food budgeting question

dottyanne

guys, trying to fine tune my budget - what do you think a family of 2 adults, 3 kids (teenagers!) 2 pets can live on per month, bearing in mind that we all take packed lunches every day...

Uniscots97

You might get a better answer on the OS board. There will be varying answers but there's lots of threads on the OS board with families of 5 and 6 and I think costs are listed too.

claireabelle_2

They are AMAZING over there, and so friendly.

dottyanne

thanks all - have posted on there, just trying to get some kind of idea, not even sure how much we actually do spend per week but id prob say about £120ish and i really need to be more frugal and aim for about £90 or so..

Nichelette

You should definately be able to do it for £90, my dad manages to feed four people who are all basically adults for £40 per week.

rubydoiwannabee

this is a really hard one, I am new to budgeting and the last two weeks we have spent £80 a week on the four of us (one teenager, one infant school child). I am trying really hard to get it down again this week, because the two weeks previous to the £80 had been £100 and £120!!!

How much do you find you spend?

rayday2

We are a family of 5, 2 dogs, and 2 cats and our shopping bill is now about £65-£70 per week this includes nappies for a toddler and three people on packed lunches.

dottyanne

vicious circle really, have been stoney broke for a few weeks due to my own stupidity, and instead of doing a weekly shop have been going day to day, say on average can easily spend 100 - 120 per week, even going to cheaper shops and getting lower value products..

Horace

Admittedly, there is only one of me and I manage to spend £30 a month at most for food. I am becoming more and more frugal, when my OH comes to stay he puts money into my kitty and will sometimes even pay for my groceries which is fab.

During the times when I have money, I will go to my local butcher and buy meat which I either cook or freeze. Sometimes I make extra and freeze that. I buy my veg at the local greengrocers or even drive to a farm shop, or nip to my mum's to see what I can blag from her garden. As for the rest, well I tend to use Lidl quite a lot - my last bill from them came to £22.50 and I did buy a 24 roll pack of loo rolls.

To help me budget, I write a list and take it shopping with me so I only buy what I need, if I run out of something in the week then it goes on the list to be bought the next time I go shopping. I always have a good look in my cupboards and the freezer before I go out so I tend to know what is needed.

Hope this helps give you an idea - I actually live quite comfortably on very little.

NUFCnutter

I reckon you could manage on £75 per week. I do most of my shopping on a day to day basis, and have managed an under £50 week last week for me and my three kids.

kika

There's 5 of us including 3 teenagers and I find it really difficult to stick to £100 a week for everything, toiletries, washing stuff, 3 lunchboxes not includes bunny.