how much do you spend on food and household bits and bobs per month?

[MissusScrooge]

tis the season...

conscious of what is being spent..

figure we spend about £500+ per month on food, cleaning supplies, nappies, wine etc

we are 2 adults, 4.5 yr old and a 2 year old (in nappies) who doesn't eat v much.. dh at work all week, doesn't have breakfast at home, dc1 at preschool ft and i work 2 days a week so dc2 in nursery 2 days a week!

we're in london. is that normal or should i be shopping more sensibly or spending more? would be interested to see what others spend please!

[SixtyFootDoll]

About£600 pcm I find groceries are really ExPensive. But we do All have packed lunches. 2 adults/ 2 boys

[SixtyFootDoll]

About£600 pcm I find groceries are really ExPensive. But we do All have packed lunches. 2 adults/ 2 boys

[nameymcnamechange]

At least £150 per week (family of 4, 1 cat, 3 guinea pigs) - but we drink quite a lot of wine. We don't have many takeaways (maybe once a month), and this excludes milk as we still have it delivered. Dh and I buy all our toiletries from the supermarket (we aren't high maintenance at all ) and we don't buy nappies.

[debka]

About £250 a month. 2 adults and a 20mo. All meals at home. This is more than we used to spend, because I put meals in the freezer for my parents. I cook everything from scratch and we don't drink or eat much meat. DD is in Terrys nappies.

God I sound awful- just v low income and that's all we can afford right now.

[putthekettleon]

we try to budget £100 a week. We usually do a weekly shop of about £80, then the rest is spent on odds and sods - milk from the corner shop etc.

I should say we often go over budget, so £500 a month is probably more realistic. We are 2 adults, a 2.7yo and a 5 month old (breastfed, so doesn't cost us anything except nappies and carrots/bananas for now!)

My best advice is plan your meals and only buy what you need. Also do internet shopping as you're less tempted by special offers/chocolate etc, plus you can see the total before you buy so you don't have that "how much??!!" moment at the checkout!

[MissusScrooge]

thanks for all your replies. good to know i'm not going mad as i'm with sixtyfootdoll i'm finding groceries really expensive.

good point, putthekettleon i really do need to plan meals and only buy what i need, but the kids eat at 5pm (i graze on their leftovers!!)and they don't really eat what we do, dc1 doesn't like anything with sauce esp tomatoes and dc2 is just fussy. dh doesn't get in till later and i whip him up something then...

will need to have a think, defo can cut back...

no wonder the big supermarkets are raking it in!!!

[TooTiredtoGoogle]

Ocado and meal planning has really reduced our bill.
DH also takes whatever we have as leftovers in fridge to work.

WE are family of three DD (only in nappies at night), our average weekly spend is:
£20 in Farmers Market
£60 Ocado
plus £75 per month on wine

So that's about £400 per month ... and we eat and drink very well.

[minimathsmouse]

We do a big monthly shop to stock up on meat, fish and dry foods etc at the start of the month which is usually about £150-175 then I spend about £50 a week on veg and dairy and just top things up. So I figure thats about £360 a month.

In the south east and I would think I am in the minority!! Its getting harder but I have started cooking from scratch and baking. We are 2 adults, two under 10 years and 2 cats.

[lindy100]

Two adults and a 1.4 yr old, in nappies.

I work p/t, so DD and I eat a thome twice a week, DH gets his lunch made by me every night and DD takes a packed lunch on my days at work.

We spend about £250-300 a month on everything, I'd say - I bulk-buy baby wipes and nappies when they'r eon offer, and use Tesco double-up clubcard points to buy nappies - I don't get so many, but the £10 I currently have will buy £20-worth=200 nappies, which will last more than a month (and I currently have about 6 unopened packs of 50 waiting to be used anyway).

I cook from scratch pretty much every day - a 'ready meal' for us is a baked spud (confession: DH gets free potatoes from work, but we don't eat them every day).

I think one of the ways we manage to keep it down is by eating veggie about three or 4 days in each week - DH doesn't mind, I'm happy too. I also tend to make a vat of soup every week and eat it myself for lunches, with DD. Cheap cheap.

DH buys his own beer, though, quite often - or our joint a/c would be bankrupt!

[VinoEsmeralda]

Family of 4 with dog.

We spend rather a lot but all enjoy our food (and wine).

