What proportion of your income do you spend on food?

[frannyf]

This topic really interests me. I have read that we now spend far less on food (proportionally) than we used to. In 1975, 25% of the average household's disposable income in the UK was spent on food, as opposed to 12% in 2001. In "Not on the Label", Felicity Lawrence states average spending on food has fallen from 1/3 of income to just 10% (don't know if this is gross, net, disposable income or what, but it gives you a comparison). Food is becoming cheaper and the quality of much of it seems to be deteriorating too. We seem to only value a bargain and not consider the real cost of what we are putting in our mouths in terms of health, animal welfare, the environment etc.

In our house we have made a conscious effort to value good food and have cut down on our other spending so that we can spend more on high-quality food. Obviously not everyone has the choice to do this, but we were able to, by cutting back on going out, clothes etc. I estimate dp and I spend about 12% of our gross income (can't do the maths to work out what percent of our disposable income) on food, and from talking to friends it seems that is more than others on the same sort of income are spending. How much do you spend, as a proportion of what you earn, and do you think this is a lot?

just done a quick calc and I think we spend about 13% that includes coffee and cake type things with the kids and odd meals out we spend a lot of our free time having small meals out with kids as a social thing so could even be a bit higher... I spend a lot on organic food and spend a hige amount 20 quid at least a week just on fruit...

interesting subject...

Back of envelope=> 12-14% of our gross income... will go up to 18-20% soon (me quitting work). I think that's good value, DH thinks I'm profligate. We eat A LOT of vegetables, though, and they are expensive as an energy source.

Prob about 12%, but we have a share in an allotment, so we grow some of our own veg, which costs us next to nothing.

Funny how everyone so far is around the 12% mark. I am the same mancmum, spend about 15 - 20 quid a week on fruit. I was not meaning to include food eaten out of the home in the total, I count that as entertainment. I do get the feeling that we are spending more than other families. Told a friend the other day what we spent and she looked a bit raised eyebrows. Another friend shops only at Asda so I am guessing she spends less than us as I get nearly everything organic from specialist shops. Having said that, I do cook nearly all from scratch so maybe we save that way.

I worry about the fact that cheap is seem to equal good in this country. I'm not talking about families for whom it's essential to economise, it just seems to me that the average person would rather buy something cheap than something nice. And 'children's food' i.e. nuggets etc. is the cheapest and worst quality of all.

Hi Frannyf, ours is about 11-12% I think. 2 years ago we made a decision to buy organic/local/seasonal whenever possible. This had an immediate impact on the amount we spent - I would say the food bill went up by about 40%. Having said that, I think it's now only about 30% higher than it used to be, because I'm getting so much better about using up all the food that we buy. We use our freezer more for freezing soups etc. made from the last vegetables in our veg box. I think that it is definitely worth spending the additional amount even if it means going without other luxuries. Good food has become our luxury instead.

I found "Not on the label" fascinating and extremely thought provoking and would recommend it to anyone interested in how food is produced.

Rough calculation I'd say about 11%.

Could be higher as I've not included coffee and cake, kids drinks and snacks out which we have quite regularly as I'm always out and about with the boys.

If I just went out and threw what I wanted in the basket when shopping it would be higher but I meal plan and buy what we need - partly to save unnecessary spending, partly to avoid food wastage and partly to make life easier in the evenings on the decisions about what to eat front.

OK, read other posts so ignore eating out - it's about 11%. I don't buy organic but I don't buy ready made/processed food either (only thing is fish fingers) - I cook everything from scratch.

We probably spend about 10% of our net household income on the main shopping (includes toiletries and cleaning stuff, etc). Doesn't include take aways (very occasional) or DH's lunches.

u lot can eat out???

at the mo we have £185 a week to pay bills inc rent (£100) AND get all food and nappies. we are behing in some bills and are in debt suffice to say after the children have food then tehres not much money left for us lol!!! good job we don;'t eat much!

A whopping 21% post tax income, as I have just worked out! eek!, there is no option here to buy anything fresh we live in a place where the only shop is The Spar (X2). We do a once a week supermarket run and that's all we can do. TBH, we are content to buy cheap now anyway- it's something we intend to review though when I return to work in about 4 years time. We had to make a lot of compromises in order for me to stay home / study. It's worth it. We do include a lot of 'specialist' allergy foods in that budget. The shop works out about £60 a week.

I do make a lot from scratch (seafood curry last night, turkey stroganoff today) but I am not sure that helps as we like expensive seafood A LOT!

Eating out not really in equation much at mo, something we used to do a lot and hope to in future.

£15 a week goes on school dinners too.

not sure - don't know what our income is ATM LOL.

But ATM have about £40 a week to spend on all the food, nappies, cleaning stuff - so about £30 on food a week - no processed food, all made from fresh - and usually have meat at least 3/4 times a week.

Thanks all who have replied - it is interesting to hear how other people budget.

