Author Topic: Food budgets  (Read 6843 times)

quixoticgeek

  • Mostly Harmless
Food budgets
« on: 01 January, 2021, 04:35:26 pm »

For those of youewho do not have kids (or they do not live with you). How much do you spend per week on food for home use (not including takeaways, meals out etc...) ?

J
--
Beer, bikes, and backpacking
http://b.42q.eu/

hellymedic

  • Just do it!
Re: Food budgets
« Reply #1 on: 01 January, 2021, 05:03:51 pm »
My Sainsbury's bill is about £60 for the two of us. It's been rather more the last month.

This also includes cat food, toiletries and household wares like cleaning stuff, tissues and loo rolls.

Re: Food budgets
« Reply #2 on: 01 January, 2021, 05:11:06 pm »
Probably £70’ish a week. We don’t eat out or have takeaways, and we eat well with a good variety of things.
We are making a New World (Paul Nash, 1918)

quixoticgeek

  • Mostly Harmless
Re: Food budgets
« Reply #3 on: 01 January, 2021, 05:17:39 pm »
Probably £70’ish a week. We don’t eat out or have takeaways, and we eat well with a good variety of things.

Is that per person?

J
--
Beer, bikes, and backpacking
http://b.42q.eu/

Vernon

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Re: Food budgets
« Reply #4 on: 01 January, 2021, 05:32:07 pm »
In 2019 our grocery bill (all supermarket and food spends excluding takeaways, meals out and alcohol) was £80 per week for the two of us. This includes non-food items (such as cleaning products) as we don't split our budget that way. In 2020 it was just over £100, but we have materially changed the way we shop (much more locally, better quality and less packaging). Plus we have also been stocking up for the possible Brexit shitstorm.

Mrs Pingu

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Re: Food budgets
« Reply #5 on: 01 January, 2021, 05:44:12 pm »
From a quick look at the Sainbo's website which only goes back to October, and ignoring December it varies between £80-100 per week, but we have an expensive piña colada and G&T habit. Since lockdown I've also been getting fish delivered maybe once a month which has been about 20 quid a time but does us for 3 meals.
Do not clench. It only makes it worse.

Re: Food budgets
« Reply #6 on: 01 January, 2021, 05:50:24 pm »
Something a bit over £100 for the two of us.  All our food shopping is done within walking distance.  We've given up the supermarket habit.

ian

Re: Food budgets
« Reply #7 on: 01 January, 2021, 06:57:54 pm »
For two of us, it's usually between £100-200 a week. It varies a lot depending on whether we're restocking booze or my wife has found another £40 bottle of gin and snuck it into the trolley. Ironically, I suspect it costs a lot more because we buy actual ingredients rather than ready-made stuff (OK, I buy some ready-made curry sauces for no-faff nights). And pies. But we get throw a lot of fruit and veg. I don't recall it ever being under £100 though, even if we claim we don't need much. We don't seem to through much out, other than the occasional flaccid cucumbers and danger yoghurts.

We used to eat out. Never do takeaways though. We also get some beer delivered. And we rarely leave the house without coming back with more gin. Just in case.

Re: Food budgets
« Reply #8 on: 01 January, 2021, 07:23:22 pm »
Probably £70’ish a week. We don’t eat out or have takeaways, and we eat well with a good variety of things.

Is that per person?

J

No, 2 of us.
We are making a New World (Paul Nash, 1918)

hellymedic

  • Just do it!
Re: Food budgets
« Reply #9 on: 01 January, 2021, 07:45:29 pm »
Our milkman also gets about £7 per week for milk.

Re: Food budgets
« Reply #10 on: 01 January, 2021, 07:56:53 pm »
What's eating out?

hellymedic

  • Just do it!
Re: Food budgets
« Reply #11 on: 01 January, 2021, 08:01:54 pm »
I don't think we ate out all of 2020.

Had takeaways delivered around once per month since lockdown started.

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
Re: Food budgets
« Reply #12 on: 01 January, 2021, 08:11:31 pm »
Since I started doing the shopping as bi-weeky visits to Sainsbury's and paid proper attention to the total, it's been in the £50-60/wk range.  That's for two of us, including things like bogroll, toiletries and cleaning materials, while slowly adding to the brexit stockpile, but with homeopathic quantities of alcohol.  I've certainly been paying more for things like shampoo, which I'd previously have bought in bulk from the likes of Home Bargains, Canadian Tire Wilko or the weird discount hair products shop.

We don't eat out recreationally (barakta likes to be able to hear), and haven't done takeaway for ages.  I distinctly remember visiting a cafe in February as part of a Bike Ride...

Re: Food budgets
« Reply #13 on: 01 January, 2021, 08:22:22 pm »
Over £100. Weekly delivery of organic veg, milk, eggs and some meat, plus weekly supermarket shop. Not much alcohol, mainly occasional red or white wine box, as I'm the only (modest) imbiber. Occasional specialist shop for Japanese foods, the most recent being our first on-line purchase of such.

