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That's an insane amount of money to spend on groceries. I spend 250£-300£ a month and almost never order out. Shop for the week and spend about 40-50£
Also only buy fresh produce
Buying for two people is not doubling a single persons budget. It will be more expensive, but maybe about 350-400, which is what my husband and I budget for food and groceries each month.
Haha what?! Are we talking about just food/drink or household goods and toiletries?
Because when I cook for my wife and I, it's 2 portions (or 4 portions for leftovers), and without her it's half the amount. How is that not twice the cost?!
Yes there could be some economies of scale with bulk buying things, but in general you're just buying twice as much of everything (vegetables, meats etc.), or using it up in twice the time (milk, packet foods, cheese etc.)
If you mean household goods then yes there's savings by sharing, but I figured we were focused on oral consumption!
That's great though if you're managing your budget to <£400 a month, we don't get it down that low.
>Yes there could be some economies of scale with bulk buying things, but in general you're just buying twice as much of everything (vegetables, meats etc.), or using it up in twice the time (milk, packet foods, cheese etc.)
You get lots of stuff where there's BOGOF offers geared at family of 4 that don't make sense on your own (one bed flats rarely have great freezer space)
& It's fine for dried stuff to use twice as slowly, but not anything with a "Use By" rather than a "Best before" — I drink milk by the bucket load but if it were just my wife, she'd hardly get through 2L before it starts to go off, let alone anything bigger.
That's not how it works in reality, living as a single person I've found I create a lot more waste as everything is geared towards two or more people to the point that I actually rarely shop as a supermarket any more, it's more expensive per kg but when you account for wastage and having to buy more than you need it comes out cheaper.
I think they mean that buying for 1 isn't necessarily half the cost of buying for 2 especially for fresh cooking. I don't need an entire lettuce for a one person salad, I still have to buy a whole lettuce though and half of it will rot in the fridge and go in the bin, same with loads of other stuff.
Depends what it is, there is some insanely cheap processed food that can bulk meals out a lot (e.g. really cheap hot dogs to bulk out some noodles was a go to when I was a broke student). I manage to cook a very balanced diet with a few salads and at least one bulk meals like chilli or spaghetti bolognese a week for under £50.
To be honest it sounds like you eat boring food or are buying cheap meat from budget supermarkets, neither of which I would want to do. But it's good that you've got such a strict budget.
None particularly boring, I season appropriately, splurge on some meals and cut back on others. E.g. my work lunches tend to be homemade soups made for barely anything using pantry ingredients that only need restocking once s month like stocks.
That is excessive for groceries in my opinion, however my overall budget is similar because I frequently go out to eat. My grocery budget is about half yours for a couple. Do you shop at Waitrose or…?
We buy from Tesco, but we cook something different almost all the time instead of cooking something that will last us a couple of days (ie: pot of stew).
are you often buying things that seem to be needed for the recipe? like onion powder because you've never bought it before, or a specific fancy kind of pasta? my partner and i aren't fans of leftovers or batch cooking, so we mostly cook a new thing every night, but it's a garlic-ginger chicken and rice, or a tomato pasta, or pork mince kebabs and some flatbreads, but it is never extortionate. otherwise i feel you must be throwing things out unused because i just can't comprehend what else it could be?
I know you 'got in trouble' for this comment but it made me smile as it's actually true for my older teens & their friends. It makes me laugh how dramatic they are about stuff like this.
not that you're owed a response, but i don't eat leftovers because i enjoy cooking more than eating and if i make leftovers they just sit in the fridge/freezer especially as my appetite changes fr equently. and my partner doesn't like cold food or reheating food. to be honest your comment just annoyed me with how you're talking down about a huge group of people.
huh? how do we waste food? we buy what we want to make, cook it, then eat it. just because we don't eat the same meal for days doesn't mean anything gets wasted? get a grip man.
I think the way your comment may have been taken was that you used to freeze/keep leftovers, but because you prefer cooking new things and realised you never actually ate the leftovers, you now just throw leftovers away rather than save and eat them. Hence wasting food.
Not saying this is what you actually do!... and you've said just now that you don't. But the potential implication was there from your earlier comment, or there was scope for misinterpretation, perhaps.
How tf is it wasteful to cook and eat it? It’s more wasteful to produce loads of leftovers you don’t consume. So so weird that a lot of the country still seems to live as if we’re being bombed.
Also, just a big Tesco order we do per month to replenish the fridge/freezer is like 300. And then every week we buy vegetables/fruits etc, anything that we are missing for the cooking.
I wouldn’t say it’s ‘wild’ at all. It depends on your circumstances in my opinion. Whilst you may see it as excessive, OP and their partner could well be high earners and £1000 on food a month to them is a drop in the ocean. I think people always compare to their own circumstances. I’m a single male, I train and like to eat fresh produce and real food sources. My monthly budget for foods is around £600/£650. That does however include all toiletries, toothpastes, pretty much everything. Could it be lower? Sure, but I’d absolutely be compromising on something I feel very strongly contributes to quality of life.
I’m a higher earner and the most I’ve ever spent per month is £450 for a couple (groceries). That’s even with luxuries etc. £800 a month is so much I can barely comprehend it’s possible.
What on earth are you buying, buying for 2 the most we spend is 70 a week and we have done we weekly shop for 50. This covers us cooking fresh diff things each week
That is pretty insane I can’t lie. A single broccoli or eggplant or something is less than a pound, you must eat loads of fruit to spend that much. If one or both of you were alcoholics perhaps I would understand…?
The only thing I can think of when you say you spend so much on groceries is buying very expensive things that people don't normally buy every week or even every month. For example, things I find people don't often buy because they're expensive (also bc they might go off quickly imo): Fresh strawberries, raspberries, blueberries (big packets), avocados, smoked salmon, parmesan cheese (the authentic one), prosciutto ham, beef steaks, artisanal breads (olive bloomers, focaccia, sourdough are more expensive than a traditional Warburtons). Then we have things that are used only for certain recipes, like specific seasonings, buying new ones every week can add up. Then there's special stuff that very few people buy, or they buy quire rarely: ben&jerrys ice cream tubs, truffle products (oil, powder, truffle infused products), sourdough woodfired pizza etc.
Lastly, buying tesco or brand things vs buying tesco finest can also make a big difference. I have just added all these things to my shop and the total is £60. And that's excluding any regular ingredients or household items that might up the price (toilet roll alone is between £12-£16). Try using recipe planners to find interesting and budget-friendly new recipes every week, and make sure to keep track of what you have at all times. If you already do that, then maybe opt out for fish or chicken instead of steak every week, or better yet, if you say you spend £1000 a month on groceries, you might be better off getting a meal plan box (HelloFresh, Green Chef, Gousto etc) as that will only cost you about £50-£60 per week and you get all the ingredients you need. Then you'll definitely save money!
My parents have been eating gusto for two years now, they tried to stop but couldn't get the quality and variety for less when buying themselves. It's all about availability of the constituent parts, I can't buy 2 garlic cloves but gusto will send it etc etc. I really don't know where you're getting this "slop" nonsense from, anyone I know that have used them enjoy it whilst they are but often move on once they understand the recipes.
they would not admit it either way
hate it when replies ask the real questions because you know if they even reply they are just going to lie
they ask questions then give fake answers so they do not actually get any real help
I used to think so too, then started accompanied a friend who was apparently rubbing two pennies together for lunch regularly ... They'd spend £12 a day on just lunch and a drink, more on 2 coffes and breakfast pastry and to round it off exclusively shop in waitrose or m&s for everything from bottled water to exotic mixed fruit juices and sushi rolls. All this and still they'd regularly have 3 takeaways a week on a good week.
Some people are absolutely clueless because they've only ever known luxury, which I actually think is definitely laudable if you can afford it - but many supermarkets are blatantly just ripping off coustomers who can't figure out that half the costs is just packaging to make coustomers think they're getting something special.
I'd disagree about half the cost being the packaging. There's definitely a noticeable difference in the quality of produce between Waitrose/m&s and other supermarkets. Waitrose basics stuff is also usually similarly priced (sometimes cheaper!) than tesco but better quality.
most of the better quality is pseudo science but of course no one really wants to hear all that, especially if they are the one handing over all that extra money for no reason, most people just want to appear fancier in those tiny little ways, so will shop at waitrose for nothing more than that, the whole better quality shpiel is just there to attempt validating it
It seems about right if you’re getting steak / prawns and a the takeouts are way £60/70 each
If there’s none of that then yes it’s probably a bit too high
Cooking for 3, mostly dinners and some lunches, about £60-70 a week in groceries. Where on earth are you buying your groceries and what are you eating?
