To think £3.25 isn't cheap for a dinner every night?

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DD (18) has a Caesar salad every night for dinner, I batch cook but she doesn't like any of the stuff so I buy her the stuff for Caesar salad. It works out at £3.25 (she likes this certain fresh hot and spicy chicken that goes on it.) She thinks this is quite cheap, I did mention that she is expensive with the food shopping and she got defensive saying that she eats cheap foods and that it isn't fair to say she is expensive! AIBU to the £3.25 every night is quite a lot for dinner?

It's relative to your income, no? Some would think it cheap, some expensive.

It is quite expensive for a single meal for one person, yes.

But Caesar salad every night?
It’s hardly mainlining doughnuts but surely it’s not healthy to eat the same thing every day?

Doesn't she eat anything else?

Yes, that is cheap unless you're on a very tight budget.

Would it not be cheaper to buy a small chicken marinade in spices and cook it (obviously she can do this herself) , rather than pre cooked chicken

Perhaps if she spent a couple of weeks paying for it herself, she'd realise it's not as cheap as she thinks.

Yes that is expensive. Nearly £23 a week just for her evening meal. Why don't she eat anything else? Is she in school or working? If she is working she needs to contribute.

I think it’s quite expensive, it’s £22.75 per week, we spend about £50 per week on food for 2 of us and a toddler and that includes lunches.

*won't not don't

£100/week for a family of 4? Not extremely high but is getting up there! (I don't like looking at one-offs, too like car salesmen saying "but it only adds up to a cup of coffee/day extra!").

Does she have an eating disorder? Very bizarre to only eat salad every single day.

How old is she! Can you get her involved in choosing some things to batch cook?

How is her a homemade salad costing 3.25?😮

And yeah. She should change it up a little

I'd think at 18 if she doesn't want to eat the family meal she can buy her own and see how long she thinks that's cheap!

I think it's expensive. It's like spending £14 to feed a family of 4 for 1 meal, which I consider to be a lot.

Also the expense is relative to your budget, I'd imagine our dinners cost at least that per portion regularly as we eat s lot of fresh fish, seafood and I only buy higher quality meat. If your shopping budget is £70 a week for all of you £23 is a large proportion of that

What does she eat for breakfast, lunch and snacks and who pays for those? Does she work and contribute financially or is she in education. Why does she eat such a limited diet?

It is expensive though - if she was included in your home cooked family dinners, it would probably be £1-2 per dinner, depending on what you have. The cost of the salad would almost certainly be less if you/she got a whole chicken and divided it up into portions, however without freezing, it's not going to last all week.

Cooking an individual meal for one is almost always going to be more expensive per portion than a meal for a family, especially if you're buying things like ready cooked and marinaded chicken.

£23 a week for one person's evening meal isn't cheap, especially as everyone else's will cost much less than that if you're doing the usual sort of batch cooking family meals.

Why are you pandering to it though? She's an adult. If she doesn't like what you're providing she should buy and prepare her own.

She's 18, quite capable of sorting her own tea out.

Very cheap

How much would you usually spend per person on your weekly food bill?
I spend about £30 a week per adult. Depending on how much she spent on other meals that might fit into my budget.

Cooking an individual meal for one is almost always going to be more expensive per portion than a meal for a family

^ This.

This is why it becomes cheaper to buy ready made, or construct from partially ready made for one. If you are doing it from scratch, it requires hefty meal plans, forward planning and freezing. I remember my Grandmother's meticulous plans for a small poussin that produced a week's worth of meals after GD died.

She doesn't just eat that. She has breakfast and lunch too (lunch she usually sorts out herself) but she eats what everyone else has at breakfast so I didn't really include that. She is obsessed with the salad, I wouldn't say it was extremely healthy, it has that awful cheese and sauce all over it. I like to be fair and not make her eat the family meal or go without, I don't even particularly mind the cost, but the fact she thinks it's "cheap for a dinner" is the annoying part.

It depends, as others say. Is she buying those little pre-sliced packs of chicken breast meat?

It’s not megabucks- but I wouldn’t on principle, buy ready cooked chicken. It will have loads of packaging and be as low welfare as it’s possible to get. I would buy the lettuce, the dressing and a chicken and discuss with her who was going to cook the chicken and make the croutons.

(And fwiw we’re not on a budget and spend 50p - £2 pp per meal.)