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??

Yup, all this ^^ plus we regularly add clothing and homeware stuff into the basket, along with cards and gifts for parties, the odd book and all of the cleaning and laundry supplies too. It's not just a food bill.

Actually, I really like my local Tesco. It never has any supply issues, I never have to do a second shop elsewhere and all the the fruit and veg are fresh and keep well. So I couldn't give a stuff about bonuses.

I do know, now, because I have to be a bit more careful these days.
In the past I’ve been caught out by guessing it to be a lot less than it really is “oh I spent £60 on the big shop then a couple of top ups here and there, what? How does that come to £140??”
Even now sometimes though I’ll think we haven’t spent much on a week where we don’t do a big shop but when I add it up I realise that £30 in Lidl and £22 in Tesco and £5 in coop and £26 in Aldi and £12 in Asda is actually quite a lot!

It’s almost like you can’t just check your bank account in seconds….

Oh its deffo boring the meal plans spreadsheets. (for me unfortunately)
But you guys have much more spare cash for entertainment I am sure.

On the other side I do find there is a smugness from some people about all the savings they make and so little waste. Yeh so perfect you are. Or how people would never buy branded goods.. Or spend £6 on a pizza and only get the £2 ones. Or avoid any extra at all. Unless birthdays and Xmas!
Or the ones that never have lunch, so wow that saves money.

I'm not lucky enough to be in that position. I have a budget and stick to it.
There's nothing stopping you adding up what you've spent. Log on to your back and go through your transactions. It's not hard.

Of course if you are fortunate enough to be able to spend as much as you like then just enjoy that privilege. You don't need to feel bad about not being poor.

Probably around £100 pw for two of us. That includes the necessary gin and all cleaning products. I remember when DC were small 30 years ago, I spent 15 a week and stuck to the budget!

I live in a small house, its all relative?

I’m the same. I also couldn’t tell you how much my water / electricity / council tax is. Some things I class as « mandatory expenditures » so no point knowing how much they are as I’ll have to pay anyway. (Simplistic, I know)

About £700 per month for 2 adults 2 kids no pets. I know because I pay for it all on a credit card which gives me Avios and then at the end of each month add it up and sweep the amount out of our joint account. That’s a basic Sainsbury’s shop with the odd top up and 2 meal boxes a week - mindful
chef and Gousto.

Doesn’t include takeaways or meals out (this is only about 1-2 times per month) or weekend trips to Starbucks for a tea and cake.

I don’t know it to the exact £ but I could definitely give you a ball park. Spend about £120 a week on big shop then around £30 on 1 or two top ups (self-checkout usually but I do look at the total before I tap my card!). Milk delivery £12. Rarely have takeaways. Fortunately we’re comfortable financially so it’s not something I worry about but I’m naturally inclined to be relatively frugal and not wasteful.

I don’t think it’s good that you have no idea how much you’re spending. You need to start taking note. I used to watch “eat well for less” and the families were always horrified by how much their food shops added up to, and that was before the COL crisis.

£80 a week-ish for me and DH, that’s food, toiletries, cleaning and laundry, plus we’ll go to the abbatoir and spend £ 40-50 on meat every couple of months or so.

Same here. We shop at Aldi and Sainsbury’s, a mix of special offers, store own brands and occasional treats.
£700 for two people sounds quite a lot.

I track all my spending through an app (YNAB) so I do know to the penny and it varies between 800-900 a month for two adults and one pre-teen.

I think before I was tracking properly I would have guessed more like 600 but now I do track every penny including loads of £10 here and there top ups and so on.

I don't I buy wildly extravagant things but all meat, dairy and eggs are organic and fish can be a lot.

Edited to add - like others that includes all the household type stuff I buy at the supermarket. Cleaning stuff and so forth - just because I am to lazy to divide the bill up for budgeting purposes.

my total also includes non food items that you would buy at a supermarket, loo roll, cleaning products, tampons and toothpaste etc. that could account for about £20 a week approx.

30 years ago, food shopping was more expensive, relatively speaking. I can remember spending £30-40 a week in the late 80’s.

£15 would have got you next to nothing in 1994.

I do actually know what you mean, I do a weekly shop sometimes spend £70 sometimes £100, but If I need shampoo I buy shampoo if I need milk i buy milk. We are not well off at all, we have enough money but I couldn’t say I know to the penny how much I spend on food shop/essentials every month

I mean I don’t have a set budget and just buy food as I need to, but I spend around £150 a week for me, 2 teenagers and 2 cats. 2 out of 3 of us are vegetarian and none of us really drink.

I used to be like this.

One month I counted it all up.

I spent £1,350 in 5 weeks for a family of 4 & 3 cats (and one extra adult who expected a free dinner every night!)

I was almost sick. 😂

Now I'm very careful, I take my calculator and I've got it down to £150 a week. (Almost stopped feeding the extra CF adult!)

Who is this CF and why haven't you asked them to contribute yet?

It’s just priorities then I guess. I’d rather track my grocery spend and have more savings/holidays/nicer house etc. Sounds like food spending is a priority for you. That’s fine, everyone is different.

LOL probably not hard to do, with the crazy prices of things.

We used to spend about £700-800 a month but now it's more like £1000 a month - not only food though but quite a bit of toiletries, cleaning and other non-food items. That's between five of us (five adults basically) and weekly delivery from Sainsbury's - there are definitely cheaper places and ways to shop but I like the convenience and good customer service from deliveries.

Same op. Between online, takeouts and going to the supermarket I also have no idea.

I don’t know, I’m putting it down to wilful ignorance. I shop at Tesco/ Aldi and get bits at the Co-op 2/3 times a week. I bulk buy special offers which skews things. Organic veg from community garden. Meat mainly from butchers. And cleaning stuff often from b and m. I could sit down and work it out but it’s a bit depressing

Yeh, forget the milk/bread/shampoo, running out of Time of the month stuff and medicine is a pain. Whatever time of day you need it if you happen to run out.