Eating healthy is too expensive

[ByLoudSeal]

Big shop just cost £150. I don’t buy organic, and I will go for own brand if the taste/quality is fine. Includes fresh veg, tinned fruit, meat, eggs, milk, bread, a box of cereal, tinned meals, healthy snacks, toilet roll, fabric softener, disinfectant spray and washing up sponges, It won’t even last the full week and is unsustainable

Well which supermarket are we talking about? If not Lidl/Aldi you could most likely save a lot by changing

I spend about £65 a week for one adult and one hollow legged teen. A typical week would be
large loaves x 2
2 pts milk
satsumas, bananas pineapple,
carrots, onions, peppers, tomatoes, broccoli , mushrooms, leeks, lettuce, cucumber, frozen peas, mixed nuts, tinned tomatoes, baked beans.
chicken legs, beef meatballs, pork chops, frozen hake, frozen cod, butcher sausages or lamb burgers
Risotto rice, butter, porridge oats
snacks for ds.

Fruit & veg are a third of my spend. I cook from scratch. Buy from a large Tesco where 6 apples are 96p.
I've never used fabric softener, avoid brands and choose my groceries myself rather than ordering online.

How many are you feeding? I buy a cleaning spray about once a year! Don’t buy fabric conditioner. Incest in washable clothes. Meals in tins don’t sound very healthy…

I'm 3 adults and 3 dogs of mini middle and giant breed.

Dog food £20
Cleaning/shampoo/loo rolls £10
Food - whole xl chicken, 1 mince beef, diced pork, sausages, cooking bacon off cuts, frozen fish, eggs, cheese, ham , loads of fresh veg ( carrots, celery, cabbage, onions, cauliflower, broccoli, peppers, mushrooms) and spuds, rice, lentils, dry pasta, tinned toms , chick peas and coconut milk, frozen sweetcorn and peas, bag of mixed frozen fruit and a bag of porridge oats. Loaf . Flour, sugar, butter and best for baking . Milk and coffee . About £ 75 from Aldi/lidl/ farm foods . Once a month I do a bigger shop and I take advantage of whoopsie meat and freeze it in my chest freezer, that's probably £100 but we eat very very well with zero stinging and often have adult kids dropping in for food too.

I easily spend more than £150 a week for 2 adults 2 hungry teens.

I shop predominantly at Asda so at least I get money back via their loyalty system. Currently have £88 in my Christmas pot.

Summer hols, where teens are at home more, will be more expensive.

"Then it has people like us; we notice every penny, because we know money doesn't actually grow on trees, live in an area with limited supermarkets, and smaller housing stock, so no space for normal stand up freezer let alone a chest freezer! Very limited cupboard space, so unable to do a super saver shop, as no where to actually put the groceries, and buying the cheaper multipacks is a no go zone"

I live in a tiny 2 up 2 down miners cottage from 1880 and my kitchen can't even fit a fridge in it. My larder fridge and 200l chest freezer is in my living room. We get on with it as saving money is more important than aesthetics due to being on a tight food budget. I have ONE FOOD wall unit in my kitchen so have to stash tins in plastics boxes under beds etc but that is exactly how I save money. There are always ways around things

I forgot the dog!
His food costs £25 a week.

@MonkeyTennis34 with the Asda thing do you get any sort of bonus at Christmas? I usually just spend my reward money on my next shop but Ive started putting some in the Christmas section so it's locked away for Christmas. Thanks

Looking at it another way OP, I budget £2 a head for supper, £1 a head for lunch and 50p each for breakfast.

That might be toast, butter, jam, and a satsuma
Veggie soup with kidney beans, and Parmesan.
Boned chicken legs pan fried with lemon & lime zest, broccoli and savoury rice.

Some are more expensive, some less but £7 a day for two of us, leaving £10 a week for snacks, coffee, dish washer tabs, and shower gel.

If you stop buying the biscuits etc, it'll be eaten before it goes off.

Though many low income people are actually eating too many calories. If you aren't getting proper nutrition then you still feel hungry. So you are better off switching some for lower calorie but higher nutrition foods.

@Decafflatteplease
Yes, I think it was £5 that went straight into my Christmas Cashpot.

I saved £130 last year that we used for wine, beer etc for a party.

The maximum you're allowed in it is £200.

I don't shop any differently so I'm very pleased with the money I get from the loyalty scheme.

I lead a sad old life and just input your whole list into my Tesco app @ByLoudSeal it came to £75 without the lamb and beef (as I don't usually buy these and don't know what cuts you'd have been getting)

This is using the brands that we buy weekly, and the chilled soups rather than tinned (as that's what I buy) so Tesco own beans, Tesco bakery bread, 1kg growers harvest porridge, frozen green beans. I can only assume you look to buy the higher priced premium brands in the shop?

FWIW I shop at Tesco (or lidl If I can be bothered to go to the shop) there are myself, DH and 2 kids (8/4) and 2 cats and we spend around £110 a week for everything (however this was around £70 a week only 2 years ago) we don't include alcohol in that as don't buy it often, but do include everything else. A 5kg tray of chicken is purchased monthly at the butchers for £30 and the only other meat we use is minced beef.

What fabric conditioner and how few loads do you do to make it £5 a whole year?

@bugsybugsy listed 4 camps. I'm kind of confused that they and poster think it's 3

Cereal isn't healthy as it's full of sugar and chemicals although it's more nutritious than toilet roll, fabric softener, disinfectant spray and washing up sponges.

I don't disagree with you. Buying fish, even frozen, is expensive. Fruit is expensive. Nuts and seeds eyewatering even in bulk.

