Is 200 quid for shopping enough for a couple?

[Katie198565]

Exactly that. Just done our budget and with our new energy costs & trying to pay a bit more now to stockpile ‘energy credit’ for winter, we have about 200 for food for the two of us. Seems like enough to me. DP is not so sure given cost increases. It won’t include cleaning supplies as they are budgeted for separately as we order smol and have a laundry egg that’ll last for at least a few more months.

Too many variables really. It can depend on where you live, how big your portion sizes are, whether you like to snack, how much you cook from scratch etc.

I’m surprised so many posters are saying it would be dull. I do this quite easily at Aldi and wouldn’t say we’re frugal at all. Plenty of snacks, fresh fruit and veg and meat.

I do however meal plan very carefully. So for example, tonight I made a tuna pasta bake and it did 6 portions so I put the 4 leftover ones into the freezer for lunches next week. And I’ll check what we already have before I go shopping so that everything gets used up.

I would rather have more money for nice meals during the week, and change the "leisure money" lunches out to once a fortnight instead of twice a week.

But in principle yes I could easily cook for 2 adults on £50pw.

Our shopping is £70 a week for two adults and two children. That's based on a seven day week. We don't buy any alcohol and only have meat twice a week. £50 a week for two should be doable if you do similar

Our food budget for a family of 4 is around £300 a month give or take.

try it for a bit and see - if it isn't, reign back a bit on the eating out at the weekends.

I think it sounds fine. I aren't between £160-£185 per month for 2 adults and a 5 year old

It’s three weeks really if just weekdays, perfectly doable.

Yes, easily.
But if you are concerned, you could not eat out both days every weekend and that would double your food budget.
However, we don't spend much more than that on 4 adults, and aren't particularly looking to keep costs down.

It can be very enjoyable if you put some work and imagination into it. Reduce/cut out meat, meal plan and freeze portions for another day.

It's doable for a week or 2 but you would be using up cupboard staples and not replacing them. Cut back on eating out and put extra cash into food budget.

I spend less than that for 2 of us and we eat fine. Not much meat, as I'm veggie although ds1 isn't. Spent £70 the other day in aldi and heron foods and got loads of stuff.

£10 a meal? Easily doable.

£200/ month = roughly £50/ week . For three meals a day, five days a week for two adults.

So a lot less than that, but I still think very doable!

@Honaloulou Oh I misread OP's updates and thought she said it's only for 5 meals a week

I would say yes easily doable!

Agree with other comments about taking a picnic for most of your weekend trips rather than eating out all the time, which is getting increasingly expensive and poorer value for money.

You can probably save a bit by swapping the Smol for Aldi or Lidl all in one tablets which are quite a bit cheaper.

This.

Yes I think it's doable and I would definitely prefer to eat frugally during the week if it meant we could eat out at weekends.

I think its quite tight. Its 1.50 per person per meal with no drinks or snacks like an extra bit of fruit. I know 1.50 is a generous breakfast so youd add it to dinner but to me its not got much wriggle room.

I spend approx £50 for me and two children (who probably eat more than me!) For our Monday-Friday shop at Lidl (all meals and snacks, plus some cleaning stuff and odd purchase from the middle aisle).

We spend approx £50/week for the two of us (including cleaning supplies) but that doesn’t include all the extra bits we get by popping to the shops or alcohol. As someone said upthread, it is doable but sounds like it will probably be quite miserable

We could do it if we bought own brands from the supermarket and mainly ate chicken, mince, gammon etc. It's things like a bottle of wine, and detergent that pushes the bills up.

I spend less that that for 2 of us. We have meat most days, and alcohol.