AIBU to ask how it's possible for anyone to spend so little on food and supplies?

[Nicebucket]

Right, so colleagues and I were discussing how much we spend on things each month.

One bloke said he spends £80 on both food and toiletries in the entire month.

In London.

Is this really possible?!

I'm a serial packet checker Adele. I want to weigh up eating well/fairly cheaply with spending the minimum amount of time in the kitchen as possible. I do the food shop alone now because I drive dh nuts with my packet-reading, I do it on everything.

No way am I going to spend an hour making paella or fish pie (another one I've bought ready made a few times) when I can buy one that's just as healthy and the same price and only needs to be wok'd or baked for 20 minutes!

£50 on toiletries for 2 people - what on earth do you buy?

These sorts of threads always amaze me, yet I see people stocking up on fancy shampoo & conditioner and all sorts of (non-essential) beauty items so perhaps I am in the minority.

Can't think when I last bought any shampoo - we tend to have a family sized £1 bottle in the bathroom & I just use that helps that DH is bald - does branded shampoo really make a difference?

We spend about £320 a month for me, DP and part-time DSS. Includes all cleaning stuff/toiletries but not our lunches for work/school.

I think as a single person I COULD probably live on £80 per month but I'd have to be really, really careful and meal plan the inch out of everything. And ask for nice toiletries (good moisturiser for my problem skin, for example) as birthday/Xmas presents.

TBH I would rather allow myself to spend a bit extra than stick to a really tight budget just because it is technically possible. I've gone through times where I've needed to penny pinch in the past and I have found it becomes all-consuming, the guilt that comes with veering away from your plan by buying an M&S sandwich or a Friday night pizza really sucks the joy out of things. I was just constantly thinking about how much money I was likely to have to spend in the next few days.

I have huge respect for people who simply have to find a way to stretch a genuinely tight household budget, but for me personally I'd rather spend a bit more and not artificially subject myself to all the stress and guilt and worry that comes with trying to spend as little as humanly possible.

^But we probably average about £80 a week for food and basic non-food/toiletries. That's 2 adults, 2 dc, 2 cats.

We eat really well (IMO)...plenty of lean meat and fish, a fuck ton of veg and salad, a smaller fuck ton of fruit, natural yoghurt, wholewheat bread and so on.^

But that isn't that far away from £80 pm for a single person. You are feeding 4 people and 2 cats on about 4 times the amount.

OK, it is easier to do £80 ppm when you can use economies of scale, but the original question was whether it was possible to do it on that amount of money, not whether it was nice or healthy.

And the example I have quoted in this post has plenty of scope to cut back if it was necessary - obviously could eat less or cheaper meat and fish, cheaper bread, less fruit.

On here there are a lot of people whose idea of normal basic shopping is to walk round Waitrose and put lots of nice things in their trolley without looking at the prices. That is unimaginable and unafforable luxury to the vast majority of people.

I agree Barbara. My post wasn't really aimed at the op, more the people who somehow manage to spend 20 or 30 quid a week on a family of 4 yet claim they eat top quality food. I don't see how it's possible tbh.

I spend four quid a week on milk alone. Another four quid just on cheese and yoghurts. £1 on bananas, £1 on apples...that's a tenner just in 'extras' or staples, before you start on actual meals iyswim.

I don't dispute that it can be done if you absolutely have to...just those that seem to spend £30 a week for four people and are apparently including the likes of salmon and steak for that. I think some people on these threads tell a few porkies tbh.

Some tell porkies and some are eating really miserable food. A poster above mentioned a friend eating rice with courgette and soy sauce. Pasta with passata. Baked potato and beans. There is only so long you can convince yourself that's "really well". A lot of aldi/ lidl food is really horrible (a lot is really good) but if it were the only place you shopped you would have to accept their mushy apples and tasteless chicken- but I guess you'd probably get used to it too?

Look, I'm never going to be able to spend just £80 a month on food.

For starters, I'm not a great cook despite my best efforts. So I sometimes need a bit of help with ready sauces etc. Secondly, I work almost 10-12 hour days, so cooking stuff from scratch is not always feasible given the lack of time and my lack of energy.

But I definitely want to reduce my spending on food and minimise take out (which I rarely get anyway).

Toiletries are another story- I don't spend much on shampoo, body soap etc. But I definitely spend on face wash, moisturiser and things. I've got a separate thread about that.

