Author Topic: What's your average monthly food spend per adult? (UK)  (Read 27327 times)

shelivesthedream

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What's your average monthly food spend per adult? (UK)
« on: January 29, 2019, 10:37:15 AM »
In 2017, with two adults in the house, we spent an average of £112.38 per person. In 2018, with two adults and 3/4 of one baby (born April!), I reckon we spent £30/month on baby items that got counted with food (nappies, wipes, food for the baby) and spent £132.34 per person.

That includes all toiletries, laundry, cleaning items, and other household consumables.
« Last Edit: January 30, 2019, 11:13:21 AM by shelivesthedream »

Mississippi Mudstache

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Re: What's your average monthly food spend per adult?
« Reply #1 on: January 29, 2019, 11:01:47 AM »
In 2017, with two adults in the house, we spent an average of £112.38 per person. In 2018, with two adults and 3/4 of one baby (born April!), I reckon we spent £30/month on baby items that got counted with food (nappies, wipes, food for the baby) and spent £132.34 per person.

That includes all toiletries, laundry, cleaning items, and other household consumables.

We've spent about $300/adult ($600 total) per month over the last couple of years, but that seems like an awfully unfair metric, because we have four kids (aged 6 months-7 years). That number includes diapers, toiletries, etc. I think we could lower that cost to around $400-500/month total if we tried a bit harder, but that's the bare minimum.

Edit to add: Just realized this is in the UK tax discussion. $600 would be about £450 at current exchange rates.
« Last Edit: January 29, 2019, 11:03:58 AM by Mississippi Mudstache »

May2030

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Re: What's your average monthly food spend per adult?
« Reply #2 on: January 29, 2019, 04:45:22 PM »
I don't keep exact figures but my budget last year for one person was £150 per month. In November with a partially stocked house and a some effort the spend was £85, but it was tough. This month I have spent £185 which includes work food so its time to investigate the creep. 

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Re: What's your average monthly food spend per adult?
« Reply #3 on: January 30, 2019, 02:08:06 AM »
We're at 119.62 per person (averaged over 18 months to Dec 31/18)

That includes all sundries and supplies except for dog food.

The amazing thing is, we have been buying more expensive food (grass-fed/free-range/local/fresh wild caught fish etc) but eating less of it. It hasn't impacted the budget much if at all.


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Re: What's your average monthly food spend per adult?
« Reply #4 on: January 30, 2019, 02:11:55 AM »
Two adults, two primary school aged children we spend £380 a month, recently upped from £350. Not sure how that would break down per adult, since some stuff is purely for the adults (coffee) and some for the children (current fad for pepperami in their lunch box). This includes all household consumables... except medicines which has a different section in our budget.

Lincolnshire Girl

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Re: What's your average monthly food spend per adult?
« Reply #5 on: January 30, 2019, 02:20:28 AM »
In 2017, with two adults in the house, we spent an average of £112.38 per person. In 2018, with two adults and 3/4 of one baby (born April!), I reckon we spent £30/month on baby items that got counted with food (nappies, wipes, food for the baby) and spent £132.34 per person.

That includes all toiletries, laundry, cleaning items, and other household consumables.

Which supermarkets do you use?

We are currently budgeting £200 per adult per month but we do have specialist dietary requirements (dairy and gluten). I shop predominantly at Tesco, because it's nearest, with a dash into Morrisons once a week.

vand

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Re: What's your average monthly food spend per adult?
« Reply #6 on: January 30, 2019, 02:32:11 AM »
Our household is 2 adults, 1 toddler, and 3 cats..

Monthly grocery bill is typically £600-700. Might sound a little high, but I'm including all food, cleaning items, and pet foods, and a fair bit of alcohol too. We usually shop Tesco or Asda.

We're aiming to trim that a bit this year with some substitution in our regular shopping basket, but overall I consider it to be money well spent. The alternative lifestyle of eating out and/or takeaway is both less healthy and far more expensive.

We don't eat out that often (probably around once a week), and I don't include that in the figures (nor lunch money, although my wife is still on maternity leave and I rarely eat lunch).

We have recently started using HelloFresh service. I expect this will increase our overall food cost slightly, but I'm actually delighted with the service and again think it is money well spent.

