How much do you spend weekly on food? AIBU to spend?

[early30smum]

Just that, really? For how many people and does that include cleaning stuff/toiletries? Just stuff bought in supermarkets/online/small shops etc not including any meals out/coffees etc. We seem to spend a lot and I'm beginning to think IABU about the amount... Interested to hear what everyone roughly spends.

jilted

Because I don't see how you can spend £60 pw for a family of 4 (all in, no top ups, no canteen lunches, freebies from work/friends/family) and still have plenty of fresh fruit and meat, a modest amount of alcohol, and not be making everything from scratch.

I don't see how you can spend so little if you weren't being extremely careful and disciplined

If you eat very healthily then £60 a week for 4 is doable without being stingy IME.

Breakfast for us is cereal or porridge usually, with a piece of fruit - about £6 a week I reckon. Lunch is sarnies, salad, fruit and yoghurt, eggs or sardines, sometimes a tin of soup or beans for convenience - i'd estimate about £20-£25 a week. Salad and fruit is dirt cheap if you shop at Lidl or similar.

Dinner is where you can hoik the budget right up if you don't have time/fancy something 'nice'. Our staples are things like tuna pasta bake, spag bol, pork loin with noodles and veg, jackets with various fillings, sausage or chicken casserole with rice or spuds - all healthy and full of veg and can be made for £5 a meal or thereabouts. Something like a spag bol or chicken casserole is slightly more for decent mince or chicken breasts but will do us for two meals so evens out.

We probably have paella about once a week - and I buy Lidl frozen paella which is £2 a bag (and two bags does us 4) - I don't buy a lot of ready or convenience food and for those I do, i'm a serial ingredient checker and the paella Lidl does passes my ingredients test and is bloody lovely.

The times when we spend more is when we buy a lovely dessert on a Sunday, or get a big joint of beef (which we overindulge on), or buy ready made lasagne's or ready prepped veg. All of which are either convenience or just over-indulgence and not particularly great for you anyway.

If you're not prone to overindulging and you're not strapped for time or (in our case) not just occasionally lazy then it wouldn't be a struggle to keep to £60 a week without particularly trying.

Not totally sure how much we spend as we don't have a particular budget but tend to buy as and when - live very near a Tesco, and also shop at M&S for fruit/treats/top up. Do an ocado order around once a month. Probably spend around the region of £100-120/week for two adults and 2 dogs. Try to buy organic and high quality food where possible.

Comparing the posts on this thread with those elsewhere is very telling and illustrates the economic disparity in our communities. I can simultaneously feel puritcanically stingy (compared to poster the other week who felt there was nothing extravagant about spending £100 each on drinks at a wedding) and massively profligate (compared to those who think £100 per week for all food/drink/groceries on a family of 4 is excessive and manage of around half this amount).

We have 'enough' fruit but I also limit what I buy and we don't spend a lot on it - I tend to feel that people over-eat fruit when they're trying to be healthy, and go on about the fact that all the fresh fruit their dc hoover up costs them £30 a week.

Fruit is full of acid and sugar and not something that the dc or we eat 'a lot' of - two pieces a day max, very often one. About once a week I let the dc do a fruit nutri bullet but no more than that.

They have a large salad every day (easily 2 of 5 a day) and will snack on carrots or celery rather than apples, which I prefer (and are cheaper!). And they have a pile of veg with dinner which is better IMO than loads of fruit, and again, generally cheaper.

banana I just can't see how you would need to spend more than £60 for 4 people. Well obviously I get others do but for us, I'd be hard pushed to. I buy meat when it's 3 for £10 (Sainsburys, m&S, Tesco all do it) so that might be 2 x4 chicken breasts) and a pack of mince. So 3 meals there straightaway. Pizza, salad, garlic bread another night (I make the butter with butter and garlic purée and a half size baguette. Wraps and bagels for lunch. Things like crisps, I buy own brand instead of Walkers. Weekend we do brunch on both days usually; not because of cost but usually using up leftovers plus fresh bread/soup etc. I buy seasonal veg and bake what I can.

GReen - see we cook similar but couldn't do £60 for 4 people. A bolgnese would cost us around £8 to cook, pork loin and veg and noodles £10-12. We only buy high welfare meal though so mince for a bolgnese would be £5-6, pork loin £8. X7 evening meals on that type of food it would be £70 alone for just dinner. As it in we eat veggie a few days.
But breakfast here would be porridge with nuts and seeds, made with milk, fruit, yogurt or eggs. I guess milk alone is £6 a week without any actual ingredients

Grilled - see 4 chicken breasts cost around £10 from our local butcher. So 8 breasts plus mince would be £25+

I don't know what we spend. It's probably not that high because we can't eat much pre-prepared food due to allergies and I don't buy anything seriously expensive but it's not that low because I don't really try to economise and would find some of the meal plans on here quite depressing. Also, I love M&S and Waitrose and but I'm not at all keen on Lidl.

