How do i bookmark this??? Food for thought
Hmm I'd say £60-90 (I'm single and fat :p ), not including alcohol (but I don't actually drink much anyhow), variance largely depends on number of takeaways/snacks. Yes, I need to sort myself out...
Family of 4, our weekly shop is about £100 so probably £80 food, plus a wee midweek topup £20 or so.
2 adults, £75 ish each week in Aldi but that includes cleaning stuff, toiletries and a few beers, maybe add £15 for stuff bought at work. I could easily get that down to £50 if needed and less if pushed. Like many of the above, almost everything is cooked from scratch.
Hmm I'd say £60-90 (I'm single and fat :p ), not including alcohol (but I don't actually drink much anyhow), variance largely depends on number of takeaways/snacks. Yes, I need to sort myself out...
If you can afford it then I wouldn’t worry. Unless your health is being affected.
Could swap a donner for a fiver in Shelter’s pocket every now and again maybe. But that’s just me being a sanctimonious prick.
We are arouNd the 40 a week in Aldi
Occasionally it's a 50 if we need some cleaning products
We do bulk buy once a year at Costco of toilet paper /dishwasher tabs and shit like that though
As above most meals cooked from basics.
When I'm at work it's about 50 dollars a week to feed just me.....but foods pricy there and limited options. Mostly it's porridge /dried fruit/dried milk for breakfast . 2 cheese and ham toasties and a yogurt for lunch and then bbq chicken breast or steak with BBQ sweet potato or normal potato depending in season. The veg in the shops is mostly already rotten before you buy it 🙁
£150 a week plus, between 2 of us but that includes all supermarket shopping at costco/Morrison’s (usually). Rarely buy booze, but industrial quantities of pop, which Costco is good for.
The plus is takeaways/eating out once or twice a week and mrsTHtobes lunches, as I’ve no idea what she has...
Food seems to fall through me though, and I have no need or desire to change 
Family of four. Key to keeping it under control is online shopping. Plan meals for the week and only buy what you need, never take the kids to the supermarket. Average around £80 a week.
Just me - out of work through choice currently so tight budget & not eligeable for benefits. Around £25 per week, max 30.
As I have time on my hands tend to do 1 trip a week to Home Bargains & Lidl. But can walk to Tesco. If I buy beer it's the £3.25 for 10 25cl bottles. Also cook 4 - 5 main meals from scratch. Only buy branded favourites if on offer etc.
When working probably spent £40 - 45, but that included a works canteen lunch and mainly convenience food, 'proper' beer & cider and shopping at Sainsbury & Tesco.
2 adults 1 baby. If i go shopping without the mrs £40-45 per week, past 4 weeks the mrs has been going on her own in the day time, she manages to spend £60-75 on the same stuff...
£150 for a family of four including toiletries and cleaning stuff. Wine is bought separately once a quarter unless it's to go in the food.
Family of four and we budget for £100 a week excluding alcohol. That includes food for packed lunches as our girls don't do school dinners.
I shop nearly every day and it seems to be about £7-£10 in Waitrose/Sainsbury's each time but there's enough to cook from for several days in fridge/freezer as I'll cook and freeze half. But then I could spend a weeks worth in a day if I decide to buy a piece of meat from the butchers, bottle of Barolo and some overpriced organic artisan produce with mud still on it to cook at the weekend with the GF.
I dont buy much chav food or crisps/fizzy pop/frozen pizzas so there are whole supermarket isles I don't go down, I'm sure that stuff costs more than proper food.
Food is cheap now compared to the percentage of income that was going on it 30 years ago.
*Awaits TJ to tell us he spends £2.71p a week, and that we're all doing it wrong*
I'm sure that stuff costs more than proper food
Well I bet you are just the bundle of fun at parties aren't you?
