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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to spend £280 a week to feed a family of 5?

999 replies

TempleOfBlooms · 22/05/2018 18:51

I spend about £280 a week on food. This includes my work lunches which tend to be salads from places like Leon plus coffees etc. The rest is food eaten at home.

Breakfast for all five of us tends to be things like Bircher muesli or chia based stuff with fruits and nuts. Fresh juice too.

Lunches in summer are usually a selection of dips and cheese and meats and salads.

Dinner is usually fish or chicken with a selection of salads and grilled veg.

So fresh food but not caviar or ridiculous indulgences.

It seems like everyone else on here can feed a family of four on tiny amounts. How? We certainly could eat more cheaply but that would mean fewer veg, fewer fruits, less fish etc.

Is it really so unusual to spend so much on food? I never see anyone else admit to it.

OP posts:
Thread gallery
15
chavtasticfirebanger · 23/05/2018 18:47

I think cheap food is tasteless and repetative unless you are chef standard

Thewhale2903 · 23/05/2018 18:51

SluttyButty
We have also not always been in a position to afford £120 a week on shopping but even now that we are I haven't changed the food I buy. I have however done a full shop in Tesco and Sainsbury's just to see if I felt any differently ( good to experiment ) but I didn't and went back to my usual ways.
We have just had corn on the Cobb, baby potatoes and baked Cajun salmon fillets, Salmon probably £3 cheaper per pack in Aldi than my local Sainsburys, I know because I have refused to buy it there due to the price, salmon comes from a salmon farm no matter where you purchase it.
Wish I could make a decent risotto Grin

CantankerousCamel · 23/05/2018 18:55

I’m not quite sure how to put into words how I feel about people who have every ability to provide their families with a balanced, varied diet but choose to spend less than the government reccomended allowance to provide adults and children with healthy meal...

Needless to say, I very much doubt the opinion of the two vocal and ‘professionally offended’ posters on this thread could possibly be lower of me than I am of them.

In my eyes there is very little else better to spend money on, than the nourishment of our families.

CantankerousCamel · 23/05/2018 18:58

Also thanks to a PP who mentioned garlic broccoli pasta!

I’m making some right now with chicken and cashews added and it smells unreal!

NoSquirrels · 23/05/2018 19:04

I don't actually know what I said that you would be insulted by?

You have called me "offensive", "insulting", "ignorant" ... I've said nothing at all like that to you.

you are agreeing with someone who has offended people which makes you just as offensive and insulting. I take that as I can insult you back with my opinions on you

I am "agreeing" in as much as I have been trying to point out to you that that poster wasn't saying what you assumed.

You do know that the MN discussion boards have a policy of no personal attacks? Saying that you feel free to "insult me back" is kind of not the ethos. Especially as I have NOT insulted you. Not at any point.

Anyway. You clearly feel self-righteously justified, and I won't change your opinion of either me or a larger food budget, so I'll leave you to it.

Thewhale2903 · 23/05/2018 19:06

CantankerousCamel
I actually cannot believe you have piped up with this utter crap again.
Trust me my opinion of you is much lower than you seem to think.
My family has a balanced varied diet and are provided with just as much nourishment as yours.
That is guidelines it doesn't mean if you spend less than this your family is unhealthy or you are doing wrong by them.
Your self righteous rubbish is just rediculous!

Thewhale2903 · 23/05/2018 19:13

NoSquirrels

Do I have to waste my time going through this thread again to find some of the things you have said to me that are insulting and a personal attack on me, to once again prove you wrong.?
If what I am saying is wrong and they didn't mean that then why have they not said that themselves? They have just repeated what they originally said again, that people with a lower budget for food are not providing their families with the correct nourishment!

LadyDeadpool · 23/05/2018 19:13

Catankerous you're coming across as a pretentious idiot now, I spend far less than the recommended allowance and we eat very well, very varied with lots of fruit and veg. I don't feel the need to preach to other people about what they eat though.

You do you and stop being a pretentious judgy snob and let everyone else do them.

CantankerousCamel · 23/05/2018 19:14

NOSQUIRREL

Thanks for the support.

I really think these are people who have come here to be offended and have been successful.

I don’t think there is much more to it than. Was very odd to be saying things and have them twisted and turned about, so I really do appreciate your input!

CantankerousCamel · 23/05/2018 19:15

THEWHALE

it’s ‘ridiculous’ (spell checker is your friend)

NoSquirrels · 23/05/2018 19:16

Do I have to waste my time going through this thread again to find some of the things you have said to me that are insulting and a personal attack on me, to once again prove you wrong.?
Knock yourself out. You will no more change my mind than I can change yours.

