Reasonable cost of groceries per week for a family of three

indigo twist

Here's our starting point - there are three of us in the house; myself, my partner and our eight-month-old baby.

We're a bit rubbish with money, shopping and cooking. I used to be an awful lot better, but I really fell out of the habit of cooking and organising my food shopping when I was pregnant as I was sick all the time and had no appetite. So the odd time I did feel like eating, I just had whatever was quickest and easier. And I haven't really established any sort of a routine since.

I'm well read up on what is and isn't healthy eating - I just don't practice it at all! But I would like to start eating healthier, as well as saving money.

I haven't a clue what we spend on groceries at the moment, but I know there's a lot of wastage, as we go for convenience foods such as chicken kievs and chips quite a lot, and buy mostly pouches for the baby rather than cooking proper meals suitable for all three of us. And lots of what we buy ends up being thrown out as it goes out of date.

What I'm going to try is, rather than just buying what we fancy when we fancy, I'm going to take out a set amount of cash from the ATM every week to be spent on food. If we end up reaching our limit, that's it - we'll just have to get creative with what we can find in the presses and freezer!

To get started, I'm looking for an amount you think is reasonable for our circumstances. This is to cover ALL food for myself and my partner. We both should eat our breakfasts at home and bring in food for lunch (I do neither at the moment!) One thing I'm a little bit fussy about is getting decent quality meat from a butcher, and my boyfriend wouldn't be happy with a vegetarian dinner, so good meat seven days a week would need to be factored in (I realise this may push up the budget a little!) The baby gets his breakfast and lunch in creche, and outside of that he should really be eating small portions of what we're eating, so I wouldn't bother including much in the budget for him. (I'm excluding his formula from the budget, as it's not exactly something we can decide to cut down on even if we wanted to!)

I'm going to add a poll - really I'm just looking for an arbitrary figure to start with. Then, if I find we're unable to live within what would be considered a reasonable budget, I'll post up what we're spending the money and and (hopefully!) get advice on where we're going wrong.

Just to be strict, if we end up spending money on bus fares or taxis or shopping bags or home delivery, I'll subtract this from the cash I take out (we don't have a car, but all those things should be easily avoidable if we just get into the habit of planning in advance!)

So, hopefully we'll start this Saturday - I'll go to the ATM Saturday morning, take out X amount based on your opinions on what's reasonable, go shopping and post up the receipts, and hopefully get advice on where we're going wrong! It's important to me that we're eating healthily as well as sticking to a budget, so I'll happily take any advice on board!

ForEffsSake

I plan pretty well I think, cook from scratch and the kids have packed lunches. I take lunch at least four days a week to work and husband takes packed lunch 2-3 times. We have meat 4/5 days and I'm fussy too about it. I usually buy cheaper cuts of good beef, or a whole free-range chicken that I joint myself.
I buy fruit and veg from the grocers and as much dried goods and dairy as I can from aldi. Anything else in tesco.
For the whole weekly shop I struggle to come in below euro130 for a family of two active adults and two sporty bots, 11 and 7. Dreading the teenage years food bills!!
I don't differentiate between food shopping and household cleaning or whatever I get in the supermarket.

Stheno

I tend to average out at about €50 a week for two people for food.

I do most of my shopping in Aldi, but use a proper butcher as I love experimenting with cheap cuts of meat and he enjoys customers who like to use strange cuts.

I did a shop two and a half weeks ago which came to €100 with top ups, and we still have three days dinners in the fridge, along with lunch and breakfast, and a fair bit of fruit.

We did eat out twice in that time.

I do differentiate food shopping from household shopping which includes cleaners, refuse sacks/cosmetics.

Now I do tend to do a mega shop and then have a mega cook day, so I essentially have two or more weeks meals in the freezer, after the last one we had shepherds pie, beef stew, roast chicken and lasagne in the freezer/fridge.

I think essentially it's all about being organised.

indigo twist

Thanks for the replies so far. For non-food items (household cleaning, shower products, etc) I tend to be quite good at buying in bulk when they're on offer, so I won't be including them in the budget at all. Just food.

Stheno I have to admit I'm not at all adventurous with meat, I stick mainly with chicken fillets and beef mince, and to be honest I'm not really bothered changing that. Maybe once I'm happy with my overall diet I'll branch out a little bit more! To begin with I'll try to at least get back to cooking proper food, rather than processed crap most of the time.

indigo twist

By the way, neither of us have particularly active lifestyles (although we should probably work on that!) and we both have normal 9-5 desk jobs. Just mentioning that, as it's not like we need any massive calorie intake for our lifestyles! I imagine those who work out a lot probably need to spend a bit more on food.

lazeedaisy

If you don't have one, can I suggest you buy a slow cooker. Aldi currently have a good one got twenty quid.

