How much do you spend on food per month?

PasturesNew

If you break down your shopping spends you might surprise yourself at where you're overspending.

For me, I can spend under £1/day on food .... then guzzle three 23p cans of fizzy pop and an entire £1 bag of chocolates from £land.... end result, spending £2.69/day in reality. So, to reduce costs, I'd instantly see I'd need to swap my fizzy pop for another and/or give up the choccies.

It's often not "the meals", but the unseen spends. The little treats, the wine they slide into the basket, the daily hot sausage roll from the van that calls at their workplace, buying the £3 "meal deals" without thinking "£3 is a heck of a lot on one bit of food".

Look at the spending on things that go into your mouth that aren't "the meals".

CapricornLass

Unseen spends - how true!  The best way I've found is not to go food shopping with a husband.  The other thing I did when I was really watching the pennies was to do my week's shopping in a hand basket.  Yep, you soon think twice about adding extras when you have to lug it all round the shop before hitting the tills.

We probably spend about £250 to £300 a month on food, including cleaning stuff and some beauty products - not my moisturisers!  However, I have to cater for a wide range of food allergies - gluten, nuts and coconut for me, gluten nuts and diary for DS1, egg free for DS2 partner, and what I find is not so much a case of choosing the cheapest product  so much as having a product I can buy.  A lot of the budget goes on specialist foods.  Once a month I do a family Sunday lunch for DS2& partner, my parents and husband and me, maybe also a meal for other friends, too. I would love to spend less, but I've decided that in spite of batch cooking, meal planning, cooking from scratch, growing my own and foraging, and using as much of the left-overs as possible, its now unlikely to get much lower.

Something I have started doing is trying to store food using more environmental methods, so using plastic containers more, and using glass pyrex casserole dishes with lids for microwaving veg.  Use of cling-film has gone WA-A-AY down!  I've also made myself and use reusable facial pads.  Ok, these are only very small savings, but every mickle maks a muckle!

candygirl

Due to health problems, I've  recently been getting Morrison's deliveries, about 3 times a month.I use a midweek delivery pass, that was £20 for 6 months, n go for a lot of offers to save money .
The fruit n veg is dearer than ALDI, but as I'm not using petrol to drive to the shop it balances out.
I keep a shopping list on my phone,  and also do meal plans lists, and possible recipes to make from what I've got in:) I'm not usually such an organised person, but this method is so easy to cross reference stuff, n see what's there.
I have occasional energy spurts,  where I batch cook soups,  veg curries, chillis etc, so always have a freezer surprise meal, for my CBA days
I usually spend £100-120 a month, for all food,  most toiletries, n dog food, for me and my Queen pooch
Could probably do it cheaper, but it's manageable at the mo
Another top tip is to always have bread n milk in, so You're not tempted to go out for it, then end up spending £20, on random stuff!