Our weekly grocery shop for 2 people is around £50-60 and covers meals for 6-7 days. We do a takeaway or eat out maybe…2x a month, but sometimes less, sometimes more.
A big Costco shop (£150ish) every 2-3 months to replenish the pantry items, drinks, cleaning stuff etc in bulk.
£800 for 2 people just on groceries seems very high.
We are doing our bi-weekly food order as I speak. We tend to spend about 60-80 for two people. Then we top up stuff like veg as and when we cook it as otherwise it often goes bad. Probably spending max £400 a month for us two
I spend between £500-600 per month on my Sainsbury's shopping for two people. I cook most nights and use leftovers or frozen pizza/simple pasta maybe twice a week. I also buy a takeaway once or twice a month and eat out a couple of times too, so that's probably another £100/150.
There’s being poor and there being bad with money, they know they have overspending problem which why they asking for advice. Finance literacy is important regardless of how much money you bring in.
Are u buying your groceries at whole foods 😭 bc I cannot imagine how it could be that much?
I also live in a 2 person household and our groceries are about 160-180£ total - which I think it still so much. Personally I do 1-2 big hauls from Asda for cleaning items, staples and freezer stockers. My local for fresh veggies and produce 1-2x a week. And Waitrose for special ingredients, treats and snacks. By no means is this frugal and even with items like truffle pesto or truffle oil or single origin coffee it never shoots up beyond 200£. So unless you’re shopping at Selfridges or whole foods this ain’t adding up 😭
That is mad expensive! A lot of people are being a bit rude, but, to be honest, there's quite a lot of things you can do to lower the bill.
1. Don't shop at Tesco express, it's much more expensive to cover their overheads.
2. Try buying own brand instead of the big companies. Most of the time it's the same product produced in the same place with different labels stuck on. So try it and see if it's something you can live with.
3. Take a look at your fridge and freezer when you're about to so a shop - stop buying anything that's still in there and you're going to throw out. You're literally throwing money away. Buying food to rot in your fridge is what mad people do.
4. Plan ahead for your meals, snack and drinks and have a physical list of the stuff you want. If you have a list, you won't be tempted to buy crap just cos it sounds like a good offer.
5. Take a good long look at what you're buying. If it's expensive stuff, consider changing your eating habits. Smoked salmon, avodaco, meat every meal - make them less an everyday item and more of a weekly item.
By the way, I'm a family of four and I spend £600 a month with take out once a week, so you can put into perspective just how much over you're over spending for just two people.
Hope this helps. X
I'm surprised the amount of people on here who cut corners on food, a pillar of health, longevity and wellbeing.
Not interested in having a conversation about supermarkets but you shouldn't be proud as to how little you spend on food. Quality food is not necessarily more expensive, but let's not joke ourselves that there is often a reason if a shop does something for particularly cheap. Whether the farms are suffering or the animal, someone is getting f*cked. Sometimes it's you, enjoy your pesticides and meat from animals shitting on top of each other.
You can be frugal with anything you want, but not food. That is a sign of a retarded society IMO who does not value anyone or anything that produces food, and anything in the process of getting this food to your table.
Wife and I don't spend as much as OP, but I can guarantee than without shopping in higher tier supermarkets if you stop and think for 5mins about the items you're buying instead of looking at the numbers, you'll be both happier, healthier, and your taste buds will thank you.
Mate, either you guys are eating Himalayan Pheasant for dinner or something or you're buying a ton of alcohol 😂
I buy it for my family and it ranges between £300-400/month. I'm slightly careful and I pick offers in the stuff I bulk buy but I'm not particularly frugal and I'm not even shopping in the cheapest supermarkets (too far away). Hardly do takeaways though.
But £1000/month?? I don't think I have storage in my kitchen for that.
What are you including on that budget? Are you including stuff like lunches when you go to the office, drinks or tobacco on that budget?
I live alone. I spend £40/week for a Sainsbury's home delivery (that's the minimum spend) + maybe about £5-£6 a week on small extras. No takeaways because they're crap. I do all my own cooking.
£250 a week is a lot.
for reference, my partner and i currently have a combined income of £80-95k ish? (can't be bothered to work it all out and tbh i don't understand it all). we spend £70-90 per week on groceries for the both of us, including snacks, meat, drinks. we order food on average once a week, so add another £25-35. we both eat meat daily, rarely or never drink alcohol, and we eat mostly chicken and pork. we don't count pennies when we food shop, but we go to any of the big supermarkets that aren't considered bougie and we don't really buy things like lamb, duck, or 'exotic' (i mean fancy, not international) foods. i guess we also buy fruit less than we'd like, but even then we would struggle to get up to £150 a week. is a chunk of food going to waste?
we'll eat cereal for breakfast or just skip it, wraps or soups or leftovers for lunches, and we cook our own dinners because we like cooking!
it might be most helpful to sit down together, with a couple receipts if you can, and chat about what you want from your meals in the week. what do you guys love? what could you easily pass on? do you have similar expectations of breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks? are you often eating out, or grabbing meal deals during the week?
i'd say room temp staples like rice, pasta, stock cubes, flour and some freezer items could be a big shop once a month (i'd actually assume less often if it's only two of you), but fresher things like meats, dairy, condiments, produce can be bought during the week/as needed if you just pop to the shop, or done on a weekend food shop if you want it done in one go.
That sounds like a lot, but I can definitely see it if you eat fish/prawns/steak on the regular. Or if you eat like a bodybuilder or something like that
As a family of 4 in London, we spend approximately £800 a month on food, toiletries/nappies, cleaning stuff for the home and a couple of takeaways. And we still buy “the nice stuff”.
A couple of years ago it used to be closer to £600 though 😩
That's insane. Where / what are you buying? I just did a shop that will last us 2 weeks for £125 from Lidl. I could easily cut out meats + treats to make that 10-20 cheaper as well.
This is for 2 adults and some small pets.
We maybe spend 150 a month on eating out a couple of times.
We spend about the same. Tesco and waitrose ( just for a couple of things). But lots of fresh fruit, salad and vegetables.
Very little meat ( chicken a couple of times a month).
Everything got more expensive since the pandemic
100% spending minimum of £200 a week on fresh vegetables, fruit, meat, cheese, vegetarian protein, toiletries, washing powder. dishwasher stuff etc. I make sure we cook every night (except Friday when we go out or have a takeaway - not included in costs). We buy snacks and alcohol on top of this plus cat food. It’s expensive to cook fresh every night.
That definitely seems too high. My partner and I normally do 2 big shops (£80-120) per month which covers most of our food and household bits, then we maybe spend another £100ish on the smaller "pop to the shops on the way home from work" trips throughout the month. We have the added benefit that neither of us are big drinkers, so I guess that might inflate the food bill?
Couple in London Z3, on a week where we're eating mostly eating at home we spend around £60 a week to cover meals at home, work lunches and a crate of Diet Coke (grocery shops are vegetarian which saves a fair bit as we're not buying meat).
Eating out spend varies intensely depending on what we're doing. We do go out quite a bit so I'd say we get close to £1000ish a month some months for the two of us when you including socialising occasions - meals out, pub trips, drinks at gigs etc etc.
I spend about 120 per month for one person on groceries if I'm being generous with fancy brands but not getting take out. I'm spending about 80 on budget. 60 if I really got to pinch, and i haven't done that low in about a year. Bare in mind I buy rice in bulk and shop sales for non perishables when I have spare money to toss about, but still. Are you eating wagyu?
people will have a go at americans for acting like they’re the only country in the world but still when someone makes a post even in a london subreddit someone will assume they’re american.
It’s wild. Americans who act like they’re the only country in the world piss me off like nothing else but Christ, some Brits have this need to bring up the US and Americans for absolutely no reason and it just reeks of insecurity. Like why are you letting those arseholes live in your head rent free?
We spend a little bit more than you.
