That's more than double what I spend pp and I shop online with sainsburys and my shop inc cleaning products, toiletries Sanpro etc was 70 this week but that's only once a month I stock up on certain items.
It's also more than my whole income per week!
We have:
Cereal, yogurt or toast & fresh juice for breakfast. Perhaps a fry up or Chucky eggs at weekends.
Lunch -
dd has a packed lunch, sandwich, carrot or celery sticks, yogurt, piece of cheese, piece of fruit, fun size cake bar as a wee treat. Her workplace provide tea, coffee, water and squash free.
Me - sandwich, carrot/celery/sliced pepper, yogurt, squash to drink.
Dinner - varies of course
Pasta, chilli, casseroles/stews, omelette/frittata, stir fry, salad (now it's warmer), 'meat n 2 veg' style meal (but I'll have a veggie sub eg quorn fillet or nut cutlet), hearty soups (in winter), ratatouille, baked potatoes...
Snacks - there are crisps, choc, biscuits in but I only need to buy them every approx 3 weeks, fruit, crackers (on which we have cheese, pate/spreads, sandwich meat (dd), butter n marmite), veg sticks, toast, yogurts.
Our fruit/veg is basic/boring -
Fresh-
Peppers, mushrooms, tomatoes, carrots
In summer - rocket (don't like lettuce), cucumber, celery, cherry toms
Apples, oranges, grapes, occasionally berries (in season or on offer)
Frozen - broccoli, spinach (great for smoothies and sneaking greens into dd ), berry pack (great for smoothies and crumbles), peas (admittedly more of first aid item), sweetcorn, onion (the teary eye thing affects me VERY badly), green beans (dd doesn't like), roast parsnips in winter.
Tins - tomatoes, baked beans, butter beans.
Tbh though we rarely snack as dd finishes work late so dinner is late. I'll have a snack late afternoon to get me through till dd gets in when she's on lates (my meds bugger my blood sugar). But dd really only snacks at weekends.
I rarely get dips prefer to make my own with plain yogurt, cream cheese or tinned tomatoes as base. That way can make to our own taste (we love garlic not so keen on hot spices).
Your family is a prime candidate for Eat Well For Less. Do you realise that's £15k a year??? That's a bloody house deposit!! You could probably stand to watch a few episodes! As a pp says they start off insisting X y z product they couldn't possibly tolerate a non branded or cheaper version - turns out they can't even tell the difference even sometimes being certain it's their usual favourite they're eating/drinking.
Op re salads
1 it takes 5 mins
2 organisation is part of life surely you're organised in other areas
3 I beg to differ if you're making you're own it always has the parts you like in and how much (and you can leave out the stuff you don't)
4 you can still go for a walk at lunchtime you don't need an excuse
How much is this Leon place (couldn't find out myself cos their site is shite!) double m&s? Bloody hell!! Pretty sure they get their fresh ingredients from the same place as any other salad provider AND as its salad you're not exactly paying for chef skills!
Even IF you still wanted to buy a salad I'm sure there's a supermarket either near home or work you could get from. Most do a decent range now.
Are you buying the Bircher muesli ready made? Is everything branded? (Total waste of money).
As a veggie I of course agree meat every day not necessary. Dd not a veggie and doesn't eat meat every day, even my mum doesn't! And she eats a fairly traditional British diet.
"six salmon fillets. Two packs of mixed lettuce, some nice tomatoes, cucumber, goats cheese, artichoke hearts, olives, bread and walnuts" now I DO think you're pulling our legs NOBODY eats like that daily! I've a few friends that are EXTREMELY wealthy (I'm taking multi million pound mansions, holiday homes and several luxury cars - one even has his own helicopter!) and even they would recognise that as unusual all in one meal (some of it I'm not sure even goes together).
It is possible it was over £30 as
Most expensive sainsbury prices
Salmon fillet £5.50 X 6 = £33!!
Salad leaves £2
Tomatoes £1.40
Cucumber £1.10
Goats cheese £3.40
Artichoke hearts £1.75
Olives £3.65 if 2 of those as quite small £7.30
Bread fresh £1.75
Walnuts £6
For a total of
£57.70 😱😱😱
"Since when does eating cheaply equate to eating processed, low quality food?
Exactly! I'm having a salad tonight as shopping has just been delivered
Rocket £1.50
Half cucumber 0.35
Cherry toms 0.75
Mixed peppers 1.00
Mushrooms 0.90
Mayo 0.80
Smoked cheese 1.00
But prob only used 1/4 of all that so £1.58 plus
An oh look... Not a carb in sight! (Not deliberate it's hot here and that's what I fancied tonight)
"Your stealth boast is showing OP" yea nothing stealthy about it!
"Expensive packets but still packets." Exactly - which means you've likely lost a good deal of the nutrition too. So if you're not paying for nutrition, and its less fresh so probably doesn't taste as nice...what are you paying for?
