To think £56 for a food shop for a week is expensive?

[uhohhereweego]

It's just me and my 8 year old daughter. I've been trying to save money and usually shop daily so decided tonight to do an online shop at Asda for Monday. The total came to just under £57 for the week, that's for 10 breakfasts, 5 lunches (for me as daughter at school) and 10 dinners and some snacks. This included two bottles of wine (£10) and two cat foods (£8) so I suppose these could be ignored.

However, I still think it's an excessive amount for the amount just the two of us. Is that a lot or pretty average?

No judgement because I am partial to a glass or two (of vodka hahaha) but…if you are trying to save money, just stop with the wine - that’s £10 extra a week that you would have for food or trips out etc

Where do you shop? I think that’s cheap. We shop at Lidl and Asda and our weekly shop is around £100 for a family of 3.

Seems fine to me, if anything a bit on the low side.

I spend loads more than that. Don’t know how you can get a weeks worth of food for that little!

Post on the facebook group: Thrifty Lesley - for fabulously fugal food. Lots of ideas and support on there for food ideas on the cheap.

wow
i Spend that daily.
what about cleaning products and toiletries?
6 of us - about £300 a week.

Even shopping at an anti waste market you can't possibly manage a balanced, nutritional diet for £10.00 a week! Surely? Is that each, or have my comprehension skills failed me.

Would be about £35 in Aldi

If you think its excessive then dont get the wine but no i dont think it- is 2 adults here we spend about 70-80 a week

that cant be right

@darisdet @whynotwhatknot it is definately right cause we have £10 a week between myself and 2 kids, my kids get free school meals, some weeks its less than that and change goes into a pot for extras another week or towards Christmas and birthdays, we do have a balanced diet, can get a big bag of fruit and veg to last a week for £1 there, meats vary in price for instance sausages 2 for 50p or big pack for £1, whole chicken £2 that if I used it the whole week, ( I don't I batch cook and freeze) would last us a week and also make chicken noodle soup from carcass, eggs are free or 50p for 2 six packs, bread free or 3 for £1 dairy free milk 50p or free, flour 20p, rice or pasta 20p, these are some examples of the prices I could go on but would be here all day listing prices. And yes it's definately right as I go with £10 and spend that or less that includes during the holidays and unless I have saved from previous shops don't have extra to spend. There are other things free at times but I'm just mentioning the regulars.

oh and thats for all 3 of us and I cook from scratch and bake also I batch cook and bake on same day for freezing or for the weeks to reduce energy cost as first 2 kwh is most expensive, also still very low spender when it comes to energy bills cause the way I am doing things have adjusted that more due to rising fuel but then has also I have realized made things easier in terms of saving time too when we are having a busy day if that makes sense.

@wildchild554 That sounds rather impressive then! Glad to be corrected.

You need to remember @darisdet that many people can't afford a 'balanced nutritional diet' or don't have the resources to be able to provide one on a low budget.

If they can get to cheaper shops without travel costs and have time to cook, plus the equipment, knowledge and fuel, they can make the best of the situation, but almost no-one is spending that little on food by choice so you need to be more understanding of other peoples situation.

You also need to remember that the amount you spend is way above average, probably 50 to 100% more for your family size.

Of course it's completely fine to spend that amount if you can afford it but it's absolutely not necessarily to spend so much to eat a healthy enjoyable diet and there will be a considerable amount of 'luxury' in what you spend that can be reduced while still providing a good quality diet.

In short the people who say 'we spend £xxx per week, don't buy anything particularly extravagant and couldn't do it for less' haven't got a clue, if that's what they really think.

Easily.

A whole chicken for £2?

I aim for about £4 a day on food so about £30 a week (two adults). So that seems reasonable to me.

Wow! We're Brits in NZ and shop at the cheapest supermarket chain. Our weekly shop for 4 people, 2 adds, 1 teen 1 child, no booze is the equivalent of 200 pounds a week since Covid. Butter is 3 pounds 50 atm and we make tonnes of the stuff! Plus New Zealanders earn less than people in the UK. I really don't know how low income Kiwis manage.

£10.00 sounded worryingly low as a budget for three people per week. So much so that I thought it must be a mistake.

Yes, I take your point.

Agree with BarbarafSeville - some people really do not have enough money to have a 100% nutritional diet. We literally manage on same amount as OP for food, but manage to get more veg into lunch and evening meals and have fruit every day - anything less or you've got someone with an eating difficulty and need high priced goods, then no, something has to go.

I've been wondering about how much everyone spends on fuel in relation to their food costs (given there are large differences in how much we spend on food). Wildchild554 clearly on a lower budget and is careful with fuel. Our fuel lower than average. Do people who have large food budgets, have the money to have expensive heating bills, over the average - it's scary.

Well that £10 poster mentioned the zero waste scheme they’re part of. Where I live, there’s a scheme like that where for £3.50 a week you get 20 dried goods (it changes every week but pasta, tins of fish/soup/pulses, noodles, packets of food etc) and then unlimited fresh fruit and veg which again changes all the time and sometimes is very repetitive but there are weeks where they will give massive bag of potatoes, cauliflower, beans, fruit etc. All for £3.50. I joined in the pandemic from a zero waste perspective but stopped going as I felt others needed it more, plus I have allergies in the house so lots of the tins we couldn’t take, only the plain ones.
if that poster’s scheme is similar they could be getting most of their food from there.

That seems fine to me, for 2 people. If you're trying to save money, then knock off the wine. But it's nice to have a treat. We're a family of 4 with a dog, we spend £130 per week. We don't drink alcohol, or get take away unless it's a birthday. Our treats are nice crisps, chocolate, ice cream and Sunday cake for the family.

Depends what you buy. Processed junk can be bought for low sums as it’s always BOGOF, healthy fruits and fresh vegetables and it’ll be a lot higher.

£4 a week? You must be eating soil from
your garden.

A day!! That’s still poor. How is that even possible?!