What does it actually cost to eat well and ethically

[Breathedeeper]

My budget has always been tight at the best of times, but since having my little one I’ve become a lot more health conscious and interested in environmental issues. Part of it is about wanting to feed my child more nutritious food, locally-sourced where possible, and part of it is about me wanting to eat well so I stay trim and feel good about my body. It does cost a lot more money, though (not to mention the time is takes to shop and then cook)! I don’t begrudge it, but has anyone got any tips and tricks on how to save money but still eat well?

Here’s a breakdown of what I’m spending per month:

• £130 at Aldi for general stuff
• £20 on speciality ingredients like wholegrains, cocoa powder, flaxseeds, etc., which I buy in bulk on Amazon. If I don’t need to stock up the money rolls over for the next month.
• £35 a month on meat which I buy from the farmer’s market, portion out and freeze down.
• £25 a month on a 1kg bag of coffee beans which is roasted locally.
• A total of £210 per month which is just for me and my toddler, and doesn’t include eating out or alcohol!

Chocolate is still a bit of an issue, would love to buy more ethically sound stuff but costs so much I can’t afford it! End up not buying at all and making my own chocolate treats with organic cocoa powder, but occasionally really miss it or need it for a recipe and end up getting the cheap stuff from Aldi.

Milk & eggs I get the organic from Aldi and butter I tend to get organic from Tesco.
Bread - I make a couple sourdough loaves or pizza once a week, but it’s using mostly white flour I buy from Aldi - can’t afford the organic flour!

Unfortunately, a lot.

Butchers are more expensive than the supermarket. A greengrocer will be more expensive.

sounds like you are doing a great job. The only thing I can't see much reference to is greens, but I am guessing that is included in your groceries? Lots and lots of locally grown greens, lettuce, cucumber, cabbage, etc.

I have a family member who is a very committed environmentalist on a low budget. She eats vegan and seasonally. Lots of vegetable stews, veg curries, soups. She buys v large bags (5kg) of dried goods such as chickpeas, beans and rice. She buys from food cooperatives and local growers so it's cheaper still. Cities sometimes have community gardens who you can purchase bags of produce from. You could also see if local independent grocers and butchers do boxes, you don't choose the contents but if you're flexible they can be cheaper.

It is possible, but I have to say I would struggle with her diet, it's a bit monotonous for me, but it shows it's possible, it depends how far down that road you want to go.

@Lincoln24 eating vegan and seasonally would definitely keep the costs down! I will do some research into local growers and community gardens, though where I am I haven’t heard of any. When I lived in London I would get a weekly veg bag from Growing Communities which was great (though actually quite pricey unfortunately!). Also now I have a toddler she won’t eat lots of different veggies so there are certain things like tomatoes, sweet corn, butternut squash, etc., that I just need to buy every week all year round to cook the things she’ll eat, so I’m forced to buy from the supermarket in that regard. And she loves sausages! I buy the best quality I can find from the farmer’s market where the pigs are treated with a lot of tlc, but obviously it costs a lot more than supermarket sausages. I wish the government would subsidise local producers who adhere to high animal welfare standards or grow organic, then perhaps the cost of their produce would come down a bit. Does your family member have coffee, chocolate or cow milk substitutes such as oat/almond/coconut milk? If so where does she get them from?

It depends how puritanical you are in defining what is "eat well" and what is "ethical" and what trade-offs you make, tbh. I would say it's highly ethical to buy the half-price almost-out-of-date bread at supermarket to prevent food waste, but others might say "That's horrible UPF-full supermarket bread, I won't eat that!"

Minimising what packaging comes with your food is a decent start, I suppose.

I don't want to patronise you, and I expect you are already doing most of this.

It is more expensive, but you can reduce it a bit. Use meat sparingly, more of a flavouring than the main event. A bit of bacon in a bean and veg casserole goes a long way for example.

Try cheaper cuts, the slow cooker is great for tenderising tougher types of meat, things like pulled pork can be done really well in a slow cooker and you don't need much in a burger bun. Freeze the rest for an easy day later on.

Also marinades can make a hell of a difference, chicken thighs in a simple yogurt and spice marinade make brilliant kebabs, and are fairly reasonable.

Offal is good value if you can face it, and again the strong flavour means you don't need very much to make an impact.

Invest in a some good veggie cookbooks, I love River Cottage Veg Every Day, there are some lovely family friendly recipes in there.

I'm sure you are already replacing up to half the mince in a shepherds pie or chillies with veg, mushrooms are especially useful as the texture is very similar to meat.

Eat veg seasonally, and British grown tend to be cheaper than imported things.

If you have access to a garden, that will really cut down your food miles. I would start with low effort things. Courgettes - two plants give us more than enough for my family of 4/5 people. Runner beans are not labour intensive once you have cleared ground for them and rigged your poles up. I am trying to do more perennial things - fruit bushes, rhubarb, asparagus, horseraddish. So, plant them once, then just pick stuff every year. I don't grow blackberries, but do pick plenty of them and freeze/bottle/jam them. We grow much of our fresh f&v in the summer, preserve some but buy more in the winter.

But really, eating ethically can mean so many different things to different people. For me it's food miles and food waste. I buy bulk bags of flour from a local-ish mill and make bread in my bread machine. We use a milkman because I like reusable bottles (and it keeps me out of shops). I keep an eye out for a good deal and will bulk buy when reduced which makes fresh food and more ethical stored goods more reasonable. We eat meat quite sparingly which helps us afford decent meat from a local butcher. Where we used to live we did a big community suma order every few months, now I go to an ethnic food superstore 1/2 times a year and buy the massive packs of rice/lentils/spices/chick peas. I'm not always so sure how ethical for me this is as these foods are not locally grown and who knows how well the workers are treated, so I'm trying to move more to British grown or at least European grown staples. British-grown foods are more expensive unless you do it yourself - a big part of the cost is the labour.

Hate to say it but bulk buying on Amazon isn’t particularly ethical.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/may/10/next-day-delivery-unethical-amazon-workers-pollution

https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/company-profile/amazoncom-inc

What works for us is eating seasonal vegetables, I also buy a 30kg box of portioned beef from a local organic farmer (she has Belted Galloways btw) but we eat meat only three times a week. The meat is excellent quality but the box is mixed bits so in the end it’s 1/2 of what I would pay in the supermarket and I’m happy that the money goes straight to the farmer.
We also eat organic offal from local farmers, it’s not expensive and can be made into very fancy meals with a bit of skill and time.

We also make sure that vegetables fill approximately half of the plate - cheaper and healthy.

I buy large bags of dry beans, chickpeas, lentils and brown rice instead of small, branded boxes. I love stuff with the EU stamp of protected origin so every time we go somewhere I research what’s available and stash on those, like Castellucio di Norcia lentils when in Italy - works much cheaper than buying from Eataly or similar places.

The only things I splurge on are Japanese and Chinese foods, but I still try to buy bulk, like a huge bag of kombu or matcha instead of small fancy boxes.