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Ok, apparently im an ogre and being unreasonable. We are a family of four and our food bill this month is about a grand. I appreciate we are in lockdown but it seems too much to me. My eldest left half of her tea and at 10.30 I said making nachos was a no go. Big argument follows. Am I being unreasonable or are we just spending too much. I'm fed up with seeing nice food going in the bin...
£30/week max all in for one adult me. Even lesser during lockdown.
If they are in their early teens then they might need more fuel.
Me think you can easily cut £400 of the bill if parents stick to £30/week while kids stick to £50/week.
Am I being unreasonable or are we just spending too much.
Nope. You are right for not wasting food.
Mine was reaching close to that some months, especially if leader needed to prepare for a birthday or dinner for parents and bbqs etc etc.. I got the hump about which meant I was an ahole and never to ration food in the house.. I think I'm still around 600 as we've changed some eating habits, still feels too high..
3 of us (10 month baby)
Single Aldi shop 200 quid per 14-17 days.
Other than that it's milk and bread at the local shop once every 4/5 days.
Find we are spending less due to no extra spending tempted. No coffees /sandwiches/etc etc
Family of 4 here (though the nearly 3yr old seems to eat bugger all!).
We get a £20 veg box from the local greengrocer each week, a £25 meat box every 2 weeks from the butcher, and probably spend £30 a week in Lidl on milk, bread, tins, snacks, etc.
So that's approx £250 a month. Plus the occasional curry (though not recently ☹️)
My dad supplies us with wine from France on a regular basis. Saves us quite a lot!
I analysed our expenditure over the last year to figure out what income I need from my private pension to top up state pension, so I did a pretty thorough job.
There are two of us, both retired, both with good appetites. Monthly spend is £450 food and drink. My financial adviser reckoned this was a sensible middle of the road figure. Note that includes wine not just food.
I would say you have two different issues. One is the amount you spend (which if it includes booze is probably not extravagant) and the other is food waste. They are not the same thing. Maybe your eldest would like to buy and prepare her own food?
Are we including alcohol? Hard to say for sure since.my shopping habits have changed to way fewer trips but I think the same shopping is costing more than pre.lock down.
My one person food bill per year is probably about less than £2.5k all in ... alcohol, fish & chips, junks, food gone to waste that I forgot to eat ...
Mines inclusive of alcohol.
Could probably nip 20 quid out for beer and wine.... (1 bottle red /1 white and 6 tins of beer)
We're currently spending about £200 per week. Family of five. That includes beer and wine (which is probably best part of £30).
One person me:
chicken £3.5 (3 to 4 meal)
Pork £5 (3 to 4 meal)
Milk £2 (last for than a week)
Veg £3 (last for more than a week until they rot ...)
Fruit £2 (sometime let it rot)
eggs £2 (always finish)
beer £5 (two to 3 bottles a week depending on discount)
Total : £22.50
£7.50 left for mis & junks ...
P/s: If I really want to go cheaper I can by going for frozen veg which think I will coz I am lazy and does not want rotten veg in the fridge. Think some peppers are slowly rotting in my fridge now ...
Between £80 to £100 per week for a family of 4. No booze, but does include toiletries. @ajantom I’m genuinely interested in what meals you’re cooking / meal plans you have to come in at £250 per month. Not much meat eaten in our house though, just chicken and bacon occasionally.
That seems slightly on the high side, unless your kids drink alcohol!
We are currently spending £500 a month for 2x 40-somethings. That includes meat delivered from the posh farm shop in town, beer from a local brewery, wine (mostly Aldi), and maybe £50 a month on takeaways.
In 'normal' times we wouldn't be getting deliveries from the farm shop or brewery, and wouldn't be spending so much on takeaways. But I'd be spending more at the work canteen and we'd be going out to restaurants once a month. So it'd probably be a similar ballpark.
EDIT - come to think of it, that's the full supermarket bill, so includes bog roll, shampoo, cling film, yak yak
£1000 per month for a family of four seems mental. My wife and i is about £150 a month with lockdown way less when we are both working.
