And another thread about ethical living/food shopping...

[Hopefully]

Would you be prepared to share how much do you spend, for how many people, and what are your standards when food shopping? If you want to share how much of a stretch it is for you too, that would be interesting, but obviously most people probably don't like sharing that

We, for instance, are really only feeding 2 proper people, plus DS (only 8.5 months, eats a reasonable amount). We eat only organic meat, almost all seasonal veg (occaisonal lapse, and we have bananas and oranges most of the year), organic veg where possible, but choose british over organic if necessary.

We spend on average £35 a week at the moment, and could probably cut a bit more if necessary, by eating less meat, being less precious about organic veg and embracing lentils and pulses a bit more.

As a percentage of entire income it's not a huge percentage (DP isn't anywhere near being a higher rate taxpayer, I am not earning anything at the moment), but it probably accounts for a good percentage of our spare income after rent and debt repayments from DP's misspent youth - we do not have holidays abroad, meals out etc, at all.

I am constantly comprimising on what feel like contradicting standards everythime I buy food. Between...

• Higher ethical standards
• Lower price [have stupid loan also from DH's misspent youth.... that takes up nearly a 1/3 of our income....]
• Trying to lose weight

Buying meat is a hard. My rules are that I spend no more than £1 per adult portion on meat per meal and go for as ethical and lean as possible. The comprimise is quantity. For example I would choose one free range/organic chicken leg that I cut the skin off my self and cook carefully with loads of other veg, pulses etc
rather than big load of burgers or big load of cheap chicken breasts. ALWAYS buy from reduced section unless special ocasion.

Luckily loosing weight and being tight go together well! The ethics os harder.

Why don;t they do frozen organic/ethical chicken?

I really enjoy cooking from scratch. My husband doen;t mind me boring him with me telling him how much each portion costs...

Yesetrday we had delicious pitta pockets with turkey, and tomato cous cous with salad:

Turkey steak [not ethical but in reduced section] reduced from £1.12 to 30p!!!
Value pitta breads - 70p
cous cou - 30p
cherry tomatos - 40p
Lettuce - 30p [will soon be from garden!)

This was........o.... £2 exactly and made enough for 4 adlutls and 2 toddlers [our family for 2 meals]

I was cheerful about this for ages...

Husbands birthday this week and we're having a sausage fest at the weekend for around 25 people. I have bought reduced [in date!] sausages every week [organic, delicious reduced from £2.49 to 99p] and have a freezer full. Saved about £10.

ALso grow stuff and swap woth other people. Freeze every single scrap of leftovers.

SOrry, am waffling. too late for me!

Have no idea what we spend as I go around 2 or 3 times a week and get different things every time.

This goes against all the advice of 'plan and write a list'.

My husband and toddler will generally eat any [usually reduced section] thing I put in front of them

We spend anything from £50 - £70 a week depending on what we have to get. We both work but don't earn masses - DH works for Honda and i am a p/t language teacher. Have 2 dds aged 3 and 4. I do the shopping every week and buy organic milk, cheese and chicken - although we don't eat meat that often, sometimes DH will buy from Halal shop (he is muslim) and cook us something yummy although i am not sure how organic that meat is! We eat salmon and prawns - not ethical i guess -oh and tinned mackeral for our omega 3! We eat Quorn about once a week.
Have an allotment which we get last April and we have got stuff growing this year - potoatoes, onions, carrots, broccoli, beetroot, lettuce, rocket and strawberries. Will be growing more next year. We never go on holiday - except for going to Africa to see DH's family two summers ago and it wasn't really a holiday more an endurance - and we are still paying for that! - and rarely go out for meals. Feeding the family isn't a stretch as such but we do have a specific amount of money to spend each week and it always gets spent.