to think that £500 is far too much to spend on groceries in a month?

[fartlek]

I just totted up what I spent at supermarkets this month and realised that this is why I am £20 away from the end of my overdraft the day before payday. DH has also bought groceries this month so this isn't even our entire bill! We don't share accounts so it gets a bit murky as to who spends how much on what (this is a whole other thread to be started in relationships, we won't go there just now) but I'm pretty sure this is extortionate.
I have never been much of a budgetter when it comes to food shopping, I just buy what we need and try not to go for the most expensive item. What do others spend if I may ask?

I'm so relieved I saw this thread as I just worked out I spent £500 this month in me a ten two children a dog and two rabbits and it shocked the hell out of me but it does include cleaning /toiletry items too so maybe not as bad as I though. I think it's the constant snacking that costs so much and I don't know how to cut them down , any tips anyone?! I shop at morrisons but am thinking of trying asda online to see if cheaper

I think we're £40 a week for two adults (that's all groceries, not just food). Almost exclusively Tesco as we're over half an hour from anything else. Usually one biggish shop and one or two top up shops in that. Things we won't use all in one go (bread, big packets of chicken thighs, etc) get split and some put in the freezer. Leftovers are used the next day for another dinner/packed lunch or frozen for a future quick dinner. Can't really think of any food we chuck out without eating. We could do it for less if we lived nearer an Aldi or Lidl as I can happily get about two thirds of my shopping there (some things I still need to go elsewhere).

What do you eat to only spend £40 a week? Genuine question as we are at £500 for a month usually, 2 adults, cat, have family round fir big meal 3 times a month and feed one more once a week.

We eat fish, veg dish once a week, make soup or leftovers for work. But I couldn't get down to £40...

It depends whether you can afford it. If you can't then it is too much, if you can and are happy spending that much it is fine.

We are a family if 5 (2 adults, 3 DC aged 10, 12 and 14) and spend around £100 a week. This is about right for us in terms of affordability.

We spend about £500pcm for one adult and three DC (16, 12, 12) but that includes household cleaning stuff & toiletries, and I'm not especially price sensitive (er, Waitrose). Works best if all meals are planned, and buy only to the ingredients. This can mean omitting anything involving coconut milk (for example) unless you plan enough meals involving coconut milk to use the whole tin. It's quite time consuming planning in detail, and executing can be time consuming too. In my experience, plan for 4 days' worth, and have staples to wing it on the other three - pasta for example.

If I really focus I can get the weekly bill down to about £100, but not sustainably.

As for teenage snacking, thank God for bread!

Not really relevant but I remember my Mum having £10 a week to feed a family of 5 in about 1980. We had one yoghurt a week as a treat, but we never went hungry. It just shows how much food prices have gone up since then.

80s: cereal for breakfast (own brand cereal but organic milk), usually sandwiches for lunch (e.g. cheese and pickle), snacks are often a yoghurt, a banana, then either another piece or fruit or something chocolatey depending on whether it's a good or bad day/week!

A weekly schedule of dinners might include

• chicken curry (buy chicken thighs for a few pounds and one packet lasts 3 meals for 2 people) with rice (and using spices from my cupboard that last forever so very very cheap)
• fresh fish and potatoes/veg (basically whatever is on offer that week, like salmon fillets and new potatoes or the like). Often have some sort of frozen veg on backup as it's very cheap (had a bag of frozen green beans recently for about £1 that went along with at least 8 dinners)
• pasta bake (sauce approx £1, grated cheese and pasta and it makes enough for dinner one night then either packed lunches or dinner again the next day)
• simple bolognese with beef mince, again always does at least 2 dinners' worth
• an easy frozen oven dinner like (own brand, £1.50ish) frozen pizza or pie for a busy/lazy day
• puff pastry vegetable/cheese job (tart? Not sure what you'd call it) with whatever veg bits are leftover in the fridge (pastry costs about £1.20)
• listing 6 above because several would provide leftovers we'd use for another meal so at least one a week is just reheated leftovers

Also, in terms of cost, I'm not tied to brands but buy whatever is best value, with very few exceptions. Generally don't buy any alcohol or soft drinks other than a bottle of squash. Any recipes I use for dinners or baking (which I do fairly often), I check for or tweak recipes so as to use things I'd have in the cupboard already and not have to spend loads on ingredients for specific recipes.

Oh and I make lots of soup too, mainly in winter, which is both delicious and cheap!

At least £500. We eat well but I wouldn't say extravagantly.

I agree the ready meal lasagnes at £5 for a huge one is much much cheaper than making it yourself. Just the cheese and mince would be far more than that.

I could feed us for £50 per week but it wouldn't be much fun.

Comparing decent home made lasagne with standard supermarket lasagne is not comparing like with like though. The quality and meat content of home made version will be much higher. A home made lasagne will be at least equivalent quality to the very best ready meal, eg Charlie Binghams, which is about £7 for one that contains two relatively small servings.

