July 2021 Grocery Challenge

Sallyp2

wheelygreat said:

Hi I would like to join this challenge. 

What is a sensible budget for family of 5. 2 adults and 3 teenage kids?  At the moment we are all over the place with budgeting. We have been spending about £900 per month all in the one supermarket.  Feels like there is never anything to make/eat. Is there any help or tips? It seems we waste an awful lot of money and throw out lots of food each week as well.

Hello Wheelygreat - re your query, when you can go back to May's Grocery Challenge. I cut and pasted some food spending figures for various family sizes, which gave me with an idea of what was an average spend for my HH.

Some people did and have found it good information, some have been dismissive, but it will give you a steer to start you off. I think Pipney did ask it was included in the front of each months challenges as background, but don't think it got included for June or July.

EDIT - I've cut and pasted it below to save you scrolling back into old threads

Sallyp2

Taken from NimleFins website. Very interesting read and suggests the UK average food shop spend per adult each week is £26.50. Well I'm spending over that and my aim for the next few months is for my weekly food spending to be average. Think our waistlines will end up more average as well lol

Average Food Costs per Week

• Per Person: The average weekly food shop is £26.5 per person in the UK—but clearly caloric needs vary by age and gender. When you add £13.8 spent on food prepared out (e.g., restaurants and takeaways), the average weekly food bill for 1 person is £40.3.
• Average Adult Man: The average adult male spends around £32 on groceries, £17 on food out and £49 altogether on food each week.
• Young, active adult man: A young, active adult man around 18 years of age whose caloric needs are 50% higher than the average person would theoretically spend around £60 a week on food (£40 οn groceries and £21 out).
• Average Adult Woman: The average adult female theoretically spends around £25 on groceries, £13 on food out and £37 altogether on food each week.
• Young, active adult woman: A young, active adult woman around 18 years of age whose caloric needs are 13% higher than the average person would theoretically spend around £46 a week on food (£30 οn groceries and £16 out).
• 2 Adults: The average weekly food bill for 2 adults would be around £86 in total—£57 spent on the weekly food shop and £29 spent on food out.
• Family of 3: The average weekly food bill for a family of 3 (two adults and one younger child) is around £119—£78 spent on the weekly food shop and £41 spent on food out.
• Family of 4: The typical family of 4 (two adults and 2 younger children) would spend around £151 each week on food—£99 on the weekly shop and £52 on restaurant and takeaway meals.
• Family of 5: Larger families of 5 (two adults and 3 younger children) spend around £121 on the weekly shop and another £63 on food prepared out, bringing the total average food bill for a family of 5 to £183.
• Family of 3 adults: Three adults (or two adults and one older teenager) would spend around £85 on groceries, £44 on food prepared out and £129 altogether on food each week, clearly with budget varying by the age and gender of the family members.

For information as a steer to UK averages. It's for information only and people can make their own minds up if it suits them as a starter. I know some people found it useful and others were dismissive. 

@elsiepac would it be possible, please, for you to link this in the opening posts of the Grocery Challenge?  It’s very informative and gives newbies a guideline for their budgets.

[Deleted User]

Hi All, I am unexpectedly at home this week as the hotel I was meant to be staying at cancelled due to covid resitictions not being lifted as they had expected.  Anyhow, OH and I have done a food plan for the week and will shop for it tomorrow.  We are using up some freezer items but need fresh bits mainly.  Will post my total once the shopping is done.  

thriftwizard

What a shame for you. @[Deleted User]! I hope you'll be getting a refund or another week later on.

I've just added £132.05 to kick July's grocery budget off; that was £35 at the market on Friday, £94.05 at L!dls today on non-perishables and butter for the month, and the £3 at W8rose on something I forgot to put on my list for L!dls - noodles! Didn't realise we were down to 2 packets, which would do us just one week. I expect some more will have to be purchased before the end of the month, but I might be able to get to an oriental grocers, in which case they'll cost less! We have 3 birthdays this month, so that involves 3 takeaways, but they come out of the Entertainments budget & are budgeted for separately; any ad-hoc takeaways have to come out of the main grocery budget though, so I try like mad to avoid needing them. Tonight's meal,  Nepalese & absolutely delicious, cost just under £100 for 8 of us, so you can see why I allow for birthday takeaways outside of the main budget & put aside a bit each month towards them.

GSDMum

wheelygreat said:

Hi I would like to join this challenge. 

What is a sensible budget for family of 5. 2 adults and 3 teenage kids?  At the moment we are all over the place with budgeting. We have been spending about £900 per month all in the one supermarket.  Feels like there is never anything to make/eat. Is there any help or tips? It seems we waste an awful lot of money and throw out lots of food each week as well.

thanks. 

Hi Wheelygreat, welcome. I only started monthly budget challenges a couple months ago. It's surprising how a little tip here and there helps. A few things I've learnt from the lovely people on this thread that's really helping;

1. Plan your week/month menus in advance, it's much easier to make a planned meal than peering into the fridge half an hour before dinner time wondering what to cook for dinner.

