How much do you spend

[tidytidy]

A week on food, clothes and petrol?

Those that spend a lot more than others on food - how much are you throwing away because it's gone out of date/off before you can use it?

Ehric - that's breakfast for 4 people. We probably use 2 pints of oat milk min (£1.50), eggs (£1.50), tea/ oats/ raisens (50p), bananas (50p)

Food (two adults, two cats and two dogs) £30-£40 per week
(includes meat, weekly fruit and veg offers, royal canin dog food, pound shop purchases)
DH cooks all our meals from scratch, we never buy ready meals and don't buy crisps/biscuits/cakes on a weekly basis.
Neither of us drink or smoke.

Petrol, we both work from home, one car, about £5 per week.

Clothes, DH about £20 a year, me about £50 a year (supermarket or ebay for Next/Coast/Per Una)

Artandco yes...I suppose it does. But for us, Lamb is out...can't afford it. Breakfast is eggs OR porridge. Not both. So our meals probably average out at 3 pounds especially since there's very little meat involved.

Too much judging by this thread £300 including school dinners and lunch for dh and booze - but no waste and no processed food.

Silver it's not too much if you can afford it and are healthy.

QueenVick- breakfast club at 30p? Really? Ours is £2.50 a day. Ds goes 3 times a week because he likes in not because he needs to go. After school clubs are upwards of £20 per term.

There's ds (age 15) and me.

£80 on food, I also give ds £15 a week for school lunches.
Clothes: I buy Ds things as and when he needs them and myself rarely so works out at £4 a week max or something.
£0 on petrol because I don't drive. £29.50 on weekly bus tickets, £11.00 a week on the tram for ds to get to school.

For 6 of us, Me, DH, 14yo, 10 yo, 4yo and 2yo.

Food varies weekly but the monthly budget is around £500, this includes all cleaning stuff, and lunches for me and the eldest and the two little DC everyday.
Lunch money for DC2 is separate and so is DH's lunch.
We get takeaway or eat out maybe 3 times a month which is also separate.

Petrol is difficult. I don't drive so nothing for me. DH has a company car and fuel so we pay nothing directly although it costs about £450 extra in tax each month as he has to do a lot of miles and has to have a 7 seater as it's our only car so high emissions. He's getting a different car later in the year which has lower emissions which should save us around £150 a month.

Clothes, not much. I think averaged out between the 6 of us it would be less than £100 a month. DC shoes are the most expensive, followed by DD's branded stuff which I try to buy in sales and she asks for vouchers for presents. Three boys wear mostly supermarket, H&M and sale stuff.

There are four of us. Me husband and t?o girls, one of the works full time and the other is still at school.

I spend £30 a week on petrol, husband spends the same and daughter spends £25 ( both girls use the car but oldest pays as part of her bed& board arrangement )

We spend approx £70 at Aldi each week which is great, however we all eat out far too often so I'd dread to add that together. No where expensive but it all mounts up.

I probably spend on average about £20 a week on clothes, husband about the same.

Working daughter spends at least £50 a week on clothes which makes school daughter very jealous.

I think we spend about £20 a week on clothes for youngest daughter, she has a part time job in Miss Selfridge so I'm hoping this will decrease due to staff discount.

So as a household with 3 working adults we spend:

£85 fuel
£110 clothes
£70 supermarket food

Was spending £20-30 on food (seriously!) but now £50-60. Petrol costs £45 to load car up. 1/4used in week. However have gone weeks without use. Clothes new.....what is that? I cant (this is serious) remember when i last bought any clothes, new or second hand!

Those that spend a lot more than others on food - how much are you throwing away because it's gone out of date/off before you can use it?

Very little, unless someone ill and not eating or something's awful. I bought a massive cauliflower at the weekend, got 2 meals and my lunch yesterday out of it and threw the rest away because it was as bland as hell and I knew I wouldn't finish it before it went off. I might throw the arse end of a cucumber away because it's gone soft, or a few cherry tomatoes because no one's been bothering with them and they're ready to crawl out of the fridge after 3 weeks (yet if I don't buy them, there would be complaints). Meaty leftovers can usually get shoved in the freezer if they're not going to be eaten in time.

UABU

I rarely bin anything, only my veg if it's gone slimy and rank.

I have 2 older teen boys living at home and one at university, any leftovers go into a foil container ,frozen and saved for him.

former I don't know how you do it! Are you eating organic/free range and out of season? Tiger prawns and asparagus rather than brisket and carrots?

Even brisket is quite expensive now...a lot of the so called cheaper cuts are no more.... Have you seen the price of lamb shanks recently!!?

