Some Veggers Are Bigger Than Others - 10/10 porkers thread

[CoupleofKooks]

General healthy eating and exercise thread with aim of losing weight / shaping up. Aim to eat 10 portions of fruit and veg a day, and do more exercise. No bizarre diets please. Weigh in day is Monday (you don't have to weigh in but we will punish you by with-holding stickers). Diet coke will be frowned upon.

Today I got

2 courgettes
1 enourmous cucumber
2 large vine toms
2 vines of cherry toms (maybe 18?)
4 small onions
bowlful grapes
10 nectarines (for £1)
10 apples
3 pears
mushrooms (paper bag full)
watermelon (50p)
6 apricots

for £8.60something. I think that's everything. I then got carrots and potatoes from Tesco.

Franny, why are you buying rocket?! We've got rocket and valmaine lettuce. Both grow easily in pots. But unless it's skinting you and you can't afford the bills/children's shoes then at least you're not spending that much on kebabs and takeaway pizza for your children

I go to the market in town where they seem to have lots of stuff that is too close to date for the supermarkets. The nectarines for example, I'll probably have to cut out bits from half of them and eat them within 2/3 days. But for 5p each it still works! Butternut squash were 50p today. They'll have asd a blueberries for example on the BB date but they're fine for a couple more days. But it is a pain to have to go into town with the children! And it's an extra hour timewise and £1.20 to park - but I save loads more that that if mangoes are 30/40p!

(ps I know I said I wasn't coming on tonight but DH has stayed home and ruined all my ironing plans! )

the pineapples were only 2.50 for 2
the mangoes were 4
blueberries 1.50 or 2 i think
apricots 1.50
but yes i see what you mean
i think the fruit is our luxury food usually
other than that i might buy some pate or felafels, some chocolate and some ice cream, and snack foods for the boys (cereal bars), i think everything else is kind of basic? but perhaps am deluded

What percentage of your weekly spend is f&v?
If £44 on f&v is say 75% of your weekly shop then that's ok isn't it?

Does DP work in the big smoke? There are loads of f&v stalls around the train stations. Is it cheaper? Could he get some and bring it home to save you lugging it about?

Franny, the thing is, can you properly not afford it? Do you need to cut back to survive or are you just analysing your spending cause you happened to have noticed? Cause it's not a bad thing to buy lots of fruit and have a healthy household!

ok i think no joke that would last us about 2 days pink
i don't know who eats the most fruit in this house, we are all greedy with it, dp is just as bad as me (although usually sticks with cheaper fruit to his credit)

i should no way be buying rocket or lettuce of course you are right pink
however ours bolted cos we neglected it like everything else we plant in the garden
we do also have a BIG problem with borage this year, it is apparently one of the most aggressive plants and it has taken over the frigging veg patch
i don't know where it came from

anyway it is not skinting us in the shoes way but we are in debt as usual and are getting slowly more in debt (dp likes to borrow money, bless im - bloody financial types)
we are paying off the mortgage faster than we are accruing debt, which is good, but the situation is not good
we should have savings, not debt

lemur last week we spent £118 in the supermarket, of which £44 was f+v
we also buy from the food co-op once a month, things like oil, rice, cereal etc, so that would go on top
i don't know how much that was, will ask dp

i can't think what else to easily cut down on
we have sold the car
we go on nice days out which i don't want to stop
we don't spend loads on toys or clothes - well not TOO much
we do spend too much on birthdays and christmas, but again i don't want to cut down on that unless we truly have to
maybe we just have to cut down a bit on everything? i am looking for the simple solution and there probably isn't one!

Good grief. Is that an average week? Cause the f and v isn't too shocking but if the rest doesn't include your oil/rice/cereals etc then it seems a lot! What is the rest made up of?

i am too embarrassed to post it pink
it's bad isn't it

Have you uswitched all your bills? We've just changed to a Halifax reward account where you get £5 per month for paying salary in. Got a £50 cashback offer from moneysupermarket on that too.

Good lord Do you get through 2 enormous jars of nescafe a week do the children have turkey twizzlers for breakfast!?

