Household Monthly Expenses

[MK-2]

See, now our food bills include pretty much any consumable we use in the house. So how people can survive on £20 a week and also buy cleaning products, toiletries etc with that, unless of course those people weren't counting these things in their food bill costs.

We do a big monthly shop, getting loads of fresh meat, loads of stuff to stock and all the household stuff too, going from tesco/asda/lidl (lidl fruit and veg is better than the bigger stores). most of it will come to about £100 and that lasts the two of us about two and a half weeks minimum. thats including cat food which is bloody expensive too.
so for the two of us, eating healthy (no crispy chicken, just fresh chicken breast etc) a months food and household shopping would probably be £150 ish.

[dhicks]

we spend £300-400 a month on food, and I know this is normal as friends spend the same.

Interestingly, Farming Today on Radio 4 this morning was investigating food waste, reckoning that the average household wastes something like £50-odd of food per month ("average", in Radio 4's world, probably means two adults and 2.4 children living within commutable distance of London). So that implies people are wasting maybe a quater of what they buy, which seems like a lot - sounds like people have got out of the habbit of cooking stuff out of leftovers.

[Butters]

Living in London I'm finding myself shopping daily which really is going to hurt the budget rather than a big shop.

Also tending to get veg from stalls rather than shops at the minute.

[witch]

Blimey - what do people buy?
When all the family are home (3 adult children) my weekly shop is about £130. That includes household goods. We don't buy alcohol though so maybe that helps?
@Butters: buying fruit and veg from stalls is probably cheaper

[Steve21]

Interestingly, Farming Today on Radio 4 this morning was investigating food waste, reckoning that the average household wastes something like £50-odd of food per month ("average", in Radio 4's world, probably means two adults and 2.4 children living within commutable distance of London). So that implies people are wasting maybe a quater of what they buy, which seems like a lot - sounds like people have got out of the habbit of cooking stuff out of leftovers.

Think a lot of it comes down to size of items nowadays. While at uni we normally bought our own loaves of bread etc, and ofc. no-one finished a whole loaf in it's "eatable" state before it went off.

Steve

[Hightower]

Interestingly, Farming Today on Radio 4 this morning was investigating food waste, reckoning that the average household wastes something like £50-odd of food per month ("average", in Radio 4's world, probably means two adults and 2.4 children living within commutable distance of London). So that implies people are wasting maybe a quater of what they buy, which seems like a lot - sounds like people have got out of the habbit of cooking stuff out of leftovers.

We don't waste too much I believe. Everything gets eaten from the fridge, except the odd time when we are out the house a lot that week when we might have to dispose of a bit lettuce or some other veg. We tend to cook the right amount for what we want to eat, and in the unusual circumstances that we have cooked too much it is either kept for the next meal, or given to the dog when it can't really be kept.

[Achandler]

I can't be bothered fully breaking it down. But I pay half of everything with my gilfriend (mortgage, house insurance, car insurance, life insurance, phone/ tv/ bb, gas/ electricity, tv license, water bill, council tax and all FOOD/ CLEANING etc) and it I put £580 into a joint account per month. We spend on average £40 a week on food/ anything from supermarket incl cat food etc.

Then on top of that account I pay my own petrol and mobile phone bill etc.

[Hightower]

Also, I don't think the cost is directly proportional to the amount of people, for example if it costs 2 adults £100 per week, I don't think it's going to cost 4 adults £200 per week. I think is the case because a) there's more people to eat the leftovers, or the stuff that goes 'off' quickly so there's less wastage and b) a meal can seem to stretch further when it needs to - as an example we have home made meatballs a lot and find the amount we make fills us nicely. Yet we had a mate round unexpectantly, and still cooked the same amount and it went round all of us, filling us sufficiently.

[Pete10141748]

Between me and my girlfriend we pay;

Mortgage, Electricity, water, tv license, internet/phone, mobile phone x2, shopping (food & cleaning), contents insurance, building insurance, cinema subscription x2, LoveFilm subscription x2, motorbike insurance, council tax, life insurance.

Think that's about it, comes to around £800 a month between us.

Obviously if we eat out, go to pub, visit friends, travel etc then that's extra, generally I get £1200 a month and have about £300 left for savings each month, but we do perhaps spend a but too much on eating out and going places!