How much do you spend each week on food?

Ready Meals are really not available here in France/SWitzerland. I do wonder what the proportion of ready meals is for the 'average' couple or family in the UK- where the choice is massive.

For the two of us it's probably around £80-90 if we add in the wee visits to Waitrose along the road to supplement the normal Asda/Aldi weekly shop. This includes all the household stuff though, not only food. We also eat out at least once a week and have an occasional takeaway.

Just me & 1 cat now, I do Tesco on-line once a month for large/heavy items between £60 & £80 per month. Shop every few days at my local Post Office/General Store for fresh fruit & veg plus top up on a few other items plus bread which comes from local Bakery. I have milk delivered twice a week & sometimes top a few extra bits besides milk. In total I suppose I spend about £70/£80 per week. No opportunity to use other shops as I'm not allowed to drive on Medical grounds (hopefully not a permanent thing). No alcohol as I do not drink but I do smoke about 5 a day (expensive habit!!)

I am a bit sad, I actually have keeping a spreadsheet of expenses since the beginning of next year so I know what we spend for when we fully retire. Not that it's made me more efficient, I started with NOW TV about 3 months ago to save money on Sky TV but still haven't got round to cancelling Sky.

Anyway I know we spend an average of £120 a week, that includes food for 2 adults, 2 cats 1 dog, as well as toiletries and cleaning stuff plus 1 takeaway and two bottles of wine. I also feed DD and DGS on Wednesdays and anything from 2 to 6 for Sunday roast.

I'm sure I could make savings, I've just got no intention of doing so until I have to.

That sounds lovely, where was it from mcc?

I don't eat many ready meals but tried one on DD's recommendation, a chilled king prawn with linguine and fresh veg. Heavenly. The ingredients separately would have cost me so much more, and it wasn't freezable for batch cooking.

Even after several hours of stewing?

Could be very tough Jalima, particularly if he had several amplifiers under his arm

If I spend £3 on milk next week we could live on what is in the freezer and cupboards.
(probably for a few weeks as some of the veg are ready in the garden now.)

The trouble is, I go to the supermarket and see all the offers - but I do freeze a lot of them.

Just wondering if a roady would be a bit tough

Well, this is very reassuring! To answer one or two questions, no we don't snack, the only 'treat' we have food-wise is one choccie biscuit each a day as we're both calorie counting. Just bought a Nutribullet too so I make smoothies and soups from scratch as and when the mood takes me. Seem to be in the majority here with the weekly spend which does include all household cleaning and bathroom products.
Can't think how to cut back without reducing quality of life. Those of you with allotments have the edge I think as fruit and vegetables, of which I do buy quite a lot each week, are plentiful and very, very cheap for you.
What is interesting is how cheap it is to rely on ready meals rather than cooking from scratch. Saw a couple earlier in the supermarket with a trolley full of ready meals - cost 25 pounds at the checkout and they had enough for a week's worth of dinners between the two of them. Add in the rest of their shop and it didn't come to forty pounds in total. Might try it for a week and see how I get on.

Sugar snap peas from garden (see I can cook fresh food)

Simmered, steamed or stir-fried GandTea?

I wish I had planted some this year, the beans have been useless. Not one runner bean yet.

a roady? how did that come out, meant roast

I'm an Aldi girl, I was when we lived in Germany almost 40 years ago. I spend around £35 a week on me in Aldi; every 3 weeks or so I spend about £20 in the discount freezer shop Heron Foods.
Heron Foods has unbelievable bargains. Luxury fish cakes 600g for £1.50, bacon bits 900g for £1, luxury ice-cream for £1, exotic cheeses for 89p... It's mostly in the N of England & Midlands. Saves me a fortune on every visit.

This week DD came shopping with me in Aldi. She works for them and pointed out a lot of customer recommendations, plus items she knew I would like.
My bill doubled but I have some lovely treats, lunches & evening meals as a result.