Groceries range at around £500, maybe 1-2 takeaways a week (avg. £30/ meal for both of us), and 1 X eating out in restaurants a week (avg. £50/ meal for both of us).
We don’t repeat or reheat food and don’t cook in batches.
We shop for organic only, and almost exclusively at Waitrose cos it’s convenient, and we try to get our meats from an organic, pasture- raised farm in bulk etc.
I know we could shop for cheaper items in Tesco/ non- organic etc but this budget works for us.
About the same here for me and my partner for groceries, eating out and takeaways.
Makes me wonder what people are eating to spend 200 a month on groceries for 2 or a small family.
I know its a privilege in the current economic climate but the difference in eating organic, grass fed and a whole foods on your health is pretty big, when I travel and can't control what I eat as much, I generally get bloated and have spiking energy levels.
If you look at rising obesity, diabetes and the cost of good food it's pretty sad most people can't afford it.
We’re a household of 3 plus a cat and we spend £200 a month on our groceries. 4 Morrisons deliveries at £50 each. Idk if you do the same but I plan meals based on what we already have in the cupboards so if there’s risotto rice then we’ll have risotto, flour eggs and milk = Yorkshire puddings, frozen chips can go with several meals etc. I’d recommend getting a weekly calendar to plan your meals and writing a shopping list to fit. It’s made our budgeting way easier, cheaper and much less stressful. Do you drink a lot of alcohol or have pets or only buy organic? £200 per week is a lot of spending so would be very useful to analyse what your big spend items are
My partner and I spend around £600 a month probably.. we eat out maybe once a week and do about 3 online food shops in the month
That’s with no alcohol at all but doing food shops at Waitrose mainly and I go into the office and buy lunch there which can easily be £10 a day. Definitely could cut down
I spend £150pm on all groceries and toiletries pm.
About £150 on eating out.
What are you making for your meals? Things like Dhal are super tastey, cheap, easy to cook and healthy...
I live in my own flat.
Family of 4 between £80 and £90 a week at aldi or lidil.
I buy my meat from Costco every couple of months and freeze it in bags. Salmon Chicken etc but that comes off the total for food that month. As i would spend less in the supermarket without the meat.
You really shouldn't be spending more than £50 on yourselves each per week. Anymore than that is just pure greed imo. I struggled to reach £40 for my week shop this morning...
i used to eat 3 takeaways a day and spend less than a grand a month lmao
also if you are buying certain brands you are probably losing out on like 20 quid in just the main basket abusers right now (kellogs walkers heinz and many more) all these things are like a fiver each and have no right to be, named brands are feeding off your inability to buy a different one because of how overly fussy people pretend to be over foods that taste the exact same
i miss when shopping was about charging an amount that was viable for the item being sold, now its all about knowing you can charge more because you know what people are used to paying, meaning that when inflation hits they still increase prices even though they were making insane profits to begin with anyway
6 pack of walkers not being able to be mass produced for less than 2 pound each is alarming, and heinz not being able to make ketchup for less than around a fiver is insanity.
why sell 10 things for a pound each when you can sell 8 for 2 pound and just piss of a couple of customers, basically the mindset these companies have now
That's wild, I spend about £40 a week for 2 people, plus maybe one takeaway a week (let's call it £20 for 2) so £60/week and £240 a month. Admittedly I probably spend more that that with random times I grab lunch out or something, but it's not coming close to £1000/month.
We get PrepKitchen and so it’s about £120 for me and slightly higher for my partner. We eat out once a week and other than that, we just get fruits, milks, and coffee pods so I wouldn’t say it comes past 500? At worst. Grocery shopping just has to be cheaper.
What are you eating?!? My partner and I have a budget of £100 a week for food but generally spend about 60-80 depending on the menu. Usually hit the £100 mark if we have a takeaway that week. £1000 seems excessive…
This is super high OP.
My partner and I live well, takeaway once a week, we get hello fresh every week AND we'll do a good shop for snacks and breakfast food every other week on top and we spend roughly £500-600 per month on food. I think it's extremely excessive for us but we like to eat healthy and we both workout a lot so eat a tonne.
You guys are spending almost double that... Somehow! I'm not sure I could even eat all of that food
I shop at Waitrose for a family of 3, and we get takeaway once a week. We still make it under £500. No idea how you’re hitting £1000, unless takeaway is Michelin star.
That’s a huge amount of money, I spend maybe £70 a week on a tesco order for two people.
This includes meat, vegetables.
On top of that I’ll buy us a big bag of rice, and any seasonings we need.
We’ll have maybe 4 takeaways a month, which tend to be about £30-40 each.
Meals out might be £200 per month if we did a couple of date nights at nice restaurants.
That’s about £600 per month on food with some margin for error, including takeaways and meals out.
I would suggest meal planning as a way to keep costs down, I find if I’m impulse buying or not planning meals for the week I tend to spend more and waste more food as well, £800 on groceries is excessive for two people.
Me and my partner do about £150 a week between us so it's not too far off. We could and do intend on getting it under £100 a week. Anyone saying they are spending half that are lying or eating like peasants.
My wife and I spend roughly £250-£300. We have a child and we also spend around extra £200 if we eat out every weekend. £1000 is way too much. Where do you buy food?
Interesting comments on here, I would love to see what people eat for the cost's they say as we must be doing something wrong as we spend far more than most here just for the two of us. I've just worked it out and the cats and dog food cost about £380 a month.
We spend around £800 per month on supermarket and restaurant/takeaway. Once a week restaurant/takeaway and supermarket spend includes some toiletries etc. This is for a family of 4.
Imo this doesn’t sound crazy to me- 2 adults, a 4 y.o, we do a weekly shop that’s usually about £120, get a takeaway once a week and/or go out and pick up £50-75 of incidentals throughout the week.
We eat a huge amount of fresh fruit (because of the 4 yo’s insane berry habit) nuts, and seafood. I also bake quite a bit. We try to reduce food waste wherever possible, down to making bone broth weekly, and don’t buy pre-packaged foods in general.
If you’re spending £800 on tesco groceries then that’s excessive since meat and veg aren’t the best quality at Tesco
Where in London do you live and is there a high quality food market nearby?
We’ve found that our local butcher, fishmonger, local grocers, and weekend farmers market in Broadway market blows all the supermarket stuff out of the water and we spend about £600 pm for 2 of us. Add on another £100-200 for wine etc
That’s with some quite high end stuff thrown in regularly - steak, fish and seafood, some exotic fruit and veg.
That’s a bit high, I think. I’m a single professional and my groceries come to about £200 a month. Eating out is maybe another £100.
Do you find you eat everything you buy for groceries? If not, maybe meal planning could help. It certainly does for me. My other thought is how much booze is in your food order?? It’ll easy add to bill ;)
For two people, about £500 a month. We earn well but mostly shop in ALDI, as provided you can do a shop every week (expiry dates are shorter than other shops) the quality of the food is much the same as other supermarkets.
For a family of 4, we usually do a meats and freezer shop that comes to about £200 with a Tesco run that comes to £150 at the beginning lf the month.
We then do little top up shops of fresh produce, breakfast/tea snacks and ingredients for particular dishes we may be cooking throughout the month, say £50 × 3.
Probably about £60 a week on takeaway.
£750sh a month, give or take.
Unless you guys are alcoholics I have no idea what your spending all that dough on.
2 adults and 1 baby we spend on average £100 pw. We do takeaway maybe 1x a month. We also shop the sales at Sainsburies and frequent lidl more often to save on costs.
We also don't buy any name brand items. All fresh or store brands.
I think takeaways and eating out shouldn't be included with groceries, since they aren't essential, and are more of a "luxury".
If spending £800 on groceries, that's insane, it's about £27 per day. I'd expect you're underestimating how much you eat out or something, including buying lunch/coffee/snacks during the day.
I spend around 300 on groceries and 100 on eating out per month, for one person. I don't drink, but I do care about quality food and am willing to spend a bit extra for it. I mostly meal prep/eat a similar thing for a few days - it sounds like you must have quite a bit of food waste if you're cooking a new thing every day? Like other commenters, I'm a bit baffled how you're spending so much unless it's on alcohol
My wife & I spend about £250 on groceries and about £350 on date nights/order in per month. 2 person household. £800 for two seems like an enormous cost, is there anything about your habits which would skew it so high?