We haven't stinted since lockdown as we're not spending much elsewhere, so focusing on good quality, home-cooked food. Mrs O is an accomplished cook for a worldwide range of cuisines so we don't miss eating out, apart from the social aspect.

ian

Re: Food budgets
« Reply #14 on: 01 January, 2021, 09:01:49 pm »
Not eating (and drinking) out saves a small fortune – an evening out for two in London won't leave much change from £100 (if any). We'd probably do more takeout, but in the Surrey jungles it's mostly identikit curries and pizza. I can do better cooking my own. There's a semi-decent Thai that I always think I should order from, but by the time I've picked up the phone, ordered and waited for it to arrive, I could have cooked something. All the India takeaways I've tried around here have been crap, but we're spoiled by having lived near some good ones in London proper.

We used to eat out once or twice a week and I do miss that. But as we're not doing that, I won't scrimp on ingredients for cooking at home. If I want a £30 steak, I'm having it. Though, as a married a woman who doesn't eat red meat, probably not. Not recently anyway.

Re: Food budgets
« Reply #15 on: 01 January, 2021, 09:31:35 pm »
Just myself, food only, I budget £25 a week, for that I eat very well, though I do have plenty of time to shop, farm shops and markets mostly.  I'll often spend a fair bit less, sometimes an extra weeks money at the end of the month.  I don't often have takeaways, fish and chips once a month maybe, it comes out the same budget.  It doesn't include eating out, which is either a cycling cafe stop, or a social occasion and a treat, so I like to do so without considering cost.
Is it a competition?  I can live on a tenner a week, but it's hard work.  OTOH if I had no time and a decent income I'd probably be eating less well for twice the cost. 
 

Re: Food budgets
« Reply #16 on: 01 January, 2021, 11:52:28 pm »
Around £70 a week for the 2 of us, with most of it spent at the local Aldi store which is just a 3 minute walk from home, unless we slum it and go to Lidl... which is right next door to Aldi :facepalm:
Most of the stuff I say is true because I saw it in a dream and I don't have the presence of mind to make up lies when I'm asleep.   Bryan Andreas

Davef

Re: Food budgets
« Reply #17 on: 02 January, 2021, 07:44:21 am »
Costco has some very reasonable priced Canadian lobster at the moment so these daily budgets people keep quoting seem more than adequate.

Re: Food budgets
« Reply #18 on: 02 January, 2021, 11:45:36 am »
I'm normally thinking in terms of ~£25 per week, with occasional meals out filed under socialising or mental health budgets.

barakta

  • Bastard lovechild of Yomiko Readman and Johnny 5
Re: Food budgets
« Reply #19 on: 02 January, 2021, 03:02:33 pm »
Our shopping has a fairly high amount of very low prep food because my ability to chop things or even stir them on a bad day is variable but always low. On a bad day I can't even use cutlery properly and am better off eating something I can just use my hands to eat. That means we do spend more on some aspects of food, or eat "less fresh/healthy food" than I would like.

I feel extremely lucky that we have been able to absorb the extra costs of pandemic food and Kim can do supermarket on the bike. I think if we had to rely on deliveries we'd be spending more, juggling combos of food more and as many of my friends have had to do, relying on deliveroo/takeaway to manage low spoons times.

Re: Food budgets
« Reply #20 on: 02 January, 2021, 03:35:05 pm »
Probably about £60 per week each. That’s pretty much all in the form of ingredients that need some form of prep, aside from occasional bread. Fish intake probably higher than average, virtually no meat. Copious amounts of fruit, veg and (expensively) nuts. Includes household stuff.

That includes food for work lunches. We don’t drink, aren’t eating out of course, and have a takeaway maybe once a month.

T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Re: Food budgets
« Reply #21 on: 02 January, 2021, 03:44:59 pm »
We'd be running at about 100-150€/week, but that includes food for two dogs. No booze.
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

Re: Food budgets
« Reply #22 on: 02 January, 2021, 04:30:29 pm »
A quick look would suggest that we are a bit profligate! We seem to be averaging about £80 on the main Tesco shop each week, which does include a fair amount of booze, all the cleaning stuff, a Radio Times each week and so on. But we also get a lot of our meat from a friend who breeds sheep and raises pigs, bacon comes from a local butcher, fish from a man with a van, and my beer from the local brewery. And during lockdowns we've been having a takeaway once a week to support the local pubs. Maybe we need to start looking at where the money is going. (Simple answer is the booze I suppose.)
"No matter how slow you go, you're still lapping everybody on the couch."

Re: Food budgets
« Reply #23 on: 02 January, 2021, 06:34:37 pm »
My shopping comes to £33.77 per week for the last year, slightly up on the previous 2 years due to lockdown. This does not include alcohol, but does include cleaning products.

I always buy organic if that option is available. But I don't eat meat and have never in my life bought a ready meal. I make bread, hummus, salads, etc from scratch. Thirty quids' worth of fruit, veg, pasta, etc is a lot of food - two very full ortlieb panniers at least.
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Re: Food budgets
« Reply #24 on: 02 January, 2021, 09:06:59 pm »
Normally about £20/week, I live on my own and I don't eat meat. I get cleaning supplies separately.

There was a time that was closer to £10/week, it's nice to have a enough income to enjoy a wider variety of food.

I've been calorie counting for a while so I don't have takeaway's.