To ask you what you spend on food each week for two adults?

[TheListingAttic]

DH and I are finally settled in full time jobs and getting finances in order! Going to have a joint account for important stuff, and a pocket money account each for frivolous stuff. We share all money, but he's DREADFUL at managing finances - constantly 'surprised' by gas bill/council tax/car insurance and can't pay it as blew entire paycheck on shoes and DVDs - so I'm we're setting it up to constrain what he's able to spend! Currently working out numbers and I'm just not sure what to budget for food. In our old house we tended to shop daily as there was next to no storage, and what we bought varied wildly - depending on my employment situation at time, who was shopping (DH is magnetically drawn to Waitrose finest gourmet branded stuff despite us not being millionaires), and whether he'd made a mess of things and we were digging small change out from down the back of the sofa to keep us in value pasta for the last week of the month!

So what do you/did you spend for two adults? (We're sort of Sainsbury's-level comfortably off. Not Waitrose rich, but not Netto skint iykwim).

About £35-£40 (not including wine).

I have 2 kids as well, but if it were just me and my husband I would probably spend 50 per week. Not including wine, of course!!!

We do ms/waitrose 40-50 a week incl delicious puddings. They key is meal planning. Plan and shop for the week, you will really have all the good stuff within budget.

It's just ds and I (he's 14 so eats like an adult). I spend around £60 a week, sometimes less, £40 if I'm broke careful. I don't drink enough wine, sometimes a bottle a fortnight if I remember to buy it. Meal planning, as Coffee says, is the key. Also have a think about what you're buying - a whole chicken (£7 for a free range chuck) can feed two people for 3 meals, 2 chicken breasts (£5 for free range) which are a little cheaper but will feed 2 people for 1 meal. Makes sense to buy the whole chicken. Pizzas cost £4.50 each or something? Buy 2 nan breads, a jar of passatta, some mozerella and make your own (with some of the left over chicken). Will cost you £4 or less and you'll get 2. The next day make a chicken curry or stir fry with the rest of the chicken. Have days where you don't eat meat, days where you have a bacon buttie and salad. It can be done.

About £50/week excluding money I spend for lunch at work. DH takes a sandwich so that's included in the £50, but I'm too lazy to make my own lunch so I pay extra.

About £70-£80pw. I suspect that its more pricey because we are in NI. We spend at least £20 on fruit and veg alone! This does not include wine but does include lunches and all meals as we are trying to be good and stay off the takeaways. This includes all household stuff as well and we rarely buy extras in the week.

We have a toddler but he doesn't eat enough to up our bill significantly yet, so it's around £80 per week for everything much more if I foolishly shop in store although I'm wheat intolerant so that includes pricey stuff like gf bread etc.

I try to stick to £20 pw - have done it on 10 when being ultra frugal.

About 80 a week, includes cat food and other house hold items too (dishwash tablets, shampoo etc)

60 per week not including wine but including everything else. I shop at Aldi and top up at sainsbury for things Aldi don't do. Also includes feeding the cat.

The weeks when the DC are away, about £30 or so.

We budget £200 per month, includes all food and toiletries etc. but not the odd takeaway or meal out.

I don't really have to think about what I'm spending with this budget although we don't really buy any fruit beyond apples and oranges/clementines which i suspect helps.

£20 a week. We're students though meal plans and ALDI shopping is the way forwards for us.

40 pounds one week beer loo roll etc then bread milk beer next week so about 20 pound week two

I work full time dp is angecey so no set hours s I get home if its just me as dp does nights so I just have pasta or toast

Thanks everyone! Takeaways and treats are going to come out of the 'frivolous' pots, so good to get a sense of what needs to be allocated in the main account. DH's tastes are a bit more extravagant than his/our wallet permits, but since I've persuaded him to centralise everything and I'm the one that'll do the shop we should have a good chance of managing it on a reasonable budget. Good to know what ball park is average! (Should show him this thread - he's managed to blow £100+ when we were technically only shopping for a 'few bits' for one weekend...)

CoffeeTea103

Id love an example of your meal planning and oldius!

It averages to around £50/week, but that includes all toiletries, cleaning products and such, and food for two cats. Doesn't include work lunches.

Last week I managed £30 using freezer stuff I had and supplementing, this week it was £60

About £50-60 depending on if we buy wine. This includes everything we need for the whole week. We buy a fair bit of meat

Op my dp does that some times I try not to shop with him cos we seem to end up with biscits etc that have 'fallen' in the trolley under the veg

It tends to be about £50 a week including basic toiletries, cleaning products and nappies and wipes for the baby. I don't shop very carefully though, I've done it for a lot less in the past when I had less money.

Ours is about £20-30 per week, but we don't buy much meat.

About £30 for the two of us, £5 or so for the cat.

How am I spending a good £80-£100 a week? I batch cook for my son, buy tons if reduced stuff, no junk bar muller light yogurts for OH, no alcohol. It's a total mystery.

If I did the shopping about £45. If DH did it, about £60 ;)

That's mainly because I go for fairly simple stuff like soup, pasta, risotto, frittata etc but DH loves to cook so would buy things like fresh herbs, 15 types of veg and unusual ingredients which bumps the price up. These days however we meal plan together and tend to stick to the same 12 or so (slightly boring, affordable and easy) meals.

That includes some lunches but not all. And we probably spend £10 on alcohol and £5 on top up shops (extra milk, bread etc) on top of this.