« Last Edit: January 30, 2019, 02:36:21 AM by vand »

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Re: What's your average monthly food spend per adult?
« Reply #7 on: January 30, 2019, 03:15:34 AM »
In 2017, with two adults in the house, we spent an average of £112.38 per person. In 2018, with two adults and 3/4 of one baby (born April!), I reckon we spent £30/month on baby items that got counted with food (nappies, wipes, food for the baby) and spent £132.34 per person.

That includes all toiletries, laundry, cleaning items, and other household consumables.

For wife and I and son its about £400 a month. Always looking at ways to lower it but that seems to be the amount we need to cook the food we like and have all the stuff for the house.

Fig

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Re: What's your average monthly food spend per adult?
« Reply #8 on: January 30, 2019, 05:52:42 AM »
Apparently I'm cheap :) We spend about £95 a month per adult for food (including work lunches) and most household supplies,  There are two of us and I allocate £220 each month but usually move something to savings each week as I underspend. We mainly shop via Sainsbury's deliveries, as we don't drive. We also put aside £30 for eating out, but that's more for relationship time than food spending. Hooray for Meerkat Meals.

We eat pretty well on this. I'm coeliac, so we cook mainly from scratch but that does incur some extra expenses. However... the cost will increase soon as free prescriptions for gluten free food are (fairly understandably) ending in my area.
« Last Edit: January 30, 2019, 11:02:49 AM by Fig »

Arian

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Re: What's your average monthly food spend per adult?
« Reply #9 on: January 30, 2019, 09:51:28 AM »
We are a family of 4 (2 adults, 2 kids (6 & 10)). I would estimate that each child eats about half an adult portion per meal.

For the first time ever, I've collected all our receipts for the month this January, and so far we've spent £229 on groceries, including things like toilet paper, washing-up liquid and toothpaste, for example. I've always assumed that we spend about £50-60 per week on average, so this seems about right. The kids take a packed lunch to school and my husband also takes lunch to cook in the microwave in work. I think I'll continue to track our expenditure this way for the year because it has been interesting, especially with respect to other areas of spending.

For dinner, I tend to cook vegetarian meals from scratch for myself and the family. I guess this helps to keep costs low. I'm vegetarian, but my husband and children do also eat a small amount of meat and fish. We do our main shop in Aldi and will top up once a week (not necessarily in Aldi) for things like bread, milk, cheese and fruit, for example. We also don't tend to drink alcohol in the house.

We've also spent about £40 this month on eating out. I guess this is about average for us.

Edited to add: By considering our household as 3 adults (where the two children are considered as one adult), the per-adult spend per month is £76.33 on groceries.
« Last Edit: January 30, 2019, 11:33:53 AM by welshcake »

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Re: What's your average monthly food spend per adult?
« Reply #10 on: January 30, 2019, 10:14:07 AM »
Interesting thread, thanks SLTD!

By my definitions, my 'groceries' spend is £110/month averaged out over the last 12. It's very variable though, lowest month was £62, highest month £150.

Household of one.

Parameters:

This includes a bit of casual hosting (about £45 every other month over the last 12). So months without hosting a bunch of people are usually max £80, months with are always over £100. I did also spend £120 on hosting a really big party in the summer (with bubbly etc) which is not included in this average.

That average does include most household stuff like washing up liquid or loo roll or what have you, as I generally buy those things in the supermarket along with my food. But if I buy e.g. cleaning supplies at a hardware shop or shampoo from Superdrug, they've gone in a different bucket. Probably £10/month if you wanted to allow for that.

I have also in the last year spent an average of £22/month at my work's canteen. Lunch is about £4, and I end up eating there about once a week, and getting the occasional slice of cake. (Lowest month £4, highest month £40!).

So if you wanted to include everything at all groceries-like in the number, that's £110 for what I call groceries + £10 partyy + £10 household/toiletries + £22 work food = £152.

Cassie

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Re: What's your average monthly food spend per adult?
« Reply #11 on: January 30, 2019, 10:35:50 AM »
2 adults in US groceries, liquor and household supplies is 400/month.

shelivesthedream

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Re: What's your average monthly food spend per adult? (UK)
« Reply #12 on: January 30, 2019, 11:15:24 AM »
Please do try to break it down to a "per adult" spend! Obviously if you have children of varying ages in the mix it will be a guess but it would be good to compare apples to apples.

