Food budgets

[Mumofgirls89]

Can anyone advise on their food budget, shop and whether that's a skimpy shop, normal or luxury one?
I've had a £140.00 pw budget set for a while for my family of 5 with pet and its not cutting it anymore and I need to act on it really. I did a skimpy shop and still came in at £120.00 without washing, pet stuff or toiletries. Most items are not branded per se, but maybe more asda brand.
I shop at Asda atm and use the rewards.
The pet is non negotiable, I have other budgets for his basic items, it's only if I buy him treats or a new bowl etc.
Also feeding the children is non negotiable...apparently they need feeding too 😆

We have 4 kids and I don't spend that much own I do a big Costco shop every few months for £250,ish to get all my toilet rolls, washing powder, conditioner ( one pack is about 130 washes) I normally buy about 2kg of cheese and some chicken, cakes too. Then my weekly shop is around £70-£80 but I don't even spend that every week. I'm using up everything in my freezer and cupboards this week so I spent £40 this week.

My shopping is very boring, cook from scratch, no booze, £3 max treats. I'd like to spend more but money is too tight

Hi, thanks for the feedback, I dont buy booze, or smoke. Or gamble. Plain Jane over here.
I think one of my problems is I have undercounter fridge and freezer which limited how much i can buy and store for fresh cooking. I may look into Costco, I know I get membership with my work 🤔

I spend around £120 for our family of five. That's everything included and then we spend a further £30ish on a takeaway every Saturday. I've noticed such a price hike on so many things though, we used to spend £90 not so long ago.

We don't buy particularly luxury items but we also don't deny ourselves anything we want either. We shop at Tesco.

I should of added, we used Asda for 8 years before switching to Tesco recently as we found it to be cheaper!!

I rotate around the big names, i.e. Asda, Morrisons, Sainsbury and Tesco, and only buy non perishables when they're on offer. It saves a fortune. Obviously I have to buy perishables as needed, but they're usually not the kind of things you can save big money on. All the main brands do a carousel of offers between the big four, so if you go to them in turn over a 3/4 week period, you'd find offers in one of them. I'm talking about crisps, tinned foods, dried foods, cleaning products, loo rolls, washing powder/pods, coffee machine pods, frozen stuff, etc. £120-£140 seems a lot for just 5 of you, I spend less than half that for 3 of us and that's by buying "brands" rather than cheap/unbranded/own brands.

Yes definitely look at Costco. I think the loo roll was 16lots of 4 for £16 I think? 1kg of cheese is £4. Washing liquid was about £11 for 130 washes, I think the prices are on their website. It adds up even if you don't get the majority of your shopping in Costco.

I think we eat far too much pasta and rice which is another reason why my shopping is cheap. Always worth budgeting and doing a week or two of food planning. When times are tight I do two £75 weeks worth of shopping. Mostly eating mash, pasta or rice with every meal. It's depressing how much shopping is going up. I feel your pain

About £100-£120 for a family of 4 adult-sized people, plus a takeaway once a week.

It used to be a lot more expensive but we meal plan now, and cook a lot more simple recipes from scratch (using the gousto recipes having been astounded by what was produced from such basic ingredients). Boring, but it makes a big difference.

Also, I don't use any cleaning products except detox, zoflora, white vinegar and washing up liquid. I spend maybe £15 a year if that on cleaning stuff.

Just me, DH, 10m DS and 1 dog but we spend about £50 a week on all groceries.

We meal plan and have a magnetic white board on our fridge and write everything down we need as and when we run out it plan the weeks meals. This then makes our shopping list and we stick to it buying very little 'extra'. We cook a lot of our food from scratch or use jars (curry sauce) which helps keep the cost down.

Shop mainly at Aldi and Costco

Thanks for the inputs, I'll definetely look at different places and refining the shop more. Family of 5 counts for 3 kids, 1 of which is teen and 1 of which is a baby...maybe I need to revise portions as well 🤔
Takeaways have been a bit ott over summer hols so once September hits it should go back to normal for us too.

Last visit to asda I saw Mr kipling cakes £4 and birds eye chicken burgers £5...! Like wtf?! I brought asda brand cake for the kids and the smaller pack of chicken burgers 😓

Do you have time to cook? (Genuine question, because you might be run off your feet)

Instead of the chicken burgers you could have got chicken thighs and peppers and made chicken kebabs. Probably half the price(and nicer).

