Since when was £1000 a month enough for a food budget?

[BitCoinBillionaire]

We are a family of 3 adults - my youngest still at home being 19. We don’t buy alcohol and have 2 cats. Like to eat as well as possible and I’d really been noticing I’d been overspending lately so decided to use ChatGPT to work through a budget with me

I want this budget to include all food, cat food and household type bits - of which I’m generally well stocked up on anyway. I also wanted this budget to just cover August to see how it goes

I’ve put a figure on it of £1000 and ChatGPT has been helpful in helping me see how to divvy it up etc into pots (I’ve previously just been spending as I feel) but tells me that ‘£1000 is very doable to not generous’

Not generous! Is this where we are at now? A grand a month is considered ‘a little tight with not much wriggle room.’

Thoughts? Are you spending this? More than this? I know it’s like asking how long is a piece of string but I think it’s highlighted to me that I need to perhaps meal plan a bit more!

Family of 4, we spend about 600 a month.

And softener ..a big washing liquid and 3 softeners ..every week
And it's not even expensive still either

£7 a week on washing powder! Do you or your partner work at a tar factory?
I have a very grubby 4 and 5 year old, the machine is on once or twice a day and we still take more than a month to go through the box of washing powder that costs about £4, fabric softener is £1.50ish and lasts at least as long

this. You can lie to AI and it will believe you, it will reflect back at you what it things you want to hear, make things up, and even lie to you.
https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/29/claude-opus-5-became-downright-ruthless-when-tasked-with-running-a-vending-machine/

Interesting..
Well I'm on my third lot of washing today and I've another two to do yet .
So work clothes,sports clothes, bedding,everyday clothes.
Plus every adult has their own wash ..I don't mix clothes,so adult ones clothes don't get mixed in the machine with adult twos clothes..for example.
Bizarrely..it's 4 males and me ..and the males are all the same size clothes wise ,socks wise .. everything wise ,so id never sort out who's whos clothes if I put them in mixed washes

we spend aroun 90 a week 2 afults inc alcohol

sock bags for socks and teach the sock owners to use them and they should be able to recognise all their other clothes.

Chat GPT is an idiot. It knows literally nothing.

Even we don't spend that much with allergies and gluten free food.

Regardless of what's normal now ,or not .
I definitely am trying to cut down
I'm trying to cook cheaper meals and less snacks

golly do you save water by just filling the machine with softener and detergent?

Also two of them do their own washing..I'm trying to train them all to do it themselves..
So I don't want the responsibility of sorting the washing in to piles if I did it all myself anyway..I can't leave it all screwed up waiting for them to come home from work to sort their washing..
It just wouldn't work at all mixing all the washing up

We are trying to save for house improvements so are being quite strict with budgeting and use Monzo pots to make sure we stick to a weekly budget.

We are a family of five (basically all adults) and we allocate £160 a week to cover everything food and including cleaning products. It is tight but doable.

£1000 for three seems very generous to me. We'd eat like kings.

??

We spend £400 a month for food toiletries and cleaning stuff . 2 ( older ) adults

Are you able to give tips and some meal plans

I dont get it at all. People will be asking how many sheets of toilet paper they should use per crap next.

I couldn't physically spend a grand a month on food without a ton of waste every week.

Is there a thread for living more frugally,where we could all swap tips ,does anyone know ..??
Yes I'm sure my tips would be less detergent and to mix the clothes in the machine..

Aside from swappingbti washing powder ( we don't use softener as I can't stand the smell) surely a vegan diet can be cheaper? Pulses etc are dirt cheap, as are pasta, potatoes and rice. Can you do a make your own pizza for the pizza guy? I'm not vegan, so apologies if incorrect.

We are very similar to you; 3 adults and a cat at home. We spend an average of £200 a week; buy things like washing pods, toilet rolls, cat food and dishwasher tablets in bulk but that’s probably the average. I don’t batch cook or anything; I’m a shit cook.
We have a Morrisons and Aldi very locally; but then a Tesco and Asda (big ones not locals) near where I work so can shop around. Am also a Costco member and Amazon prime (surprisingly good for things like washing pods etc).
I agree prices are going up but I think £1000 a month is very doable and you could probably reduce it.

using a big washing liquid and 3 softeners every week

I have a spreadsheet which contains all our meals, and can be filtered by meat, carb or cost. This means we can meal plan carefully around what's already in the cupboard/freezer.

We have a rota of very low cost meals (baked potatoes, roasted red veg pasta etc) and aim to have two of them a week so that it keeps the overall cost down.

We try to shop in Lidl and use up their coupons where possible. Also use them for bulk buying e.g. they have 85 Fairy laundry tabs for £14.50 just now, and they have a 1.2kg bag of coffee beans for £10.50.

Every month we'll have a couple of nights where we will eat different things from each other to use up all the leftover portions we've stored up.

Fresh fruit is always dictated by what's on offer.

Exactly..you would think this .
I need to get tough
I'm slowly introducing more potatoes ,veg ,rice ,pasta type meals .
But they want burgers chips pizza and that costs more for sure
So I'm limiting those type of meals to one burger meal and one pizza meal a week.
Yes we make our own pizza at home ,but it's not any cheaper because I but ready made sourdough pizza base
Vegan chocolate is unbelievably expensive compared to normal

Nut buying - if you eat lots they are way cheaper if you buy in bulk. I usually buy from grape tree as I can get them in town.

https://www.grapetree.co.uk/nuts

Decent a few weeks worth, reseal as airtight as you can manage and store the resealed bag in the fridge to prevent oxidising.

Wow I'm impressed
That's very organised

I don't know what to say
I could try watering it down I guess ..