In despair at how much I spend on food

littlegreenparrot

Would it be possible to make at least a couple of meals a week vegetarian? That might help cut down the cost a bit. 

For example you don't mention how you get on with eggs, an omelette and a green salad is very easy. 
Chickpeas? I appreciate they might create the same problems as beans and lentils, but if you can tolerate them falafel are great. 
A broth style soup can be good with brown rice in it, or quinoa. 

PasturesNew

The place to start is by looking at the simple structure of what you're eating. 
1/ What do you eat, what price are you paying for it?
2/ Are you wasting any of it?
3/ How much is the cost of what's on your plate in front of you?
Track everything.

From there it's a recursive revisit of that to see what you could do differently to change what you eat (pick a different pack size, or brand), or only buy it when it's reduced/on offer, know your buying price, walk away if it's too pricey.

Waste nothing. You bought it, eat it ... ALL. 

Is there something on your plate that's the one killer item that you can ditch?  e.g. if you were making a chilli, say, just adding in peppers might cost you £1 that's not needed.

If you are spending £60/week, that means that every day you are spending £8.50 on food.  What on?  What can you ditch/swap? 

Look at egg dishes and chicken dishes + chilli + soups (if you like them).  Think about getting a slow cooker (£9/Asda right now, other shops do them cheap too if you keep an eye out).  You could, say, make cheese omelettes (cheese is cheap mature cheddar).  You could even then use that omelette as a "pizza base" and add cooked toppings.  

Many foods have fallen out of favour, they still exist, but people are blinded by the marketing ploys of supermarkets to head for their nicely packaged ready meals.... actually a full sized Tesco does some really cheap ready meals all well under £1.  

Fish .... investigate fish, possibly in a tomato or cheese sauce, served with cheap green/mixed veg.  

As it's summer.... carrots are cheap, grated carrot, some tomatoes (not the pricey/vine ones, just regular tomatoes), couple of boiled eggs and 1-2 slices of corned beef is a nice meal (although corned beef can be very pricey).  Maybe a bit of pickled beetroot from a jar on the side.... and a 20g sprinkle of grated cheddar.

Also, "2 meals per day", change your mindset to thinking in terms of "1 meal and 1 snack", most people don't eat all these meals others would have us believe everybody eats  

Toonie

I understand London prices and tummy trouble, I live in Zone 3 and have quite a severe intolerance of all alliums, as well as not being able to tolerate pasta, rice, beans, lentils, or mushrooms amongst other things.

Definitely second the suggestion of using supplements instead of eating oily fish, salmon is lovely but expensive (I can't afford it but supplements are a lot cheaper). Do check out any local shops, Turkish run shops often have cheap store cupboard essentials, even if they look like an off licence (I buy wholewheat couscous and popping corn from my local one and it's half the cost of Sainsbury). My one also has a lot of fresh fruit and veggies at a reasonable cost so use it for cabbages, onions (for my BF), bananas, and grapes. The only other option is to use cheaper proteins, I buy chicken drumsticks or thighs as they are cheap and even with my small freezer I can fit in a few when I separate them out (also stops me over eating and wasting money if I can't eat them all).

Good luck!

maman

I'd agree that it would help to increase your freezer space when you can. Meanwhile, while you can't do massive batch cooking you could cook enough for 2/3 meals at a time and they'd keep OK in the fridge for a few days. As well as omelettes, I'd suggest stir fries for a quick meal. Also, I eat loads of pickles to supplement fresh veg. My favourites are beetroot, cornichons (super ones in Lidl) and pickled cabbage. 

I live in the South East and prices can be similar to yours but I'm fortunate that we have most supermarkets very close so I don't need to use the expensive shops. I've successfully done Slimming World (kept to my ideal weight for 10 years) and feed 2 of us for little more than you're spending on yourself but I have the benefit of Aldi shopping. A typical day for me would be- porridge or eggs for breakfast, leftovers (from previous dinner) with pickles or  (tinned) sardines with salad or an omelette for lunch and then a cooked meal in the evening like stir fry or chicken or decent sausages. 

notional

Thank you everyone for your suggestions

suki1964

Tinned fish is a main stay of my lunches. I love sardines, tuna and tinned kippers ( the frozen pouches are cheaper but I prefer the tins and add a poached egg and some spinach , a relatively cheap meal )

A shopping trolly is a must. I couldn't drive when living in London and spent my life traipsing on and off busses with my trolly getting the groceries. Then on Sundays the wash went into it to cart down the launderette

Swapping to Aldi or Lidl will shave a lot of your shopping bill without having to try

