How Much Do You Budget For Groceries?

plainandsimple · 29 September 2016 at 9:18AM

Looking for some guidance, please. I'd like to find out what other households budget for and spend on groceries and household items each month. For the last 8 months or so we've been going over budget.

We've not increased our food budget for a few years, and I really don't know if we're not budgeting enough or if there's another problem with it. I know food costs have risen, but I cook all our meals from scratch (we perhaps buy something processed like a pizza a couple of times a year).

I grew up in a thrifty house and can turn about anything into a meal. I make my own stock and know how to stretch a chicken. We eat a lot of homemade soups and stews. I've never thought our per meal costs are expensive, and we only eat meat once or twice a week. We eat lots of pulses and veg and it's usually porridge for breakfast. My husband takes a packed lunch to work every day. I work at home and look after our son, so we eat lunch at home. Our lunch is leftovers or a sandwich.

Our household is me, my husband and our 12 month old. We budget £200 per month and that's for food, toiletries and cleaning products. I use one cleaning product for everything. So, is our budget too low or should I be able to make that work? What do you spend for your household and what types of meals do you make?

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chelseablue · 29 September 2016 at 9:29AM

Where do you shop? We've switched to Aldi and really notice the difference

In my house is me, partner and our 2 year old.

The last 3 months my spend has been:

£174
£162
£179

That includes all food, nappies, wipes and cleaning products

plainandsimple · 29 September 2016 at 9:34AM

That's impressive. Thanks for responding. We shop at both Tesco and Aldi. I don't buy much fruit and veg at Aldi as my local one tends to have terrible stuff that never ripens or is just mushy and moldy. I've discussed this with friends and I think it's just my local store and not Aldi in general, but there's not another Aldi or Lidl for several miles.

plainandsimple · 29 September 2016 at 9:35AM

Oh, I should also say that I do a meal plan every week.

Pepperoni · 29 September 2016 at 9:42AM

chelseablue wrote: »

In my house is me, partner and our 2 year old.

The last 3 months my spend has been:

£174
£162
£179

That includes all food, nappies, wipes and cleaning products

That's incredible. How do you manage that?

I'm ashamed to now share that this month we have done £300, literally just food and household cleaning - that's for 2 adults and 1 toddler! This has been a very good month.... :embarasse

chelseablue · 29 September 2016 at 9:50AM

Pepperoni wrote: »

That's incredible. How do you manage that?

I'm ashamed to now share that this month we have done £300, literally just food and household cleaning - that's for 2 adults and 1 toddler! This has been a very good month.... :embarasse

Oh we just don't eat :rotfl:

No, what I do is only buy what we need

I go once a week and buy enough for our packed lunches for the week, Aldi bread is 45p a loaf and is actually really nice, plus a pack of ham or chicken which is only £1.45, plus lettuce, cucumber etc

Then I buy 7 nights worth of evening meals, mince, chicken, potato's etc.

If we have a couple of nights where we only have jacket potato, beans and cheese for example then the next time I go I only need to buy 5 evening meals

Hope that makes sense!

MrsSave · 29 September 2016 at 9:55AM

I'm not as impressed with the fruit and veg at my local aldi either, so buy that in Tesco. I used to find I was going over budget every month so have changed things slightly to help. Instead of budgeting £200 per month, I now have a budget for household things and meat at the start of the month, and then a weekly budget for food.

I budget £30 on household bits such as toilet paper, cleaning products, etc and what ever is left over I spend on things that keep such as passata, beans, pasta, squash, frozen bits, etc. I then budget £20 on meat, and with that I have started prepping dump bags for the slow cooker which I then freeze. The meat from the last £20 made 6 dump bags, and each dump bag has at least food for 2 nights in it. I use one dump bag per week, so that's 2 meals sorted there.

After that I budget £30 per week on the food shop. This is mainly for things like fresh fruit (I buy frozen veg), milk, bread, orange juice (my pregnancy craving), something For Saturday night, and meat for Sunday. I try to buy cheaper meat, and have the more expensive cuts as a treat. A whole chicken or smallish gammon joint will last us 3 nights (roast on night 1, slices with homemade healthy chips, pickles, etc on night 2, and in with a pasta dish on night 3.). Night 4 and 5 of the week is what ever the slow cooker dump bag is (chilli chicken this week, orange chicken last week, beef noodles the week before), night 6 is the cheat night of something from the freezer (usually after ds swimming when we're late home and Dh cooks for us) and night 7 is whatever our Saturday night choice is (pizza this weekend - £1 ones from Tesco and I'll make my own wedges, last weekend it was fresh pasta, sauce and a nice garlic bread, sometimes salmon and 'posh' veg, etc.).

if the shop comes to less than £30 I add one Christmas item to store away (Christmas puddings this week) and the the rest is 'treat' (chocolate) money or if we run out of something that can't wait.

That reads so much more complicated than it is, but basically October looks like this:

Household - £30
Meat- £20
Week 1 - £30
Week 2 - £30
Week 3 - £30
Week 4 - £30
Week 5 - £7.50 (in prep for a month where I do 5 weekly shops).

That's £177.50 for 2 adults and a 3 year old.

I found it easy to run out of money when I had a £200 budget and would always struggle the last week or 2 of the month. This way if week 2 is empty half way through the week, I've only got a few days until we've got another £30.

:eek: Sorry about the essay

kathrynha · 29 September 2016 at 10:12AM

We are a family or 2 adults, a 10 year old and a cat, and we mainly Aldi shop, and cook from scratch.

Our shopping budget per month is:
£20 - milkman
£8 - b&m for toiletries, washing powder, toothpaste, etc - this is an average amount, in reality I go once every 3-4 months and spend £25ish
£160 - Aldi for everything else
£10 - morrisons for the things aldi doesn't sell or I don't like including lentils, brown rice, brown pasta, coffee

plainandsimple · 29 September 2016 at 10:19AM

Mrs Save, thanks for the breakdown. I've been wondering if returning to a weekly budget instead of a monthly budget would help. I'm going to give your system a go in October. :-)

lazer-zxr · 29 September 2016 at 11:13AM

Food and Cleaning products from Asda / Tesco / Morrisons.
2 adults, 2 children (5 & 7), and a cat.
£290 per month budgeted and achieved.

Some batch cooking, all fresh meat and veg (no ready meals), but mostly own brand products.

Weekly big shop, followed by the odd top up.

I'm comfortable with this value, not looking to save any more.

Poppy3008 · 29 September 2016 at 11:37AM

This has been very interesting to read! It's only me during the week as my OH lives in London mon to fri but we are then getting food for two places. I am a massive overspender on food - I could spend at least £100 a week, every week in the past! Shocking, just the two of us, cat and dog.
We have just moved into our new house and now OH is away and we are skint (!) it's serious budget time. I have found strict meal plan works. I am planning £20 for me and £20 for him a week. Plus household bits in top like loo paper. I have realised he is jot taking a lunch in mondays as he goes straight to the office - that's £5 more being spent. Not this Monday!!

How Much Do You Budget For Groceries?

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