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.

In mince dishes use 1/2 the amount of mince and bulk out with oats.

Graphista - what a brilliant post. I might print it out and stick it next to my fridge. I think everyone can take something away from that.

Family of 4 but my partner eats for two! He also generally eats a cooked meal for lunch and dinner. He deals with his lunch and I cook for dinner I would say I average about £100-120 a week normally. Then I might have one shop in the month that is £80 instead of £100/120, and I try to use up bits in the house that week. I really avoid top up shops unless absolutely necessary I use a prepaid MasterCard for food shopping and I load £500 a month. Anything left over I try and save for Christmas or might use for small household items we need. The prepaid card definitely helps with spending.

I am definitely spending around £200 a week at the moment. We might have a glass of wine or a gin most days and normally I wouldn't drink in the week as I see private clients in the evening. So that extra bottle of wine/ beers etc racks up the cost of shopping.

However, I would probably spend at least £200 on takeaways and eating out then another £40 a month on lunches etc. I would also spent about £100 on fuel. So it has kind of evened out.

If I need to budget to save for something I could probably get everything for £80 a week. I do as someone else has said. I plan at least two vegetarian meals a week. Batch cooking, using the slow cooker, making cakes etc helps. We didn't have much at all when I was little. My mum is the master at making something out of nothing so I learnt from the best. I make lots of chickpea/ veg curries, veg lasagne, chorizo and bean stew, fish pie with cheap fish, chicken traybakes, minced based dinners and I bulk the mince with veg and lentils. They all keep cost down and are filling healthy dinners. I buy special offers and stick up on them.

You’ve had loads of good advice already.
Mine would be try swapping to things you can put together yourself - like a big tub of natural yoghurt - that people can add their own things to. For teens, they can make their own treats - things like homemade milkshakes, ice lollies, biscuits made with oats etc.
Being mostly vegetarian is a great help.
Filling up on brown rice, wholemeal pasta and bread
Homemade pizza can be amazing - it’s really cheap and always turns out huge and is fun to make.
Anything involving bananas and oats or carrots, potatoes and onions is good, cheap and usually universally enjoyed!
Jack Monroe has a lot of budget friendly recipes and a free website.
If you can get your family to enjoy beans and pulses a bit more, (if they don’t already) that would also save.

Lots of good advice here.

I think we spend about £90/week for two - we eat very very well for that, with lots of good quality stuff. We could spend less if necessary.

• get to know the price of everything. You’ll soon learn what’s good value in which shops. I can’t stress this step enough.

• cook from scratch wherever possible. If you have time, extend this even to basics such as bread. Make your own soup etc. You’ll eat much better for much less.

• shop at Lidl/Aldi, supplemented with quality stuff from elsewhere. Eg I buy organic cream and butter from Sainsbury’s or M&S which Lidl don’t sell, and posh Italian pasta when on offer in Sainsbury’s. Nearly all Lidl’s own stuff is good - chocolate, washing powder, loo roll. Buy good quality food. A rule of thumb is that if a product is advertised it’s probably not great value. Certain things (especially treats) I will buy only at a certain price, never at full price.

• We eat almost totally veggie. Meat is organic. If you’re carnivores it will be harder to save money while eating good quality food.

• When baking, remember that older recipes tend to be more economical.

• Eat all leftovers, plan with leftovers in mind. Don’t waste anything. This is easy once you’re in the mindset.

• Use your freezer. I batch cook & freeze in foil trays so there are always ‘ready meals’ in the freezer. Label everything and know what’s in there.

• have treats, and always have a back up, eg frozen pizzas, to prevent takeaway buying.

• eat seasonally. This means eating better as well as cheaper. Nobody needs strawberries in January etc.

• read cookbooks with prices in mind.

around 200 + pw atm normally about 120pw 2a 2tweens

When we had to tighten our belts a bit I thought back to the foods we ate when I was a kid, I NEVER felt like we were on a tight budget or deprived but we definitely ate cheaper.

It was completely normal for 1 evening meal a week to be something on toast, there were 2 adults and 3 kids with usually a couple of friends over. A whole loaf of bread for toast then a tin of beans, a tin of tomatoes and a jug of scrambled eggs in the middle of the table, everyone help themselves. So 7 people fed for about £4.