I had another thought - since we stopped shopping at supermarkets I also plan a lot more meals and I think very little is wasted. I'm sure I used to chuck stuff out every week - usually left over ambient foods e.g. processed stuff that did not last. Now I just take what we need out of the freezer each morning (I am the queen of bulk cooking) and prepare some veg / rice / whatever to go with it. No waste.

£15 a week on school dinners PeachyClair! Wow, what does your child(ren?) get for that? Does it mean you can just give them a sandwich in the evening?

Still worries me thinking that people usually cut down on food spending when they need to economise. It should be the very last thing we scrimp on, surely?

£7.50 each so not that bad really? They get a main an a dessert, something like salad / roast / pasta and an old fashioned pud.

I have been trying to do the scrambled eggs tea thing but they've taken to raiding the fridge . So i'm trying to find a balance at the moment. I made fresh tomato soup today, they refused to eat it. I might upgrade to pasta- still easy but more filling.

3 of us are allergic to dairy, and ds1 can't have addtives: I think a lot of the money goes on buying 2 types of many things, one normal and one dairy free.

Ok, I was wondering if £15 was for just one child. That sounds quite reasonable and probably cheaper than I could do it for at home. Pasta sounds good - nutritionally the same as a sandwich but seems more substantial to hungry children.

frannyf - in our case cutting down has not meant we eat less or eat less healthily. It just means we don't throw food away (used to buy stuff, forget it about it and it would go past eat by date for example) AND we eat better - I plan meals so rather than having no idea from night to night what to eat and ending up eating crap or takeaways - we eat a freshly prepared, healthy meal. Cutting down means I don't buy things we don't need such as chocolate biscuits and cakes.

A lot of what we spent before was either wasted or not healthy!

We don't buy the biscuits either now. I do buy savers brands which I feel bad about as I know that it affexcts producers etc. but if I didn't I would bankrupt myself and I can't do that to help someone I don't know. I do buy fairtrade if I can cut back on something else tho.

We certainly eat healthier now: I've been doing weightwatchers, so when they don't have school dinners, and for DH, I just add calories to what I have- garlic bread for example, or salad dressing. I've lost almost a stone, and they're glowing with health!

GDG - you have made me feel guilty now by pointing out that we don't need cakes and biscuits. I tried making my own cakes and biscuits but that really did seem to cost more than I wanted to pay. It's probably the one processed supermarkety thing we do eat.

Congrats PC

Like QofQ I don't really know what our total income is to work out a percentage (the joys of self-employment ). I'm not sure that it's a very fair way to judge either. A family of four earning say £5,000 a month may spend £500 on food, 10% but a family of four earning £1,500 a month may still spend £500 a month on food, 33%, doesn't necessarily mean either family is eating any better. IYKWIM.

Yes, MrsSpoon (great name by the way), I wasn't meaning to judge the quality of anyone's diet by these figures, just wanting to get an average idea. Also asking for a percentage seems less cheeky than saying "What do you earn and what do you spend on food?" - even more nosey than what I did ask.

Sorry frannyf, I'm just being pedantic. I just wondered what had changed since the 1970's was it the amount we spend on food or the amount we earn as it makes a difference.

"Still worries me thinking that people usually cut down on food spending when they need to economise"

Well if you've economised on everything else that's economisable then you're not left with much option but to look closesly at your food budget and what you buy.

We had a LOVELY mince and dumplings for dinner, tomorrow is Chick Pea curry, then we've got homemade pizza, potato bake, Corned Beef Hash, Chicken with Rosemary and Toad in the Hole for the rest of the week. I had to buy Pampers nappies as Tesco don't seem to do the extra large anymore, and a few other 'essentials' (toilet roll as well as splashing out on some Tesco Dishwasher tablets and I had to buy stuff for the boys and DH's lunches too - but still only spent £40.32 today at Tesco.

We've got Tea, Coffee, Herbal Tea and Squash to drink (the water round here is horrible and gives DH and I headaches). We've still been having cakes, biscuits and flapjack - all homemade - so VERY cheap.

Perfectly possible to 'economise' on the shopping bill and eat well too

MrsSpoon, be as pedantic as you want! Yes of course, it does make a difference. I think the figures are based on average salaries so you would expect them to be roughly comparable, although I am not very well-informed about salaries since the 70s. I saw some figures once from the 50s which were also very enlightening but haven't been able to track them down at the moment.

QOQ - I was meaning that food seems to be the first thing a lot of people cut down on. Probably did not express myself very well. Obviously if you have cut down on everything else then you have to look at food too. I am not saying that people with less money are eating a crap diet or anything, sorry if it came across that way. But having been in that situation myself, I think it is very difficult to buy high quality food on a tight budget. I noticed on another thread you were saying you couldn't currently afford organic fruit and veg, so while I'm sure you are feeding your family well, you have perhaps not got all the choices that you would like.