Do I really spend to much on food?

Fire_Fox

~Chameleon~ wrote: »

A well as a qualified pharmacy assistant and a qualified nutritionist and whatever else you also hold degrees in? Is there no limit to your qualifications sand expertise? :rotfl:

I am the eternal student, no doubt you will note the healthcare theme. Many of my posts have been contracts so I go with the flow and see what comes up next that interests me! I have never laid claim to being a dietician as that is four years to state-registration. :rotfl: I am qualified to give nutritional advice, as some of the modules I have taken confer additional registration categories for our professional body.

First was ONC 'Pharmaceutical sciences' to take me to qualified dispensing technician, then worked as a research technician completing an HNC in 'Applied biology' plus some additional modules ... dissertation hijacked by protracted illness ... Retrained as a PT; currently reaching the end of my third degree level qualification in physical activity (health not sports) during which I am electing to take all the nutrition modules. :j

My own health permitting, I have been offered an unconditional place to top up in 'Health sciences'. I also do all sorts of random stuff for CPD - smoking cessation, partnership working ... ??!! :eek:

Kimitatsu

Hiya Crux

I too am one of those people that look at those who can feed a family of 36 on a bag of beans and tuppence ha'penny and wonder just HOW they do it :rotfl:

For me, I have recently cut down my working hours but have found that because I can shop around then my food bill has actually gone down but the quality of food has gone up. For me, I buy all of our meat at the local butchers, they will give me what I want and in many many cases it is cheaper than the supermarkets (not to mention if you are a regular then they knock a bit off too!), I bulk buy staples when I can from websites such as www.approvedfoods.co.uk, they specialise in short dated items and as far as I am concerned tins dont go out of date on their best before day, so I can usually make something out of them and freeze them.

Fresh food, I try to grow as much of my own as possible, but otherwise, Aldi and Lidl are very good and also do organic fruit and veg much cheaper than the main supermarkets. I also use Netto for some staples - its worth signing up to their newsletter to see what is coming up, always great for toilet roll if nothing else!!

My average food bill is still around £100 a week for four of us - my eldest is 5ft 8 and a teenager so eats more than an adult :rotfl:but I batch cook, and use the book economy gastronomy (available from the book people and if you use a cashback site makes it even cheaper) to make major dishes and subsequent meals. We eat two fish dishes, two veggie dishes and 3 meat dishes a week, the boys take packed lunches to school (soup, leftovers if it is fried rice/chilli/bolognese/shepherds pie in food flasks - £5 at Lidl this week!) and I cook biscuits, snacks etc, make jelly with fruit in it and keep the fruit bowl full. We make our own yoghurt in the easiyo system and I hope to get an ice cream maker this year as DS2 is lactose intolerant. For cleaning products we use the no chemical cloths for day to day cleaning, bicarb of soda for more intensive stuff, veinegar to wassh the windows etc but I find that washing powder is still our most expensive item. DS2 has very sensitive skin so we are restricted to certain brands of washing powder, but if you know anyone with a cash and carry card then you can usually buy in bulk there at a lower cost. If you are not worried about the brand then netto/aldi/lidl all do good washing stuff, in fact I think the W5 range from Aldi came top recently in the good housekeeping institute test.

If you have the time then try to batch cook and freeze, but even with all of this it is rare that I can get down to £1 a head unless it is something like fritatta as we have our own chooks, so to be honest I wouldnt worry unduly about that, having a balanced healthy diet is more important. If your daughter is a picky eater, get her to cook some of her own meals, my boys both cook - in the school holidays you will always find one of them pottering in the kitchen, and neither of them will ever starve when they leave home.

esmf73

Crux,
I love your menus - please can I move in (oh - I'll leave my two boys and my husband behind!!!)

thriftlady_2

crux wrote: »

Canned tuna not oily? well I never knew that and will admit it.

But canned mackerel, sardines and pilchards and salmon are oily;)

I feed my family of 5 (including 2 teenaged boys) on £600 a month. That includes household stuff and wine as well as food. A little less than you perhaps but not much. We eat similar kinds of meals but we eat less meat. I try and serve vegetarian meals four days a week.

A typical week's main meals for us at the moment would be

Monday - Smoked mackerel, salad, sweetcorn and jacket potatoes

Tuesday -Eggs, homemade oven-chips, homemade salsa, sweetcorn

Wednesday- Chickpea and vegetable curry, brown rice

Thursday - Homemade pizza with lots of vegetable toppings and lean ham

Friday- Lentil, feta, roast pepper and pea salad, homemade bread

Saturday - Homemade burgers, baked potatoes, green salad, tomato salad, sweetcorn
Mango with lime juice and passion fruit

Sunday- Teriyaki salmon, rice and stir-fried veg
Lemon yogurt cake

Breakfasts are toast, porridge, beans on toast, pancakes, smoothies and fruit.