Have amended title to include "UK", sigh...

shelivesthedream

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Re: What's your average monthly food spend per adult?
« Reply #13 on: January 30, 2019, 11:20:54 AM »
In 2017, with two adults in the house, we spent an average of £112.38 per person. In 2018, with two adults and 3/4 of one baby (born April!), I reckon we spent £30/month on baby items that got counted with food (nappies, wipes, food for the baby) and spent £132.34 per person.

That includes all toiletries, laundry, cleaning items, and other household consumables.

Which supermarkets do you use?

We are currently budgeting £200 per adult per month but we do have specialist dietary requirements (dairy and gluten). I shop predominantly at Tesco, because it's nearest, with a dash into Morrisons once a week.

Hip-cool totally rad person that I am, I can tell you that in 2018 we spent (on average per month as a household):
£153.48 at Ocado (because I would like to remain married to Mr SLTD)
£14.90 at ASDA (I hate it but it is the closest supermarket so good for 'emergencies')
£38.74 at Aldi and Lidl
£36.82 at Tesco
and £50.84 at other places

Does not include booze or coffee, does include food for hosting once or twice a month.

Eating out comes out of our personal money.

daverobev

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Re: What's your average monthly food spend per adult? (UK)
« Reply #14 on: January 30, 2019, 12:11:42 PM »
So far this month I have spent £218.77 on groceries, which is just for me.

However: This is month one of moving to the UK (so I had to buy everything), and I'm also Brexit-stockpiling tinned stuff.

I must say the prices of things is very interesting. For example, Morrison's Savers line (which is the lowest tier).

A 'normal' loaf of bread is £1.05, a savers loaf is 36p. Normal tinned tomatoes are 50p+, savers are 28p. The difference between the cheap and normal line is phenomenal.

I'm hoping next month will be more like £60!

So far I have decided that Morrison's, Savers aside, is crap compared to Tesco - at least, the one near me is. The range of fresh produce is not good. Seems there is a lot more meat than veg in Morrisons. And a LOT of wasted space.

Not convinced with Aldi or, especially, Lidl. When compared to, again, the value lines.

Nobody seems to have large bags of Twiglets! I'm very upset about this.

Favourite find so far - 65p for a frozen pizza from Tesco. Now, I've returned (almost) to vegetarianism, so it is just a cheese/tomato pizza, but - add some sliced tomato, mushroom, spinach on top and it's all good.

Squelchy

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Re: What's your average monthly food spend per adult? (UK)
« Reply #15 on: January 30, 2019, 12:51:21 PM »
I think we're on £160 per adult (based on two adults, one child totalling £400, assuming child costs are half adult). This shocked me as it means our total is double what it was about three to six years ago, when we lived next to a LIDL. On the plus side, that's for all groceries including alcohol and coffee, most is organic and delivered, and we have good appetites. Roughly in order, it goes to a local veg box company, SUMA every few months (for people who knit their own granola in bulk), Waitrose (next to the bus stop on the way home), the milkman, LIDL (every couple of months), Abel & Cole (rapidly reducing this one) and various small amounts (greengrocers, occasional Sainsbury's and Tesco's). Much of this I'm happy with, aside from A&C, which crept in when I was time-poor last year. I'm also hoping the total will go down as our garden starts to produce more.

Squelchy

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Re: What's your average monthly food spend per adult? (UK)
« Reply #16 on: January 30, 2019, 01:01:19 PM »
Daverobey- I also nearly gave up on LIDL the first time I went in, in disgust that they did not have the one item I was looking for, and I had to fight my way though the tills to escape. However, once you know what they are good at, it's another matter. Our trips are just for stocking up the few absolute staples they do best or cheapest, in particular passata at about 40p a tetrapack , inordinately cheap porridge oats, feta, olives, sundried tomatoes, frozen fish and cream cheese. Before we switched to organic and more local, we also highly rated their bread flour, free range eggs and bars of very dark chocolate. I've not quite got the hang of Aldi, although I have a soft spot for their antipasti in jars.

