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.

70 a week on fresh food, including meat/fish/veg./fruit and store cupboard, such as bread, tea bags, coffee, butter, cheese etc sounds
about right to me.

There are lots of people who will tell you that you can feed a family of 5 on a chicken for a week, but this is not realistic.

2/3 adults, 2 kids, our bill has gone up from 100 a week to 140. Prices got meat and veg seem much higher.

About £300 here for dh, me and 8 month old ds. (And 2 cats!) Includes all cleaning products and nappies etc. We get a veg box and cook a lot from scratch.

About 80 per week,2 adults and a teen. That includes loo roll, cleaning stuff and toiletries. That's in Aldi, would be about 150 in tesco.

Realistically £800 a month. Dd (20) is a nurse, works long shifts, takes food to work, eats like a horse, and is vegetarian meaning we go through at least two bags of salad for instance a day. We eat salads at probably every meal, with chicken, fish, baked potatoes, new potatoes, olives, peppers etc. we have pasta more in winter and chicken casseroles etc.

We go through 8 tins of tuna a week, and probably about ten packs of ham (I can't stand the thin stuff it's all watery and gristly to me). Eggs we go through tons of, five six pint jugs of milk a week, a bottle of diluting juice a day, two cartons of fresh orange a day, and TONS of fruit. We also have an 18 year old son and two adults but I eat very little compared to them. We eat red meat (cubed beef with all the fat cut off) or steak once a month as a treat. Mine love fish, which is so expensive too. That's including alcohol but we don't drink a lot.

I don't know about just food tbh...but on average for food, cat food (2 cats), toiletries, non-food household stuff etc, probably about £120 a week for 2 adults and 2 kids.

I tend to buy Tescos own or value for most food things, except butter, eggs (free range), yoghurts and bread. I make good use of their 3 for £10 on meat.

Non food stuff is part-branded, part not. Branded washing powder and toilet roll. Tesco cheapie dishwasher tabs and washing up liquid because I find them just as good as the branded which are 4 times the price.

About £200 a week. 2 adults, 2 kids. Don't ask.

Shona-I always think packed ham is such a rip off when you can buy a gammon and cook it yourself and slice it.

£240 per month for 3 adults, 1 teenager and a 10year old. That includes toilet roll, dog food and anything else which is required (bleach, washing powder etc.) and it does the 10year old lunch box and 2 adult lunches most days.

However it doesn't account for milk which I top up at £2 a week from Tesco and my DH's lunch.

Thank goodness for Aldi!

loads here too. Tiny kitchen so no storage for giant value sizes. We should be moving in the not too distant future, a bigger kitchen means I'll be able to stock up and fill a freezer with reduced items.

I've had to go gluten free too so my bread is now 2.99 a loaf. But I'm much healthier.

So probably 150 a month for 3 of us.

Between £400 and £500 a month for five of us. That is made up of three adults (including my 19 year old daughter in uni holidays) and two younger daughters aged 15 and 12.

I don't yet have the option of a nice cheap Aldi nearby, but one is opening before the end of the year. I can't wait!!

I nearly dropped through the floor when I went to buy salmon and it was £3.25 for a tiny tin.

icecream I have to ask! are you catering for special diets?

I spend loads.

Would spend a lot less if I cared less about what the kids eat. They eat a lot of fruit, veg and cereal and while I buy own brand cereal fruit is expensive.

Diazepam I hadn't thought of that. How long would it last in the fridge though? Could I freeze it? I actually have a professional meat slicer someone got us as a gift. Great idea thanks

Five of us and roughly £500 we do eat really well, I do like nice meat and nice icecream!

Between £500-£700 month, but that is everything from the supermarket. Cook mostly from scratch, 3 meals a day (although DH sometimes buys lunch out) and lots of fruit & alcohol

Morphine, I know. I used to love salmon sarnies, but haven't had any for ages now as it has been so expensive for so long.

We spend £75 a week including three in nappies one night time pull up and wipes cleaning suff etc. There is myself and dh , dc age 15,9, 3, 2 and 5 month old twins but no formula just baby rice. I know it's been said many times but Aldi really has saved us a fortune.

Probably about £150 for me and eight year old ds.

God we spend a fortune, only me and DP, plus 10 month DD (so I guess nappies & formula included, but then we get CB) - reckon we spend about £6-700 a month! But we do buy a lot of pre-prepared salads, nice fruit (blueberries, strawberries etc) and fresh fish / meat which is all so expensive these days. Trouble is we have a huge sainsburys practically next door so we buy stuff each day which isn't very cost effective but it does cut down on waste. It's lazy though and I'm useless at planning ahead!

Seventy quid a week is a fair amount for two adults and a little one. Of course, you could choose to spend a great deal less than that but it would probably mean changing a fair number of things. It all depends on whether you'd like to or really have to.

Not having much storage-space in the kitchen for dry or canned goods is no handicap: that's what under-bed storage boxes are for! Or on the top of the kitchen cabinets (I use both). No freezer is tricky but that doesn't have to live in the kitchen either.

Liking decent bread is not a luxury purchase, especially as your OH takes sandwiches to work. See if you can find a second-hand bread-maker in your local charity-shops, FreeCycle or a collection-only one from a local seller on eBay. I found one in my nearest British Heart Foundation shop for fifteen quid. it's fantastic and was the best fifteen quid I've ever spent!

If you're determined to reduce your shopping pends you could visit the "Old-Style" part of the MoneySavingExpert forum or the "AGirlCalledjack" blog. Some recipes just need a cheaper, in-season substitution to be more economical.

I think it's also more expensive because we live in a tiny flat the three of us, and we've no space for storing bulk stuff, so we have to buy the less cost effective smaller packets.

Minimum of £150 a week, that includes food, cleaning products and toiletries

Between 20th June and 7th July according to my bank statement I spent £217.20 in supermarkets. I also took out money which more than likely went on more food for the kids.