Grocery budget for two... now .

From Florida…I see several people here are making bread. Will you share your recipe, please. Also, is that for loaf/sandwich bread. Meat is so expensive here that it is ground meat and chicken parts for us. Everything is sky high. Thank you.

Pre pandemic my weekly food shopping was @ 80-90 euros a week for two of us. Now it comes to 120-140 euros. That includes beer, wine, cider and treats for the grandchildren. It seems to be specific items that have risen dramatically though. Cooking oil has gone from 3.20 euros a bottle to 12 euros!!, butter has doubled in price as has meat and fish. Fruit, veg, milk, bread eggs and wine have only risen marginally.

To be honest I haven’t a clue how much we’d spend just for the 2 of us as we never have what I’d consider a ‘normal’ week. Last weekend we had my son and his children staying so I had an extra delivery of about £70 as well as a delivery for £80 earlier in the week. We also have Hello Fresh for 3 meals. This week so far I haven’t bought any food at all apart from the 3 Hello Fresh meals but we’ve got people coming to dinner on Saturday so that will probably cost over £100 when you add in the wine but we’ll be able to eat leftovers on Sunday. Next week we’ve got a few meals out booked so I probably won’t need a deliver until the end of the week. The deliveries generally cost around £100 but will usually include cleaning products and the length of time between orders varies hugely.

Slightly off topic but I managed to book a Christmas delivery last week - I couldn’t believe how expensive the turkeys were!

Both vegan so no meat or fish which hugely cuts the grocery bill. I don't make bread as I'm totally rubbish at it. 90% of our meals are made from scratch where I always batch cook so there are always meals in the freezer. Cleaning / beauty products are all bought online from cruelty free shops. Our weekly bill is approx £45-55.

For two of us and a small pet I now spend roughly £70 - £80 pounds a week on food, toiletries and cleaning products. It would be almost impossible now for me to bring this down to £50, which used to be my weekly target and would probably involve us eating smaller portions of poorer quality food.
I buy small amounts of meat and fish from the local butcher and fishmonger and get some of our fruit and vegetables and cleaning products from the market. I use the cheaper supermarkets for the rest. I batch cook and we don't drink alcohol or have takeaways. It costs a lot more when we have visitors but that can't be helped. We don't entertain a lot and visitors are good for the soul. So is chocolate, I tell myself!

I'm a veg and spend about £50 on food per week, including expensive dog food, no alcohol. Finally got hold of some dried aduki beans, going back to cooking like the old days of Cranks!

ha ha Dreamlady, I did buy myself a bar of Tony's this week, it's delicious! Expensive at £3.50 but on offer at my Tesco.

Don't blame you Razza! We all deserve a treat. Think I'll try those aduki beans. I used to love Cranks.

This thread is making me think. My dog’s food alone costs £15 a week, and some of you are managing to live yourselves on not much more than that. You have my admiration. We probably spend about £130-140 a week on food, household and toiletries (including the dog), and I wouldn’t say we live extravagantly on that.

Main supermarket shop (Aldi) between £45 & £55 per week

Used to be about £80 -£85 per week for the two of us. Now my husband has gone into full time care and you’d think my bill would be about £40-45 …..but it’s not. Supermarkets just do not cater for singletons….as my son has been telling me for years! So my bill is coming in about £55 per week!

I like alcohol but NEVER buy it except Christmas then maybe a couple of bottles of wine I d love to buy a bottle or two every week but couldn’t do it on my pension or even when I was working

Just been to the supermarket today and was totally shocked to see 4 tins of Heinz tomato soup was £4.50! I mean blimey are they gold plated tins?!!!

You can get four tins for £2.50 at Aldi or Tesco.

If I do a weekly shop - Lidl and either ASDA or Sainsburys, the bill is usually £50-£70 depending on whether I need cleaning stuff and coffee.
If I shop daily at the local supermarket it’s easy to spend more. I buy dog food approx £35 per month on a repeat online order so that isn’t included.

I used to love Cranks, the recipe books. Carob cake, lentil and cheese wedges etc I started on that journey via a suma cooperative in someones house in kendal, 1977. Never looked back and even used cranks entertaining book when we had those dinner parties. Veggie got us through very lean years and we were healthy

Another very good veggie writer is Rose Elliot. We would not have survived without her thin paperback called thrifty fifty. It was meals for 4 for 50p. Then we went onto more of her books eg simply delicious and bean cuisine

All her recipes were nice eg butterbean and tomato pie with cheesy crust and there was also a nice pud to go with them such as grated apples and nuts in fresh orange juice

£300 per month including meat from butcher alcohol and cleaning products Mix of Tesco and Iceland delivery and bits and bobs from Farmfoods

OP, do you eat meat with every meal ?
sorry haven't RFT.
your expenditure does sound a lot to me, but as you say difficult to compare, everyone's individual.

