasagnes and
some bubble and squeak burgers with odds and ends of cooking bacon added which also ended up in the freezer so plenty of meals still in there for a few weeks yet .I had also stocked up on UHT milk in case of bad weather so probably mainly what I will need this month will only be fresh fruit and veg. Got a big bill to pay for a new central heating boiler so I am quite glad that I have my stores stashed away for the rest of this winter. I must admit I am using more and more veggie recipes and cutting down on the meat a bit. I discovered a nice y/s salmon fishcake in my freezer yesterday with a cheesy centre that I had got reduced before christmas down to 35p and I had that with a quarter of a head of steamed broccoli and some mashed potato last night and it was delicious very inexpensive meal but quite filling

its thinking outside the box when it comes to feeding yourself Possibly easier for me as its only myself to please and I will eat alomost anything

t14cy_t

I put all my spends in a diary each day. last month we spent £22 per week on food as we had such a stash leftover from Christmas ys goodies. went to morrisons last night and bought £12 of minced beef for £1.20 and 4 bags of spuds for 10p each....so will be batch cooking cottage pie today. its like having a takeaway in your freezer!! ive plenty of pots so grandkids will also get individual grannies pies when I visit on sunday……