2. Slowly does it, don't try to cut down all at once, it take time to build up your 'budget cooking' repertoire

3. A great tip I've picked up from one of the posters here is to use lentils to bulk out meals. They're hard to notice, and they're good for you.  EG I made a chicken and veg casserole from a left over roast chicken carcass and a couple of chicken breasts, adding a couple of handfuls of lentils to the mix. I used half the casserole for our evening dinner adding a few dumplings. The other half I froze for a week or so later, this time putting a pastry crust on the top. Did the same with bolognaise sauce, adding the lentils with extra tinned tomatoes and seasoning. Using half with spaghetti, and using the other half for a lasagne. Hubs had no idea about the lentils. So that's two day's dinners for next to nothing.

4. This maybe a bit naughty; we like rib-eye steaks a couple times a month, I've taken to cutting off a few ounces from each steak, and using the off-cuts to make a beef curry. Hubs hasn't sussed this trick yet!

5. Have a look at the delicious recipes at the start of this thread, they are mine of inspiration.

I'm a work in progress... turning the challenge into a game.

MissRikkiC

wheelygreat said:

Hi I would like to join this challenge. 

What is a sensible budget for family of 5. 2 adults and 3 teenage kids?  At the moment we are all over the place with budgeting. We have been spending about £900 per month all in the one supermarket.  Feels like there is never anything to make/eat. Is there any help or tips? It seems we waste an awful lot of money and throw out lots of food each week as well.

thanks. 

Hi Wheelygreat! Welcome to the challenge

I would start off slow coming into this - some of the things most people here do are now a way of life and so anything which you'd really not enjoy doing/couldn't put up with doing for the long haul probably isnt worth it. That said there are savings to be made doing things as one offs so its finding a balance. 

The 3 things which help me the most are:

Stock taking all cupboards, fridge, freezer
Meal plan using those ingredients first
Shopping list whenever out and about for Groceries 

I now find i cant do #3 without the other 2! That said we always have something naughty on a Friday so this is a staple for us, we meal plan saturday-thursday. 

Hope that helps.

With regards to a budget, im sure others can help here with larger families than my own.

MissRikkiC

GSDMum said:

wheelygreat said:

Hi I would like to join this challenge. 

What is a sensible budget for family of 5. 2 adults and 3 teenage kids?  At the moment we are all over the place with budgeting. We have been spending about £900 per month all in the one supermarket.  Feels like there is never anything to make/eat. Is there any help or tips? It seems we waste an awful lot of money and throw out lots of food each week as well.

thanks. 

Hi Wheelygreat, welcome. I only started monthly budget challenges a couple months ago. It's surprising how a little tip here and there helps. A few things I've learnt from the lovely people on this thread that's really helping;

1. Plan your week/month menus in advance, it's much easier to make a planned meal than peering into the fridge half an hour before dinner time wondering what to cook for dinner.

2. Slowly does it, don't try to cut down all at once, it take time to build up your 'budget cooking' repertoire

3. A great tip I've picked up from one of the posters here is to use lentils to bulk out meals. They're hard to notice, and they're good for you.  EG I made a chicken and veg casserole from a left over roast chicken carcass and a couple of chicken breasts, adding a couple of handfuls of lentils to the mix. I used half the casserole for our evening dinner adding a few dumplings. The other half I froze for a week or so later, this time putting a pastry crust on the top. Did the same with bolognaise sauce, adding the lentils with extra tinned tomatoes and seasoning. Using half with spaghetti, and using the other half for a lasagne. Hubs had no idea about the lentils. So that's two day's dinners for next to nothing.

4. This maybe a bit naughty; we like rib-eye steaks a couple times a month, I've taken to cutting off a few ounces from each steak, and using the off-cuts to make a beef curry. Hubs hasn't sussed this trick yet!

5. Have a look at the delicious recipes at the start of this thread, they are mine of inspiration.

I'm a work in progress... turning the challenge into a game.

This made me LOL and want to do the same! 

pamsdish

Went town today, more charity shop donations, I can see what is still to go now, did some shopping but mostly non grocery, £13.70 for grocery budget, stick black pudding, 3 y.s jars of pickled eggs, lol, and 2 packets of hemp seeds from H&B, second half price, I like them with pumpkin seeds in my home made bread/rolls, should last a year.

GSDMum

Yes, I know I'm a bit of an 'anorak' 

Visited Aldi for a top up. Thought I'd do a comparison with Tesco, my 'normal' shopping (home delivery) store. Can't say the product comparison was an exact match, but it was close.

Spent £38.89 with Aldi, same'ish' cost with Tesco would have been £41.82 - a saving of £4.93. Mind I needed petrol to get to Aldi, where with Tesco, I pay £7.99 per month for Tesco Super Delivery Saver. (At this point my head starts spinning).

So far this month I've spent £254.09 (29th June) on a big Tesco delivery, and £38.89 today = £290.98 leaving £9.02 for the rest of the month. 

My menu plan for July is now fully provisioned, even so, it's going to be interesting!

Smoosh

£21.70 on dog food and treats. The food will last approximately a month and the treats should last a little longer.

£11.77 in B&M on a big tub of vanish powder, toothpaste and mouthwash. 

Brings us to £143.54/300.

We ended up not eating a couple of our planned meals at the weekend, so they will roll over. Means I don't need to do another big shop until Monday.