Same for baking. Yes, you can buy cheaper 'cake' than making it yourself, but the quality isn't a patch on homemade, and most shop bought is more or less inedible if you're used to home made stuff.

malin100 Thank you. There's some good ideas there - I do tweak recipes to use what I've got - but probably not often enough. I think I need to get my head round that. And also doing a couple of 'cheap' meals a night.

We eat out about once a week as well which I think we need to cut down on - there's no good cheap places near us.

We might have to cut our spending drastically soon...so looking for tips.

We clock in at about £200 for two of us, which covers:

• Weekend brunches (we tend to do 2 meals a day on the weekend so have something bulky around 11ish and then carry through until dinner)
• Salads for me to take into work (DP has a subsidised canteen so doesn't bother!)
• All dinners eaten at home
• House stuff - toiletries, cleaning products etc.

We do a lot of batch cooking and we meal plan every week, which I think helps massively.

I budget €700 for DH, DD and I. DH and I both work FT so need some convenience, DD needs hot lunches for school daily (food flask) and I take salads on average 3 days/week.

I include cleaning items, alcohol etc in that - basically anything I buy at the supermarket. I do buy some things at M&S for convenience, niceness and also my fruit and milk for work as it's close by. We also eat well in certain ways - cured meats for Sunday tea and lots of cheese, fresh berries and nut butters for my breakfast smoothies, organic milk, not the cheapest wine going, etc.

I could do it cheaper. I know that. But we can afford it and there are some things that, certainly at the moment, are worth more to me than money. Time is a very scarce commodity so while aiming for good quality, I need shortcuts too and those cost.

This thread interested me, so I looked at our bank account for our monthly supermarket spend. We are around £250 a month, with an extra £75 maximum for both DS's to have school lunches. We are a family of 5. This is at a time when I am not tightly budgeting either. We have been worse off and would have spent even less than that. It will also include cleaning products.

It's a lot.

It's about what we spend for three adults and 2 DC.

dibdobs snacks for our 5DC are fruit,crudites or breadsticks and a dip,hummus or cheese spread,toast,bagel,croissant,crumpets,pancakes,a bowl of cereal,a yogurt,crackers and cheese,couple of biscuits,a piece of home made cake,flapjack or cookie,a packet of crisps(now and again)nibbly bits we usually have in the fridge-picnic eggs,cocktail sausages,satay chicken,mini sausage rolls,mini pasties,babybel cheese.

Malin I'm astonished you can feed a family on £40 a week. Are you including everything- all groceries and lunches? I could cook 7 main meals at less than £5 each easily, but that wouldn't include 5 portions of fruit / veg a day for 2 people, loo rolls, washing powder etc etc.

I read your sample menu but am still puzzled! I mean, how many chicken drumsticks do you put in a curry? They have next to no meat on them, so getting 6 adult portions from a pack ( 3 meals x 2 adults) surely mean neither of you is getting much chicken at all?

You've got an awful lot of carbs in your dinners-puff pastry, pasta, frozen pizza etc.

Polly it's not an exact amount but I'm pretty confident on it as I buy the majority and my husband mostly just picks up the odd thing like milk. I didn't claim to have the best diet in the world so no, I probably don't get my 5 a day every day (though in the height of summer I often make salads for packed lunches instead of sandwiches and in winter it's soup, but currently it's sandwiches) and probably do have too many carbs but I'm sure I'm not the only one and I was just answering the question.

As far as the chicken goes, it's thighs not drumsticks, and if I remember correctly I usually split them into 3 freezer bags of 3-4 thighs each so per dinner would be 1.5-2 thighs per person.

I spend that and there's only 3 of us.
Life's too short to try and make a chicken last 5 weeks.

Ontheholidays ooh thank you for rose idea, there's some there I haven't thought of, they just constantly snack even when they've just had dinner lol

Those ideas not rose!

£500 sounds OK to me but I suppose it depends how many mouths you have to feed. We have 2 adults and 2 teenagers. I guess at least 50% of that probably goes on breakfast cereals .

Interesting thread - for me and DH and the cat, I spend approx £85 per week, so £340 per month, and that's food, booze, loo roll, cleaning stuff, cat food etc. I vary where I shop, sometimes its Tesco, Sainsburys, Waitrose, but the bill is pretty much the same. I'm an online shopper, which generally works out cheaper for me.

We spend £250-280 for 2 adults and a toddler

I do an epic budget spreadsheet (I know, how anal, but it becomes quite addictive!) On this I note everything we spend. I also separate out the grocery shop so I know I exactly much we spend on meat/fruit/veg/staples ( and the percentages ) etc. Despite doing this, we are still spending on average £450/mth - so just on edible things. Booze/cleaning products/cosmetics are all in a separate columns...This is for 2 adults and two young kids - three meals a day (packlunches). I still think this is massive excessive but we are struggling to cut it back any further.