Can someone help with my shopping bill?

Tondella

Hi I'm in the same boat as you - £30=£35 per week spend on me for seven days/nights + OH for weekends. I only have access to the local sainsburys, though there is a good street market for fruit and veg.

sainsburys do a value toilet roll, 4 rolls for 40p, 12 rolls for £1.20, haven't noticed the difference myself, although it doesn't specifically say it is recycled, which i would like it be.

there has been another thread on here recently which looked into a weekly organic fruit and veg delivery, farmaround serves london (might stretch to surrey?) delivers weekly and minimum order is £10+, which you would more than meet. Do you really eat all that fruit in one week? I don't eat strawberries anymore because of the cost, try and get all my vitamins from bananas, oranges (always cheap) and apples. I do splash out on the occasional pink grapefruit though!

EDIT: just read back about the fruit thing, sounds like it is doing you good, although do you realise you have turned into a satsuma???!!! :rotfl:

lady_fuschia

The rule regarding only being able to count 1 drink as a serving of fruit per day may have come from the recommendation that you should only count one fruit juice, as although vitamins are retained on juicing, you lose some of the fibre by not using the whole fruit. As blended smoothies use the whole fruit (i.e. what you would eat) and don't lose anything they count as a whole serving. According to Gillian McKeith's latest book they're actually better than eating the fruit as they're easier to digest. So your smoothies are fine.

Spendless

Stompa wrote:

http://www.5aday.nhs.uk/

This link that Stompa gave mentions smoothies only being counted once per day.
A glass (150ml) of 100% juice (fruit or vegetable juice or smoothie) counts as 1 portion, but you can only count juice as 1 portion per day, however much you drink. This is mainly because it contains very little fibre. Also, the juicing process 'squashes' all the natural sugars out of the cells that normally contain them, which can be harmful for teeth - especailly if you drink a lot of it in between meals

lynzpower

I take it you have high cholestrol, which my Oh has.

Some of the things which will reduce your bloood chollestrol include some beans & legumes, and the humble porridge oat.

Me & OH have discussed with the doctor the merits of these "proactive" marges, and they dont seem to be worth having, for the cost.There was an article in the guardian or maybe observer food about them and if thier claims are to believed, the reporter worked out youd have to be eating 3 tubs of marg a week to lower cholestrol. Or something cant remember, but it was very high indeed.

2 added things from me. Im growing lambs lettuce/ rocket/ mizuna in pots. Quick quick,nows the time to sow, I reckon they should be eatable within a few weeks. Seeds cost £2 for a "salad selection" from wilkinsons. After reading about bagged salads' hideous contribution to the droughts and water shortages in Kenya etc I wont buy them at all, and tend towards a round lettuce ( about 40p) and usually UK grown. otherwise little gem, but only uk grown. I too have rasperries & strawb plant cost a quid each, and they are coming on OK.

Tescos ( and maybe sainsburys if not waitrose) do a organic soya mince TVP for 99p in the ambient shelves ( with the organic honey and what not in our organic section) Made by Haldane foods. Excellent value for money. I used to use quorn too, but this is just as good, if not slightly more hassle. Ive had 5 meals out of it so far probably another five left.

I can also vouch for farmfoods- thier quorn, linda mccartney etc are around the 1- 1.25 mark, way cheaper than everywhere else. Incidentally, if you are bothered by animal cruelty, I believe that Quorn dont use free range eggs in thier products whereas linda mccartney does. Dont know how much truth there is in this, but makes me choose LM more. Plus her sausages & the sausage rolls are lovely.

jazzyjustlaw

Spendless wrote:

My understanding is that you can only count a drink once per day towards your 5 a day regardless of how many different fruits are in the drink or how much you drink. Eating whole fruit seperately should count as individual portions eg an apple and a banana is 2 portions but made into a drink is only one IYSWIM
http://www.groundworkgreaternottingham.org.uk/fig/fiveaday/why.htm

I believe that applies to JUICE not SMOOTHIES

GardenMillie

Try doing a food stock take, it's amazing what you find lurking at the back of the cupboards and in the freezer. Use up dried goods like pasta, rice, lentils etc by adding veg, a tin of chopped tomatoes (value range) and some herbs and spices a quick and easy meal.

