The Money Mustache Community
Around the World => UK Discussion => Topic started by: shelivesthedream on January 29, 2019, 10:37:15 AM
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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.
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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.
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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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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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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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2 adults in US groceries, liquor and household supplies is 400/month.
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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...
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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*daverobev Sorry- I have a cold and can't focus, so must have misread your name.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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!
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Aldi has been our favourite thus far. We've tried Tesco, LIDL, ASDA, Pampers.
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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.
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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.
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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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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)
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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.
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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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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 :-)
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@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!
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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.
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Wow, @CrabbitDutchie, I think you win the thread so far! Can I now beg that you post what you ate in the last week?
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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.
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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.
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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?
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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.
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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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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.
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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.
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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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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.
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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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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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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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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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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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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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@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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Good grief shelivesthedream, the wonder that are the whole chickens (with legs and everything) just get better and better!
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Never Give Up - You are very good, wanting to bulk these soups with salads. I'm afraid I'd go for pudding for padding. Apparently, there's a Swedish tradition of pea soup and pancake Thursdays. My only problem with pancakes is that to keep up with demand for them, I end up standing at the hob for ages, but for only one person, it sounds pretty good.
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NGU have you been throwing away roast chicken carcasses? Aiee!
I have a friend who feels so strongly on this topic that if he's ever served a roast at someone else's place he enquires what the hosts are going to do with the bones, and if they say 'er, throw them away?' he kicks up a fuss until the bones are bagged up to go home with him.
That said I'm on team risotto for the stock. Soup's nice and all but cmon.
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Thanks Squelchy although pudding sounds good!
Er sea_saw whoops. It’s possible to do something cooking wise with the carcasses? I’ve just been hanging them in the garage as a tribute :-) Oh crumbs I have so much to learn.
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Thank you all for showing me how insufficiently badass I am, and the need to dial down my costs!
We average £200/month for 2 of us which includes all of our cleaning products and other household spend. I don't segregate it out but would guess at £10-15 being household per week and c. £35-40 being food.
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Never Give Up - You are very good, wanting to bulk these soups with salads. I'm afraid I'd go for pudding for padding. Apparently, there's a Swedish tradition of pea soup and pancake Thursdays. My only problem with pancakes is that to keep up with demand for them, I end up standing at the hob for ages, but for only one person, it sounds pretty good.
mmmm pancakes! Our usual is definitely bread with soup, but we barely ever have just sandwiches for lunch so it balances out. We vary the bread - pitta, baguettes, normal wholemeal, homemade soda bread, dumplings in the soup. Also, it should be noted that mostly when I say soup it's stand your spoon up in it, thick, filling soup.
It seems that from soup, we're now into rice with mush week. Saturday was leftovers (pasta bake and the last of the scotch broth), sunday dahl with rice and poppadums, today super cheap chilli (managed to chuck in a carrot that was starting to go soft and the last of last week's swede as extra filler without compromising taste) with more rice and tomorrow will be the rest of the dahl (I made a double batch), though I'll maybe make flatbreads to go with it instead of more rice.
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I am new to tracking food spend, but I know it is the area where I have the most room for improvement. I think we are in the region of £350 per month for 2 adults, which includes all household consumables and toiletries. I'll have full month figures at the end of Feb and will post then. That is high but it has definitely come down from when I was at work (currently on sabbatical)
In my defence, I do have well stocked cupboards and an overflowing freezer, which is partly a deliberate attempt to guard against Brexit related price rises (or temporary shortages). I tend to buy what looks good value (shop mainly at Aldi and Ocado) and create meals from that - not sure if it would be cheaper to plan more in advance or not.
Off to take stock of my stocks now...
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We spend about £300 per month for two adults. That includes cleaning products, loo roll etc and some toiletries. It's too much really so we've started shopping around to try to cut it down.
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We average £60 per adult. Thank you Aldi & Lidl!
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We average £60 per adult. Thank you Aldi & Lidl!
Blimey! What on earth do you eat?!
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We average £60 per adult. Thank you Aldi & Lidl!
Blimey! What on earth do you eat?!
I guess Jack Monroe had her £10 per week thing, which looked pretty doable to me (looking guiltily at my brunch of sliced avocado, dolcelatte cheese, dates, hazelnuts and left-over salsa.)
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We average £60 per adult. Thank you Aldi & Lidl!
Blimey! What on earth do you eat?!
I guess Jack Monroe had her £10 per week thing, which looked pretty doable to me (looking guiltily at my brunch of sliced avocado, dolcelatte cheese, dates, hazelnuts and left-over salsa.)
There's a difference between doable and pleasant. I have looked at Jack Monroe several times and thought that while it's certainly achievable, on a long-term basis that sort of budget and food would really grind me down. (She says, looking guiltily at my elevenses of fancypants coffee and fruit cake.) We've got the basics down pretty well but never managed to stop indulging in treats of all kinds, be it bacon and eggs or cheese or chocolate biscuits.
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I did £10pp pw a while ago, but it seems like £10 went a lot further eight(ish) years ago than it does now. I spent a lot of time thinking about food and wouldn't choose to do it again.
I think it would be doable with a big allotment or smallholding, assuming that you found the allotment-ing fun.
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Never above £250 a month for 2 adults, 1 child and 2 cats.
- We only shop in Lidl
- We only shop once a week
- We are vegan (beans, lentils, rice and cheap veggies are our friends)
We average circa £75-100 per adult, per month...I think DD eats 2 meals a day, five days a week, at school so it's hard to split it out.
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There's a difference between doable and pleasant. I have looked at Jack Monroe several times and thought that while it's certainly achievable, on a long-term basis that sort of budget and food would really grind me down. (She says, looking guiltily at my elevenses of fancypants coffee and fruit cake.) We've got the basics down pretty well but never managed to stop indulging in treats of all kinds, be it bacon and eggs or cheese or chocolate biscuits.
That's sort of where we are (~£50 for 2 adults per week). We could optimise a little further, but there is a part of me that thinks given our savings rate is over >60% from net pay and higher if we factored in some strong pension contributions I'm happy where it is. I happen to like fancypants coffee but it's an at-home treat, rather than an expensive daily habit.
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For a single adult (student), I've optimized my monthly food spend to be around ~£70-80. This nets me around ~2,700 calories per day. If I were less active and could shop at Aldi / Lidl this would no doubt fall closer to ~£60.
Some things I've found helpful for anyone looking to trim their food budget:
- Eating the same things each day makes it easier to buy in bulk and meal prep.
- It's useful to break cost down into calories per £. This is useful to assess the true cost of energy foods like oats, dried beans and peanut butter.
- Using the above measure, there are also some surprises: Desiccated coconut is very powerful, while "cheap" meats like chicken breast and tuna score more poorly than beef.
- Try not bringing cash or a card with you when you go out. You don't need instant access to money to survive. This is perhaps the biggest change I made, as I would otherwise buy random sandwiches / snacks / coffee from the shops which nearly DOUBLED the food expenditure.
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- It's useful to break cost down into calories per £. This is useful to assess the true cost of energy foods like oats, dried beans and peanut butter.
- Using the above measure, there are also some surprises: Desiccated coconut is very powerful, while "cheap" meats like chicken breast and tuna score more poorly than beef.
There's a lot more to food than just acting as fuel (calories.) On that basis you'd just down spoonfuls of caster sugar each day for probably only a few pence? Beans, peanut butter and oats are good things to eat for lots of other reasons.
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Most certainly! On calories alone, I'm guessing white sugar and vegetable oil would score the highest. While you would save a lot, there's no point shooting for early retirement if your crappy diet drops your life expectancy to 40. :P
I mostly eat oats, beans, etc. for energy rather than the micro-nutrient profile, so the cal/£ metric is useful to me for working out the cheapest option. Remaining money in the food budget is spent on non-starchy vegetables and meats that cover my ass against micro-nutrient deficiencies.
I'd love to develop a metric for assessing micro-nutrient value, but given the sheer number of minerals and vitamins the body needs this is much more difficult to evaluate. I suspect things like organ meats would score very highly on such a metric, and Marmite is cost effective for supply B-vitamins... if you can stomach it. ;)
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We average £60 per adult. Thank you Aldi & Lidl!
Blimey! What on earth do you eat?!
We love food and I think we eat quite well. Almost everything is made from scratch. Breakfast is normally porridge/cereal with some fruit. Lunch is normally left overs or a salad of some sort, yoghurt and fruit. Dinners over the past week have been jacket potato with tuna and salad, a couple of pasta dishes, a veggie chilli, sweet and sour chicken, a cheeky sourdough pizza from Lidl and a roast.
