To ask what she spends £300 a month on?

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My friend and I were talking about our monthly outgoings. She works one day a week in a shop and her dp has taken a huge paycut to do something he loves. She said that he gives her £300 a month for food. They're veggie (she's vegan) so I really don't understand what they spend all that money on. My food bill is less than that and we eat meat (good quality meat) and have cheese etc. My plan if one of us lost our jobs was to go vegan and eat big veggie stews and curries all week,so how come she spends so much?
She did ask for my advice so should I tell her that I think she could cut down on her food shop.

They don't drink and use reusable nappies. We met when we were both working in a whole foods shop so I know she gets loads of freebies from there. I was mainly shocked as she is my icon in terms of growing veg, preserving, baking daily bread and reducing her plastic intake but I guess that can still be an expensive way to live. I shop in Lidl and Ocado and spend £250 a month but we both work full time, if I was looking to make savings I could definitely cut it down to £200.

easy peasy if you just buy what you want - eg avocados, blueberries, nice cheese and chocolate, fresh fruit juices etc

depends also on what your priorities are

Yeah, some fruits and vegetables can end up £1 or so for one portion, and if you want a decent variety you can't only buy the few cheap things.

Convenience also increases cost, stuff like ready-to-microwave veg.

Another thing that'll cost you a bomb is drinking lots of coffee-pod coffee or branded cola.

We spend an average of £472 pcm on groceries. That's everything bought from Tesco/Lidl/Aldi/Asda
Everything: food, alcohol, cleaning products, wild bird food, everything. (We have a running spreadsheet and it works out our average).
Family of 4, 2 adults 2 children but one child eats like an adult. Includes hosting people for dinner and taking stuff (biscuits/wine/cakes) to other people.
We could probably cut it down by cutting back on alcohol and any treats.
Isn't enough context for the figure of £300 provided.

If she’s asked for your advice then yanbu, how can you advise if she gives you nothing to go on?

£300 a month isn’t a crazily high or low amount.

You can do veggie/vegan very cheaply with loads of lentils, chickpeas, carrots, apples etc but most people enjoy more variety in their diet that lentil stew every day forevermore

Food in the UK must be very cheap if 300 pounds is considered a lot to spend in a month! Does that include all "groceries" or solely what is actually eaten?

We're in Germany and a family of 5 - I mostly shop in Aldi and need at least 800€ per month on groceries (food and also including toiletries and cleaning products, consumables like toilet paper, kitchen roll, tissues, baking paper etc).

It also depends how many meals come out of the money - I've heard people claim to spend ridiculously small amounts but then it turns out they don't include anything in their food budget! People claiming to spend 40 pounds a week for a family of 4 but only later mentioning that they only eat a couple of meals per week at home and are not including school/ nursery lunches, breakfasts, big after school club/ nursery snack, adults eating cooked meals every work day in the work canteen, a weekly take away and a restaurant meal and cafe coffees and cakes within what they spend on food!

So essentially they are lying, because they pay hundreds and hundreds of pounds more than they originally mention a month for food which isn't part of their supermarket shop.

300 pounds a month sounds very frugal if its for a family of say 4, it covers all meals (breakfasts, a pack up taken from home for everyone's lunch on school/ work days and dinner cooked at home) and includes cleaning products and toiletries.

When I dip into economic friendly threads on here I'm always surprised by how expensive some of the things suggested are, shampoo bars at £7 each, wax cloths to replace cling film etc, even having a milk man with glass bottles to replace plastic ones- all more expensive. Obviously organic stuff costs more so maybe she buys enough to bump up her costs?

If she is growing her own vegetables then she won't be getting a lot that way this time of year. There isn't a lot to harvest at the moment except leeks. A lot of stored vegetables will be going over.

I marvel at people who can spend so little! We spend about £150-180 pw. That includes all the little side trips to spar etc that most people don't include. I always got annoyed at such programmes like Eat Well For Less where they knock up a spag Bol out of cheaper ingredients and say that £3.50! But they don't include the cost of the passata from your food store, or your garlic, or your olive etc. Like it replaces itself by magic and therefore is not included in the cost.

Compare the price of your cheese per kg to vegan cheese.

£300 a month, is not a lot to spend on food. I can easily do a small shop in a supermarket for a few days, buying necessities such as fruit and veg, milk and cheese, a few bits of meat/fish etc. and spend £150.

