Food shopping budget

[hayu19]

We are a family of four, DH, myself, DS6yo and DS 5mo. Our current budget for food shopping (includes toiletries, cleaning products, nappies, wipes and formula) is currently £500 pm. We seem to struggle towards the end of the month, I do meal plan, batch cook and freeze meals etc. We do our shopping at asda online (I know aldi is cheaper but I just end up buying more than usual and overspend when in there)

Do you think £500 is enough? Are we just spending too much?

Thanks

To compare....We have one adult female, one hollow legged teen boy and we're spending about £250 a month on food and basic toiletries . I don't have to buy nappies, wipes or formula.

I shop in Tesco, we always have plenty of fresh fruit & veg, and I generally buy meat/fish/chicken/eggs and Friday night pizzas plus one day vegetarian.

I don't buy brands and I cook from scratch most nights.

To compare....We have one adult female, one hollow legged teen boy and we're spending about £250 a month on food and basic toiletries.
Snap

Bit less/similar to you. Maybe £450ish now
1adult, 10yo, 11yo. Plus extra adult friday to Sunday. All meals (including packed lunches). Includes a bit of wine/beer at weekends and cleaning stuff.

Some weeks its as little as £70, other weeks more like £120.

Extra adult spends another £40-£50 at his work accommodation

Family of 5 (two adults, teen, primary age and pre- schooler) my food shop including cleaning products and toiletries is now on average £160- £180 a week!

The cost of food has /is sky rocketing and I meal plan and batch cook too.

I really do not think £500 is too much in the current climate for food if you can afford it.

Cutting back to make the food budget stretch further appears almost impossible at the moment .

We all eat the same amount in this house so basically 4 adults. We are around £500pm for all meals, ridiculous amounts of snacks and top ups each week for milk, fruit and veg, toiletries and cleaning products.

If you meal plan and batch cook, there isnt a lot more you can do..cleaning products can be slashed....i only buy one bathroom spray in poundland and ....also dilute some flash into a spray bottle and add water etc...however i was reading yesterday that shops have increased prices as follows:

asda 15.2%
lidl 24.4%
aldi 22.7%

they have been catching up and often i find items are cheaper in waitrose or on ocado...!!...as usual the thing is not to buy everything in one shop but who has the time and energy for all this running around !!

The main things to look at are:

Brands - ditch them for own brand
Waste - how much are you throwing away?
Convenience food - how much prepared stuff do you buy?

Other than that, you need to eat so there's only so much you can cut back.

Can you buy anything in bulk from cheaper shops? So a monthly 'dry goods' shop from
Aldi perhaps?

Thank you for the replies. We will stick to the £500 and just make a few tweaks here and there to make it last the month. With brands the only things we buy are heinz tomato sauce and beans other than that we go with own brands. The cost of food really has jumped up and I know lots are feeling it at the moment. I appreciate the feedback.

I'm pretty good with cooking from scratch and then freezing meals for another day. I will definitely try the buying certain things in bulk from Aldi, thats a really good idea! Thanks

Thats really useful thank you. Will try the diluting of the flash. I know shopping around is the best thing to do but like you say more time and energy is needed to do it

2 adults £300 per month for all groceries which one of us thinks is very good as we eat very well and the other one thinks is horrendous and should be less than half that cost..🙄🙄

We spend about £400 a month. 2 adults, 1 teen and 1 primary age. Also a cat.

This includes all meals, snack, drinks, puddings, treats, toiletries, cleaning products and cat stuff

We easily spend 500 quid on food and toiletries every month (family of 4 with 1 teenage girl, 1 x 10 year old boy) We shop at aldi.

If I had to though, I could cut it down to 80 quid a week no bother.

My budget is the same for 2 adults and 3 children, two of who are teen/preteen boys who eat a lot. I think it would be tight with nappies/formula etc too.

We have a £50 a month ‘home bargains’ budget for toiletries, cleaning etc.

Family of 4 here - 8 yo and 13 yo. We spend £500-£600 pm. No nappies and formula obviously but do need cat food for a few cats. We don't buy any alcohol though.

2 adults and a child here, we spend around £200 a month for food and then I spend quite a bit on toiletries for myself because I like certain brands.

I went to aldi yesterday and it is now more expensive than sainsburys for most basics I buy so I will be going back to an online sainsburys shop once a fortnight and then topping up with fresh produce as needed.

Two adults here. Just over £200pm to include cleaning products, some toiletries and the odd bottle of wine/cans lager. Some toiletries/healthcare items are bought at work when double discount, and that averages £5pm. We have two supermarkets literally right next to eachother, and generally know where the best place to buy whatever cheaper. Always on the lookout for offers, ie will only buy fish on offer or clearance, try and buy fruit on weekly offer etc.

DD will be home soon from uni (been away four years) and I could still feed us all on the above (as I know there's flexibility, ie no alcohol, stop buying the odd brand product etc). However, DD tends to want some things I wouldn't normally buy which are a bit more expensive, ie fake bacon, avocados etc, but they're something she'll buy out of her own money, so about £45pm there.

5 of us, older kids who are incredibly fussy.

I spend around £500 a month. DH probably does top ups of around £50 a month as well.

It sounds about right. We spend £300, or sometimes £320-350 for 2 adults.

We have a budget of £700 per month, but there's normally a bit left over. There's 6 of us - 2 adults, and 9, 7, 4 and 1 year olds. I don't have the time or energy to shop in multiple places - Tescos delivers my food to the kitchen door.

2 adults , 18 month old and a dog -
550ish it’s 90pw food
£12 nappies and wipes
£10 baby specific food- like yoghurts, oat bars etc.
dog is £59 per month

I do have £50 aside for those in between shops for milk bread etc.

i keep trying to cut my food back but finding I’m running out by end of week. It’s so disheartening

family if 4 including two kids aged 10 and 6. We have a budget of £800, last month spent £600, but there have been months over the budget.

I shop in Tesco, Asda, lidl and M&S for different things. I do 2-3 times shopping a week because I prefer to pick the freshest meat, vegies and pastries etc. I cant plan for meals either because I wouldnt know what I would feel like eating in a few days.

Hubby works from home full time now, so I cook more compared with when he had free meals at work previously. Food prices have gone mad in the last year, but for now we are doing ok moneywise.

Family of two adults plus hungry teen and cat: £426 per month.

Weekly delivered organic fruit and veg boxes £100
Dairy products, bread, coffee, juice, bacon delivered by milkman £120
Cans, packets, cleaning products, cat food from once monthly Sainsburys delivery £130
Monthly meat box delivery £66
Tea bought online £10

All from scratch, we eat really well but not meat with every meal and no fish as DD is allergic.