We do tend to batch cook so will have times where our spend is lower as we will eat out of the freezer. We don't drink very often so this helps keep the cost down and we grow some veg in the garden but this doesn't save a huge amount.
Oh, I was eating a biscuit just before writing this so we have some treats too! :)
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My average in a single-adult household is £135 per month. I tend to be time-poor and sometimes buy sandwiches for lunch in this, and my supermarket bill does include things like cleaning products and kitchen/toilet roll. Sounds about average on this post.
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I wouldn't like to calculate ours as we do like our grub! We also love a bargain though so there are lots and lots of cheap but tasty meals included.
The talk of chicken carcases reminded me of when my local NISA had a whole tray of raw chicken carcases for something crazy like 87p - what was left after they'd taken off the legs, breasts and wings. I roasted them all and picked of loads of meat for a salad the first night, reserving all the chicken fat that came off them. The roasted carcases were then boiled for soup the next day. On the third day we were very naughty indeed and made latkes cooked in the traditional manner in the chicken fat (schmaltz). Yummmmmmm.
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Back when I ate more meat, I could sometimes catch the local butchers just before closing and ask them for spare chicken carcasses and/or wingtips, which they were often surprised I wanted to pay for!
Chicken fat is absolute magic on anything. And the stock makes the best risottos. Ahh :)
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Back when I ate more meat, I could sometimes catch the local butchers just before closing and ask them for spare chicken carcasses and/or wingtips, which they were often surprised I wanted to pay for!
Chicken fat is absolute magic on anything. And the stock makes the best risottos. Ahh :)
Do you have some examples? I struggle to use chicken fat and feel bad about it. Also, gristle in stock is grim, how do I fix this?
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Back when I ate more meat, I could sometimes catch the local butchers just before closing and ask them for spare chicken carcasses and/or wingtips, which they were often surprised I wanted to pay for!
Chicken fat is absolute magic on anything. And the stock makes the best risottos. Ahh :)
Do you have some examples? I struggle to use chicken fat and feel bad about it. Also, gristle in stock is grim, how do I fix this?
Seconded. Magic on anything! One of life's little pleasures is chicken dripping lathered on toast finished with just a little pepper and sea salt. Mine barely ever lasts for more than that, but I do love potatoes or other root vegetables roasted in chicken fat. But I'd also just use it everywhere I'd otherwise use butter or oil in savoury dishes (if it lasted that long).
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Just to check, you meant rendered chicken fat right, not fatty bits of chicken like skin? If the latter, I think the answer is put them in your freezer until you have enough to be worth cooking down and filtering the bits out.
For spoonable, bit-free chicken fat, then like CrabbitDutchie said, any time you'd use butter or a vegetable cooking oil. Especially great with roast potatoes and in saucy dishes, but no one's going to complain if it goes in I dunno courgettes or scrambled eggs or something. It just tastes inherently wonderful.
I sieve home made chicken stock through a fine mesh sieve and that's enough for me, I don't find any gristle makes it through. If you're really particular you can line the sieve with a layer of cheese cloth but I don't find it necessary.
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Ah-ha, rendering, that's what I needed to look up. I get it now. Thanks folks!
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One of my favourite dishes I normally do with pheasant, but chicken is almost as good. A great way of using up the last pickings from the bones after you've has a roast and the fat really gives it a depth of flavour:
Fry a crushed garlic clove in a tablespoon or two of the leftover fat from roasting for a few seconds, then throw in the meat pickings with plenty of nutmeg and white pepper. Add a pot of cream and cooked pasta - we normally use fusilli - and stir until well mixed. Top with grated cheddar and parmesan and put under the grill until brown. Serve with a side salad. Mmmmmm.
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PhilB, you're killing me there, I want it like right now.
Ah-ha, rendering, that's what I needed to look up. I get it now. Thanks folks!
Aha! Yes, we're talking about the chicken equivalent of this: https://www.ocado.com/webshop/product/Cooks--Co-Duck-Fat/81107011 Although don't expect that sort of quantity if you're making it from scraps left over from a household of two, you're more likely to just get a couple of spoonfuls that can go in whatever you happen to cook next (or on toast).
If you make wings for a party or something though you can end up with loads. I love pouring the liquid from the trays into a jar, it separates into chicken aspic at the bottom and fat at the top, each flavoured with whatever hot sauce or other ingredients you used on the wings. Both are heavenly, absolutely miles above anything you can buy in a shop.
I do the same with bacon. Cook streaky bacon on low for 40 mins and drain off the fat. Super crispy bacon and the fat is !!!! in loads of dishes. When I see people grilling it and throwing away all the fat that drips off it makes me want to cry.
Gosh I really miss cooking with meat all of a sudden!
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I'm constantly impressed how frugal many of you are able to do the weekly groceries for.
We filled up our Tesco trolley yesterday and it came to £200, and including -£15 off of the special offers.
a few baby garments and a baby formula/food probably came to £40, and pet food around £15, but £140-£150 per trolley is pretty typical for us
We probably do this not quite weekly, but every 10 days or so. So monthly grocery bill is definitely north of £500/month
It's not even like we're buying the luxury brands, either (but neither do we buy the budget brands)
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Our lowest spend is £165.5 per adult. Highest is £232 per adult. (That's monthly).
We buy an organic veg box + extras from Ocado. We get it delivered as we don't have a car. We were using Sainsbury, but then Ocado gave us a year of free delivery so we switched.
I would say we do a lot of home cooking, and both are quite good cooks but we are also a bit foodie and spend too much on 'luxury' items.
Also spouse buys booze which increases the cost quickly. I don't drink, though I use wine in food sometimes.
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This is an exciting thread. I need to sit down and figure out my average monthly food spend before I post properly. I'm afraid I'll lose track of this before then, so I'm posting to follow.
What I spend on actual groceries is probably on the low end, but I eat out more than I like to admit to myself. I probably need to include the eating out as a subset of food to get a more accurate number.
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I'm too embarrassed to tell you all what my current average, but the good new is you have inspired me to try to cut it down significantly. I'll let you know how it goes. I'm going to aim for no more than £150 for me next month which would be a massive improvement!
I'm so careful with everything else that I think I've been very complacent about my grocery spending. Anyway, I'll report back!
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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.
I found another £20 or so after posting this (OH buying odd bits not in the big shop).
First three months of the year for supermarket food only are now £302, £333, £296. We were away (self-catering) Feb half term, which probably adds the extra 10% for multiple trips, small quantities, and Sainsburys instead of Asda.
Eating out was also a scandalous £46 in feb rather than usual tenner.
Non-food supermarket is about £40 a month.
So in terms of the actual question, fairly solid at about £100-110 per adult counting both kids as a third adult.
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I worked out what I've spent so far in 2019. I'm at £19.65 per week or about £80 per month. That's not counting eating out, which is sadly a little more than the groceries but is more social time than food cost.
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I have just had a heart attack reading this thread yesterday!!! Since then I have spoken to coworkers about their monthly grocery budgets and got another heart attack.
I am a bit embarrassed to say that over the past 24months I have been tracking my expenses precisely, we are spending slightly under £1,200 a month on grocery. This number also includes cleaning supplies, dishwasher tablets, laundry detergent etc... and personal hygiene (tooth brush, hand soap etc...). This is for a family of 4 (2 adults, a 3yo and a 5yo). What is even more shocking is that we do not eat at home during the day outside of week end (eat at work and food is free there), nor the kids eat at school (school provides) nor does it include alcohol as we rarely drink, and most of what we drink is bought in France on a holiday budget - not grocery budget (booze trip once a year filling a car up). It doesn’t include any dining out either.
I genuinely don’t get how I spend so much as we only have breakfasts and dinners at home during the week and we don’t eat meat/fish every day. We do, however eat fresh fruits, vegetables and lettuce everyday. When we do eat fish/meat, it’s usually organic as we are a bit spooked by GMOs - but our meat is by no mean “fillet mignon” grade.
Looking at people menus posted above, I am trying to understand if everything is included in those menus - and if their spend is genuine, as there is no mention made of any fruits/bread/cheese/vegetables/desserts at all. eg. When I read “Thursday tomato’s soup for dinner” - is that just it for dinner? No starter/desert/fruits/yogurt/even bread or anything else?
