How much do you spend each week on food?

*Mamie

I promised youan idea of prices we pay for in my zip-code;

1 kg beef ( top round ) € 8.50 / € 12.70
1 kg pork chops € 4.99 / @ 6.80
1 kg mincemeat / half+half € 5.40
1 barbecue chicken 1.200kg € 6.70
1 kg chicken nuggets € 4.85

All my spending go without toiletries/ cleaning products.

I prefer to shop as you say in the UK; a penny safed means a penny earned.

Thanks deMichael hard to say how it compares really. I think you would find those sort of prices in some supermarkets for their basic stuff. More at the butcher's and definitely more for organic. I love the chickens we get here - beautiful corn-fed birds with masses of flavour. We pay about 9€ for one that gives us three meals.
We buy beef in Lidl because the French stuff isn't hung long enough in our opinion and we buy New Zealand lamb because French lamb is ridiculously expensive.

When the two of us are on our own, I aim to get our weekly food/ household cleaning items bill (this also includes cat food/litter for several cats) for under £100.

This is achieved by doing the main grocery/greengrocery shop at Lidl, using our local butcher rather than the supermarket for occasional free range meat/poultry (much better quality and often cheaper); when possible,going to local farmers markets (also competitive in price a lot of the time, depending on items chosen); and the nearby greengrocers/delicatessen for produce in season grown locally, eggs from nearby producers, and medically necessary gluten free alternatives to wheat. I top up at Tesco's or the Co-op for anything else. We do not have a Waitrose or Sainsbury's.

It does take more time to do this, but we are retired, and I enjoy cooking.

Even if you have to stick to a budget,I think it is important to try to support local small businesses, especially in a rural,low income area like ours.What do the rest of you think? And is it possible to do this in more urban areas?

I must say I am quite shocked at what some people are spending per week for 2. I thought I was extravagant until I saw people spending £200 per week. I have a tesco delivery once a fortnight and it includes everything from cleaning items to cat food as well as meat, occasionally veg though we do grow most of our own and all other food items. The bill for 2 weeks is usually between £120 and £160 for everything. I'm pleased to say we don't waste anything and we aren't particularly frugal with what we buy. What do those of you spending so much actually buy? I'm intrigued!

freeze some of the pastry to make tiny bilberry tarts you have harvested in the woods,
DM used to send me out to pick bilberries for a pie - it took a very long time to find enough!! But the result was delicious. I haven't eaten one since I was a child.

*Mamie

Thanks for your answer. It's true what you say, beef has to hung at least 14days before it comes in sale.
Lidl meat has no good quality ( perhaps its different in the UK). I buy, if its on sale, corn-fed chicken which gives us a two-day meal.
How about NZ lamb, don't you buy it? For special occasion I order beef in Scotland ( for a roast beef or an English roast) cos I need a special cut of the meat which I cant get here. Have a nice w-end, Michael

I spend too much on food and can only do so because I work one day a week at the moment to top up the basic state pension which is my only other income.
For one person I spend about £60 - £70 weekly, on average, which includes household items like bleach, detergent, loo paper, shampoo etc.
I usually buy some chocolate, maybe a packets of biscuits in case of an unexpected visitor, occasionally some veggie crisps, the rest is lots of veg, fruit and salad stuff, with some expensive things like avocados and olives, one lot of meat which makes 2 meals (organic chicken breasts, a pork chop, loin chops or stewing steak) and some frozen fish such as salmon or a fish pie, other meals are vegetarian using pulses or eggs. When the job is no longer there it will be beans on toast and an apple!

I don't know about Lidl meat in the UK deMichael, but here in France we get excellent Charolais steaks there. Yes we buy New Zealand lamb when we see it, but that isn't very often.

I occasionally analyze spend on my credit card (I buy pretty well everything that way then settle up in full each month). It used to be around £400 on food for two of us. We thought that was a bit steep, but since a 'local' branch of one of the big five opened close by, we tend to shop there two or three times a week, and if they don't have it, we go without. Saves us loads. The last time I looked it was around £75pw.

I've never seen bilberries growing in woods. Ours are all moorland bilberries and you have to watch them carefully to judge the time they'll be ready and then pounce on them before everyone else does! There used to be loads when we were children, but they are at somewhat of a premium these days.