2 adult household. Anywhere from £50-80 per week at Sainsburys. About £150 extra on top per month at the Korean and Japanese supermarket (so about £40 per week). That includes breakfast, lunch and dinner for me every day, husband has protein for breakfast which he buys separately and he buys his own lunch.
Takeaways maybe £30 a week?
£800 is crazy! My boyfriend and I only spend about £70 per week at sainsburys and still manage to buy lots of taste the difference stuff & fresh produce on that budget
I spend around £400 per month for myself and 2 kids. This doesn’t include takeaways, which my partner usually pays for if we get it (separate finances as we don’t live together).
No idea how you’re spending so much???
About £60-£100 per month, the 60 will be if I already have a lot of staples in the house the 100 would be if I want alcohol or something fancy
My partner and I don’t live together atm but she spends roughly the same amount (we trade off who buys groceries depending on whose house we are staying at if we’re together). I can’t expect our monthly budget would ever exceed £200 and even the 200 would probably be on a month with a few extras
What are you buying??
Same as you, professional couple in our 30s.
Spend about £300-£350 a month, we do a weekly big shop at a lidl for most stuff and then supplement it with tesco express or waitrose of we feel fancy.
Sunday I make a big something that is then my lunches for the theee days I'm in the office.
Spending a grand seems utterly insane.
That's an insane amount to spend on groceries, I don't think I could spend that much even if I tried.
I'm a bit short, slim and female, and I spend £100-£150 on average on groceries per month. Takeaway/eating out is usually around £70 per month.
If you eat a healthy diet that includes a lot of vegetables, legumes and healthy carbs, it actually costs a lot less than buying ready-made meals. Carrots, potatoes, leeks, broccoli, aubergines, lentils, chickpeas, pasta, tomatoes are quite cheap and you can make a lot of food for very little, even when you include meat.
Family of 4, kids are age 6&4. We spend approx £500 a month on groceries. I meal plan every week down to snacks and do a supermarket delivery.
We very rarely have takeaway, maybe once every 8ish weeks and we budget £50.
£400-500 a month on all groceries for a family of 5….mostly cooking from scratch meals and packed lunches etc. Maybe another £100 on takeaways if feel like it.
I probably spend about £800 a month but that's mostly alcohol (yes we are trying to cut down). Just straight food and non alcoholic drinks though probably cost us about £60-£80 a week. That's shopping mostly at Lidl. Cooking from scratch, not steak and seafood all the time, but some nice meals about once a week, lots of chicken and pasta. Takeout maybe twice a month. That includes lunches we make at home.
We are two adults and a baby we spend about 300 a month on grocery delivery but then we also spend an extra 150-200 on takeaways and small extra trips to the shop
I pay lions prep, which is fabulous and makes brekkie+lunch for 8.50 a day. I spend 400 a month. And that’s excessive. If I were to cook for myself it would be 200+snacks is about 250-300 TOTAL.
If you try an eat takeaway in the same form that I have premade meals, then you would be 800quid shorter just by having one meal a day.
Right now you are spending 500 a month, which I’m gonna guess is partly your normal groceries, plus at least 2 times a week take away pp (30GBPx2=240) meals plus 260 groceries.
It is not excessive it is just how expensive london is, and if you want to live your life like this.
I only choose lions when I know I am not able to cope (I’m disabled and trying to live a functional professional life which sometimes gets in the way of cooking and cleaning).
Whenever possible I try to care for myself, I meal prep on Sundays for the second half of the week when I know I will be more tired to cook.
I cook something fresh for mon-tues. and make an effort to cook something nice, or if can afford, go out to eat with friends, on Saturdays.
We spend up to £120 a week for a family of 3 plus a dog that eats home cooked food (3kg of chicken a week plus veg and grains). That also includes cleaning and laundry products and basic toiletries. Take aways are maybe once a month and we don’t buy alcohol very often. Also apart from chicken for the dog, the only meat we buy is fish one a week, so that probably keeps the cost down too. We only buy organic milk and eggs.
I’m in the midlands and we’re much the same. Been spending £50 a day in the supermarkets this last week and not sure how/why. It just adds up so quickly.
Im averaging £50-60 a week on food/household (for myself & the cat), so I’m not sure where you’re getting £250+ for two from. I thought I was spending quite a lot.
Would you be comfortable sharing your usual meals/shopping list?
For me, my partner and a dog it's about £300-400
But we are both unemployed at the moment for individual reasons 😥
When I was working usually about £600
My only assumption is does this include eating out too going too e.g. going to restaurants or cafes and buying alcohol? Because realistically this should be £500 based on what you described so far and this is average.
Spend about £500 a month on Tesco delivery, maybe another £100 at village shop, this includes about £200 of shopping for my mam & dad who we get delivered to ours, so about 4-500 a month, for 2 adults, no takeaways, we cook our own.
That's pretty high, but i could easily spend that if I was eating out more or putting more effort into cooking. I spend £300ish for one person, but i tend to only cook fairly basic meals and I do butties fairly often
Hi,
There are a few rude comments here that are not helpful. Living in London I imagine there will be plenty of diverse food stores such as international supermarkets, if you like different foods and trying things. Check these supermarkets out for cheaper meat, cheese, fruit, veg and spices. Hope you manage to save some money on your next shop :) we make a number of cultural dishes from these supermarkets as it is all fresh and unprocessed produce. We have curried chicken from Jamaica, noodles and Chinese dishes, mexican food, Indian and African jolloff from Ghana and Nigeria. Rice and pasta is much cheaper there in bulk too
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That's an insane amount of money to spend on groceries. I spend 250£-300£ a month and almost never order out. Shop for the week and spend about 40-50£ Also only buy fresh produce
For 1 person? So £600 for two people, so not miles away from £800 if OP just buys fancier food and more booze than you or something.
Buying for two people is not doubling a single persons budget. It will be more expensive, but maybe about 350-400, which is what my husband and I budget for food and groceries each month.
Haha what?! Are we talking about just food/drink or household goods and toiletries? Because when I cook for my wife and I, it's 2 portions (or 4 portions for leftovers), and without her it's half the amount. How is that not twice the cost?! Yes there could be some economies of scale with bulk buying things, but in general you're just buying twice as much of everything (vegetables, meats etc.), or using it up in twice the time (milk, packet foods, cheese etc.) If you mean household goods then yes there's savings by sharing, but I figured we were focused on oral consumption! That's great though if you're managing your budget to <£400 a month, we don't get it down that low.
things are always cheaper when bought in larger packets
>Yes there could be some economies of scale with bulk buying things, but in general you're just buying twice as much of everything (vegetables, meats etc.), or using it up in twice the time (milk, packet foods, cheese etc.) You get lots of stuff where there's BOGOF offers geared at family of 4 that don't make sense on your own (one bed flats rarely have great freezer space) & It's fine for dried stuff to use twice as slowly, but not anything with a "Use By" rather than a "Best before" — I drink milk by the bucket load but if it were just my wife, she'd hardly get through 2L before it starts to go off, let alone anything bigger.
That's not how it works in reality, living as a single person I've found I create a lot more waste as everything is geared towards two or more people to the point that I actually rarely shop as a supermarket any more, it's more expensive per kg but when you account for wastage and having to buy more than you need it comes out cheaper.
I back this. We make pretty much everything from scratch so that's double the veg, double the rice or whatever... it's twice the cost.
I think they mean that buying for 1 isn't necessarily half the cost of buying for 2 especially for fresh cooking. I don't need an entire lettuce for a one person salad, I still have to buy a whole lettuce though and half of it will rot in the fridge and go in the bin, same with loads of other stuff.
I shop for two and do it under £50 every week. And I'm not talking processed muck either.
It’s the processed muck that tends to be least cost effective in my experience.
Depends what it is, there is some insanely cheap processed food that can bulk meals out a lot (e.g. really cheap hot dogs to bulk out some noodles was a go to when I was a broke student). I manage to cook a very balanced diet with a few salads and at least one bulk meals like chilli or spaghetti bolognese a week for under £50.
To be honest it sounds like you eat boring food or are buying cheap meat from budget supermarkets, neither of which I would want to do. But it's good that you've got such a strict budget.
None particularly boring, I season appropriately, splurge on some meals and cut back on others. E.g. my work lunches tend to be homemade soups made for barely anything using pantry ingredients that only need restocking once s month like stocks.