We spend about £39 a week on food, toilet rolls,bleach, dishwasher tablets, washing machine liquid etc. Not included are toiletries, cat, alcohol. We cook from scratch every day in large amounts so we have much in the freezer

Shopping is anywhere that sends us vouchers (Sainsburys at the moment) and we try to buy on offer especially meat and fish and nuts. We eat very well and healthily.

DH has kept records of our spending since he retired. Food has reduced in price over the years but nothing else has. THe downside of this is he knows how much I spend on the garden and clothes!

I must start keeping some sort of a tally, maybe from Monday which will be the 1st. I'm not sure how much I spend, I seem to be in Sainsburys most days where I spend around £15 or so, my local one in my nearest town gives free car parking for 2 hours with a £10 spend which I appreciate because it's usually £1.40 an hour in most car parks. I did a £50 shop in Lidl today, which I don't do very often because it's a 20 minute or so drive but I had a £5 off voucher which made it worthwhile and they had the most fabulous fresh cherries, half the price they are in other places and the best I've seen so far this yaer. On Saturdays we get Marks and Spencer curries if we are at home and on Sundays I do a shop in Waitrose, usually over £20 if we are having a roady but always over £10 so I can get The Sunday Times free .

wow I am impressed - and may well have to do that in the current circumstances ;)

We have all our income and expenditure on a spreadsheet and can adjust it according to the exchange rate. Makes it much easier to see what you can spend and where you need to cut back.

Yes I agree, I think it must be a quality thing. We spend 20-30€ a week on fish, but it is straight from the quay to the market, at a speciality fish stall. We buy organic as much as we can and meat at the butcher's shop tells you how and where it was farmed. I realise that we are lucky to have that choice, but that is how we prefer to spend our money.
Our French neighbours prioritise food, drink and holidays too.

Honest truth- I do not know as I buy toiletries, cleaning products, WC paper, stuff for the house and garden, even clothes sometimes, etc- at the same time. Also depends if we have visitors or not- when we buy more expensive stuff perhaps, and wine and other drinks. We only drink alcohol when we have guests or go out.

Maybe I should try and work it all out separately for one month and see.

Ok, Iknow what tonight's meal has cost, I cooked as i always do (once a year)
Tesco Finest lambshanks £10
Finest mash from bargain bin £2
Sugar snap peas from garden (see I can cook fresh food)
Finest Apple flan from bargain bin £2
Ice cream ??
Couple of bottle of wine £16

Meal for two with wine £30

Mrs P says that after 49 years my cooking has improved (don't tell her it is Tesco ready meals that have improved )

Similar to many, £120 plus for the two of us, no processed food, most cooked from scratch, good quality meat and fish and a lunchbox for working partner every day with a fairly substantial content (not sandwiches, usually salad and meat or fish or microwaveable home cooked meal in winter). It has risen quite a bit recently, and as I'm coeliac many things come at a stupidly high premium eg GF pasta three or four times as expensive as normal. I shop carefully but not meanly, I buy some organic as I need to be careful to avoid contaminants. Not easy.

Are there prizes?

I almost always cook from scratch and often bulk cook eg, chilli, lasagne, curries, pasta sauces but I am bewildered how the food bill is always the same.

It's reassuring that lots of people spend a similar amount to me. I have occasionally watched 'Eat Well For Less' and think it's a bit of a con. I've tried using cheaper tinned tomatoes (for instance) when making a sauce but find that there is much less tomato and a lot more juice, similarly baked beans (according to DH) so I buy the best quality that I can afford.

It is my aim to just take a small trolley round Sainsbury's rather than a big one. Sad!

I use www.mysupermarket.co.uk to get best value for my grocery money.

I have a budget of £100 a week for 2 adults, dog and visiting DGC. That includes toiletries and cleaning products.

I select my shopping, it offers me the option to swap for both cheaper options or more healthy options and then it shows me the cost of my basket in all the different stores.

I can then order online or print out my shopping list and off I go.

Am sure that we all spend more than we first think.