Supermarket spending

Our average weekly shop is probably £125 for 3 people plus around £60 per fortnight from local top quality butcher. I always buy 3 or 4 savings stamps from 3 supermarkets per week in butcher's savings club, so Christmas is always paid for (still got most of this year's Asda card, so just need to top up), DH eats next to nothing, but drinks far more alcohol than he should, so that's where most of our money goes. If it were just me, I don't eat meat. I have a daily tin of Holsten, soup and bread or an egg or cheese. maybe a ready-meal or two each week. I do eat some form of porridge or cereal/, a lunch sandwich, do spend money on good-quality tea, coffee pods for my Dolce Gusto machine and drink milk. Generally have a daily glass of red wine and lots of fruit. Would estimate my weekly shop would probably be around £50. Considering trying going vegan sometime, but suspect that that would be expensive, so probably won't happen!

I've swopped to shopping at Aldi and my bills are much less. I got a whole trolley load of food plus some extras (their non-food offers) and paid about £45 I think. It would have been double that in Tesco!

Having retired just over a year ago, and now on a reduced income, I prepared an annual budget to see whether I could afford to live in the manner to which I had become accustomed! Throughout the year, I have kept a record of all my spending. I have just totalled it up and find that my average spend on food is £75 a week and £50 a month on meals out.

Thank you M0nica for these very interesting stats re pensioner incomes. Ours is round about the average without taking account of the B&B my OH runs which is intermittent, depending on business. You're right though, where there are two people both with good occupational/final salary pensions, it would most likely be in excess of £50k.

I think we could learn lessons from those on the basic plus pension credit.

Monica - Regarding pensioner income, it isn't clear, but I assume the income of £29k is for a couple? I can't imagine most single/widowed women have a pension anywhere near that. Most women of our age worked part time or not at all for a long time so don't have the kind of pension many men have. I didn't even get that much when working.

I'm hopeless and have no idea!
My daughter spends £80 a week max for 3 of them. She's the most canny shopper, just like my late mother. She spends little but they have delicious nutritious meals with often a portion saved for me.

I've been surprised at how much less we spend on food since we stopped working. And it's down to wasting less, and having more time to shop around and cook from scratch, rather than to our budget. Tesco have very kindly sent us "£10 off a £70 shop" for weeks now, and I've sometimes had to add extras just to make the shop up to £70 for the two of us, cleaning stuff and toiletries included. Most of our veg, and a lot of our fruit in season, comes from the allotment now. I'd estimate £20 a week for the bits and pieces we buy elsewhere, including wine. So around £80 a week for two while the vouchers keep coming, and we certainly don't stint ourselves. We do eat out or have a meal deal at least once a week, so that'd be extra.

I spend about £120 on the weekly delivery and then a few other smaller shops during the week £20 average. We don't eat out a lot and I cook from scratch but I buy branded goods usually Sainsbury, Waitrose M & S.

It’s impossible to generalise with this. It’s always more economical to cook from scratch but not all of us love cooking !

My spending is likely to go down in the next few weeks due to an influx of wine, spirits ,chocs and biscuits given as Chritmas presents.
We are very hard to buy for as we don't want or need much so everyone plays safe and we welcome it.

I spend about £14 a week on food and household essentials. That's for one person.

We probably spend around £150 on supermarket shopping, used to be a great deal more before I stopped shopping in M&S.

I shop once a week, visiting two supermarkets. There are three adults here, I spend about £90 per week. The odd week more (eg if something like beer is bought), and some less - depending on freezer contents etc. If something like meat is reduced I buy and freeze until I need it - bought five assorted packs in Lidls last week because it was a third off. As I had some christmas stuff in to use up I didn't need much other shopping so it still didn't work out an expensive shop.
I cook from scratch, rarely throw anything away - take little notice of dates on things.

I tend to pop into the supermarket most day and check the meat and fish counter for reduced stuff as I cook all meals from scratch. I would say on food only I spend an average of £50 a week for two of us. This does not include wine or having lunch out.

Don't we all just adjust our spending to what money we have? I guess if u are still paying a mortgage or rent, then you will have less disposable income. But when you retire you don't spend so much on clothes or travel costs. At least that is our experience.

We now don't spend anything like that as our appetites and needs have shrunk these last few years.
We spend on heating as we feel the cold but not on entertainment or eating out.
We don't buy many new clothes for the same reason.
We don't have a car but use taxis.
I thing £29.500 is quite a high figure for pensionable house holds but many of my generation have only one pension as women of my age didn't accrue a pension of their own.

I’ve never tried to work it out.

Crikey!! I can't afford £120 a week on my measly pension!

We're both still working so not on a pension yet - our supermarket shop is on average about £120 pw but that includes wine, meat, cleaning stuff and other incidentals for two of us. I'm very guilty of throwing stuff out and have just this morning emptied the fridge of anything past it's sell by date including half the wonderful turkey we hadn't eaten . I can't smell or taste if its off so bin a lot of things!

Thank you all. I’m sure there are lots of things I could prune and if I planned better I might save a bit there. I’m a believer in quality over quantity too but remember the days when I had no choice but to buy the cheapest to make ends meet. By contrast this ‘anything in the trolley’ approach feels wonderful AND guilt-inducing . I’m going to think about all this while I eat my way through the Christmas ‘extras’

janeainsworth, I absolutely agree with you. I think my weekly spend is probably comparable with the figure you quote and, like you, I try to shop both ethically and well.

As we get older good quality nutrition should be our over riding concern. It is the key contributor to good health and to maintaining the well being of those who are ill.

Just over ten years ago we were spending around £90 a week at the supermarket ( I remember thinking it was quite a lot.)
So, actually, not bad really, about £30 more now.

I think we spend on average about £120 as well at the supermarket, usually calling in there twice a week.That includes all sorts of things there as well as food.

About £120 for two a week here too. That includes beer, wine, household cleaners and some toiletries.
I don’t believe in skimping on food that I cook at home. I waste nothing, but believe that you get what you pay for and it’s worth paying for quality and where possible ethically & locally sourced produce.
If I had to economise there would be plenty of things I would cut back on before I spent less on food.

About £120 per week. That is everything. Food, toothpaste, cleaning products etc.
I cook from scratch everyday and don't waste much.