Average weekly food spend

purpleivy

PipneyJane said:

purpleivy said:

The question is..... how much would £200/month food pounds in 2006/7/8  be these days?

According to the CPI calculator, £200 in 2008 is worth £268.61 today, @purpleivy.

- Pip

That's a useful resource PipneyJane, thank you. If I do it on 2006, that's £291.30.  Let's start with around £300 and work from there!  

Hmmm well, we eat different things these days some of the time. I buy 'nicer stuff' more of the time.   My husband now regards smoked salmon as a store cupboard essential!  I hide it in the freezer, leaving a packet where he is expecting it to be!  I don't get into food shops, so I don't get the chance for YS  items,  I buy some pre prepared foods for my dd that can be pricy, but she is disabled with severe CFS and when I'm not around to sort her food out, provide meals for her.  So three of us rather than 4.   

maman

I was only joking Grey Queen.😉 I just liked your priorities of daily alcohol. 😊 £7 - 8 is excellent when you think of pub prices. 

This recipe is excellent for a cheap steak. I use the beef medallions from Aldi but any cheap cut would work.  It's good with chips but also as a 'roast' dinner. The gravy is lush. 😋
Braised steak recipe - BBC Food

Another Hairy Bikers Recipe which really works is their chilli con carne. I sometimes make a veggie version or with minimal meat and I really don't think my DH is aware. I add 2 extra tins of various  beans and some veg (like diced carrot, mushrooms or peppers) and stick with the beef stock cube as we're not veggie .
Chilli con carne - Recipes - Hairy Bikers

daz378

I know this only cos I've started using the money manager on my banking app...monthly spend  is between 130 ...150 a month...plus chippy couple of times a month....I could get this right down  if I needed to

purpleivy

blah1234 said:

Two adults we are spending about 60 quid a week. Unsure as to how good this is, how much it could be improved?

Are you making progress?

lapis_lazuli

Me and my partner make a meal plan covering two or three weeks at a time which seems to keep both our spending and waste down.  Vegetables are bought from the local veggie market where possible. 

Are you familiar with the website Budgetbytes?  They're American (take their specified prices with a hefty grain of salt) but their recipies are tasty and cheap.  I can recommend their Easy Rosemary Garlic White Bean Soup, especially with a bit of carrot and celery added to it.

hob_nob_bob

In our house we have two adults, and two children (they don't live here full time, but do eat their tea here every night, and breakfasts/dinners around three times a week), and I would say I spend around £60 a week. This includes cat/dog food, toiletries, cleaning products, food and alcohol. We eat  'from scratch' meals about five times a week, and are meat-eaters. We eat a real mixtures of things from homemade Chinese/curry dishes, to stews, lasagne, fajitas, a roast dinner every Sunday, to oven chips and pizza when we're having a lazy day.

I'll sometimes spend more or less but I think that's around average for us.

hob_nob_bob

To add to my previous post, I do a meal plan before every food shop. I try to vary what we have week to week, and always see what I already have in the cupboards/freezer to use up to try to reduce the food shop and waste. I HATE wasting food!

puzzlecat

We budget £300 a month for food, toiletries, cleaning products, cat food & litter. We're two adults, both vegan and only my partner drinks really. We used to spend a lot less but since this pandemic started I'll admit I do splash out more on treats (Alpro yoghurts rather than own brand, spring rolls, biscuits - nothing too extreme!) because there's not a great deal else to look forward to! When I lived alone about 13 years ago I used to spend £20 a week on food and still ate really well so I know I could get it back down if I needed to. Happy to spend the extra for now

MandM90

Rosa_Damascena said:

MandM90 said:

Ours is currently budgeted at £350 a month for a family of 4, including cleaning products and cats. So that's £80 a week and at least £15-20 is usually booze.  But we're vegan so cook with lots of lentils and beans which probably saves money, nearly everything from scratch usually. I've found my food costs rose quite a lot in the last year. Hard to tell what's inflation, what's due to lockdown and what's due to personal changes (having a baby and moving to Northern Ireland where food is a bit more pricey).
I think you could probably cut down from £60, especially if that doesn't include alcohol, but I wouldn't say it's outrageous.

What's the produce situation where you are atm? I heard that NI was running out of supplies of imported fresh foods due to Brexit red tape?

There were a few empty shelves week before last but seems to have settled down. Luckily NI seems to grow a lot of it's own veg - I tend to notice a lot of the stuff I buy (leeks, spuds, brussels, carrots, mushrooms) always say NI on them. My in laws eat fish (we are veggie) and the fishmonger has struggled to get stuff over from Scotland though. Luckily again lots is from the island anyway. I think everything else has been more of an issue with lots of household/clothing retailers not being able to ship here and some may not even bother in future as we are a small market. Will be interesting to see how it all pans out. For now I've applied for an Irish passport for youngest child and won't bother with UK!

retiredinfrance

Hello, I saw in one of your posts that you are thinking of planting a walnut tree. We are from NI originally and I don't think they do well in NI.  We can't remember ever seeing one.Can we humbly suggest some research? It's lovely to read your posts and they bring back happy memories for us. All our best wishes for life in "Norn Iron".
And stay safe.