To ask what you spend on food each month?

[Dovetale]

We're spending on average £280 per month just on food, alcohol & non food groceries are budgeted for separately.

There are 3 of us me, my DH and my DD who is 19 months old.

I'm struggling to know what is a reasonable spend whilst trying to give my DD a healthy balanced diet.

I've tried asking my friends but non of them budget so they don't really know what they spend.

Our limitations are:

We have a tiny kitchen so only 2 wall cupboards for dried goods and an under counter fridge with icebox. This means we can't do a weekly shop at a big supermarket or a lot of bulk cooking but we do have a Tesco within walking distance and a Sainsbury's which I have a discount card for through my DH's work so works out about the same as Tesco. There is a farmers market once a week but it doesn't seem to be any cheaper.

Here's what I've been doing so far:
We always cook from fresh no jars or packet sauces etc.
Buying tinned & frozen fruit, plus cheaper fresh fruit such as bananas and apples.

Always check the price per unit and buy cheapest storage space allowing.

Take advantage of offers, storage space allowing.

Always check what we already have in the fridge/freezer before planning the evening meal to minimise waste.

Having regular vegetarian meals and only buying cheaper meat e.g. minced beef.

Always going with a list.

The only real luxuries I can see are that my husband likes nice bread so £1.40 a loaf (but he does take sandwiches to work instead of having a meal in the canteen) and I like chocolate and in an ideal world would want a treat every other day (sometimes more depending on how many toddler tantrums I have had to soothe!)

Any money saving tips or opinions on what we could be spending would be very helpful.

That's loads!

There are four of us and we spend c£100 at the beginning of the month then £30-50 a week topping up. But that includes booze & lunch boxes.

That's more than we spend and our family is the same size although admittedly that's excluding DS' meals on the 2 days he's at nursery and we don't eat meat.

You're already doing a lot. Do your fruit & veg shopping in your local cheapy grocers, there must be one (usually in skanky part of town!). Check discount section. Eat lentils.

Thanks Staryyeyedsurprise I thought we should be able to eat for less than we are doing.

To give you an example of a typical 24 hours in our house today my husband and DD had cornflakes for breakfast and I had weetabix both supermarket own brand. He's taken a cheese and pickle sandwich (cheese on 2 for £5.00 big pack cheapest per unit they stock) and a banana to work for lunch. DD and I had beans on toast for lunch and she had an ice lolly made from yogurt (2 for 1 offer) and frozen berries, I had a banana. DD has had sultanas and breadsticks as a snack. Last night for dinner we had baked potatoes and sausages (from a previous 2 for 1 deal) with some green beans. I don't feel like that's particularly excessive so not sure where we are going wrong!

There's 3 of us and we spend around £400

Thanks PugabooI will check out the cheapy grocers. I do love lentils so will try making them more of a regular occurrence.

So roughy £70 per week, I think that's completely resonance, tbh I think you do quite well not to spend more

Is the 280 just food or toliet roll, nappies... Etc

We spend around £100 a week; there are 5 of us (2 adults, one teen, 2 DC). Generally we have a Tesco delivery once a week, spending around £50 and then the other £50 gets spent on top ups and in Aldi.

2 adults and a 5yo, I thunk we spend about 400 a month - including toiletries/ cleaning products etc.

£400 per month for 2 adults, 2 DC and 2 dogs. Both dc's have multiple allergies though, which puts the bills up quite a bit because e.g. soya milk is more expensive than cow's milk etc etc

Ours includes food (including dog food), booze, cleaning products, toiletries etc

I try and budget but am clearly rubbish at it. We are a family of 5 and spend at least £600 a month. In fact that would be a good month. That does include toiletries, cleaning products and pet food.

Yep, 3 of us here and we spend around £450 per month on everything Around £110 of that is nappies, formula and household stuff like washing powder and loo roll though. I've done some sums and our biggest spend is on fruit and veg (baby eats more than we do!), closely followed by meat. I can probably get those cheaper by shopping elsewhere, but I'm basically lazy...

Actually, I should have said "that's loads to me " as I'm always amazed at how much others spend on food. Compared to "normal" people you're probably ok. I was properly skint for years and have never moved away from budgeting and planning.

4 of us and about £500 (nappies for DTDs still...) We eat very well though!

Oh - no pets, & that includes most toiletries

4 of us, £600 - £700 a month.

I struggle to cut back tbh as we have food intolerances that the likes of Aldi don't cater for.

That includes pet food and cleaning stuff / toiletries etc

3 of us (me and 2 teenage DS) and it's roughly 400 a month, but that's not just food, it's everything - including wine, cat food, toiletries etc. In fact a vast proportion of that is spent on Lynx alone

We spend about £300 a month for two adults and two preschoolers. It includes nappies, most cleaning products, packed lunches and some, but not all toiletries.

We probably could get it cheaper but I think the time we would spend doing this would negate any savings. Things we could do:

Meal planning - we have a rough idea of meals, but it's fairly fluid.

Shopping around more - I could use more independent shops, but at less convenience.

Home baking etc - again, down to time, but as the children are young, they don't eat much anyway.

Oh God. Loads. Probably about £700 a month for 3 adults and 1 child. That includes everything though.

between £50 and £75 a week for me and 3 kids (12,10,6) including wine and 'treats' and toiletries plus pet food etc

£200 for 2 of us

Three of us and we spend about 600-700 per month. we eat a LOT

But we spend £3-£5 per day on strawberries and blackberries for dd so that makes up a big portion of our spend.

200-350 depending on whether its a 5 week month, or if we need looroll/ bbq stuff/ booze, so between £50 and 75 a week. For me, dp, dd, and dcat

Two adults and a toddler. We spend around £100 a week so that's £433 a month.

That includes cat food, cleaning products etc.

Food is incredibly expensive nowadays, only a few years ago I easily spend a lot less.