Food budget for month

[ElleLeopine]

Please can you tell me what you are spending on food for a month? There are 4 of us, and currently getting through £800 per month! I need to get this down, but no idea if this is normal or high.
I do a mix of cooking from scratch and some easy ready-made. And yes, there is wine in that!

We keeps ours down by eating mainly vegetarian, and choosing 2 cheap meals a week like jacket and beans or tomato pasta. We’ve always done this and it works!

Probably around £600-700 a month depending on takeaways.

To amuse myself, I just compared the prices on a shop I did at Aldi 2 years ago, to their current prices.

2022, 2024
2l milk £1.35, £1.55
500g spread £1.80, £2.09
Brown rice 1kg £1.09, £1.39
Baked beans x4 £1.09, £1.68
Loaf of toastie bread 55p, 75p
8 tortilla wraps 85p, 99p
450g frozen nuggets £1.19, £1.55
Grated grana padano £1.29, £1.59
400g cheddar £1.89, £2.49
500g beef mince 20% fat £1.58, £2.49
Total £12.68, £16.57

That's just a small sample and the increase is 30%, so it's not unfathomable that a £700 shop today would only have been £500-550 a few years ago.

Without details about what you're buying it's difficult to say why you're spending more than average, which you are, but it could be:

Lots of 'extras' as well as wine, things like soft drinks, snacks, coffee pods, smoothies, etc. You could do without these entirely if you had to. Drink water and normal tea/coffee, snack on toast, carrot sticks etc.

Expensive version of most things. Prime meat, brands, fresh fish, sprouting broccoli instead of normal, that sort of thing. You could get a cheaper version (frozen fish, bone in thighs or whole chicken instead of chicken breasts, carrots and broccoli instead of sprouting broccoli and asparagus, own brand or on offer etc). Could save huge amounts.

Are you wasteful? Not just throwing food away but how much are you spending on cleaning products? It should be a fairly trivial percentage of the bill, £5/10 a week at most. But some Mumsnetters talk about buying things like bleach, shower gel, toothpaste, fabric conditioner in multiples each week, and spending £3-5 per item whereas for us these items last a month or more and we always get whatever is on offer for a pound or two so much cheaper.

Realistically £700 - £800 per month for 4 of us. That includes household products and dog food (Lily's Kitchen) - wet and dry - for our two small dogs.

We are horrible at sticking to a food budget. We're a family of three, plus one pet. I just tallied up what we spent in the last 30-day period and it was £675. We both work from home (well, I go in occasionally) and we usually have one takeaway a week. That period also included a trip to the pub for drinks and some bar snacks, plus two lunches out for dc and me during half term. We also met some friends at a food market few weekends ago, and bought lunch there for all 3 of us. So I guess it's not very representative of a shopping budget, but we are both quite foody people and as it's hard to go for dinner together, we often get deliveries from our favourite restaurants instead.

At home, we have a largely pescaterian diet and spend a lot on fresh vegetables, berries etc.

1 adult and 1 preschooler and I spend £50 a week on groceries/toiletries/cleaning products etc. Veggie and don't drink. I could go lower, if I'm honest; there's a fair bit of crap in there.

£400 per month for 3, 2 adults, a teen and a cat. This covers toiletries, cleaning stuff, coffee beans, wine and soft drinks. Spirits we generally purchase from our personal discretionary spending.
im a very resourceful cook and pretty much everything is made from scratch (I used to work as a chef and I love cooking). most fresh food is yellow sticker which I am an expert in 😂 and too good to go from reliable locations. We have a rotating menu as we both work shifts which helps minimise waste and we always have packed lunch/dinners rather than buying food at work. I batch cook to a degree - eg I make my own curries, naan, bhajis etc and make and freeze the components a month at a time which does 3/4 dinners. I rarely buy label unless it's reduced.

So for our £400 we eat and drink bloody well

3 adults two teens + 2 cats and dogs we spend approx £130 a week including cleaning products and the cat/dog food.

we recently switched to Aldi and lidi as our Sainsbury shop was becoming too expensive at approx £160 a week

£600 a month here but for 4 adults. I try and keep to £150 a week and that includes all lunches and dinners. I cook from scratch every day and we have meat or fish every night which bumps up costs.

