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I seem to spend a fortune; i was inspired by another thread on here asking if he could get by on £5 a day for 2000 calories. I had always thought that £35 a week seemed like a decent amount of money if you were mindful about where you shopped and what you ate, but that thread seems to think otherwise.
I seem to constantly eat out, impulse purchase and buy shit i don't need. I am not in that category (although I would love to be...)
£200 per week 😯
To be fair - it's a family of 5. So £40 per head, although 3 of those heads are children.
excluding household goods (i,e, washing powders, soaps, booze, & bits) roughly:
£20-25 meat
£6-10 veg
£4-6 fruit
£5-8 dairy
£3-5 bread-making and bread
£3-4 drinks
£5-15 other ingredients (like spices, grains, pastas, rice, nuts, sauces etc)
so anywhere between £50 and £75 for family of 4. No ready meals, all prepared and cooked at home from scratch except occasionally for lazy chicken kievs.
Average shop cost is closer to £100-120 per week, but that includes my lunches (work from home), loads of booze and maybe a DVD for the boys.
Two of us.
Excluding booze and 1 takeaway £45 on average
Including booze and 1 Takeaway £80
All food is cooked from Scratch.
I find food in uk q expensive, sainsburys, its hard to avoid all the packaged rubbish. I always cook so end up chasing aroumd the store looking for individual items. I reckon 100 pw for 2, including wine.
Just me at home so no hungry kids to feed. Easily spend less than £30 each week, sometimes less. But then I'm not a food lover (I eat to ride) so no fancy stuff for me. Treat myself to a chippie every Friday and the odd cake, the rest is just easy to cook meat etc. Does help that I don't really have an appetite, can go a few days without eating sometimes if I'm out of my normal routine!!
£20-25.
Just me.
Don't drink, but do have a penchant for biscuits and go for convenience (tinned beans & veg/frozen veg etc) over cooking from scratch/buying raw staples.
About £75 for a family of four. Including non foods from the supermarket.
Cook most meals from scratch and we have an Aldi and Lidl as our local shops.
I think we eat pretty well.
Easily £100.00..but that's not just food ..its all household shopping
About £90 per week for food and drink for 3 people.
Jamie - Member
£20-25.Just me.
Sorry. I'm calling bullshit. Nobody can spend that little a week on food...
Can they?
Blimey
Two adults, two teenagers (with hollow legs), just food is about 100-115 a week.
Edit: cook from scratch
£0
I send Mrs Weeksy, I have no idea how much it costs her
I may spend £6 on a couple of lattes though
£60 ish per week all in for the shopping (food, cleaning, bog roll etc.) two hungry adults! Might have a takeaway at the weekend (£15) no booze.
Mostly processed/packaged crap though, need to cook from scratch more, although looking at the above it's gonna cost more!
Just me most of the time so £70 a week (maybe one bottle of wine included, but not normally) I love food, cook as fresh as I can and when I can’t I’m hooked on Charlie Binghams fish pies/lasagne/meatballs.
When the Mrs’s is around it’s normally £80-90.
Oh, seems some are including takeaways/eating out in thier costings... I’m not.. so I normally eat out once a week with a pint so add another £20 to my total.
Sorry. I'm calling bullshit. Nobody can spend that little a week on food...
I spend about that just on lunches, £5/day at the local coop..
Sorry. I'm calling bullshit. Nobody can spend that little a week on food...
I spend about that just on lunches, £5/day at the local coop..
Sadly so do i. Maybe even more. And normally buy lunch out; maybe eat out twice a week as well. What a lunatic I am. I don't even enjoy it very much.
I spend about that just on lunches, £5/day at the local coop..
Well, that's cause you're such a high roller, mate 8)
Well, that's cause you're such a high roller, mate
Yes I often leave the local Coop, clutching my chicken salad sandwich, thinking 'Yes, I've finally made it' 🙂
We live the high life on the Cambridge Business Park.....
I guess somewhere around £7/day for me.
Breakfast usually effectively free (loaf bought for lunches becomes toast)
Lunch usually around £2
Dinner usually around £3.50
+Snacks and drinks.
I have no idea
Sorry. I'm calling bullshit. Nobody can spend that little a week on food...Can they?
It can be done, when I got laid off I was unemployed for a few months things got pretty dire for a week or two waiting for the paycheck for my new job to come through.
Weekly shop.
4 x 50p loafs of value bread.
2 x tins of corned beef
Value Ketchup
4 x 25p jars of chicken /salmon paste
Large block of cheese
Large pack of reformed ham
Some really cheap pasta n sauce packs
Some 10p noodle packs
Chilli sauce
6 litres of milk
£100 for 3 adults and a big greedy labby.
so not far off my £5 a day target. 8)
About £125 a week for two adults and a baby. However, that includes nappies and other household purchases. We don't really drink much so expenditure in booze is neglible. We do however buy quite a lot of meat and fresh fruit/veg. No ready meals or takeaways, all meals are cooked from scratch. Oh, and I take lunch to work with me so there are no additional costs there. Still seems steep in my opinion but the missus insists she can't/won't go lower.
I'm quite sad in that I itemise our monthly expenditure against a monthly budget and forecast against big ticket items in the future...needs must when you're on just the one salary. However, it's staggering how much money gets frittered away when you look into it - I recommend doing so if you don't already as the exercise saved us well over £150 per month at the start.
About 150/week. Family of 4. I find it shocking how much we spend and I do try and reduce it but then end up going again and spending more!
I guess about £75. Big shop usually comes to £60 plus a couple of little shops. 2 adults, 2 kids (6&4) Most meals home cooked but kids (and me!) like the odd supermarket pizza and fish fingers obvz!
Recently I've been trying to cook 2 meals, one for today and one for the freezer.
