No idea how much spent on Food

Yabu not to know ( and lucky to be able to not have to watch the pennies)
Food and groceries is one area of the household budget that can have a huge effect on the ovetall family budget.

Family of 4 here. Two adults and two older teens. I record my shopping on a spreadsheet. My spending this year so far averages out at £90 per week. I cook from scratch and that covers all meals. Teens take a packed lunch. Dh and I eat lunch at home.

Planning so that you have no waste is a massive saving!

I agree… we’re not as organised as you but since we started planning and being careful we can afford to eat far better quality food than when we were just shoving any old stuff in the trolley. We now get meat and veg from the farm shop, eat the brands that we enjoy etc and still spend less than we used to.

I do the same with Clubcard plus.
Two big full trolley shops a month and two weeks of either a smaller shop or just picking up the bits we really need (usually fruit, bread and milk)

I don't know exactly but I do know we spend £1K+ a month in supermarkets etc. A fair amount of that will be on wine/lager/toiletries/cleaning stuff etc. No sure exactly how much we spend on food specifically. I would guess at £800/month.

Nail on the head. We could afford not to care about food costs, but why should we help line the pockets of supermarket bosses? They play games, so we play the same games. We do a rotation of Asda, Tesco and Sainsbury and shop three times every 2 weeks on a rotation. We also meal plan and make shopping lists. Our wastage is virtually zero, just a couple of slices of bread and maybe an inch of the milk carton, certainly nothing else. We buy branded stuff only when it's on offer which is nearly always in one of the three supermarkets, so we buy when we see it's on offer. We never run out of stuff so no need for expensive "top ups" in small local convenience stores nor garages. Our average weekly cost is £100 for 2 adults and that includes cleaning/household products, chocolate, etc., and that's mostly branded goods, not "own label" for washing powders, chocolate, crisps, tins and packets etc., and typically includes "finest" range rather than "budget" range for fresh meat and ready meals etc. Planning so that you have no waste is a massive saving!

We mainly shop at Tesco because of location, so pay for the Clubcard Plus, £8, which means that twice a month we get 10% off the total bill.

With that in mind I save a lot of purchases for the CPlus weeks so anything that's non-perishable like toiletries, cleaning stuff, larder essentials are only bought then.

We do eat very well and I feel lucky that we can afford to do so. I can remember shopping with my mum as a child and watching her trying to add the cost up as she went round the shop because money was tight.
Perhaps because of that I don't want to waste money if I can help it.

It's not smugness from me, I just can't afford it
I wish I could walk into a supermarket and pick up the fruit and meat I wanted and not look at prices and get the branded stuff but I'm paying for everything alone on min wage

I understand why you don't but clearly if you pay by card you COULD if you wanted to.

If you didn't want to add everything up just use one bank card solely for supermarket buys for a month, then you just need to take away the amount you have left from what you started with.
Or lots of bank accounts make it even simpler for you by summarising exactly where you've spent your money.

So yeah yabu not to know if you want to know. If you'd prefer carrying on in ignorance then fair enough!

@TargetPractice11 it was my mother in law turning up for dinner uninvited. I don't make her dinner anymore just say I don't have enough.. took a while for her to get the hint too. 🙈

It's only wasted if it's being thrown out.

Yeah it's all relative. You're chosing to spend (waste) a lot of money weekly that you could be putting into other things, like a bigger house, holidays, fun things. But you are making the choice that's right for you which is spending it in the supermarkets and not caring about what you've spent it on. There's no right and wrong, it's all choices.

Exactly what I was thinking! Dogs must cost masses!

two adults here and 1 cat and spend around £650 per month and eat extremely well on that

I don’t know, I’m putting it down to wilful ignorance. I shop at Tesco/ Aldi and get bits at the Co-op 2/3 times a week. I bulk buy special offers which skews things. Organic veg from community garden. Meat mainly from butchers. And cleaning stuff often from b and m. I could sit down and work it out but it’s a bit depressing

Same op. Between online, takeouts and going to the supermarket I also have no idea.

We used to spend about £700-800 a month but now it's more like £1000 a month - not only food though but quite a bit of toiletries, cleaning and other non-food items. That's between five of us (five adults basically) and weekly delivery from Sainsbury's - there are definitely cheaper places and ways to shop but I like the convenience and good customer service from deliveries.

It’s just priorities then I guess. I’d rather track my grocery spend and have more savings/holidays/nicer house etc. Sounds like food spending is a priority for you. That’s fine, everyone is different.

Who is this CF and why haven't you asked them to contribute yet?

I used to be like this.

One month I counted it all up.

I spent £1,350 in 5 weeks for a family of 4 & 3 cats (and one extra adult who expected a free dinner every night!)

I was almost sick. 😂

Now I'm very careful, I take my calculator and I've got it down to £150 a week. (Almost stopped feeding the extra CF adult!)

I mean I don’t have a set budget and just buy food as I need to, but I spend around £150 a week for me, 2 teenagers and 2 cats. 2 out of 3 of us are vegetarian and none of us really drink.

I do actually know what you mean, I do a weekly shop sometimes spend £70 sometimes £100, but If I need shampoo I buy shampoo if I need milk i buy milk. We are not well off at all, we have enough money but I couldn’t say I know to the penny how much I spend on food shop/essentials every month

30 years ago, food shopping was more expensive, relatively speaking. I can remember spending £30-40 a week in the late 80’s.

£15 would have got you next to nothing in 1994.

I track all my spending through an app (YNAB) so I do know to the penny and it varies between 800-900 a month for two adults and one pre-teen.

I think before I was tracking properly I would have guessed more like 600 but now I do track every penny including loads of £10 here and there top ups and so on.

I don't I buy wildly extravagant things but all meat, dairy and eggs are organic and fish can be a lot.

Edited to add - like others that includes all the household type stuff I buy at the supermarket. Cleaning stuff and so forth - just because I am to lazy to divide the bill up for budgeting purposes.

my total also includes non food items that you would buy at a supermarket, loo roll, cleaning products, tampons and toothpaste etc. that could account for about £20 a week approx.