I know, I know it's been done to death but (food shopping, France, etc)

[flyingcloud]

But do you ever read threads on the other parts of MN about people's weekly shops and go how on earth do they manage to keep it so low??

Firstly, my weekly shop for DH, me and DD (2yo) seems to cost at least double what MNers living in the UK spend (I am too ashamed to admit how much).

Secondly, if I tried some of the budget food/recipes that are recommended on MN, I can imagine some sort of revolt from DH (he does other things, the kitchen and cooking are not his domain, because if they were the weekly shop would cost five times as much and consist of cheese and meat). Sardine curry anyone? Can you imagine trying to give a French man Quorn?

I did a budget week before Christmas - we ate stews, soups and such like for a whole week. After two days DH very nearly did stop coming home for meals. I can try cooking/shopping cheap, but DH then won't eat it and it goes to waste.

We do eat three meals a day at home, all three of us and DD now has a nanny who eats one meal a day with us. I think I am going to start scanning local school menus - surely they manage to keep on a budget?

I don't blame my DH - as I said he does other things and I take care of the kitchen - but he has an enormous appetite and does very physical work.

That's it really, rant over.

What kind of thing does he like that makes it work out so expensive?? (imagination running riot here!)
We are 4 - me, DH, DS1 (10) & DS2 (3) as a challenge to myself I'm trying to stick to a budget of ?100 a week during January. Although I haven't bought wine as we have a stash from the wine fairs back in the Autumn and my grocery cupboard is taking a bit of a hit, I'm kind of on target so far. We tend to eat more fish than meat & a chicken will do 3 meals & stock. But two DS'S eat like horses too & they come home for lunch every day...

I live in Switzerland and am always amazed when MNetters (or even friends and family back home) tell me how little they spend. I shop mainly in France.

I think that the French generally spend more on food than the Brits, as a proportion of their income, but there are good meals that you can make that are less expensive.

When you say you eat three meals, does that mean you cook both lunch and dinner?

What kind of things does your DH expect?

Yes, we have breakfast, lunch and dinner at home, although to be fair DH doesn't eat much at breakfast, usually a tartine as he leaves at around 6am. He does have a big glass of orange juice every morning though.

A chicken does 3 meals??? DH eats 1/2, yes 1/2 a chicken in one sitting. It does us 2 meals max. We have roast chicken once a week with rice and salad (chickens here are expensive, I only buy organic but from the supermarket for around ?12, a chicken from the butcher is around ?18-?20).

We never buy wine (well I don't), DH gets it from a family member who deals in wine and we rarely pay for it.

Dh also doesn't do very well with lots of vegetables, I suspect he has something similar to IBS, so if I try and pad things out with pulses etc he can only do one meal like that. So he likes meat and carbs. He does love pasta which makes for a cheap meal, but I don't like pasta...

I made soup for lunch today, but it wasn't finished when DH came home so he cooked his own lunch. He is small and doesn't have an ounce of fat on him and he eats more than anyone I have ever seen. we will have the soup for supper, but I will probably have to cook something else too for him, like salad or cheese.

We probably entertain about once a week too (although at 36 weeks pregnant am slowing down on that front, after Friday's 10 people for dinner is out of the way).

I'm not trying to change anything drastically - I don't have time to shop around and our local supermarkets are notoriously expensive being just outside Paris, as our the markets, but if anyone has any suggestions for recipes which cover:
hungry, carnivorous DH who likes carbs, veggies not so much
Trying to reduce carbs: me
All the food-groups: DD

Then I would be grateful!

I don't see how a chicken could do three meals, not the ones we can buy here. I might get a second meal out of it but that is a push.

What you can do is buy cheaper cuts of meat and cook them longer, so make boef bourgignon kind of stew and let it simmer all day.

If he expects a big chunk of meat at every meal then you are going to find it difficult to cut much off your budget.

I do pasta a lot, and have 101 ways to eat chicken/ham/eggs/salmon/lardons/puff pastry. Lardons are great for filling out a meal.

Two chicken breasts with lardons and puff pastry - voila! Chicken pot pie. this is my recipe. It is really easy to do and you can bung in some frozen peas or fresh mushrooms to bulk it out a bit.

