No idea how much spent on Food

[Aquarius1234]

AIBU to have no idea how much on average I spend on food per week/ month.

Eeeeek anyone else??

This feels like a bizarre kind of flex maybe. Don't you look at your bank statements or do online banking? I have an alert that pops up on my phone each time I use my card, so I know exactly what I've spent. In terms of weekly shop, mine averages £150 for three adults, 3 kids and a dog, with maybe 20 for fresh stuff (bit more for wine!) in between. If you're serious about monitoring your spending, it literally takes a minute to check! We're not loaded, but comfortable - I'd be loath to pay any more than we do!

It's actually quite easy to spend £130 in a weekly shop if you buy branded goods like Heinz, Andrex etc. I always plan to spend less than £80, and never spend less than £130 weekly, plus a couple of top-ups in between.

So many prices have risen to a crazy level. Plus I've noticed that Tesco (my local big shop) do this thing where they increase the price, then pretend it's cheaper on clubcard, then eventually they just change the price to the higher one.

Perfectly illustrated by the children's smoothie drink pack I used to buy a couple of years ago at £5 for 10 drinks, it's now £7.50 for the same thing! £7.50 for one item at shopping, so it all adds up.

Our food shopping seems to have gone up so much lately. I’m aware of how much we spend because generally DH does a food shop one week on his day off so I generally do the following week and do an online shop. Generally it’s between £90-£120 per week that’s for 4 of us

As stated various people on here have said they don't know what they are spending each month.
Not everyone does excel spreadsheets.

No this is not normal shopping behaviour @Aquarius1234 What is your general attitude to money like? Do you spend on unnecessary rubbish and not save anything?

Do you not write a list or meal plan?

£500 monthly for 2 adults, 2 kids & a cat but this includes everything including meat from the butchers. We shop around for the best deals & regularly use up what we have in the store cupboards.

Heinz, Andrex etc omg yes.
I don't like own brand mayo etc

Thats annoying I'm not actually saving anything on the club cards.

Our weekly shopping bill is always around 220‐240 including all the cleaning and hygiene products. I try every time to get it below but it just is what it is there are 5 of us though and our food is one thing we won't scrimp too much on. I buy loads of fruit and veg which in itself comes to around 30.00 but it never gets wasted we eat everything and make most meals from scratch. I find I'd rather spend that much on decent food, snacks meals etc because then we don't feel the need to go to resteraunts or get takeaway at the weekends (which is 70/80 pounds a time for us all with main and dessert) because we have nice food at home and for picnics if we go out for the day. Even though I could cry at the till I do believe it saves us money, and our waistlines, in the long run. We don't have holidays and I don't get nails or hair etc done, we only really buy clothes for the kids when needed not for ourselves so we like to splurge on eating what we want and enjoying it. I wish I could be ignorant to how much it costs us because I balk everytime knowing how its doubled within a couple of years and almost 1000 a month on groceries, I'm well aware, does seem ridiculously indulgent when so many people are in a real struggle with putting food on the table. I'm not sure how you don't realise what you're spending though, it's very difficult to not know even when you are just tapping your card, if you do that with everything you buy you might end up with big debt trouble and I wouldn't wish that on anyone pleas don't bury your head in the sand when it comes to finances, it's sometimes daunting but far better to know exactly where you are at and what you need to do to.

Don’t you check your online banking daily?

Are you doing a faux-naive tinkly laugh op while you’re typing? Oh I’m so crazy / rich / ditzy aren’t I? Ugh it’s horrible. Stop now.

OP, you need to start looking at your bank accounts! I use tap, but ask for the receipt. I also have a look at my bank account and credit card accounts to verify all the charges.

If you have on line banking, you can usually filter your transactions by name of company, so you can see what you are spending per week or month.

Sorry to say it, but it's time to adult up and pay attention to your money. You don't want to be one of those people that at the age of 60 realize they have no savings.

What's the main thing you do to get the total down a little. Say even 15 pounds?

Husband is a mortgage adviser. One of the things he asks people to fill in is a budget planner.

Most people seem to have no idea how much they spend on necessary groceries, utilities, even fixed things like Council Tax. I know what our Council Tax bill is because I pay it, I have no idea what our utility bills are, DH pays them. I could look at the paperwork to find out our mortgage payment but DH pays it.

I have a rough idea how much I spend on groceries etc because, since lockdown, I do a weekly online shop and we very rarely need to supplement it.

From the sounds of it you can easily afford this, so does it matter?

Yes, I'm the same. I am horrified when I look through my credit card and bank account statements and see exactly how much I spend on food.

I do a click and collect order every week or 10 days where I get all the basics like milk, coffee, bread, stuff for sandwiches and stuff for some evening meals but then spend a lot on top ups and take aways.

To me shame I end up wasting a lot of food that I have bought too.

I do most food shopping online so I know how much it is. No idea how much we spend throughout the month when popping into our local smaller shop for ‘a few bits’ though. Maybe a couple of hundred, mostly my partner.

We spend about £200 a week for four adults, a dog and two cats. It’s not so long ago that I used to allow £35 each week for evening meals, so averaging £5 per night. It’s virtually impossible now unless you want value pasta and tinned tomatoes every night!

Including wine we spend roughly £230 a week.

This includes 3 x meals per day, for two adults, two kids (who basically eat like adults really).

And most of this is cooked from scratch, shopping around for deals etc.

What's the main thing you do to get the total down a little. Say even 15 pounds?

^

Don't buy brands
Don't buy ready meals
Eat vegetarian

I can understand how you don't know, but it's behavioural, it's not accidental.

People can be funny about money, maybe you don't want to know, you don't want to budget, maybe it makes you anxious, maybe it makes you bored.

If you don't know, it means you're not in control of your spending. The functional thing to do would be to change this.

If you want to know, just get a receipt. Then review. Once you do that, you'll be able to cut back.

Well it's not difficult to find out. Look at your bank statements or receipts.

£385 monthly on average for 2 and a dog and occasional visits from dd

i know this because i have a spread sheet

I know that people do it, I'm the opposite in a big nerdy way. Accountant here so I analyse every receipt, code and enter it into our cashbook. I prepare a sort of P&L and variance analysis to compare monthly. It's interesting to see the rise in costs over the years.
I also use the receipts for cashback on receipt scanning apps.

I'm like pp whose DH does the shopping. We share it. I'm out at work 3 days a week so he's in charge of food on those days.
I know roughly what I spend. But no idea what he spends.
I think we spend too much. He's recently been converted to Lidl for some shopping trips so that must have cut things back.

Meal plan, make a list, go once a week and that's it!