Can you post a shopping list for feeding 5 for £70-80 sometimes less, please?

I spend 80-100 on weekly shop for one adult and two primary kids. That includes some branded stuff, all cleaning stuff etc and one (sometimes 2) bottles of wine as well as often things for the kids friends if they’re over etc. It doesn’t include school lunches for the kids, and we eat one meal out most weeks (not included in the budget).

I do cook a lot from scratch, don’t buy a lot of meat/ready meals/packets, meal plan and batch cook quite a bit. We also eat a lot of veggie food.

Do you have a local convenience chain store? I always assumed they'd be ruinously expensive, but pleasantly surprised recently that they can be cheaper than the big supermarkets for some things, and also have plenty of offers. I really like our local "one stop" shop which is a franchised chain under Tesco, and they usually have lots of BOGOF and 3 or 2 style offers on branded items. Ours also has lots of local fresh produce from local suppliers, such as bread, cheeses, fresh meat, fruit & veg, etc which is pretty cheap considering it's not mass produced and certainly cheaper than Tescos on a like for like basis (i.e. not pre-packed!)! I noticed Spars seem to be doing plenty of offers too. The smaller places seem to be a bit "behind" in putting their prices up, especially on items that are price-marked - I can still get 500ml bottles of diet coke for £1.25 in our local post office compared with £1.90 in the Tesco, and large bags of Walkers crisps for £1.25 too!

We're a family of 4 made of me, DH, Dc6 and DC1 (dc1 has a dairy and soy allergy which ups the budget to get dairy free alternatives)

We're on a very low budget (I've tried to get the cost down further but I can't manage that at the moment) so at the start of the month I do a £120 online food shop usually from Asda or Tesco that is mainly stock cupboard essentials like tinned tomatoes, cheapest possible toilet roll etc as well as some fresh stuff.

Then every 3 months or so I also do a £40/£50 Iceland food shop of just frozen food (Meat, frozen veg etc) to put in the chest freezer

Then Lidl/Aldi once a week or if i can possibly stretch it to every 2 weeks, for a £45 shop max of fresh fruit/bread/dairy/meat and fish etc

We don't really get snacky type food often and we limit meat as its expensive. I meal plan in advance, try to batch cook and try to cook the majority from scratch. I also have strict rules than things I've bought in/ear marked for a particular dinner cant just be eaten as we cant afford to replace them. I cook healthy balanced meals with tons of veg, but outside of meals the only thing really available to eat is bread/crumpets etc because its unfortunately all we can afford.

To be honest we could live on £30 a week if we absolutely had to (or even less if it was just beans on toast/home made veg soup) but i would be miserable as I enjoy food and like providing healthy balanced meals for my family. I wish i could afford to relax a little but times are hard lol!

We've switched to Aldi and we are saving about £20-30 a week over what we were spending at Tesco. We usually manage two adults and two kids plus nappies and cleaning stuff etc for around £100 a week.

£100-150 a week on food for four from Waitrose.
Dogs- £60 a month
Cat- £30 a month
Rabbits: £20 a month
Horses: £60 feed, £60 supplements and £100 hay.

You have to meal plan carefully and go for own brand where you can on things like cereal,tinned toms etc . We are now 4 adults and keep the bills down by:
Eating less meat
Padding out mince based meals with beans and pulses
Eating lots of pasta and noodles
Lots of home made soup
Slow cooker stews and casseroles
Buy wonky veg
Make own flatbreads,cakes
Buy yellow stickered stuff and freeze
Make toasties, omelettes,jacket spuds.
Dont buy expensive cleaning products,use refills. They work out cheaper.
Bar soap is cheaper than shower gel
You dont need kitchen roll ,cling film, fabric softener, bleach,cloths.
Grow herbs on windowsills.

2 adults 1 toddler spend around £100 a week. But often have to pop to the local shop to top up on bits. Then usually 1 takeaway a week. I’ve switched back to Morrisons as I find their deal like 3 for £10 on meat better value x

I think my adding up went wrong on day 4!

