Realistic weekly spend for family of 3 + pets

LilacPixie

I am back again with more questions. Sorry

In light of recent rises in food costs what would you say would be a realistic food budget for 2 Adults 1 toddler and 2 cats??

While I was working FT we were £50 per week which was a £40 weekly shop and £10 for top ups such as milk and sandwich meats for two.

I am now on Maternity leave so no longer need a packed lunch for work but need to feed myself at home. DH has a physical job (scaffolder) so takes a large packed lunch each day.

I am a reasonable cook plus we have a breadmaker which helps. Toddler is not a fussy eater loves pasta with veg based sauces not a huge fan of meat but will eat a little, prefers veg at the moment so I am not complaining. The whole familly are miilk drinkers and we use 4pt a day on average :eek:.

We use real nappies so the budget does not include them.

Do you think we can realistically cut any lower than £50 per week?? If so how?? I already meal plan and batch cook things like lasagne. All help greatfully recieved. :beer:

jacksons_mum

we are 2 adults, 1 2yr old and 2 rabbits.

i do a monthly shop online which costs around £70 - stock up on pasta, tinned toms, tuna, sweetcorn, rice, long life milk, mince, frozen chicken breasts, bread flour etc.
then spend around £10 on fruit & veg a week.
we usually spend around £130 a week including nappies, rabbit food, hay etc.

i have had to resort to buying pretty much everything tesco value, and i havent noticed that much difference from brand names, online shopping helps with meal planning and stopping impulse buys and i always use discount codes and vouchers on my shop.
i bulk out meat with carrots / lentils e.g. 500g value mince £1 - will do a cottage pie and a chilli for the 3 of us when bulked out with diced carrot and swede, and an extra tin of toms.

Cornishpixie_2

I never know what the best way of doing things are. I have 4 kids plus hubby. I used to be able and go and buy a big shop and hope it lasted which it didn't. Having to cut back just done a shop at Iceland in the hope it may last as don't want to shop daily with 4 kids whilst Hubby working. Since you have smaller children I think it would pay to shop on line monthly. There's a site called madaboutbargains which will show you offers on in the major supermarket this may help. It's not easy I don't have a set budget but do buy less and try eek things out, cook from scratch etc when I have time. Good luck:)

angelatgraceland

How about joining in the rocery Challenge thread? There are lots of ideas on there and with May near its end its a good time to join in. Join in now and get some ideas. Do you keepa spending diary? Thats one of the essentials for cutting down. Lots of recipes also on the grocery challenge which work out really cheap.

mondayitis

we are a family of 6
2 adults and 4 children +2 cats

on good weeks we spend £80 on food

bad weeks £30....( that includes nappies and cat food)..

changing eating habbits has helped us..

LilacPixie

thanks everyone.

Time for a manic read up I think.

a66y31

I buy 2 pinter of whole milk...and top the milk up with water.. everytime i make a cuppa or cereal for the kids....use to buy 4 pinter every week...and no one has noticed refused to buy a 4 pinter now....not sure if it works with semi skimmed tho