I think that on a thread like this you are bound to get a lot of low estimates for an average weekly food shop, partly because some people exaggerate and partly because those who know exactly what they spend are either on a budget or are particularly frugal (or perhaps miserly).

ArtandCo I spend about the same on mince but our bolognaise has nearly as much veg in - so probably costs £9-£10 when I do one but we'll get two full meals out of it and often another portion to freeze for the dc.

Pork loins we don't spend nearly as much on. The noodles and veg is a couple of quid, less even, pork loins I buy from Lidl - nowhere near £8.

I can see how such meals would cost a lot more if you only buy meat from the butcher or organic etc. But that's a choice and affects the actual meal very little - but obviously a lot more ethical. So it 'can' be done for cheaper but I can see why some, if you can afford it, would choose to spend more on the same meal.

I think we probably spend an obscene amount on a weekly basis. 2 adults, 2 teens. Dh spends at least £10/day on lunch and coffee. 2 dcs spend £3/day on lunch. That's £80 before I add the dog's food which is nearly £25 a week, maybe more. And then I spend maybe £200 a week in the supermarket but that does not include booze or toiletries. I think nearly £350 a week would be a realistic estimation. I don't buy ready meals or frozen food and very little is wasted.

Grilled
My point wasn't that you can't do it, but that to do so you need to be disciplined, eat basic food (which can be perfectly nutritious), limit portions and snacks, prepare from scratch and avoid treats. All of which you appear to do...

Because I don't see how you can spend £60 pw for a family of 4 (all in, no top ups, no canteen lunches, freebies from work/friends/family) and still have plenty of fresh fruit and meat, a modest amount of alcohol, and not be making everything from scratch

You can, I've done it before for many years. Whatever your budget is you become very adept at making it stretch. It's only in the last year or two we've been fortunate enough to have a bigger budget because DP got a promotion. I do not take the budget we have for granted, because I remember very well the days where we ate hardly anything to ensure the kids ate well.

I think our bills are low as we eat casually.

Mostly it's just me and DH (DS home in holidays from Uni) so we don't do big meals.

If DH is home during the day he will have porridge made with water and cinnamon for his breakfast. I'll have a slice of toast or a boiled egg.

Lunchtime I'm often out and about so will grab a quick bowl of soup at home somewhere near lunchtime - DH makes a big bowl of chopped apple banana with natural yogurt.

Dinner can be very simple - pasta with roasted beetroot or a veg stir fry, or lentil dhal etc.

Meat and fish (for him) very rarely - veggie stuff the rest of the time.

We don't seem to be going hungry?

DS is home at the moment but he has a small appetite. He tends to only eat twice a day.

No really fussy eaters so am always able to rustle up something from what is in the veg drawer.

I'd rather spend my money on booze amd holidays..

Makes a huge difference how big two of the 4 people are. I monitor pretty well and it's around 90-100 a week, but three years ago it was 50-60, mainly because a 1 and 4yo eat so much less.

I could reduce it a fair bit further but I don't have to, and with various food issues in the family and my health problems we go for a fair bit of ready made items, as well as the very economical stews and bolognese-type sauces with loads of canned veg. Though I also know when they reduce items at my Sainsburys so stock the freezer/pick up luxuries there, and every couple weeks stock up at Lidl on the things they do well and much more cheaply.

2 adults 2 9month old babies and 2 cats

I was spending £100 per week until a few months back when I switched a lot of branded goods for Sainsbury's own (can't tell the difference on 90% of it - their rice is no different to uncle bens microwave stuff)
Now spending £60

The holdings - how do you even manage to spend £200 a week on food which doesn't include lunches most of the time?

I can't quite get my head around what you can possibly eat that costs that tbh - I would actively struggle to spend £200 on food to be eaten in a week tbh, I can't fathom what type of food that would include!

SVJAA

I don't see how on one hand you can say you readily managed on £60/week for all food and groceries, whilst not scrimping on fruit, meat and alcohol, and then go on to say "because I remember very well the days where we ate hardly anything to ensure the kids ate well".

It's been very interesting reading through all the replies. I can see that it varies massively- and what some people think of as budgeting sensibly is way over what some choose (or can afford) to spend and vice versa.

As stated I spend between £125-£150 a week for 4 of us- but this doesn't include any lunches except for me and at the moment I'm not even eating lunch (that's another story!)

I can understand how theholdings might spend £200 a week on food not including lunches, I wouldn't (and couldn't afford to!) but I see how it could be done eg:

Premium brand granola/myself type cereal- eg the Dorset cereals or rude health x 2 a week
Meat/fish every night for 4 people is expensive especially if buying things like steak
Buying lots of pre prepared veg
expensive fruit out of season eg cherries in waitrose at £4.50 at the moment!!
Lots of snacks, with 2 teenagers they can eat loads and loads if allowed to!
Premium convenience food and snacks for example a pack of 6 taste original chicken satays (ready to eat) is £2.50!! My kids would eat them as a snack if I let them but I only buy them as a v ocassional treat
Expensive coffee/herbal teas

Not saying this is what this person is doing, but I do see how it could be done...