I can already hear a huge flaming coming my way - so as a way of example - here is what a typical breakfast would look like for me and my wife (actually the exact same everyday) - 1 bowl of fruit and oats mixed in yogurt each. Costings: 1 box of fresh blueberries shared between us - £3, 2 passion fruits (1 each) at 80p each - £1.6, 1/2 pot of plain yogurt £0.8, some oat £0.2 I’d guess and 1 banana for both of us 30p. That healthy breakfast costs us £5.9 per day - that’s already £175 per month...
I mean even a lettuce every dinner and lunch/dinner over the week-end at £1.25 a pop - that almost £40 a month on lettuce. Milk? The kids eat cereals in the morning and have a snack in the afternoon when they come back from school. That 2 pints a day - there goes another £30-35 a month on milk...
So I am genuinely amazed how families manage to spend 300-400 a month on grocery, and eat relatively healthy. And although I realise we could shave a couple of 100s monthly - I don’t get how we could literally cut our budget by 60%...
Step 1 - Face punch
Step 2 - Put on a fire proof outfit ahead of the forum flaming...
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I have no business on this thread as I'm in Italy not the UK and I suspect that food is a lot cheaper here. We spend around Euro 400-500 a month for a family of 4 (kids are 7 and 10). What brings our costs down is shopping almost exclusively at the cheap supermarket (similar to Aldi) and at the inexpensive open air markets. We tend to avoid things like blueberries and passion fruit (as much as I love them) apart from special treats as they cost so much. We eat meat around once a week.
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It all comes down to mindset when shopping. If you go shopping thinking 'this is what I want and I'm buying it whatever the price (eg passionfruit and blueberries) then the stores make very healthy profits from you. If you go thinking 'I wonder what's good value today?' then you save a fortune.
Have you ever wondered how so many different supermarkets can all claim that they are the cheapest? That's because sensible shoppers adapt their menus to what's on special. As a result, and because different supermarkets have specials on different things, they can say "The typical basket for one of our shoppers last week was £x and it would have cost you more if you bought it from our competitors". Of course the typical basket at their competitors is different because they had different specials.
Next time you shop, don't go straight to the passionfruit and blueberries, look at the other fruit and see where the deals are. Then you might find yourself eating strawberries, apples and melon one week, rasperries, peaches and grapes the next, etc. And best of all get yourself down to the market for all manner of interesting fruit and veg at £1 a bowl.
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You eat blueberries and passion fruit every DAY?! Imagine eating in-season peaches, or tinned pears instead. Fruit budget halved instantly. Apply that logic everywhere and... ta da!
Obviously this is a crude oversimplification, but as with many things the tactic is twofold:
1. Pay less for what you do use.
2. Use less or substitute.
This is the whole of frugality.
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I can already hear a huge flaming coming my way - so as a way of example - here is what a typical breakfast would look like for me and my wife (actually the exact same everyday) - 1 bowl of fruit and oats mixed in yogurt each. Costings: 1 box of fresh blueberries shared between us - £3, 2 passion fruits (1 each) at 80p each - £1.6, 1/2 pot of plain yogurt £0.8, some oat £0.2 I’d guess and 1 banana for both of us 30p. That healthy breakfast costs us £5.9 per day - that’s already £175 per month...
I have a fairly similar breakfast. I have oats + milk every single day. Today I also had a handful of mixed nuts, some blueberries, some cherry yoghurt and a coffee. 1kg of oats from Tesco cost £1.10 and lasts me for weeks. The mixed nuts were from Asda, 200g for £1.99 which again will last for weeks (I usually prefer to buy larger individual packs of hazelnuts, almonds and walnuts.) The blueberries were £2 for 250g (Tesco) and would last me for probably 4-5 days. The Yeo Valley Cherry Yoghurt (500g pot) was 2 for £2 and again will last several days. Don't remember how much the coffee beans cost, but I doubt it's more than a few pence per cup. I'd guess that's around £1 per day on breakfast for me.
I mean even a lettuce every dinner and lunch/dinner over the week-end at £1.25 a pop - that almost £40 a month on lettuce. Milk? The kids eat cereals in the morning and have a snack in the afternoon when they come back from school. That 2 pints a day - there goes another £30-35 a month on milk...
I'm really not sure where I could go to pay £1.25 for a lettuce (admittedly, I mostly eat salad from the garden, but I've never seen a lettuce at more than 75p or so.) Milk is a little over 25p per pint, so 2 pints a day should be less than £20 per month?
I think it's a combination of comparing a four person household with one or two people, relatively expensive tastes (having passion fruit which have to be flown into the UK to eat every day is never going to be cheap) and shopping in really expensive places. How much food gets thrown out?
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I eat two fried eggs, two pieces of bread, coffee with milk, and often but not always a bit of fruit for breakfast. That might be a mini apple, plum, or mandarin orange. Today I had a handful of blueberries, but I don't buy them often because they are expensive. The eggs are £2 for 15, so that is 29p per day. Bread is about 45p to 90p, depending on where, so that is about 6p or 13p a day, assuming a loaf lasts a week. I put it in the freezer after a couple days to keep better.
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We have soaked oats for breakfast but I buy frozen mixed berries at £3.75 per kilo at Tesco to avoid any wastage. OH puts his on the night before to defrost and I leave mine out in the morning for a late breakfast.
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IMO part of economizing on groceries is eating the local diet (whatever that is) ie. whatever foods are common and cheap where you are, rather than exotic foods. Here in Italy, we eat lots of pasta and risotto because pasta and risotto rice are dirt cheap here as these are everyday foods. I love basmati rice but this is not something we eat every day as it is "exotic" here and therefore expensive. I imagine that this might be reversed in a place like the UK with a significant South Asian population. Risotto rice might be more expensive than basmati where you are.
Also, it's important not to waste foods or buy ingredients that you can't use up. So our menus are often - roast chicken for dinner on a Sunday night. Then I make chicken stock in the pressure cooker on Monday night. Tuesday or Wednesday, we make risotto (with whatever vegetable is cheap and in season - mushrooms, asparagus, zucchine or just saffron) out of risotto rice and the chicken stock. Then we eat risotto for dinner with a big salad (in which we use up leftover beans, cheese etc.) and we usually end up eating left over risotto for lunch the next day or I bread the risotto and fry it to eat as leftovers. Leftover pasta or boiled vegetables are used up the next day in a frittata.
In the UK, I'm sure you have foods traditions that use up leftovers similar to these Italian foods. For example, bread and butter pudding is a great way to use up stale bread and fill kids' bellies. Fried rice is a good use for leftover rice.
And we always buy the generic brand or cheap supermarket brand of products unless we can really tell the difference. For example, the cheap supermarket brand dishwasher tabs work just as well as the name brand. There is a British TV show called "Eat Well for Less" that runs a bunch of experiments on this and the supermarket brands often win the taste tests.
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I think it's a combination of comparing a four person household with one or two people, relatively expensive tastes (having passion fruit which have to be flown into the UK to eat every day is never going to be cheap) and shopping in really expensive places. How much food gets thrown out?
My numbers upthread are for basically the same family unit, and are a third of the amount even adding the eating out and non-food bits back in. My 5yo gets fed lunch at school in the week, but everything else we eat is in that number.
Agree it's probably a combination of the other things. Would be interesting to know what the food/non-food split is as well, as it's easy to spend a lot on cleaning and toiletries.
My standard breakfast is (soy milk) porridge with some combination of syrup/chia seeds/raisins. Well under 50p. Kids have (supermarket brand, non-sugary) cereals.
Soy milk is 59p/litre, cow milk is about £1.25/4 pints, so roughly the same. We probably spend £5-6 a week on milk, so not far off you.
Our weekly food shop includes fresh apples, pears, satsumas, bananas, sometimes grapes, occasionally blueberries/mango/melon/pineapple, cucumber, peppers, broccoli, spinach, mangetout, babycorn. Add in tinned fruit/tomatoes and frozen peas/sweetcorn. Noone is going short of fruit and veg here, but noone is eating passionfruit every day either.
I'm a bit vague on both price of lettuce or how much we get through, because we have salad leaves in the greenhouse.
More generally, we're not far off vegan at home. Kids have cow milk (esp #1), soft cheese and yoghurt, we all have ice cream occasionally, and there's (unsurprisingly) been a lot of chocolate lately. But we don't buy meat or eggs. A meal's worth of tofu is comparable in cost to cheap meat, but most other protein sources (tinned beans, dried pulses) are cheap. Quorn and other fake meats and cheeses are expensive, but we don't eat them. Generally everything made from scratch. I think this helps us, but there are meat eaters in this thread with similar costs.
