food budget

[cosmobrown]

Hi. Can people tell me how much they spend on food please?
Family of 4. Mum, Dad, 18yr old boy, 15 yr old girl.
I'm having to start budgeting for the first time.

Well how much do you spend a week normally? Any special dietary requirements? Any picky was on what shops to shop at? A Waitrose shop will cost more than Aldi one.

totally depends

family of 4 here - me, 3DD's - 17,16 and 11 - anywhere between 80 and 100 - including toiletries and cat food/litter

How much do you currently spend ?
How much do you hope to spend?

£250 a week now - four teenagers, family of six home for three meals a day.

Before schools and workplaces closed it was half that. Thank fuck I’m saving on petrol/parking/cleaner etc right now and we’re actually breaking even.

Sorry, probably not helpful. The amount teenage boys eat is bloody ridiculous.

Family of 6 + dog, probably about £200 at the moment, we are having treats to see us through though, lots of baking, pudding & wine

OK - background.

Please don't be horrible to me.

We used to have a very good income. When the kids were at home, we'd eat out a lot, and spend around £150+ per week in the school holidays on food.
We suddenly have much much less income for the foreseeable future and need to budget carefully.
Near us we have Waitrose, Sainsbury, and a Tesco.
No dietary requirements.

How much are you usually spending OP?

You can list what you buy/eat either daily or weekly.

Hi, you might like to check out money saving expert forums - there will be forums about cooking, shopping, money saving etc. A lot of quite rich people on mumsnet telling you that they spend hundreds every week won't really help.

2 adults 3 teens here. £130 pw. Aldi, meat from market. Including treats.. eat very well too!

Cross posted.

What type of food did you normally eat when eating out? Could you recreate some of those dishes?

Thanks Winter2020. Good idea. I'm all quite panicky at the moment.

Family of 3 and we’re spending since lockdown an average of £180 a week

It was between £80-100 a week before lockdown as we didn’t have breakfast or lunch at home and would eat out once a week minimum.

It’s also been more costly as the deals are off and the only supermarket nearby is Waitrose.

Add into that a bit of Easter treats which wouldn’t be normally on a shop and I’m hoping that in the coming weeks I can reduce this further.

I’d like to aim for £120 a week tops if possible, and for that to include toiletries, cleaning bits and pet bits

Here we go, these threads will bring out the worst, £250 pw is ridiculous as very few ppl have an income to sustain that.
I’m self employed so not working just now, have DD14, DS19, DD21 at home and we are budgeting £80pw and manage fine.
You do not need cooked food for 3 meals a day, £250 is £35 a day, no way anyone needs to eat that in a day.

@MrsPinkCock £250pw?! WTF are you buying? Genuine question!!

Do people think £100 pw is achievable?
DS is as skinny as a rake as he is - with a constant carb intake!
Do people meal plan? Does it help?

Oh - we have an Aldi too.

£100pw in Aldi if you meal plan is easily done. You need to plan.

Was about £90 pre lockdown. 2 adults, 2 teens.
At the moment it's definitely much higher. No offers on, no ability to menu plan, everyone home.

You can do things like chilli and spag bol with a large packet of mince and add a lot of veg to bulk it out, probably get 8 portions out of it. Jacket spuds with cheese, beans, salad is pretty cheap. Chicken legs are cheap, could oven cook them with some spuds and veg. White fish like basa is cheaper than cod/haddock etc. Could have that in fish pie or steamed with veg? Toad in the hole is pretty good value. Frozen veg just as good as fresh. Cereal for breakfast, homemade soup for lunch? Maybe a main meal for four could be about £5-10? So £35-70? Plus cereal and milk, another £6? Bread and soup for lunch? Make some biscuits or a cake to snack on/for puddings. I know it's a lot more cooking, but your children could do some of it.

Meal planning is a good habit.
I have dinners for the next 5 days sorted.

I reckon you could do it for £100 but definitely need to meal plan.

Lots of people meal plan.

Make a simple list of meals, maybe what you’ve had over the last week. Then check your cupboards/fridge.

Simple example-*
Monday chicken curry-
Tuesday fish pie
Wednesday beef tacos

Do you have enough ingredients to repeat the dishes? No? Write a shopping list.

• delete as applicable, replace with alternative options.

£100 p/w - 2 adults, 2 teens, 1 younger child. Previously £50-70 but also paid for teen school lunches then too so it probably evens out. Our breakfasts and main meals aren’t costing more, lunches are. We shop at Asda but I’ve just signed up for a weekly veg box and have had a fair amount of meat delivered this week from a butcher so I’m hoping the rest of the Asda shop each week will decrease in cost and be a bit faster now.

Oh and we always meal plan. Always did pre CV too, it’s a good habit to get into, you find you waste much less.

Family of six here and about £150-160pw.

I meal plan every week (boring I know!) but it helps and that includes a cheat dinner on a Friday of pizza! You can definitely do this on £100pw, try and look for the offers in store too!

PS that's no alcohol either....yes I realise I sound V boring!