SluttyButty · 23/05/2018 19:16

Professionally offended 😂

In my shopping trolley last weekend because I now feel the need to tell you part of it was, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, spring greens, green beans, lettuce, salad tomatoes, spring onions, normal onions, peppers, avocados, bananas, easy peel satsumas, apples, blueberries, strawberries, a watermelon, rhubarb, plums, potatoes, Charlotte potatoes, lean mince, chorizo (that horseshoe shaped thing), chicken thighs, pork chops, porridge oats, natural low fat yoghurt... and that's what I can remember. All from Aldi.

Shame on me for buying such atrocious food for my family 🙄

Thewhale2903 · 23/05/2018 19:21

CantankerousCamel
Haha in my hurry to tell you what an idiot you are I spelt a word wrong but since you have nothing else to say please feel free to judge the spelling mistake.

Thewhale2903 · 23/05/2018 19:22

NoSquirrels
Might not change your mind but would prove you wrong again.
You too should get together go kick a few homeless people

Sprinklesinmyelbow · 23/05/2018 19:25

Whale stop being so bloody rude

Thewhale2903 · 23/05/2018 19:25

SluttyButty
Your shopping sounds a lot like mine.
Yes shame on us for being so bloody unhealthy and not spending exactly what the government tells us too Grin

Thewhale2903 · 23/05/2018 19:26

Sprinklesinmyelbow
People shouldn't dish it out if they can't take it back!

Thewhale2903 · 23/05/2018 19:27

But yes please do jump on board to defend them

Sprinklesinmyelbow · 23/05/2018 19:28

Well she can take back clearly. You’re still being rude, and are making yourself look really petty and spiteful

Stillwishihadabs · 23/05/2018 19:29

I think it probrably is difficult to eat well below a certain spend level. However exotic veg and daily meat isn't a particularly healthy way to eat and completely unsustainable in environmental terms. It is better for you as well for the planet to eat a mainly plant based diet, the fact it's also cheaper is a side effect really. We could spend more and occasionally do, but the quality of what we eat doesn't improve, it's usually things like 3 or 4 kinds of cheese rather than 2 ( when actually it would be healthier to have less cheese and more salad) ready made pizzas or quiche ( again home made is cheaper and healthier). More red meat certainly wouldn't increase the healthiness of our diet. So we have actively decided to shop and eat as we do although we could afford more; it's greener, it's cleaner and it's healthier (examples are drinking mainly water, having pulses several times each week deliberately limiting the amount of juice in house) . We also try to eat seasonable and limit food miles.

CantankerousCamel · 23/05/2018 19:31

STILL

We have a local farm where we try and source as much meat as we can, I have to say though that the culture demand to have meat with every meal is a hard one to shift...

Thewhale2903 · 23/05/2018 19:34

Sprinklesinmyelbow
I feel spite towards this person now as she has insulted people on several occasions.

FriendlyOcelot · 23/05/2018 19:39

We eat really well; dh and I eat a mostly ‘clean’ diet which is based on fruit, veg and whole grains such as quinoa, oats and pearl barley. We also eat tonnes of nuts and seeds plus superfoods such as chia and cacao. Red meat is restricted to weekends only and we only buy local from the butchers. We might have chicken or fish mid week.

Unfortunately the dcs don’t wish to eat so well so I cook separately for them most days, but I cook enough so that a macaroni cheese or spag bol for them lasts two nights.

We spend a max of about £150 per week, which includes a top up of fresh stuff plus toiletries and household products. Pet food is on top as I buy that from specialist places.

In order to keep it within £150 pw my tips are:

Restrict alcohol to weekends only
Packed lunches for school and work
Shop in Lidl and Aldi but buy frills at Waitrose / Tesco.
Batch cook
Bulk buy offers
Meal plan ahead so you can make food last and not go out of date

user1497607114 · 23/05/2018 19:40

This sounds like something from overheard at Waitrose. I have a household of teenagers who are human hoovers plus two dogs that require a special diet and I spend £90 a week. Shop at Lidl.

chavtasticfirebanger · 23/05/2018 19:40

Surely it is up to the individual what to spend money on despite government figures.
To strengthen an argument by pointing out a spelling mistake it utteely twattish and nasty. Good for your family. Doesmt say any more about you than it does whale. Sure she loves her kids as much.
Just nasty.