Don't know what else to say. £1200 a months is eye-watering.
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Great advice so far.
In terms of what the figures include, I did a breakdown in my original comment. It boiled down to:
£110 per month spent in supermarkets, for food to eat at home plus loo roll and washing up liquid and whatever. Includes a bit of casual hosting.
+ £10 for shampoo and toothpaste and whatever purchased in non-supermarket shops
+ £25 per month lunches at work when I haven't brought in my own
+ £120 per year hosting a big birthday party, average £10 per month if you prefer
I'm a weirdo who doesn't eat breakfast, not for frugal or diet reasons but because it makes me feel queasy. My hunger kicks in at about 10am, by which time I'm already at work on weekdays.
I am also only feeding myself, and am a small female person. Despite being pretty physically active my daily calorie requirements are just under 2000. Not that I track, but for approximate context.
Typical weekday food looks something like:
- 10am: small breakfast, most often a handful of nuts, dried fruit etc which I keep in my desk. Or sometimes I bring in bananas or clementines or something. Or sometimes (esp in the winter) I make porridge or miso soup.
- Lunch: either another portion of yesterday's dinner, or canteen meal for £3.50
- Afternoon snack: if I'm not going straight home, which I'm usually not, at around 4.30-5ish I'll have more nuts and dried or fresh fruit to keep me going.
- Dinner: I pass several small supermarkets on the way home and check out the reduced section for any bargains or inspiration. This is by far the most variable bit so I won't list out the possible options. I aim for at least A Protein and A Vegetable, although sometimes I just want mac & cheese or something. I'm also not above Things On Bread, or a spinach and cheese omelette if I'm too tired to cook something that takes time or chopping.
Weekends it's more like:
- 11am brunch: usually some combination of toast, eggs, tomatoes, cucumbers, cheese, smoked mackerel (lives in the freezer!), hummus, tahini, yoghurt, peanut butter and jam...
- Mid afternoon: a small food. Usually fruit. Sometimes with additions like peanut butter. Or chocolate digestives :) Or cheese and pickle on crackers. Tzaziki with veg. I'm making myself hungry.
- Late evening: cook up a proper big meal with all washing and chopping of ingredients, and leftovers for a couple of days' lunches. Usually vegetabley. Common standbys are egg fried rice, veg thai curry, risotto, pasta (puttanesca, creamy/cheesy, or vegetabley), noodle stir fry, chana masala or daal with rice and pickle and yoghurt, halloumi/paneer/egg curry with rice, etc.
Does that give a reasonable picture?
I'm trying to think of how I approach supermarkets. I definitely have a mental list of things that if they're on sale I just buy. Stuff like my fav tinned tomatoes that are theoretically £1 each but are frequently on sale for 50p, I only buy at the lower price. If there are three packs of tilda rice reduced for their best before I'm buying them all, that best before is a lie. Other things are on my 'auto-buy if reduced/on significant sale' as treats, like smoked salmon (*something* treat-worthy will pop up at least once a week). But for the most part I go in with an open mind, looking for 'some veg' and 'some fruit' and buying whatever looks like the best quality for the price, rather than heading straight for the purple sprouting broccoli and blueberries or what have you.
I do eat mostly pescetarian and don't buy booze. I only buy the organic produce if it looks noticeably better than the standard stuff, not as a matter of policy. (I actually have massive problems with the Organic Association accreditation standards and would actively prefer not to buy them if possible, don't get me started).
There are definitely parts of my routine that don't scale to a family of four. I can make a meal around a single very reduced item, and it's very easy to avoid food waste as I'm only catering to my own tastes. On the other hand, there are economies of scales I can't access due to lack of storage space (I have one fridge shelf and one kitchen cupboard) or not being able to get through perishable stuff fast enough by myself. And I ate more cooked food and less Things On Bread when I had a spouse who shared responsibility for making meals happen.
I do think you would be able to reduce your budget by say 30% without even making major changes, just doing the quick wins. E.g. buy yoghurt in the 1kg £1 tubs, swap out the blueberries and passionfruits for whatever soft fruit is going (and have frozen ones ready for when nothing good is going). I'm sure you can take your £6 for two servings to £4 without any trouble or loss in quality, just by adding 'price' to your list of factors you take into consideration when making your selection.
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Good grief londonbanker! My total expenses for everything per year are £4K less than your grocery spend! There is only just me in my household though.
I second all the good advice that has been provided on here. I’ve cut my grocery budget by 20% since joining these fair forums. A few things that have helped me:
1. Roasting a whole chicken (with legs and everything) gives me two dinners and enough left overs for all my salads for work. I used to buy prepared chicken in packets that was costing me a fortune.
2. Non-perishables I look for every time I shop not when I need them. As a result I always buy when they are on discount and then I buy in bulk.
3. Items like yogurts - I buy what’s on offer not just my favourite flavour. This tactic can be applied to everything.
4. There are loads of good substitutes. Supermarket own brand weetabix 50% off, carrots and broccoli are really cheap, 25p tins of beans etc. As sea_saw says you’ll be able to cut a third off your bill barely trying.
Lastly a lettuce costs me about 45p. Are you buying individual leaves picked by fairies and washed in the fountains of Paradise or something?
You can do this. We believe in you. We want to hear about you getting the bill under £1000 and then under £800!
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My dinners tend to be pretty basic because I'm cooking for one. I tend to make a one-dish meal and then have something like decaf tea and biscuits/cookies for dessert. Sometimes I have ice cream, and sometimes I make a dessert like cake or most recently peach cobbler (from canned peaches). If I have vegetables with dinner, they tend to be from frozen mixed vegetables. This is more me being lazy than me being cheap.
Tonight I made spaghetti (1/3 of a package of Sainsbury's 20p basics spaghetti= 7p), and sauce. I sauteed a pinch of dried chipotle flakes, a dab of minced garlic from a jar in the fridge, about a half cup of frozen minced onion, and a small handful of frozen chopped sweet peppers in about a tablespoon of olive oil. Then I added a little bit of canned kidney beans (1/3 of 30p can = 10p) and about 2/3 cup of frozen lean beef mince (about 1/5 or less of a £4.75 bag so 95p?), browned that, added a package of Sainsbury's basics chopped tomatoes (30p), and simmered it all with salt and pepper and a good shake of dried basil from a big £1 bag from Tiger (maybe 5p worth of basil?). I cut some thin slices of cheddar cheese to put on top when I served it because that's what I had handy. The frozen items let me avoid waste since I'm cooking in small quantities, but I'll still have enough sauce for at least one more meal.
The numbers get complicated, but maybe £2 total for dinner plus a lunch of leftovers to take to work the next day. With another 50p for breakfast and maybe 50p for tea and biscuits or a little fruit, that makes £3.00 for a full day of food.
I've been able to save a lot with vouchers this year. I got one for £18 off my first online Sainsbury's order, and then when I shopped in the local store I kept getting vouchers for £12 off orders. I was reluctant to try online grocery shopping, but it's helped me to be more careful about what I buy. It's useful to be able to check my cupboards and refrigerator when deciding what I need.
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Question to both Kwill and the world at large: do you notice any difference in quality between frozen food and "fresh" food? We at last have a normal-sized fridge-freezer so I have been eyeing up all the frozen ingredients (as opposed to prepared meals) at Aldi. They seem cheaper by weight. Is there any downside?
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Question to both Kwill and the world at large: do you notice any difference in quality between frozen food and "fresh" food? We at last have a normal-sized fridge-freezer so I have been eyeing up all the frozen ingredients (as opposed to prepared meals) at Aldi. They seem cheaper by weight. Is there any downside?
I love frozen chopped onions and frozen chopped peppers. I wouldn't defrost and use them on salads because the freezing affects the texture and makes them a little softer, but they are great for heating in oil in a pan with other ingredients. A lot of recipes start with oil, minced garlic, and chopped onions, so if you have a jar of minced onions as well, you can skip a lot of prep and just start cooking.
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I always have a bag of frozen veg in the freezer. It works really well for adding extra veg to pasta bakes, risotto, etc. Anything where you are boiling or cooking in sauce.
I don't use it for meals where veg is the 'star', e.g. if I'm making roasted cauliflower 'steaks' then I will use fresh.
Frozen fruit is brilliant for porridge, smoothies, cakes etc.
I would use more except I have a tiny freezer and there isn't room for everything.
