to think ed milliband is lying about spending 70-80 a week on food

[sazham2]

No way does someone that is a millionaire and earns about 7-8k a week with a family of 4 spend 70-80.

In touch Ed claimed that his family of four spent “probably £70, £80 a week on groceries a week, probably more than that” when hijacked with the perfectly reasonable question on ITV’s Good Morning Britain:

order-order.com/2014/05/20/mili-onaire-eds-cost-of-living-crisis/

Manatee - I don't think EM had had enough time to have such an impact on the Labour Party.

Again, is £80 a week too little or too much? Opinions divided on this thread.

'Has had' instead if 'had had'

Of. Bigger, I'm not doing this.

bUgger

70-80 per week is possible, but it requires thought, effort and concentration. It means no impulse buying, getting yellow stickered meat for the freezer and choosing non-branded products .
I don't think you would choose to shop like that all the time unless you had to. EM doesn't have to and I don't believe he does .

I guess that if I discounted all non-food items from our weekly bill, and took a week when dh and I were both out most evenings for work (fairly frequent) and maybe I had done one of my mammoth once-a-month-£300 shops in Tesco the week before, then it is entirely possible we could spend less than £80 in a given week.

But on average? Way over.

I think this was a 'stab-in-the-dark safe number specifically chosen not to alienate all middle and working class potential voters' rather than an honest or truthful answer.

I think it's irrelevant whether it's too much or too little compared to a normal person, as Ed (like many high-earning Londoners) is not a normal person economically speaking I would say in many other respects too but that's just me. The point is that if you're going to try and make political capital from painting the opposition as 'out of touch Tory millionaire toffs' then you should at least make an effort to look like you've thought about, researched or even (God forbid) done a normal person's weekly shop at least once.

He should as his work know something about his shopping budget as he goes on about the cost of living as his one main policy!

There is no lidl or Iceland in primrose hill. 70 would buy a few loaves and snacks from his local baker.

That doesn't include dining out which is what they probably do every night

weeping here too, Blair has destroyed labour

Yes, he isn't necessarily lying. It really depends on what kind of food they like.If I became a millionaire tomorrow I probably wouldn't go mad on the food budget, because we like the food that we eat now. We aren't all going to turn into foodies, because we like simple food, and to me food is just food at the end of the day. No point in spending more than you need to, IMO.

He shouldn't know about his shopping budget, he should know about other people's shopping budgets. Popping out to Waitrose or Lidl will tell him nothing about being a low income single parent with 3 children and no transport.

No amount of budget spreadsheets will make it not the case that:

a) He could toss an extra crate of champagne in his trolley and not really worry about the effect on his budget

b) As leader of the opposition he is in the class of people who probably makes household budget choices based on saving time rather than saving money.

Even if he did some kind of publicity stunt living on benefits week, he still would have wasted a week doing something that anybody with a brain and empathy can understand in 10 minutes.

I think it's perfectly reasonable to say that we need senior politicians with broader life experiences. However, expecting them to gain that background while they are senior politicians is a little unrealistic.

Never ever! We are a family of four and spend around £250-300 per week on food including nappies for one, formula, booze and toiletries.

family of 5. tight budget but time to cook from scratch. I spend about £90 a week plus a £8 top up on milk and fruit. We eat well on that and have a bottle of wine or some beer in that budget. I can do a weekly shop for £ 60 but it's a bit dull. ..boring fruit and too much mince type dinners!

Well, I suppose it depends what it includes - does it include booze and nappies?

I reckon we spend about £100 a week on food (although I've never added it up) and we would be classed as affluent by most people's measures, and we don't stint on anything.

£30 on weekly organic delivery of veg/eggs/bread/milk from Riverford.
About £100 every fortnight on Ocado.
About £20 a week topping up from Sainsbury's.

We cook from scratch all the time, except for Pizza which I always buy what is half price.

And that doesn't include booze as DH stocks the wine cellar.

So I think Ed Miliband's claim is reasonable. But I bet he doesn't do the food shopping.

I've just done the weekly shop for 2 adults and 2 DC 12/14. It came to £36.75. Bought diced chicken and mince on offer, lots of veg, no booze, 3 boxes of cereal. We never do top up shops except last minute home economics lesson dash.

We tend to spend between £35-50 weekly depending if buying soap powder/loo rolls etc. We have never spent £70-80 on a food shop. We are a duel income family and eat very well.

Don't judge people because they are high profile or millionaires. Like a previous poster said, we all only have one stomach and one arse. Ed hardly looks like he is over-doing it in the food stakes.

I think he gave an answer off the top of his head. I'm guessing his wife does an ocado shop and he hasn't a clue what us spent. I doubt it's £80 a week though.

These questions asked by journos are ridiculous.

breward - I am in awe that you manage to feed 4 teens/adults for less than 45p per meal. DH will want to pick your brain.