Quiche with aspargus and salmon - you can buy salmon off cuts quite cheaply in French supermarkets.

Do you like fish? I find fish good value. Fish pie, with puff pastry or potato topping. Or salmon couilibiac is another favourite. again, recipe from my blog. It is so easy to make.

Mince is always good. Bolognese, chili, fajitas (don't buy the packets, buy the wraps and season mince or chicken) meatloaf...

I spend about ?800 a month, although I could spend less if I had to. That is including wine and toiletries.

Yes, 3 meals from my chicken! This week it's a roast yesterday (sliced breast for the DS's & I) leg for DH, then I'll do a risotto tonight with roast tomatoes & pesto, then probably use up the rest with noodles/bean sprouts/peanuts etc tomorrow - maybe throw a few prawns in if it looks a bit sparse. Not sure how heavy it was, but I never pay more than about ?10, and it's always label rouge - I didn't eat meat for years so I don't tend to eat a lot now, though the boys & DH do..
Will give some thought to meal ideas - I have a house full of carb-hungry boys come home for gouter to deal with!

Gah, lost my post.

Thanks for your replies though. Mme Lindor our budgets are fairly similar.

Right off to shop now.

I think part of my problem is I love food too, come from an agricultural background (so don't like cheap meat, etc, family heavily involved in organic farming) and I like cooking. I hate scrimping on food, but feel like I can.

I am rather looking forward to the early days of DC2 when I will be sofa bound and refusing to go in the kitchen... DH will have to get a bit creative (although for him that means adding cream, butter and emmenthal rapé).

Yup, same here, southern Italy, and spend a fortune.

Fruit and veg in season are fabulous and cheap as chips. But anything that's not having its fortnight of seasonality costs a fortune.

Meat costs about double what it costs in the UK....I buy it from the supermarket rather than the butchers because the vast majority of butchers, apart from being filled with dead horses, stink.

It's also non-main-dish things that are astronomical. A Muller corner (one) costs 99cents. My Mum gets 6 for a quid in Asda. 1euro 60 for a litre of milk- Asda about 80p.

I can't buy cheapy things like battery eggs (although even free range is very hard to find down here in the boonies) because I physically am repulsed by them.

Rantety rant.

This is interesting

It is a few years old, but shows a trend. That is without alcohol.

UK spends 8.8% of income on food, compared to 10.4% in Switzerland and 13.8% in France.

The Swiss and French earn more than the Brits though, so their total expenditure is higher per person per year.

UK $2100
Swiss $3082
French $2842

Going by that, I spend about average (if I take 3 people as household size since we are 2 adults and 2 kids).

And would likely spend about £500 - 600 if we were living in the UK - which is what my mum told me that she would expect us to pay.

So it is not just my imagination that it is more expensive here.

Bucharest
Interestingly, Italians spend over 14% of their income on food.

Do the French really earn more than the Brits? I earn about half what someone doing my job in the UK would.

One thing that may bump up your budget is milk, if - like many Brits - you buy fresh milk. It costs a fortune here. I know no French people who buy it, and my (French) MIL, who was a home economics teacher and is from a rural, farming background, bought some once in preparation for our arrival and stored it under her sink where she keeps her usual UHT - in July in SW France. Boak.
I think it is expensive because only British people buy it...

Bread also costs a lot, as you don't get much mileage out of a baguette and it goes stale by evening. I buy a big pain de campagne tranché at the bakers and it costs 1?20 and lasts 2-3 days, whereas a baguette is 80 centimes.

Buying seasonal veg is a must, I agree. I don't buy fruit & veg at the supermarket on principle, but have a v good value greengrocers and a good marché paysan twice a week within walking distance. I have had to shop around a bit to find good, cheap(ish) produce, though. But round these parts fruit & veg grow abundantly and buying local is cheap. If your DH can't do pulses and you don't like pasta, that will inevitably bump up your costs.

Not sure I've been any help.

Doh, just re-read your figures. The French do earn more than the Brits, just not doing what I do. Which I kind of suspected, as my line of work is not remotely valued.

AuldAlliance
I keep hearing that French don't buy fresh milk, and that you cannot buy it here, but we get it in the supermarket. Although, when I think about it, they only have a small fresh milk selection compared to the UK shelves. My PILs never buy fresh milk unless we are visiting. I hate UHT milk, it is disgusting.