Squelchy

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Re: What's your average monthly food spend per adult? (UK)
« Reply #17 on: January 30, 2019, 01:02:38 PM »
*daverobev Sorry- I have a cold and can't focus, so must have misread your name.

cerat0n1a

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Re: What's your average monthly food spend per adult? (UK)
« Reply #18 on: January 30, 2019, 01:25:11 PM »
Not sure, as I don't really track expenses that way, but I'd guess it was around £800 per month when we had 4 adults, so £200 per adult. That is the sum of supermarket shops, so includes more than just food. We don't buy meat and get a fair amount of veg & fruit from the garden. It doesn't include any money the kids would've spent on lunchtime food at college. Would be a mix of Sainsburys, Tesco, Waitrose, Asda, Aldi and Co-op.

It's probably come down a fair bit since RE, just because more time for cooking and a much more plant-based diet.

shelivesthedream

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Re: What's your average monthly food spend per adult? (UK)
« Reply #19 on: January 31, 2019, 12:52:08 AM »
I strongly prefer Aldi over Lidl - maybe just that my local Lidl seems a bit crap. But we still go to LiDL from time to time specifically for their black forest ham and their large chorizos. As Squelchy says, you've got to know what you're going for.

I have never lived near a Morrison's or a Co-op.

Lincolnshire Girl

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Re: What's your average monthly food spend per adult? (UK)
« Reply #20 on: January 31, 2019, 03:09:37 AM »
In 2017, with two adults in the house, we spent an average of £112.38 per person. In 2018, with two adults and 3/4 of one baby (born April!), I reckon we spent £30/month on baby items that got counted with food (nappies, wipes, food for the baby) and spent £132.34 per person.

That includes all toiletries, laundry, cleaning items, and other household consumables.

Which supermarkets do you use?

We are currently budgeting £200 per adult per month but we do have specialist dietary requirements (dairy and gluten). I shop predominantly at Tesco, because it's nearest, with a dash into Morrisons once a week.

Hip-cool totally rad person that I am, I can tell you that in 2018 we spent (on average per month as a household):
£153.48 at Ocado (because I would like to remain married to Mr SLTD)
£14.90 at ASDA (I hate it but it is the closest supermarket so good for 'emergencies')
£38.74 at Aldi and Lidl
£36.82 at Tesco
and £50.84 at other places

Does not include booze or coffee, does include food for hosting once or twice a month.

Eating out comes out of our personal money.

A fabulously detailed report :) thank you.

daverobev

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Re: What's your average monthly food spend per adult? (UK)
« Reply #21 on: January 31, 2019, 03:17:51 AM »
Any suggestion on where's cheapest for nappies? What price should I be looking at, hmm, I'm assuming sizes are the same here, 1 to 6? I'll be after size 5.

Sorry, off topic, but seems like the right place to ask!

shelivesthedream

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Re: What's your average monthly food spend per adult? (UK)
« Reply #22 on: January 31, 2019, 03:24:46 AM »
Aldi has been our favourite thus far. We've tried Tesco, LIDL, ASDA, Pampers.

Lincolnshire Girl

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Re: What's your average monthly food spend per adult? (UK)
« Reply #23 on: January 31, 2019, 03:30:21 AM »
I have been wondering if I can reduce our food spending so I am very interested to see what everyone puts as their average.

We only have a tiny Lidl nearby and it seems to have wellies and garden equipment and not much food. We would need to undertake quite a long journey to find a larger Lidl or an Aldi store. I don't think it's worthwhile atm.

Daverobev Morrisons is generally better for meat as they butcher their own. In the 'horsemeat' scandal a few years ago, they passed through without too much fuss. I find they have good deals if you want crisps or biscuits, but not if you are looking at a nutritionally dense diet. A good selection of free from items though.

SLTD Sorry to be nosey, but would you mind posting your typical week's menu? We don't eat meat and only eat fish once a week and we don't drink alcohol. Our shopping list is a lot of veggies, nuts, seeds, beans and lentils etc for made from scratch dinners. I'm interested to see if our lifestyle choices are what is bumping up our food costs. Thank you.

Bee763

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Re: What's your average monthly food spend per adult? (UK)
« Reply #24 on: January 31, 2019, 04:43:32 AM »
Our spend last year came out as £83 per adult per month. For context:
  • Two adults
  • Shopping primarily at Lidl
  • Includes most other household supplies - bin bags, cleaning products etc
  • Includes packed lunches for work days - any non-packed lunches come out of personal spending
  • Includes a little hospitality - large parties/gatherings come out of gifts/holiday spending
  • Excludes most food eaten on holidays - that comes out of the gifts/holiday spending

We probably eat far more processed food than we should, but we are somewhat time-and-effort poor during the week. We used to get a fortnightly veg box but there's only so much kale-and-neeps I can take in the winter and we discovered that we have an insufficiently potato-based diet for it to really work. If we had an adult at home we might take it up again at ~£30 per month.

