Supermarket spending

There are two of us and I reckon the average is around £80 per week.

If you go onto moneysavingexpert. com they would throw a fit at 80 let alone 120 per week. People on there manage to feed a family of 4 on much less than that.

mh58 I have taken a leaf out of your book and I also am going to jot down what I spend on food, cleaning materials etc. because I also do not really know, especially as I buy in bulk if I see a bargain but this is mainly for cleaning and washing materials.

You have inspired me. I’m ashamed to say that I have no idea what I was spending, but it seemed like too much. So now I am noting down all my food spending and consequently I am paying attention to what is spent on food. I am looking forward to seeing what the total is for my monthly shopping. Thank you, mollie.

Having taken all the interesting posts into account I’ve done my first shop of the year (no added extras and non-essentials) and spent less than eighty quid! And I visited a butcher for the first time in donkeys years! Only spent a fiver on bacon and sausages but it’s a start . Thank you for all your posts, much appreciated

When DD, then a student, lived in Lewisham, she haunted the market late on Saturday afternoons and used to buy 14lb bags of all sorts of different fruit and vegetables at a £1 a time.

These got shared out or turned into soups and stews or frozen. A true chip off the old block.

The shop in our nearest village is selling a 25kg sack of potatoes for £4. We have bought two so far this winter and one for each of our children.

When we old country mice were in the city yesterday, we picked up a kilo of lovely plums, a supermarket bag full of apples, and four pomegranates for £3. We always call there to stock up on our way to the bus station. I wish we lived nearer!

I draw out 50.00 in cash each week to do our weekly shopping on a Thursday. Most weeks i can complete with a few pennies left over. Usually have to take another 10.00 out for a couple of bits on a Saturday. I really try to stay at this so that my budget for the month works. It was usually double this when i worked, but now retired i have time to cook from scratch and look out for bargains from other shops, not just the supermarket.

My £35 a week is from Lldl I m sure if I shopped at a Tesco it would be a lot more I m not a big meat or fish eater which probably keeps my bills down only drink occasionally and don’t use lots of fancy polishes and sprays I wouldn’t even if I had a lot more money
Asda here are doing a £3.50 veg box which I was impressed with There was a lot in it they also had a fruit box for less I can’t remember exactly but that was good and I halved the contents with my daughter I always look on the nearly out of date shelves too

I'd recommend using a butcher. I find the quality of meat much better, they are very knowledgeable and can offer advice on different cuts of neat.

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 ...

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.

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.

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

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!

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.