To think that £17,000 a year on food is obscene

[ChillySundays]

Watching 'Eat well for less' on i player. The family are spending £17,000 a year on food. I'd quite like to earn that. The bloke is saying about saving them £100 a week - my food bill is that a week (4 adults) never mind saving it.

What is really getting my goat is the mother laughing about how little fruit and veg the family eat. Surely most people would be embarrassed whatever the reason was.

Am I being incredibly judgey?

You eat a tonne of animal flesh, Grazia.

NOT JUDGING. But confirms my thought that the high spenders might be buying stuff we don't eat.
What's "Stir Fry" on receipts, is that a bundle of veg suitable for stir fry?

And the Guardian doesn't count, take that £2.70 off :).

I spend a fair bit on food too - just because I can and choose to prioritize it. I don't eat meat/fish or buy alcohol, though, which partly keeps costs down. It's just me and shopping for one costs more in comparison.

My Abel & Cole order for organic fruit, veg and milk is usually £18 per week. Then I spend around £75 on Ocado although that includes toiletries and cleaning products and cat litter. And another £6 or so on lunch from M&S or Itsu one day a week.

I buy lots of organic and some speciality products like matcha green tea. Things like nuts and some cheeses are expensive too. I don't buy ready meals but do buy some convenience foods like falafels.

Oh, please don't post more of these high-quality shopping receipts! I'm salivating!

FOUR BLOODY POUNDS for a mango? Actually those 'perfectly ripe' ones are really good - just like the ones from my tree in Brazil Aldi sometimes has mangoes for £1, but you have to be really lucky to find a good one.

£4 for mango?? That's insane.

The best mango I ever ate was given to me by my Indian next door neighbour, they cost about 80p from the local Indian supermarket.

£200 for some champagne because someone's come for lunch is craziness.

I don't buy expensive food, I have two small dc and most of it ends up on the floor, there no point (no I don't buy value meat).

I miss the 'foreign' groceries in London, really badly. I live in a farming region, so there is good local produce, but it's impossible to get anything locals would deem exotic. There's a couple of Polish shops and a wholefood store, but even they sell only the basics. If I want anything like Indian flours or coconut oil, I have to buy it from Amazon! My days of wandering round the Turkish supermarket for interesting stuff at a couple of quid are over :(

ragged, yes; it makes me feel good - veg and meat and fish and eggs. The Waitrose receipt no one can probably read I posted most was for my son who came with me to get his stuff - he's trying to get above 9 stone ( he's over 6 foot) so it's always interesting shopping with him - someone who finds it so hard to weigh more.

I could easily live on a lot less. It's the son encouraging me to do the extra shop in Waitrose. I would be content with the weekly Tesco delivery. In 2 years they'll be at university and perhaps I'll be surviving on eggs and veg. It was only last week we gave up 20 years of the cheapest Tesco eggs. I spend a lot of time lobbying the chidlren about the merits of factory farmed eggs. I should get a medal from the caged eggs society but I have given in, weak little thing that I am to the child's view that the other more expensive eggs taste better. I call them his rich man's eggs.

(As for my hair - actually I never dry it - I just leave it and seems okay with the Pantene so far)

I miss free farm eggs. A family in my old village used to have a little box at the end of their drive with boxes of eggs and an honesty box and they were the best eggs I've ever had. They even had the chicken's names and date they were laid written on in pencil.

Yes I miss farm eggs in my village too. And boxes full of apples and other fruit when people had too much on their trees.

I was horrified when my mil threw away their excess veg from the garden. If you've grown up in a village, it gets given away.

I admit I only buy meat from my butcher or from Waitrose : I work for it, my call

at Lidl today I bought aubergines mangoes and peppers
I avoid their grapes, apples and onions
their butter is too salty
but their croissants are lush

food is a pleasure unlike tonight's rugby

Add message | Report | Message poster Jeffreythegiraffe Sat 03-Oct-15 21:01:16
£200 for some champagne because someone's come for lunch is craziness.

I don't buy expensive food, I have two small dc and most of it ends up on the floor, there no point (no I don't buy value meat).

It isn't craziness for me, I will happily spend £200 to get a guest what they want to drink. My mum struggled with me, she is a single mum and I am an only child. She had more than 1 abusive relationships but I just happen to be good at my job and I earn silly money. My mum won't take money from me but will occasionally take an upgrade for a Holliday.

Also I'm chewing on a £30 steak right now and I hope Australia dissapears and the rugby World Cup just ends tomorrow.

And I just ate a humble orange - the child rejected the 5 he chose when we were out (not sufficiently easy peelersm the entitled little so and so........) so I got a bonus.

Is it a segmented blood orange spritzed with mineral water and lime juice? Swear to god I had something similar.

Jeffrey yes to the fruit and veg, we all seemed to grow different things and it was a win win situation for us because we had masses of damsons and sloes and let the neighbours take their pick, and at Xmas we were given enough gin to last a lifetime. Living in a suburb is pretty rubbish in comparison!

No, I drink tap water. Just a Waitrose orange half peeled by a boy who couldn't bothered to peel the rest and eat it himself.

That's two packs of two pr mangos for 4. It was on offer and seeing as lidl charge about a pound a mango, and often they never ripen or taste good its a bargain in comparison.

i'm so glad i live in an area with plenty of cheap choices for shopping. i can get 2 really ripe mangoes for £1 in the local indian greengrocer

The Indian supermarket near us is brilliant, I have no idea what half the vegetables are and they do the best samosas for 40p!

I was really proud of myself doing the microwave risotto.

Okay, talk me through the health of the risotto. There's the rice (carbs), the passata (one of five a day), the cheese (dairy and protein), the onion (I was generous and added loads so probably another of the five a day), isn't that quite good? I don't think the cherry toms can count, can they? Not with tomato already in there. I mean, you don't get all your nutrition in one meal, do you?

Spending that amount on food isn't obscene, and it isn't impossible, either. It just depends what you like to buy really. It's not neccesary either.
I personally don't approve of wasting food though and I try to keep my waste to.a minimum. In the 'old days' before we had recycling caddies it was easy to see that a lot of people were buying stuff and not even opening it. I probably would judge a little bit in that case.
I myself have only ever once spent more than £100 in one shopping trip (as far as I can remember) and that was one Christmas. I suppose it would be nice to have just one shop with an unrestricted budget.

eedon I can't even be bothered to read your shopping list let alone type one myself. You really have got too much time on your hands!

grazia that goes for you too. Insane! Aswell as checking out Asian and Caribbean grocers and supermarkets, just try the 'foreign' aisle in most supermarkets. I always check them for things like nuts and cons cos. They're always sold in bigger packs and are cheaper.

Bigger packs are only cheaper if you have storage space for them. I have to buy smaller packs because I simply don't have storage space in my tiny kitchen.

Baked risotto is really good and takes about half the time.