I’m not sure as but I can say it’s no where £1k per month as a family of 4, it’s probably around £450-500 and we eat good fresh food, plus by lots of treats.
A grand?! That's a big bill for four of you. Ours is £400 to £450 per month for four adults and we're eating well. There's no beer or wine in that because none of us really drink.
I’m not sure as but I can say it’s no where £1k per month as a family of 4, it’s probably around £450-500 and we eat good fresh food, plus by lots of treats.
£500/month for 4 in GeordieLand is definitely achievable with left over.
Family of 4 here and about £600 per month based on weekly Tesco deliveries. That probably includes about £50 on wine and beer.
Little known fact
trail rat stared in the 70's Walkers crisp advert "you'll no be having a sale"
😜@ Terry.
A grand!?
I can get carried away shopping, used to waste loads of stuff, and I could not even imagine physically being able to buy that much stuff.
Since lockdown my shopping habits and finances have become very simple. I do it once a week. Between £25 and £30 each time. And that's me not holding back, buying a lot of what I would call luxurious items.
@ajantom I’m genuinely interested in what meals you’re cooking / meal plans you have to come in at £250 per month. Not much meat eaten in our house though, just chicken and bacon occasionally.
The wife is great at meal plans!
Whole chicken will do 3 meals - roast, chicken pie, and then boiled for stock/chicken noodle soup.
Lots of slow cooker meals involving tinned tomato, beans and lentils + rice or couscous.
Big lasagnes, etc. that'll do a couple of days.
Last night we had a butter nut squash and pasta dish. Enough leftover for lunch today, and ingredients cost was under £4.
We try not to have any leftovers, and use everything in the fridge. Generally don't even fill one food waste bag/caddy a week.
Shopping at Lidl makes a big difference, a supermarket shop is nearly half the cost of say Sainsbury's.
£60ish per week for me and 18 yr old son. That includes his soft drinks but not my alcohol.
But I'll probably blow £20+ on a ruby tomorrow for me and the GF now that we can 'bubble' (not a euphemism) + beers on top of that.
4 of us, 2 teenage boys, 14 and 17, all at home in lockdown and food bill ex booze is about £800 plus a month. Boys eat like horses....
£200 - £250 a week. Family of 4. Waitrose is the nearest supermarket and the only one in walking distance. I suspect cheaper alternatives may be available.
£50 per week food for 2 x adults that includes things like foil, cleaning products, kitchen roll etc.
Since C19 began it’s been a bit differently organised, more like £100-£120 in three weeks for mass shop online delivery of ingredients and staples, but with some kind friends dropping the odd fresh ingredients round once or twice a week. so when that‘s settled up it will probably still be around £200 pm. Eggs are fetched by bike locally and so far they come out of the piggy bank, about £5 per month but it’s running low.
95% of meals I cook from scratch which keeps spending down and means can enjoy the odd bottle of beer/bag of chips.
About 600 per month for two adults, a six, and an eleven year old. But that’s the ‘Sainsburys’ budget so includes household goods like loo roll and cleaners as well as food, but no booze. I don’t drink any more, and the wife buys herself a bottle of wine once a week.
I’m with the OP though, in that I get pissed off when one of the kids leaves food and then asks for something else an hour later “because they’re hungry”. Default answer is “no”.
£500 to £600 per month. 3 of us at home plus dog and includes 4th daughters shop who lives by herself. That includes bee, gin and sweets.
Dont tend to through much away. Dont tend to buy any pre cooked meals.
Includes normal every day household stuff.
100 quid a week in Aldi, not often it's over that. 3 in the house, no drinkers, includes all our lunches for normal pre lockdown work week as well.
That includes extra bread n milk during week, top ups.
Same as Tracey, all ingredients, no pre made meals in there.
Oh for UK food prices, quality and availability....and Aldi...
Big weekly food shop for 2 adults and two preschoolers comes to approx £180-£200.
Good job there's no income tax!
£500 a month for 4 of us, with an 11 y/o and a 12y/o. No booze, a few sweets and all home cooked meals. I imagine thats going to increase when the kids hit angry teenage growing phase.
