How much do you spend

[tidytidy]

A week on food, clothes and petrol?

£45/week food/cleaning supplies/toiletries for me, DP and two cats.
Nothing on petrol as neither of us drive. We both walk to work and do our shopping online so no public transport costs either.
Clothes? Not much at all. No DC and we both get work clothes provided for us, so we only buy stuff if other things have worn out or gotten ruined. Maybe £100 a year.

You can't compare food bills unless you know whether the DCs are getting free school dinners, especially if there are multiple children involved. Also are snacks or meals included in any childcare / clubs?

Plus if an adult or teenager in the household is eating in a canteen or similar during the day, are you including that or not?

You need to define your parameters.

On a weekly basis about £40-£50 on food (me, DP and 2 kids)

£50-£60 on diesel (my job involves a lot of driving in my own car)

No idea about clothes, i often pick up stuff for the kids in Asda so spend quite a bit on them, but for myself i have no idea, maybe about £200 a year?

For 2 of us we spend £100 on food/cleaning/toiletries and about £100 on petrol, clothes as and when x

We spend around £60 a week on food, £40 on petrol. I don't know about clothes but we buy them so rarely it must be very little.

Please please tell me how you all manage to keep your food bills below £100 a week! I spend about 150-200 on 2 adults, 2 children. I shop around, buy economy products, use lidl and aldi often and buy one bottle of wine a week and no other alcohol. I hardly ever buy branded products unless on special offer, I cook from scratch most of the time...where am I going wrong or are we just greedy?!

80-100 food
50- petrol
20-30- clothes

£25 on food for 10 adults, 4 children and a donkey.

Seriously, I'd love a meal breakdown of £50 for 8 people. That's blown my mind.

We buy frozen veg so that stuff doesn't get wasted - that's our biggest saving. And meat is a BIG expense so we often go a few nights a week without meat and have vegetable-based meals - vegetable pasta bake, homemade macaroni cheese, vegetable risotto - they're all relatively quick and easy to make, nutritious and can be made really cheaply.

I don't know former

Typical weeks shopping for us is

Milk (organic)
Cheddar
Big pot yoghurt
Lunchbox snacks and cartons juice
Bread
Breakfast things for DS like croissants
Fruit
Veg - loads
Eggs
Tins - beans, pulses, tomatoes
Pasta/rice

I drink tea, coffee and water, DS water and milk at home. I don't eat breakfast much but I eat lots otherwise! I make soups and stews for my work lunches, for meals we have pasta with sauce and veg, rice with veg and pulses that sort of thing. Sometimes beans on jacket potatoes type of meal. Nothing too expensive or fancy. As I said we don't eat meat or fish so that helps.

Seriously, I'd love a meal breakdown of £50 for 8 people. That's blown my mind

Ditto! It works out to £6.25 per person per week! Impossible unless your favourite food is dust.

4 of us, one ds1 (11) who eats us out of house and home :)
I would say we spend £100 per week on food, toiletries and cleaning products.
£15 per week dinner money for ds1 too.
Dh and ds2 take packed lunches.
We don't really drink so dint buy alcohol. We dont smoke or have pets.
We shop at asda, aldi and the co op.
No markets near me sadly.
Clothes - more expensive as the dc get bigger and keep outgrowing things!

EhricLovesTheBhrothers yes not eating meat must save a lot. Unfortunately we are a meat loving family...even cheaper cuts seem to cost a lot nowadays and I get a lot of raised eyebrows if I serve up a veggie dinner!

clothes for all of us rare...I pick up pieces as needed from supermarkets - 25% off at sainbos is a good one, charity and tk max.

Also found new love for H and M sorry op, not sure

about 80 90 a week on food and I need to get that right down.

formerbabe Wed 14-Jan-15 16:37:27

I can imagine it would be done, with some huge food batch cooking....have one thing three nights and another three....and i suppose same at lunch

former we love meat too, but it's a big expense and if you want to cut your food bills it's probably something you're going to have to limit. We simply can't afford to eat meat everyday, so cutting back isn't an option, but a necessity.

Could you maybe do things like a veggie pasta or risotto with maybe a some bacon bits or something, or some cheap meatballs? So the meat isn't the main feature but it's still there in the meal - using less meat in sauces and "bulking it out" with veg/pulses etc. is also a good way to use less but still include it in meals for fussy children or DH's.

Is there a North, South thing going on re prices?

blimey, I spend around 200 per week on a supermarket shop (plus top ups) for 2 adults and 6 children.

I need to spend less I think, but we don't eat much meat or buy any alcohol in that.

Plus school dinners on top for 3 children.

eek.

Food is about £60, two adults and three dc.

Petrol £40 for two cars.

I don't really have a clothing budget nor do I keep track but I would estimate about £30-40 a monthz

Stella, are you in the South?

googoodolly good ideas thanks...I often try to do a carbonara as a cheap meal but still with some element of meat!

I also blame all the TV cooking shows which seduce me into making delicious food with tons of different ingredients!

5 of us

£250/300 on food (including eating out once a week or so, buying lunches at work and wine!)

£20 petrol

£5/10 on clothes maybe - depends

Food - if I do a Sainsburys shop then it is £100 - £120. This week I did Lidl/Aldi/Iceland/local butchers and it was £70, including cat food. No booze as it is Dry Jan, otherwise that would have been an extra £15.

£60 on food
£30 a week on petrol
£50-£70 on clothes

£40 per week on food (aldi)
Meat bought from local farm shop once a month £20
£30 petrol
£10 per week to top up bread milk etc