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

[TempleOfBlooms]

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.

I don’t really understand the snobbery about “not cooking” what difference does it make to anybody if your dinner involves grilling salmon and arranging salad rather than whipping up a game pie?

Its not snobbery. The point was just that it’s bound to be more expensive if it’s pre prepared packets of food.

Just reading through, metodear, your food looks great.

Yeah maybe not chia seeds
I buy lettuce and salad, cheese, meats etc from lidl

But tbh thats the kind of lunch I make for a picnic only

OP, you just need to learn to eat the fruit and veg that are in season.

They will be cheaper, much cheaper, esp. At markets or Lidl

So buy mangos (Kent variety) in Feb and March, buy blueberries and asparagus now, cherries in August, Apples in Sept/October, oranges in November December

Etc etc etc

Lots of super nutritious food is very cheap, any day of the year, eg oats, barley, lentils, bananas, eggs, carrots, sweet potatoes etc

We eat similar to you (without the takeaway salads) for about half the price

How is a pack of salmon fillets pre prepared? It’s just opening a packet no matter what you’re view of cooking or not cooking. You can’t make it more expensive by serving it with salad!

You don't have time to "make" a salad? You could make one in less time than it takes to make and read this thread.

Is this a stealth boast OP or do you want advice on how to cut back?
For the amount you spend the menu seems a bit bland. Salad for lunch and dinner every day? Kids need carbs!

**
It would be nice to have your budget, and do a bit of stealth bragging, but if I had your budget I'd stop indulging myself quite so much and put the money towards a holiday.**

How do you know that the OP is not managing to do both?

Never ceases to amaze me how some posters struggle to grasp the fact that there are a lot of very wealthy people out there.

Poster in "luxury items are expensive" non-shocker

The other option, might be to catch up on Jamie Oliver's (is it 5 or 15 minute meals?). He manages to feed a whole family, very quickly, using ingredients (all lovely) in a quantity that wouldn't have filled my lot up.

I shop at Sainsbury’s. It adds up. Tonight I bought six salmon fillets. Two packs of mixed lettuce, some nice tomatoes, cucumber, goats cheese, artichoke hearts, olives, bread and walnuts and it came to over £30. That’s one meal for 5 without bits like olive oil.

To me that's 2 or more like 3 meals.

Rubbish. I buy preprepared salads too. Do you have any idea how much is in a Leon salad? You’ve got to open, chop, combine pack and possibly purchase up to 10
Ingredients. How is that less Time than picking it up from the shop and handing your debit card over?!

Not unreasonable if you can afford it. I’m always shocked at the people who can feed a whole family on like £50 a week. Something tells me they mean like only the food they buy to cook themselves and not takeaways or lunches they buy or Sunday lunch for like 4 extra people.

We spend about £200 a week on our shop. This includes all household supplies and cleaning supplies plus alcohol and 3 meals a day (minus dd who is in school) for a family of 4. We make all our own food from scratch for every meal, rarely eat out or have a takeaway (like once a month), and eat lots of healthy whole foods (no ready meals, etc.). We don’t go out so if we see friends they come for a meal so that means food and drinks for extra people occasionally too or for family if they come to stay with us.

I don’t see how people spend less and eat normal foods cooked from scratch every meal. We don’t live in London and shop at Tesco and I batch cook and freeze extra to save money. But I think maybe other people don’t eat at home as much or don’t buy as many cleaning products or other things and maybe don’t drink a couple bottles of cheap wine a week. Anyway, if you can afford it (we can) then it’s fine.

How is a pack of salmon fillets pre prepared? It’s just opening a packet no matter what you’re view of cooking or not cooking. You can’t make it more expensive by serving it with salad!

I obviously didn’t mean that every single thing on her list was pre prepared . Just that she has a large amount of pre prepared food on her list (bags of salad, dips etc).
I eat loads of things like that too. I’m obviously not snobby about ‘cooking’ (I’d rather not do any cooking at all). Just that in general buying packets of pre prepared food is more expensive than preparing it yourself.
Jeez.

shiklah
For a family of 5 you would use 6 salmon fillets for 2/3 meals?!

I'll 'fess up to spending about the same as OP (more if we go out or are entertaining).

I could quite easily spend less, have in the past and could do again but I can afford it, really enjoy cooking and feeding my family interesting foods (not that you can't on a budget, you can, but you couldn't have fresh hake and live clams for instance).

I really, really enjoy food and am lucky enough to be able to indulge any culinary whims I may have.

user1471456357

I just don’t understand all this oh those who don’t spend a mortgage on food are all eating 10p sausages and pasta every day

Once you learn how to cook you meal plan don’t let the kids graze and are creative then you can eat like a king on a budget it says a lot that those who keep saying oh you need to spend a lot to eat well haven’t commented on my pictures

My kids have had
A breakfast at home
They eat again at breakfast club
Lunch at school
Small piece of fruit
Dinner
Pudding
And that is all

We had home made burgers today wedges and cowlasw

I think people
Need to fool them selves unless your paying loads you can’t eat well or it would be painful how much they pay out

Bircher muesli is super cheap! Oats, nuts, raisins, apple, yoghurt, milk. Doesn't break the bank!

Wow I'm a family of 6 and spend £70pw

SoyDora

The only prepared thing I see in that list is the bag of mixed leaves

mindutopia

Please see my photos we do on privious pages we do just that

It seems like everyone else on here can feed a family of four on tiny amounts. How?

By not buying ready made salads for lunch each day as these are expensive
Buy not buying coffees out and as they are expensive (£2.50 here and there soon adds up!)
Not eating meals with top priced ingredients in them like artichoke hearts, salmon and walnuts

I am not criticising you, your money can be spent on what you like but above are a few reasons why your bill is so high compared to others.

YABU to shop at Sainsbury's. If you want the best, go to Waitrose

Selections of salads, selections of dips...
All I said was that eating in the way that the OP does (and I do, we eat very similarly!) is more expensive than cooking meals from scratch (where people often bulk out meat etc). Not sure what’s so controversial about that?