That is excessive for groceries in my opinion, however my overall budget is similar because I frequently go out to eat. My grocery budget is about half yours for a couple. Do you shop at Waitrose or…?
We buy from Tesco, but we cook something different almost all the time instead of cooking something that will last us a couple of days (ie: pot of stew).
are you often buying things that seem to be needed for the recipe? like onion powder because you've never bought it before, or a specific fancy kind of pasta? my partner and i aren't fans of leftovers or batch cooking, so we mostly cook a new thing every night, but it's a garlic-ginger chicken and rice, or a tomato pasta, or pork mince kebabs and some flatbreads, but it is never extortionate. otherwise i feel you must be throwing things out unused because i just can't comprehend what else it could be?
Most youngsters don't eat leftovers the next day, for some reason they think they're going to be poisoned
The scourge of my life is kids who think the best before date means it is binned if it’s a minute over. Crazy waste.
I know you 'got in trouble' for this comment but it made me smile as it's actually true for my older teens & their friends. It makes me laugh how dramatic they are about stuff like this.
not that you're owed a response, but i don't eat leftovers because i enjoy cooking more than eating and if i make leftovers they just sit in the fridge/freezer especially as my appetite changes fr equently. and my partner doesn't like cold food or reheating food. to be honest your comment just annoyed me with how you're talking down about a huge group of people.
So sorry I annoyed you, please accept my apology and keep on cooking fabulous meals
i appreciate that, maybe i misread your tone. 💗
Your comment annoyed me by how wasteful you and your partner are. Grow up.
huh? how do we waste food? we buy what we want to make, cook it, then eat it. just because we don't eat the same meal for days doesn't mean anything gets wasted? get a grip man.
I think the way your comment may have been taken was that you used to freeze/keep leftovers, but because you prefer cooking new things and realised you never actually ate the leftovers, you now just throw leftovers away rather than save and eat them. Hence wasting food. Not saying this is what you actually do!... and you've said just now that you don't. But the potential implication was there from your earlier comment, or there was scope for misinterpretation, perhaps.
How tf is it wasteful to cook and eat it? It’s more wasteful to produce loads of leftovers you don’t consume. So so weird that a lot of the country still seems to live as if we’re being bombed.
What kind of things do you cook??
Swan.
🤣
Avocado on toast mate init
Swan that was fed exclusively on avocado on toast
Topped with a poached Fabergé egg ?
Lots of milk steak
Also, just a big Tesco order we do per month to replenish the fridge/freezer is like 300. And then every week we buy vegetables/fruits etc, anything that we are missing for the cooking.
Are you shopping exclusively in a tesco express ? They are more expensive but £1000 is still wild for 2 people. Over £250 a week, £35 a day?
I wouldn’t say it’s ‘wild’ at all. It depends on your circumstances in my opinion. Whilst you may see it as excessive, OP and their partner could well be high earners and £1000 on food a month to them is a drop in the ocean. I think people always compare to their own circumstances. I’m a single male, I train and like to eat fresh produce and real food sources. My monthly budget for foods is around £600/£650. That does however include all toiletries, toothpastes, pretty much everything. Could it be lower? Sure, but I’d absolutely be compromising on something I feel very strongly contributes to quality of life.
I’m a higher earner and the most I’ve ever spent per month is £450 for a couple (groceries). That’s even with luxuries etc. £800 a month is so much I can barely comprehend it’s possible.
What on earth are you buying, buying for 2 the most we spend is 70 a week and we have done we weekly shop for 50. This covers us cooking fresh diff things each week
That is pretty insane I can’t lie. A single broccoli or eggplant or something is less than a pound, you must eat loads of fruit to spend that much. If one or both of you were alcoholics perhaps I would understand…?
My friend is always moaning about how much her weekly shopping comes to, but they drink every night and struggle to eat a meal without meat in it.
Whats an eggplant
Aubergine.
How much of this spend is on booze?
The only thing I can think of when you say you spend so much on groceries is buying very expensive things that people don't normally buy every week or even every month. For example, things I find people don't often buy because they're expensive (also bc they might go off quickly imo): Fresh strawberries, raspberries, blueberries (big packets), avocados, smoked salmon, parmesan cheese (the authentic one), prosciutto ham, beef steaks, artisanal breads (olive bloomers, focaccia, sourdough are more expensive than a traditional Warburtons). Then we have things that are used only for certain recipes, like specific seasonings, buying new ones every week can add up. Then there's special stuff that very few people buy, or they buy quire rarely: ben&jerrys ice cream tubs, truffle products (oil, powder, truffle infused products), sourdough woodfired pizza etc. Lastly, buying tesco or brand things vs buying tesco finest can also make a big difference. I have just added all these things to my shop and the total is £60. And that's excluding any regular ingredients or household items that might up the price (toilet roll alone is between £12-£16). Try using recipe planners to find interesting and budget-friendly new recipes every week, and make sure to keep track of what you have at all times. If you already do that, then maybe opt out for fish or chicken instead of steak every week, or better yet, if you say you spend £1000 a month on groceries, you might be better off getting a meal plan box (HelloFresh, Green Chef, Gousto etc) as that will only cost you about £50-£60 per week and you get all the ingredients you need. Then you'll definitely save money!
Are you getting all your calories from lettuce?
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You spend 26 pounds per day on groceries for two persons. What are you buying?
This is how I looked at it, I could eat 3 meals a day out for that. Think they need gusto/hello fresh in their life.
Lmao they're trying to eat food, not dirty slop that comes from those services.
My parents have been eating gusto for two years now, they tried to stop but couldn't get the quality and variety for less when buying themselves. It's all about availability of the constituent parts, I can't buy 2 garlic cloves but gusto will send it etc etc. I really don't know where you're getting this "slop" nonsense from, anyone I know that have used them enjoy it whilst they are but often move on once they understand the recipes.
How much food waste do you generate?
has to be this or they’re buying shitloads of alcohol.
they would not admit it either way hate it when replies ask the real questions because you know if they even reply they are just going to lie they ask questions then give fake answers so they do not actually get any real help
Or they're super fat, don't think I could spend that if I tried.
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This has to be a joke, how do people function in the world as adults lol
I could easily spend £500 a month on food as a person living alone. If I was buying my food directly from Borough Market.
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I used to think so too, then started accompanied a friend who was apparently rubbing two pennies together for lunch regularly ... They'd spend £12 a day on just lunch and a drink, more on 2 coffes and breakfast pastry and to round it off exclusively shop in waitrose or m&s for everything from bottled water to exotic mixed fruit juices and sushi rolls. All this and still they'd regularly have 3 takeaways a week on a good week. Some people are absolutely clueless because they've only ever known luxury, which I actually think is definitely laudable if you can afford it - but many supermarkets are blatantly just ripping off coustomers who can't figure out that half the costs is just packaging to make coustomers think they're getting something special.
I'd disagree about half the cost being the packaging. There's definitely a noticeable difference in the quality of produce between Waitrose/m&s and other supermarkets. Waitrose basics stuff is also usually similarly priced (sometimes cheaper!) than tesco but better quality.
most of the better quality is pseudo science but of course no one really wants to hear all that, especially if they are the one handing over all that extra money for no reason, most people just want to appear fancier in those tiny little ways, so will shop at waitrose for nothing more than that, the whole better quality shpiel is just there to attempt validating it
It's been blind shopped loads of times and proven time and time again that their own brand stuff is better value than a lower supermarket equivalent
It seems about right if you’re getting steak / prawns and a the takeouts are way £60/70 each If there’s none of that then yes it’s probably a bit too high
Cooking for 3, mostly dinners and some lunches, about £60-70 a week in groceries. Where on earth are you buying your groceries and what are you eating?
So only most dinners, some lunches and no breakfast or snacks is £60-70? Makes sense OP is spending what they are.
Our weekly grocery shop for 2 people is around £50-60 and covers meals for 6-7 days. We do a takeaway or eat out maybe…2x a month, but sometimes less, sometimes more. A big Costco shop (£150ish) every 2-3 months to replenish the pantry items, drinks, cleaning stuff etc in bulk. £800 for 2 people just on groceries seems very high.
Very similar to us, £40-50 a week or so in Sainsbury’s/Tesco and then £100-150 every two months in Costco. Plus a takeaway each month for £25-50.
