Your weekly food budget

[spanglechick]

i do an ocado shop every other week or so - for about £75. sometimes this includes wine.

this has enough food for a week - but not lunches lunches cost me £4 a day.

then the second week i feel like it's too soon to buy more food so we alternate between grinder cooking healthy lentilly things that are delicious and healthy but make me feel like i'm being starved of carbs, and pies / pizzas etc that we can heat up and have with beans. between deliveries, we probably spend another £25. we probably average one takeaway a week too - at around £12-15

so £75+£25+£30 = £130 for two people every two weeks = £32.50 p week each. Plus my lunches = £52.50.

i haven't included sweetshop binges because that isn't food shopping. I'd eat just as much proper food if i could kick that unhelpful addiction.

 

[stupid dogbot]

Don't know. My weekly coffee budget is about £30, though.

 

[mozzy]

Quite often see decent cheese on "two for the price of one" offers at the supermarket. Gotta get lucky with your timing though. Alternatively, pick up some value cheese, and leave it in a sweaty sock sitting in the sun for a couple of hours. Before you know it, you'll have a decent mature cheddar! Or possibly botulism.

Grrr! He! He! I find I can't discipline myself very well in the supermarket as I am like a kid in a sweet shop. ! always get carried away and spend too much - Mr Mozzy has banned me and i'm only allowed to go with him where he can keep an eye on my spending!

Only joking! I just meant that when I shop at the supermarket, the money I save on offers doesn't seem to help as I always spend waaay too much on other stuff. Where as, if I restrict myself to cheap shops and go to lots of different, smaller ones, they don't have the temptations like the supermarket has. It is a pain and time consuming shopping like this, but it is now a habbit and I hate the big supermarkets - they are just too big and busy!

 

[ChrisFilter]

My shopping budget weaknesses are chilli-based products, olives and dips.

 

[rennie]

My weakness is crisps and junk food. I've made a deal with myself to lay off the potato snacks until xmas. Every time I feel like a crisp, I am going to have a piece of fruit instead.

Let's see how it goes.

 

[newme]

When I eat Sugarpuffs, I find that my pee smells like Sugarpuffs.

Someone else actually said that to me yesterday.

 

[Orang Utan]

i have spent up to £200 in one week and as little as £10 in other weeks. I have no self-control.

 

[newme]

Depends entirely on how little I need to spend and therefore how much effort I need to make to ensure I hit that number. From absolutely nothing upwards, but generally around a tenner a week lately spread out over time since I tend to buy stuff like 5Kg sacks of pasta or rice that last ages so dont need buying every week.

And really I eat fairly well on that.

 

[gentlegreen]

This thread may well save my waistline as well as put another hundred a month in the bank towards my retirement fund.

I'm starting by diluting my smoothies 50/50 with water.

 

[Beanburger]

Grrr! He! He! I find I can't discipline myself very well in the supermarket as I am like a kid in a sweet shop. ! always get carried away and spend too much

I find the trick is to eat before you shop. Supermarketing on an empty stomach is a recipe for an empty wallet.

 

[Madusa]

About €20 a week

 

[gentlegreen]

About €20 a week

I reckon you ought to do a blog - some of us are sorely in need of help with our housekeeping.

 

[Clair De Lune]

About 20 pounds on food, ten pounds on nappies and ten pounds on baby milk, 5 pound on cat food, 5 quid on booze...then about 10-15 quid just seems to vanish on milk, bread, crisps, pasties, drinks for the kids and I dunno what else really but it goes...I need to stop the last excesses basically. Thank goodness I have family who buy the kids clothes now and then cos otherwise they would be right scruffs like me.

 

[Addy]

£14 per person for 2 meals per day

 

[newme]

I find the trick is to eat before you shop. Supermarketing on an empty stomach is a recipe for an empty wallet.

Doing it stoned and hungry is far far worse. Ah 2am Tesco trips (it was about 45 seconds from the houseon foot).

