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Posted: Wed May 25, 2011 1:16 pm
by baldy
Silly question! Ive been told the guide lines for two adults and two children for a weeks shopping is £112.
Now i dont really do the shopping as im always at work but the odd time that i do get to help the wife shoppping the bill is more than that! and i do know food prices are going through the roof.
Is £112 a fair figure to set for two adults and two kids? or should we buy less!!!!!We did have a budget of £135 per week but than eldest daughter moved out.
My supervisor said they can live off that so why cant we! Is it a fair figure? just wondered what everyone thought.
Baldy
Posted: Wed May 25, 2011 1:19 pm
by Judo
HI baldy.
Our budget for the month, 2 adults, 2 kids is £488 and we manage quite comfortably with that, at the moment anyways!
Posted: Wed May 25, 2011 1:21 pm
by littlefi
There is only 2 of us so ours is a bit less but I definately used to spend more on food than what we have been allocated. However there are so many places you can cut back when you really look at it which I've done recently. In my mind if I buy cheap cleaning products, I can have wine!! I've surprised myself at how easy it is to get some areas of spending cheaper
I'm sure someone will be around to advise soon. I know it's quite strict but you're right prices are going through the roof and they need to acknowledge this!
Posted: Wed May 25, 2011 1:21 pm
by Pandy
Ours is £251 per month for 2 Adults so that works out at £62.75 per week (4 week month), so your £112 per week for 2 adults and 2 children seems fair to me, but others have said ours seems fairly low.
Posted: Wed May 25, 2011 1:25 pm
by Judo
We have just dropped a brand on a lot of things. Buy value cleaning stuff, value wipes, supermarkets own nappies, things like that.
Posted: Wed May 25, 2011 1:26 pm
by littlefi
ours is more than that and there are only 2 of us, however I did argue for a little more than they were going to allocate as we have to eat as healthy as possible as my OH has a lowered immune system and so it's important to his health that we eat as much fruit & veg as possible. It seems to me eating healthier is always more expensive! However I have no idea whether this will be acceptable as our IVA hasn't been accepted yet.
Posted: Wed May 25, 2011 1:28 pm
by Judo
If there are medical reasons littlefi then I don't see how they could argue with it.
Posted: Wed May 25, 2011 1:31 pm
by littlefi
hope so, we've done the same, cheap cleaning products, even bough Tesco Value Dishwasher tablets thinking they'd be rubbish, they're fine!!
Posted: Wed May 25, 2011 1:33 pm
by Pandy
We don't find ours a problem at all, we buy loads of own brand cleaning products, we too have to eat healthily as hubby had a heart attack 16 months ago and has to have a healthy heart diet, with loads of fruit and veg, I do a lot of home cooking and make our own bread etc (less salt than processed bread) we often have money over each week which gets put away for holidays etc. We only ever struggle on a 5 week month
Posted: Wed May 25, 2011 1:34 pm
by Judo
My OH loves his salad cream, he bought some from shopping the other day, think it was 17p and he loves it!
He also loves to munch on these naffy packet noodles sometimes and he bought a few packs of those to as they were only 10p a pack!
Posted: Wed May 25, 2011 1:35 pm
by Judo
I agree Pandy. 5 week months are the absolute worst! That is when we do struggle

Posted: Wed May 25, 2011 1:38 pm
by littlefi
That's interesting I hadn't thought that 5 week months would be harder, I learn something new on this forum every day, it didn't even occur to me but of course it will be different!
Posted: Wed May 25, 2011 1:46 pm
by Judo
Haha. Yup, it's that last week where beans on toast is the order of the day!
Posted: Wed May 25, 2011 2:02 pm
by missyp
Read this thread with interest and it made me wonder what ours is. So I checked my paperwork and we are allowed £313 per month for 2 adults, so that works out approx £78 per week. Not very much really when you think about it and how much food costs these days.
Posted: Wed May 25, 2011 2:03 pm
by littlefi
Mines about the same I certainly would have spent more in the past but I think we can just about manage on this