Edit: I've forgotten we pay for school meals so more like £85.
We have 4 kids, my food bills are bonkers
Personally do try and be frugal, but 4 kids also = tired can easily spend £5 a day on lunch, loads of really nice places to buy food near work too!
You can feed yourself in a decent healthy and nutritious manner for £35 a week. Over your 5 a day and all the protein you need as well. If anyone cannot do this this it's down to their own incompetence.I had always thought that £35 a week seemed like a decent amount of money if you were mindful about where you shopped and what you ate, but that thread seems to think otherwise.
Buy your staples (lentils, beans, rice, flour etc) in bulk, buy your fruit and vegetables fresh and in season, and buy cheaper but still tasty cuts of meat from your butcher. Take the time to plan in advance and make use of your freezer. Make your meals from scratch. It's not difficult, just needs some discipline.
I live alone and spend £40 -£45 every week in Tesco . Now , this does include monthly purchaces like washing powder , dishwaher tablets etc
I also go out approx one night a week with my mate and thats £25 so I spend £65 a week as an average on feeding myself
btw .- I am 5ft 11 and weigh 76kg , so not exactly a tubber
Not good here, both not keen on preparing and cooking so it’s pretty much take away or cafe or bar lunch Thursday tea through to Sunday, 5 in family then usually a boyfriend or two of the daughters averaged out last year at about £200 a week on the above , then there’s usually 3 or 4 £25-£35 debits for the local Tesco express each week , obviously cleaning stuff and toiletries in that so if we said £75-£100 out of that then it’s £275-£300 a week, doesn’t look good but we have a great family time so more than happy to roll with it!!
I only eat breakfast (cereal) and one other meal a day about 3-4pm so that makes it cheaper.Probably 30ish a week.
It is possible to eat very well for not that much.
We do around £100-£120/week, family of four with two 17 year old boys. That includes stuff like washing powder but NOT beer and wine. We could pretty easily knock 20% off that with a few sacrifices (fresh orange juice being top of the list at ~£8/week)
Everything cooked from scratch apart from the odd pizza to keep in the freezer for that quick, easy 'emergency meal.
Key to keeping cost down is menu-planning and bulk purchase of 'dry' foods. And never go to the supermarket hungry.
£75-125 for 2, everything not just food (that includes very little booze/wine as that’s mostly bought in bulk in France). We usually spend quite a lot less on food when in France as despite 5% VAT food is much cheaper there (our weekly cheese record was €38 though 🙂 )
We eat mostly vegetarian, some fish (which is expensive). Almost everything cooked from fresh, eg exception twice a month or so microwave curry. We often cook 2-3 days worth and freeze some
OP Eat Well for Less is compulsive viewing
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/group/b0520lz9
I transfer the Mrs £700 a month to cover the shopping etc. I have no idea how that breaks down but the fridge is usually full and my favorite crisps and biscuts are in the cupboard, so I don't ask...
2 adults, 2 kids (6+12) . We spend about £85 a week , Mrs Carlos is allergic to loads of things so we tend to cook from scratch rather than ready meals.
Most of the shop is done at Aldi , I'd hate to think how much the same shop would be at Asda/Morison's.
For 14 breakfasts, 12 dinners and about 6 lunches, £60 a week - two of us. Cooking almost always from fresh, mix of Aldi and Sainsburys.
Lunch when I'm out/at work is about £5.
One evening out/takeaway a week on average.
Take the time to plan in advance and make use of your freezer. Make your meals from scratch. It's not difficult, just needs some discipline
This is definitely true as a new graduate my partner and I were good like this but now food s more of a afterthought, (not so much for other half but for me). Lazy I know. Food is still not massive. About £80 per week all supermarket shopping. Two adults and one baby. Eat really well imo.
£200 per week sounds massive! Even for 5 grown ups, where do you think the bulk is spent.
£125
That’s £60 a week in Sainsburys.
£15 school dinners for the eldest.
£5 a day each for my Wife and I.
Used to be a lot more, I’m trying to get back into the habit of making myself lunch at home, if nothing else I’m bored shitless of the co-op meal deals.
100 quid a week for 2. Plus my lunches. Feels extravagant but I'm not sure what I'd cut out - we eat zero ready meals or stuff like that.
Jamie - Member
£20-25.
Just me.
Sorry. I'm calling bullshit. Nobody can spend that little a week on food...Can they?
Blimey
Just gone through my last 4 shopping bills from Morrisons:
£23.64
£19.88
£26.12
£17.94
You can add about £1 for extra milk during the week onto all of that and the £26.12 was inflated by buying a new pack of razor blades at £10. So I'd say Jamie's figures tally up with mine for a similar situation.
It's amazing how quickly those extra little snacks or big portions add up!
£90-£100 a week at Tesco for 2 adults. But these days that includes alcoholic beverages, home stuff (wife loves candles) as well as toiletries, massive tescos sells just about everything!
We do eat quite a lot of meat, but we cook must things from scratch. I just like food, lots of food!
Not 100% sure but I’d guess somewhere around £80-90 per week for one person
£30 to £35 per week including junk food. 😛
i reckon £75 a week between the two of us. Lunches at work add another £15ish. Booze adds a bit more again!
the £20 a week thing is easily doable (for one) though - did this for years while skint. Sometimes used to manage on £10. You just have to substitute out a lot of meat and cheese etc...
Tend to grab at least one meal a day in a greasy spoon/ cob shop or fancy cafe something which combines breakfast and lunch, so that can be anything from about £4-12, then about £10-20 a day in home food (fresh meat or fish, veggies and sundries) and I tend to graze on fruit from waking to sleeping. Add booze to that, and nights out booze and weekend eating, I really dread to think.
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.