Food shopping

We probably spend 40 or 50 a week. 2 adults, darling grandson and 2 cats. I'm VERY mean with groceries tho. No luxuries.

I have lived by myself for a long time, enjoy food, and do have three meals a day. Brekkie is cereal (porridge in winter and branflakes in summer), lunch is usually something with eggs. I slice of toast (good quality bread), with half a tin of low salt, etc baked beans topped with a couple of poached eggs, cost about 60p. Other days I may just have a couple of boiled eggs with a slice of bread. Sometimes in the winter I make up a whole lot of soup, which I have with a roll. All of these lunches work out well under a £1 each and take just a few minutes to prepare.
Tea is my main meal of the day and I have fish with salad or couple of pieces of chicken breast or drumstick, again with salad. Never purchase ready made salads, make up my own and with careful storage only need to buy once a week. sometimes I will boil up a few potatoes to mash. Once a week I have one of my daughters over after work for chat and tea, so will splash out a little more then. Home made shepherds pie, or fish pie type of thing. If I fancy a dessert it is usually a yoghurt.
Stopped buying fresh veg years ago - only like shopping once a week. Find frozen are easier and fresher. Not too keen on fruit, maybe the occasional banana.
I eat healthy and well, but reckon that food should cost me no more than a maximum of a fiver a day and I do not shop in Lidl or Aldi, do not like them - continue with Sainsbury. Obviously my weekly shop does include all toiletries etc. and I reckon on spending somewhere between £40- £45 per week. Only on very rare occasions can I use the £50 plus voucher!!!

I don't know what we spend on food, possibly £300-400. I buy mostly fresh fish meat fruitand veg.
I have started trying to buy as we use as we were throwing a lot of food out. I don't like waste. And I try to find best prices - I will shop in different shops for particular items.

Wellbeck your income is very low. Perhaps you should check if you are entitled to any benefits.

Maybe if you detail all the food you buy in one particular 7 day week and the prices, some GNers could tell you where money could be saved.
It might nudge you into realising where your money could be better spent.

GillS,
Thank you, that is very touching.
I appreciate your kind words. and your discernment.
I think you are a sensitive person.
a bunch of flowers for you too.
with every good wish.
w.

Wellbeck
I have very similar tastes to you, it seems.

I don't enjoy cooking at all, so I eat similarly to you if I can go away with it.

Its only that I have my grandson with me that I make a bit more effort; 'effort' being the right word for it.

Dear Welbeck, your post has left me feeling so sad that I just had to let you know you are in my thoughts. Being disorganised can be very tiring, and as I know, always eating alone does make it hard to think of bothering much about food even more so if you are on a very limited income. Sending you and very best wishes.

not sure if I should write this as it is a minority report. there is only me now, I don't cook anything, try to spend as little as poss, as income is less than £10 a day. not able to work. no pension. living on savings.
buy most things from Lidl, pronounced to rhyme with idle... I like lidl because the shops are not too big.
don't eat veg, except tomatoes, or fruit except occasionally tinned mandarins, which I like with plain yogurt and nuts, found some flaked almonds, and sometimes Weetabix or shredded wheat. I eat mostly rolls, with a prepared filler, egg, cheese/onion, tuna/sweetcorn. prepared salads eg tuna/pasta, where i do eat shredded carrot etc. deli tubs of morrocan cous-cous, also falafels, potato salad. pot pasta with boiling water from kettle, that's the extent of my cooking.
packet soups with cous-cous to bulk out. also eat pot noodles but only Lidl's which are harder to find now. don't eat meat. do eat tinned fish, and occasionally fish n chips lunchtime special price smaller portion.
many bills etc. am disorganised. trying to keep going. if I think too much about food I get too sad, thinking of what I could should have done for other people. too late now.

I used to challenge myself to spend less than £20 a week. DH and I went back to uni and had to live more frugally than students!

Now it's usually between £40 and £50, but a large part of that is the expensive food we have to buy for our cat which has digestive problems. We have more money now, so I don't need to be quite so careful.

There are two of us and we spend about £300 a month, this includes all toiletries, washing liquid, toilet rolls etc. I go to the butchers about once a month and buy enough chops, mince, liver etc to last. Everything apart from the mince is eaten by DH. We usually have fresh fish on a Friday. Most meals are cooked from scratch and we don't scrimp on anything. Plenty of fresh veg and fruit. This doesn't include any alcohol. If we want a drink we go out.

Just to add, when there were two of us it was around £80 a week.

Just me at home. Probably about £50-£60 a week, but that includes food, cleaning stuff, toiletries, cat food/litter, wine. I like to eat well and rarely buy convenience food and cook from scratch and do a lot of batch cooking. Also includes feeding DGD tea after school twice a week.