£80-£90 a week for the two of us, no pets, occasional bottle of wine or port, we eat organic meat as much as possible and cook from scratch, no ready meals.

Pavane

From Florida…I see several people here are making bread. Will you share your recipe, please. Also, is that for loaf/sandwich bread. Meat is so expensive here that it is ground meat and chicken parts for us. Everything is sky high. Thank you.

My usual bread/ rolls is as follows:

In mixer bowl: 1 cup warm water, add 2 T yeast and 1/4 c castor
(granulated) sugar, let it bubble for 10-15 minutes.

Add I egg, 1/4 c rapeseed (canola) oil, 1 cup flour (AP unbleached in USA), mix for a minute or until everything seems combined.

Add 2 c flour and 1 teaspoon salt, mix until it forms on the dough hook, and off the bowl. Let rest, covered, 20-30 minutes until dough doubles in size.

Punch down, remove to floured surface, pat out to as thick as a finger. Cut into rounds with a glass, the size you want to make, or form into a loaf.

Place rolls on parchment paper on baking tray/sheet.
Or bread in a parchment lined loaf pan.

Bake rolls 170 (375 USA) for 12 minutes, bread 25-45 minutes (vary time by humidity, knife check often, the first time you make bread).

We spend about £100 a week which includes the dogs food (semi dry dog meal plus 2 chicken thighs, a cup of veggies and a half tin dog food, and 4 basa filets an egg and lump of cheese.

I cook from scratch but costs are just going up almost weekly

Norah

Pavane

From Florida…I see several people here are making bread. Will you share your recipe, please. Also, is that for loaf/sandwich bread. Meat is so expensive here that it is ground meat and chicken parts for us. Everything is sky high. Thank you.

My usual bread/ rolls is as follows:

In mixer bowl: 1 cup warm water, add 2 T yeast and 1/4 c castor
(granulated) sugar, let it bubble for 10-15 minutes.

Add I egg, 1/4 c rapeseed (canola) oil, 1 cup flour (AP unbleached in USA), mix for a minute or until everything seems combined.

Add 2 c flour and 1 teaspoon salt, mix until it forms on the dough hook, and off the bowl. Let rest, covered, 20-30 minutes until dough doubles in size.

Punch down, remove to floured surface, pat out to as thick as a finger. Cut into rounds with a glass, the size you want to make, or form into a loaf.

Place rolls on parchment paper on baking tray/sheet.
Or bread in a parchment lined loaf pan.

Bake rolls 170 (375 USA) for 12 minutes, bread 25-45 minutes (vary time by humidity, knife check often, the first time you make bread).

Sorry.

I forgot - allow bread to about double on the sheet or in the pan, prior to baking.

I've just had an Ocado delivery which was £98. It will probably do the two of us for 2 and a bit weeks with some extras like milk. We normally only have 2 meals a day and for 2 of my workdays I use the canteen which costs about £6 per day, otherwise I take a box of salad type stuff and fruit. I have porridge for breakfast and DH has a cooked breakfast. mid-morning. He works from home and has cold meat, salad and jacket potato for a very late lunch virtually every day, I tend to have something on toast for lunch when I'm at home. I buy sour dough bread; DH rarely eats bread and when he does, he likes plastic sliced white so there's a loaf in the freezer.
We're not drinking at the moment, loo rolls come from Who gives a crap and I share the box with DD. I dread to think how much the dog food costs, raw complete from Bella and Duke but they're worth it.
I would imagine the total is about £100 per week, I could cut back and not buy grass fed/organic meat and dairy products, but we are both still working and can afford it at the moment.

I live in Los Angeles. DH & I eat mostly plant based, so no meat purchases. I do a lot of scratch cooking and baking (though very little baking during the summer).

Our groceries average about $100 per week including household supplies from Costco.

Prices are creeping up every week in the grocery stores, gas stations and everywhere else.

Norah, thank you so much for your response AND for the translation. I used to make bread years ago ,but nothing seems to turn out right at 85. You make it sound so easy.