In interests of keeping eye on costs, I'm trying to meal plan, pay more attention etc. We're lucky enough that we're not skint, but I am conscious of rising COL and the huge impact on my shopping trolley.
I just did my weekly online order. I started by putting all the ingredients for main meals (5 days worth). That came to £53 which seemed reasonable as we're eating well, including this week having steak one night etc.
Then I went back to my Alexa list of all the things I've been adding during the week that we need (tinfoil, olive oil etc) plus things we need every week like fruit and milk and lunch box items etc... and my total check out price was £135. It could be worse and I feel grateful we can manage, but it really makes me realise how it's so easy for celebs and government and whoever to say, "here's a trick for feeding a family of 4 on £3.50 a night"... but that doesn't take into account breakfast, lunch, snacks, drinks and all the bits and pieces that are necessary.
My order was generous in that for example we love fruit and I bought "basic" fruit like bananas and apples but also strawberries and grapes and so on, but but it didn't include extensive treats or fancy snacks, or alcohol or (this week) any cleaning stuff.