I've been keeping close tabs on our spending over the last few months, for various reasons.
So - two adults, our supermarket shopping bill is consistently around £400 a month, split between roughly 75% Tesco and 25% Waitrose.
High? Low? Normal?
What's yours?
Last edited by: Crankcase on Wed 1 Feb 17 at 15:25
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About that, plus around another £100 in non supermarket
food shops
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Two of us here - we eat well. Prompted by this post we checked our November statements - spends mainly at Asda (as it's the nearest) £320.00 - included in that was some spending at a meat outlet which also sells quality local produce. Don't go near our local Waitrose really. What's not included in that is our eating out habit which is a biggie when you add it up. There is almost zero waste as we generally shop smartly ( visit more often rather than bulk shop) - one thing we discussed was my coconut macaroon weakness - 4 for a quid at Asda. Mrs RP now makes these at home and we get 10 for a quid (roughly) - we also harvest the vouchers from their till receipts - so that knocks a fair bit off. There is no need to economise here so we have choices.
Last edited by: R.P. on Wed 1 Feb 17 at 16:31
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Yes eating out is a big item in the post retirement budget. I guess around the same as the supermarket bill.
Oh and there's the coffee shops and pubs
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Two adults here, with a tendency towards organic and exotic foods, with lots of fresh fruit. Hardly any ready meals - we cook from scratch. Sainsbury and Waitrose 50-50. £500 - £600 per month on average, odd bits and pieces elsewhere (e.g. coffee beans from Whittard).
Sadly, I keep detailed records of every item of household expenditure. And receipts for petrol, with miles travelled.
Yes, I know.
Last edited by: Focal Point on Wed 1 Feb 17 at 16:33
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So do we FP. Rarely pay cash for anything - Credit card for all household shopping (Smile do cash-back on that) and debit card for minor purchases.
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Two of us here and our shopping bill is 100% Tesco home delivery plan.
I keep good stocks in and am very careful to stock up when things are on offer but it averages out at around £70 per week.
That's excluding cat food which I bulk buy once every six weeks or so from whoever has it on offer.
Eating out though always blows our budget too!
Pat
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It is interesting the difference between where we think the money goes and where it actually goes.
I was quite surpirsed when I realised we spent more on coffee each month that I do on fuel for the car but I never worry about seeking out the cheapest cafe but tend to avoid fuel stations that are a penny or two per litre above the norm.
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Avoid the corporate coffee chains. Plenty of indies sell better coffee cheaper.
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Yes. my favourite cafe is an independant but coffee shops are like pubs - you tend to use them for reasons other than the price of the coffee or beer. Must say I had a very enjoyable coffee in Cafe Nero though in Bury St Edmunds this afternoon.
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Greggs Large Mocha - £2.10
Ticks my boxes every time!
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I'm not sure tbh, i don't really add ours up. Maybe £200-300 i think. Most of our shops are at aldi or lidl with the odd trip to asda.>> I've been keeping close tabs on our spending o
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Having filled out countless Income/Outgoing expense forms so beloved by CABs (for good reason) - it never failed to surprise me how few people know how much money they actually spent. There were to versions of the forms, the initial ones where people took a stab at what they spent and the actual ones where evidence of spending was provided. There was always a massive reality gap.
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We are comfortable enough that i don't need to log every penny spent on food, bog roll or cups of tea. Others of course have to watch every penny or some enjoy collating every household receipt, I'm neither of those.
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About £140 a week for 2 1/2 people (I'm away a lot).
Youngest eats like a horse!
We make our own sauces and the raw ingredients cost a fair bit but the sugar and fat count has reduced significantly.
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We get that too RP and it's surprising how many people fill in a Sky subscription for £60-£80 per month and class it as en essential expenditure!
Pat
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I reckon normalish, if you don't do a huge amount of entertaing at home, We were spending around £120 a week in Waitrose / Sainsbury's, and £40/50 in the local butcher and deli on meat, cheese and fish. There's just two of us, but most weeks we'll be entertaining another 2/4 people at home one evening. .