I live on the Hampsire/Berkshire border the bilberries are perfect for picking now, yes they are tiny but the flavour is intense, so little tiny tartlets will not strain your picking tedium too much. I did not know there were moorland ones too, thank you for more knowledge. Youngest granddaughter thought they were delicious. End of next month yummy blackberries with their perfumed scrumptiousness.

Yes, I used to find them on heathland or moorland or on a mountainside, but I don't know if there are any around here.

Alima: We buy all our cat food online and it works out much cheaper. You have to shop around a bit as different sites have different prices from week to week. We used Bitiba last time and they were very reasonable.

For two of us, I spend about £35 per week at Lidl's and about £20 per week at Waitrose plus about £10 on pet and bird food at Wilko's. This amount includes cleaning products and flowers. Every few months I stock the freezer with meat from Donald Russell by mail order, about £80. We eat very well with lots of fruit and veg., mostly home grown and I'm a whizz(!) at knocking up a tasty meal out of bits and bobs, learned from bringing up a hungry family on next to nothing.

Thers only two of us and i cook everything fron scratch as hubbie is a cealic.We eat well but i would never buy any convience micriwave rubbish .Ive also given up wheat and diary.Do i spend between 90 to 120 also.I shop at tescoes

I alsi get my meat every month from donsld russell this is extra

We also eat out twice a week but we dumped the takeaways as im on the 5:2 diet

We use Donald Russell too - their steaks and minced steak in particular are excellent. We always wait until the things we want are on offer though and stock up the freezer.

In Germmany we live financially monthly not weekly and I spend between 300 amd 450 Euros (£250 -380) per month. I shop at Aldi twice a month. Then I buy organic pork and chicken from specialist butcher. We buy beer and wine and Cognac but no sweets or chocolate.
I don't buy ready made meals nor do we eat take aways.

DH goes hiking once a week and on that day he eats German Really heavy traditional food and so I don't have to make it or eat it, but that is not included.

I read with surprise that Lidl beef ia well hung. I suspect it has been pre-treated with a muscle softening marinade.
The Germans don't hang beef, in fact its best to braise it or make brisket like dishes.

I buy ALDI argentenian rump steaks and then I braise it and make meat and potato pie or serve with Yorkshire puddings.

is not ia.

Lidl sirloin steaks are very nice - are they allowed to pre-treat them? They don't look pre-treated.
In fact, they are nicer than the two M&S steaks we had this evening - which were very tasty but a bit chewier.

Thank you for a very interesting read and I am surprised at the wide difference in spending. Living in Portugal there is no choice but to cook from scratch. I would have said before that our grocery spending was a bit extravagant but after my husband lived and shopped on his own in England for quite a while he is now more careful when we go shopping and doesnt throw whatever he fancies into the trolley.
I think the prices and choice in Lidl and Aldi are better in England. But on the whole food prices here in Portugal have gone down. No idea what I actually spend as dont do a weekly shop and if washing and cleaning products are on special I will stock up. I was very surprised at someone with 1 dog and 1 cat spending £20 a week on food for them. That sounds very high unless they are being fed fresh meat and fish

Like Indiana we don't go in for one huge weekly shop - too tiring and awkward to manage.
Two things about us: we don't use a car much and do most of our regular food shopping by bike or recumbent trike. This means a ride to the supermarket can be undertaken as much for the ride as for the shopping, Our nearest shopping is in the local market town, a round trip of about 5 miles. It has 4 small-ish supermarkets plus other shops. More often than not I combine shopping with something else, a visit to the library, a meeting with friends for coffee etc.
We also grow some of our own fruit and vegetables which can reduce the amount we spend on these.
I'd find it well-nigh impossible to quote a weekly figure for food spending, if only because I rarely buy just food items - usually other things like cleaning materials are included.

After posting about our spending being about £35, I wondered if I posted the right information, so I thought I would check the receipts for our shopping this weekend (my DH does the shopping). The Lidl receipt was £32 and the Tesco one was £19 - so £51.

The Lidl one is higher than normal because we bought 4 bottles of strawberry and lime cider (delish) and some fairy lights for the garden. Tesco one is higher than normal because we bought a large bunch of flowers for a neighbour that cost £7. So we spent about £18 more than usual. Fairy lights came on tonight!