About £100-120 for 2 adults, a 7 and 17 year old for food and domestic stuff. This doesn't include booze, or eating out and work food for me and Mrs B. Mix of mainly fresh food and some ready meal/ processed type food as 3 of us work regular evening's, nights and weekends. So family meals aren't always possible, although someone always eats with our youngest. If we all available for a meal, we tend to eat out as to make more of the time, and this can be anything from £40-100 and would about once a week. Probably fund about £25 a week in food to eldest daughter at uni about 30 miles away, and will feed her out to.
We probably could reduce some of this, but can't really be arsed, as work patterns make stuff a hassle and planning meals difficult as work is unpredictable. In fairness, we eat a good balanced diet, waste next to nothing, all enjoy our food and all of us are active and not fat. So money well spent to me.
We spend around £60 a week at the supermarket, then I spend between £10 and £12 Monday lunch time to get what I need for the week at work. Them we may have a takeaway at the weekend, so add another £20.
So about £90 between two of us.
We then spend around £20 a week on the cats food!
Well I bet you are just the bundle of fun at parties aren't you?
Yeah I just stand and stare at the bowls of Wotsits and twiglets thinking WTF?
When the kids were home we'd spend prob £200 per week.. Now it's just the wife and me, we spend very little. Maybe £50-60
£80-90 in Aldi, plus probably 40 ish on top ups (Quorn bits) / extras (I buy a curry + pud on a Friday from Waitrose for a treat). Family of 5 but the boys keep eating more and more and more...
Don't really buy much booze, Mrs B take up the slack with her coven, doing their bit to keep rural pubs in business.
100ish family of four plus eat out once a week plus lunches, so loads probably. One of the few things worth spending a bit on though innit.
70 for two including cleaning and paper rolls. Less if need to put extra fuel in the car.
Cook from scratch mostly*. Chips once a week.
*one pot usually does two meals but small fridge makes storage more difficult in summer months. Autumn/Winter is cheaper. Except for fuel bills of course. So I suppose it averages out.
Bumper raspberry crop this year BTW, still picking them off the canes last night.
Eat Well For Less is a decent watch I find, some eye-openers there on people's food spending habits (although I guess it's all based around higher than average spenders). I'm always amazed by the parent that cooks 2 or 3 different evening meals as the kids are fussy, hunger always used to be enough motivation when I was a kid that I would eat what I was given (although I would sometimes revert to fake vomiting noises when broccoli or sprouts were served).
@fuzzy yes I am sure they pick the high spenders with easily identified bad habits. As a result of the programme we have switched Lurpack for Tesco’s own - half the price. You can tell side by side which is which but once in a sandwich or on toast with jam you cannot. £1.50 a week saved ...
I'm always amazed by the parent that cooks 2 or 3 different evening meals as the kids are fussy
The future is an idiot.
Went to get a squash and some mushrooms on Sunday. The chilled 'ready prepared food' section was two deep with young parents grabbing plastic-potted roast spuds, mash, ready-made cottage pies, other cookd veg and chickens prepared in foil trays. Ready-made gravy in pastic pouches.
The waste is mind-boggling. The expense too. Let alone the whole love-less, rushed, 'grab and heat' experience of 'home-cooking' that I was witnessing. It was Remembrance Sunday, I immediately remembered my Grandfather's disbelief and distaste for the 'townies'. 😆
25/30 a week on just food tops maybe a bit more if i take my son out for a treat - single guy 3 meals a week on 2.5 yo - batch cook a lot .. Big Big Pots of Veggie curry/ Chili/Spag Bog/Thai Curry etc from fresh All lunches for office pre prepped and frozen if out on business its expended so get my takeaway/eat out fix from there.
Big mortgage on three bed house and debts to repay have changed my food habits massively
Ours is about £150 a week for a family of 4 but that is all in, cleaning products, toiletries, snacks for kids lunch boxes, food for 2 adults work lunches and a bit of wine/beer.
It seems a lot to me and I have looked at it a few times to see how we can cut it down but we already shop at Aldi/Lidl, make almost everything from scratch etc. I came to the conclusion that that's just how much stuff costs.