In an effort to broaden the repetioire from the same 10/12 recipes we tended to end up cooking in the evenings week in week out we've been using the Hello Fresh delivery service for the last couple of months, and that's £39 a week for three meals for two. All the unprepp'ed ingredients and recipes for meals cooked from scratch. Been brilliant so far. So I reckon we now spend around £100 a week in supermarkets, £40 on cheese/fish/meat from local shops and £39 for delivered food.
I'm sure both of the above underestimate the top up shops in both COOP and Waitrose...and exclude wine of course ;)
Last edited by: PeterS on Wed 1 Feb 17 at 19:18
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Wouldn't have a clue what we spend, the missus and I were fortunate to have well paid jobs so we never bothered with budgeting. We always had more money coming in than out so we never gave it much thought. We have modest needs though, we like simple foods and rarely eat out. We never go to cafes, we find the coffee too strong and much prefer our Mellow Birds at home.
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Me and the ole woman = £480-500 pm. Buy lots pf organic foodstuff where poss.
Two dogs ... another £100 pm spent on high-quality food, tis grain free, high in protein and low in carbs, which is why they both look half starved (think Atkins)
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From all the replies, then, mine doesn't sound particularly unusual or outrageous, which is what I was trying to get to. Thanks.
Also looks as if we could save a bit if required with a little work.
As to entertaining people at home, I've reached the grand old age of 55 without ever having done that once, so I don't think that will be a feature in future! I've never been to anyone's house for a meal either, as I recall. Oh, hang on, I did once go under great pressure to a neice's house, choked on a Brussels sprout and had to be Heimliched.
Shan't be doing that again either, I hope.
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Brussels get blamed for everything on this site. :-)
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>>Also looks as if we could save a bit if required with a little work.
Indeed. When I went to Tenerife for 3 months on my own back in the early 90's, I lived on tinned tuna or sardines with veg and taters from Mon-Fri, buying a cooked chicken to have with ensalada at the weekends.
Breakfast consisted of bread and jam, lunch was bread and cheese. I reckon I could easily reduce my shopping bill by 50%, if I got rid of the ole woman and the two dogs.
:o}
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"As to entertaining people at home, I've reached the grand old age of 55 without ever having done that once..."
Not at all wishing to be critical, Crankcase, I was startled by that. It's always been part and parcel of life for me. Family, friends. Not all that often, perhaps, but we give and receive maybe half a dozen small-scale invitations a year, plus family - or some of them - at Christmas and Easter and a biggish summer party in August for family and friends.
The most recent was last Saturday, when we entertained a couple I have reconnected with, one of whom was a colleague of mine years ago. Some hard work, but hugely enjoyable.
Maybe this should be the subject of a separate thread.
Last edited by: Focal Point on Wed 1 Feb 17 at 22:19
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I guess we spend a ton a week, maybe £70 in Tesco and the rest on bits and bobs. SWM is a former home economics teacher and knows how to cook well. The fish van called last week and I had to get her to deal with it. He came in with a massive pile of wrapped fish fillets of all sorts. Cost me a cheque for £230 but I reckon there's a hundred meals there. We have fish about twice a week anyway.....often salmon. We'll probably add half a lamb to the freezer in the next week or so.
We do entertain regularly, she likes to show off her prowess with a pan. Last was Saturday when she made a chicken curry.
We eat out a fair bit and I like a coffee and a bun if I'm out somewhere...she likes to get home for a drink......spoilsport ! Taking eldest grandson out on Saturday night 'cos he's staying the night. He likes Pizza so we'll go to our fave Italian, Due Fratelli, just down the road.
Like others on here, we're comfortably off so don't worry too much about where the next meal's coming from.
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I have an ACE Money program on my laptop and it tells me that in the last 12 months we spent £74 per week on food, drink and household necessities. That is only from debit card payments and would include some non-food or household items which I neglected to enter under the "split" category facility.
This is for two of us, but were are several short periods when family were here, when we tend to over-cater and drink more wine!
We buy very little food etc. by cash, so that is difficult to quantify, but if we assume a tenner a week, that would well cover it.
We rarely eat out and never buy coffee or other drinks from high street chains or indies.
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As to entertaining people at home, I've reached the grand old age of 55 without
>> ever having done that once, so I don't think that will be a feature in
>> future! I've never been to anyone's house for a meal either, as I recall.
Each to their own of course, but I have to say that's a new one on me.
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Shopping - CGNorwich