And yes, it definitely makes a difference to my skin/hair. The £1 shampoo from pound land is not the same as the Tresseme one I use.

We spend £50-80 per week for 2 adults and 2 dcs. I like the food we eat and think its reasonably healthy. But I like jackets with beans and cheese, lentils and rissotos/pasta dishes. We have meat once or twice a week. This week coming
Tonight -Roast (cut of venison )
Tommorow left over meat stewed with carrots, celery, peppers etc on rice
Tuesday- Home made pizza with salad
Wednesday Pasta with cauliflower and feta
Thursday Curry/chilli - havent yet decided with lentils and rice.
Friday - Chicken Fajitas
Saturday maybe a rissoto or soup with the end of the veg

Yes, I too resent the implication that my family of 5 are not eating well on about £100 - £110 a week. I didn't think to say that I grow vegetables and some fruit but that mainly comes into play in the summer and autumn. I cook pretty much everything from scratch, I make all my own bread, bread products, cakes, even some biscuits. I have 3 freezers which I use to store fruit and veg from the summer harvest. My children and do may not have 5 a day but that is through choice rather than cost and I jolly well try to get 5 a day down them! I easily eat 5 a day, probably more like 7 a day.

I'm not saying everyone can live as I do, it is a lifestyle choice, but it is possible to spend less money if time, and a decent sized garden, are available to you.

I spend £80-£90 a fortnight for 2 adults, 2 kids under 6. Plus about £25 a month to the milkman. One child has lunch at childcare 3x a week and one has free school meals.

I'd say we eat pretty well on that, and the kids eat lots of fruit and veg.

I know a single very tight frugal man who has no interest whatsoever in food. He could live on next to nothing. He would always buy the most basic food and value range. On the rare occasion he goes out for food eg birthdays he would go for a two for one daytime special in the pub. He just does not appreciate nice food.

Well I eat more than most people as I have always had a good appetite and ds is at a fussy age (10) so it gets pricey. At least for us.

I did not know that baked beans are part of the 5 a day that is heartening as ds isn't good with vegetables but fine with fruit.

We eat lots of berries and those aren't cheap.

Perhaps we are just lavish!

I also don't buy dairy milk and soya milk/almond milk etc are more money. Nor do I buy dairy cheese. Goat/halloumi/feta etc.instead.

In response to the Op, is it possible that certain people are not entirely frank over their spending? I think marketing analysts have a word for this paradox.

FredaMayor- it's definitely possible that perhaps he wasn't being fully honest! I've noticed some people take pleasure in shaming as well.

For example, a colleague judged me for buying a face moisturiser from clinique and then later revealed she buys body wash from Body Shop and deodorant from Holland and Barrett

We spend 40-50 a week for the two of us and eat very well. That's around 190 a month so yeah.

Seriously last week we had mussels, salmon, steak, various chicken things and pork. Unless you eat absolutely loads of snacks?

But how it's? Steak- cheapest Aldi£5 each. Salmon probably £4 for 2 cheap. That's 2 meals out of 21, £9 or a quarter of your budget. How do you pay for the other 19 meals out of £30?

Pardon? I think you misread.

Fred and Nice I think it's entirely possible! I think it's totally understandable if you're skint or if food just doesn't mean that much to you so you don't spend a lot of money on it but it's the "How can you possibly spend that much?????!!!!" that's a bit annoying. A friend of mine buys everything toiletry wise from Clinique and Origins, £50 will probably buy shampoo, conditioner and serum. Fair enough it's not how I'd spend my money but it's not totally beyond my imagination as to how it can be done.

I can see how you could eat well on £50/week if you shopped about, cooked yourself etc but there are people who claim they do it on little more than that a month!

£40 a week and eating steak and salmon. That's what you said. I don't really understand your response, wouldn't it be better to clarify rather than just say ive misunderstood? What's to misunderstand?

You can buy frozen salmon for 67p a fillet, if you do the 3 packs for £8 thingy in Tesco.

I don't doubt it isn't 3* quality btw- before anybody points that out- but if you shop around and choose slightly cheaper/frozen cuts you can eat fairly reasonably on a tight budget.

Just looked at the 3 for £8. I wouldn't say most of it on offer meets the eating well criteria but you can indeed get a salmon fillet for 67p.
They don't seem to have frozen steak though

Steak and salmon is quite cheap and good in Aldi. Had a lovely rump steal for £3.49 and you can get a bag of wild Alaskan salmon fillets for less than £3 too.

steak!