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When I travel with my wife in the winter (full-time living in our truck camper on the road in Mexico), we average $150 per month per person. Despite limited counter space and a very small propane refrigerator, we cook everything from scratch, but still go out to a cheap local eatery every few days. From mid-April to October, I am alone and still living in my truck camper full-time, but I don't cook whatsoever and my diet takes a serious hit and tops $300 a month. Got to take serious action in that area.
This is a thread for UK food costs, as they aren't really comparable with overseas.
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I regularly use frozen diced onion to cut down on prep time too. Frozen peas and sweetcorn are always on hand for an extra addition to any meal that feels a bit small. I will freeze left over kale, leeks, rhubarb etc if i'm not needing them straight away. And I love my frozen berry mix at breakfast.
I did read that frozen fruits/veggies tend to be fresher as they are frozen as soon as they are picked. How true that is in reality I really don't know.
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I could have sworn I did a freezer staples post somewhere but can't find it in my entire post history. Weird.
I really love using the freezer for components, as well as prepped meals.
I definitely cannot recommend frozen chopped spinach enough, I use that at least weekly. I've used frozen broccoli and similar veg before, it's handy to have a bag around to add a fresh element to 'cupboard' meals even if you get through 10 fresh broccolis in between having to break it out.
I personally love onion prep so I wouldn't buy those pre chopped. What I occasionally do is buy a large bag of onions, chop and fry them THEN freeze, so they're ready to go right into a dish – also very space efficient compared to storing raw stuff (I get through a LOT of onion, which is why I am an onion chopping wizard).
Frozen minced garlic and ginger blocks that you can buy in asian shops are significantly better quality than the pasteurised stuff you get in jars (although I also have the jars cos I'm a lazy sod).
I like frozen berry mixes. Add yoghurt and honey and you have an instant dessert. Frozen grapes are an A+ hot weather snack.
For super mustachianism, a freezer bag full of carrot, onion, leek etc ends can turn into a stock. Parmesan rinds go in there too (google it, I'm not kidding!). Chicken carcasses if you do chicken.
I basically like to use the freezer as a time capsule. So many things in the reduced section freeze just fine and mean I can buy them for 15p and then have them when I want them. Veg going to go bad before you can use it, quick blanche, dry and freeze. Etc.
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According to money dashboard we spend on average £540 a month for 2 adults and a child. I'm sure we could cut it down, but we already try to get the cheapest food possible. We cook most of our own food, and try to avoid brand names.
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Time to change!!
I am making a real effort to lower grocery expenses. We have averaged £450 a month this year, just us two and a baby! This is the result of failed planning and walking round grabbing stuff in the supermarket when I should really plan carefully and stick to it.
I am trying to stick to £60 a week to build up the current account a bit easier.. I have made a pen and paper list and stuck to it. I achieved it this week by batch cooking two main meals, hungover, on Sunday morning. I made a Thai style red curry for a few dinners and a Mexican burrito bowl inspired batch cook for work lunches. This should take us up to Wednesday night, then we will use things from the freezer and rebuild the groceries again on Saturday morning. I think if I make my list towards the end of the week and plan I should be ok to stick to the budget.
Weekly Shop
Baby quick food top up £4.00
Nappies £3.00
Formula £11.00
Bread £1.00
Onions £0.80
Carrots £0.50
Broccoli £0.60
Chicken £12.00
Curry paste £2.00
Coconut milk £1.00
Garlic £0.40
Kidney beans £0.70
Lime £0.50
Peppers £2.00
Fajita mix £2.00
Salsa £1.50
Eggs £2.00
Salad £1.00
Sauce £1.00
Apples £1.60
Treats £2.00
Total £50.60
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Chicken £12.00
Yikes! How many chickens was that?
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I had a bit of a browse in Aldi's frozen section today. I can't eat onion or garlic so alas they're out! Apart from onion, chips and peas it was mainly "mixed themed veg", which I suppose I could buy and separate out but that's not something I have room for in my life right now.
However! They had loads of plain cook-from-frozen fish fillets. As in, just fish, not part of some meal with sauce and what have you. So I bought five salmon fillets (BabySLTD likes salmon a lot) for the price of two fresh ones AND I don't have to worry about using them up. They also had cod, smoked haddock and tuna, so if the salmon works out I'll definitely be trying some more!
I also had a scout through the frozen fruit section. They had lots of berries, so I got some for BabySLTD to have with yoghurt. However, the texture of defrosted berries makes me want to barf, I don't like "bits" (which berries added to yoghurt or porridge are), and I don't do mixed berries if I can help it. So I'm planning to use some of the frozen blueberries next time I want to bake (to make this, but with berries: https://www.renbehan.com/in-season-easy-rhubarb-traybake/) but I don't think it will do anything for my own personal fruit needs. I do, it has to be said, like a tin of fruit, though, and I could definitely make more of an effort in that department.
Weirdly, Mr SLTD has banned frozen spinach from our house. I have yet to get him to articulate exactly what is so terrible about it (something about it being wet), but I am forbidden from ever ever buying it again.
Our nearest supermarket is actually a whopping great Waitrose, so I suppose I should figure out if buying any frozen veg from there (or delivered from Ocado) is cheaper per kg than buying fresh from Aldi.
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Chicken £12.00
Yikes! How many chickens was that?
6 large chicken breasts, not a lot!
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I had a bit of a browse in Aldi's frozen section today. I can't eat onion or garlic so alas they're out! Apart from onion, chips and peas it was mainly "mixed themed veg", which I suppose I could buy and separate out but that's not something I have room for in my life right now.
However! They had loads of plain cook-from-frozen fish fillets. As in, just fish, not part of some meal with sauce and what have you. So I bought five salmon fillets (BabySLTD likes salmon a lot) for the price of two fresh ones AND I don't have to worry about using them up. They also had cod, smoked haddock and tuna, so if the salmon works out I'll definitely be trying some more!
I also had a scout through the frozen fruit section. They had lots of berries, so I got some for BabySLTD to have with yoghurt. However, the texture of defrosted berries makes me want to barf, I don't like "bits" (which berries added to yoghurt or porridge are), and I don't do mixed berries if I can help it. So I'm planning to use some of the frozen blueberries next time I want to bake (to make this, but with berries: https://www.renbehan.com/in-season-easy-rhubarb-traybake/) but I don't think it will do anything for my own personal fruit needs. I do, it has to be said, like a tin of fruit, though, and I could definitely make more of an effort in that department.
Weirdly, Mr SLTD has banned frozen spinach from our house. I have yet to get him to articulate exactly what is so terrible about it (something about it being wet), but I am forbidden from ever ever buying it again.
Our nearest supermarket is actually a whopping great Waitrose, so I suppose I should figure out if buying any frozen veg from there (or delivered from Ocado) is cheaper per kg than buying fresh from Aldi.
Good shout on the frozen fish. Just remembered about the Alaskan frozen salmon fillets (caught in the wild) you can get in Tesco. Much better than farmed salmon. I will have give some to BabyZola!
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Good find on the fish SLTD! I bet it's effectively fresher than much of the fish in the refrigerated section.
Defrosted berries are awful. I eat them still-frozen myself. In hot weather it can really hit the spot. This might be one of those things I didn't realise was strange though!
I also don't like frozen whole spinach, it has the same sad gloopy texture as tinned spinach. But frozen chopped spinach is the bomb. All the rich green taste of spinach but without the texture. It's in tiny pieces that look like finely chopped fresh herbs, great in pasta sauces and risotto. Think https://144f2a3a2f948f23fc61-ca525f0a2beaec3e91ca498facd51f15.ssl.cf3.rackcdn.com/uploads/food_portal_data/recipes/recipe/hero_article_image/2089/letterbox_RiSOTTO_NO-CHEESE_P_593x426.jpg rather than https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSUoPmrEXnYtz55n4OqlexDHcZ7qPiPpFmcMbiLmF1AOlked4p-
I actually read on a trusted cooking site that to use frozen whole spinach you're supposed to first squeeze it dry. I haven't tried it but defrosting then squeezing it is basically the opposite of what I want from frozen veg.
Zola, I'm assuming that was like 3x packets of two chicken breasts. Have you considered using other chicken cuts? E.g. thighs can often work as well if not better than breasts. Of course I don't know what dish you were making, obviously this doesn't apply if you were cooking e.g. chicken kiev or something...