I've just done a food stock take and found 8 naan breads in the freezer - ermm won't be buying those for a while.

JennyW_2

lynzpower wrote:

I take it you have high cholestrol, which my Oh has.

.

well it was 5.2 this year, compared to 4.2 last year and I know where I've gone wrong - too much chocolate and ice cream. I've been comfort eating for the past year due to the sudden loss of my father plus my husband is in the navy so it's easy not to eat properly. I'm only a size 8 and to be honest didn't think all that chocolate was that bad, however after a chat with my doctor, he believes this is where I have over-indulged. Although I've always been pretty good with my diet, I'm now on a "no chocolate, no biscuits, no cakes" diet and supplementing with lots of fruit and aim to get it back to 4.2 by the autumn. However there still seems to be conflict whether my 5 pieces of fruit blended each day counts as 1 or 5. I understand the reasoning as in it destroys the fibre, but as lady_fuscia said, apparently it's OK (according to Gillian McKeeth).

Thanks for all the comments though, it's been interesting and has given me things to think about plus I'm planning ahead and bulk cooking and freezing which is great - god knows why I didn't do it sooner. Since coming on this site, I've bought spices and have made my own pasta sauce

calleyw

jazzyjustlaw wrote:

I believe that applies to JUICE not SMOOTHIES

That is the way I read it too. As you are still getting all the fibre from fruit as you are not juicing it. But blending it all together.

But the OP is still blending 5/6 pieces of fruit a day on top of any veg that eaten during the day.

If they can afford it and don't have a problem spending the money then fine. But if they want to cut back to save money which is what I thought this thread was about. Why not cut back to blending 3 pieces of fruit and have a couple of servings of veg to make up the 5 portions of fruit and veg a day. Which to be truthful is a lot more than most people ever eat.

I keep in frozen fruit like blueberries, raspberries. Granted they are not cheap. But cheaper then buying fresh punnets and if you all going to do with them is blend them. Don't see a problem with using the frozen.

All the best JennyW on getting your cholestrol down. I am sure my Dr said mine was over 5 but they where not worried about it.

But maybe I will have a go at getting it down.


Yours


Calley

Spendless

jazzyjustlaw wrote:

I believe that applies to JUICE not SMOOTHIES

As I mentioned earlier. This is from the nhs link that stompa gave

"A glass (150ml) of 100% juice (fruit or vegetable juice or smoothie) counts as 1 portion, but you can only count juice as 1 portion per day, however much you drink. This is mainly because it contains very little fibre. Also, the juicing process 'squashes' all the natural sugars out of the cells that normally contain them, which can be harmful for teeth - especailly if you drink a lot of it in between meals"

The OP is obviously healthy but was asking how to cut her bill and many people thought the fruit was amongst the 'higher' purchases. If the reason that fruit is being blended in order to count as 5 portions than accoring to the above this is not correct way to count.

jazzyjustlaw

Spendless wrote:

As I mentioned earlier. This is from the nhs link that stompa gave

"A glass (150ml) of 100% juice (fruit or vegetable juice or smoothie) counts as 1 portion, but you can only count juice as 1 portion per day, however much you drink. This is mainly because it contains very little fibre. Also, the juicing process 'squashes' all the natural sugars out of the cells that normally contain them, which can be harmful for teeth - especailly if you drink a lot of it in between meals"

The OP is obviously healthy but was asking how to cut her bill and many people thought the fruit was amongst the 'higher' purchases. If the reason that fruit is being blended in order to count as 5 portions than accoring to the above this is not correct way to count.

I saw that too and my interpretation is different yes I believe if you have a juice it is only one portion but if its a smoothie (especially home made) then it is not. I am sure that some smoothies that are store bought claim they have 2 portions in. Anyway perhaps there is some nutritionist which could help us.