Lunches are ham, cheese, tuna, sardine, egg sandwiches for the kids and OH. The kids have something home-baked as well like a muffin or flapjack.
I eat salads with some sort of protein added or leftovers.

Weekday desserts are fruit and/or yogurt.

We eat lots of fruit which is expensive as we like a variety but I buy what's local and home produced where possible. I have a weakness for avocados, bagged salad leaves and ready made hummus. I balance these more expensive things by making my own bread, yogurt and baked goods for the kids' lunchboxes and by cooking whole packets of dried pulses at once and freezing them. I also make things like tomato sauce, vegetable and bean stews in large quantities for the freezer. I buy meat in bulk from a good butcher. I keep packs of white fish fillets in the freezer-usually coley and I'd be lost without frozen peas and sweetcorn.

I'm sure I could cut costs right back but we enjoy this way of eating and I believe it is good for us.

natlie

Hi
I spend about £350-£400 for 4 of us. We don't drink so I have no alcohol in that spend and I tend to stick to one brand of multisurface cleaner which I use for everything.

Specialist cheeses like Halloumi, mozarella and feta do you buy the stores own brand or other? can you get these cheaper online from a specialist cheese company?

We all eat a bit differently in our house I am veggie my daughter is allergic to eggs. My partner is not veggie or my eldest daughter.

I tend to stick to cereal for brekkie - whaterver is on offer, my eldest eats porridge and we buy value oats which are fine or I get oat bran on offer frm Julian Graves/Holland and Barrett and dried fruit and nuts are much cheaper in there too.

I give the girls packed lunch they have usually a sanwich or a sausage roll or some chicken bites with an apple, banana, pear, clementine, drink and a packet of crisps.

For tea we have jacket potatoes I will have salad and cheese, partner will have chicken. I make pasta I always use brown and shops own brand and I make my own sauces.

I think having a veggie meal now and again does help, I tend to buy meat from the butchers as its cheaper if not then I bu chicken on offer from tesco like the 3 for a tenner offer on packs of 5 breast portions.

We keep frozen fish in the freezer just plain white fish or salmon

I think maybe if you posted a list from a reciept it would be useful to see the brands you buy - personally I have never found Morrisons cheaper than tesco

Have you tried shopping online? you can do comparisons with other stores on the price of the shopping
Nat
xxx

crux

We live in a small town, the nearest Aldi & Netto are 9 miles away. I will go there if I'm passing and check out what's what but to do the weekly shop there, it would put another hour onto it which I would hate

We used to shop at Tesco, but then they re-developed the store, now I don't know if it's because they have different brands or are actually more expensive, I just know that if I shop at our Tesco's my bill is always more than if I shop Morrison's. Believe me I would prefer to shop Tesco's as it's a much nicer store :P but I too often come out having spent £175-£200 on a weekly shop :S

I may look at online for some stuff and see how the prices compare.

Penelope_Penguin

crux wrote: »

I thought I was doing good by cutting our household groceries bill from 750 a month to 500 for the three of us. However I see that most people here are aiming hugely lower than that.

Ok, I don't understand how.

Take a look at this thread where people post their budgets (if zippy agrees I'll merge this later).

I take the tales of feeding a family of 10 and 3 dogs for tuppence a week with a pinch of salt

Can you afford what you spend, and does your budget allow you a healthy diet? If so, why worry - it's your budget not a competition :T

Penny. x

MrsE_2

crux wrote: »

l suspect I started something here that I may regret, I have a feeling I'm going to, if not already do, look like a complete arrogant d**k . But anyhow, here is the weeks menu from memory, at least what I will eat, snacks vary for my wife and my daughter eats quite a few different things.

Monday
porridge/skim milk
Parma ham & mozzarella salad
tuna salad (1/2 tin of tuna)
salmon on spinach with crème fresh.
grapes, Clementine
dried fruit
cracker bread with hummus

Tuesday
porridge/skim milk
banana & fruit
Sweet potato & feta salad
slow cooked chicken thighs in a tomato, olive & rosemary sauce
quavers
dried fruit
pine nuts
cracker bread & cottage cheese

Wednesday
porridge/skim milk
banana & fruit
peppered mackerel salad
tuna salad (1/2 tin of tuna)
sticky pork loin with cabbage
falafels
dried fruit

Thursday
porridge again
banana & fruit
Greek salad
halumi and lentil salad
slow cooked Chinese beef with Pak Choi
falafels or hummus
dried fruit or nuts