I seem to spend between £80 and £120 a week in the supermarket for just me.
Includes a couple of bottles of wine and household stuff.
The waste is mind-boggling
Yep. I feel guilty if I have to throw any food away which usually only happens with the end of a loaf of bread.
It's not difficult to think of something to cook with what's to hand or to just add something else.
I guess that's easier when you shop every couple of days whereas a big weekly shop means stuff hangs around for longer and is more likely to spoil.
Good thread this, very interesting
I've downloaded a year's worth of statements from Natwest and created a little spreadsheet to work it out
There are no easy categories to weed it out so I had to check spending across most of the supermarkets we shop in, it's quite blunt as stuff some places might have been clothes rather than shopping
Our supermarket shopping averages out at £430 per month for 2 adults and 2 kids. School lunches are currently free (KS1) and that doesn't include my lunches at work. But it does include stuff like toilet rolls and washing powder
Dog food on top of that. Eating out on top of that too
There is some month to month volatility, but I guess that might be due to stocking up on stuff one month, and then not needing it the next
I guess that's easier when you shop every couple of days whereas a big weekly shop means stuff hangs around for longer and is more likely to spoil.
Yep. I feel somewhat sorry for those that have to drive two-three miles to the supermarket so can only manage it once a week. Not even being completely facetious for a change. In order to pay the extra grocery bills and car-costs they're probably at the coal face for 60-80 hrs a week, leaving no time for shopping for food let alone leisure-time for cooking. I try to cycle at night to a supermarket to get next day's (or three day's) food. This is handy as you get deals and have the time to choose loose produce. I can tailor my workout/time taken with such a large choice of supermarkets within 20 mile radius. (Not having kids at home or a social life helps here!)
Things have changed massively in the last 40 years. When a schoolboy our mum used to send me running or cycling half a mile up to the village greengrocers or co-op (or less to corner shop) shop for a loaf or '6 nice mushrooms', or 'three good potatoes and a few carrots'. Or the butcher. 'Half a pound of mince'. It would get cooked that night or the next day. I suspect such practices are an anomaly in similar (suburban) areas today
Now there is a Lidl where all that stuff used to be. And the corner shop is gone.
But we never wasted anything, AFAIR. The dustbin never got really full even once a week. Now you'd be marked as a ''hipster' or 'dirt-poor' for carrying on like that nowadays
For many I guess waste/ultra-convenience is a symbol of plenty/success? The consumer-class?
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Mean while when I used to shop in the way you describe I would spend more and waste more.
Moving away from a town means I now plan and waste very little.
Tucking into carrot and sweet potatoe soup the wife made on Sunday with a side of whole meal loaf I baked on Sunday evening
A lot of these replies begin with something like ‘I think it’s about’ ...
I’d like to ask the same question, but only among people who have consciously recorded and added up spending, over the course of say 6 months.
When I did that, the *actual* monthly figures gave me a big fright... (Waitrose shopping, topping-up and impulse ‘treats’ come to an awful lot of money.)
Mean while when I used to shop in the way you describe I would spend more and waste more.
How can one waste 6 mushrooms and 3 potatoes? You juggled them on the journey home and dropped them, dintcha? Ya wee tinker.. 😉
Well you end up shopping hungry and then over buy.
shopping hungry and then over buy.
Gods yes. Ultimate tester. Cycling home past the open, heaven-scented chip shop on a cold grocery run is one of the toughest things I've ever encountered.
It helps as I say to take as near to exact cash as required for items required. With overall food budget withdrawn in cash at start of week. At least then you have another level of defence against the endless urges to buy and consume.
Around the £35 point, give or take a bit, including cleaning stuff, for 2 adults and a baby, Mon-Fri.
Weekends vary a lot as often away or have friends around, could be £10-£100.
Good choice of butchers around us, lot of bulk cooking (beats having to cook every night), home made cake, neither of us drink, that seems to help keep costs down
100-150 for two greedy/foody adults.