They make cheap meat go further, my other half only eats chicken breasts so I use them in the slow cooker,

Plan ahead, freeze meals,

It's healthier and cheaper to plan ahead,

Good luck and have fun cooking,

Stheno

indigo twist wrote: »

Stheno I have to admit I'm not at all adventurous with meat, I stick mainly with chicken fillets and beef mince, and to be honest I'm not really bothered changing that. Maybe once I'm happy with my overall diet I'll branch out a little bit more! To begin with I'll try to at least get back to cooking proper food, rather than processed crap most of the time.

I have to admit to taking advantage of €3 chickens in aldi instead of buying ham for sandwiches. I'd also buy their ham filllet for sandwiches.

When it comes to dinners, I prefer a local butcher, I've discovered shin beef, beef cheek, gotten bones for nothing to make a super soup meal, lamb shanks for a couple of euro each which would feed two kids with a bit of veg very economically

There are loads of recipes online that will help you

indigo twist

I'm surprised by the poll results so far - they're more "generous" than I had expected! Maybe we're not doing as badly as I had thought! Maybe €65 might be a good starting point for the first week?

Alf Veedersane

€60-70 sounds about right to me.

Mick Murdock

Interesting topic. I thought €80-90 was a bit low. I reckon I spend that on myself a week and I live alone! I knew I was bad with money but thought my shopping bill was ok. I should probably take a visit to Aldi!

I like to know the origin of meat and find it hard to find butchers that aren't stocking 50%. Imported meat and poultry. That's just personal preference though. Money talks!

Mink

€90 to €100

We're two adults and a 2yr old. He has meals at minders 3 days I work. I bring my lunches in, husband gets lunch in subsidised canteen.

I've always done my sons food, I used Annabel karmel's book. I batch cooked and stuck them in freezer in little bags. There were about 4 main recipes out of it that I got down pat.

Now he eats what we eat, though sometimes it has to be mashed up to hide the veg! I tried him with a pouch once and he spat it out. It tasted rank in fairness. But some kids will only eat pouches!

The night before my weekly shop I work out what we're having for dinner each day on one side of a page and then do my list on the other side roughly in order of the super market aisles.

Get the bulk of it in aldi (approx 60, including basic toiletries). I also bulk buy branded stuff when on offer like detergent, dishwasher tabs.

I get butchers meat and I reckon i spend 20 euro a week.

Other perishables mid week like salad, milk, bread might be another 10?

There's usually two dinners in a week that I'll cook twice the amount and freeze it for another day (spag Bol sauce, paella, pasta bakes etc). This does us for days im working so I'm not having to arse about cooking when get in the door, just have to reheat it.

So all in all about 90 euro all home cooked and using decent ingredients.

It'll seem an awful pain for the first two weeks trying to organise it all but then it becomes second nature. BBC good foods is a great resource for tried and tested recipes.

draiochtanois

This post has been deleted.

ch750536

Feed a family nutritionally well for <€132 a week.

Turned out the average grocery spend for Ireland is €4.37 per person per day, that meant I changed from €132 to €122.37 per week (or €17.48 per day).

This is food grocery shopping only and does not include eating out, other sources etc.

The thing I would say to anyone is the amount they think they spend on groceries is not anywhere near what they actually spend. Any money spent on food from shops is a cost - we found we spent a large portion of our allowance on nonsense food. The food with the least nutrition was the food with the highest cost.

Once we saw that we controlled it & things looked a lot better. We eat about 50% organic products with a good balanced diet. It helps a lot to have a friendly organic farmer around the corner, his prices are cheaper than Aldi! Same is true for sourcing chickens etc - there are loads of good places to buy from that are cheaper than Aldi.

Also, forage people! Berries are everywhere just now. Mushrooms are starting to pop up. Hazelnuts are good also. Great nutrition for free & you are walking around outdoors.

Tigger99

I would strongly argue that not only do you not feed a family nutritionally well with all the junk that is included, but you rarely include meat, which the OP specifies that she wants to include.

Also foraging, especially of mushrooms can be very risky unless you are aware of which ones aren't poisonous or hallucinogenic.

ch750536

Tigger99 wrote: »

I would strongly argue that not only do you not feed a family nutritionally well with all the junk that is included, but you rarely include meat, which the OP specifies that she wants to include.

Also foraging, especially of mushrooms can be very risky unless you are aware of which ones aren't poisonous or hallucinogenic.

Odd response. Can you back up any of this with a source please. Kids have had 1.4 portions of meat per day for the last 10 days & where is the junk?

Would rather a PM than ruin another good thread about healthy eating but your choice.

ch750536

Another good point on fruit is the insane policy of supermarkets to 'throw out' perfectly good fruit just because it has a date on it.

Example - most of my Avocados are bought from the sell by bin, greatly reduced. I still have to wait 3 or 4 days till they are ripe! Same for pears & apples.

Be careful with the berries though, these can quickly degrade. Even at full price always have a good look for any mould as once one has it they all go within 24 hrs.