Between £80 and £150 per month

That's for myself and two adult DC, it depends if I've had a good month of overtime or not, the DC pay the rent and electricity between them, if they have spare they'll get small shops in between

Generally though once something has run out, then that's it til next payday.

I don't see how on one hand you can say you readily managed on £60/week for all food and groceries, whilst not scrimping on fruit, meat and alcohol, and then go on to say "because I remember very well the days where we ate hardly anything to ensure the kids ate well

Sorry I didn't explain that properly did I. What I meant was that £60 was enough to feed us all properly, minus the alcohol because we don't drink often. The part about eating less to make sure the kids ate well was when our budget was even lower per week.

Average spend is £300 per calendar month, that includes all cleaning, toiletries and alcohol. Family consists of 2 adults and 2 dc 12 & 10, one dc has school meals the other takes packed lunch, as does dh, I'm at home so make myself lunch.
Main shop is at Aldi / Lidl / Farm Foods but I also keep an eye out for supermarket offers, I bulk buy meat when there is an offer, cut large joints into smaller ones or dice for casseroles. I tend to make a big pan of something and freeze the additional potions.
I enjoy cooking and we like to eat well, I find buying seasonal produce helps keep costs down. In winter we eat a lot of home-made soup. Farm Foods have some good offers on frozen veg, I find the chopped leeks very handy and their frozen cod fillets are excellent.
There was a thread last year asking the cost of that days evening meal which was very interesting, there was such a variety, a cheap meal to some is an expensive meal to others!!!

We spend about £200 a week not including lunches (as I posted upthread). For us a weeks meals might include -
Steak and chips
Roast dinner (usually joint of beef or pork)
Smoked salmon pasta with cream
Quorn spag Bol
Fish with roast peppers and rice
Quorn pieces curry with rice and naan bread
Maybe some lamb chops or pork chops one night
Pizza express chilled pizzas which we add black olives and anchovies to (none of us like any of the other fresh or frozen pizzas).

Dh doesn't like eggs, so he wouldn't eat an omlette or anything egg based. He also doesn't eat chicken so we don't have any chicken meals. I don't like red meat as left overs - to me it tastes awful so I buy enough just for a roast so we don't do any stir fry / casserole type meals unless we buy meat specifically for them.

We eat a lot of fruit like raspberries, blueberries and so on. If I buy cheaper fruits like apples or bananas no one eats them!

Breakfast is usually bagels or croissants. Sometimes breakfast bars or porridge depending on what's going on.

Ds who has asd and a very restricted diet only eats pizza express dough balls (from the chiller aisle) and cheese and occasional he will have pasta with pesto. That's about it! He is under the care of a dietician who is happy as he is currently growing despite his very restrictive diet and he is on prescription multivitamin supplements. He also likes to eat a lot of babybels and he drinks carton drinks (otherwise he won't drink and will get dehydrated). I realise for a lot of people this aspect of our budget will be hard to understand but it's a reality for lots and lots of parents with children with asd. And everything has to be that particular brand. He knows the difference by taste.

It's easy to spend £200 ish if you're not really thinking about what you spend. Thankfully we don't have to worry about it but I have been through periods of extremely low income (income support, redundancy, unemployment etc) where I've really used to watch every single penny and I could do it but it was very hard indeed.

I'm on an economy drive at the moment so this is an interesting thread. Last week I spent £60 at the supermarket to feed five of us, me, DH, DD1 (20), DS (16) and DD2 (13). I planned a menu based around meals that were based on either pasta, potatoes, rice, lentils and mainly vegan. I bake one cake a week and DD2 takes three snacks to school each day. Our lunches come out of that too. We have a lot of fruit and veg. I shop at Aldi with Sainsburys top up for things I cannot get at Aldi.

Lunch tends to be whatever is leftover from the night before taken to work and heated up for me. DD2 has school lunches, DS takes a packed lunch to college and DD1 is eating at home at the moment. We don't drink much alcohol, if at all.

This week it went up to £75 as I had to buy loo rolls and bleach and a few other non food extras. But on the whole I'm quite pleased with that spend. DD1 off back to uni soon, so I'm sure the costs will come down.

I also have a few meals stacked up in the freezer but I'm going to run those down over the next few weeks. I'm keeping my meal plan on a monthly planner sheet, so that I will probably just repeat the 4-5 week cycle next month so that the thinking/planning has all been done. I need to live within £100 per week at the moment, including petrol.

I've started doing some babysitting through an agency as an extra evening job and the cash that I get from that really helps with paying for anything extra that pops up during the week.

I think the other thing that I haven't seen mentioned yet is how much you keep in your cupboards or if you run down almost everything before shopping again. Also for example I spent more this week because I was batch cooking for the freeze, so made portions of beef casserole, mini cottage pies and a big batch of bolognese sauce. That will be a total of enough meals to feed two kids for 14 meals.