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.

We can get kids fish and chips easily big enough for the average adult for £2.20 with free prawn crackers and a cup drink( that goes in the bin!)

£40-£60 a week for 5. Have the benefit of working on a farm that means I don't pay for a lot of food

I spend about 1100 pounds (I am Australian and it's about $2000). But I have 7 people to feed. I have two adult sons living at home, two teenage daughters, a 5 year old and DH and me. I think food may be more expensive here, but I admit that I don't hold back and we eat meat almost every night.

That amount includes everything: all the extras for the kids (toiletries,magazines etc) and cat food. However it doesn't include alcohol, which my Dh buys separately.

I have to admit that I am looking forward to the grown up boys moving out as it hurts everytime I pay at the checkout!

About £400 for 3 humans & 2 cats (they are about £10/wk of cost) including food/ all household stuff/anything else we need tesco sells. We are lucky to be able to afford that tho and i could easily cut back if needed. I am quite greedy and ds is dairy/soya free (his milk =£8/wkalone). We hardly ever eat out but i buy fresh bread midweek. No booze except gifts for others or xmas.

About 60/70 a week including nappies, washing tablets etc. We dont smoke, rarely buy drink and are all slim so dont feel like we are scrimping as we get lots of nice things for that. There is 4 soon to be 5 here.

I spend between £70 and £200 a week but that included toiletries, house hold items and nappies

I buy the above items on offer though e.g washing stuff when it's half price I buy two or today I will but two packs of nappies on bogof

About £100 a week for 2 adults and 2 dcs. Sometimes I am a bit more frugal then it creeps back up. That includes beer for dp (8 cans a week), nice crisps, nuts and posh cchocolate. We don't eat particularly fancy but it includes some quick meals for commuting days (eg pizzas £5 for the one evening). I do buy value, don't eat much meat and don't waste anything. We are big fruit eaters and snackers that probably doesn't help

We spend just under £280 a month that's for 5DC,myself,DH and our pets.

Our kitchen is really small as well but does have quite a few cupboards which helps,we have a full size fridge freezer in our kitchen and a large chest freezer in our shed,which has been a god send.
Anything we don't have room for in the kitchen(dried,tinned goods)we store in a box in the bottom of a wardrobe.

We swapped from getting everything at Asda to using Lidl,Asda for the bits we couldn't get at Lidl and the butchers for most of our meat.

We try to always shop monthly(except for the fruit and veg)it always works out cheaper that way and I hate shopping as well so only going once compared to 4 times a month is definitely a bonus.

We make most things from scratch,that does include all our cleaning stuffs and toiletries as well.

Just about every dinner is fish or meat and we always have treats in the house.

I try to make a meal plan for our evening meal every week as that always saves us money.

I'd look at where your shopping,maybe look at mysupermarket online and see if you could get it cheaper somewhere else.

2 adults and a 5 and 2 year old ... We spend 450 a mth on everything (includes non food stuff tho eg nappies wipes shampoo loo roll washing liq dishwasher tabs etc)

I read the topic title and my first thought was it will be full of reverse boasting on how little people spent...

"I have a family of 8 and we manage in £150 a month including dog food and nappies". Yeah right, fuck off.

2 adults, 3 DC preschool age here. I don't keep exact amounts but I would hazard a guess we spend about £450 a month on groceries in general so that includes toiletries, household products. We use reusable nappies and wipes so that's one cost we drastically save on and I always bulk buy washing powder and cleaning products when good offers are on.

Food is difficult to keep costs down. Vegetarian, mostly gluten free and use dairy free milks, also try my best to get organic as much as possible and like you don't buy much tinned or packet things. Almond milk for us and the DC have coconut or oat milks, that alone is around £8 a week (used to be £10 a week but they no longer want two cups a day, the heat I think.) Huge amount of fruit and vegetables, that is the biggest part of our cost. I tried aldi once on the recommendation of about 1000 people and they didn't sell half of the fruit and veg and the bits we did get went off after 2-3 days, I wasn't impressed. Sometimes buy from a local market if I can get into town but mostly fruit and vegetables are ocado or morrisons (best supermarket quality and selection I have personally found.) Don't eat much bread but gluten free bread is nearly £3 a loaf. DH and I get protein snack bars for post work outs and they're a big section of the cost too. Oh and eggs. Refuse to buy if they're not RSPCA freedom food certified so they cost quite a bit too because we must get through about 24 some weeks. Peanut butter. That's £2.50 a week, the DC are addicts.

I always meal plan and stick to it, I guess I'm just shit at finding cheap meals

Me dp ds1 lactose intolerant (8) ds2 fussy (2) two dogs, I do one big shop at £100 the prob every 10 days or so I do a 30 top up so prob £200 for the month for all of us.

it's month I'm looking at shopping with approved foods.co.uk for store cupboard bits it's all short in date but cheap in price.