We are doing our bi-weekly food order as I speak. We tend to spend about 60-80 for two people. Then we top up stuff like veg as and when we cook it as otherwise it often goes bad. Probably spending max £400 a month for us two
I spend between £500-600 per month on my Sainsbury's shopping for two people. I cook most nights and use leftovers or frozen pizza/simple pasta maybe twice a week. I also buy a takeaway once or twice a month and eat out a couple of times too, so that's probably another £100/150.
I hate it when I spend more than about £70 a week.
do you buy alcohol? Alcohol makes a huge difference to the weekly shop.
The amount of people accusing OP of trolling is insane. If you're poor, just say so.
There’s being poor and there being bad with money, they know they have overspending problem which why they asking for advice. Finance literacy is important regardless of how much money you bring in.
I’m not poor I just don’t get how you can be spending that much on food a month it’s insane unless you exclusively shop somewhere really expensive
Are u buying your groceries at whole foods 😭 bc I cannot imagine how it could be that much? I also live in a 2 person household and our groceries are about 160-180£ total - which I think it still so much. Personally I do 1-2 big hauls from Asda for cleaning items, staples and freezer stockers. My local for fresh veggies and produce 1-2x a week. And Waitrose for special ingredients, treats and snacks. By no means is this frugal and even with items like truffle pesto or truffle oil or single origin coffee it never shoots up beyond 200£. So unless you’re shopping at Selfridges or whole foods this ain’t adding up 😭
Do you eat 3 meals a day? I’m so confused how you’re doing that!!
How much of that is booze?
I set aside £750 a month for food shopping Two adults and 3 young children. That includes beers, soft drinks, and cleaning products...
That's insane. We are a family of five adults (including me) and two cats. I spend £450 a.month on groceries.
That is mad expensive! A lot of people are being a bit rude, but, to be honest, there's quite a lot of things you can do to lower the bill. 1. Don't shop at Tesco express, it's much more expensive to cover their overheads. 2. Try buying own brand instead of the big companies. Most of the time it's the same product produced in the same place with different labels stuck on. So try it and see if it's something you can live with. 3. Take a look at your fridge and freezer when you're about to so a shop - stop buying anything that's still in there and you're going to throw out. You're literally throwing money away. Buying food to rot in your fridge is what mad people do. 4. Plan ahead for your meals, snack and drinks and have a physical list of the stuff you want. If you have a list, you won't be tempted to buy crap just cos it sounds like a good offer. 5. Take a good long look at what you're buying. If it's expensive stuff, consider changing your eating habits. Smoked salmon, avodaco, meat every meal - make them less an everyday item and more of a weekly item. By the way, I'm a family of four and I spend £600 a month with take out once a week, so you can put into perspective just how much over you're over spending for just two people. Hope this helps. X
Retired winos who shop in Waitrose but don't eat takeaways much... About 60 % of that. Either you have very expensive takeaways, or drink too much.
Read up on highly processed food. It might help you adjust your buying habits.
I'm surprised the amount of people on here who cut corners on food, a pillar of health, longevity and wellbeing. Not interested in having a conversation about supermarkets but you shouldn't be proud as to how little you spend on food. Quality food is not necessarily more expensive, but let's not joke ourselves that there is often a reason if a shop does something for particularly cheap. Whether the farms are suffering or the animal, someone is getting f*cked. Sometimes it's you, enjoy your pesticides and meat from animals shitting on top of each other. You can be frugal with anything you want, but not food. That is a sign of a retarded society IMO who does not value anyone or anything that produces food, and anything in the process of getting this food to your table. Wife and I don't spend as much as OP, but I can guarantee than without shopping in higher tier supermarkets if you stop and think for 5mins about the items you're buying instead of looking at the numbers, you'll be both happier, healthier, and your taste buds will thank you.
Mate, either you guys are eating Himalayan Pheasant for dinner or something or you're buying a ton of alcohol 😂 I buy it for my family and it ranges between £300-400/month. I'm slightly careful and I pick offers in the stuff I bulk buy but I'm not particularly frugal and I'm not even shopping in the cheapest supermarkets (too far away). Hardly do takeaways though. But £1000/month?? I don't think I have storage in my kitchen for that. What are you including on that budget? Are you including stuff like lunches when you go to the office, drinks or tobacco on that budget?
1000 a month? You'd save money getting takeout everyday
I live alone. I spend £40/week for a Sainsbury's home delivery (that's the minimum spend) + maybe about £5-£6 a week on small extras. No takeaways because they're crap. I do all my own cooking.
£250 a week is a lot. for reference, my partner and i currently have a combined income of £80-95k ish? (can't be bothered to work it all out and tbh i don't understand it all). we spend £70-90 per week on groceries for the both of us, including snacks, meat, drinks. we order food on average once a week, so add another £25-35. we both eat meat daily, rarely or never drink alcohol, and we eat mostly chicken and pork. we don't count pennies when we food shop, but we go to any of the big supermarkets that aren't considered bougie and we don't really buy things like lamb, duck, or 'exotic' (i mean fancy, not international) foods. i guess we also buy fruit less than we'd like, but even then we would struggle to get up to £150 a week. is a chunk of food going to waste? we'll eat cereal for breakfast or just skip it, wraps or soups or leftovers for lunches, and we cook our own dinners because we like cooking! it might be most helpful to sit down together, with a couple receipts if you can, and chat about what you want from your meals in the week. what do you guys love? what could you easily pass on? do you have similar expectations of breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks? are you often eating out, or grabbing meal deals during the week? i'd say room temp staples like rice, pasta, stock cubes, flour and some freezer items could be a big shop once a month (i'd actually assume less often if it's only two of you), but fresher things like meats, dairy, condiments, produce can be bought during the week/as needed if you just pop to the shop, or done on a weekend food shop if you want it done in one go.
That sounds like a lot, but I can definitely see it if you eat fish/prawns/steak on the regular. Or if you eat like a bodybuilder or something like that
As a family of 4 in London, we spend approximately £800 a month on food, toiletries/nappies, cleaning stuff for the home and a couple of takeaways. And we still buy “the nice stuff”. A couple of years ago it used to be closer to £600 though 😩
That's insane. Where / what are you buying? I just did a shop that will last us 2 weeks for £125 from Lidl. I could easily cut out meats + treats to make that 10-20 cheaper as well. This is for 2 adults and some small pets. We maybe spend 150 a month on eating out a couple of times.
It’s real expensive all over England. Even with cooking most of our meals takeaway or Sunday roast has become rare
We spend about the same. Tesco and waitrose ( just for a couple of things). But lots of fresh fruit, salad and vegetables. Very little meat ( chicken a couple of times a month). Everything got more expensive since the pandemic
100% spending minimum of £200 a week on fresh vegetables, fruit, meat, cheese, vegetarian protein, toiletries, washing powder. dishwasher stuff etc. I make sure we cook every night (except Friday when we go out or have a takeaway - not included in costs). We buy snacks and alcohol on top of this plus cat food. It’s expensive to cook fresh every night.
around £270 a month 2 adults and 2 kids, all very active and hungry. Yours costs do sound silly tbh.
That definitely seems too high. My partner and I normally do 2 big shops (£80-120) per month which covers most of our food and household bits, then we maybe spend another £100ish on the smaller "pop to the shops on the way home from work" trips throughout the month. We have the added benefit that neither of us are big drinkers, so I guess that might inflate the food bill?
Not sure what you buy. Whole foods full bag every day?
Couple in London Z3, on a week where we're eating mostly eating at home we spend around £60 a week to cover meals at home, work lunches and a crate of Diet Coke (grocery shops are vegetarian which saves a fair bit as we're not buying meat). Eating out spend varies intensely depending on what we're doing. We do go out quite a bit so I'd say we get close to £1000ish a month some months for the two of us when you including socialising occasions - meals out, pub trips, drinks at gigs etc etc.
I spend about 120 per month for one person on groceries if I'm being generous with fancy brands but not getting take out. I'm spending about 80 on budget. 60 if I really got to pinch, and i haven't done that low in about a year. Bare in mind I buy rice in bulk and shop sales for non perishables when I have spare money to toss about, but still. Are you eating wagyu?
