How much do you spend each week on food?

Crand Tea, I think Mrs P knows really

For info: a family member worked for the company in Scotland which produces meat for Aldi. It is exactly the same high standard as that supplied to other high end retailer, just put in different packaging. I dont eat red meat but DH and DS say that the steaks in Aldi are excellent.

Wow, we spend an average of less than£100 a week for two of us and visitors. This includes toiletries, cleaning products. We rarely have take aways and don't buy ready made meals , eat out maybe once a month. I enjoy cooking and trying new recipes. We eat a good mixed diet and don' t shop at Aldi or Lidl so I think we are doing very well.

We don't have an Aldi nearby

My king prawn linguine was from Aldi, Jalima, just saw your comment. It's with the chilled ready meals, a red and white card sleeve on the tray, if that helps. I think it's a seasonal as it uses fresh ingredients.

I don't know what I spend but it's a lot - shop at Ocado, Waitrose, M&S, and the local Co-op if I run out of essentials, plus eat out at least twice a week.

I'm a low-carber so no filling-up on a hearty plate of pasta for me. I eat meat, fish, eggs, cheese, veg/salad which are expensive but I like it!

I get hooked on these money off tokens if you spend a certain amount and so I spent far more than I needed to this week as I had vouchers from Saintsbury,Lidl, and the Co-op.I don't buy things I won't use though and very rarely throw anything away. Next week I will spend less !

Crikey! I spend between £30 and £40 when it's just me and the cat and that goes up to between £50 and £60 when DD2 is home from uni. We do get lots of leftovers from her summer job in the cafe of a famous stately home though! ?

Just done online shop so menu for the week is

Tuesday - throw it all together salad with cold chicken left from today's lunch
Wed. - poached cod green beans (from garden) and peas
Thu. Vegetable paella
Fri. Something quick as this is Mums house day
Sat. Sweet chilli chicken, charred courgettes(garden) sweet corn
Sun. Pan fried steak with veg from garden
Mon. Bream baked in foil with veg.

So total bill with other stuff thrown in is £58. This doesn't include milk (milkman) but does include fruit for week-ish, kitchen foil £4!!!! Which I thought excessive meat for dog etc.

yes,grannylyn65,I'm "single" now my husband's in a care home,so am on just a state pension.I don't spend a lot on food,I don't really add it all up.It would be interesting to hear from other people in our situation.

We are lucky to come under the haven't really a clue heading. So much depends on what we're doing. DH shops in town daily. The local fruit and veg shop has a small holding and produces a lot of the veg, there are three butchers, two of which win prizes, serving locally produced beef, free range pork and chicken, etc., and one specialising in game. There are two good independent bakers and a little lady who makes cakes. Plus there are twice weekly markets and a monthly farmers market. The franchised supermarket is excellent and specialises in local produce and small producers. We are truly spoilt.

About twice a year we go to Sainsburys to stock up on beer and things like Rachel's rhubarb yoghurt which DH likes. We like to cook and because we shop for what we need we rarely throw any food out. Also, comparing with friends outside town, our portions are much smaller. Good quality means you need less. One free range chicken breast does two good portions while a fast grown intensive bird serves one as the meat is less dense. Supermarket carrots seem watery.

I don't think we spend more proportionately than we did before we move here and did a weekly Sainsbury shop. Certainly the young families who have to watch the pennies use the butchers, bakers and green grocers so they must be competitive with the local Tesco where they do the rest of their shopping. Tesco gains from the people in a hurry and the can't-be-bothereds.

* MargaretX: The Germans don't hang beef

That's a matter of price. If beef hangs 2-3 weeks in a cold storage house it becomes more expensive as it would be sold 4 days after slaughtering.

Local farmer markets do often offer hang beef. If it is not available I do it the other way round; I chose the meat I want today, pay for it and leave it in the cold house for mostly 2 weeks.

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!

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.

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

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.

is not ia.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.