The other question is quantities - how many meals/portions did those six breasts make? Could their quantity in the recipe be reduced and veg/grains increased to compensate? Always worth thinking about how to best deploy your most expensive ingredients!
Finally my local butchers sells chicken breasts by weight for much less than that I think. (It's been a while since I cooked with chicken).
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I generally find that you can pretty well buy a whole chicken for the price of two chicken breasts, so that's what we almost always do. When you're in practice it only takes 5 mins to joint and bone a chicken if you want to make casseroles, etc with the leg meat. Wings go in the freezer until you have enough for a meal. Alternatively, just take the breasts off and roast what's left for a roast chicken dinner - that way you can get the legs and wings beautifully cooked without any stress about drying out the breast.
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I use frozen blueberries for blueberry muffins and they are yum.
Speaking of frozen fish. I've never known how to cook them without them going all watery. Does anyone have any cooking tips?
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I use frozen blueberries for blueberry muffins and they are yum.
Our freezer still contains a fair stash of frozen elderberries which we harvested from the hedgerows on the cycle path into town last summer. They are also yum. Must make more muffins.
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I add my frozen berries to porridge, the texture is completely immaterial by the time they've been cooked.
Still have a couple of kg of last year's wild raspberries, a couple of handfuls of blueberries and some blackberries.
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Good find on the fish SLTD! I bet it's effectively fresher than much of the fish in the refrigerated section.
Defrosted berries are awful. I eat them still-frozen myself. In hot weather it can really hit the spot. This might be one of those things I didn't realise was strange though!
I also don't like frozen whole spinach, it has the same sad gloopy texture as tinned spinach. But frozen chopped spinach is the bomb. All the rich green taste of spinach but without the texture. It's in tiny pieces that look like finely chopped fresh herbs, great in pasta sauces and risotto. Think https://144f2a3a2f948f23fc61-ca525f0a2beaec3e91ca498facd51f15.ssl.cf3.rackcdn.com/uploads/food_portal_data/recipes/recipe/hero_article_image/2089/letterbox_RiSOTTO_NO-CHEESE_P_593x426.jpg rather than https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSUoPmrEXnYtz55n4OqlexDHcZ7qPiPpFmcMbiLmF1AOlked4p-
I actually read on a trusted cooking site that to use frozen whole spinach you're supposed to first squeeze it dry. I haven't tried it but defrosting then squeezing it is basically the opposite of what I want from frozen veg.
Zola, I'm assuming that was like 3x packets of two chicken breasts. Have you considered using other chicken cuts? E.g. thighs can often work as well if not better than breasts. Of course I don't know what dish you were making, obviously this doesn't apply if you were cooking e.g. chicken kiev or something...
The other question is quantities - how many meals/portions did those six breasts make? Could their quantity in the recipe be reduced and veg/grains increased to compensate? Always worth thinking about how to best deploy your most expensive ingredients!
Finally my local butchers sells chicken breasts by weight for much less than that I think. (It's been a while since I cooked with chicken).
The meat was from the butcher, it wasn't enough. It was to make 12 small meals. Not enough meat really. I will go for 2kg and try again this week!
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£105 spent today .... this budget reducing isn't easy! Needed a few house staples...
On the plus side we got a hell of a lot of food.... a lot of it for the freezer also as backup.
I got two bags of wild Alaskan Salmon fillets which I am looking forward to trying with baby Zola.
Meal prep tomorrow morning for a few days and then we have lots of greens and frozen food for the rest of the week. The aim is to not do any grocery top ups this week at all.
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@Zola. Forgive me if you've mentioned this before, but have you tried Aldi's formula? Its half the price of the branded stuff.
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The meat was from the butcher, it wasn't enough. It was to make 12 small meals. Not enough meat really. I will go for 2kg and try again this week!
To be fair £1 of meat per portion is not bad at all IMO! But depending on the recipe I'd definitely think about using thigh meat instead.
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Haha, so finally got round to doing April finance stuff.
Between being away for a week getting fed by the in-laws and my parents, and eating down the Brexshit stocks a bit since the apocalypse isn't happening till Halloween...
...we spent £172 on supermarket food for four people for the whole month.
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@Zola. Forgive me if you've mentioned this before, but have you tried Aldi's formula? Its half the price of the branded stuff.
I haven't sadly.. I am based in NI, we don't have Aldi. My little man is 10 months now, so it wont be long until he is off the formula anyway.
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How has peoples' food spending changed in light of the lockdown?
I think our grocery budget is probably ticking over around £650-700 month (2 adults, 1 baby, 3 cats), but that also includes about £100 for pet food and £70 in alcohol.
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It didn’t change until my youngest son came home from Vietnam and moved in. Then it went up 200.
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How has peoples' food spending changed in light of the lockdown?
It's approximately triple what it was (five adults in the house vs two.) A touch under £500? No pets, no meat, and not much alcohol though.
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A bit more alcohol for us. Shopping less and eating from cupboards more, but probably spending a bit more per shop as they don't have everything we normally get so making some more expensive substitutions.
I've decided not to track spending this year as it's not going to be a representative year and I can't quite be bothered.
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For the 2 of us we spend 300/month.
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I'm constantly impressed how much less other peoples' grocery bills seem to be.
typical day's spending could easily look like this-
breakfast £1.50 x2
lunch £2 x2
dinner £3 x2
drinks/snacks £2 x2
baby supplies £1
washing/kitchen supplies 50p
alcohol £4
pet supplies £2
Daily total: £24.50
£24.5 *30 days = £735.. yeah, this would pretty typical for us. We mostly shop Tesco and buy mid range brands. Not the budget stuff, but not the gourmet stuff either.
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I’m scared to calculate our grocery bills.
We buy quite a few luxuries like blueberries, golden kiwis, salmon, cod etc.
Just did a quick estimation, about £400 already in April with 12 days to go!
This is for 2 adults and 2 kids under 6.
We don’t drink much alcohol, although have spent a bit more since lockdown
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Normal month would be under £500 for 4 adults (2 adults and 2 older teens that are capable of eating their body weight every day) - mostly shopping at Aldi and scratch cooking / prep.
Since ‘the thing’ we’ve avoided supermarkets other than Waitrose and in-town M&S - neither are busy, so fewer people to catch anything from. That has come at a cost - I reckon we’ll end up spending nearly 50% more in April. We have had some very nice pre-prepared food this month, the excuse of ‘if parents aren’t well enough to prepare dinner, at least the teens can warm stuff up’ . M&S Roast Lamb anyone?
Back to Aldi soon.
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I just had a look. In 2019 I spent a total of £1300 on 'groceries', so £108 per month. This includes some non-food items like loo roll and pretty regular but low-key entertaining. But it excludes my work canteen and cafes/restaurants. The bulk of my food is definitely prepared at home but even 3 meals per week or so will have an effect.
In March of this year I spent £162. This included some big shops to give me a 2 week stockpile, which I have more or less kept rolling, as well as food-consumed-outside-the-home dropping to 0 meals/£s by week 2 of the month.
I've already spent £110 in April (it's currently the 19th). This has covered 2 adults, as my partner moved in. We're now going to start splitting the costs.
I also switched to fancypants veg delivery. It's probably twice as expensive as supermarket veg, but it's definitely tastier and more varied. And I'm eating a lot more of it now that it's arriving in bulk AND I have the time to prepare it.
Weird times...!
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How has peoples' food spending changed in light of the lockdown?
I think our grocery budget is probably ticking over around £650-700 month (2 adults, 1 baby, 3 cats), but that also includes about £100 for pet food and £70 in alcohol.
Definitely nipping to our local shop (Co-op) a whole lot less for evening treats, but did do a top up there today for some fresh veg. Probably on for £150 for the month for two adults which is about the same for us
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How has peoples' food spending changed in light of the lockdown?
I think our grocery budget is probably ticking over around £650-700 month (2 adults, 1 baby, 3 cats), but that also includes about £100 for pet food and £70 in alcohol.
Definitely nipping to our local shop (Co-op) a whole lot less for evening treats, but did do a top up there today for some fresh veg. Probably on for £150 for the month for two adults which is about the same for us
So you're spending £75/month per person on food?
How is that even possible? Are you literally on beans and rice all day?
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Our grocery bill doesn’t include alcohol or pet food. We also eat out once or twice a week. But we also have people over for dinner.
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Accounting for the fact that I had stocked up massively before NewBabySLTD was born shortly pre-lockdown and we don't have meat or alcohol in Lent anyway (but bought a whole lamb shoulder for Easter!)... we' have spent a bit less. We were all home all the time before, and did a weekly Aldi shop, but it has highlighted just how often we were popping out for treats, mostly to Waitrose. Now we've been either lwtting the whim pass or making the effort to bake.