To have a varied, different diet, with lots of fresh veg etc is more time consuming and more expensive than buying tins of baked beans and frozen breaded chicken bits.

I have the time and the income but I'm still shocked at our supermarket bill and how much it has gone up.

We get it from Aldi, just checked and it's £1.39 for 42 washes, but we only use half a capful and it lasts months.

I'd estimate we use 3-4 bottles a year for around 4-5 washes a week. But we don't use it for towels or sportswear and can definitely tell when it's not been used on normal clothes, so worth the very minimal cost.

Why does your fruit all go off?
I find fruit easily lasts a week tbh. Things like peaches or pears were hard when I bought Monday, so they need several days to ripen anyway. Apples i store a few in fruit bowl and a few in fridge if larger amount. Berries last several days in fridge, longer if freshly picked.

Too late for thing year, but every June go to a pick your own strawberry farm. Pick about 8kg and have strawberries for months. I cut and freeze most of them. Then have easy cheaper frozen berries to added to homemade waffles or pancakes and yogurt for weekend breakfast. You can buy mixed frozen berries cheaply also (but they rarely include many strawberries). So we buy some cheaper and mix with the strawberries. also use for making homemade fruit muffins as snacks.

Thats also a lot of expensive meat. I don’t buy beef and lamb on a weekly basis, and never both at same time.

Snacks seems expensive for what they are. If you have less then they will eat the fruit and it won’t go off. Fruit or cheese homemade scones are cheap and filling.

Popcorn make from kernels. You can pop a whole pan worth and just decant into Large Tupperware For the week. Easy snacks

that is a huge amount for four people
also a lot of tinned stuff and snacks.... which is expensive...

I would meal plan and buy accordingly.

I would swap frozen fruit rather than tinned.

I would cut some of the meat out and swap with chickpeas or similar

I would cut out the snack items and bake a cake a week.

instead of tinned ravioli etc. swap in quick homemade meals. eg. buy multi packs of noodles that can just be boiled and tossed with some frozen veggies and condiments of choice. soups can be very cheaply made with yellow sticker veggies and then frozen.

freezers are relatively cheap (especially given the money saved with batch cooking) and there are a lot on offer right now and many retailers also have the option of interest free payment plans.

I agree with OP..
I feed 4 adults most weeks, though one is a teen with an eating disorder and needs a lot of food.
I spend 150 every week...we eat well but no waste. Use all left overs , cook from scratch .
But yes fresh fruit is expensive.

that is a huge amount for four people

How on earth is that a huge amount for 4 people??

• 2 type of fresh fruit and 5 tins of fruit so that's only the equivalent of just over a tin each per week.
• Lamb, beef, mince, tuna, eggs is only 5 "main meal" protein sources so that's potentially only 5 evening meals and/or lunches
• chickpeas, kidney beans and tinned tomatoes are probably for making chilli or something similar
• the veg is hardly excessive and relatively low cost type veg
• 8 tins of soup should probably last more than a week, ditto 4 tinned meals but that's only a lunch or light dinner per adult
• the snacks list seems quite excessive but I guess that might last longer than a week

She also doesn't say how old the kids are, 2 teenage boys is a different ballgame to 2 primary school aged kids!

This week my food shop consumption for 1 will have included: 1kg chicken legs, 6 sausages, 4 lamb kebabs, 4 halloumi bbq skewers, an individual steak pie, a quiche that's meant to serve 4 but realistically serves 2, a pizza, a bag of jersey royals, carrots, celery, 2 bags of salad leaves and a lettuce, 2 punnets of cherry tomatoes, 2 peppers, a large cucumber, brocolli, green beans, a microwave pack of rice & grains, a tub of fresh olives, a tub of cream cheese filled bell peppers, tub of coleslaw, radishes, spring onions, corn on the cob, a tin of tuna, a tin of peaches, oven chips and frozen peas and berries that were already in the freezer, some strawberries and raspberries from a friend's garden, a punnet of strawberries, apples, bananas, oats/cereal/seeds/snacks/salad dressing etc from the store cupboard, 5 small yogurts, 2 big tubs of natural yogurt......the bf was here for 1 dinner and breakfast but I ate at his 1 night and i've made 2 portions of soup out of the leftover veg in his fridge which is now today's and tomorrow's lunch.

I spend about 220 a week at least. I'd be delighted to spend 150!

6 adults currently at home until September.

Sorry meant to add that I cook from scratch (and so do most of the others). One gluten free - this really pushes the price up. Never have takeaways or eat out, so that 220/250 feeds 6 people for 7 days, 3 meals a day plus snacks and a little bit of weekend beer and wine. I think that's not too bad tbh.

I cook from scratch for 3 adults. Shop in Aldi. Used to be £80 pw but lately it’s been £100-£120. This includes basic shampoos etc and soap( I buy nicer stuff for me) and all cleaning and laundry stuff, plus a couple of bottles of wine. We make packed lunch for us all in that too. Eat out maybe twice a month.
We buy roughly; I pork fillet, 1 pack salmon fillets (£7!!!! now for 4) , I pack chicken thighs, 1 pack minced beef and pork, frozen cod or white fish, several tins of butter beans, chick peas etc and toms , 4 Tina Tina, 12 eggs, bag of almonds, bag of seeds, 6 pack crisps. Big tub Greek yoghurt, 1 pack cheddar, 1 feta, 1 tub soft cheese. 4 pints skimmed milk. 1 loaf seedy bread,1 loaf sourdough, oats, weetabix , rice cakes, frozen berries, frozen diced onion, frozen prawns. The rest is fresh fruit and veg which takes up most of the trolley. Plus a bottle of wine and a few beers.