Yy, bread is expensive. When DH goes to the baker on a Saturday morning for rolls and croissants, he always spends about CHF 15 (?10).

I bought a breadmaker and bake my own bread. Sometimes in the machine, sometimes by hand.

And that is strange that you earn less in France.

We were discussing the Swiss payroll recently, and my American friend was totally gobsmacked at the wages here.

Funnily enough i had the very same disscussion with friends in the uk at christmas... I am a confirmed grocery addict.. (we are in Aus) so as from last month.... I do online shop once a month.... this month I have done bulk washing powder / dishwasher purchase.. and had to do back to school shopping and dd2 birthday stuff. still appear to have gone through a mammoth amount of cash in no time.
A friend told me how much she spent just on christmas extra food... GBP 170.. that was just extras.... normal shop is about gbp 200 a month for two adults and one baby. They didnt get a turkey this year as it would have cost gbp 40... just for a turkey at tescos.... they had chicken.. ( incidently no way i'd get three meals off one... dh would want more than legs.. dd eats two legs.. i like wings and a bit of white meat.. ds eats 1/2 a breast...dd2 eats a bit of breast..au pair eats a breast. I then strip the rest and if im lucky i can pull together a curry with load of veg / lentils...normally wer get 2 pre cooked BBQ chickens as its the cheapest way to buy them here two for $14 but they are not big)
I have a good friend who has told me she can do grocerys her family of two adults and a 7 year old boy and a new bub ( breast fed) on $500 a month...I gulped that mine was $1200.... bigger gulp.. however then I looked at the family dynamics.. two adults.. 1 adult au pair ( also her frirend who stayed with us) one 9 year old girl and a 3 1/2 year old boy and an 11 month old..
so $170 per head per month vs $166.. (ish not allowing money for baby). I find people often dont really add up what they spend and just guess. So if dh is out during the day and buys lunch.. it should be under grocery...

Uk is cheap for meat but it is poor quality ( river cottage bloke and chickens eeuuww) I gather form my mum that in general aus is cheaper than France but deli meat is cheaper in France than here ( alot cheaper had to pick my mum off the floor at teh price i pay for salami)
now that said this month I dont think its grocerys that have done the damage... more over... its the extras... stuff for kids.. hair cuts... and the numpty ism that the bank wont let me re draw money extra money I had added to the mortgage... grr...
Also Uk supermarkets run with huge loss leaders which I dont think happen in many other countires.
The upshot is that the Uk is getting more expensive faster than the rest of the world... The downside is that wages are not increasing there hence why people are doing it tougher. Id say the rest of the world will look better and better....

Interesting, Chloe.

My mum almost fainted when I sent her to get some cold cuts. If I go to the shop with the nice ham, it costs me CHF 30 (about ?23ish) for cooked ham, serrano or parma and some salami. Maybe about 500g altogether.

at nice ham.

Mind you, our nice ham is no joke....we pay about 4euro (where is that nice euro sign on puter Mme?) for 150g and that's for whichever nice ham is on offer.

Salami cheaper, but you have to watch out it hasn't been made out of donkey

I spend easily 600€ monthly on shopping but I am bad at meal planning and DH eats a lots of expensive cheese and meat (about 50% more than it is in France metropolitan), I now buy lots of fresh fruit for DS and I like decent juice. Bread is shockingly, shockingly expensive, milk too (even UHT). Meal for under a fiver? Not in my house! And it will rocket again next month when new nanny arrives :(

My m&d live in rural Wales and get access to good cheap lamb, they bitch like mad about the price and I'm positive they don't believe me that a joint costs 50 euros + here (NL).

Plenty of milk here though! Except seriously, "karne" milk? Boakety boak boaksome. I think we'd call it "buttermilk" - wtf is that all about?

I've just been to the supermarket (and I'm finishing what's in freezer today for meals so not even to do a proper shop) and spent 13 euro on:
1 litre of milk, 1 on offer bottle of washing up liquid 1 box of cheerios. (no meat, no fish, no fruit, no veg, just those 3 items)

Ick at UHT milk....dd really only drinks milk and will ask for a glass of milk at SIL's, then it comes all sort of beige and slimey looking.