Around £600 per month for me and wife. We do't tend to eat much cheap stuff and ff we needed to cut down then could probably easily half it.
I don't really know, not much though, maybe £40 a week for the pair of us (no kids 😁 ) or something like that at either Aldi or Lidl, whichever we end up going to. We just buy decent ingredients and we're mostly veggie so that helps fetch the cost down. OH brews his own beer too.
Yes same as you OP approx £1k for 4 people.
Prices have definitely gone up in COVID but also buying habits have changed a little too
Pre covid 19 we shopped about and went to a combination or tesco, aldi and lidl, we bought aldi nappies which are excellent by the way.
Since c19 we've been buying everything form tesco and getting it delivered which now includes pampers nappies. Our bills has almost doubled and I'm nor convinced its any better. Aldi chocolate covered oat biscuits are 42p. Genuine version at tesco £1.50 and they taste the same to me.
My next door neighbour runs a large bakery and supplies to all the supermarkets. He says aldi and lidl work on around 18% Mark up and the others work on between 50 and 100% Mark up.
Most of the time it's the same food just packaged differently.
He said the only superior product is anything from M&S, its by far the best quality.
Hes recently been bringing me some tiger bread that is lovely, he asked me to guess the price, I thought £1.80 ish based on tesco. It's a £1 a loaf or £1.80 for 2 in Iceland. It would be £2 in tesco!
I know it's difficult at the moment with covid 19 to shop about but if your bill is £1000 a month why not try the aldi challenge? In 3 to 6 months it could buy you a new bike!
Hmm. This week our one big shop was £140. There will be another £25 today, top up the bread, milk, fruit & veg, and once a month £35 on a beer delivery. That's for four, one of whom is 89 and doesn't eat much. Less random spend than pre covid, but not using the market for veg now so it may be about the same. About £700 per month then. Getting it below £600 would be ok, son (and me) would have to accept less snacks, but under £500? That would be a struggle.
Two adults, 3yo and an almost 1yo, looking at £80-90 usually per week in Aldi. Plus a takeaway now and again.
I think once the boy is a little older he's going to eat us out of house and home.
Two adults and 2 kids 10/12. We are £700 to 800 a month so imagine you can trim a bit. My wife loves gin as well which I moan about the cost of extensively.
Approximately £500-£550 per month for 2 adults and 14 year old daughter, including wine, beer and gin.
We're spending about 600 a month at the moment, 2 adults and 2 kids. Usually don't spend that much on shopping but probably spend more with eating out.
2 adults 2 kids. About £800 per month.
Loads, loads and loads. Mostly for Gin and wine for the wife I think.
I have found out that things like dishwasher tablets, toilet rolls and kefir milk things are insanely expensive though lately
2 adults and a three year old in our household
£250-£300 a month shopping in Morrisons, that includes everything we need for the month, household cleaning stuff, body washes, loo roll etc... at end of the month there is still some food in the freezer/cupboards, we tend to buy a lot of meat and veg and always look for offers which helps save some money
If your spending 1k a month on four of you then id suspect your buying a lot of crisps & chocolate snack type junk food
Try telling the family that food shopping will be for meals only and that snacks/treats/booze etc.. will have to come out of their own money and then see how much you spend in a month
This is what my parents did when i was 18 and working, it taught me how expensive treats were and i realised how much junk i was actually eating when it cost me money
I know it’s difficult at the moment with covid 19 to shop about but if your bill is £1000 a month why not try the aldi challenge?
To be honest we both have been working full time + extended hours during COVID. So it’s been a mixture of Sainsbury’s (only people who do reliable home delivery where we live) and M&S food hall (convenience)
About £50-£60 per week for just me. I do like good red wine though, so if I didn't, my bill would be £15-£20 less. My food shop is pretty same as chewkw's without the chicken and pork but extra veg instead. If I didn't but as much soft fruit as I do, I could probs. knock another £5-£7 off as well!
Family of 5, with three lads 15, 17, 18.
We spend £700 a month.
Our food waste is tiny - the boys are expected to eat what's provided. It's increased in lockdown as we are ordering online and fruit & veg is very hit and miss on best before and quality.