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?!

2 fresh salmon fillets in Aldi are £2.99

A tin a sardines and a raw swede - nothing better.

Yes? I don't eat 21 meals a week, I eat 7. I don't eat salmon and steak for breakfast and lunch too :/

Also, as mentioned Aldi steak & salmon is good value.

Actually when I first met my husband he was a 24 year old man living in a shared house and buying only breakfast cereal, UHT milk and frozen pizzas as his weekly shop - he'd have a big oven pizza for dinner every night, cereal for breakfast, and eat in the work subsidised cafeteria for lunch Monday to Friday... I never asked him how much he spent, but probably not more than 20 pounds a week at the supermarket plus 15 pounds or so on subsidised cafeteria lunches! Not an ideal way to live though!

^"Our annual spend last year was £1000 for household and £1200 for alcohol etc."

I am just in at most things on this thread and wondering how on earth you do it? The above ANNUAL spend (on food, no the alcohol bit) is slightly less than my groceries cost me each MONTH (about £300 pw).

I can only imagine it's because I'm pretty unwell so batch cooking and making from scratch just isn't physically an option for me; 3 teen or Uni boys who are literally scavengers when at at home; we have one coealiac in the house and gluten free bread etc is more expensive; and I do end up feeling very guilty throwing out a fair bit - again, that's down to the fact that I'm ill and really struggling to eat at all so I have to get in a range of stuff and just hope I can face some of it on any given day.

But even without the above, my shop would still always be well in excess of £800 per month if I'm honest.

Slight quotation italics fail there!

Lady - what do you actually buy that makes it so expensive? Actually, it depends how many people are in your family as to whether it's expensive or not.

Ah, realised another thing [again due to being bloody unwell

I've no choice but to do online shopping (but it's Tescos, not Waitrose or Ocado FFS!) so that means never ever ANY yellow sticker bargains available to me.

Being ill truly sucks, including on the financial front

If you shop daily just for the meals you need it's possible to live very cheaply
If you aren't bothered about a particular brand and buy the offers/ reduced.
Some people don't spend long shopping/haven't got the time.
but if you have the time to wander round bargain hunting you can save an absolute fortune.

Orda I guess I buy more prepared meals than most people but I hate eating crap so do opt for the Tesco Finest range generally (altho this isn't always a choice as often the lower tier own brands are 'padded' with things that contain gluten, IE Tesco ordinary fish pie has same amount of fish in but also has gluten in which means have to trade up to the Finest one which doesn't have gluten in).

So tonight I will have either Tesco Finest Paella or Tesco Finest Beef in peppercorn sauce (again, the brand down is off limits to me as not gluten free:/) and a Birds Eye mixed frozen veg microwave pack. Combo of nutrition and ease drives most of my spend I guess.

It's for me all week/weekend, 14 yr DS3 at weekends (currently casual weekly boarding, again because I'm too ill for school run or any of the other basics most people take for granted), and 2 more DS when home from Uni.

Seems shockingly high when I break it down like that given it's only me thats here all the time tho to be fair, all of the boys eat for England - when all home, will easily get through over 20 eggs/8 pints milk in a weekend let alone the size of their main meals.

we spend about £2 per day on food and toiletries each. one adult two children under ten. we do eat salmon but get whole one and freeze in portions when it is on offer.

shop mainly at aldi. stock up on coffee when it is on offer. (at morrisons etc)

sometimes I am supplemented bymum when we stay at her house I get one or two bits for me in exchange for spending a couple of hours shopping for her with a disabled child.

"Yes? I don't eat 21 meals a week, I eat 7. I don't eat salmon and steak for breakfast and lunch too :/"

Orda your £40 a week had to pay for all your meals though- presume you don't just eat one a day?

I buy lidl frozen salmon fillets £1.79 for 2. They say they are MSC approved.....so £3.66 for 4 people. I also buy free range chicken breast £3.79 for 2/but that does feed 4 of us. I probably wouldn't get both of these in the same week.