I know dubious I saw the waxed cloths somewhere and it was about £20 for 3 .

I don't think I've spent £20 on cling film in my entire adult life and I've had my own house for over 20 years. We do buy foil, cling film and baking parchmant, and seem to use it quite regularly, but I'd say each roll lasts at least a year each.

Ikea do have some paper food wraps for £1.25 a pack. I'm going to have a look at them next time I go, but I'm not sure if they are recyclable as they seem to be paper and plastic?

Blimey - we must spend at least £750 a month for a family of 4. She iOS doing bloody well to spend £300. Fruit and veg cost quite a bit IMO.

We spend about £120-130 a week for three of us. Some people spend more and some less. It’s like asking how long is a piece of string

*is - weird auto correct there!

£300 per week sounds completely reasonable to me. We spend much more than that (the difference probably includes the meat).

£300 per month that should say!

Theres 2 of us and we spend between £60-£80 on actual food, including cat food. We have vegan/vegetarian meals on the whole.My Mum has the odd chicken but I dont eat any meat at all.
Is not cheaper eating as a vegan unless you have oven chips with beans every night etc. It can be expensive cooking with loads of different vegetables from scratch plus Alpro milks and yoghurts are more expensive. If you eat big veggie stews and curries then you never want to see them again after day 2. I know because I do big panfulls all the time.I only like to have a meal once 2 days is pushing it.

Eating whole natural healthy foods isn't necessarily cheap. We eat pretty healthy and I cook from scratch almost 100% of the time and I would say we definitely spend between 100-200 a week. This is for our total shopping costs, so that includes things like cleaning products, batteries, light bulbs, alcohol, nappies, etc. That's for a family of 3.

I find eating really good quality whole foods is expensive. I don't buy organic, but I do buy lots of fresh fruit and veg, which isn't expensive. But things like dried fruit, nuts, nut butters, other sources of healthy fats like avocados, coconut oil, olive oil aren't cheap. Quality meats aren't cheap either (we do eat meat, but maybe only a few days a week). I think it probably also depends massively on how much she is actually cooking herself at home. I always hear people say like, oh, I feed my family of 5 for 50 quid a week. Except what they mean is they feed them dinner. They are getting breakfast from Costa every day on the way to work. The kids are eating lunches at school and they are grabbing a meal deal 5 days a week from a shop for lunch. And then eating biscuits from the biscuit tin at the office for a snack. We might spend 400-700 a month on all food and household supplies, but that is like truly everything we spend on food. We eat breakfast at home every day. We pack snacks and lunch for work. We both take coffee in a flask to work in the mornings. We make lunches from scratch on the weekends rather than eating out, etc. We tend to invite friends over for lunches and dinners and drinks because we can't easily go out (no childcare) and that's expensive too, etc. So it ends up sounding like quite a lot. I think 300 a month for a family of two adults and at least one child doesn't sound like much at all, but it depends I guess what they are spending that on and how much money they are spending on other things (like meals out, snacks, household supplies, etc.).

Being vegan isn't cheap, unless all you do is eat veg and nothing else.
The soya I buy alone costs me £7 for four small tubs.
What about household things too? She still needs to buying cleaning products, dishwasher tablets cost a fortune in themselves.

£300 is more than what I would spend but that's easily achievable if she's buying organic.

Like almost any other diet, being veggie/vegan can be either cheap or expensive depending on how you do it. £300 a month doesn't seem excessive, but there are probably things that can be cut back on if finances are tight.

However, we can't possibly know what your friend is spending her money on. If she doesn't know either, she needs to diligently keep track for a few weeks by keeping all supermarket receipts, online shopping statements etc. Then she might be able to identify where savings could be made.

I don't really understand why you're wondering about this OP?

You were both discussing finances and your monthly outgoings, so when she mentioned the £300 for food, wouldn't it have been a natural continuation of that conversation to ask her rather than Mumsnet?

£300 for vegetarians/vegan isn't expensive at all! Health foods can get quite pricey - I know from when I went through a mega health/veggie phase last year. It all adds up: free range veg/fruit, protein supplements, vegan meat substitutes, organic foods, specialist spreads/milks w no-added sugar etc.

It's ridiculous that these days it costs far more to eat healthily than it is to eat junk.

Fresh, organic, fair trade etc isn't cheap. You can eat cheaply if you live on lentils but most vegans don't