Baked potatoes with grated cheese and salad

A big pack of spare ribs or chicken drumsticks baked in the oven with jacket potatoes and coleslaw or cottage cheese.

Sausages - either hotdogs, toad in the hole or in a big deep sided tin with small chunks of potato, peppers, onion and tomato all baked together.

A fry up - bacon done in the grill or on trays in the oven for 20-25 mins at gas 6. Mushrooms, loads of these as cheap and filling, fried eggs 1 each, tinned tomatoes, beans, toast or fried bread. A really cheap meal, mostly veg, if you do scrambled egg you can cook the lot with only spray oil so not unhealthy but feels comforting.

Roast dinner can be a really cheap meal and great for leftovers. A chicken is probably the cheapest and best piece of meat, you get some leftover meat for a chicken and mushroom pie or stir fry the next day. Then potatoes, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, packet stuffing, Yorkshire puds all cheap and filling. Leftovers become bubble and squeak.

Make desserts so you don't feel like you're missing out on treats, pies, crumbles, cobblers all cheap and easy to make and in a few months if you go scrumping down country lanes you can fill your freezer with free blackberries. Buy fruit in the reduced section of the supermarket, chop into chunks and freeze in a mixed fruit bag. Then just chuck a couple of handfuls still frozen into a dish and cover with crumble mix for a really quick pudding. Or blitz the frozen fruit with a little fruit juice or milk for a fresh smoothie.

I'm embarrassed to type this but it's always over £200 a week now. For 2 adults and two sixteen year olds - who never stop eating. This week it's £260 and we are not wasting food. When life was normal we used to spend around £120/week - but everyone ate outside the house quite a bit during the week.

MogeatDog don't forget you are probably eating more at home then you were previously, I know we am.

OP We are a family of 5, 2 adults, 16,12 and 11 and budget between £500 and £600 per month for all food and household products.

A different way to manage it, in these times where the whole family is at home 24/7, is some simple controls about what can be eaten when.

When a teenage boy can easily eat a full punnet of stawberries, a whole packet of chocolate biscuits and make 4 slices of cheese on toast as a 'quick snack' between lunch and dinner, or even eat a full packet of bacon that would have made a family meal, it isn't always a bad idea and doesn't have to leave them hungry at all.

So, we say, cereal or toast and fruit for breakfast. They can have 1 packet of crisps her day, 2 choc biscuits, 1 slice of homemade cake and 1 portion of expensive fruit, plus unlimited apples and pears and bread. If they want something like meat or cheese or something we have unusually,my hey have to ask if they can have it. It has made the food last a lot longer....and no-one is hungry as they can eat if they want to...just within limited parameters.

The other thing that helps is serving meals in the kitchen - especially if you bulk cook and the meal should last 2 meals. I found if it was on the table, even though everyone had a huge portion, they would then take second helpings - not due to hunger, just because it was there. And then there wasn't enough for the next day. Again, it's not about stunting anyone, but being a bit sensible.

We talked these things through. The teenage boys understand we should only shop once a week at this time and also that they sometimes eat through boredom not hunger. They don't want to be greedy and know they eat a big portion of dinner and don't need 2 big plates.

Just a slightly different way of looking at it.

For DH, DD(14) and I, the budget that seemed to work averaged over the year went up from €700 to €750 per month last year. However, it has been shot to bits recently, as we stocked up for Corona and have spent more than normal as we have bought things when we see them, but are still supporting local suppliers so actually spent more in local bakery and local butcher etc. But I have had to reach minimum spends for online shops (I have asthma so we are trying to do online where possible - we are regular online shoppers anyway).

I could do it a lot cheaper if we needed to, which we don't yet (paycuts are happening but we are still ok day to day, have savings, and pay off our mortgage this month so that's another buffer for current times, although we will do something properly to save that once this crisis is over).

For reference , my general €750 budget covers breakfasts, my lunches (I bring salad), dinners, snacks, cleaning and toiletries, alcohol etc. I do use loyalty schemes in the 3 major supermarkets I use, as well as using local Lidl and occasionally Aldi. I also go to local butcher, fishmonger, bakery. There is a good Asian supermarket near work, that I go to for bulk spices, puppodums to cook, rice wine, and other bits and pieces. And I go to local delis not infrequently for nice bits, and work around the corner from a large M&S so get things for my desk drawer (fruit, nuts, biscuits, sparkling water, etc) and some nice things for home for days we don't feel like cooking.