Arian

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Re: What's your average monthly food spend per adult? (UK)
« Reply #25 on: January 31, 2019, 04:44:47 AM »
Daverobev - My kids are not babies now, but I always preferred Aldi's nappies for both value and non-leakage. The wipes are also cheap and decent quality.

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Re: What's your average monthly food spend per adult? (UK)
« Reply #26 on: January 31, 2019, 05:02:47 AM »
2 adults.
All food, toiletries and household items.
Budget £240 (so £120 each).
Never spent that much and seems to be £200 to £210 (so £100 to £105 each).
Aldi and any eating out (not much at all)

never give up

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Re: What's your average monthly food spend per adult? (UK)
« Reply #27 on: January 31, 2019, 11:32:23 AM »
daverobev - I love the way in your first post you comment that the price for groceries is just for yourself and in your next post you ask where to buy nappies from. Don't worry we don't judge here.

Well I thought I was doing well reducing my grocery shop from an average of £225 per month pre-MMM to £170 in the last year but clearly I'm still failing. My number includes all supermarket shopping I.e. washing tablets, toothpaste, washing up liquid, toilet duck! etc so not just food. I count eating out as entertainment and hardly do that anyway so it's not this. Back to the drawing board.

daverobev

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Re: What's your average monthly food spend per adult? (UK)
« Reply #28 on: January 31, 2019, 11:46:58 AM »
daverobev - I love the way in your first post you comment that the price for groceries is just for yourself and in your next post you ask where to buy nappies from. Don't worry we don't judge here.

Heh, I can explain! My family is still all in Canada, while I'm here on my own. Hopefully they'll be over by July or so (god damn visas...).

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Re: What's your average monthly food spend per adult? (UK)
« Reply #29 on: January 31, 2019, 11:50:23 AM »
Yeah, yeah. If I had a pound for every time I've heard the old 'the family is in Canada' excuse I'd be FIRE'd by now :-)

shelivesthedream

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Re: What's your average monthly food spend per adult? (UK)
« Reply #30 on: January 31, 2019, 12:04:28 PM »
@Lincolnshire Girl : I just did a menu planning post in my journal but that's aspirational. We do go through food phases but according to our calendar, this is what we ate the other week. We've overspent this month by £48 but expect to claw it back.

Breakfast every day: homemade toast or Raisin Wheats or muesli.

Mon: lentil bol / coronation chicken with rice (left over from hosting at the weekend)
Tues: pasta with pesto / cold salmon kale pasta salad
Wed: cold salmon kale pasta salad / dal, rice and chutney
Thurs: homemade mushroom soup with bread / nut pesto pasta
Fri: scrambled eggs / halloumi burgers and potato wedges
Sat: broccoli (?!?) / peanut kale noodles
Sun: tortellini / Oriental pork, rice, carrot salad, kale

Clearly a pasta phase!

CrabbitDutchie

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Re: What's your average monthly food spend per adult? (UK)
« Reply #31 on: January 31, 2019, 01:43:57 PM »
We have a slightly odd situation. 3 adults - we share food, but cook to a rota (I do 3 days per week, the others 2). The brief is cook enough for dinner and leftovers for lunch the next day. Everyone buys their own special ingredients + tops up staples as needed. We could definitely come up with a more efficient system money wise, but there's not much food waste and I'm not doing all the cooking, double bonus!

Over the last 6 months my average spend has been £60 a month, so assuming the others are spending similar amounts, make that about £60 per adult per month.

We shop mainly at Lidl (there's one at the end of our road) with the occasional after work adventure to morrisons (50p for 1kg of cheese, don't mind if I do!). I cook very seasonal food and will often make use of whatever vegetables are cheap that week.

