to think that food is not 'cheap'

[bollywoodfan]

Well not according to how much I seem to spend in Tesco anyway!
I am surprised when people say that we have got used to cheap food, because I don't think it is. I suppose the value brands are pretty cheap, but if someone is buying all value products for their weekly shopping, its because the feel they need to. Nobody would buy them if they didn't have to. Hence 'proper' food is NOT cheap.

Im more than happy with my asda shop lots of treats,daily meat, alcohol etc and I only speny about 240 a month with nappies included.I love it in there.

Tsc - your water rates are a bargain mine are 76 a month and Im not even on a meter or allowed one

Yes it's very cheap if you eat processed food.

There would be much less health problems and obesity if we really spent a third of our incomes on food. I just can't imagine getting used to that now.

Yabvu

I went to Asda after months of Aldi shopping. I nearly wept at how much more expensive it was.

We dont have aldi here Im in the south

We spend 24% of monthly income on food. And although we eat quite well, we are definately not eating enough.

At the minute we are doing the shop between Asda and Lidl. The difference in price on things like cereal, butter, cream etc is crazy.

The problem with asda is their £1 deals. Somethings are a bargain at £1 but they are offset by things that are rounded up to the pound. Eg cream. 250ml in asda is £1. The same in Lidl is 86p.

Might not be much, but it soon adds up.

Processed food is cheaper in the supermarkets. It takes local farmers markets to bring the cost of veg down. And eating in season too.

I don't think anyone can afford to spend a third of their incomes on food now that fuel and heating is skyrocketing.

We dont have aldi here Im in the south

Aldi have branches in the South of England.

What I'd say is that there is now a lot more choice of food but this choice comes at a price. When I was a child (in the Dark Ages) chicken was a luxury but nowadays it's one of the cheapest meats you can buy providing you aren't fussy about its provenance.

As others have said, you can eat cheaply but you very often have to sacrifice quality for price. Although I actually find that a combination of shopping at Waitrose and Aldi might sound odd but it does result in paying sensible prices while still getting good food. I refuse to buy all sorts of non-perishable stuff from Waitrose because the quality at Aldi is really excellent and the prices are low.

Unfortunately, the cheapness of many processed foods does nothing to help people eat more healthily though. Nor does it help the farming industry.

I spend about 20% on food.

But that's because I have to spend:
50 % on rent
25% on bills (and debts)
5% on travel (and only because I mostly walk).

All those saying how "we" spend less proportionately on food, well, yes, because every other damn thing has got so expensive.

Tesco is really cheap I find. Sainsburys has gone up a bit. We can't afford Waitrose....

I don't go to Asda.

I cannot afford Tesco just now, it's not good, I don;t know if it is me but I am even finding Lidl expensive now. Farmfoods is horrid but needs must. I haven't ate in 3 days tbh

Cheaply-produced and mass-produced food is cheap. Proper food, produced sustainably and humanely (in the case of meat) is not. This is the problem.

We have £40 a week, works out at £5 a day for 5 people. The kids eat well. I watch and feel grateful for horlicks. I do bake a lot which helps. Tea loaf, cheese scones, Anzac slice are filling and cheap. Some fish and meat are cheap to. I normally shop daily as that helps in keeping the costs down. Farmfoods is great for milk and butter. Co op scares me, although it is our local big shop.

I usually split between Aldi and Asda, nothing wrong with Asda at all, there is a lot of supermarket snobbery on MN.

I'm in Essex and we have an Aldi two minutes away. I honestly don't know WHAT I'd do without an Aldi. Whoever mentioned Passata - theirs is 29p for a carton and it's lovely. It's so good I don't even need to use Tomato Puree any more.

We do cook pretty much everything from scratch, but I can get a weeks worth of shopping for the 3 of us for around £30, and that's with us eating good healthy meals every day.

Im a bit too south.Just checked there is one 30 miles away

Asda ain't that cheap. We usuusjop at Waitrose as it is a nicer shop, and more ethical. Though maybe I could save some money switching to Asda.

Plugged about a £50 shop into My Supermarket (which seems quite good at eg substituting waitrose essentials for smart price) and Asda came out £1 cheaper,than waitrose which was second cheapest. ocado was £10 more expensive I remember.

My local Asda is shit, doesn't sell tofu, or most vegetables (its hit and miss whether you can find exotics like cucumber or red pepper)

Aldi is the way forward, if there wasn't an aldi near me I would be very very hungry!

I shop,in our local coop when stuff is reduced then store it in the freezer. It's the only way we can afford ice meat. Eg a 454g pach of steak mine was £1.75 and a large pack of chicken breastsv£2.50. Our nearest aldi is ten miles away unfortunately.

Food is cheap here in UK. I go back home once a year and I'm always puzzled how people afford to eat there! With minimum wage of 290 euros a month and food prices exactly the same as UK - it's ridiculously expensive. I always make sure I'll do all food shopping when staying with parents.

I dont think proper food is cheap.

Fish from the fish counter is around £3.50 for a portion of cod.

Chicken fillets arent cheap.

I do slimming world and its all fresh stuff whats in their diet and it costs a fortune!

Healthy eating does cost more money than junk food.

I thought sw was quite a cheap diet - lots of pasta. Try tinned fish, or frozen, and chicken fillets are cheap frozen in those big bags.

Its much cheaper proportionally than 50 years ago I think - we just spend a lot more on other things now. I think people waste a heck of a lot of food now, you wouldn't get that if it was more expensive.