Supermarket spending

She is lively..but lively as well x

Grrh lovely

And I just use Tesco..keep it all in one place

Yep, point taken. Let’s just say I’m not as far off the mark as I imagined! Plenty of room for improvement though.

Ha ha downtoearth you’re as bad as me with typos !

Mollie you've said it seems like an "obscene amount of money" that you pay to the supermarket each month and you want to be "shocked out of it" - £700 per month is over £170 per week which, in the light of all the other posts, does seem rather excessive - it's nearly 3 times my weekly shopping bill and I certainly don't feel we stint ourselves or go short. We eat healthily and enjoy good quality products, many of them store's own brands. I'd be fascinated to see what exactly you buy on a regular basis that costs so much. I guess the response from everyone may have given you the shock you wanted. However, at the end of the day, it's your money and if that's how you like to spend it, it's nobody's business but yours! Happy New Year!

Starbird: I have a meal out once a week, sometimes twice. I live in a flat so I don't grow anything or keep anything that will produce food. I just eat very little and hardly any meat. I'm still spending quite a lot more than people on benefits.

This is an interesting thread. I am shortly returning to the uk, having lived in France for 15 years. When I’ve returned over the years, I’ve tended to think in terms of ‘holiday money’, so haven’t really grasped the day to day housekeeping costs. Think I may be in for a shock! I cook from scratch, like a bargain, buy in season, and enjoy good quality stuff. Won’t have a veg. patch either. At the moment I spend between €90/€110 a week. Oo-err ... might have to tweak financial planning!

Spend between 70 to 90 audipends on what I have run out of and I shop on line, find it works out cheaper because your only buying what you want apart from Christmas but I bought things for Christmas starting the end of October each week.

I doubt it, ffinnochio, from what I saw on our latest visit to France, the food prices there are on the whole higher than they are here. I was jealous of your wine prices though!

My H and I live very well. We don't eat out but I cook from scratch most days .I think I must be a canny cook and shopper. I find the amounts folk say they spend quite surprising. We are rather old and our appetites have diminished , we don't eat puddings and only cereal for breakfast. My H eats lots of biscuits ,ice cream and chocolate, this is side effect of his dementia.
I intend to start really checking what I spend but it can't come in at more than £75 a week.
We have a reasonable income and still live in a reasonable sized house so utilities are high and I have a cleaner. Maybe thst is where we choose to be extravagant.

Good to know, MaggieM! Didn’t factor in wine tho’. ?. I know cheese is cheaper in uk - apart from the ‘artisnal’ stuff perhaps.

ffinochio - like you we're probably returning 'home' soon.
I spend about 70€ per week at the supermarket. If husband comes with me, add anothe30€ - he has a sweet tooth. But we buy meat and wine elsewhere.
I'll be interested to compare fresh fish prices with those in the UK. I think they're relatively expensive here.

GrammaH well, I know it’s a lot but that’s the average monthly figure from my spreadsheet adding up every supermarket spend for the year. Having said that I buy kitchenware, flowers and plants, bags of kindling and logs, Christmas trees and all manner of seasonal decorations, magazines, newspapers and books, the odd gift, DVDs and CDs, homeware and the usual extra special treat for celebrations. So the figure quoted isn’t simply food and the odd bottle of booze. I estimate that I spend much closer to the average figure for the everyday shop, all the other stuff just inflates it.

Oh yes, Fennel. Fish is v. expensive here, especially smoked haddock!

I am on my own and I spend approximately £35 a week. This covers food, toiletries and any other little extras. I am on a very limited income but I cook every easy. I do like good quality meat but only have a small portion with plenty of veg

£200 Per month goes in the housekeeping purse and covers all food drink toiletries cleaning products etc for DH and I

On the BBC morning program it said the government pension was 24 % of necessary monthly income, so for a couple that would be a higher percent. We spend £120 a week on food etc.

I made up my own spreadsheet for working out my spend, which I know is more than it should be. I split it into various columns - showing vouchers used, pet food, deodorants etc, flowers, items for the house etc - also put in columns to show reduced prices paid, what the full prices were and the difference (sometimes quite amazing to see the difference).

Tended to only do it for a few months of each year though and then got back into bad habits. Strangely enough dug through my computer documents today to find the spreadsheet to start again tomorrow hopefully will keep it going a bit longer in 2018.

Oh I see Mollie, that explains it if you include all those other items, sorry I misunderstood

Really interesting thread, thank you Mollie. DH keeps records of everything on his computer so I asked him to pull out some figures for me and I am pleased that they are not as excessive as I thought they might be given that I have switched to totally organic food and also added supplements and essential oils in an effort to help DH heal after the awful crash which happened at the beginning of 2017. I spend an average of around £130 each week at supermarket and butchers. We are fortunate that DH has an occupational pension as well as the state pension or we know that we would have to be much more careful. We try to make everything ourselves from fresh ingredients and batch cook so that we can freeze meals for the days when energy is in short supply. Our main shopping I do online, have it delivered and it is brought straight on to the kitchen table which is just wonderful!

Gosh GrauntyHelen whatever do you buy? I would love to reduce my monthly bill

Just tallied the year end accounts and our weekly expenditure on food is nearer £90 a week than my estimate of £120, but I do have a large fruit and vegetable garden, and forage for blackberries and greengages in season.

I am fortunate that do not really have to worry about how much I spend on food, but our taste has always been for casseroles and stews, so I have always bought cheaper cuts of meat, My meat all comes from local organic or near organic producers, and all my bacon, sausages,cooked meats and bakery products come from local artisan suppliers. I add a lot of vegetables to all my casseroles and stew so that the meat content is relatively low. I have always gone for quality rather than quantity.

Usually just under £70 for food, cleaning stuff, toilet rolls, etc. (unless I am tempted by something in the middle aisle) at Aldi. That's for 2 of us + some of the DGC once or twice in the week. Milk is delivered and paid separately and I top up with fresh rolls mid week. We grow loads of fruit and veg so I make a lot of casseroles, salads and stirfry (more veg than meat) and there is usually a big pot of soup on the go. Fruit for dessert - fresh in summer and from the freezer in winter.

We eat very well at home, seldom eat out or have takeaway. Wine and spirits for special occasions only. The fresh fish and meat at Aldi is top quality, almost all sourced locally in Scotland.

I admire all you who grow your own fruit and veg, that must be very satisfying.

I can’t remember the last time I bought meat from a butcher but it must be at least twenty years. I’m not sure I’d know what to ask for now as I’m so used to things ready packed and portioned. Something else to consider ...