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

Sorry..

On an usual week day for us (South Asians, 2 adults, 2 children) normally what cost most is dinner(we bring left over to work). Dinner is usually rice with at least 1 meaty type and 1 veggie and a little soup. A very simple meal: 2 grilled seabeams (£9), 2 brocolli(£3), chicken mushroom liquid soup(£2: I cook and freeze on Sundays). I normally need some ham omlette for the next day lunch if its fish dinner as its usually finished(£2). A box of fruit £2. Sauce, rice etc. (£2). So dinner and lunch only already costs £20/day. On top of it we pay for 8yrs old school lunch(no idea how much). 2 yrs old foods and snack during the day, including nappies, wipes, £5. We eat breakfast at work, the kids usually have light breakfast with a banana £2. The 8 yrs old needs a snack once she is home and its usually some cheese, couple of oranges, handful of strawberries, easily cost £2. So on a very simple day it already costs £29 without washings, toiletries, weekend treats, no way we can cut anything in here

Going to try that Jambalaya recipe wankers - thanks. I do something similar from a Jamie Oliver cookbook -Baked rice with chicken and chorizo. I like recipes like that which have a bit of chopping and frying off at the beginning then I can put my feet up while they cook!

Jemima it is lovely, as I say I've always had to add extra water/stock and time to make sure the rice is cooked but I'm not one for measuring so tend to over estimate the rice etc. We generally end up with leftovers which make a great lunch (eaten hot or cold) or have enough as a side dish to something else.

Ooh, I've made that Jambalaya - a huge cauldron of it for a big family get together, it is great.

I've also got a similarly easy coconut chili beef recipe which is delicious if anyone wants it?

Coconut chilli beef sounds amazing

It is! Hope this is legible, I got it from the cook at work.

That sounded unintentionally cheeky, I meant because it's a photo.

Sounds lovely, I've stolen it thank you

Stealing it too, thank you!

Did anyone see the latest episode?

I did laugh at the portion sizes of food being dished up as part of the test. They wouldn't have fed a sparrow in the real world. And sausage pasta made with onions, garlic, passata and sausages???? No herbs. No flavoring. Yet it was delicious.

One tin of soup between 3 for lunch?

It's bonkers

I figured they had more than 1 tin of soup, but yes I was also about the pasta sauce. We get the llyod grossman ones they use, they are nice and tomatoey and the tv family got them on an offer at £1 (could see the shelf label). I have made pasta sauce like the one they did and it is never a huge success. Also a lot of the savings (£40 p/w out of £100 saving?) were from not eating out... are they seriously not going to eat out anywhere for year?

Greenleave

In the nicest possible way, your post just demonstrates how you just don't have a clue

Your dinner could be made with any, much cheaper fish, which could be less than half what you spend.
£3 for brocolli is obviously the fancy thin, sprouting stuff. Normal brocolli would be about 50p for the same amount
£2 for a box of fruit - this must be pre-prepared, use canned or frozen, much cheaper.
£5 a day for a few nappies, wipes and snacks for a toddler - ridiculous, that could be halved easily.
£2 for fruit and cheese snacks for a small child, again must be the most expensive options available, loads of cheaper options.

Which is all fine if you can afford it, but no way is it 'a very simple day, no way we can cut anything in here' it is the luxury option pretty much all the way that could easily be cut to less than half and still provide the same nutrition.

Buying cheap meat and fish would really concern me..

Why, Waitrose?

I'm not talking about cheaper meat or fish because of poorer production or fishing methods, I am talking about using shin beef instead of fillet steak, chicken legs instead of breast, or frozen 'normal' white fish instead of seabream, which is just not as common as basa, coley, pollock etc.

The meat comes from the same animals reared in the same conditions, the fish is MSC approved, the nutrition is the same, it's just not the premium option.

There is only 1 answer: they do not taste the same!

I'm going to sound like a really awful person here, and do feel pretty awful about it when I sit and think about it, but it's the truth:
We genuinely cannot afford to worry about the welfare of our meat Buying organic or free range meat would cost us a few £'s more per pack than buying what we do buy.....and we simply cannot afford to worry about whether or not our curry contains a happy chicken or a fucking miserable one I wish we could, because I really feel crap about paying into such a cruel industry, but when it comes down to it, my kid eating is more important to me than that chicken

The reason the pasta sauce wouldn't have been a success I suspect ( and I was also yelling at the telly) was it was missing ingredients to give it flavour- it needed more poix,stock,a tsp sugar to cut through the acidity, black pepper ,herbs etc you can't just chop an onion and bung in a tin of tomatoes like she did and expect it to taste nice. And using pasata will get that rich tomato flavour rather than just a tin of tomatoes.

**mire

As long as it's sourced responsibly I would buy it, but usually cheaper meat & fish = uncertainty on that fact.

I think it goes without saying that feeding your family is more important than the welfare of animals...

Someone else said it was passata? May have had herbs in? But actually, with plenty of slow cooked onion, olive oil, garlic, decent sausages, some salt and pepper, it could be pretty good. Slow cooked onions and garlic are sweet and tasty on their own.

It had paprika in it too and they said they liked it.

I've got 4 sea bass fillets coming from Ocado for £4.53 today. Yes it's a special offer, but I tend to pick out the offers. For four of us it is a fairly small portion of fish, but it's tasty and will be plenty with vegetables. For 2 it would be absolutely loads. Definitely don't need to spend £9.

Someone else said it was passata? May have had herbs in? But actually, with plenty of slow cooked onion, olive oil, garlic, decent sausages, some salt and pepper, it could be pretty good. Slow cooked onions and garlic are sweet and tasty on their own

Perhaps.

It wasnt slow cooked. It was done on top of the stove in a frying pan and the pasta was added to it. There did not seem to be garlic in it either and the Paprika referred to by Barbara was actually in the vegetable curry thing they had.

But Ive though about it since and I reckon the family were just so pleased to have something homemade to eat that wasn't a cake they would have enjoyed anything.

The family were lovely, the bloke was really supportive of his wife who'd had a hard childhood and was quite often starving. I felt for her when she said she thought the cakes etc would mean she was a good mum and leave the kids with happy memories of her.