What's your weekly food etc spend??

[joster]

Do you work to a fixed budget or just see how it goes? I assumed most people at least look at the prices of what they are buying, and worked to an approximate weekly spend, but then there was that programme on recently about how to show a family they could eat better/cheaper etc and some family on it spent £20000 a year on their food?!?!?!?!?!?! (What was it called)?

We are a family of four who, apart from the occasional lunch out eat the vast majority of our food at home, don't go to the pub very often so booze is all at home and I reckon we spend between 150-200 a week, a bit more if we have friends over for dinner. I am quite careful about not being too extravagant but don't buy "value". Absolutely no ready meals in there, though can't claim we don't cheat a bit from time to time. We also try hard to use leftovers to reduce waste.
No idea if we are under or over average.... or fairly typical?

so over average, family of 4, 2 dc have cealiacs so a lot of specialist food, £60 per week.

Family of 4 - £80 - £90 per week. It used to be more until I started ordering from Ocado...it focuses the mind totally!

we have are a family of 5 and i spend £60-£70 a week including nappies and wash powder etc! i do a meal list each week and shop from that which saves a lot of money!

We're a family of three, two adults one DC and we spend about £80-£90 a week on food and drink.

Blimey, I thought I was doing well, but now I am feeling I need to cut down !

2 adults, 2 small children £50?
Did it on approx £35 per week in January... Though we are lucky in that we could spend a little more if we wanted, we just choose to spend our money on other things.

We do meal planning, and buy a lot of Sainsburys basics...

Has gone down a LOT since dh stopped drinking tbh.

I doubt I spend more than £35 a week on food - me and 2 small children

Crikey, I thought we were doing quite well - my typical weekly shop from Ocado is around 80-90 pounds, and then I always have to get a few extra things during the week to top up, some wine for the weekend etc. I could probably cut out 20 quid if I persuaded DH to drink a few less lagers (!). I imagine we come in at 150 on average all in.

We aren't extravagant, now racking my brain to see where I would be able to cut stuff down, and really not sure! We do all the meal planning, list stuff to make sure we get exactly what we want and only what we need and very rarely have stuff left over/out of date...

I need to do some more thinking on this!

3 adults (well 2 and 1 17 yo!) and 2 small children= about £130 per week.

£150! Wow.

There is NOTHING wrong with spending £150, but don't be fooled into thinking you're doing well to economise - unless you're feeding 20!

Anyone feeding a teenager has to add 250 a week onto their bill - they're all pigs

We have two adults and two children. About £50 on main shop (which includes all household things) and then probably another £15 or so on stuff. Is the stuff I need to but back on.

£80-100 for 5 of us with 3 teenagers

I spend the same as dustycups. I go to the supermarket with a list, I have pre-planned the meals for the week and we also buy nappies, toilet rolls, kitchen towel and such things in bulk to last the month, which has also saved money. My friend's DH was shocked when my DH told him what I spend and my poor friend is being monitored for all expenditure now as she was spending three times the amount I do! Having said that, if you go to organic farm shops for olives etc then you are going to pay more. Growing your own veg helps lots.

We used to spend £100 a week easily when it was jsut dh and I . Lots of takeaways too. And I wonder why we are in debt...

My bill will drop now actually, as we do grow all our own veg and everything now starting to come on line. Can't wait for that.

It is now my mission to get my food bill right down!

The beer and wine do seriously bump it up, without those, we would be well within £100 a week, and with less veg to buy for the next 6 months, I can drop it again.

Here we go....thanks for your thoughts.

dh and me [double blush]

Best thing is meal planning. Exciting growing your own veg!

Worse thing for my budget is shopping in our enormous Sainsburys (big homeware/clothing/toys etc). It's only a few pounds but it all adds up

And of course, it has gone up the last couple of weeks with kids home all day every day, extra supplies have been required for their constant eating snacking... phew.. Maybe I am not as bad as I thought!

between £100 and £120 a week to feed 7; 4 adults (OH and I, older boys 20 and 17) and 3 bigger kids (13, 10, 7). COuld be much less, but I buy organic, fair trade, eco friendly stuff as much as possible. This month, it has only been £350 for the 4 week period, so less than £90 a week. I could cut it back to about £60 or £70 if I had to.

MAjor ways to save money are to:

meal plan,
plan leftovers
eat a few meat free meals a week and stretch meat with other things.

In here, I plan 3 meals a day, because I home ed and plan to use up extras. SPare rice gets made into muffins or hot cereal for breakfast, spare mash into potato cakes for lunch. Last week I made a leg of lamb last 6 meals (if you count the soup I made with the bone stock) by carefully using the leftovers. This week I bought 4lbs of mince which will also do at least 6 meals. Those are only for 5, though, because I'm veggie and OH won't eat mince at all.

I think £150 a week is a lot of money, I would be a bit sick if I spent that amount to be honest. BUT if you can afford it, then why not.

2 adults one ds usually spend about £70-80 a week

2 adults one ds usually spend about £70-80 a week

I know it's not convenient for everyone but I've started shopping at independent shops in my town centre. It's slashed my food bill by quite a way. I also plan my meals in advance. I used to spend about£70-80 on food alone. Now it's down to about £30-40. As soon as I step into a supermarket i spend more than I meant to. DH is just as bad. We have impulse shopper issues but it's not suprising considering the effort all the supermarket chains put into making you want to buy things you didn't want before you walked in. i also find that there isn't as much browsing time in smaller shops so you are less likely to buy extras.

Mind you I've also started getting all the offers e-mails from Aldi, Netto, Lidl etc and it's turned into a game. Why can I get this the cheapest? Then i start to feel angry at the big supermarkets because they are charging so much more for simple items in the name of convenience. Just the way the game is played though isn't it.

2 adults, 2 dc's, spend on average £70 a week. That includes everything, nappies, household etc. Neither of us are big drinkers though so that makes a difference. Meal plan every week although do always do a slightly more expensive shop at begining of month just after payday . Have done a week's shopping for 4 on £35 when absolutely had to.

2 adults, 4 kids, spend about £70-75 a week. Although has been going down a bit recently since I started getting some stuff from Aldi again.

I don't actually know how I would spend double that a week!