How much each week do you spend on food shopping per person?

[AlyTab]

Hi there, sorry if this is in the wrong place, but I'm just wondering since my friend says that between her and her boyfriend, they can spend about £300 a month on food. This made me wonder if I actually pick up enough food. Me and my bf have only been going out for a few months, so he buys his own stuff when he comes over and we don't live together just yet.

I'm new to the whole living by myself thing, its my first flat, so sorry for sounding thick, but I spent £12.65 on shopping this week, so just over £50 a month on food and TP. Is this too much, too little, or average? How much do you spend per person on shopping.

We average around £14pppw. That’s £70 for a family of 5. I could cut that down if I needed to, but we eat well. Fresh fruit, veg etc and plenty of snacks. Cook from scratch, don’t buy sugary snacks. It’s easier to eat cheaper in larger quantities though I think.

There are so many variables when people say how much they spend.

Does it include cleaning products/shampoo etc?
Is there a baby in the house? Nappies, formula
Do you cook & eat at home, 7 days a week?

Some weeks I don't do a big shop at all. I get milk (which I don't even drink) for my daughter and maybe some snacks when we want them but I will live from the freezer.

I'm also working on a plan (I'm a listaholic!) to stock the cupboards properly because I work all day, my daughter works 3 evenings at least, so eats early or at work and sometimes we eat together. I also work for a food manufacturer, so have a staff shop.
Sometimes, we go out to get food for that evening if we want a treat or something different.

When I do shop, I spend about £40.

It comes in at about £20 per person per week for us. Five or six of us though, so economies of scale. We eat a varied and healthy diet; either good quality meat/fish or veggie night. We don't eat crap really.

Around £20. That does include nappies, dishwasher stuff, washing powder, cleaning stuff though. I’m lucky enough to be in a fairly comfortable position at the moment so couldn’t tell you how often I need to buy these things, just buy them when they start to run low

That’s three meals a day for each of us- cereal for breakfast, packed lunch (sandwiches, fruit, salad, crisps etc) and then a home cooked meal in the evening. Plus a few snacks for those that want them. We eat pretty well I think; our meal plan is varied with lots of fresh meat, veg, and fruit.

Posters commenting on the economies of scale are right op. My dad lives alone and does sometimes struggle with fruit and veg because so many of the good deals are for bags of stuff, so bags of apples, big punnets of grapes, 8 pears etc- if he wanted 6 or 7 different fruits he would have a mountain that would go off before he could use it. He goes to the local market which whilst a bit more expensive per item means he wastes less. Except for melon which he pinches off me when he comes over!

I like thai curry paste- Coriander, garlic, ginger, chillis, a shallot, lemongras, lemon, lime and a dash of oil all blended together. You can make lots and freeze tablespoons of it and make curries with whatever veg you have.

Thank you everyone, I probably should have been more clear. I more meant on food. O just pick up cleaning products when I need them, which can vary, although I do appreciate that things like nappies and such can be a bit more predictable

Wow, none of you spend very much. Just popped out to get some food for dinner this evening and tomorrow and picked up a few extras - £82. DS and girlfriend are here at the moment.

Ladylapsang i don’t spend much because i can’t afford to. £150 a month is half of my ‘after bills and savings’ money. The other £150 is petrol / clothes / socialising / misc. not everyone has £80 to spend.

Aly, it’s just me and DH. But going organic and getting prepped stuff does add up. Also, I only drink mineral water, eat berries every day, buy deli stuff like olives or artichokes etc. And then there’s the stuff from a health food shop like organic spirulina and the like.

I did spend only about £10-20 when I first left uni and was saving up for a deposit. But it did seem like I mostly ate manky Lidl stuff and things like stawberries were a special, rare treat.

I wouldn't call Lidl manky. A class 1 pepper will have been packed on the same line as one in M&S. Same for grapes and avocados etc etc.

I mostly shop at asda or Tesco, but Lidl isn't bad. Maybe JoJo meant that they bought 'manky' food that just happened to be from Lidl.

