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.

Sorry - obviously we don't have alcohol most days !

I spend £50 a week for two of us and have all the food we need.

For £30 more I can get all the luxury food, pet food, laundry stuff etc.

You can easily do it.
The more money to have to spend, the more you will spend anyway so giving yourself a strict budget is always a good idea.

Definitely meal plan as that way you can shop for all of the things you really need and not have any waste.

I also never go shopping more than once a week and always stick to my shopping list.

I think it's easily doable. Shop at Aldi or Lidl. Start off by stocking up on store cupboard stuff (pasta, rice, herbs, spices, tins, pulses etc). Every time you make dishes like chilli, curries etc make twice as much and freeze the extra until you have a nice stash of meals. So some weeks you'll not have to spend as much by using your freezer meals and then you can splurge a little bit the following week. Make shit loads of hearty soups and use those as main meals with garlic bread, it's so cheap as well as healthy.