 

[_angel_]

About 20 pounds on food, ten pounds on nappies and ten pounds on baby milk, 5 pound on cat food, 5 quid on booze...then about 10-15 quid just seems to vanish on milk, bread, crisps, pasties, drinks for the kids and I dunno what else really but it goes...I need to stop the last excesses basically. Thank goodness I have family who buy the kids clothes now and then cos otherwise they would be right scruffs like me.

Jesus! The cat costs 1/4 of what the humans do!! Damn things.

 

[weepiper]

catfood is well expensive at the moment.

 

[felixthecat]

You have to buy washing up liquid weekly? Wow, how many people are you washing up for? A single bottle lasts us at least a month and we don't have a dishwasher.

Yep, weekly. 4 people who all seem to eat at different times, including one who seems to need 2 hourly feeds. We make a lot of dirty dishes. I can't fucking wait until my dishwasher arrives!

do two/three loads of washing a week.

I'm on at least one load of washing a day (often 2) and probably 4 on saturday, another couple on sunday. Having a daughter with ocd doesn't help........

 

[Looby]

We do a big monthly shop which is usually about £170 and about £35-40 of that is cat food (we've got 3).

We make a list of what we've already got, then do a basic meal plan for the month and buy what we can (meat to freeze, tins, spices, cleaning products etc) We always have bread in the freezer because Magic Sam eats shitloads of toast. We then buy fresh veg, milk etc as we go along.

I do shop too much in the month when I don't need to so I'm going to try and cut that down this month as we're a bit skint.

We buy mince and make a big bolognese and a big chilli which we freeze into portions in takeaway cartons so we've always got a meal in the freezer when we get in if we haven't planned anything.

 

[newme]

Having a daughter with ocd doesn't help........

Well at least she wont mind doing the washing

 

[trashpony]

I'm :shock: at how much you all spend on cat food. I feed my cat Science Diet which I always thought was an expensive option but it's clearly not - a £15 bag lasts about 6 weeks with one cat.

 

[felixthecat]

Well at least she wont mind doing the washing

Oh its ace - she's done all her own washing for years!

 

[Clair De Lune]

I'm :shock: at how much you all spend on cat food. I feed my cat Science Diet which I always thought was an expensive option but it's clearly not - a £15 bag lasts about 6 weeks with one cat.

Really? that sounds fab! I buy a six pack of tesco tinned food and either a big box of go cat or two small cheapo brand biscuits for two cats.

 

[mrsfran]

I'm :shock: at how much you all spend on cat food. I feed my cat Science Diet which I always thought was an expensive option but it's clearly not - a £15 bag lasts about 6 weeks with one cat.

Innit. Our cat's on a special diet that I have to buy at the vet, but I buy a big bag at £27 and it lasts 2 months.

 

[Looby]

We buy tesco sachets that are 2.46 per box. A box lasts 2 days for 3 cats (a sachet each twice a day). Then a bag of biscuits for when they are begging.

£2.46x15 boxes= £36.90

There's no way our cats would put up with a dried food diet.

 

[Pip]

We buy tesco sachets that are 2.46 per box. A box lasts 2 days for 3 cats (a sachet each twice a day). Then a bag of biscuits for when they are begging.

£2.46x15 boxes= £36.90

There's no way our cats would put up with a dried food diet.

I think mine is probably the same, but you'd be surprised at how joyous Ms T's cats are when they get served a bowl of Science Plan. Nom it right up.

I was actually going to start a thread on how much your cats eat, because I've got no idea whether my cat is greedy or ano.
So er, how much do your cats eat everyone?

 

[mentalchik]

Reckon it's about £50 -60 a week (that's two adults mon-thurs, 3 fri -mon).....

don't really have much in the house at any time, i buy things when needed......have a tiny freezer and a dodgy fridge so don't keep much in at any one time............

everything has to be carried by just me and there are no shops near my house so it's mostly Sainsburys as it is open when i finish work and on the way home (the market is gone by then).........

 

[Epona]

We don't do all our shopping in one go, we don't have any supermarkets around here where we can get everything, we live in London and neither of us can drive, and I am slightly disabled these days and the other half works 3 trillion hours a month or thereabouts, so what we get at any one time depends on when the shopping takes place and how much can be carried. But this gives some indication - we don't buy all of this every week obviously (and some of it we don't need to top up on for a couple of months or more), but it gives some insight into our general shopping habits. In terms of eating habits, my view is that if leftovers can be turned into a curry, they will be...

