How much do you spend on food a week?

[NotAGolf]

That's what bread is for .

Bread's not particularly good for you though. Trying to eat cheaply AND healthily AND making it tasty is very tricky!

Thanks for filling it out as well mpledge - if you're making full-on meals for lunch as well I can imagine that adds to the bill considerably (and the time to cook it all).

I know you say soup won't fill you up but I'd definitely give it a try - you'd be surprised how filling soup can be. In the summer we change to salad which is even less volume, but I guess people have different appetites.

By the sounds of it, you're doing a lot right with the planning and home-cooking, so doubling our food bill seems a bit steep.

We (well mostly me) eat a lot of food, that's the problem. I like my food and I'm trying to put a bit of weight on, but as said above, it is tricky to do this with healthy, tasty and cheap food!

 

[nitram100]

About 30 quid. Brocolli, spinach, nuts, cottage cheese, chicken breast, eggs, tuna, oats. That's it!

 

[Things change I've changed]

So £5 is already gone from your budget on wine or ale, leaving £30 for two adults for a whole week including as you say, produce from your local butcher and grocer.

I am sorry but it just doesn't add up (literally)

I said £35-£40, so that leaves £35, are you saying you can't believe two adults can't comfortably live on £35 in a week? seriously? Have you seen Aldi super six? Look at this -----> https://www.aldi.co.uk/groceries/al...Offer:Super+6&lowerBound=0&upperBound=4&text= , This week I shall buy all of that for £1.79p, ridiculously cheap, I've got Beetroot for salads, Broccoli or carrot soup, chilies for homemade curry, Salad, Celery, all for £1.79, Have you not shopped in Aldi before? It's a peice of cake for two people to live on £35, also don't forget I've already got some stock at home that has been built up gradually, dry store ingredients, pulses, spices etc.

 

[MookJong]

Food and food only then 35-40 quid for the wife and I.

We cook nearly everything fresh, the only cheat is some frozen veg now and again. Made a massive bolognaise on Sunday and four portions of that got frozen. I used to hear about people making extra and freezing it and it sounded like a right chore until I did it. Apart from a bit extra chopping up it is no hardship.

 

[krooton]

It varies, anywhere between £50 to £100 a week, then sometimes as little as £10 just for fresh produce as I bulk cooked so much.

£50 last week got me 10 steaks and 10 large (250g) chicken breasts.

That's the meat component of 20 meals, the chicken going in to bulk cooked things like curries which also serve as lunches for work.

 

[ShortWarning]

I would say about £80 a week. That's for 2 adults and 2 children (although 1 is still breast feeding).

We do the bulk of our shopping in lidl which comes to between £40-£60 then there's the odd bits we've forgotten which we get from Tesco express during the week.

 

[kai]

At a guess £80 - £100 per week just me. (Wife gets her own food)

Not cheap to eat healthy ..


Where do you shop - Tesco, M&S and online butchers.
How often do you shop - once a day
Do you buy lots of name-brand products - depends on item.
Do you make a list for the week or just browse whatever takes your fancy: pretty much same food each week.
Do you cook from scratch, or do you buy a lot of ready meals / processed foods like pre-prepared sauces / instant rice All fresh prep
Do you buy a lot of meat: Yes, steak, lean mince, salmon etc
Does a lot of that spend go on lunch time 'meal deals' and coffee shops: No


Just doing a ROUGH calculation on one meal:

Evening Meal

Fresh Salmon fillet: £3
Whole Avocado 50p
2 Eggs 50p
Tilda Rice Pack £1

£5 meal x 7 = £35 (one meal out of between 6-7 a day)

 

[SonniLombardi]

Read what you quoted again.

Doh!

 

[#Chri5#]

At a guess £80 - £100 per week just me. (Wife gets her own food)

Not cheap to eat healthy ..


Where do you shop - Tesco, M&S and online butchers.
How often do you shop - once a day
Do you buy lots of name-brand products - depends on item.
Do you make a list for the week or just browse whatever takes your fancy: pretty much same food each week.
Do you cook from scratch, or do you buy a lot of ready meals / processed foods like pre-prepared sauces / instant rice All fresh prep
Do you buy a lot of meat: Yes, steak, lean mince, salmon etc
Does a lot of that spend go on lunch time 'meal deals' and coffee shops: No


Just doing a ROUGH calculation on one meal:

Evening Meal

Fresh Salmon fillet: £3
Whole Avocado 50p
2 Eggs 50p
Tilda Rice Pack £1

£5 meal x 7 = £35 (one meal out of between 6-7 a day)

Is that Tilda rice a single meal packet? Home Bargains will sell you a kilo of Tilda rice for 99p

 

[rhysduck]

2 eggs for 50p? You can get 18 for £1.50 in Sainsburys!!!

 

[kai]

Is that Tilda rice a single meal packet? Home Bargains will sell you a kilo of Tilda rice for 99p

2 eggs for 50p? You can get 18 for £1.50 in Sainsburys!!!

Like I say, rough costs. However double checking I am not a million miles away.