I think mn is a parallel universe on this. I spend 100-120 a week in supermarkets including top ups, children's party presents, a couple of bottles of wine etc. On here people are IRL I don't know anyone who spends less and several who spend more (150ish). If I go to Aldi I don't spend less although some things are cheaper I agree, I don't have time though on a week to week basis, and as it stands they don't deliver.

I think we spend £100 a week all in- 2 adults, one toddler, one newborn and two cats. So that cost includes booze, cat food, nappies for both kids, wipes, cleaning products and essential toiletries like soap, deodorant etc.

We shop mainly at Lidl and the local Co-op and grocer. Most things are home made but we do have the occasional frozen pizza or a takeaway. We don't drink lots. I save money by batch cooking, and doing a lot of simple meals like risotto, sausage pasta, southern fried chicken, stew, omelette. Breakfast is usually toast or cereal, lunch is sandwiches, leftovers or tinned soup. Snacks are fruit. We eat pretty well, having a well stocked spice rack helps.

I think having a lot of time- and being willing to invest it in shopping and food- is a massive part of this. I spend about £70 a week for 2 adults and 2 DC but that doesn't include any lunches and DC eat all meals at nursery. If I have a dinner party, or people over for Sunday lunch, I can easily spend £50-100 just on that (3 bottles wine £20, a joint of meat £10, nibbles, pudding, side dishes)

Sorry forgot to finish post. We both work FT and I'm damned if I'm spending my precious time trawling supermarkets for woops deals or similar. We pay for an ocado smart pass- which is another £10 a month.
I know if we didn't have much money we would have no choice about this- I've been there. But in that case I would be more inclined to eat omelettes, baked potatoes, pasta etc, maybe go to Iceland once a week. It would be going some to pretend it was eating well, and it wouldn't be as cheap as some of the amounts quoted here- less than £100 a month

Iceland. 4 lamb quarter pounders, large bag of chips, frozen mixed veg, chicken portions, couple of pizzas, a dozen ready meals, large pack of fish fingers, mixed tinned pasta/beans, packet rice and noodles, jars of ready made sauces plus their special offers all adds up to less than £60. Leaving twenty for milk, sugar, tea and basic toileteries/household stuff. It can be done, although there must be a month when stocking up on misc stuff costs more.

I did this once and barely survived on the food, it was cheap but not that exciting (although I tried to add some fresh veg too (economy carrots were a lifesaver). You can get a pack of four jacket spuds for a quid (two meals easily).

When I was shopping for one I spent about €25 - €30 a week on all my food for 5 days a week (breakfast lunch and dinner) - which is about £80 a month. I would eat out or have takeaway at weekends but I didn't buy lunch during the week or coffees or croissants or any of the other things mentioned above.

I ate fruit, yoghurt, salads, sandwiches, stir fries, curries etc. Not much meat but perfectly doable.

Not sure about toiletries though as mostly bought those separately. If I had needed to include weekends would have been an extra €10 a week or so.

I do think some people are just not particularly interested in food. I know a few people who never eat meals. They just graze/snack during the day. One friend cooks for her family but would never eat with them. She eats cereal and yogurt every evening (looks good on it too.)

As said before when living in london we managed on £30 per week for two. We seriously didnt have any extra money so £30 iswhat we had. Have any of you tried the fish in ldll. Its really good and very reasonable. Im shocked people spend so much. We love cooking and cook from scratch which might be why we cook so cheaply. I hate pasta so tended not to eat that but that a very cheap meal. I found ldll veg is better quality than most places. Mind you morrisons in my local area is good on their fruit at the moment on quality and price. Just stocked up on blueberries, strawberries and raspberries which we have as a desert every night.

Is anyone else tempted to try this and see what you can get for £80 a month?

I think the key point is what do you start with? If nothing, then the food would be tasteless and boring as you wouldn't be able to afford anything except the essentials. If you assume a stocked spice rack, stock cubes, ketchup etc already available then I think it would be doable but still pretty miserable.

They'd have been bought as part of my shopping Basin.

I was happy enough with my diet, wasn't miserable and I wasn't skint, I just spent what I wanted but that's how much it cost!