I'm might be alone with this, but I actually sometimes prefer cheap, shitty food? Of course it's likely not good for you, but there's something about some cheap food that I like. A bit like cafeteria stuff, especially beans and pizza. Maybe I'm just low key trashy lol

£250 a month for 4 people - £70 of that is in Morrisons once a fortnight, The other £110 is bread, extra veg, Musclefoods meat order at £50 once every 10 weeks or so which usually buys about 10kg of chicken breasts (individually vacuum packed), little things from the local end of line shop.
I cook from scratch every night and we eat really well, but I do place my Morrisons order a week in advance then edit it each day to trigger flash sales of 40% off and use those to buy the rest of my meat and fish. This weeks meat is 800g Topside - £5.06, 400g sizzle steaks £2.25, 600g salmon fillet £6.05 and a Mary Berry chocolate cake for £2.10 among other things. It does mean my meal plan is very changeable though.

So - £15.63 PPPW.

Really interesting post.
We’re a family of three (one breastfed baby, 2 adults) and I genuinely don’t know how much we spend a week on food. It’s very variable. Depends whether we are eating out or using stuff from the freezer, buying meals daily or cooking based on cupboard supplies.
I’d imagine we spend at least £70 per week.

You don’t seem to be a snacker? I eat waaaay more than you generally. I wish I was just a 3 meal a day person.

If you were worried about your fruit/veg intake, the frozen kind is great as it doesn’t spoil.

I like how you mention eating pasta and cereal at funny times. When I was younger and living alone, cereal would often be for dinner.

I spent GBP56 today and got enough to make :

Morning tea x 5 = 1 x apple, 1 x slice of banana bread (home made), 1 x iced tea, 1 x small bag of carrot sticks, 1 x small bag of rice crackers/pretzels/popcorn [with spares for the next two weeks of the cracker type stuff]

Main meals:
Sweet potato & lentil curry with cauliflower rice (6 meals)
Butter chicken (non meat "chicken") with coconut rice (6 meals)
Sausage (Linda McCartney) and veggie hotpot (6 meals)

I batch cook and freeze every week, so I'll mix this up with meals I've previously frozen for lunches and dinners during the week.

The veg I bought included 1 red pepper, 2 x large sweet potato, 2 x courgette, 2 x bok choi, 1 x cauliflower, bag of carrots, plus 5 apples, 4 bananas and 2 punnets of strawberries. I also got storecupboard stock of cinnamon, yeast (I make the bread), vanilla extract, baking paper, loo roll and tomato paste.

I am an idiot though and got a lot of the veg out of season - I spend too much time on the UK recipe sites and so have bought winter veg in the Australian spring, so I spent too much on the sweet potato and courgette (a lot actually, around $14, which is GBP8 for 2 x courgette and 600g of sweet potato, I didn't realise until I got to the checkout and nearly had a fit. Lesson learned.).

This covers me and DD and partially DP, who eats meat and sources his own and will last a week for the fresh stuff and provide 18+ meals, plus snacks, including several loaves and some banana bread (I have the flour already).

Wow thank you for all of the detailed replies! Been away for a bit but I really appreciate it. I actually am mostly a snacker since my meals are usually small, if you can call them meals. Dinner is definitely my main meal and is usually quite big.

Everyone seems so healthy compared to me! These healthiest thing in my house atm is fruit and fibre cereal, which I only bought due to ahem, certain issues if you know what I mean. My diet is seemingly very deficient in fibre amongst other things.

I don't really know the answer but I think JoJoSM2's £200-£250 per month per person sounds about right for us (2 adults + 1 teenager).

We spend a fair amount of fruit and veg + any meat is usually at least free range and often organic (and if we can get there from the butcher). That's the good bit - the other part of the story is way too much wine, can chaotic/no planning/ too many ready meals/different meals for different people at times...we would probably be good candidates for that shop well for less program.