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How has peoples' food spending changed in light of the lockdown?
I think our grocery budget is probably ticking over around £650-700 month (2 adults, 1 baby, 3 cats), but that also includes about £100 for pet food and £70 in alcohol.
Definitely nipping to our local shop (Co-op) a whole lot less for evening treats, but did do a top up there today for some fresh veg. Probably on for £150 for the month for two adults which is about the same for us
So you're spending £75/month per person on food?
How is that even possible? Are you literally on beans and rice all day?
Jack Monroe's eating on £10 per week series a couple of years ago shows that it doesn't have to be rice and beans. I think there were a couple of newspapers running copycat style things too.
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How has peoples' food spending changed in light of the lockdown?
I think our grocery budget is probably ticking over around £650-700 month (2 adults, 1 baby, 3 cats), but that also includes about £100 for pet food and £70 in alcohol.
Definitely nipping to our local shop (Co-op) a whole lot less for evening treats, but did do a top up there today for some fresh veg. Probably on for £150 for the month for two adults which is about the same for us
So you're spending £75/month per person on food?
How is that even possible? Are you literally on beans and rice all day?
Jack Monroe's eating on £10 per week series a couple of years ago shows that it doesn't have to be rice and beans. I think there were a couple of newspapers running copycat style things too.
We very frequently spend less than £5 on a day's food for two adults and we live pretty high off the hog. If we had to we could manage pretty well on that budget - although we would need a separate budget for alcohol!
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We could live on that and it wouldn't be miserable but would be organised and disciplined. In fact, I think around the time I joined this forum our budget (food and cleaning, not alcohol) was £200/month for two people.
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How has peoples' food spending changed in light of the lockdown?
I think our grocery budget is probably ticking over around £650-700 month (2 adults, 1 baby, 3 cats), but that also includes about £100 for pet food and £70 in alcohol.
Definitely nipping to our local shop (Co-op) a whole lot less for evening treats, but did do a top up there today for some fresh veg. Probably on for £150 for the month for two adults which is about the same for us
So you're spending £75/month per person on food?
How is that even possible? Are you literally on beans and rice all day?
No, most definitely not :) to be clear that includes all toiletries and cleaning stuff but no alcohol, also we have no pets. I don’t drink and we capture it separately so that is an extra £15/month. My OH likes beer but brews much of it himself.
I think we eat pretty ‘normal’ but I am coming to realise that normal varies massively between people but also over time, as our normal has changed. A quick snapshot of our food last night for tea was fish, chips and peas. Breakfast I have a milkshake most days, lunch just eaten out in the sun was a lovely big bowl of salad and tonight (and tomorrow night) will be spaghetti Bolognese. We both love our food so would not do this by choice but we have things I consider luxuries that we could easily cut out to make it even cheaper.
I really do believe it is what you are used to tho. In the example given above for a days food, you spent more on alcohol and snacks than we do in a day for all of our food. If you cut that in half (cost wise) that would £120/month you would save.
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Oh, I totally agree that it's one of those "what you are used to."
I'm sure that if it really mattered to us we could halve our grocery bill, as I can see where a lot of it goes - we do buy quite a lot of higher markup stuff. If needed, we could easily switch the cats to dry food only, use table salt instead of the fancy sea-salt flakes that my wife likes to buy, eat way less meats, use less olive oil, buy more frozens etc.
If it were just me I'd probably do a little bit of that, but at the end of the day we're fortunate that our grocery spending is about 6-7% of our household gross income, so we're quite happy spending that amount, and I don't see that cutting it to 4-5% would reap huge rewards.
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Maldon's? :) I keep a tub of that at the table for finishing things with. But I use much cheaper sea salt (this kind of thing: https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/254065580) at the stove. (I think table salt tastes funny). Total waste to dissolve delicate salt flakes in the pasta water IMO!
If I'm getting this right you spend about £500 per month on food for the two adults? I can't quite imagine what eats up the money in Tescos mid range brands but I don't have a breakdown of what I spend the money on myself to really compare.
As a quick check, yesterday which felt like a very foodie day I ate:
Breakfast: a crumpet with butter, cup of tea (25p?) - I freely admit to not being a breakfast person and this is usually just the tea honestly
Lunch: smoked mackerel fillet (£1), asparagus (came in a veg box but let's call it £1 for my portion), two fried eggs (40p), two slices of toast (.....20p?!)
Snacks: couple tofu snacks (10p and you're all sleeping on how amazing these are), an apple (50p, I like nice apples), cup of tea and a chocolate digestive (20p?)
Dinner: spinach and paneer curry (let's call the vegbox 'true spinach' £2.50, paneer £1.50, onion and cooking oil and spices 50p), with daal (red lentils, ghee and spices... 50p?), home made chapatis (let's call the flour 50p) and garlic pickle and yoghurt (it's also not 50p but for my sanity) = total £6 = made three portions = £2.
Total £4.50 for me over the last 24 hours, and for two people for 30 days that would take me to £270. That seems not too far off really. That was a more fancy food day than my 'baseline', with the fish and the more expensive than usual veg - the veg box had just arrived and obviously asparagus is higher on the priority and enthusiasm list than carrots. But other days might have a bit of meat, or more exciting cheese or fruit or something (posh cheese and fruit order arriving today!) so one way or another it seems within the bounds of normal.
I can very easily imagine bumping it up to £6 per person per day with the addition of more meat, fish and snacks. (E.g. switching fresh salmon fillets from category of 'occasional treat' to 'weekly staple' - I'm currently held back more by ethical scruples than by finances, for the record). £8.50 a bit more puzzling as to what I'd need to spend it on, especially since it doesn't include the booze. But I guess you take it one step at a time, and once I'm used to £6 I'm sure I'll have my eye on the next step up ;)
Interesting thread as always!
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I think time/enjoyment of cooking is a big factor as well too.
Yesterday, I made a couple of vegetable tarts - similar to these, but with extra vegetables.
https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/cheese-tomato-pesto-tart
https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/red-onion-feta-olive-tart
I'd guess the equivalent (but quite a bit smaller) thing would have been £5-6 each if bought ready-made versus £1.50 for ready-roll puff pastry, £1.45 for a block of Feta and well under a pound for the vegetables.
I also made Rhubarb crumble using vegetables from the garden - the cost of the flour, sugar and oats used for the crumble topping is probably pennies.
Even referring to the mythical beans and rice - you could spend £1.60 on one of those Uncle Ben's microwave rice things (250g) or £6.50 on 5kg of Basmati rice.
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Interesting.
I thought our spend was going up quite a lot (earlier in this thread I posted £60 per month per person, or £15 a week each). Definitely not just rice and beans and that number includes most alcohol and all cleaning/toiletries, but a decent amount of our fruit and vegetables are foraged/grown (let's not go into how much my time costs and how these ways of getting food are infinitely more expensive than the shop).
BUT, I've just had a look at our spending since I came back from uni/work travelling on the 13th March and we're on £132.70 (£66.35 each) for the period 14th March-14th April
or £116.78 (£58.39 each) since the lockdown started. We'll most likely not shop again till the weekend.
Seems it really is a case of what you're used to!
We did start with a full freezer(at least half of it fruit and vegetables from the plot, but I also like to freeze meat, fish, bread and dairy when I come across cracking deals. We also had a decent 'stockpile' affectionately known as 'the Brexit Stashe'. At least, it's decent by the standards of people who live in Scottish flats less than a 5 min walk to the supermarket. I'm sure many across the pond would be horrified by what I call a well stocked kitchen. How can that include just 4.5kg of rice?!
Having plenty on hand (apart from flour - why did I not buy extra back in January, WHY???). This has given us the flexibility to not have to substitute too much when we're in the shop, but we've been replenishing the pile at the same rate as we've been eating, just slightly different stuff.
We do feel the need to be more organized and disciplined. I'm usually someone who loves to take inspiration from the random yellow sticker veg on my way home from work and we usually only buy 'snacks' if the plan is to eat them that day. Now we're 'rationing' the oaties (how can milk chocolate hobnobs from lidl be sooo good? things that cost 41p should not be allowed to be so incredible).