What supermarket do you use OP? Have you tried Aldi?

We have a £300 per month budget for DH and I, also includes toiletries, cleaning products and nappies and wipes for DD. We do manage to stick to it, but shop at Lidl. I buy a chicken to make 2-3 meals (roast, curry and chicken pasta this week), sausages to make 2 meals (sausage and bean stew and sausage and mash this week), then mince for 2 meals (burgers and chilli usually) or salmon. If we have salmon then the other meal will be soup or jacket potato. Porridge for breakfast and sandwiches or eggs for lunch usually. Don’t buy alcohol as DH doesn’t drink. Used to have 2 different fish every week but couldn’t afford it anymore so swapped to sausages. We also buy less fruit now :(

It’s going to vary massively. A family of 4 that includes e.g. a baby and a 2 year old is not going to be in any way comparable with a family of 4 that includes 3 adults and an older teen.

There is a useful table here with 2023 averages.

I'm always amazed by these threads. I've just spent £45 for the week for 2 adults and 5 pets.

I'm agoraphobic so that's it til next Thursday, I don't top up shop.

I have bread, milk, butter, cheese and salad bits for sandwiches.
Roast chicken dinner with cauliflower cheese.
Minestrone soup (I'll probably do a pasta sauce with similar ingredients another night)
Thai green chicken curry
Fakeaway kfc
Spinach and ricotta tortellini.
Mozzarella and pesto baguettes for emergency snacking

We'll have leftovers one or 2 nights and I've got 4 chicken thighs left over in case I fancy something else, or I'll freeze them for next week. And I got a bag of frozen prawns in case we want to jazz up lunch or swap the protein. I quite fancy a tom yum soup and I have all the ingredients...

All made from scratch. Having said that, I don't go out so I guess I spend about 2 hrs a day cooking.

No chocolate or ready made snacks, but oranges, apples and bananas. And there's flour eggs butter and sugar in the cupboards in case one of us needs some pudding one night 🤭

From Tesco delivery.

I look at all the food in the fridge leftover, and then make a list with the intention of using it up.
So I have aubergine, coriander, 2 cabbages, 6 eggs, potatoes, onions to carry over, and 4 portions of lamb Rogan Josh in the freezer from last week in case of any further emergencies

£150 a month just on food for myself. I do eat a lot, and quite well.

On top of that I spend about £15 on alcohol, get one or two takeaways, and household stuff's about £30. Works out about the same per person as you, OP.

Two adults, one baby who eats at nursery 4 days a week. Around £60 - 75 per week.

I meal plan and spent ages researching budget recipes.

We cook with fresh ingredients, grow a lot ourselves and spend around d £800 a month and there is just the w if us now. We love fish and any seafood, we have some really good fishmongers but more expensive than meat. I keep saying we should buy a fishing rod 😀

There are 5 of us - 2 adults, a teen and 2 primary age children. £800-£1000 a month!

it is insane

Some of these figures are mad. Family of 3 with two adults with big appetites and we spend max £300 a month. Minimal processed/convenience stuff, mostly whole foods and meals cooked from scratch. We eat well but don't drink much. This doesn't include eating out which we do infrequently.

At least £500 for 2 adults and 1 small DC. Includes cleaning and toiletries.

I think £800 is probably what it costs for 4 adults.

£400 - 450 for 2 of us but that’s everything .

Oh god, loads- £1200 in June. That's for four adults and a dog and includes cleaning stuff, some toiletries, wine, everything organic that can be organic, and we eat meat 3-4 times a week.

Family of 3 (2 adults and 1 growing pre teen) and we budget £350 a month and that includes main meals, snacks, packed lunches for everyone, toiletries and cleaning products

We eat a mix of meaty and vegetarian dinners and we also eat a lot of fruit.

We barely do any top up shops.

We used to spend a lot more but one day I calculated our food waste and it was a huge wake up call. So we made some changes.

One new good quality roasting dish and a cook book by Rukmini Iyer is what I use on the daily

We are a family of four and we must be near £1000 a month....I'm a bit scared to check in all honesty. I don't buy alcohol either. Dh WFH every day and kids take packed lunches to school so every single meal, unless we eat out, comes from the house. My dc are teenagers though so eat more than an average adult!