Tesco.

Happy Egg Free Range Large Box Of 6 (£1.90) 32 per egg.
Tilda Steamed Brown Basmati Rice 250G (Any 2 for £2.00) or £1.59 each.

To me the food I eat plays a huge part of my lifestyle, I eat healthy and try to cook every meal from fresh. How people eat for less than £20 a week is beyond me! It must be 9p noodles and frozen chicken lip burgers.

 

[Fuggan]

Weekly shop averages around £40-50 a week for me, make my own lunches from that too.

 

[cheesyboy]

Like I say, rough costs. However double checking I am not a million miles away.

Tesco.

Happy Egg Free Range Large Box Of 6 (£1.90) 32 per egg.
Tilda Steamed Brown Basmati Rice 250G (Any 2 for £2.00) or £1.59 each.

To me the food I eat plays a huge part of my lifestyle, I eat healthy and try to cook every meal from fresh. How people eat for less than £20 a week is beyond me! It must be 9p noodles and frozen chicken lip burgers.

You can eat healthily on £20 a week, but it would be a challenge. I could prepare home made lasagne, fish pie, chilli or curry (etc) for £1 a portion, maybe a bit more to allow for veg to accompany. Have that twice a day plus a bowl of muesli and you're under £3.

Suspect people are only counting supermarket shopping and not bought lunches, though.

 

[neodude]

About £130 quid every week for 2 adults and 3 kids. Try and get most of it from Aldi but also go to Tesco for some things. All of our meat is bought online from Musclefood.

 

[BigBoy]

Between £35 and £50 most weeks, two adults and a baby, plus my two older kids twice a week.

Shopping a lidl and sainsburys for the little extras we cannot get from Lidl

 

[Jamesyboyjim]

Our weekly food shop seems to total around 70 - 80 quid. Its sometimes as low as 55 - 60 but around 70 odd is the norm.

That's any toiletries / essentials included aswell though, breakfast, lunches and dinners for the week. We meal prep everything on a Sunday evening so we can eat dinner straight after the gym. That's me and my missus. Annoyingly she has a gluten intolerance which means if she fancies a few rolls for example, a 4 pack costs 2 quid instead of 80p.

We used to buy all meat from muscle food, as well as grabbing bits from Aldi, but have slipped back into doing it all at Sainsbury's out of sheer convenience. I should sit down and work out the potential savings again soon.

 

[#Chri5#]

Two adults and one cat.

Would guess at around £50 to £70 per week. Our current patterns are a basics shop, usually Aldi these days for tinned essentials for cooking (probably £20 to £30 for a visit) and then a Saturday shop for the butchers, fishmonger and fresh fruit/veg/bread/cheese/eggs. That shop probably comes to £30 to £40 - we hardly ever buy meat or fish from a supermarket these days as we have a good selection of local butchers or farmshops.

We write out a menu for each week, so very little food is wasted. Spend above also includes our dinners at work

 

[Efour]

hmm 2 adults a week in Northern Sweden.

We hunt our own Reindeer and Mooses.* Fresh salmon from the river in the back garden.*
The rest is about £70 quid a week approx. Tenner a day seems about right.
All scratch cooked, never buy ready meals. Unless cheese and yoghurt counts. Don't make our own !



*was lying about that bit.

 

[Irish_Tom]

Trying to eat cheaply AND healthily AND making it tasty is very tricky!

We (well mostly me) eat a lot of food, that's the problem. I like my food and I'm trying to put a bit of weight on, but as said above, it is tricky to do this with healthy, tasty and cheap food!

It's definitely a balancing act, but it is possible. If you're trying to gain weight, is that because you're working out? Is it a protein boost you're looking for and so you've got a meat heavy diet?

At a guess £80 - £100 per week just me. (Wife gets her own food)

Not cheap to eat healthy ..


Where do you shop - Tesco, M&S and online butchers.
How often do you shop - once a day
Do you buy lots of name-brand products - depends on item.
Do you make a list for the week or just browse whatever takes your fancy: pretty much same food each week.
Do you cook from scratch, or do you buy a lot of ready meals / processed foods like pre-prepared sauces / instant rice All fresh prep
Do you buy a lot of meat: Yes, steak, lean mince, salmon etc
Does a lot of that spend go on lunch time 'meal deals' and coffee shops: No


Just doing a ROUGH calculation on one meal:

Evening Meal

Fresh Salmon fillet: £3
Whole Avocado 50p
2 Eggs 50p
Tilda Rice Pack £1

£5 meal x 7 = £35 (one meal out of between 6-7 a day)

Thanks for taking the time to fill that in kai. That seems very expensive for one person (what's your wife spending?).

You can definitely eat cheap and healthy. But it's going to be harder to do it if you're having fresh salmon fillets and steak once a week…

 

[Armageus]

I would highly recommend those of you who don't, shop at ALDI.

+1 Especially when it comes to their fresh meat (e.g. Roasting Joints, Chops, Mince, even Steaks), much better quality and around half the price of the equivalents in Tesco.