It's just 2 of us - Hubby and me at the moment... (although feels like I'm eating for 5 !!!) and we'd spend between $160 - $180.
We go out every Friday and Saturday night to eat though, which if I added in spending at least $60 each of those night, would make it almost double!
I can't work out how much we spend right now, DH is o/seas so I"m buying less food but spending more getting convenience things I would not normally dream of buying. Just wanted to suggest that if you bulk out your meals a bit with extra veg, rice, pasta, etc, then every 3rd or 4th night you can have a leftovers night - it saves money when you do this a couple of times a fortnight. Plus you don't have to think about what to cook!
Also, scratch teas are good - you know the evenings when you can't really be stuffed so you make an omelette, or open a can of soup, or make cheese toasties. Much cheaper than running out to the shops to get something. For this reason I always make sure i have things like eggs, baked beans, soup, noodles and jar pasta sauce in the cupboard - not as a planned meal but for those nights when it's too hard to think what to have!
Usually between $120-$150 per week. I often do a meal plan or if to lazy will check the freezer for meat and write meat or dinners for however many nights on the list and then I'd buy what was a good pricelooked nice etc. I also buy meat on sale and freeze it for future. That money includes fruit and vege, cold meat, meat, milk, bread, butter, yogurt, toiletries, whatever else we buy
we spend around $150-$180 per week
this includes nappies and mostly organic foods.
we buy f&v from an organic wholesaler, meat from the butcher (we don't eat red meat though) and shop at woolies once a week for the basics; bread, milk, yoghurt, cheese, pasta etc
we are trying to eat less commercial and more natural foods and have noticed a decrease in $ since doing this and also less rubbish, our wheelie bin is not even half full now!
We do the weekly menu thing so I know exactly what I need to buy. As anal as I am, I even only buy the exact number of potatoes/carrots I need. E.g. if we are having 4 meals that require potatoes and carrots, I know I only cook two potatoes for the two of us and 1 carrot, so I only buy eight potatoes and four carrots that week. DH hates this but I have it down to a fine art these days. Those big 4kg bags of potatoes seem to always have soft potatoes in the bottom of them by the time I come to use them - ick!!
We usually spend about $120 - $160 a week but every fourth week which is when we stock up on nappies and formula, we spend about $200-$220.
I have a pre-printed list which I add to during the week which includes:
A dozen eggs
6L of low-fat milk or us
2L full-cream milk for DS
6 hot dog rolls for weekend lunches
6 hamburger rolls for weekend lunches/dinners
1 loaf of bread for DH's lunch
$3 worth of cold meat for DH's lunch
Fruit and Veg
2 x 6-pack of Up and Go breakfast drinks
Baby food/yoghurt
Notice that there is no meat on our list. That is because we get our meat from a butcher friend wholesale. We buy about 50kg every 6 months from him for about $280 and freeze everything (pork cutlets, premium mince, chicken thigh fillets, rump and corned meat). So, we aldo spend an extra $12 a week in meat which isnt included in the above figure.
Our fridge is literally empty by the time shopping day comes around again because I dont buy anything we dont need (unless DH comes with us and some tim-tams or a small block of chocky ends up in the trolley).
Last edited by Deltadawn; November 5th, 2008 at 04:09 PM.
I spent $306 today, about the norm- that should last us the fortnight. Although i still find i have to go to shops in between that fortnight to get milk, bread or top up on fruit and veges. I dunno what they're doing these days, but F&V only last 2-3 days in my home before they start going off !!!
My tip - Do a list, its saves you soooo much hassle. Its kinda nice too looking at the list in the morning and seeing 'wed night - pasta cabonara'....it takes the pressure off.
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Just wanted to suggest that if you bulk out your meals a bit with extra veg, rice, pasta, etc, then every 3rd or 4th night you can have a leftovers night - it saves money when you do this a couple of times a fortnight. Plus you don't have to think about what to cook!
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