What would you say is a reasonable food budget for two adults and one child?

[Gotsomedebt]

I need to reduce my food bill. Currently I think we spend way too much but this can definitely be reduced through meal planning and budgeting.

So I'm wondering what a reasonable amount would be to allocate to food per week? Just food. Not including toiletries, cleaning stuff, pets, etc.

I was thinking of trying £40 a week but I'm not sure if this is too low really. I priced up breakfast and lunches (cheaply) and it works out as leaving only £3.61 for dinners on £40 per week.

What would you say is a reasonable amount for a family of three to spend on food per week?

2 adults and 2 primary age children and we spend around £80-£100 per week in lidl. Some weeks higher some lower. I could definitely do it for less if I really had to, but fortunately we are able to afford treats etc so I don’t need to.

Kids get free school lunches and I often get lunch provided at work.

I don’t think £40 per week is realistic. £60 is definitely do-able.

£100 pw but also depends if you are buying organic, local higher welfare etc. Important to give your bodies healthy food but great if you can do it for less OP. We cook everything from scratch and batch cook for freezer which helps.

I'd say it's manageable if you batch cook dinners and eat at least some veggie meals rather than meat every day. We spend about £60-70 for four of us, but this doesn't include toiletries, cleaning products and other supermarket supplies like bin bags and batteries.

I currently spend £60 a week for one adult woman and a hollow legged teenage boy who seems to eat constantly.

That is mostly from Tesco and includes basic toiletries - shampoo, toothpaste etc, and washing up liquid/washing powder.

I aim for meat four suppers, fish two suppers and veggie one supper. Lots of fruit & veg. I cook from scratch.

Lunches are mostly soup, omelettes, sandwiches etc.
Breakfast is toast & jam/marmite or porridge.

I don't buy alcohol, but we don't scrimp on anything else.

I'm budgeting at the moment and have recently calculated how much I spend on groceries (including loo roll, cleaning stuff, shampoo etc). Over a 12 month period, I spend around £500 per month. That includes Christmas and other events when we have people for dinner.
2 adults, 1 teen.

2 adults and a 15 year old here and we do around £60-70 per week. Very little processed food in meals. Mostly Lidl, if I have the time and energy fruit and veg comes from independent greengrocers and pasta/rice/spices and a few bits from a refill shop.

Recommend at least one soup per week, very little meat, lots of beans, chickpeas, lentils.

I would struggle regularly on less than £100 for 2 adults and almost 4 year old.
i would probably do one week a month cheaper to keep it down , so maybe £360 a month if on a budget?

@Caspianberg how!? Honestly, we never spend that much, and DS eats as much as we do.

We have a toddler (and a cat) and including things like washing up liquid and toothpaste we have a £90 per week budget - we spend every penny and wouldn't be able to cut it down by much. Unless we reduce the biscuits! We don't drink though so i think that keeps the bill down a bit

We used to be 40/50 a week about 18 months ago, cost of living we are now around 70/80 .. I don't think 40 is do able, we really try

I budget £100 for the big shop and £30 for extras. That includes cleaning products, alcohol , toiletries and dog treats (but not dog food) 2 adults and 1 child with2 adult kids home at weekends.

@Namechangeforthis88 - well I am basing it of our local prices and we usually spend €120-150 a week. So €120 is about £100. If we ate really basic I could probably bring is down own week in 4 as I said, but that’s without needed to buy any cupboard stores like oil or similar just basic bread/ milk/ yogurt/ veg/ fruit/ some meat (not daily). Food is expensive imo

We try to budget £50 - 2 adults, 1 toddler. Usually end up spending somewhere between £55-£60 at least.

I think it depends on the family. My husband eats like a horse and my 2.5 year old will eat more than me. My cousin is a family of four (two much older children and her bill is half ours, she's shocked at how much my DH & DC eat

£40 a week would be really tough and unlikely to he healthy. My student DS has about that just for him.

We spend £100 on average but varies £75-125 and we aren't especially profilgate.

£40 PW seems incredibly low.

Are there other areas you can reduce on?
Socialising/ amazon / alcohol

Thanks for the link x

I think we probably average about £90 a week, a main shop of about £70 then a top up. We don't buy a lot of meat as dh is vegetarian and I'm not that fussed but dh eats loads. I buy cat food separately.

This article https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-68007193 suggests that t's possible to do 5 family meals for £25. I looked up one of the recipes and it looked doable, easy and tasty. She has an insta page and a book.

One adult and two teens here. I budget £400
a month for groceries, but that includes toiletries / cleaning products etc. Some months I can take petrol out of that budget too, but not often.

I can do it for £60 but that is quite strict.
It helps that my child is at nursery most of the week so gets his meals there

Average of £60 a week here for two. That includes all laundry, cleaning, toilet roll, toiletries. I usually spend £50 online then bread and milk during the week.
I make lots of soup. If using chicken thighs I debone and take skin off myself as it saves a fortune. Bones and skin go in to the pressure cooker to make stock. Things like broccoli and cauliflower I buy frozen. Most stuff is shop own brand apart from coffee, tea, mayo and occasional box of Frosties for my husband. That’s all meals and snacks. We eat a lot of chicken. If I buy a chicken it does 4 meals and soup from the bones. I quite often take the breasts off that’s two meals for 2. Rest is roasted so a roast dinner for two of us. Meat all underneath and any bits atre taken off and turned into a meal. Eg curry, or stew. With lots of veg added. Soup stock with the bones. You do need to have a freezer.

I’d say 80quid from aldi for a decent standard whilst a child is in school making your lunches. If you wanted to be strict and eat basic food eg. No fish- you could get it down to £60

Around £100 per week. What are you sending now and what do you eat?

As ever, a lot will depend on the stores you already have like salt, pepper, herbs, spices, oil etc.

You've had some excellent links. You can eat a lot of carbs relatively cheaply, it depends how well they suit you. (Pasta, rice and dahl, bread pudding, Yorkshire pudding.)

I've recently 'inherited' a lot of pantry items so I've spent the last few weeks discovering how good dehydrated vegetables are. But, before then, we ate frozen vegetables as they're much cheaper than fresh (there are no markets or independent grocers/fishmongers/butchers within reasonable distance of where I live or work).