We don't eat or buy a lot of meat with 1 veggie in the house, though I did spend £30 in december on really tasty lamb from a friend's sheep - 2 joints and some mutton mince.

shelivesthedream

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Re: What's your average monthly food spend per adult? (UK)
« Reply #32 on: January 31, 2019, 01:54:08 PM »
Wow, @CrabbitDutchie, I think you win the thread so far! Can I now beg that you post what you ate in the last week?

Aphextwin

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Re: What's your average monthly food spend per adult? (UK)
« Reply #33 on: February 01, 2019, 04:01:22 AM »
Some inpiring posts here, we've only started tracking out spending half was through January, so it'll be interesting to see how much we're spending. I do the majority of our spending at Aldi's, I find it far cheaper than Tesco. We make most of our food from scratch, staples include roast chicken, beef stew (made from stock using the chicken bones), hummus, spag bol, chilly and rice, and curry. I'm trying to learn some tasty veggie recipes to keep costs down.

We bought an instant pot electric pressure cooker last year, it was expensive but is used all through the week, and is my favorite kitchen gadget. The miny chopper is also great for making hummus, the ingredients and so cheap and it makes a tasty lunch st work. I also make mason jar salads for work, its cheaper than esting at work and helps me get loads of veggies in.

dashuk

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Re: What's your average monthly food spend per adult? (UK)
« Reply #34 on: February 01, 2019, 05:09:02 AM »
Only just started making a point of splitting out the food total from everything else in the supermarket list, and indeed looking at it month by month rather than just trying to figure it out from bank statements at the end of the year.

January adds up to £285, so £143 per adult if we're pretending the two ravenous mini-beasts (4 and 1) don't exist and eat food.

That's mostly Asda, just about vegetarian, pretty much everything prepared from scratch. #1 gets lunch at school in the week.

There's an extra £8 ish once a month for going to the cycle campaign group straight from work and 'having'* to eat in the pub where the meeting is.

Don't know how typical this is. There is more food in the house now than a month ago, both because we were away over Christmas and a certain amount of brexshitprepping.


* are probably other options that would save a couple of quid, but it's convenient and they do a very nice vegan burger.

shelivesthedream

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Re: What's your average monthly food spend per adult? (UK)
« Reply #35 on: February 01, 2019, 05:15:29 AM »
January adds up to £285, so £143 per adult if we're pretending the two ravenous mini-beasts (4 and 1) don't exist and eat food.

What if you guess what % is for them?

dashuk

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Re: What's your average monthly food spend per adult? (UK)
« Reply #36 on: February 01, 2019, 06:03:00 AM »
January adds up to £285, so £143 per adult if we're pretending the two ravenous mini-beasts (4 and 1) don't exist and eat food.

What if you guess what % is for them?

They probably eat almost as much as an adult between them. Complicated by #1 having most lunches elsewhere but on the other hand they blow through a ton of cereal where I have porridge.

Maybe call them the £85 and say £100 per adult.

CrabbitDutchie

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Re: What's your average monthly food spend per adult? (UK)
« Reply #37 on: February 01, 2019, 10:25:03 AM »
Wow, @CrabbitDutchie, I think you win the thread so far! Can I now beg that you post what you ate in the last week?

Of course, happy to oblige. It's been a carb heavy soup week this week. The vegetables on offer this week were leeks and swedes so they feature. Potatoes were also on offer (burns night special presumably). Haggis was on offer and the vegetarian haggis was from a Morrison's yellow sticker raid a while back (25p so I bought a couple and froze 1).


Friday:
Breakfast: porridge with raisins and apple sauce
Lunch: freshly picked winter salad (oriental greens, turnip tops, some chard), with Jerusalem artichokes, pickled pears and a blue cheese yoghurt dressing.
Dinner: potato curry (other vegetables also featured)

Saturday:
Breakfast: toast with homemade jam (raspberry)
Lunch: allotment association provided soup – lightly spiced, vegan, lots of allotment veg and lentils with focaccia.
Dinner: Tomato soup (housemate's mother's recipe) with cheesy tiger bread croutons

Sunday:
Breakfast: fried slice of haggis and toast
Lunch: more toast with homemade jam (plum, rosemary and orange) & cheese
Dinner: Deep fried haggis and veggie haggis bon-bons, mashed potato, crispy potato skins, crushed neep (swede to the southerners) and a grated raw neep salad side

Monday:
Breakfast: porridge with raisins and apple sauce
Lunch: tomato soup with potato cakes from the leftover mash
Dinner: butter bean, chickpea and tomato stew with rice