The freezer, when we lived in a flat with a tiny kitchen ( no room for either washing machine nor dishwasher ) I bought a slim chest freezer and shoved it in the hall. Is that something you would be willing to consider? Saved us a fortune as we were able to take advantage of butcher packs and reduced meat from supermarkets. I was ( still am ) the mad woman who buys a bunch of Turkeys on Christmas Eve for just a few quid each. They are very easy to joint up, package and stick in the freezer to use throughout the year. We eat a lot of turkey nowadays, turkey breast instead of a chicken, turkey breast minced instead of minced beef

Now the freezer still saves me a fortune as I freeze every left over portion. Seriously you will open my freezer and find single sausages or burgers or chicken fillets galore

We like salad in this house but I don't like how quick it all goes over so I buy very little conventional salad items. Im happy to use white cabbage instead of lettuce and Im even happier to open a jar, roasted peppers, gherkins, walnuts. Also buying a white  ( or sweetheat/york cabbage ) you also have coleslaw and is there available for a cooked veg 

For me I think thats my main stay, not ever buying a single meal ingredient. If I want say a bag of spinach for one dish, I incorporate it in to other dishes before it has time to wilt or I just use bog standard onions instead of red or scallions or just miss an ingredient out altogether. I bake now and then, I never buy caster sugar, I use granulated and give it a wizz in the food processor or liquidiser 

But we are living on fresh air and a good strong wind so I do have to watch the pennies, the more I can stretch the grocery money, the more I have left for other things, like living If you can afford what you are spending then why not?. If you are now having to cut back, start with tiny steps, changing where you shop or dropping down a grade, going veggie for a day, looking at cheaper forms of protein

PipneyJane

@notional, I’m just wondering if your worrying about how much you are spending on food is more to do with the demon Depression talking than anything else.  Your comments so far have lead us to believe that you can afford what you are spending.  Depression is a bully, who is determined to make his victims compare themselves to others in order to make them feel inadequate.

Start with what you can do.  Action combats anxiety.  Get more exercise, both to build muscle AND to release endorphins so that you feel better.  (There are free 7 minute and 10 minute workouts out there.)  Rearrange your cupboards and the fridge/freezer to make more storage space.  Consider changing your diet as others have suggested.   But don’t forget to tell that Evil Angel on your shoulder that he is wrong, every time you hear his voice.  

Hugs,

- Pip

notional

@PipneyJane I can't afford what I am spending on food.  Thanks to those who suggested I put a freezer in some unconventional location in my flat, but I just really don't want to.  I've lived in bedsits and a nasty flat with a fridge in the sitting room that made a buzzing noise and it just made me feel miserable.  Another reason against a freezer is that I don't have a microwave (or room for one) so things take forever to defrost (like 2 days).  I looked at my kitchen yesterday and worked out that I honestly can't spare the space for a slow cooker either.  I have under 2 square metres of worktop, and there's already a kettle and a food processor on there.  Also in answer to other suggestions, I plan all my meals, I buy exactly what I need for my plan, I have no food waste, I don't have leftovers as I live on my own so I cook the quantities I want.  I prep my meals so they are cooked in batches of 4, often I do 2 batches of 4 so I get the best use of the oven.

@PipneyJane I work out a lot, I do zoom gym classes and zoom dance classes, and walk with my poles.

This week I am trying out tinned fish, I tried tinned mackerel in tomato sauce and also in olive oil and tbh I found it revolting    I'll keep going with different kinds.  I am also going to subsitute eggs for some of the salmon I was eating.  I think I have to just make small adjustments and see how it goes.

joedenise

I'm not keen on tinned mackerel either but like both tinned salmon and tinned tuna.  Tuna is particularly useful as it's really versatile.  I use it in a tuna & sweetcorn flan, tuna mayo on jacket potato or in a sandwich or roll, mixed with LO mashed potato and make into fishcakes, tuna bake mixed with pasta & a white or cheese sauce.

I use loads of eggs as they are so versatile - there are 2 of us and we get through a tray of 30 every 7-10 days!  Another thing that is really versatile.  I'm sure I don't need to give you ideas for eggs!

It might be a good idea to join in with the Grocery challenge and the first few posts will help with that.  There are also several pages of thrifty recipes which might be worth looking at.  

A couple of websites worth looking at for cheaper food ideas are cookingonabootstrap.com and thrfiftylesley.com.

Good luck with reducing your spend.

Floss

OP, I've read all the posts and think you've had some good advice.
Would you consider an online shop, so you can get what you wish to buy at better prices than locally? Yes, there is a cost but probably less than bus fares / taxi fare. 
Have you been able to scope out any local international shops? My DS2 & DDiL live in East London and have several on their local streets which they swear by for things like small amounts of fresh fruit & veg, spices, rice, pulses and yogurt.