Friday
porridge
banana & fruit
egg & bacon salad
halumi and lentil salad
slow cooked lamb & apricots
cracker bread with hummus
dried fruit or nuts

Sat
porridge
scrambled eggs & bacon
tuna salad
tomato & mozzarella salad
balsamic pork with orange & apple salad
cracker bread with hummus
dried fruit or nuts

Sunday
porridge
crab & chilli pasta
tuna salad
Kedgeree
falafels

The ingredients for this shop cost £75 and I still need to buy the lamb and probably some more milk etc before the weeks out. Also I have loads of stuff in the store cupboard so £75 is artificially low. Mehh, I'll post the shop list when I get home.

We eat similar to you, but with carbs with main meals:o
I spend about £110 pw on three adults, so nearly £500 pm.
I know we could spend less, but nice food & a good annual holiday are our luxuries, we enjoy cooking & like nice ingredients.
I don't think you can eat like that on a budget, its one or the other I'm afraid.
Your lunches are more varied than mine though, mine are often ham salads (Waitrose do a lovely wafer-thin ham that is lovely shredded into a salad. I'm am going to try & have more variety with mine.

Kimitatsu

crux wrote: »

We live in a small town, the nearest Aldi & Netto are 9 miles away. I will go there if I'm passing and check out what's what but to do the weekly shop there, it would put another hour onto it which I would hate

We used to shop at Tesco, but then they re-developed the store, now I don't know if it's because they have different brands or are actually more expensive, I just know that if I shop at our Tesco's my bill is always more than if I shop Morrison's. Believe me I would prefer to shop Tesco's as it's a much nicer store :P but I too often come out having spent £175-£200 on a weekly shop :S

I may look at online for some stuff and see how the prices compare.

All of our supermarkets are at least 10 miles away - we try to put shopping trips in around other things which are happening. We have a non perishable food store out in the garage (shelves are about £15 and you can store tins and jars on them no probs!) so we only need to top up on the perishables every week. It means that if we have a lean month then we eat out of the store cupboard/freezer and on a good month then we stock up on offers and tins so that it balances itself out over the year.

I find Tesco expensive and where we are the quality is not great. Morrisons have better fresh produce or there is an M&S just up from that which when it has offers on, makes it even cheaper still. I tend to put together a meal plan for the month (ish) dependant on what is on offer in the supermarkets (check out www.mysupernarket.com for some ideas and then do one main shop and a small shop every week for the perishables. The monthly shop will scare you (always scares me lol!) but the other weeks you will be pleased - I always find that making a list and sticking to it unless it is in the reduced section and you KNOW you can use it always helps too, and I dont let OH go shopping too much as he comes home with all sorts :rotfl:

As Pen says, as long as you are living within your means, its really not too much of an issue as to how much you spend, being healthy is always more important then being well off.

crux

There have been a lot of good ideas and tips on this thread, for sure things I would not have considered left to my own devices.

I'm going to root out some veggie meal plans and cut back the meat, especially the red meat. Trying to do that in a low carb way may be a challenge but I'll figure something tasty out

We do like veggie stuff, I made Falafels last night, 12 from a can of chickpeas ( going to buy dried and soak in future ) and by nights end they were gone :S

Mind you I had 5!

Going to compare prices on fruit & veg in the supermarket compared to the local market stall.

Going to compare buying a big joint of meat from the local butcher, cutting it to what I need and freezing batches rather than buying a pack each time from the supermarket.

I'm going to start growing my own cut and come again salad leaves in containers ( not sure if it will be cheaper but it will be fresh! )

My budget does include cleaning/household and pet food in it. I will take time to check for bulk savings and offers, anyone know where to get iams cat food cheap? (even our cats eat expensive stuff! )

Going to look for a source of quick frozen fish, I find if it was flash frozen at sea I can make it taste as good as fresh and it probably is better for you than 2 week old supermarket so called fresh fish. Hmm, there is a fish monger van that comes to the market on Friday's, I will have to steal out of work to check there prices.

Although we have one of those American style fridge freezers, the freezer part is actually quite small and full of stuff, I found chicken breast, turkey, venison, veggie mince and a ton of veggies in there, I think a weeks worth of store cupboard eating may be coming soon

So I set my budget at £500 per month, but this includes, pet food, household, Caitlin's school dinner money £2/school day (reason I give her dinner money is she does not then ask for pocket money) and the odd spurge by wifey at Tesco's ( I was scary accurate last night in guessing at £50 and it was all crap! LoL). My being better will hopefully offset her buying junk now and again.

Lets see how it goes.