How much do you spend on food shop for I&E

ooops

I have just done another (expensive) food shop £135 for food, toiletries and household essentials and this lasts for 1 week. This seems a huge amount to spend and I was wondering what others spend per adult.

fermi

This is what HMRC say is reasonable when they are assessing peoples I&E to determine what payments they can afford on Tax arrears:

Discretionary expenditure represents levels of spending for which no explanation is needed from the customer. This is a concept that will be familiar to the majority of direct tax staff who have been involved in time to pay issues. It is acknowledged that these figures will not be considered in the majority of indirect tax cases, but there will be cases where they may need to be used, for example in small or de-registered trader cases.

The trigger figures are detailed in the table below. They represent what research by the Office for National Statistics shows to be average monthly spending in each category and are used throughout the banking and credit industry. The figures are regularly updated.



But it depends on whether you are trying to be reasonable or cut down?

betterlatethannever

Hi ooops have a look here http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.html?f=33
they have some great ideas for money saving on food.
I spend £17 per week for 2 adults..but thats cos its all i have left to spend on food.
it CAN be done when you really have to. A year ago i was spending over £70 per week on food

dalip

ooops
Depends. If it's when you have debts then yes it's excessive,but after b/c then it's about right. They seem to work(guideline for i&e)to about £35 per adult per wk.Depends on age of teenager as to whether they qualify for an adult. I know i put down £580 for 3 adults and explained that my other daughter worked away for 7 mths of the year and that she did not contribute when she was home,so rather than fill in a i&e every 6mths i had just put my hk at the high end.My OR allowed it.Dalip

ooops

thanks guys

dalip

OOOPS
Yes i have a daughter with an eating disorder too and felt guilty for putting down the full allowance for her as i am lucky if she has 2 tins of soup a week!
That said the daughter that comes home(she works abroad) every 7-8 mths eats enough for all of us as she is some greedy munter.lol
Don't try to justify what you spend on hk thats up to you,go easy on yourself.

LesleyL_2

mispost, sorry

squeaky

By all means take a look on the MoneySaving Old Style board.

(Your poll doesn't go low enough for per week expenditure Honest

Menu planning, budgeting, shopping tips, and a whole lot more are available there.

Martin basically deals with what I think of as "finance" - sorting out banks, cards, debts and stuff...

..what Old Style does is to help you make the best of the money that you have left after paying all your standard bills and debts for the month.

And you don't have to spend all day slaving over the cooker either, nor buy expensive "stuff" to meet diets (for weight or for health). There are loads and loads of cheap, healthy, easy and quick suggestions.

You don't have to "do them all"... just pick the things that you think you can do. There's no need to make yourself miserable by being "frugal and mean" - you are always advised to stay within your "comfort zone". You'll often be advised to try the shop's own value ranges of things, for example, and while I use quite a few... I can't stand value beans so I always stay with heinz - you don't have to compromise your "standards" - just like anywhere else on MSE it's about getting value for money. Shopping thriftily and wisely.

Did you know that you can make your own pizza from scratch and cook it in less time than it takes to do one of those frozen things you can buy in the supermarket? For a quid? With no additives?

Or that you can dish up say, a pasta meal, in fifteen minutes at ten to twelve pence per person?

Did you know that mixing cheap washing powder with expensive stuff has no effect on your wash but certainly has an effect on your purse?

Have you ever thought of deliberately making extra portions of any soup, stew, casserole, curry or chilli, when you make one, and then freezing it? That way, on days when you can't be bothered to cook (and we all have those) you just go and pick a (home made) ready frozen meal from your freezer. No expensive shop bought things or take aways... !

How about a thousand different ways to have a packed lunch for work or school?

Hmm... I'll get me coat

tight_jock

Currently feeding and laundering the clan ( 2 adults and 3 starving ! children) for the princely sum of £35 per week. We all love pasta so thats 2 meals a week, jacket spuds, home made pies and pizzas, stews, soups.

Can`t remember the last time I bought any type of ready made meal :T

squeaky

tight_jock wrote: »

Currently feeding and laundering the clan ( 2 adults and 3 starving ! children) for the princely sum of £35 per week. We all love pasta so thats 2 meals a week, jacket spuds, home made pies and pizzas, stews, soups.

Can`t remember the last time I bought any type of ready made meal :T

Good going!

Perhaps you might find these threads of interest too. Better still - add a few of your own favourites to them.

Cheap (low cost) recipes:
Cheapest recipes???
Meal for two for 50p. Suggestions?
The Cheapest Healthy Meal Ever!
Feed 6 for £1.62
Cheapest meal
Your Cheapest Evening Meal.
cheap, easy family meals

MrsE_2

I voted for £70+

Its a mistake, I didn't see it was per adult. I thought it was total bill.

I spend about £100 on 3 of us.