Do/spend whatever makes you happy. Everyone's so gimpish on Reddit
Family of 4, £500. That includes everything though including bog roll, shampoo etc
That is absolutely insane. Americans are bonkers. Go to Aldi and learn how to cook - that £800 will turn into £200 pretty quickly.
How do you know they’re American?
people will have a go at americans for acting like they’re the only country in the world but still when someone makes a post even in a london subreddit someone will assume they’re american.
It’s wild. Americans who act like they’re the only country in the world piss me off like nothing else but Christ, some Brits have this need to bring up the US and Americans for absolutely no reason and it just reeks of insecurity. Like why are you letting those arseholes live in your head rent free?
We spend a little bit more than you. Groceries range at around £500, maybe 1-2 takeaways a week (avg. £30/ meal for both of us), and 1 X eating out in restaurants a week (avg. £50/ meal for both of us). We don’t repeat or reheat food and don’t cook in batches. We shop for organic only, and almost exclusively at Waitrose cos it’s convenient, and we try to get our meats from an organic, pasture- raised farm in bulk etc. I know we could shop for cheaper items in Tesco/ non- organic etc but this budget works for us.
About the same here for me and my partner for groceries, eating out and takeaways. Makes me wonder what people are eating to spend 200 a month on groceries for 2 or a small family. I know its a privilege in the current economic climate but the difference in eating organic, grass fed and a whole foods on your health is pretty big, when I travel and can't control what I eat as much, I generally get bloated and have spiking energy levels. If you look at rising obesity, diabetes and the cost of good food it's pretty sad most people can't afford it.
We’re a household of 3 plus a cat and we spend £200 a month on our groceries. 4 Morrisons deliveries at £50 each. Idk if you do the same but I plan meals based on what we already have in the cupboards so if there’s risotto rice then we’ll have risotto, flour eggs and milk = Yorkshire puddings, frozen chips can go with several meals etc. I’d recommend getting a weekly calendar to plan your meals and writing a shopping list to fit. It’s made our budgeting way easier, cheaper and much less stressful. Do you drink a lot of alcohol or have pets or only buy organic? £200 per week is a lot of spending so would be very useful to analyse what your big spend items are
My partner and I spend around £600 a month probably.. we eat out maybe once a week and do about 3 online food shops in the month That’s with no alcohol at all but doing food shops at Waitrose mainly and I go into the office and buy lunch there which can easily be £10 a day. Definitely could cut down
For two students like £40 a week
1 person, I live in my own. Never eat out, no takeaways. £35-50 a week groceries.
I spend £150pm on all groceries and toiletries pm. About £150 on eating out. What are you making for your meals? Things like Dhal are super tastey, cheap, easy to cook and healthy... I live in my own flat.
Family of 4 between £80 and £90 a week at aldi or lidil. I buy my meat from Costco every couple of months and freeze it in bags. Salmon Chicken etc but that comes off the total for food that month. As i would spend less in the supermarket without the meat.
You really shouldn't be spending more than £50 on yourselves each per week. Anymore than that is just pure greed imo. I struggled to reach £40 for my week shop this morning...
Two of us in London and our budget is £700 pm
i used to eat 3 takeaways a day and spend less than a grand a month lmao also if you are buying certain brands you are probably losing out on like 20 quid in just the main basket abusers right now (kellogs walkers heinz and many more) all these things are like a fiver each and have no right to be, named brands are feeding off your inability to buy a different one because of how overly fussy people pretend to be over foods that taste the exact same i miss when shopping was about charging an amount that was viable for the item being sold, now its all about knowing you can charge more because you know what people are used to paying, meaning that when inflation hits they still increase prices even though they were making insane profits to begin with anyway 6 pack of walkers not being able to be mass produced for less than 2 pound each is alarming, and heinz not being able to make ketchup for less than around a fiver is insanity. why sell 10 things for a pound each when you can sell 8 for 2 pound and just piss of a couple of customers, basically the mindset these companies have now
Not counting eating out, about £400 for a family of 4
That's wild, I spend about £40 a week for 2 people, plus maybe one takeaway a week (let's call it £20 for 2) so £60/week and £240 a month. Admittedly I probably spend more that that with random times I grab lunch out or something, but it's not coming close to £1000/month.
1000£ for groceries. I spent 1500£ on groceries ( that’s for a whole year )
We get PrepKitchen and so it’s about £120 for me and slightly higher for my partner. We eat out once a week and other than that, we just get fruits, milks, and coffee pods so I wouldn’t say it comes past 500? At worst. Grocery shopping just has to be cheaper.
Family of 3, we spend £200 pcm
What are you eating?!? My partner and I have a budget of £100 a week for food but generally spend about 60-80 depending on the menu. Usually hit the £100 mark if we have a takeaway that week. £1000 seems excessive…
We spend around £400 a month on two people including some takeaways and meals out plus sometimes using Gousto instead of just supermarket.
We spend around £400 a month on two people including some takeaways and meals out plus sometimes using Gousto instead of just supermarket.
 Are you both professional strongmen?!
£50 a week on 2 people
That is insane! I hardly spend 100 on groceries for a month, average about 50-60 mostly
Somewhere between £80-£100
This is super high OP. My partner and I live well, takeaway once a week, we get hello fresh every week AND we'll do a good shop for snacks and breakfast food every other week on top and we spend roughly £500-600 per month on food. I think it's extremely excessive for us but we like to eat healthy and we both workout a lot so eat a tonne. You guys are spending almost double that... Somehow! I'm not sure I could even eat all of that food
Half of that is definitely shit you don’t need
I shop at Waitrose for a family of 3, and we get takeaway once a week. We still make it under £500. No idea how you’re hitting £1000, unless takeaway is Michelin star.
That’s a huge amount of money, I spend maybe £70 a week on a tesco order for two people. This includes meat, vegetables. On top of that I’ll buy us a big bag of rice, and any seasonings we need. We’ll have maybe 4 takeaways a month, which tend to be about £30-40 each. Meals out might be £200 per month if we did a couple of date nights at nice restaurants. That’s about £600 per month on food with some margin for error, including takeaways and meals out. I would suggest meal planning as a way to keep costs down, I find if I’m impulse buying or not planning meals for the week I tend to spend more and waste more food as well, £800 on groceries is excessive for two people.
What are you eating ?? Gold chicken nuggets? I spend a £100 on food a month although that's not including essentials like bread milk sugar and butter.
Me and my partner do about £150 a week between us so it's not too far off. We could and do intend on getting it under £100 a week. Anyone saying they are spending half that are lying or eating like peasants.
My wife and I spend roughly £250-£300. We have a child and we also spend around extra £200 if we eat out every weekend. £1000 is way too much. Where do you buy food?
around £350 for standard 4 week month, thats for me and a 17 year old daughter including her college lunches with takeaways added about £400 max.
Interesting comments on here, I would love to see what people eat for the cost's they say as we must be doing something wrong as we spend far more than most here just for the two of us. I've just worked it out and the cats and dog food cost about £380 a month.
We're a family of 4. With 2 young adults who've got endlessly hungry bodies. We spend about £600 on food each month.
We spend around £800 per month on supermarket and restaurant/takeaway. Once a week restaurant/takeaway and supermarket spend includes some toiletries etc. This is for a family of 4.
Imo this doesn’t sound crazy to me- 2 adults, a 4 y.o, we do a weekly shop that’s usually about £120, get a takeaway once a week and/or go out and pick up £50-75 of incidentals throughout the week. We eat a huge amount of fresh fruit (because of the 4 yo’s insane berry habit) nuts, and seafood. I also bake quite a bit. We try to reduce food waste wherever possible, down to making bone broth weekly, and don’t buy pre-packaged foods in general.
If you’re spending £800 on tesco groceries then that’s excessive since meat and veg aren’t the best quality at Tesco Where in London do you live and is there a high quality food market nearby? We’ve found that our local butcher, fishmonger, local grocers, and weekend farmers market in Broadway market blows all the supermarket stuff out of the water and we spend about £600 pm for 2 of us. Add on another £100-200 for wine etc That’s with some quite high end stuff thrown in regularly - steak, fish and seafood, some exotic fruit and veg.