Tuesday:
Breakfast: porridge with raisins and apple sauce
Lunch: butter bean, chickpea and tomato stew with rice
Dinner: Leek and potato soup

Wednesday:
Breakfast: porridge with raspberry compote
Lunch: Leek and potato soup with pitta bread
Dinner: Carrot and lentil soup with soda bread

Thursday:
Breakfast: porridge with raspberry compote
Lunch: koka instant noodles (my guilty pleasure and 27p at home bargains - I would honestly eat these all the time if I wasn't concerned about my vegetable intake)
Dinner: winter vegetable scotch broth with mustard dumplings and veggie haggis balls

Friday (today):
Breakfast: porridge with raspberry compote
Lunch: winter vegetable scotch broth with mustard dumplings (homemade mustard)
Dinner: probably pasta bake

I'd actually like to mindfully increase my food spend a bit with a real focus on local, seasonal and sustainable food. I've currently got a copy of 'Scotland's Local Food Revolution' out of the library and it's providing, well, some food for thought ;)

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Re: What's your average monthly food spend per adult? (UK)
« Reply #38 on: February 01, 2019, 10:47:32 AM »
That's interesting. Thanks for posting. I see a lot of people mentioning soup as a dinner. I wonder if my average cost per meal is actually not too bad but I eat for one and a half people or something and that's why my numbers are high. I like your menu a lot but soup for me is a starter! There is no way that would fill me up all the way until breakfast time.

I think I need to have a look at my portion sizes, produce a varied menu and start to calculate my cost per meal.

Arian

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Re: What's your average monthly food spend per adult? (UK)
« Reply #39 on: February 01, 2019, 12:40:09 PM »
That's interesting. Thanks for posting. I see a lot of people mentioning soup as a dinner. I wonder if my average cost per meal is actually not too bad but I eat for one and a half people or something and that's why my numbers are high. I like your menu a lot but soup for me is a starter! There is no way that would fill me up all the way until breakfast time.

I think I need to have a look at my portion sizes, produce a varied menu and start to calculate my cost per meal.

Soups could be made more filling by adding bits of spaghetti, some rice or even some beans for more protein. You could also serve the soup with a nice chunk of bread and some cheese or houmous to make more of a meal.

Edited to add: I think it's probably easier to achieve a low cost per meal if you are cooking for a few people at a time, so don't be too hard on yourself. If you're cooking for one, then there may be a greater propensity for waste. It may be worth cooking in bulk and then portioning and freezing the leftovers.
« Last Edit: February 01, 2019, 02:18:19 PM by welshcake »

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Re: What's your average monthly food spend per adult? (UK)
« Reply #40 on: February 01, 2019, 01:15:12 PM »
Agreed, rice is wonderful in soup. You can also use other grains like barley, or quinoa if you're into that sort of thing. Or you can also do rice noodles.

Asian shops have loads of awesome filling stuff to go in soups actually. Gyoza or won ton in the freezer section, fish cakes and rice cakes in the fridge section, noodles of all types.

I'm also a fan of the 'put an egg in it' technique of turning a snack/starter into a meal. Chinese takeaway egg drop soup style is amazing in a clear broth, or a poached or fried egg as a topper is also A+ in my book.

Also if the broth includes something more calorically dense like coconut milk that helps.

Is this going to turn into a recipe thread? :D

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Re: What's your average monthly food spend per adult? (UK)
« Reply #41 on: February 01, 2019, 06:52:31 PM »
Soups could be made more filling by adding bits of spaghetti, some rice or even some beans for more protein. You could also serve the soup with a nice chunk of bread and some cheese or houmous to make more of a meal.

Edited to add: I think it's probably easier to achieve a low cost per meal if you are cooking for a few people at a time, so don't be too hard on yourself. If you're cooking for one, then there may be a greater propensity for waste. It may be worth cooking in bulk and then portioning and freezing the leftovers.

Thanks. Yes very true although it's probably adding everything to make it more of a meal that whacks my average cost up. I have very little waste but need to understand where the money goes precisely.

