Food is expensive

[goldenorbspider]

Went to aldi got few bits for the week and not a big shop for me and one infant. Spent £40 and it's not even a big shop. What do people do to save money on food? I can't imagine spending much less. I know it would cost waay more at other supermarkets.

Food is expensive for people on really low budgets and the most vulnerable.

I am very lucky and grateful to be financially stable. I’m disabled and single. I can chop onions, but you wouldn’t want to watch me as you’ll worry about my fingers - expensive to buy prechopped and they form base of a lot of food.
If you are rely on public transport, particularly rural then shops like Aldi or not possible as the transport rules it out/uses up any savings. You may rely on expensive supermarket as can carry from there or worse corner shop.

People in temporary housing often only have access to a ring cooker/microwave and no space to store batch cooked food if have small fridge or freezer.

Ready made food may be expensive but better value if you know your children will eat it and not waste vegetables.

If you think it’s expensive, wait til leaving the EU kicks in. If we are no longer part of CAP (Common Agricultural Policy), food prices are likely to rise dramatically.

I mean Salomon is not cheap. Neither are cherries...

Salmon is expensive. I bought two fillets from Aldi yesterday - it was £4. And that's from a discount supermarket!

You've bought expensive things, though.

Salmon, cherries, blueberries, lychees, chorizo, ready-made quiche and almond milk are all fairly pricy options. Add on toiletries and nappies and £40 is a pretty good price for what you got.

We went last Saturday and spent £48. For that, we got:

Vegetable mix for soup
Casserole vegetables
2 x tubs of fresh melon
Lamb mince
Chicken thigh fillets
Beef chunks for casseroles
Mega pack of crisps
4 pints of milk
16 eggs
2 loaves of bread
Spaghetti
Fusili
4 x tinned tomatoes
4 packs of sauce mixes for casseroles/pies.
Orange juice
Apple juice
Washing powder
2 boxes of cat food
Frozen veggies
Frozen cauliflower cheese
2 x tinned peaches
Rice
Couscous
2 x packs of egg noodles

Thats a lot of meat for one week.

My weekly shop (one adult one four year old, I’ve taken out detergents).
Carrots
Cauliflower
Kale
Brussels
Okra
Courgette
Potatoes
Onions
Garlic
Apples
Bananas
Peppers
Cucumber
Lettuce
Watermelon
Ginger
Chili
Rice
Gram flour
Chic peas
Dry lentils
Harissa
Oreos
Tamarind
Peas
Broad beans
Soya beans
Pea crisps

The above cost me £36.08 from Ocado.

Don’t buy fruit that’s out of season and don’t buy ready made sauces that are cheaper and very easy to make yourself.

It really depends what you do with the ingredients you buy - we have two adults and a toddler and lasagne lasts for 3 dinners (salad or chips as a side). We also love salmon, but it's often in a pasta so I can stretch the sauce over three days (I boil pasta separately each day). So in our household there wouldn't be the need for even half of those meat items. We also replace meat in lasagne with veg or Quorn. Even just for the sake of the environment it's worth considering if you need meat at every dinner, there's plenty of other options for protein.

Also given you are only 1 person and an infant, the infamous Mumsnet chicken would be really economical for you, instead of buying chicken pieces.

1 roast chicken.
Then strip the whole thing into portions, wrap and put in freezer for whenever you next feel like it.

You then have loads of chicken for the grand price of £3.

try a jam or ham sandwich, a small yoghurt, a packet of teddy bear crisps and a biscuit like a custard cream.

What schools ALLOW crisps and biscuits daily!!??? My dc’s doesn’t!!!

Please don’t buy almond milk, OP. It’s disastrous for bees:

www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jan/07/honeybees-deaths-almonds-hives-aoe

Why the bougie lunches? Just take a salad or sandwich like a normal person

Poor chicken!

Food isn’t expensive in this country.

I’m disabled and single. I can chop onions, but you wouldn’t want to watch me as you’ll worry about my fingers - expensive to buy prechopped and they form base of a lot of food.

If you've got a spare 30 quid, get yourself a good processor blender, it saves you from chopping onions and a lot of other veg.

I agree with some others. Food is not too expensive. If anything it is too cheap, which is why people throw so much of it away.

My parents were children during the war so food was rationed and nothing was wasted. They brought us up the same way. I'm in my late 50s and I still feel very guilty throwing food away.

The fact that many people can not afford this cheap food is another matter entirely.

Also agree with others about the OP's shop: too much meat (keep the salmon and chicken - dump the steak and chorizo), too much fruit out of season, (especially the cherries) and no need to buy ready-made sauces. Mince can be made to go further by combining it with lentils or padding out with vegetables, depending on the recipe.

Almond milk is expensive, but if you need something dairy free, oat milk is better for the environment.

Would re-usable nappies work out cheaper than disposable ones? I guess it depends on the age of the child and how soon they will come out of them).

I was shocked yesterday at spending over £50 in Lidl. I only had a wheelie basket full although a joint of beef at £9 was most likely what bumped it up. Bought cheaper beef from there at Christmas and it was awful. We are a family of 5 including 3 teenagers and another adult when he's home from Uni and we spend a fortune on food.

I’m disabled and single. I can chop onions, but you wouldn’t want to watch me as you’ll worry about my fingers - expensive to buy prechopped and they form base of a lot of food.

Aldi do a big bag of frozen pre-chopped onions for 79p or something. It lasts us (two adults) about a month. They're absolutely fine. No need to chop fresh onions.

Decent food shouldn't be seen as a luxury, why are people so happy to stuff themselves with unhealthy crap and wonder why they feel and look terrible?

try a jam or ham sandwich, a small yoghurt, a packet of teddy bear crisps and a biscuit like a custard cream.

that's absolutely fine for a party, that's a not an acceptable lunch for a school day! Who feeds their kids with such junk?

Aldi is fantastic. My DC really enjoy looking at the receipt to see how many items we got for the money spent for some reason and it’s usually always more than one item per pound spent. Conversely in Morrisons, you don’t even get one item per pound spent.

I think an adult and an infant that would do for a week if you were careful about waste and with maybe some bread and eggs for lunches and assuming some bits already in the freezer or store cupboard.

I don't think that's too bad.

Also cherries and blueberries are always expensive.

Try cheaper fruits such as plums, satsumas, apples, pears and bananas. They’re always cheap in Aldi.

Food isn't expensive. It's the cheapest it's ever been. Onions, carrots, tinned tomatoes, pasta, potatoes... all very cheap. However, you bought expensive food, which you're perfectly entitled to do. I myself am a sucker for Serrano ham and those little peppers with cheese in. Meat and fish are expensive, as they should be. Out of season fruit and vegetables are expensive. Prepared meals/sauces are expensive. If you want to budget you just need to learn the difference.

I spent £33 in Tesco, if you discount the two baking trays, pack of 5 tea towels and garlic press

3 tubs of soup
2 sourdough part cooked baguettes
On the vine cherry tomatoes
Really nice peanut butter (£3ish)
Squeeze honey
3 cartons of unsweetened soya from the long life isle
Vita light
Ready made falafel
Packet of flat bread
Large humus
Nice eggs x6
Packet of chestnut mushrooms

I’ve have dried foods in pantry so it’ll pad out for a week - but food prices are certainly increasing

I could have gone to Aldi or Lidl, but haven’t been well & Tesco was closer