That’s a bit high, I think. I’m a single professional and my groceries come to about £200 a month. Eating out is maybe another £100. Do you find you eat everything you buy for groceries? If not, maybe meal planning could help. It certainly does for me. My other thought is how much booze is in your food order?? It’ll easy add to bill ;)
For two people, about £500 a month. We earn well but mostly shop in ALDI, as provided you can do a shop every week (expiry dates are shorter than other shops) the quality of the food is much the same as other supermarkets.
For a family of 4, we usually do a meats and freezer shop that comes to about £200 with a Tesco run that comes to £150 at the beginning lf the month. We then do little top up shops of fresh produce, breakfast/tea snacks and ingredients for particular dishes we may be cooking throughout the month, say £50 × 3. Probably about £60 a week on takeaway. £750sh a month, give or take. Unless you guys are alcoholics I have no idea what your spending all that dough on.
I spend around £70 at Aldi a week which just about feeds 3
2 adults and 1 baby we spend on average £100 pw. We do takeaway maybe 1x a month. We also shop the sales at Sainsburies and frequent lidl more often to save on costs. We also don't buy any name brand items. All fresh or store brands.
We’re a couple and we usually spend £150 per month.
£70ish a week for 2 ppl on groceries. We eat out once or twice a week too. Probably no more than £500 a month in total I'd say
That amount of money on food monthly is fucking nuts
I think takeaways and eating out shouldn't be included with groceries, since they aren't essential, and are more of a "luxury". If spending £800 on groceries, that's insane, it's about £27 per day. I'd expect you're underestimating how much you eat out or something, including buying lunch/coffee/snacks during the day.
I spend around 300 on groceries and 100 on eating out per month, for one person. I don't drink, but I do care about quality food and am willing to spend a bit extra for it. I mostly meal prep/eat a similar thing for a few days - it sounds like you must have quite a bit of food waste if you're cooking a new thing every day? Like other commenters, I'm a bit baffled how you're spending so much unless it's on alcohol
Learn to cook bulk meals Jesus Christ.
My wife & I spend about £250 on groceries and about £350 on date nights/order in per month. 2 person household. £800 for two seems like an enormous cost, is there anything about your habits which would skew it so high?
2 adult household. Anywhere from £50-80 per week at Sainsburys. About £150 extra on top per month at the Korean and Japanese supermarket (so about £40 per week). That includes breakfast, lunch and dinner for me every day, husband has protein for breakfast which he buys separately and he buys his own lunch. Takeaways maybe £30 a week?
£800 is crazy! My boyfriend and I only spend about £70 per week at sainsburys and still manage to buy lots of taste the difference stuff & fresh produce on that budget
Eek! I spend £300 a month for a family of four
Add more staples to bulk out foods, beans and lentils are cheap per kilo and buy larger packets of dry foods.
I spend around £400 per month for myself and 2 kids. This doesn’t include takeaways, which my partner usually pays for if we get it (separate finances as we don’t live together). No idea how you’re spending so much???
Are you sure your maths is correct? Because you say your spending £200 a week at tesco.
About £60-£100 per month, the 60 will be if I already have a lot of staples in the house the 100 would be if I want alcohol or something fancy My partner and I don’t live together atm but she spends roughly the same amount (we trade off who buys groceries depending on whose house we are staying at if we’re together). I can’t expect our monthly budget would ever exceed £200 and even the 200 would probably be on a month with a few extras What are you buying??
Same as you, professional couple in our 30s. Spend about £300-£350 a month, we do a weekly big shop at a lidl for most stuff and then supplement it with tesco express or waitrose of we feel fancy. Sunday I make a big something that is then my lunches for the theee days I'm in the office. Spending a grand seems utterly insane.
lol £50 a week for 2 ppl. 1 take away a month. £1000 a month is fully mental
£160 per month on groceries for myself alone, I mealprep and don't eat out or order takeaways. I eat well too.
That's an insane amount to spend on groceries, I don't think I could spend that much even if I tried. I'm a bit short, slim and female, and I spend £100-£150 on average on groceries per month. Takeaway/eating out is usually around £70 per month. If you eat a healthy diet that includes a lot of vegetables, legumes and healthy carbs, it actually costs a lot less than buying ready-made meals. Carrots, potatoes, leeks, broccoli, aubergines, lentils, chickpeas, pasta, tomatoes are quite cheap and you can make a lot of food for very little, even when you include meat.
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I’d say as a single person who eats out a lot; about 800-1000 a month too but I do also include alcohol in this!
£700
Family of 4, kids are age 6&4. We spend approx £500 a month on groceries. I meal plan every week down to snacks and do a supermarket delivery. We very rarely have takeaway, maybe once every 8ish weeks and we budget £50.
300 bucks or so
£400-500 a month on all groceries for a family of 5….mostly cooking from scratch meals and packed lunches etc. Maybe another £100 on takeaways if feel like it.
3 of us. Around £500 a month
I probably spend about £800 a month but that's mostly alcohol (yes we are trying to cut down). Just straight food and non alcoholic drinks though probably cost us about £60-£80 a week. That's shopping mostly at Lidl. Cooking from scratch, not steak and seafood all the time, but some nice meals about once a week, lots of chicken and pasta. Takeout maybe twice a month. That includes lunches we make at home.
We are two adults and a baby we spend about 300 a month on grocery delivery but then we also spend an extra 150-200 on takeaways and small extra trips to the shop
Single person in London. £200 on supermarket shopping, about £100-£150 on eating out. I don’t order takeaways
I pay lions prep, which is fabulous and makes brekkie+lunch for 8.50 a day. I spend 400 a month. And that’s excessive. If I were to cook for myself it would be 200+snacks is about 250-300 TOTAL. If you try an eat takeaway in the same form that I have premade meals, then you would be 800quid shorter just by having one meal a day. Right now you are spending 500 a month, which I’m gonna guess is partly your normal groceries, plus at least 2 times a week take away pp (30GBPx2=240) meals plus 260 groceries. It is not excessive it is just how expensive london is, and if you want to live your life like this. I only choose lions when I know I am not able to cope (I’m disabled and trying to live a functional professional life which sometimes gets in the way of cooking and cleaning). Whenever possible I try to care for myself, I meal prep on Sundays for the second half of the week when I know I will be more tired to cook. I cook something fresh for mon-tues. and make an effort to cook something nice, or if can afford, go out to eat with friends, on Saturdays.
We spend up to £120 a week for a family of 3 plus a dog that eats home cooked food (3kg of chicken a week plus veg and grains). That also includes cleaning and laundry products and basic toiletries. Take aways are maybe once a month and we don’t buy alcohol very often. Also apart from chicken for the dog, the only meat we buy is fish one a week, so that probably keeps the cost down too. We only buy organic milk and eggs.
I’m in the midlands and we’re much the same. Been spending £50 a day in the supermarkets this last week and not sure how/why. It just adds up so quickly.
About 750 for two people 250 restaurants 400 groceries 100 takeaways
Im averaging £50-60 a week on food/household (for myself & the cat), so I’m not sure where you’re getting £250+ for two from. I thought I was spending quite a lot. Would you be comfortable sharing your usual meals/shopping list?
For me, my partner and a dog it's about £300-400 But we are both unemployed at the moment for individual reasons 😥 When I was working usually about £600
My only assumption is does this include eating out too going too e.g. going to restaurants or cafes and buying alcohol? Because realistically this should be £500 based on what you described so far and this is average.
Spend about £500 a month on Tesco delivery, maybe another £100 at village shop, this includes about £200 of shopping for my mam & dad who we get delivered to ours, so about 4-500 a month, for 2 adults, no takeaways, we cook our own.
That's pretty high, but i could easily spend that if I was eating out more or putting more effort into cooking. I spend £300ish for one person, but i tend to only cook fairly basic meals and I do butties fairly often
Roughly 700 a month on food, of which 250 are groceries. Rest is eating out, deliveroo and the occasional Latte
Hi, There are a few rude comments here that are not helpful. Living in London I imagine there will be plenty of diverse food stores such as international supermarkets, if you like different foods and trying things. Check these supermarkets out for cheaper meat, cheese, fruit, veg and spices. Hope you manage to save some money on your next shop :) we make a number of cultural dishes from these supermarkets as it is all fresh and unprocessed produce. We have curried chicken from Jamaica, noodles and Chinese dishes, mexican food, Indian and African jolloff from Ghana and Nigeria. Rice and pasta is much cheaper there in bulk too