Couples! How much do you spend on food per month?

Thorssen

I do buy own brand stuff and I don't buy ready meals; I batch cook and usually eat out of the freezer twice a week, but I still spend over £100 each week on food.
I know why; for instance someone above said salmon was expensive. Actually salmon is about the cheapest fish you can buy and I have fish once or twice every week. I normally have one piece of expensive meat a week: maybe a rib-eye, maybe rack of lamb, maybe veal escalopes. I buy quite a lot of fruit. I cook dishes that require herbs and spices. I like nice cheeses. I buy two types of olive oil, one for cooking, and a virgin one for salads (but I also buy vegetable oil, which is rapeseed, but much cheaper than oil identified as rapeseed). I have six types of vinegar. I buy sourdough bread or organic wholemeal. And so on.
I could easily cut the spend down, but I prefer not to be the man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.

Mistral001

About £75 per month for one person.  I never buy branded goods except those that are yellow labelled and costing less than the own-brand equivalent.  I buy a lot of vegetables and fruit, both fresh and canned/frozen.  I eat meat with most main meals but not every one.  

Onebrokelady

I'm currently spending about £120 a month on food and all household products, my daughter is living with me at the moment but buys her own shopping although we do share some meals if I have cooked something she really likes. I am going to be monitoring my food budget carefully for the month on March to see where my money goes and if I can reduce the bill 

Poppy1984

We spend around £200 a month but it can vary because i but my meat and fish in Aldi when it's reduced so o just buy what's available at the time and pop it in the freezer, that could mean spending more some months than others but I think it all evens out. 

I have a list on the side of the freezer with the contents of the freezer so that I can meal plan easier. I also keep a running shopping list so as soon as something I use on a regular basis runs out for example rice/pasta I add it to my list for the next time I go shopping. I make sure I meal plan so I only buy what I need. But staples such as rice pasta and cous cous I always have in the cupboard and I tend to buy peppers, onions, garlic, chilli, salad veg and carrots, broccoli every week/fortnight. I mainly cook from scratch

Mrs_Z

Our spend is around £500-600 per month (2 adults only) and includes alcohol, cat food, cleaning products etc. I'm aware it's on the high side but OH is bit of a foodie, does 95% of the cooking so I'm not complaining.  With the lock down since March, we've had 1 x takeaway pizza, all other meals have been at home x 3 day. 
The drinks probably amount for quite a bit on that total.  Generally, the alcohol is consumed Fri-Sun only but then that's wine with meals and aperitifs before and sometimes 'digestives' after! 

maman

I think there are 2 important questions to ask about how much you spend on food. 

One is, can you afford the amount you're spending? If you find yourself in debt then you need to find ways of cutting back through cutting any waste, switching to cheaper alternatives etc.

The other is whether you're getting value for money. Personally I can afford to spend  more or less whatever I want on food but I choose not to. I really don't want to spend any more of my hard earned cash lining the pockets of the big supermarkets than I have to when I can get almost anything I want far more cheaply in the so called discounters.

I'm fortunate in that I'm not in a vulnerable category so I can still visit shops in person. I know many posters have noticed how much more they're spending because they are having online orders from the big supermarkets. 

Others might have different priorities. Maybe they want to treat themselves to ready meals or takeaways to cheer themselves up or save time. Personally I enjoy the challenge of eating really well while spending a minimum. Then I can save my money for other things like travel or eating out with friends... one day. 😉

joedenise

Absolutely agree maman but from reading the thread it seems that everyone includes different things within their "grocery budget", eg some people include alcohol, pet food, etc but for others it's literally just food or just whatever they buy in the supermarket so it's really difficult to compare.

Doc_N

joedenise said:

Absolutely agree maman but from reading the thread it seems that everyone includes different things within their "grocery budget", eg some people include alcohol, pet food, etc but for others it's literally just food or just whatever they buy in the supermarket so it's really difficult to compare.

Couldn't agree more.  The question's clear enough (how much do you spend on food?) but how many of us can give anything like an accurate answer to that one? 

I can tell you exactly how much we spend on food etc - a lot of people probably can too.  But I couldn't (without a lot of work) split out the actual food from the 'etc', and everybody's 'etc' will be different.

MrsStepford

£100 pw for two people, for mostly organic food, delivered or couriered. Excludes alcohol and Deliveroo orders, as husband pays for those. Includes bulk buys and toiletries such as shampoo, shaving foam, soap, handwash, antiseptic wipes plus, cleaning products.

Just switched regular milk and eggs order from Abel & Cole to Waitrose. Cheaper prices and not paying for delivery saves £££ per year. Further savings by using Riverford for meat which we used to order from A&C or direct, from farms, also saves delivery charge/courier charge. Bulk buying tinned Morrisons salmon from Amazon Prime, saved £9 on the shelf price and no delivery charge. 

Whatever I save gets plowed back into food budget and pays for treats eg a big box of Jane Asher chocolate gluten free brownies from Home Bargains for husband or some Italian gluten free Baci chocolates. 

pumpkin89

£700 a month at supermarkets, of which roughly £600 is food and drink and £100 is non-food.  I don't track alcohol separately because we only have it with dinner so I see it as part of the cost of the meal (we probably get through 5 bottles of wine and a few beers each month).

Food is an area I'm happy to spend more on in order to get quality (e.g. organic meat and dairy).  It's become even more important during lockdown as there are fewer options in other areas of life to treat ourselves or add a bit of variety into the days.