to ask how much you think I should spend on groceries per month?

[financialadvice]

just me and dd aged 5

I have recently recorded as 200 on an expenditure forecast for a management plan but think it is actually more, so need to reduce it to 200 some how, so do you think 200 per month to include food possibly the odd bottle of wine, toiletries, cleaning and soap powder etc is enough for us both?

[itisnearlysummer]

Yes I think you can probably do the monthly shop for £200 for just you and a 5 yo.

Do you cook or 'assemble' meals?

[NestaFiesta]

My friend works for CAB and she says they allow £35 per head per week for food expenditure when doing spending forecasts for clients. Seems about right to me, although I can't afford to spend that much!

[ChessyEvans]

Yes, I do our supermarket shopping (all food, drink, toiletries, cleaning etc) for me and DH (and newborn) for £50 per week or less. I do it online so not tempted by impulse buys and I work out a menu in advance so I have less food wastage. Every time I cook something like a bolognaise I make about 6 portions and then freeze the surplus which helps make savings for the weeks I have to buy the cleaning / laundry items.

Depends if you're trying to shop at M&S probably though! I do tesco online.

[Bluemoonrising]

I spend about £250 on three of us, so I would think you should easily be able to do £200 for two.

[financialadvice]

sounds ok then, just feeling a bit anxious.

I cook most days but tend to have enough for left overs to accommodate next day if I do say a sbag bol, stew or curry for instance. occasionally at weekends probably do pizza but rarely burgers fish fingers chips etc so we tend to have meat and veg or salads or pasta, rice, couscous type meals.

[whydobirdssuddenlyappear]

I spend about £60 a week on food/household stuff/toiletries for 4 of us, but it does involve an awful lot of lentils.

[RubberDuck]

£35 per head per week sounds about right to me as a rule of thumb. I'd count a 5 year old as half a person so would be a budget of around £230 ish a month - say £250 to allow for "oh shit, every single cleaning product I own all ran out the same week" issues.

[RubberDuck]

I think you have to also allow for the fact that some things cost the same even when there are less of you (eg same amount of cleaning products) so you can't necessarily scale exactly per person.

[Tortoiseonthehalfshell]

Depends where you live, though, I think, isn't food more expensive down south? i'm sure I've read that.

[jaffacake79]

I think that's a reasonable enough budget, but would make it up to £250 to allow for occasions when you've run out of everything and the toiletries all need replacing at the same time as the cleaning stuff.
I try to keep ours to about £50-60 a week, that's for 2 adults, 1 nearly 9yr old that eats like a horse, a cat and a dog.

[GypsyMoth]

£35 a head!! wow

me and 5 dc.....3 of whom are teens....thats still a lot of money!

[bumpybecky]

we budget £375 pcm and normally stick within budget, it was £400 when we started, it gets easier with time :)

this is for 2 adults, 4 dc (13,11,6 and 3) and two cats and includes all cleaning stuff, toiletries, fish and chips once a month or so

[knittedbreast]

I hate the week i run out of everything expensive-nappies, toilet roll, cleaning products, quorn etc...

i used to be able to shop ofr 4 of us for £30 a week! ha! time before last i went shopping it was more like £80

having lived up north and down south i would say the food is much cheaper up north. i was amazed and saddened when i moved up there they had no mango or zara shops!

[financialadvice]

I did put 300 put was prompted (online) to reduce it to 200, this was with CCCS

[golemmings]

We aim to do our monthly supermarket shop (2 adults, 1 toddler, 1 cat) for £200. If its less than that we buy beer too! We also shop on line because its cheaper, easier to budget and I feel smug when I compare prices and I realise I've saved £100 by going to asda than ocardo!

Fruit and veg comes off the market - probably a tenner a week and milk and extras come out of 'pocket money' at the corner shop.

We do have some cost savings - mainly veggie diet and real nappies so I'm not sure what adding meat and disposables would do to the budget.

I think it should be doable for the 2 of you!

[SmilingHappyBeaver]

I spend £150-£200 per week on food, for a family of 5 (3 DS's aged 6 months - 5 years). But we do waste quite a bit... I think I could get it down if I shopped more regularly (ie 2-3 times a week instead of once) and planned meals more rigorously to stop buying food "just in case" then finding it mouldy at the back of the fridge.

So yes, I think it is possible to do it for 2 of you on around £50 per week... but only with meticulous meal planning, bulk cooking to freeze and maybe looking for deals on food that is near it's sell-by date?