How much do you spend on food per week?

[TooNice]

I am trying to work out how much cheaper it would be to have a proper home cooked meals. I had a head chef as flatmate, and that made my life rather easy. But now, I either eat outside, or have pre-made food and I reckon that I probably spend more than most people.

The cheapest thing I can have on the go is a sandwich, which costs at least £2 upward, and I reckon they aren't too unhealthy if you pick wisely. I find that making my own sandwich is not necessarily cheaper. Supermarket pizza can be had for about £2.25 each when bought in pairs, though they are typically horrendous health wise (a whole pizza often exceed 100% of the for RDA fat). Still, it means that I can technically survive on less than a fiver per day (yes I only eat two meals if I have the deadly pizza).

In practice though, I only eat like that when I am really busy (revising for exams etc.). If I have time to eat outside, I can't expect to spend much less than a fiver for lunch or dinner. Lately, I've been going to my local pub for dinner quite frequently, because they often have specials during the week. For instance, Tuesday is the one day of the week I allow myself red meat in the form of a steak (which I take with salad and potatoes - I am trying to cut down on chips these days) and together a drink only costs me a little over £6 quid. I consider that a bargain, and I am not sure if it would be any cheaper to make my own 8oz sirloin steak or 12oz rump steak with the sides. Still, that together with two sandwich during the day would add up to a tenner easy.

My sole saving grace (perhaps) is that I am not a big fan of alcohol, so I don't have wine with my meals. On the other hand, I am also a sucker for smoothies. They aren't cheap in the least when I think about it, but I don't think I have gone a week on average without having one. I like to think that I don't spend more than a tenner per day on food on average at the moment, but if I am going to be really honest I reckon that I've been spending about £12.5 to £15 per day in the last few weeks including drinks. Which is a lot of money.

So how much do you spend on your three meals per day, and what are they made of?

[Was thinking of making a poll, but can't work out the range - and plus, I'd rather more thorough replies]

[Lucio]

Given our clubcard vouchers just came through at £14.00 means we've spent about £1400 at Tesco's in the last 3 months almost entirely on food!!

[Behemoth]

Given our clubcard vouchers just came through at £14.00 means we've spent about £1400 at Tesco's in the last 3 months almost entirely on food!!

£14 back for a £1400 spend really isn't that much at all to be honest.

I don't know what the weekly shop comes to to be honest (still live with my parents) but I persoanlly spend about £20 a week on food, I really should start taking my own lunch in for when I'm working, thats £80 a month I'm spending !! I don't have a club card either.

[Virtual Monkey]

I reckon, for about 1 person, £25 for 7 days would be pretty easy to do, and that's allowing for variety and maybe a supermarket pizza or two.

One of my mates is in the same situation as you: on his own and living off take-away food, pre-packaged stuff from Tesco. Basically, I would advise learning to cook, since it's much greater value for money, healthier and a lot more fun (well, for me anyway).

Get a student cookbook that tells you the basics: how to cook eggs, pasta, rice, how to roast chicken and make a basic curry (oil in hot pan, onions and spices in a pan, fry for a bit, add some chopped chicken breast or something, fry for a bit, add some tinned tomatoes and some veg, cook until chicken's all white inside): avoid andything written by TV chefs that serve 8 people and require loads of weird stuff that costs a fortune. Once you learn to cook some rice/pasta with some veggies and some sort of meat, you'll be saving a lot of money and you'll have knowledge to build on.

Potatoes, rice, mackrel, tuna, chicken are fairly cheap in bulk. Get some spices, which will last for ages, and you'll be able to add some variety and interest in your meal. Don't forget the internet: a lot of recipes can be found on Google, and there's a lot of good stuff in Hexus.Hotpot!

[danroyle]

we spend about £65-70 a week before the missus mum's staff discount in morrisons, thats for me the missus and kid.

last year we spent £50-55 a week on food.

also pre made sandwiches and such have huge amounts of salt in them mate very very bad for you

[mediaboy]

On food? Weekly?

Too much.

[Gerrard]

I pay £120/month on food. For that I get 3 meals a day, all you can eat buffet.

But when I was at uni, I think I spent about £20-£25 a week on food. Mainly on Asda frozen foods (3 pizzas for £3 and bags of chips/onion rings that were on multi-offers)..

[handscombmp]

My food bill from tesco is normally about £65 a week but i probaly spend about £30 out and about and at work (damn airport prices)

[Koolpc]

Approx £160 a week on food. 3 of us. Food and everything else in that too. We cook all our meals too.

[shrek101]

We spend about £80-£90 for food and households things like washing powder etc thats for two adults and two teenage daughter, 15 and 17

We try and buy a lot of offers though and misses gets discount at Sainsburys but we do most shopping at Morrisions as they have more offers and she gets ood and ends during week at work

We dont buy much meat but do eat fair bit of processed food

[Koolpc]

I love my food!!

[TooNice]

also pre made sandwiches and such have huge amounts of salt in them mate very very bad for you

Yea, I noticed that even a relatively lean chicken sandwich contains 20% of the daily recommended amount in salt. That's probably as good as it gets. I wonder why they make put so much salt in the food, I doubt it would sell less otherwise.

[k4p84]

Just for me, £25, one of my housemates spends up to £60-70 on himself

[Vimeous]

About £400-450 a month for 2 and a cat.
Too much frankly as my daft work finish times all too often end up with fast food which we need to cut back.
Occasionally we go through spurts of making sandwiches for work which saves quite a bit. If not it's the canteen and £3 for lunch.

BTW Tesco's Ham and Mustard sandwich is £1.10 - indeed most of the sandwiches are sub-£2 and prefectly edible.

[CaseyV9]

I'm spending around the £30.00 mark per week.

I'm lazy when it comes to food. Most of what I cook is done with a steamer. Mainly pasta and eggs.
I'll cook a small bowls worth of pasta up in my steamer, heat up a tin of soup in a saucepan and that for me is a cheapo meal. Pasta and soup.

With work I'm just as lazy. I'll just bring bread to work and tin of tinned sliced tuna and something. Easy to make up on my breaks quickly.

[directhex]

our combined grocery bill (including things like beer or cleaning supplies) is £30-£50 a week for the pair of us.

i cook reasonably priced, decent food one day then have the leftovers the next day. and i never spend more than about £6.50 per kilo on meat. and only allocate 100g if meat per person per meal.