I'll have a go at the breakdown of food for today:
breakfast: moka pot coffee with milk, stewed rhubarb, oats and milk (err 15p for the coffee 10p for the milk, 2p for the bit of ginger and the sugar in the rhubarb, 5p for the oats) = 32p
lunch: leftover potato and chickpea curry with rice, a poppadum and some spiced onions (homemade, except the poppadum, which I did deep fry myself) - call it 50p per portion
dinner: swiss chard, green lentils, fresh herbs and yoghurt/cream cheese, with spiced sweet potato wedges (possibly some boiled eggs on top of the creamy/herby /lentilly/swish chard mush) - err 80p
snacks: 3 cups of tea, 1 apple, 1 chocolate oatie, 1 crackebrod thingy with homemade pumpkin and ginger jam, handful of raisins - err 50p?
In the past week or so we've had things like:
nettle soup,
gnocci with a nettle, basil and sprouted pea 'pesto' and sprouting kale (as good as purple sprouting broccoli)
roast vegetable, chickpea and feta 'salad'
pasta with anchovies, chilli, sprouting kale and parmesan
creamy potato and leek bake
3 bean chilli, with rice, in tortillas for lunch and as a 'Mexican soup'
southern indian seafood soup
In the past week I've also made hot cross buns(Easter) and brownies(it was my sister's birthday, I sent her a picture)
I get that it's a little lower in protein than many would go for, but it doesn't feel too monotonous and probably isn't what people imagine when you say £15 a week
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Crabbit your diet sounds quite similar to ours and we also grow/forage some key bits, not just for cost but also they taste better or are unavailable in the shops. And I am partial to a yellow sticker too :)
On protein, we top up our diet with protein powder in our breakfast. We are both pretty active and I personally feel better for more protein in my diet and it does stop me filling up on sugars and carbs instead. I know you can get it from lentils etc as well as the obvious sources but I find it an easy addition to the day.
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Ooh, we discovered sprouting kale tops this spring! Delicious!
Yesterday we ate:
Breakfast: Glass of milk for toddler, cafetiere coffee for Mr SLTD. Aldi muesli for all, with normal milk for them and almond milk for me.
Elevenses: Banana for toddler. Coffee and Aldi snack bar for me, coffee and apple for Mr SLTD. (I think I also ate the remains of the banana and maybe another snack bar. Breastfeeding, yo.)
Lunch: Rice, cauliflower (fried w/ oyster sauce), red cabbage quick pickle.
Random snack for self: Aldi snack bar.
Dinner: Homemade hummus, spiced chickpeas, garden spinach, red cabbage...all in a wrap.
We're very into convenience, speed and snacks at the moment compared to our most frugal moments in time, but also both at home not working all the time. So...yes, it depends what you're used to!
I will be interested to see how much of a difference our organised raised beds will make to our food spend in peak months.
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Maldon's? :) I keep a tub of that at the table for finishing things with. But I use much cheaper sea salt (this kind of thing: https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/254065580) at the stove. (I think table salt tastes funny). Total waste to dissolve delicate salt flakes in the pasta water IMO!
If I'm getting this right you spend about £500 per month on food for the two adults? I can't quite imagine what eats up the money in Tescos mid range brands but I don't have a breakdown of what I spend the money on myself to really compare.
As a quick check, yesterday which felt like a very foodie day I ate:
Breakfast: a crumpet with butter, cup of tea (25p?) - I freely admit to not being a breakfast person and this is usually just the tea honestly
Lunch: smoked mackerel fillet (£1), asparagus (came in a veg box but let's call it £1 for my portion), two fried eggs (40p), two slices of toast (.....20p?!)
Snacks: couple tofu snacks (10p and you're all sleeping on how amazing these are), an apple (50p, I like nice apples), cup of tea and a chocolate digestive (20p?)
Dinner: spinach and paneer curry (let's call the vegbox 'true spinach' £2.50, paneer £1.50, onion and cooking oil and spices 50p), with daal (red lentils, ghee and spices... 50p?), home made chapatis (let's call the flour 50p) and garlic pickle and yoghurt (it's also not 50p but for my sanity) = total £6 = made three portions = £2.
Total £4.50 for me over the last 24 hours, and for two people for 30 days that would take me to £270. That seems not too far off really. That was a more fancy food day than my 'baseline', with the fish and the more expensive than usual veg - the veg box had just arrived and obviously asparagus is higher on the priority and enthusiasm list than carrots. But other days might have a bit of meat, or more exciting cheese or fruit or something (posh cheese and fruit order arriving today!) so one way or another it seems within the bounds of normal.
I can very easily imagine bumping it up to £6 per person per day with the addition of more meat, fish and snacks. (E.g. switching fresh salmon fillets from category of 'occasional treat' to 'weekly staple' - I'm currently held back more by ethical scruples than by finances, for the record). £8.50 a bit more puzzling as to what I'd need to spend it on, especially since it doesn't include the booze. But I guess you take it one step at a time, and once I'm used to £6 I'm sure I'll have my eye on the next step up ;)
Interesting thread as always!
Yeah, you got me!
We did another shop yesterday, this time just popping down to the local M&S. Easily burnt through £100 on enough food to probably last us 5-6 days. Easy to see some of the higher priced items: a smoothie, mozarella cheese sticks, ready meals, fresh pasta etc. It is what it is!
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OK for my sanity vand please tell me it is not your ONLY salt XD
Time spent cooking is definitely a massive variable. Since lockdown my ability to make dishes like home made pizzas and hand-formed burgers and tarts and curries and so on is probably at about 2-3x my 'baseline', between the extra time at home, that then enabling regular veg box deliveries without fear of waste, and having a partner around who also likes to cook.
I think overall I'll have a net increase in costs even when compared to occasional restaurants and regular use of the work canteen etc. But I'm happy about it because it's delicious and enjoyable!
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OK for my sanity vand please tell me it is not your ONLY salt XD
Not only is it the only salt for cooking pasta, it's the same salt for de-icing the driveway.
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That's the only salt we use on food...but then we don't salt cooking, only at table when required. Is that odd?
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I started reading a book called Salt Heat Acid Fat that had many opinions on salt. I found some of it interesting but ultimately not interesting to finish. Very sciencey, written by a chef legend.
Anyway, that basically said that the main mistake that amateur chefs make is salting too little and too late. I tried the theory for a while but honestly couldn't tell the difference.
I only have opinions about salt on chips. This is not professional advice.
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I can definitely taste the difference between food salted only at the table vs earlier stages of prep. It depends what of course, but rice or pasta cooked in unsalted water is particularly obvious, and for me, basically impossible to fully compensate for. But as with everything it depends on what you're used to. Also of course some ingredients will already contain salt e.g. stock cubes, curry pastes, soy sauce, etc.
I do think if you like your food very flavoursome learning how to use salt while cooking is totally worth it. I've had guests make shocked faces at the amount of salt I use but when they eat the food they think it's delicious and not over-salted so... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ and I'm also personally not concerned about my salt intake health-wise which I guess helps.
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OK for my sanity vand please tell me it is not your ONLY salt XD
Not only is it the only salt for cooking pasta, it's the same salt for de-icing the driveway.
ROFL!
I'm actually on the Gwyneth Diet (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/apr/16/gwyneth-paltrow-laughable-diet-genius).
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OK for my sanity vand please tell me it is not your ONLY salt XD
Not only is it the only salt for cooking pasta, it's the same salt for de-icing the driveway.
ROFL!
I'm actually on the Gwyneth Diet (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/apr/16/gwyneth-paltrow-laughable-diet-genius).
That's fantastic!
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I haven't posted here for ages, but anyway. I just moved out of my parents' place and into a rental around Christmas, and so far for my single-adult food spend I'm averaging under £15 per week, mostly from ALDI. I'd have to get the receipts out to do an exact breakdown but that's based on the totals and frequency of shopping.
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We usually get our shopping delivered by ASDA. We pay them an annual subscription (I think it's £60 per year) and they drop our shopping off. We spend around £70 per week at the minute (2 adults), as we're eating out way less than usual.
We only buy ASDA branded food, with the exception of baked beans, tuna and soft drinks (ASDA's 'spreadable butter' is just as nice as Lurpack and costs £2 less!) What's great about their home deliveries is that they 'substitute' own brand items with branded items at no extra cost to us (if they're out of stock or bad dates etc). If we have anything we want to send back, they refund it but won't let us hand it back to the driver. We genuinely accidentally ordered 2 bottles of gin last week and got them for free!
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I've given this a lot of attention and we are down to £67 per week for three adults (DS has a voracious appetite so basically we cook for four adults).