We spend between £500-600 per month on the above but all have packed lunches (other then the dog). I work 4 days and DH works from home 3 days a week.

[smokinaces]

I'm 1 adult 2 children (4 and 2). We spend £60-£70 a week on groceries, cleaning stuff, nappies etc.

That includes 5 x packed lunches for DS1, 3 for me and 3 for DS2. They do go to their dads for 1 day a week though when I dont feed them.

[NinkyNonker]

About £250. 2 adults and one breastfed baby! That incs nappies, toiletries, cleaning products, household stuff.

[NinkyNonker]

Oh, and 2 dogs.

[southeastastra]

£600 here too (approx)

[moogalicious]

About £500/month for family of 5 and 1 cat. No nappies, but plenty of wine. Dc's and DH all have packed lunches. I cook from scratch, batch cook, menu plan and shop in the cheapest supermarket. Could probably cut back, but don't need to at the moment.

[mamasmissionimpossible]

£200-250 per month. 2,adults and 2 dc's, one in nappies. We rarely drink, which saves alot and buy lots of offers and basics products.

[Jojay]

About £350 - £400 month - there is DH, myself, and the Ds's 4 and 2.

Ds2 is fed by the childminder 2 days a week but otherwise that feeds all of us every meal as we have packed lunches at work / school.

I do meal plan and shop online. I don't buy many brand names, mostly own label stuff and I think this helps.

[Acinonyx]

Family of 3 and 2 cats - 400-500/month. We eat very well (including the cats), usually cook from scratch (but not especially cheaply) and very fond of wine. I've always felt we spend rather a lot - but we make it a high priority. Glad to see there are others in the same ball park. We aim to do a weekly shop under 100, but often top-up with bits and bobs.

[onceamai]

Well I don't know how you all do it. I cook from scratch, there's little waste in this house but I reckon for 2 adults and 2 teenagers and one cat, I'm hard pressed to spend less than 800pcm, lunches go on top and DH works abroad Mon - Fri. We could cut back on wine and beer but that would only be about 100.

I don't even think we're particularly extravagant. A typical weekly menu woudl be something like: Sat - beef casserole, Sunday - trad roast, Monday: lasagne Tues: sausages, Weds: Pasta, Thurs: chops, Fri: fish. For breakfast, eggs, bacon sarnie, cereal, etc. Always have fruit and yoghurt and juice available and am shocked at how much it's all stacking up. Tend to buy two puddings a week, make one to two and top up with things like ice-cream and jelly to keep costs down. What seems really to be adding up nowadays is the amount of stuff like shampoo, shower gel, anti-perspirant that we get through.

[Slobbadan]

We Spend about £320-£360 per month for a family of 2 adult 2 kids, packed lunches for a week for 1 and bed time pull ups for 2.5yr old. This including food, toiletries and cleaning stuff, we dont really drink very often so only buy a bottle of wine as and when i want one (dp has Tennants in the fridge from when we were on hol in july!).

I do meal plan tho and find this helps to reduce your food bill.

[chivers1977]

I've got to say I'm a little surprised at some of the sums that people manage to spend. Fair enough we are only 2 adults and a 5 year old but our budget is £200 for the month. Any take aways would normally be on top of that. We all take packed lunch but if not then school dinners are only an extra £40ish a month. I don't have much more than that to spend at the moment on shopping and we eat well around slow cooked meat or bulk-cooking with plenty of fruit and veg....that includes all cleanig products but I tend to just use all purpose cleaner, bleach toilet cleaner (some of the household stuff really adds up) and don't think that I could bring myself to spend £200 per week (as much as I absolutely LOVE Waitrose! I go between Sainsburys, Aldi and the local Indian and Turkish shops throughout the month but I don't really spend time looking for bargains between each one - somehow it just works!

[chivers1977]

We also buy own brand toiletries or from Poundland - I agree with Slobbadan that prices for branded stuff can be a joke ie £3 when it is £1 in Poundland - my DH has now inherited my moneysaving traits and if I even suggest buying toiletries in Sainsburys, he looks at me with a very old fashioned look as if I had committed treason.

[MissusScrooge]

i was intrigued and i went into poundland this morning and pampers wipes 99p a pack whereas in sainsburys even on offer its £2.39 at buy one get one free! they also had huggy wipes!

same for flash cleaner etc... timotei shampoo, handwash, johnsons baby wash stuff...

i'm converted!