Families of 3, what's your food spend?

[Lottie4]

Credit card bill has just come in and hubby isn't too pleased as it's more than expected. On reviewing purchases, the main things are approx. £110 a week on food and we eat out quite a lot with going away in the holidays and treating kids to lunch out (so in theory should have spend less on weekly food and not more). If I'm being good, I can stick to £55 a week (which includes cat food by the way) but feel we are having to go without healthy food options sometimes, ie cheap sausages bought in bulk rather than chicken.

Just wondering what others spend on food, so I can get a realistic feel of what budget I can realistically stick to.

You mean 3dc? We spend about £100 a week on food. We rarely eat out or have takeaways as it's too expensive.

we have 1 dd, I don't think I ever spend less than £100 a week on the food shopping, it is usually about £85 in the big shop but then I always seem to be buying other bits the rest of the week. we do eat out quite regularly - probably once a week.

we are 2 adults and a toddler and prob spend £200 a mth on food/toiletries this is one big shop evry 4-6wks of around £100 and then wkly shops of £20-£40 depending on what we need - ours depends on how many bargains we buy as if we see reasonably reduced meat (ie not by 50p) we buy it and freeze also same with bread products a co-op on my way from work to nursery often has bread at 75% off that is to be used that day or the next so if they have any decent stuff I buy and freeze sometimes get 3-4 loaves, rolls, muffins, bagels other times nothing but we rarely but full priced bread products.

I am very interested in these replies. I have no idea how much I spend as dh buys bread, milk, fruit while I do main food shop. I have only started budgeting this month for it and am hoping I can feed six of us (four kids, 2 adults) on £120 a week, including toiletries and cleaning products. Dh thinks I am crazy.

We never eat out and have a take away about once every 6 weeks, though he refuses to take a packed lunch so buys his lunch everyday.

Think I am being a tad optimistic.

There are two adults and two dc here. I spend about £60 a week, I do something different to most people in that I don't do a weekly shop. I've worked out a daily budget and I go shopping every day (or every two days if we are doing something) and bargain hunt for dinner and lunch. I find we eat healthier that way and I can get a lot of reductions.

I also do a monthly stop at aldi where I stock up on nappies, wipes and their washing powder. Aldi is the cheapest place for these so I buy in bulk.

Family of four, 2 adults, 2 children. Organic vegetarian diet, £50 per week.

MinimalistMommi for an organic diet that's pretty good! Recipes please! Lottie4 I am also really struggling to get my costs down. I spend £115 per week, mainly organic diet, family of 3. I note that last month's credit card bill for food came to £775, including 1 or 2 lunches out, and maybe 4 bottles of wine. Find that family of 3 or 4 is pretty much the same cost as everything comes in packs of 2 so you have to buy double. I get my veg from Riverford mainly, and I don't have time to shop around - everything gets delivered once a week from Ocado, making good use of their special offers and price promises.

Quite enjoying Jamie Oliver's book Save with Jamie. Lots of tips for roasting big joints and then creating nice meals out of the leftovers, although we did end up eating lamb for three meals one week, which was frankly way too often.

What are everyone's good, cheap, quick, nutritious meals then? Mine are; baked sweet potatoes with houmous and broccoli and sweet corn (+ dry cured Italian ham for the boys), roast chicken (Ocado's corn fed version is cheaper than organic and I figure it comes to the same thing, plus it tastes MUCH better), risotto using stock from chicken, pasta carbonara, pasta with pesto (blooming boys have decided they don't like pesto though - grr.)

To feed two adults a ten year old and two cats my bill comes to £25 per week. That includes three meals a day and snacks.

Gosh Romily, very impressed, where do you shop for groceries.
2 adults, a 9 year old and a hungry rabbit here. We spend about £80 per week in asda/tesco/lidl.

Food spend a week for me and two dcs- we are all small frequent eaters rather than 3 big meals but dc get school dinners. My food spend is around the £20 a week mark. Usually less. I meal plan. For two adults and a child all eating bigger meals than me and mine i would say £40 should well cover it

Wouldn't you be better cutting out the meals out and still having good quality food at home?

How much was the spend on meals out?

2 adults, a 10 year old & a baby I spend £35-£45 per week.

Shop at Aldi, meal plan strictly.

Cook from scratch, double portion & freeze half & never waste any food.
Slow cooker is my friend.
Bread is bought cheaply & frozen, everyone has packed lunches.

We eat very healthily although not organic.

Every 6 weeks I buy cleaning products & bathroom type stuff, shampoo/toothpaste,that kinda stuff from homebargains/wilkisons.

Oh and farm foods do dirt cheap frozen veg, so some weeks I don't buy veg, I buy nappies instead and use frozen stuff up.

Three of us (two adults and a teenage son) - I spend around £80-£100 a week; this includes all lunches as we work from home or take sandwiches. We drink a lot and eat very well, could cut down if I needed to. We rarely eat out as I think I cook a lot better than most restaurants for a quarter of the cost .

No meat & no alcohol. Meat too expensive, can't afford alcohol.

One big shop a month coming to £100, this includes cleaning stuff and meat then every other week £50. This is for myself, dp, ds and a dog. My dp eats like a horse

Cupcake I shop mainly is ASDA and every so often put in an order at approved foods. Meals are planned carefully and varied every week. We do have meat which is free range we just make sure it goes far.

Grot - I thought you said you were shopping for DP, DS, dog and a horse

Just had a chat with a lady from hmrc (as you do) and asked her what the average spend is for 1 adult 1 child for food per week. She said £110. So there you go...

About £140, and that's being careful, I think!

2 adults, 3 DC, recently switched to Lidl. Spend about £75/week there on food, toiletries, cleaning products, plus a top up of about £30 in the week on milk, bread etc. DH and I both buy some lunches on work days, and one DC has school dinners which are another £10 a week, so that's about £140. Does include some wine. Was a lot more when we shopped at Ocado / Waitrose!

Just me, DS (11) and our Dcat here, but we spend anywhere between £35 and £50 per week, mostly from Lidl and Tesco, with the odd few bits from Sainsburys. That includes all toiletries, cleaning and pet products, but we're also vegetarian (apart from DCat ).

support.easyjet.com/faq/en/request.do?view()=c%7B2eb7a020-ced8-11e2-ef6e-000000000000%7D

last paragraph reads to me that they carry them in the hold for free.

support.easyjet.com/faq/en/request.do?view()=c%7B2eb7a020-ced8-11e2-ef6e-000000000000%7D

last paragraph reads to me that they carry them in hold for free

wrong bloody thread - sorry twice!