To have food shop guilt

[littleblackdress04]

Our monthly food shop for a family of 4 is about £200ish a month- I cook 90% from scratch, take food into work & kids have packed lunches 3 days a week/ school dinners the rest. We rarely eat out as a family - maybe a couple of times a year,

I mostly shop in Lidl during the month but do an Asda shop once a month to get stuff I can’t get in Lidl- nice tins of mixed beans etc. I am also a vegan & can’t get soya yoghurt etc in lidl.

I went to Sainsbury’s today & bought a load of nice vegan stuff as a treat- oatly milk, nice vegan butter, some lovely veg sausages that I can’t get elsewhere but felt REALLY guilty about being there- as if I was wasting my money when I could be getting stuff at Lidl.

Does anyone else get food guilt? I feel a constant pressure to budget, cook from scratch etc but sometimes I want a treat! I am aware that I could cut my food budget even more - it just amazed me how guilty I felt for ‘splashing out’ in Sainsbury’s

Aibu- does anyone else get this? I know I am lucky that I am not on a really tight budget- I get that- but I was surprised at my reaction to spending money on food. As it goes I spent £50 in Sainsbury’s on some nice bits but it somehow feels extravagant 😬

@elllicam that really doesn't sit well with me. Company Shop is a perk for the designated professions and shouldn't be "abused". It's essentially a "not for profit" organisation. It's not like borrowing your mates cash n carry card

I’ve found the opposite - we have never had a problem with fruit and veg at Aldi - but Tesco’s and Sainsbury’s food rots within a couple to days and is totally tasteless

Often the bags of potatoes will actually have labels for Waitrose and Sainsbury’s on them. So, exactly the same produce.

Veg and fruit from Aldi never lasts as long as other. It may come from the same farm, but from my experience of the produce, it must be lower grade.

^ my lychees went fuzzy with mould before best before date. Always happens with Aldi fruit. Anywho op foods to be enjoyed. If you can afford treat yourself! I think 200 a month is very tight. Let lose

I don’t get this guilt about splashing out on food but I am TERRIBLE with clothes. To the point where I will soon be going nudey as I have no clothes left If I’m buying some posh food at least the whole family will benefit, whereas clothes just seem so selfish and frivolous. Used to love them, too, but these days I can’t help thinking of it as taking
something away from the rest of the family. Now that I type it out it sounds ridiculous.

Thus us great thread, I again use Ocado once per week, I am constantly going in and out adding things off putting things back in justifying if we need it or we don’t. I don’t cook from scratch, but when I do, all the ingredients can be added to your basket and you can take off what you already. It isn’t you that should feel guilty. I struggle with my two and DH they are so narrow minded with what they eat, me I have the high standards I still bear cost in mind. Even online my lowest bill is £120.00 per week I get excited about toiletries and cleaning stuff. Sainsbury’s if I need to go in you are right OP I ho in for one thing I have gone in for then spending 50 quid on other things as well as the item I went in for
👍 I forget the sodding bags then have but another Sainsbury’s bag for life to add to my endless dirty washing bag pile😄😄

Did you mean £200 a week?
We are a family of 6 but I couldn’t get by on less than £200 a week. I shop mainly in Sainsbury’s and a few treats from Waitrose it M&S.

If you are buying too much food and will waste it, feel guilty about that.

If you will eat everything you buy, and can afford it, don't feel guilty at all.

Yes. I was £77 in Aldi, £160 in Tesco the next day then another £50 2 days later this week and a lot of it was just rubbish that I didn't need.

Why not continue as you are but have a treat day once a week? I would get fancy fruit.

I actually feel sorry for the poster who said they'd never shop in an Aldi or Lidl and the other poster who said they spent between £600-£700 a month on food. They're not even exhibiting snobbery, it's downright ignorance and stupidity.

Im the same.

Same goes for takeaways, I last had one 6 years ago and I didnt pay for it, a family member treated me

Not on food but I feel very guilty buying myself clothes. No idea why - I don’t do it that much, I never use my credit card to do it and we are more than comfortable so it isn’t an issue. I just feel like I’m spaffing money up the wall when I do.

Oddly though I can quite happily drop hundreds on my sons without an ounce of guilt!

@KitKatKit no need to feel sorry for me, the things Jack Monroe cooks look disgusting, my £6-£700 includes nappies, toiletries, cleaning products, wine and the bill for the milkman, plus things for DS vests etc, we rarely eat takeaways . We can afford it, it's not a third of our income. I'm also bring completely honest and not omitting the oh we just need x pop to the shop spends another £5/£10 which I'm sure dinner people stress here.
Incidentally when I shopped at Aldi I had to shop elsewhere too because they don't stock everything I want and I wasn't spending much less in total, I also found the fresh fruit and been didn't last well. I now do one shop a week often online, and spend more time doing other things. I don't judge people who don't, I'm just saying to the OP don't feel guilty about £50 in Sainsbury's when she says she can afford it.

Fwiw £700 x12 is £8400 for that to be a third of our income we'd be on £25k a year post tax, my husband who has gone back to university to train in a new field, earns more than that and I'm the higher earner, so don't worry about us.

We spend around £80 a week and we have a baby and two other little ones and that includes nappies etc.

OP please could you share some of your cheap family meal recipes! X

We just had chicken satay (with the satay sauce cooked from scratch), green beans in a soy, ginger and garlic marinade and broccoli stems in a mirin and soy sauce, plus rice. All in we just worked out it came to less than £2 a head. Just such crap to say you have to spend more to eat well.

£50 is not exactly extravagant

Don't feel guilty. A treat/break from the normal makes the normal easier to continue with.

I usually go to Tesco and cook from scratch, no ready meals, but have a curry or something from M&S as a treat at the weekend.

The other week I went to Sainsbury and blew £70 on nice food, wasn't even a week's worth. They've got a new sushi counter and I spent £15 there

I'm back to the normal. Plan on going to Sainsbury once a month now for a change.

That £70 was just on me, btw. Bought stuff I don't see at Tesco. We all need a change once in a while.

Ive been poor and wealthy and have never felt this guilt you talk about. Good food is important

I wish I could manage to only spend 200 a month! There's 4 of us and I usually spend 400 a month, don't feel guilty OP, you bought some treats for yourself, enjoy your food.

I can spend £200 a week. Don't feel guilty, you're doing well.

OMG I've got 70 pounds PER MONTH and I'd KILL for ANYTHING nice from Sainsbury's 🤤 mmmm enjoy for me OP 🙂

I switched to lidl after ore second child was born and more completely as they increased their range - I now find shopping in sainsbury's difficult because I look at everything and decide I can't justify the price difference!
That said, I definitely spend alot more than £200 a month!