Penny Tration

ch750536 wrote: »

Odd response. Can you back up any of this with a source please. Kids have had 1.4 portions of meat per day for the last 10 days & where is the junk?

Would rather a PM than ruin another good thread about healthy eating but your choice.

After your thread, you're seriously asking where is the junk? The copious amounts of crisps, popopcorn and biscuits, perhaps?

ch750536

Just in case guys, I think you're either mis-reading me or not bothering to read. I've bolded the bit of interest.

ch750536 wrote: »

Feed a family nutritionally well for <€132 a week.

Turned out the average grocery spend for Ireland is €4.37 per person per day, that meant I changed from €132 to €122.37 per week (or €17.48 per day).

This is food grocery shopping only and does not include eating out, other sources etc.

The thing I would say to anyone is the amount they think they spend on groceries is not anywhere near what they actually spend. Any money spent on food from shops is a cost - we found we spent a large portion of our allowance on nonsense food. The food with the least nutrition was the food with the highest cost.

Once we saw that we controlled it & things looked a lot better. We eat about 50% organic products with a good balanced diet. It helps a lot to have a friendly organic farmer around the corner, his prices are cheaper than Aldi! Same is true for sourcing chickens etc - there are loads of good places to buy from that are cheaper than Aldi.

Also, forage people! Berries are everywhere just now. Mushrooms are starting to pop up. Hazelnuts are good also. Great nutrition for free & you are walking around outdoors.

Alf Veedersane

ch750536 wrote: »

It helps a lot to have a friendly organic farmer around the corner, his prices are cheaper than Aldi! Same is true for sourcing chickens etc - there are loads of good places to buy from that are cheaper than Aldi.

It would be great to live around the corner from an organic farmer but for those of us who don't, Aldi and Lidl both stock meat from Irish farms at a good price

ch750536

Alf Veedersane wrote: »

It would be great to live around the corner from an organic farmer but for those of us who don't, Aldi and Lidl both stock meat from Irish farms at a good price

Yep, shame if you cant, but cutting out the middle man not only makes food fresher but cheaper too.

ETA : Maybe a local farmers market? http://www.bordbia.ie/consumer/aboutfood/farmersmarkets/Pages/default.aspx

Alf Veedersane

ch750536 wrote: »

Yep, shame if you cant, but cutting out the middle man not only makes food fresher but cheaper too.

ETA : Maybe a local farmers market? http://www.bordbia.ie/consumer/aboutfood/farmersmarkets/Pages/default.aspx

I've yet to go to a farmers market that I didn't balk at the price at, to be honest. And I have no problem with them charging according to their input but unless it makes financial sense, ahm oot.

ch750536

I find talking to them and haggling a bit gets you a great deal. Sometimes the prices on the label are way off, but it is a market so talk & deal to get the best you can.

This works especially well once they know you and see you as loyal trade. Basically the more you buy the better it gets.

Alf Veedersane

ch750536 wrote: »

I find talking to them and haggling a bit gets you a great deal. Sometimes the prices on the label are way off, but it is a market so talk & deal to get the best you can.

This works especially well once they know you and see you as loyal trade. Basically the more you buy the better it gets.

Farmers markets are the one place we don't do that! But I'll give it a go.

groovyg

€90 to €100

ch750536 wrote: »

Yep, shame if you cant, but cutting out the middle man not only makes food fresher but cheaper too.

ETA : Maybe a local farmers market? http://www.bordbia.ie/consumer/aboutfood/farmersmarkets/Pages/default.aspx

I wouldn't knock Aldi and Lidl, they are a great source of cheap veg and food especially for those who don't have much money, however in my local aldi you see a lot of Merc and BMW owners who have no problem shopping there. Some restaurant owners also buy produce in bulk from them.

Weren't Dominos Pizza in the UK caught out recently for buying aldi wedges and selling them off as their own for 2/3 quid more than what they cost.

I know its the dailymail but can you really trust farmers markets ??

More recently a trader in the English Market in Cork was found to be selling Lidl veg and selling it a higher price in his market. People go there thinking this is from a local farm when its not.

There is a local farmers market near me but I rarely go there as its too expensive.

ch750536

groovyg wrote: »

I wouldn't knock Aldi and Lidl, they are a great source of cheap veg and food especially for those who don't have much money...

I agree, they bring fantastic competition to the market. Just look the way the others have had to respond, really good for the consumer.

Tarzana

My BF and I would spend about €70-€80 between the two of us per week if we eat at home all week. I cook most things from scratch including lunches, though we do probably have 1-2 lazy dinners per week and so buy the requisite frozen items for those days. I'm not sure what adding a baby to the mix would do to that bill really.

Tarzana

draiochtanois wrote: »

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I don't find this to be the case at all when looking at the overall cost per meal. Not that it stops me buying mostly ingredients rather than processed stuff.