WTF have I done?

[Supermercado]

Posting in AIBU for traffic

How much has your supermarket shop cost including top ups, how big is your family and what do you make with it? I've just spent a small fortune on food for one person, which included fresh vegetables, yogurt, cheese, sphagetti, tinned beans and tomatos, and frozen fruit but it amounted to a bit over £60. Shopping in asda. Not including dog food, wine, or toiletries. NO lobster or anything of the sort. A multi pack of tuna. Besides a box of lollies and tea, no treats. It didnt even include the top up milk that I'll have to get and I've forgotten ingredients still. I cant afford to do this every week but is it the price you pay to have a good diet or is it possible for less?

Want to ask, is it true about frozen veg being cheaper? I didnt think that it was. They're usually close to £2 a bag for cauliflower say, the weight of which is mostly water, but I can get a whole cauliflower for something like 90p in asda.

Its probably most true for a single person because it keeps and you can just use what you need/not have to buy fresh every week.

"I don't think its helpful to anyone to perpetuate the myth that 'healthy eating is too expensive so I can't do it' because it's really not"

I disagree. I lurk on some cooking on a budget groups and if anyone points out that an example is unhealthy they get jumped on with explanations that the people are doing their best with what they can, etc. Of course there are some cheap and healthy options, but a lot of poor people manage by bulking out their food with cheap bread etc.

And a car and storage space if you're buying dried goods in bulk. As a woman on my own, I buy the smallest bottle/jar of everything so I can actually carry my shopping home.

Another question for the OP. Would you consider going later in the day for reduced by date items? We get lots of those. Mince, pork steaks, chicken for the freezer, mostly less than half price but today's date. Good quality cooked chicken and beef slices from the deli for the dog, to freeze too. Watch salt content for him. Also fruit and veg. Reafy meals, sometimes a quarter of the price. Yesterday, wife got a Tesco Finest chicken and bacon pasta bake, 1.4kg, From £6 to 49p. In freezer for meal in 2 or 3 weeks. This is how you save.

I use dried soya protein for veggie mince dishes, (lasts longer,works out cheaper than quorn and I prefer the flavour) and for mixing with beef mince for the meat eaters. I also add lentils to any mince dishes I make to add fibre and bulk it out.

If you build up a store cupboard of dried, tinned and frozen supplies plus spices, it will be an outlay up front, but save you money over time. Then you could buy bigger packs of quorn or soya or legumes and batch cook and feeeze individual portions. It flashes the price per portion.

Slashes not flashes 😆

I always find that the portions they give on recipes are about half what I eventually get out of it. I put it down to the idea that you'd have it with something else. I usually eat 500 mls of soup in one go, but I imagine they're betting on you eating less than that if, for example, you're having it as a starter rather than a meal or you're adding more bread.

It would probably make sense to get a delivery of bulk dried goods and then just shop for fresh to keep the price down and avoid having to carry a lot. They do not take much space really.

I’ve just done an online shop which came to £82 with Ocado. That’s for just me and my 9 month old son plus one bag of dog food.

I buy frozen veg so I don’t waste etc and if works out cheaper as the bags last me around three weeks

A lot of stuff on that list is store cupboard stuff though.

Tinned tomatos - how many?
Tinned beans - how many?
Passata - how many?

Not going to use in a week -
Tomato puree
Sriracha sauce
Lasagna sheets
Peanut butter
Vanilla extract
Spaghetti
Jubblys
unless you are having smoothies every day unlikely to use all ofFrozen mango Frozen mixed berries

But you won't eat all that in a week by yourself, surely? You'll also need to be careful not to waste anything and maybe use the veg that goes off the quickest first and other stuff later in the week.

The tom puree, siracha, lasagne, peanut butter, vanilla extract and spaghetti will last for longer for a start.

You can save a bit on things like tinned tomatoes and beans by only buying multipacks on offer.

If you're really strapped, then ditch the Actimel, total waste of money. Just buy basic Greek style yogurt in big tubs and use that for all yogurt needs.

You can also save a lot on things like fajita mix, by buying a basic set of spices like cumin, coriander, smoked paprika and using frozen prepared garlic. If you spend £5-10 on large Asian branded packs (in Asda look for the Asian section, rather than the main spice aisle, you'll get spices and tinned tomatoes, rice, pulses all cheaper) it will set you up for months, whereas you'll get through that amount in a few weeks using packet spice mixes.