You pay more because what you get is better, and French people don't buy to gorge. They buy quality food and eat just what they need. British people seek food that's as cheap as possible, so they can shovel as much as possible down their throats.

DH bought a litre of Karne milk the other day AlpinePony - he was the only one who could stomach it. Revolting.

In Holland here. We shop in Aldi, we're not particularly careful with what we buy, but do spend about 120EUR a week including wine, nappies, extra shops for forgotten stuff as well. If we stuck to the other supermarkets or butchers/cheese shops etc it would be a LOT more. It's just not as cheap as the UK.

I do go to my local market though, which is bargainous. A huge bag of red chillies for a euro, 6 red peppers for a couple of Euros, etc. Love the market!

Mme Lindor, I'm a university lecturer, so (a) a public sector worker and (b) in a profession where purchasing power dropped by 20% between 1981 and 2004 (latest figures, available, it sure hasn't improved since then). When I tell people back home what I earn after almost 15 years in my field, they are horrified. Once when I was in Edinburgh I saw ads on the back of the buses for bus drivers - starting salary was what I currently earn. I am currently about to set up a freelance activity on the side, because I just don't earn enough to really cover all our costs.

Fresh milk is quite easily available here, in big and small supermarkets, but I have never seen anyone else buying it, nor been served it/seen it in anyone's fridge. UHT is minging, and when you put it in your tea the effect is particularly vile. It's bizarre that a country so proud of its food can happily drink such foul milk.

I have thought for a while we ought to have a thread where people in various towns in France and the UK compare prices of basic foodstuffs/household goods. Would be v interesting.

I buy UHT as the taste doesn't bother me, a six pack (6 litres) of full-fat organic UHT costs me ?10 and we go through just under one of those a week. I have finally managed to convince everyone that DD NO LONGER NEEDS LAIT DE CROISSANCE (the bane of my life, but slightly plagued by guilt that everyone uses it here and when in Rome...) so that is why I buy full-fat only (I also read an article recently saying that low fat dairy products are Very Bad in pregnancy, not sure where, one of those things that I get sucked in by).

There is no such thing as a baguette under ?1 here, most are ?1.20. As you say AA they are expensive and don't last more than a day.

Fraktious your DH is like mine, he loves his cheese and meat.

It would be interesting to compare prices. MIL who lives in rural France says that our local prices shock her and she always brings meat with her when she comes to stay. I find the market expensive and apparantly the suppliers up their prices in our town, compared to the surrounding villages.

Yesterday's soup did go down well though :) not sure I will get away with it two meals in a row...

Just added up monthly grocery shop (that includes all toiletries and cleaning products not just food), school/work lunches and also full family income from salaries, profit on rent on UK house, child benefit (yippee it's a lot in Belgium) and it's 16% of total income, but we do have 4 children including 2 teenagers so it's now like feeding 4 adults and 2 children - total food bill per person is just under ?170 (£142) a month or ?38 (£31) a week, total family food bill is ?950 a month or ?220 a week.

We could cut our grocery bill by the children not having the wonderful 3 course school lunches 2 times a week (that's 8 lunches at ?4 each so already ?32 spent), we could shop even more often in the Belgian equivalent of Aldi, we could do the rounds of all the supermarkets with coupons but when then do I find the time to go to work or go on mumsnet?

I sometimes just don't believe some people who say they only spend £50 a week for a family of 4 in the UK, went back there after Christmas and food in the UK is considerably more expensive than when we left 3 years ago. Belgium is still more expensive than the UK for food, but the gap is less than it was.

Heinz baked beans are cheaper in the Albert heijn than Tesco, don't ask me how that even begins to be possible!

Natation, when you break it down as 38 euros a week for quality food that doesn't really sound much at all. Very reasonable in fact.

A stroll around Tesco reveals lots of ready-meals for a pound a POP, but who actually wants to eat them? Sure, we could eat frikandel every night...

We do whore around 3 supermarkets and I'm an avid bargain hunter. I'm sure I could shave 50% from our bill if we reduced the quality, but at this juncture in time it's not necessary. We chose to downgrade the car instead, petrol has gone up 7cents a litre in 2 weeks! :o!