To the pp who only eats chicken - like veggies you need to be aware you're not getting iron and certain vitamins from the usual sources (red meat and fish) hopefully I'm preaching to the choir but I hope you're counteracting that by eating other items rich in these and/or taking supplements. Just this is becoming a common cause of anaemia/vitamin deficiency according to a friend of mine (dietician).
Free range and organic is an ethical choice, doesn't affect the taste or nutrition (been shown in numerous studies). If choosing as an ethical choice (and I choose free range eggs) fine, but be under no illusions re taste/quality.
"I simply don't understand how people feed families for less than that" because they have to - bet I could save you a good bit!
"Fresh juice isn't all that good for you every day. Ton of sugar" a small glass = 1 of your 5 a day and the sugar comes with a lot of vitamins. I find for breakfast the (unrefined) sugar kick gets me going.
Eating seasonally is not only cheaper but means you're usually getting the right nutrients for the time of year.
"There is a middle ground." Exactly it's not either gruel or caviar!
I can understand paying more for unusual items, but I think paying more than necessary on basics is a waste.
"takeaways or lunches they buy or Sunday lunch for like 4 extra people." Not all of us get regular takeaways, buy lunch out or have 4 extra for Sunday lunch. I'm on a tight budget couldn't afford that. I also don't drink (meds). Dd is still too young, and next year when she's 18 she can buy her own!!
I get basic cleaning materials. We don't make a lot of mess.
I don't always cook from scratch (eg the only bloody potato dd will eat is instant mash) if I'm making something that can be chilled/frozen (eg casserole, chilli) I'll double up and store half creating sort of home made ready meals (and like the dips, they're then to our taste).
Get a (cheap) takeaway occasionally or have a snacky tea of crackers, cheese, 'crudités', dip, olives, with a piece of cake (homemade usually, but sometimes shop bought).
So I'm no martyr!
Not sure op is necessarily making the Bircher muesli given a salad is too taxing.
Would just like to say I'm mid 40's, most of my friends my age can and do cook, a fair few bake too (3 have home based celebration cake businesses, one of these recently won a local award which came with a cash prize and she's planning to go 'official' and get a shop up and running). My younger friends really haven't been taught to cook either at home (mum's working full time) or at school (cookery classes crap or dropped altogether).
"Cooking isn’t hard." I agree but it's a confidence issue I think. I literally know people I wouldn't trust to boil pasta! The thought of cooking makes them flap so much.
When I went uni 2nd time I found (sadly) there were a few students missing meals because they didn't know how to budget either. I jotted down some VERY simple...I won't say recipes...instructions for easy but cheap filling meals and rather than singling out the students I knew were struggling stuck them on a handout and gave them round at a meeting about general student issues. (I was a rep). Those that didn't need them free to bin, but I was happy it helped some - it also lead to a little discussion that meant that students more confident with cooking were helping guide the less confident. (Though honestly I was wondering wtf are their parents playing at not making sure they could cope before sending them off to live alone!)
"it’s just a basic process of following recipes." It depends on the recipes, and the ingredients, most will know what boil means but a good few don't know what simmer, sauté or blanche mean. Many are wary of lentils, beans pulses even aubergine because of all the 'do you soak it' 'do you have to salt it' type stuff.
There is KNOWLEDGE and skill (how to prep certain veg, meat, fish, how to make sauces, don't tell me egg based sauces don't require skill to avoid scrambling etc).
Even some supposedly 'basic' or 'student' cookbooks contain daft ingredients or instructions the average student won't use/understand. Also most recipes give the idea all ingredients are essential where any experienced cook knows of possible subs or what can be left out without making much difference.
"Health wise they’re exactly the same as fruit and veg that isn’t pre prepared. What do you think they do to them to make them less healthy?" Just cutting some fruit and veg immediately reduces levels of certain nutrients. It also means they take longer to reach the customer.
"I had people ask me what mutton is
Black people eat this a lot I am black before anyone has kittens" still eaten in Scotland too, my parents like it. As did my grandparents. I wonder about Welsh? As like Scotland lots of sheep farming. I too watch Eat Well For Less with 😱 at beginning then much 🙄 as the rest unfolds... Can't find a smug emoji for end of programme 😂😂
If I weren't agoraphobic I think a great business idea would be cheap cooking lessons showing how to cook cheap, basic dishes/ingredients.
Chavtastic as per pp - also happy to help if you want to pm. Although I'm veggie and have been all my adult life so no expert on meat (but I could always ask my mum 😉)
Wyatt, I'm not working now, due to ill health. But I'm a Lp to one and when I was working full time I did still cook from scratch the less time consuming dishes, plus used slow cooker for eg chilli.
"This is where I think cooking is a skill. The knowledge to be able to do that is invaluable." Definitely agree - also at end of week, stocks running low and knowing what to make out of what's left in the fridge...
Stillwishihadabs I'd love the corn chowder recipe if poss?
I love talking food/cooking