About £30 a week on food for 2, we don't eat extravagently but we eat well. The other half is pescetarian, so we don't buy any meat, just fish/dairy/veg...

Main purchases/essentials:
Potatoes
Pasta
Rice
Onions
Tomatoes (fresh and tinned)
Fish of any sort (offcuts are fine for stews, soups, and fish pies - cheaper than fillets, ask your fishmonger)
Eggs
Butter
Cheese
Milk
Bread (mostly for my other half, I don't eat a lot of bread myself and thus have never learned to make it!)
Lots of whatever veg is in season or on special offer, varies according to season

Secondary goods:
Mushrooms, lots and lots of mushrooms of different types
Peppers
Salmon
Squid (it's really really cheap and I love it!)
White fish of some variety (usually coley, pollack or gunard - tastier than cod and cheaper)
Tinned tuna
Prawns
Frozen peas or green beans for emergency use (always handy to have it just in case)
Celery & spring onions (great in stir fries), occasionally beansprouts or just buy mung beans and sprout my own
Quorn mince
Veggie sausages
Carrots & leek for soup or to go with a main meal
Cream - to add to soups, and for impromtu creamy pasta sauces
Tinned beans - red kidney, butterbean, borlotti, chickpeas etc.

Occasional stock-ups:
Olive oil (for dressings, pasta sauces etc)
Sunflower oil (for roasting or baking spuds, frying eggs etc)
Spices (garam masala, ground cumin, ground coriander, tumeric) - in bags from the Turkish supermarket, not poncey little overpriced jars from Sainsburys - these are the basics for turning anything into a decent curry! Also paprika, chilli powder, and Chinese 5-spice which is nice in stir-fries.
I have nowhere to grow fresh herbs so sometimes get those tubes of minced parsley or basil, I am aware that some of you will scoff at this but I have an upstairs flat with nowhere to put windowboxes and an insane herb-consuming cat (who recently even went so far as to decimate my attempt at sprouting mustard and cress from seed) so I'm stuck in a corner on this one, and the tubes are far better than dried, and keep a lot longer than buying fresh!
Flour (I don't have a sweet tooth so not much baking, but I am a huge fan of roux based sauces, and I love yorkshire pud!)
Ginger and chillies (both keep well in the freezer).
Tins of tomato puree - 7 small tins for £1 from the Turkish supermarket.

Treats:
Fresh tuna steak (line-caught)
Saffron (ocassional purchase for making paella)
Expensive mushrooms
Monkfish

 

[Biddlybee]

Yep - same here - Cheese is one of the most expensive items on my list and is seen as a treat when I spend this much on it - I usually get cheese cheaper at the value shops like Heron or Farm Foods but decent cheese from the deli or bigger supermarkets hurts the wallet!!!

I find shoplifting really helps to keep my spending down.

You jest I know, but someone was telling me the other day that cheese is one of the most nicked items from supermarkets

I'm on at least one load of washing a day (often 2) and probably 4 on saturday, another couple on sunday. Having a daughter with ocd doesn't help........

There is only two of us though, so that's understandable (I sometimes do 3 loads a week )

We do a big monthly shop which is usually about £170 and about £35-40 of that is cat food (we've got 3).

We make a list of what we've already got, then do a basic meal plan for the month and buy what we can (meat to freeze, tins, spices, cleaning products etc) We always have bread in the freezer because Magic Sam eats shitloads of toast. We then buy fresh veg, milk etc as we go along.

Apart from the cat, are you me?

 

[Orang Utan]

We buy tesco sachets that are 2.46 per box. A box lasts 2 days for 3 cats (a sachet each twice a day). Then a bag of biscuits for when they are begging.

£2.46x15 boxes= £36.90

There's no way our cats would put up with a dried food diet.

fucking hell - greedy/big cats! my cat has half a packet in the morning and half in the evening plus a very small amount of iams