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.

This is what I just bought, armed with my dinner meal plan. This is our food for the week, alongside whatever I took stock take of at home.

You got all that for £40? Wow, I’m switching to Aldi!

Surely I'm not the only person who thinks that not a "lot" of meat?
We're having tuna pasta bake, prawn stir fry, fishcakes, steak, and gyozas which have prawn/pork/chicken in (I'm not sure which ones we have at the moment) this week for main meals.

And lychee are 69p in Aldi at the moment, I doubt they are cheaper canned

At Christmas Tesco had whole Salmon for £7.50.

I tend to buy them and cut them up,

Obviously cooking from scratch.

Roasting a chicken last week lasted me 3 meals but I was under the weather.

Washable nappies would probably be cheaper

Well only after you've forked out for them in the first place, which means having the money in a lump sum to begin with rather than a few quid a week

Surely I'm not the only person who thinks that not a "lot" of meat?

I don't think it is either. We have meat or fish every day.

My Aldi only sells almond milk or soya milk, not oat

@Oysterbabe so does pretty much everyone I know who isn't a vegetarian/vegan

food is shockingly expensive but dont be hard on yoursel

It definitely isn't, especially in Britain.

OP, would you have time to go to greengrocers, butchers, etc.? Or better still a market? All supermarkets are expensive, so if you have time to go to separate shops you're likely to save a fair bit. Most working people don't have time for this, of course, even if the shops are open when they're not at work.

Food from market stalls - especially fruit and fish - is also much, much, much higher quality than the stuff at supermarkets. Most supermarket fruit is inedible (unripe when you buy it, rotten two or three days later) and ends up being wasted.

But surely that is a weeks worth of food?

I went to Lidl this morning and spent £48 for 2 adults and a 10 year old for a weeks shop.

Family of 5 here - can do most of a weeks shop at our Aldi for a lot less than that, but then you've bought "expensive" treats items like cherries, chorizo etc, which all add up.

Surely I'm not the only person who thinks that not a "lot" of meat

If OP was talking about a week's worth of food for a family of five then no, but the OP says it's not even a week's worth of food for one adult and one infant. There's no amounts but it looks to be at least 1.5kg of meat/fish.

@PetPeter Thank you, world finance expert.

You cannot say shit like that. Nobody knows what Brexit will or won't do.

Stop scaremongering.

Food really isn't expensive in the UK. Some people seem to want to live on next to nothing. When chicken's cost £3, and a bag of carrots 49p, (and that's at Sainsbury) I struggle to see how it's sustainable for farmers in the long term. It's also no wonder that unethical practices are continued in the industry with the pressure from supermarkets to provide cheap produce.

That seems ok but imported berries are always loads, we are big veg and meat eaters but non fancy fruit we eat apples, bananas and oranges, it’s just a personal preference thing though.

I used to buy all organic everything and remember a defining moment thinking I just can’t spend this much anymore.

Chorizo isn’t expensive it’s under £2 in Aldi I buy it and make a paella style dish using half of it plus some chicken and lots of veg to feed two adults and a teenager that’s 6ft 5 and eats ridiculous amounts of food. He does a lot of running and exercise generally so eats loads. I spent £79.79 on Friday. The meat was turkey steaks, smoked salmon, beef mince and a chorizo. Had stir fried turkey and veg, will make bolognese, then stretch left overs in to a chilli, will make the paella dish but with turkey. We do eat meat or fish almost every day but a lot of veg so it’s not a big amount of meat each. Also bought red lentils and will be making a cauldron of veg soup.

These lists are fascinating

I live in Spain. No ready made meals or sauces available here. I would never be able to buy them and wouldn't want to. Having pasta/lasagne with chips or garlic bread is so odd to me.

Why buy quorn? Use lentils etc. There is so much processed food.

But all your pasta, lots of the veg and meat/fish is far cheaper.

I have no money worries but would never dream of buying out of season cherries and blueberries. That is madness.

What is cheap here is all the in season veg and fruit. Which is so fresh and gorgeous.

To me, that is a tremendous amount of meat.

My bill is 50 quid for a week of actual meals. Meat maybe once a week, fish once a week, huge amount of pulses and veg. Teenager and me and DH sometimes.

SeperatedSwans My DSis worked in the poorest borough in London, as a teacher. To get anything for lunch was a relief for her to witness. A cold leftover cheeseburger a common sight.

Your packed lunch is fine, as you say, totally 80's/90's fare! Just chuck in an apple if it makes you feel better!

Check your recipts, I did last week before I left Lidl, and discovered they had charged me £5.50 for 2 fresh bread rolls! Checkout lady had pressed the 2 key twice by accident, and charged me for 22 rolls! They refunded. But they go so fast mistakes are easy to make.

White sauce is 64p in Asda.
It would cost more to buy the components to make your own.

@Morgan12 but you would be able to make 10 times the amount (and use the flour for other purposes!) and I can guarantee it would taste better!!

I live in Spain. No ready made meals or sauces available here.

Do you live very very ruraly?

As some others have said, food really is not expensive. By rights it should be a lot dearer especially for farmers to get a fair deal for milk, meat etc.

I look back at how much things used to cost 5 years, 10 years, 15 years ago and can't believe food is still as cheap as it is

White sauce is 64p in Asda. It would cost more to buy the components to make your own.

But you could a) make about ten times as much, and b) use the components in other meals as well.

I mean, all it is is butter, milk and flour - most people have that in their homes anyway so it's pretty much free. Even if you have to buy the flour, it will last months (if not years) and it can be used in loads of other recipes too.

Jarred/pre-prepared food is pretty much never going to be better value than making your own. Quicker and easier, sure, but not cheaper.

White sauce is 64p in Asda.
It would cost more to buy the components to make your own.

What? Butter, plain flour and milk? 😂 Everybody surely already has these in stock and you don’t need much to make the sauce in less than 10 minutes.