And I do look at it as an annual budget - I tend to buy a fair bit in the Asian market if I drive to work rather than my usual train, so large bags of rice and lots of tins, but that might only be a couple of times per year. I will sometimes spend a lot in a local wine merchants to stock up for a couple of months. One supermarket may have a particularly good set of offers on things I use a lot so I may stock up for a number of months at once and blow that month's budget. But in the summer, I may have a lot of veg coming from the garden and eating far less meat generally so I may spend a lot less. So there are definitely peaks and troughs, but as long as the annual figures are reasonably stable, I am happy enough to do it that way and have a general monthly budget that can be blown apart on occasion. And I am lucky enough to afford to buy organic or pay for convenience from local delis etc, or pay for delivery of online orders (for years now). I include delivery charges in my grocery budget, but not generally parking or petrol for going to stores as I often combine those with other trips so there is a seperate budget for those.

Usually I do not buy junk food - kids pay for their own out of their allowance and they enjoy a walk down to the shops and bump into their friends - clearly that has to be stopped and I offered to pay for their treats in the weekly shop - I'm sure it has added about £30 a week onto it though. I do ration the junk, otherwise it would all be gone in the first couple of days.
We are not short of cash - we are still working and the kids are healthy and pretty slim - trying to get through this situation with as little misery as possible, I'm just amazed by how much we are spending, no offers available, often have to buy expensive brands as everything else is sold out. I don't know how people on tight budgets are getting through this.

I've calculated between £90 - £130 every fortnight depending on if cleaning products are needed. So far in April we've spent more in shops we'd not normally shop in:
£130 - Tesco (usually Morrisons or Aldi)
£50 - butchers delivery
£51 - fresh produce, Dairy, eggs delivery

So far I'm not going to buy any extra apart from bread, eggs & milk just to see how long it lasts. Tesco is expensive, Morrisons and ASDA are cheaper for branded products. Aldi and Lidl are the cheapest out of all of them. Shop around, I go to different shops for different things if they're cheaper. Iceland sell 3 bags of frozen fish for £10 & the quality is good. Also their chopped, frozen vegetables are good too so I usually stock up there.

Tips from growing up with 3 brothers:
Freeze half of all bakery products (loaf, Scones etc) & keep half out. Rotate it so just put out one r 2 of any product types out at a time so not all of your bakery just half of the Scones until they're finished. They will last a bit longer if you do this.

Put all treats away in a suitcase, if they can't see if then they can't eat it all.

Same with cheese & dairy, put the bare minimum in the fridge and freeze the rest.
www.marksandspencer.com/c/food-to-order/not-just-any-food/food-news/freezing-tips

I also supplement fresh fruit with tinned or frozen fruit to make it go further. At the moment, I'm using tinned fruit to make crumbles and ready make crumble toppings to make the tops. This is saving my butter and flour as they're not easy to come by. I usually bake from scratch but I'm using boxed mixes atm to save on eggs & flour.

Go to Aldi. You will save so so much money.

What do people do if they don’t meal plan? How does shopping and eating work?

Doesn't everyone meal plan? How do you know what to buy otherwise?

We’re spending around £120 per week at the moment.
£100 in Tesco which includes a fair amount of alcohol
£20 fruit & veg market -we get about 3 carrier bags worth of fresh fruit and veg for this which lasts the week.

For us 2 adults and 2 children
Normally spend £200 a week but eat out 3x a week
In current times spending about 300 a week

I meal plan for evenings only - lunch and breakfast is a free for all - normally it's when we use up the leftovers.

Bulk out your ds with whole meal carbs, oats and more protein as that's more filling. So if he eats 4 slices of toast then give him 2 boiled eggs & 2 slices of toast as he'll stay fuller for longer.

You'd need to find those eggs first - there's a real shortage of them around here!

If you don't have Aldi or Lidl nearby check if ASDA or Morrisons deliver to you. They are cheaper for branded products.

Sorry! I've got a farm nearby that delivers eggs so buy bulk at a time and then freeze the excess.

£100 a week, DH, DS (15) and I.
We shop at Waitrose but cook a lot from scratch and am quite savvy with what I buy. I also do a run once a month to Home Bargains for toiletries, dishwasher tablets, snacks etc which is included in that budget but has massively reduced my Waitrose bill.