Just had to put a food shop on the credit card, fed up!

[whatsausername]

We don’t get paid until next Thursday. I’d ran out of essentials like coffee, hand wash, toothpaste, chips etc. Needed the usual packed lunch stuff too. £78 in Asda. I have £82 in the account until payday but need to keep it in as direct debits due day before payday.

I just feel bleugh. We both work full time and having to put a weekly food shop on a credit card is just soul destroying.

anyone else feel like this?

Approx £450 - £500 ish / month seems high to me for 2adults and one child

Our average monthly spend inc toiletries etc for 4 adults ( dh, me, two sons early 20s ) is less than that

Might be worth checking out trolley online for price comparisons

Op, could you examine your shopping list to see if you could cut down on or change some items? Minor changes could make a difference.
Could you sell some unwanted things to form a cash buffer that helps in times like these?

Yeah, it’s like the mumsnet chicken. Or mumsnet massive salad.

We now have the Mumsnet grocery bill. £75 quid to feed loads in a time of hyper inflation.

Couldn’t make it up

Absolutely
Keep away from processed. Cook your own food
Cheaper too

@whatsausername

Instead of expensive drinks put a pebble in everyone's lunchbox. They can suck it to generate saliva and alleviate thirst, pebbles are free.

@ all of the other busy bodies, super saver consultants and know-it-alls OP is complaining about the increase in the price of everything and the choice between using credit and reducing her quality of life, your solutions are to reduce her quality of life - we all get that this is an option including OP, the problem is that it feels frustrating to be doing everything right and yet still be in this position

The bar soap isn't the issue here.

Op, you need to be meal planning more. I'm sure you know this. And we know it's tough.

Seems like the standard of living is just going down, I know.

£50 on packed lunches for three people is quite a lot.. but it's still only packed lunches?! They are not eating out. Imagine if they were.

I don't even know what a mela deal is from tesco the days - £6?

So that'd be £90 a week, for three.

So apparently it's £3.85 according to goggle

That's £57.75 a week

But personally I'd need supporting snacks, not just a meal deal

So it'd cost more

🤷

Massively excessive. If you get bread, ham and cheese, some snack bars or similar and a bottle of cordial for drinks, that’s under £15 in Lidl or Aldi (and most other places).

If you read my post properly nowhere did I say that diabetes is not linked to diet. I did say it takes more than ham sandwiches and yoghurt for lunch to cause it.

I also didn't say it was just my grandparents who were hale and hearty, I mentioned my parents and myself (and I could have included my friends who are of a similar age or older than me). I also commented on the large number of people in their 90s and even early 100s these days.

Honestly, some of you have been brainwashed when it comes to food! Anyone who suggests something which is perfectly normal fare, and has been for a very long time, is told how they will die early because of it.

I would rather live a happy, carefree, life eating whatever I want to eat (within reason) than a miserable existence obsessing over every morsal I put in my mouth in case it causes an illness I might have got anyway (have you really never heard of a healthy eater being diagnosed with any of those conditions?). Not to mention boring everyone else with "holier than thou" attitude and lectures on what they should eat.

Wow
doing the sums for that save
£50-15 =£35.00

£35x50weeks = £1750 saving / yr

worth a thought OP as prices aren’t going down

Plenty of comments giving the OP a hard time about why using soap would give her the ick
i would imagine the thought of washing with something that had been rubbed up someone else’s sweaty arse crack might do that
Agree with some PPs, she’s not asking for advice on which ‘luxury’ she should cut out, she’s venting about why a working household should be in the position of having to put their shopping on their credit card.

I took it to mean that she’s very wealthy 🤷🏻‍♀️

Just boasting, basically.

Lots of people are in the same boat right now, even while working full-time.
It’s tough, but it’s payday is coming.

My weekly trip to our local Home Bargains which sells food as well as toiletries really helps the weekly food bill. I also go to Asda.

I have to say we are a family of 7 plus 4 pets and my shop is £100 a week. That's 5 lots of packed lunches mon-fri meals every teatime and snacks,nappies etc so maybe you need to look at what your actually buying. I order a Monthly Tesco shop which is around £275 and the rest up to the £400 is top up veg,fruit and bread n milk that's it

Thats over simplifying it. For 3 people you need at least 2 loaves of bread for the week. Pack of ham would make everyone a sandwich for 1-1.5 days so that’s probably 3 packs needed. Are you suggesting 2 apple slices each per day? That’s not even 1 of your 5 a day - you’d need 1 pack each per day and that would be an expensive way of doing it, cheaper to buy a pack of apples. Agree with not buying drinks. Again yoghurt you’d need 2-3 packs per week for all of them. Plus they need to eat at the weekend.

I suspect the OP doesn’t just mean that all she buys each week is pack lunches and the rest is on the monthly shop, there must be other fresh food she needs each week which that £50 covers

You’re missing the point. It’s OP who’s being told what to eat, by posters in the thread (in the meantime there’s yet another couple!) saying she should only be buying cheap bread and ham for lunch and that anything else is “excessive”.

This is absolute nonsense @greengagesummers

Those born before 1965 have a far healthier lifestyle and will have better health than those born after , research shows this -obesity, UPF and inactivity are destroying the nations health.
People in their 30s and 40s are developing diseases linked to obesity and poor diet.
That ham sandwich would have been home baked bread, real butter, decent ham and importantly their levels of activity burnt the calories off.
They drank tea or water no stupidly priced coffees with 650 calories and 100g of sugar.

Also where in France are you buying all this cheap food -1985?
French food prices are around 10% higher than the UK.
The cost of basic toiletries , dry goods and staples is higher.

Coffee = essential l, especially if I don’t want my next address to begin ‘HMP’. I now buy the finest own brand though it’s half the price of Nescafé etc.
Handwash=essential and doesn’t cost more than a bar of soap.
chops can be let in the freezer and when you work full time do you really want to be chopping, peeling, parboiling spuds when chips take 20 minutes in the oven from start to finish?

you need to go down a brand, even if for one week out of four
it gets easier, you get used to it

Can you read? I said £78 in essentials and packed lunch stuff (not OPs full weekly shop) is excessive unless it's for a huge family. Not that £78 covers a full shop for a huge family.

I haven’t read the full thread but did OP even say if this is standard or did the money they usually have get spent somewhere else? If £7 coffee is deemed essential then I assume budgeting is not a strong point tbh

Even if I shop at Lidl my shop is at least£100 for families of five

It’s soul destroying isn’t it OP?
I call in to the local little Tesco for a few items (literally 3, maybe 4) and it’s at least £15. Years ago that would have been £7/8.

Use the discount shops like pound land and you will likely find the same nescafe coffee is cheaper.