Just to add. The frozen soup was homemade. I must do some more often

I must average about 40 for me and puss including my toiletries etc. I buy convenience food but try to vary it with fresh. I just have not got the energy to start cooking after work at 7pm in a cold house. I just open a tin of soup however last night i reheated some which i had frozen and it was lovely. I do have waste as i live alone. If i cook veg i dp try to cook for the next day but usually forget to put it in frigd and end up with a smelly mess the next day. However my birds are well fed. I do try to eat well but its a struggle

We spend about£100 a week. Just DH and myself and I mostly cook from scratch. The amount does however include everything. Toiletries, washing powder, tboilet rolls etc.

oh my silly calculation. That was per week so is about £160-£200 pm

most of my food is from an online organic fresh food supplier and my order might average £40 pm. I do buy organic meat in bulk elsewhere and also fish. I would say maybe overall £55 pm, that doesn`t include chocolate

oh also we use olive oil, which adds to cost but do so because of health benefits.

I like this thread. Thank you for posting it Sally. I too (and DD) cook from scratch, partly to save cost and partly health reasons etc.

Nowadays daughter 14 and I am relegated to sous chef, and cleaner-upper as I'm tending to run out of steam for making meals.

I stock check and we waste relatively little if anything. Some times leftovers end up with someone's allotment chickens.

I'm currently reviewing spending. DD gone vegetarian which is a big challenge and any tips welcome.

I reckon I spend 70 currently which is probably too much, not including loo rolls and toiletries.

I bake own bread which I have got down to 40 p a loaf as I batch cook it, order flour in bulk, half wholemeal half white. This goes down a treat, I bake 8 at once and put in freezer. ;

I tend to buy wholefoods when I can and in bulk (which explains why I'm not entirely sure how much I spend each week). Ethical Superstore mainly - which I look out for vouchers for. To name a name Ecotricity switch had 40 voucher on offer recently and Triodos bank to open new account also 40 I think .

Milkman luxury on a Sat morning is the fruit box for daughter but means I don't have to carry it up the stairs.

My down fall is the local spar at the end of the road where I tend to go when I forget something...and sometimes but not always end up paying over the odds. But no transport costs and often on a Tuesday offers on veg. Huge cauliflower for £1 etc.

Tins I buy in bulk - again either B and M or ethical superstore.

I suffer from depression and often feel overloaded about housework so tend to go for things that DD can graze on. Recently bought ten (yes ten) jars of wholefood peanut butter for £2 each rather than the 3 odd at the wholefood shop.

That's a brilliant breakfast or snack and she loves it. Slice of wholemeal home made bread, peanut butter and fruit...

Another downfall is taking myself out to lunch when I'm fed up of cooking. Not expensive, our local Wetherspoons has chefs specials...

Revisited all my bills recently to keep tabs. Still looking for ways to cut down. perhaps we could start a vouchers and coupons thread?

painting

Again it’s hard to be precise, because I don’t necessarily shop every week, and then I’m popping into M&S every other day, I don’t buy any meat, and very little alcohol, but I would think I spend between £600 and £800 a month. I do buy things for one of my daughters, whose on a tight budget most weeks.

I really don't know but only on Monday a friend I was talking to on the phone was surprised that I shopped weekly on line as she wouldn't be able to meet the minimum charge requirement of £40.
She is on her own and I now am not but when I was I spent at least £50 on my delivery and then shopped once a week for fresh.
I am not extravagant, far from it, but I do like good food.

I spend around £60 a week on just me and the dogs food bill is separate and is £125 a month. Although that £60 doesn't include washing liquid and comfort or loo rolls etc which are all bought in bulk online. I don't buy any ready meals or processed food at all but buy a lot of fruit.

It’s taken a bit of working out.

Around £70 per fortnight at the supermarket, but that includes household stuff and toiletries, and I always get a money off voucher. Up to £15 a week at the fruit shop, £5 a week for the wine club, £5 for the milk delivery. Probably £10 or so a week for extra bits and bobs. The cat food’s £13 a quarter. DH grows nearly all our own veg, and most of our fruit in summer, so it’s cheaper then.. We eat fish, but very little red meat, and have a lot of veggie meals. I think we eat fairly healthily, but well.

About £70 a week then for food for the two of us and the cat? But then DD2 leaves meals for us on the one day a week we look after her children ?, and we eat out (just a curry or local pub meal) at least once a week.

I don’t really know what I spend on food as it varies from week to week. For example, today I bought a large fillet of salmon, cut it into three pieces and froze them, but I won’t be doing that next week. Also if say there is an offer on three chickens, I will buy them and freeze them.
There is just DH and me, but we give our two grandchildren tea twice weekly. We honestly waste nothing, but don’t stint on what we want. Since retiring, I cook healthy meals mainly from scratch, lots of veg . Spend quite a bit on fruit, not cheap but better than eating choc or biscuits, a very occasional treat.