(Was just having a chuckle at lurkers reading this and going 'Fran? Pink? WTF?!')

ok about £10 was fruit juice and biscuits for work

so it was £108 i think
we don't get all cereal etc from suma, but some of it

ok i bought loo cleaner
ice creams x 3
yogurts
organic eggs
organic cheese x 3
organic butter x 2
(we eat too much cheese and butter)
flour and sugar x 2 (baking planned)
bread rolls x 2
veggie burgers and sausages x 2
mouthwash for ds1
mayonnaise
hummus
wraps
tofu
almonds
rice cakes
cereal bars
breadsticks
oatcakes
biscuits
felafel
frozen macaroni cheese
chocolate
hot cross buns

that's it honestly
i bought a lot of snacks for the boys (oatcakes etc), they won't eat all those this week
we won't eat all the veggie burgers either

LOL @ fran and pink
they probably have our addresses you know

we don't always pick the most cheap bill thingy
because of some sad idea about being ethical
we are unethical in so many other areas it seems a bit pointless really

anyway thank you for opinions and help, and sorry it has taken up a lot of thread!

i was just embarrassed at quantity and the macaroni cheese

dp says it is about another £25 a week on suma co-op
for toilet roll, coffee, cereal, oil, rice, nuts, raisins etc

How much hummus? Can you make it? Do you have to go organic on all the things you do? (personal choice obviously but that's one of the first things that had to give when we had to cut back ) is your juice/mayo/ice cream/biscuits branded? Have you tried Martin Lewis' drop a level thing? Worth a try and if it's awful you can go back. When I first stopped working when I had DD I thought 'I can't cut back on the shopping. We don't have much' but then realised that bread/mayo/sauce/squash/juice etc was all branded and there's no difference for half of it!

Got to go to bed now. Worth thinking about things. Ethics are all well and good but there is the opportunity to sideline your morals for a little while to be a bit more comfortable. I guess we're very lucky to have the choice and good on you for sticking to it. (I'm a total sellout atm!)

your list sounds ok. Worry not. You always post really tasty lists of food and that is good.

Wow, lots of lists! I have no idea what I spend what on food. Too much probably. I manage to keep supermarket shops at a reasonable price if I need to. We are a minute away from a row of shops, butchers, grocers etc so I end up nipping in and out, somtimes twice a day which adds up but I don't find it that hard to spend less if necessary. I stick to a meal plan, buy less daily food and luxuries. Take lunch out rather than nipping to pret or marks.

I think we buy a lot of fruit but I actually eat less than I used to. If I eat too much I get a bit gassy and bloated round the middle.

I am having victoria sponge cake for breakfast. It is homemade though, with homemade plum jam.

Feels like ages till our holiday. I might try and so to stiffkey and camp for a few days. It is fully booked so you have to ring at 8.30 and see if there are cancellations, it's like getting a doctors appt.

Glad you had fun in France, Pointy!

And latitude was fab, thanks, lemur, it was quite busy but good fun. Belle and Sebastian and Rodriguez y gabriella were great.

avi, no he isn't happy, because we are getting steadily more into debt as i said, every month he asks me to spend less on food and every month i try and then kind of go "wtf?" because it doesn't work
he isn't cross about it but we need to reverse it
he is not cardboard box type but as i say he does like to borrow money - he wants to keep us all comfortable - so we have this debt which i think atm we are paying £80 a month interest on which is obviously bonkers

pink there was also delivery charge on that shopping - 5.50
so basically it is about £125 a week inc suma (we get all tinned stuff from there as well)
it sounds loads but you said on the other thread a lot of families of 4 were spending £100 - 120 a week? so i am not the worst in existence?

it was 1 pot of hummus and for £1.20 i am not going to make my own, no
i don't want to stop buying organic dairy and eggs
but obviously something has to give

Avi if i could earn £50 a week doing leaping around children's things, believe me, i would
i only work one day a week at present as childcare is such an issue (basically the childminder gets paid more than me some weeks)
if / when ds2 goes to nursery that might improve

actually, that made me sound like I am good at budgeting. I am not, I am shit.

Seems a normal sort of amount, to me, Franny, though I'm sure some would say it's loads.

hi guad it's good to see you, i have been thinking about you