The thread title is concerning our average monthly food spend. I could probably do with understanding my food/non-food split of my £170.

dashuk

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Re: What's your average monthly food spend per adult? (UK)
« Reply #42 on: February 02, 2019, 01:38:58 AM »
That's interesting. Thanks for posting. I see a lot of people mentioning soup as a dinner. I wonder if my average cost per meal is actually not too bad but I eat for one and a half people or something and that's why my numbers are high. I like your menu a lot but soup for me is a starter! There is no way that would fill me up all the way until breakfast time.

That's what bread is for.

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Re: What's your average monthly food spend per adult? (UK)
« Reply #43 on: February 02, 2019, 02:19:07 PM »
In terms of groceries and small items, I generally spend under £15 a week, so probably £60 a month. Adding in things like vitamins/ makeup etc., it might be £75-80 a month.

I realise I'm really lucky because my area has the most awesome discount market, so I can buy a week's supply of fruit and veg (5 a day) for about £3. Also I'm a vegetarian, so the fruit/veg end up being a big part of my diet.

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Re: What's your average monthly food spend per adult? (UK)
« Reply #44 on: February 03, 2019, 01:58:05 AM »
Last 4 months we have had total grocery/food spend of over £500!!!

This is my budget shame every month!

It includes all stuff like toilet rolls, toiletries, washing tabs etc. for 2x adults and 2x kids  (6 and 3). It also rolls up some buying of work lunches out, eating out on days out with the kids and takeaways (rare).  I bundle it all up because it's a scarier number and I'm hoping this will get me motivate to change.

I'm working on only 1-2 goals at a time at the moment due to a flare up with my anxiety disorder... it can also make me go a bit overboard so I don't want to burn out. So food spending and decluttering (better clearer space is supposed to lower anxiety right?) are my sole goals right now.


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Re: What's your average monthly food spend per adult? (UK)
« Reply #45 on: February 03, 2019, 02:33:32 AM »
SLTD, what would you recommend stocking up on at ALDI? Our ALDI and LIDL are very close to each other, but both at some distance from home in the town we avoid, so OH tends to go on the rare occasions when he's in that direction with the car.

Never Give Up: I would also struggle to find most soups a proper meal, but there are a few that work well. A good minestrone contains pretty much all your five a day, Ottolenghi's Ash-E-Reshteh is wonderful at this time of year, and if you have access to the Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall Veg Every Day book, there are some good ideas there. On a similar line, but thicker, Rose Prince's recipe for braised red lentils with lime and sheep's cheese can be done very cheaply with LIDL feta and is definitely a proper meal with some nice bread.

Whoever mentioned the excess roots in veg boxes, we find dauphinoise is the answer (although not too often, or heart-attack will be the consequence).

Whoever asked about nappies, cloth is the cheapest in the end, even if started late and only done part time (which doesn't seem to be considered much, but you can manage cloth 80% of the time with only about 50% of the nappies if you have a few sposies to cover gaps while they're on the washing line/out and about/on holiday).



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Re: What's your average monthly food spend per adult? (UK)
« Reply #46 on: February 03, 2019, 05:49:49 AM »
Our monthly Sainsbury's spend for 2018 was £155 pp. That includes lunches for work and basic household supplies, but not eating out, which I haven't got broken down, but isn't particularly high.

We don't currently really budget for food, and could certainly do better. Since Hub has stopped work his competitive nature has started to focus on getting the food bills down, and we want to cook more from scratch, so that should start to improve things. However, this year I won't be growing any veggies, due to moving house and having to commute more than at present, so that will have a small impact in the other direction. 2020 should be better for that.

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Re: What's your average monthly food spend per adult? (UK)
« Reply #47 on: February 03, 2019, 11:46:27 AM »
Thanks Squelchy. Yes it’s important a soup/bread for dinner day isn’t combined with a sandwich for lunch day or else it’s a bit heavy on the bread but I know what you mean. I may need to combine a soup with some salad or separate veg. However that’s what makes the average cost per meal increase.

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Re: What's your average monthly food spend per adult? (UK)
« Reply #48 on: February 03, 2019, 01:10:33 PM »
@never give up I just thought, though - you can use your whole chickens (with legs and everything) to make your soup stock!!!!!!!

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Re: What's your average monthly food spend per adult? (UK)
« Reply #49 on: February 03, 2019, 02:12:52 PM »
Good grief shelivesthedream, the wonder that are the whole chickens (with legs and everything) just get better and better!

 

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