To wonder if people actually spend 200+ on a weekly shop

[pleasemothermay1]

Watching eat well for less and I just can't believe people actually spend 200+ a week on a food shop

One lady was giving a teen 20 a week to get chips and chicken 😟

We have 6 in our family

One baby
One toddler
One teen
Me and hubby
And a cat

I spend £65 a week including nappies and toiletries

This gose up to £90 during holidays and the teen is eating at home not collage

It's mad what are these people feeding there kids

My children have breakfast lunch and dinner I don't encourage grazing all day they can have fruit in between meals and I cook from sctrach pretty much 5 days a week junk on a Saturday then roast on a Sunday

I would also be interested in how much - as in what value - of food gets thrown away each week, because I wonder what the actual cost of 'food genuinely eaten' is?

We throw nothing away. A normal week might see our small counter top food caddy quarter full (we compost veg peelings), a bad week maybe half full. The day when the food delivery arrives sees the fridge genuinely empty of anything but sauces and condiments.

I almost never buy fish or shellfish because of the price. 5 decent sized fillets of anything would be an expensive meal. Crazy for an island nation. I do buy frozen prawns for lunch box salads for me to take to work, and sometimes frozen fish but wish it was more affordable. I have switched recently to seriously upping the amount of veggies we eat, as veggies re cheap. Only problem is that Ds doesn't like them!!!grrr.
He will eat a home made veggie pizza with spinach etc, or a tagliatelle, tomato and mozzarella bake or stir fry( if some meat in there) but that's about it. I love frittata, macaroni cheese, vegetable curry, ratatouille etc but all here rejected. He's old enough to be left to get on with it so he fills up on toast and cereal but that's not ideal. Any ideas for veg hating teenage meals...oh, he will eat jacket potatoes with cream cheese or beans.

Dementedma does he eat pasta much? I used to make minestrone soup when my DCs were younger, I'd liquidise it so they'd think it was a tomato sauce on pasta LOADS of veg in it! They eat it 'normal' now.

It does Pride! Yes, other people's circumstances may be different to mine but i refuse to believe that them being different means that they don't have the time to knock up a healthy home cooked meal. It's just excuses.

If we had the money I'd love to indulge and enjoy buying more good food.

We spend around £70 for our family shop. Currently we are 3 adults and 5 children.

We buy a local veg, pulses and fruit box which is delivered.

I also buy milk, butter, bread, peanut butter, honey, yoghurt cereal, sugar, flour, toilet paper, fresh orange juice, coffee, soap, toothpaste, shampoo, shower gel and teabags on top locally. Some thing weekly, others monthly.

Once a month I buy a bag of lollies or crisps for the kids and they have one each Saturday as a treat.

Less frequently I buy things like baking goods - pectin sugar, icing sugar, dark brown sugar, treacle, syrup, baking soda & powder, cream of tartar, cider vinegar, oil, white condiment, nuts, spices and cheese.

You can cook and provide on a budget but it's not fun and it's exhausting as everything is from prepared from scratch. I would love more a week to shop with as I wouldn't be so worried about running out of things or I could have a break and buy more pre prepared foods.

Good tip kitty.I find spinach is good for wilting into things or grated courgette.

Threads about how much one spends are pointless in the fact that some will buy all brands and some all basic range so cutting down the bill isn't that simple. Just because one family of four can feed everyone for £50 doesn't meant another family of the same size can.

I like EWFL as I find it educational as well.

So you accept that other people's circumstances might be different to yours now but apparently not different enough that it might be impossible? Utterly ridiculous. You cannot possibly make a call on whether people whose lives are completely unknown to you are able to do certain things. What you do is not evidence that people whose lives are different could also do the same.

Nowyouseeme your judge pants are showing.

NowUseeMe I don't think that anyone has said that they only eat supermarket preprepared food because they work full time have they? One person has said that she spends a lot because she works long hours but I would assume that is more than 9 to 5.

We get through about 12 pints of milk a day. Ds3 (17) and ds2 (19) drink a 4 pint carton each a day. I buy organic milk when I can. The milk I bought today was £1.98 per 4 pints. That's £42 a week on milk (first time I've worked it out!). I could perhaps insist that the 2 milk guzzlers drink water instead. But they spend a lot of time in the gym and playing rugby/cricket so they need lots of nutrients/calories. I could buy ordinary milk / but I don't want to.

We make a lot of breakfast smoothies with berries, fruit juice, yoghurt and oats. Say about £5 a day - that's £35 a week.

That's pushing £80 pw before we even get onto actual food!

Those of us who have big food bills aren't necessarily buying loads of ready meals and throwing lots of food away.

Our family must be a bit piggy with mince, when DS was at home so three of us, I just used to buy a pack of mince, it must have been 400g and just whacked it in the pan for spag bol and then just dished it up between the three of us, it never seemed excessive, now there is just us two we don't seem to eat spag bol hardly at all, but DS loves it so if he is home I make it.

Mary no I only use a cup of lentils ( Anerican cup).

• American

AndNowItsSeven In that case you either consuming mainly pasta and garlic bread or you just don't eat much. 18g of mince plus a 22th of a cup of lentils is hardly anything.

A 400g pack of mince can do two meals for 9 people?!
A 400g pack would make us (2 adults and a toddler) spaghetti bolognese with either 2 adult-sized portions or 4 toddler sized portions left over for the freezer, or a big lasagne with 1 adult portion or 2, sometimes 3 toddler portions left for the freezer. Never both! How are you stretching 400g of mince to 18 meals?!

A 400g pack of mince can do two meals for 9 people?!

Don't forget that there is apparently also enough left over for the four preschoolers to eat it for lunch. It isn't even bulked out much with lentils!

How are you stretching 400g of mince to 18 meals?! shock

It probably gets told it's really a mumsnet chicken.

So what if it's excuses ? I just don't have the inclination. I can cook but costco's food tastes nicer end of (and is the same price as M&S tbh) I just kid myself

I can andhave eaten 400g of mince by myself

Everyone lives within their own circumstances, it is unfair to call anyone lazy as you don't know what their lives are like.

Both DH and I work FT. We have a teen and two tweens, so evenings are filled with activities that eating has to be timetabled around. I enjoy cooking, but some days I struggle.

I shop online because it is quicker and easier. It isn't necessarily cheaper - I'm sure I would save money by going to Lidl. I would waste 20 mins trying to find a parking space though, and for me the time is more important than the money.

Back to the mince - we only use 250g for bolognese to feed 5. But if it was being made into lasagne I would use 500g.

I made a tagine tonight with 300g of lamb, which isn't a lot. But the tagine had chickpeas in as well for protein, plus butternut squash which made it filling. 300g of meat was plenty in it.

NowUseeMe - is there any circumstance you could concede that someone's lifestyle/situation may make making healthy food from scratch impossible?

Me too, Umbongo! I've discovered it takes 2 minutes (plus 20 mins baking) to make a delicious meat loaf with oven chips. Since it works best when I slap a whole pack of mince in the tin, it's a crime not to finish it

NowUseeMe - is there any circumstance you could concede that someone's lifestyle/situation may make making healthy food from scratch impossible?

It's unlikely to be impossible. I'm not sure that making everything from scratch is necessarily cheaper. Unless you live on lentils and chickpeas plus 20oz of mince each cheap = value chicken nuggets. That is the sad reality.

Not read full thread but those complaining about slow cookers being tasteless try the sear and stew.

Goes on hob to brown mince, onions etc then goes in the slow cooker. I have the version with a timer.

www.google.co.uk/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=sear+and+stew+slow+cooker+timer