We eat extremely well - all the meat comes from the farm shop and is not cheap.
We don't even try to scrimp really. So yeah you could do it for less but it wouldn't be as nice in my opinion. We generally do our own bread and yogurt but that doesn't save any money either.
Posh eggs aren't cheap either especially since moving to organic.
I've no idea tbh, lots more than I should.
It helps as I say to take as near to exact cash as required for items required. With overall food budget withdrawn in cash at start of week. At least then you have another level of defence against the endless urges to buy and consume.
Is this frugal approach due to financial, health or ethical reasons?
If you don't mind me asking 🙂
[i]I seem to spend between £80 and £120 a week in the supermarket for just me.
Includes a couple of bottles of wine and household stuff. [/i]
I'm probably about the same, more erring towards the 80 mark for food and household stuff though. I guess another £20-30 would include the pub. I eat well and I eat a lot.
Just tallying it up..
Weekdays:
Breakfast- Musli/porridge= £0.30*5 > £1.50/week
Lunch- Salad, leftovers, humus & Pitta= £1.25*5 > £6.25/week
Dinner- Bulk Curry= £10 week
Snacks- nuts/coke/fruit/other= £5
Total weekdays= £22.75
(free milk, coffee/tea & fruit at work)
Weekends:
Breakfast- Eggs, toast, beans or musli = £1.50
Lunch- varies as I'm out lots = £5
Dinner- varies = £5
Total weekends= £11.50
Total spend a week on food= £ 34.25
I think I eat well. I save a lot since turning vegetarian too.
Is this frugal approach due to financial, health or ethical reasons?If you don't mind me asking
Not at all. And - all of the above. Overdraft to clear, weight to lose, fitness/health to improve, waste to reduce. Ethically I couldn't live with myself any longer on a number of fronts/acquired bad-habits. Home-cooking and cycling (and food) are luckily three of my Favourite Things so it's been a very positive ongoing discovery to change stuff for the better. Not always easy though, but ingenuity is fun too towards the end of a week using leftovers. Plastic overuse/waste is a pet peeve also. If relatively wealthier would probably eat out more but would still shop in the same way for home-cooking for all of the all reasons mentioned.
Posh eggs aren't cheap either especially since moving to organic.
Try local villages? Found a couple of local hen-keepers/small-holdings where the hens run around in pastures, paddocks and orchards. Never thought to ask if 'organic', but - £5 for a tray of 30. Seems a good deal?
PS - used to live next a neighbouring farm that produced 'posh eggs' (top prices in the supermarket, named after woodland) - we visited once to get some eggs and was greeted with a featureless green pasture and thousands upon thousands of hens cramming selves into a 'barn' that looked like a warehouse. Nothing of interest to hems outside so they of course crammed inside to eat the 'feed' instead. Am sticking with friend's hens. All is not as it seems on the packaging, so be aware what you might be paying through the nose for.
@ Malvern rider - make's sense then, explains the elements of restraint and creativity that come with the choice then.
I was just trying to get my head around the restraint bit, whilst I don't love home cooking I do love food. But I'm lucky with the health and fitness bit. We all have our quirks. I run with the adage that being a bit cold and hungry is never a bad thing. Which probably explains why the beans and poached eggs on toast I had with a great big mug of tea, for the princely sum of £3.80 earlier tasted as good as things I've paid 10 times the price for. I think the simplest things done well can be as good as some of the finest things done well.
My wife logs everything, so I can tell you we spent £3972.69 on shopping last year. That'll be sainsburys/waitrose/tesco/ocado deliveries, spot of Aldi, etc
That works out as £331.06 per month (£76.40 a week), for a family of four (12 yo daughter, 10 yo son). Obviously August was less, december was more.
Doesn't include meals out, and most of the alcohol was bought in france, so is separate. The odd school/work lunch won't be in there, but mostly it's sandwiches for all.
Hardly any ready made food, and not that much meat (but when we do, we don't hold back on quality)