Yes to cheaper cuts being more expensive. Blame the celebrity chef's on the TV

OP, getting chickens is not likely to help you much. It takes months to recoup the cost of the coop, the run, the feeder and water bowl, then the hens themselves are generally about £20 a go plus you then need to feed them and give them grit, buy straw for the coop and perhaps wood shavings too depending on the style of your hutch. A bag of layer pellets is about £12 a go.

You'd buy a lot of eggs for all that.

Plus they're a tie.

Plus they poo EVERYWHERE.

We have hens and are admittedly overrun with eggs but you can't just eat eggs.

You'd be better off focusing on getting your food bill down using normal methods of brand downsizing etc.

Forgot to say sad day had to replace my very old pay as you go phone recently. Silly thing wouldnt charge!!!! I am the proud owner of a smart phone a Nokia 360 (very pretty) but cost £15. Have put £10 on... That lasted a month...

I was a little furious when Jamie Oliver promoted Shoulder of Lamb as a cheap roast. It doubled in price overnight.

I forgave him for the gravy he served with it, though. I make a variation on it whenever I make roast lamb or lamb chops, now.

£70 a week on food including toiletries, cleaning stuff and cat food

Fuel £30 a week

Clothes, no idea as I buy to need but not a lot

former if you think lamb shank is a cheap cut I can see why your budget is half as much again as mine.

In all seriousness, buying fruit and vegetables in season or frozen, rather than shipped halfway round the world, makes a big difference. Apples in my local supermarket range from 14p each to 67p each depending on where they've come from (fresh South African or stored British).

Fish is also annoying. Enough fish for us five is maybe £5 for boring, basic yawn. The same protein content in turkey mince costs us £2.

No car, so petrol £0. I spend £5.70 per week on bus fares. DH spends £53.38 per month, so roughly £13 per week on commuting to work.

No idea what we spend on food - I go into the shop every couple of days and probably spend about £15-£20 each time. So £55-£70? Might be more, I really don't know. DH spends about 2.50 per day on lunch in the work canteen, also pay for school lunches for one child, but not sure how much it costs weekly.

Don't buy clothes that often, I tend to buy them in a big job lot when all the old ones have been outgrown, rather than here and there. I haven't bought any clothes since the beginning of October (but I must have spent at least £200 on warmer clothes for everyone then, probably more), and I won't buy anything more now until the warm weather is here. Maybe it averages out about £10 a week, but it is difficult to say.

About £140 a week on food

£25 a week on petrol

No idea about clothes. It's never in our budget. Adds up when all three kids grow out of everything.

£40 a week on food, meal plan and cook from scratch
£30 a week on nappies, wipes and formula
£15 a week on petrol
Buy clothes when i need them (although mostly only when i get vouchers for birthday)
to be fair though i only buy whats run out and even then only if i cant use something else instead

£80 is me not on a budget, I can get it down to £50.

Bagged fruit and veg are a rip off. They often cost more per kg than lose ones. Chicken too. It's often cheaper to buy a whole chicken then the chicken breasts/legs etc all chopped up. I can make a whole chicken last for three meals (teenage ds eats enough for three people ) so it's not bad going.

Sunday: Bulk out a roast with roast potatoes and veg, then chicken and noodles (add some carrot and peas) on Monday, then chicken curry on Tuesday. Bacon/egg butties for supper.

Wednesday: Pasta and meatballs with some diced carrot and passata.

Thursday: Fish, potatoes and broccoli.

Friday: Chiabatta with the rest of the meatballs and cheese (cook the meatballs in passata.

Saturday: Jacket potatoes with cheese and beans/tuna mayo with sweetcorn for lunch on Saturdays, not sure about the evening but it's usually what I can create, an omelette with beans and chipped potatoes.

Breakfasts are usually pancakes and fruit (I have coffee)/toast and fruit. Ds has lunch at school so I have soup (if I was prepared I'd make it myself with the veg left). There's always fruit in the kitchen.

What you need:

a whole chicken
Veg - carrots, broccoli, peas, potatoes, sweetcorn (canned or frozen)
Fruit - apples, bananas (nothing out of season as it's expensive), blueberries
Milk
Bread
Bacon
Cheese
Cans of beans
Meatballs
Passata
Noodles
Chicken stock
Fish (rainbow trout isn't expensive)
Spices for the curry and a can of chopped tomatoes for the base
Rice
Pasta
Eggs (and flour for the pancakes)
Can of tuna
Mayo.

Depending on where you shop, you may be able to get all of these for under £50, you may have cans of beans/stock/pasta/rice already. I buy household stuff in batches of 2 or 3 when they are on offer to last until they are on offer again.