Day 1 and 2

Sandwiches
Currey
Roast

Fruit loaf 99p
Milk 4 pints 1.65 4 pints
Honey nut flakes 95p
Choco shells 95p
Back bacon 10 slices x2 packs 2.80
Bread thick toasties x 3 2.37

Buttery spread 500g 99p
Ham 14 slices 2.49
Cheese extra mature 900g 4.80
Coleslaw 99p
Lettuce 99p
Plum baby tomatoes 325g 89p

Extra large chicken 4.99
Potatoes 2.5kg 1.25
Cauliflower cheese 1.79
Stuffing 46p
Sweetcorn 1.49
Yorkshire puddings 50p
Cheese cake x2 1.89

2 aubergines - 1.30
1kg frozen chicken breast 3.99
Rice 1kg 1.75
2 korma sauce jars 1.40
Pashwari 6 mini narns 95p
Total 31.79
---'

Day 2 breakfast and lunch from original shop so no new costs from them.

I bought an extra milk, still have snacks and fresh fruit from original budget. Going to make up a vat of pasta sauce to do dinners for day 3 and four. Today is spaghetti and garlic bread. Tomorrow will be lasagna

4 pints milk 1.99
Minced beef 500kg x2 packs 4.98
Tinned chopped tomatoes 4x tins 1.28
Passatta 4x cartons 1.64
Tomatoe puree 35p
Stock cube 20p
Mixed herbs from existing Costco jumbo pot 10p? A
2 garlic breads 89p
Pasta 750g 82p
Total 12.29
Running total 44.08
--
Day 4

Lunches and breakfast from original budget. Lasagna made with yesterday spaghetti sauce with salad

White cheese sauce made with existing milk and cheese. Salad and Coleslaw from original budget.

Flour 69p
Lasagna sheets 75p
Cucumber 79p
Total 2.23
Overall Total 43.31
--
Day five

Breakfast
Weet biscuits 1.89

Lunch
Lild beans x4 1.70
Bought more apple 95p
Bananas 92p

Dinner
Straight to wok noodles 85p
Stir fry sauce shets x2 1.05
2 bags frozen mixed veg 1.44
Beansprouts 70p
Left over roast chicken ( frozen)
Total 8.65
Running total 51.96

Day 6
Breakfast as before
Lunch as before
Dinner
Mash with existing veg and potatoes
Sausages 1.60
Carrots 40p
Total £2
Running total £53.96

Day 7
Breakfast as before
Lunch eggy bread and salad
Dinner lental and carrot sheppards pie
Milk 1.75
Eggs 1.40
Lettuce 99
Cherry Tom's 89
Salad dressing 1.00
Red lentils 1.40
Tin of green lentils 58
Potatoes 1.59
Total 7.60
Running total for 7 days 61.56

A detestable MN cliche, but meal planning has saved us both a lot of money and food waste. I use the Recipe Keeper app, which is great as it just auto-populates your week with saved recipes. I have about 30-odd dinners in there, so every week it just picks 6 (we do pizzas on night 7!). I shuffle the meals about sometimes to account for best before dates or other things but we were throwing so much food out before, it was so wasteful. Now it's very rare we have much food waste and all.

Thank you. I think your portion sizes are smaller than many. For example, 3 loaves of bread wouldn’t do breakfast and lunch for 5 for 4 days and lunch on 3 other days for the majority.

Thanks for the message, I make time to cook from scratch and buy maybe 1 meat a week fresh as me and dh are veggies. I do leave leftovers for next days lunches etc and I've started to only buy what I need so rather than a pack of peppers, I buy 2. Or 3 onions for £1 but picking 3 loose ones came to 60p.
Everyone's got some good ideas and it's comforting to know it can be done. Even just sticking to 140pw would help. I cant afford to up it even with the energy prices dropping.

I feed myself and an ever-hungry teen boy on about £50 a week, which buys a good mix of supermarket fruit & veg, bread, dairy and store cupboard goods, plus frozen fish. Plus about £10 of meat from a local butcher.

I rarely buy beef or lamb, it's too expensive. I cook from scratch and grow some of our summer salad and fruit. We always have plenty. I avoid UPFs.

I went to Morrisons today. No meat, no booze. It wasn't a big shop. £30 on cat food. It was £127. Absolutely mental.