On frozen veg, some things are cheaper, some not.

Green beans are cheaper frozen, as is prepared garlic and ginger. Not sure about the rest.

Aldi and Asda are good for 'super 6 type veg offers, so if you can be flexible with what you buy, that can be good. Also packs of peppers with a green one in are cheaper than the orange/yellow/red mix.

I spend about £60-70 for me and adult son in Morrisons. I haven’t noticed my bill going up. I buy plenty of fruit and veg, fresh meat and fish but I don’t buy cakes, biscuits, ready meals or fizzy drinks/alcohol - we only drink tea and coffee. My son does buy his own food for packed lunches

Could you try batch cooking? Make a big pot of quorn chilli for example and pack it up with veg, kidney beans and then freeze portions? I do this with meals like bolognaise, lasagne, chilli and soup. I’m doing SW and nobody else in the house will eat the same. I end up feeling guilty spending so much but this way have less waste and ready made meals.

Eating healthily sustainably and well is expensive. Personally I don't buy frozen veg, because I try and buy fruit and veg that are in season. I do meal plan very carefully and alway buy from my local butchers who do a package of 500kg mince 500 kg casserole meat 8 artisan sausages 2 chicken breast and 4 hand made burgers for £20 that will easily last me at least 3 -4 weeks. Many butchers round here do similar thing. Looking at your list nothing leaps out at me as particularly extravagant so I'm surprised it cost you £60, I do know I spend quite. a lot on food but I literally have no other vices/expensive habits. I live in biggish house that luckily has been super insulated by the previous owner so is particularly cheap to heat/run, all utilities are coming in at £75 a month significantly less in the summer months pre the increase they were £40.

A shopping trolley would probably be a good investment. Then you don't need to buy smaller packs because you can't carry the big packs. Will pay for itself in no time.

I still stand by what I said before. The OPs list will provide far more than a week's worth of meals for one person unless she's literally eating the whole recipe for 4 by herself each time.

Yes frozen veg is much better! It lasts longer usually and buy a cheap steamer off Amazon then you’re getting all the best goodness from it l.

"I still stand by what I said before. The OPs list will provide far more than a week's worth of meals for one person unless she's literally eating the whole recipe for 4 by herself each time."
I agree for example I buy organic pasta in glass bottle it lasts me weeks. ditto if I bought Sriracha sauce/tom puree, Vanilla extract is expensive for its size but that would last me months, I dont eat peanut butter but jam/marmite lasts me months and I dont know what a "Jubbly'" is!!

I've just done my Tesco shop for the week. It's coming tomorrow. It is £152.72.

There's 4 adults and a cat but her food comes via zooplus so she only gets a few treats in the Tesco shop.

There's bread, cereal, milk, cheese, butter, jam, peanut butter, cleaning stuff, toiletries, fruit, veg, turkey rashers, beef and veg mince, soft drinks, tuna, root veg crisps, steak, turkey burgers, chicken thighs, a pack of pan au chocolat ready to bake and the cat's webbox lick-e-lix.

And I'll eat all the fruit and veg by the end of the week defo

Great to see how your son buys some
of his own food, and is then able to know how much things are going up by. It is a
shock to those who don’t pay the food or house bills just how much things are costing. I find it’s like they know the cost is changing for everything but they don’t really truly hear it know it / feel it.

You don’t need sour cream and crème fraiche and yogurt. The first 2 are pretty much interchangeable and at a push if you bought Greek yoghurt it would do for all in cooking.
Just add fruit if you’re planning to eat some as a dessert. Also Aldi own brand is half the price of Fage .

What do you all think about this new Tesco mince with veg in it? Con or good idea? You get less mince but suppose if your family hardly eats any veg at least they get some but I wouldn't buy it.

Some very good tips there @BarbaraofSeville - they may seem obvious to some but worth noting.

Agree about the Actimel. Total waste of money. OH has 2 a day. Also, bottled water. The marketing men are laughing at you all who buy it. Tap water is fine. If it's good enough for the fog then it's fine for me.

Sour cream and creme fraiche - waste if money buying both. They can be pretty much used interchangeably.

Others are correct, the fruit/veg variety you have is large. The staples are cheaper for a reason. Others fruit/veg is expensive unless on special.

Is it worth looking at the lidl-Aldi catalogues online before you choose which shop to go to? Go to the one has has more do the food you want in special.