Weekly spend on food?

It’s all very well, making soup out of leftover veg etc, but my OH wouldn’t eat it if I did. Same with making breadcrumbs from stale bread etc. They would just sit in the freezer until they got thrown out somewhere down the line.

Nor would he consider soup (however good) a meal. If it doesn’t have a big chunk of meat, and a lake of gravy, it isn’t dinner!

My grandson is like that.
It really gets on my wick!

I totally agree about spending what you choose on what you like when you have the money.
It makes me realise what a fortunate lot most of GNers are.
In my conversation with the AS last week when discussing H's care home fees ,she told me £155 is what is considered enough for a single person to live on.
Currently my charges for council tax, utilities, phone, insurance are £600 monthly.
Not much left for keeping body and soul together.

SW not AS.

Weekly spend on food? Around £20.

Like most, I have a store cupboard of rice, pasta, flour, tins and jars of things. A few years ago, I was snowed in for two weeks - more like iced-in really - the lane was sheet ice, I was recovering from knee surgery and reluctant to risk a fall.

The bad weather took me unaware. Freezer stocks were low as well as fresh fruit and veg. So I lived off what was in the store cupboard to see how much variety I could concoct with what was there. It was surprisingly good.

That's the thing that always strikes me on the Eat Well For Less TV show. People have bulging freezers and cupboards but still go out and spend £250 a week on food. I know they pick extreme cases for the show but I suspect many of us are guilty of loading up the store cupboard and then not using the contents as much as we could.

Now, occasionally, snow or not, I won't buy any food for a week and repeat the store cupboard challenge.

I read or heard that the average spend when someone "pops to the local shop for a pint of milk" is £15. We almost always buy more than we need.

Fountainpen as long as I shop alone I canstick to my list ,if my OH or one of the GC is with me the bill soars .I dont complain because they do eat what they put in the trolley ,its never wasted .Yesterday I went to the local shop for a tin of sweetcorn for a quick soup ,wee madam was with me and I spent over £11!Her favourite bread ,some soft cheese pickled gherkins ... not your usual idea of what a 9 year old wants to eat .

usually spend about £60 for 2 of us shop in Lidl I think if you shopped in any of the main supermarkets your more likely to pick up treats, there isn’t the range of foods in Lidl so stick to the basics.

I think I may have been inadvertently stockpiling. This is part of my problem, too much stuff. Anyhow I discovered a jar of opened harissa paste covered in fur Yuck!

A few things I bought because they are " good for me" which are gathering dust.
Anything half decent is going to the food bank and at least now I can see the wood from the trees.

There are 2 of us and we will be having a’frugal February’ and a ‘meagre March’ when we use up what we can from our freezers and cupboards. This will hopefully keep our weekly expenditure down to just fresh veg, some fruit and our milk delivery.

I have a monthly shop from Tescos which comes to around £160/£170, that includes cleaning stuff, frozen, ready meals etc. I then estimate to spend around £50 per week for milk, bread, vegetables etc. I do try to keep a check on it and keep the cost down, but its difficult. There are two of us. Mind you OH has been out today and brought things back we don't need! Hey hum!

We spend in region of £600 pcm. There are 4 adults as 2 ac live in loft conversion and 1 child. This does not include eating out or takeaway 1 day each week. And ac buy mote meals out.

Nanny41 Which country do you live in? Three of my 'children' live in Australia, and food is very expensive there, especially in Perth. I can fill a trolley here for the price of a basketful over there. When the Aussies come to visit they, also, are amazed at how much cheaper our food is.

paddyann You just duplicated my own 9 year old gs's favourite snack.

"Her favourite bread ,some soft cheese pickled gherkins"

Substitute bread with gluten free bagels.

We spend £80-90 a fortnight on basics in Lidl, plus £15-20 on extras each week. Twice a year we go to France and stock up with cheap wine, olive oil, Dijon mustard, cornichons, packet soups and sauces (so much tastier than British varieties) and concentrated fabric softener. We have noticed that on weeks when we have the GC after school we spend more on crisps, pizzas etc!

You haven’t said yet Lily65 how much your weekly housekeeping spend is? Although you did say in your post ‘it’s absolutely over the top as I am wasteful & disorganised’

Time to share - as we all have with you! ?

I have just done a Tesco order for £80+ that includes all sorts of store cupboard stuff like cleaning/washing powder/ rice /pasta/ tea/tins etc that I buy approx. every 6 weeks. On top I also bought some fresh stuff for the week's meals for me and DH & including 2 meals for the 4 DGC, I usually do that shopping in local shops but I cannot walk far atm so not able to get out!

When I married my late husband he ate everything on his plate even though full and would apologise for leaving anything. He said his mother expected them to eat up everything. I told him he could leave what he liked and if it bothered him to pretend he ate it! So now if I buy too much and through some out I pretend I ate it. Works a treat. Better still, I give leftovers to the birds. Jackdaws and ravens eat everything except suede and carrot. Then you feel a lot better for leaving and it is never wasted.

Recently, I started working out and eating healthy food. Now I spend a week more than before. I'm not sure about the exact amount, but it's about £100 for two adults.

Urmston, its not crazy money or anything, it just seems over the top for 2 people. Perhaps £100 a week?

So why, Lily65, were you so apparently surprised upthread (24/01/2019 19:59) at others reporting they spent around £100 a week? “That seems an awful lot”, I believe you said

Oh..I forgot my milkman bill..which includes yog & fruit juice! But not actually sure what it is!

Going back to Eat Well For Less on TV, it seemed that few families make a shopping list or plan even a rough menu for the week. They just wander aimlessly around the supermarket throwing things into the trolley with no clear idea of what they were going to do with it all.

It's like looking in a crammed wardrobe and saying I'll got nothing to wear. They look in crammed freezers, fridges and cupboards and then go and buy a whole lot more.

Food shopping as a habit or a pastime rather than a necessity?

Like most people I couldn’t really say how much a week - I buy meat at my local butcher and everything else at Sainsbury’s, in the summer we grow our own veg. I do buy wine but only the ones on offer! Something that helped me was when we had our kitchen redone, as it isn’t huge and I have no other storage space I have to be careful and try not to buy those things that are tempting but I would only use once or twice! Try watching Eat Well for Less when it’s on - that’s a real eye opener!! I watch loads of cookery programmes and try and use the economical recipes when I can.

I suppose I now realise that my main shop and all the other little bits probably adds up to 100 some weeks.

I don't know if that explanation covers it?

I'm curious to know why people don't know how much they are spending a week. Is it because the total spend is lumped in with non-food items? Or are people shopping several times a week and not keeping track of the cumulative spend? Or putting in on a credit card and paying later?