Not eating proper meals

[Gettingbysomehow]

I'm very frugal and have a small mortgage. My salary is pretty good by most standards. NHS band 6.
I'm in my 60's. I dont eat meat so you would think my shop would be cheaper.
I'm finding that when I go shopping for me and my two cats food comes to around £40 for three or 4 days.
There is always an item that bumps it up. Bulk cat food or toiletries.
I just can't afford this kind of cost for food and I'm having to eat cereal for 2 meals and then having a home cooked meal at home in the evening.
I cant ever remember not being able to eat three meals a day even when I was a single mum with a much larger mortgage and outgoings.
How on earth are people managing?

I mostly eat fruit and bread and cheese tbh.
I'm a chef though so I try food all day.
We go to Aldi and get shopping there.
Cut cheese blocks in half and freeze.
Toiletries are cheap there too.
I make cakes or bread portion and freeze

I really do not understand this. I'm a pensioner. My food bill comes to about £20 per day. Obviously all the normal household goods included - toilet paper,cleaning stuff, cat/dog food etc. And you pay £40 per week!? And you can only afford one decent meal a day? And you say a good salary and small mortgage but you're struggling? Something's wrong here!

£40 for 3-4 days, so between 70 and 90 quid a week. Do you want to share your shopping list @Gettingbysomehow ? Do you have a car so you can bulk buy, or are you having to shop in smaller quantities at more expensive local shops? What kind of meals are you cooking in the evening, are you making things like bolognese that will do for several meals?

It really shouldn’t be this much. I aim for £3.50 per day for all meals so £40 would last me a week including cleaning and household items.

breakfast can be cereal or toast or crumpet.

lunch could be homemade soup which is very cheap and filling.

dinner is so something pasta or rice based with a lot of veg to bulk out the main sauce such as curry or Bolognese . Meat is expensive but without it you really shouldn’t be spending all that much. Have you tried checking your receipts to see what it all goes on?

Where are you shopping? What are you buying? (I’m assuming not branded if you’re frugal).

You should be able to buy 80 Whiskas sachets for £25. Your own food should not cost you more than £5 per dinner. An omelette for lunch and a coulple of chicken thighs and a salad for dinner.

I really do not understand this. I'm a pensioner. My food bill comes to about £20 per day

That must be including a lot of treats or luxury brands/expensive things/processed food though?

I spend around £30 a day on all food, household and toiletry items for a family of 5 (£200 a week)...and that's not a particularly strict budget either, we eat well.

If £20 a day is just for you, the equivalent would be me spending £700 a week 😂

Your spending around what I spend for 3 people and a cat.
You should be able to buy some big bags of pasta/rice/lentils and use them as the basis of numerous meals.

Just checked NHS band 6 - £42k gross assuming 5+ years of experience. Is this correct?

If yes, it's about £2.8k/month take home for one adult and two cats.

How big is your mortgage and bills? even if it's £40 each 3-4 days, it's still £280-400/month for groceries. Whilst more than usual, why isn't this affordable?

A good earner with a small mortgage struggling to find £300 a month for food?

I live alone on min wage
Budget £240pm food for myself which is fine. It doesn't allow for mango/salmon/shopping at booths weekly but it's enough for nice food

Cat wise I buy 4kg bag of James well beloved (lasts just under 3 months at £35 ish a bag) and then Sheba in bulk, 120 pouches was about £45 and lasts 4 months

I'm having to pay in a lot extra per month to catch up with missed pension payments as I only have 5 years left.
I'm currently off with acute back pain waiting for surgery so can't stand up long enough to cook anything complicated.
Also I live very rurally and the only local shop I can get to is the co-op simply because my back means I'm unable to drive to any of the big supermarkets miles away.
It's a temporary hiccup but the prices on every shelf are horrendous.

Online shopping? I buy my cat food via eBay and Amazon mostly as cheaper

You're not 'having' to pay lots of extra in - you're choosing to, for long term benefit.

It doesn't seem to be a sensible choice if it means you can't afford to eat.

You have a reasonable income and you say a 'small mortgage' so you should be able to manage your budget.

Food prices have been held down far too long - from what you say you are choosing convenience foods to help you due to your back issue, so it's not a permanent thing.

It’s a small thing but have you looked online to see if you can buy cat food cheaper in bulk that way?

We have a co op near us and it’s the most expensive supermarket by far where we are (Norfolk). Is shopping online an option?

How rural? We still get Asda delivering our here which is way cheaper than the coop

That’s a fine drip feed

Do you have an Asda, Ocado. Sainsbury’s or tesco who deliver ? Have you a slow cooker and throw veg packs in, make soups and stews, curries, chilli’s ?

Online shopping has to be cheaper than coop

Our local coop is very costly

And no point scrimping but adding to pension

Lower pension so you can afford to eat

So you're moaning about the cost of food whilst paying extra into a pension? that's a choice not down to your last few quid for food.
Stop using the co-op, order online.
As for the pensioner spending £20per day on food, that's completely unnecessary.

My local village co-op is ridiculous prices. A few months ago I ran out of cumin and popped in there to grab some because I was in the middle of making dinner. It was £2.75 for a jar of spice that would cost 55p in Lidl. That’s why your shopping is so costly. It would be cheaper to order online.

My own grocery shopping is around £12/day for me and the dog but I eat a high protein, high fibre diet. If you’re not buying meat and can happily eat pasta based meals you could probably easily live for half that cost.

I use Sainsbury's delivery, they do a lot of Aldi price matching. Co op is always expensive.

Ah you should have said you're shopping in the coop. Double the prices in Aldi and Lidl Im afraid, you wont find bargains in there

Can you get a cab monthly to Aldi or Lidl, do you have freezer space?

Lentils, beans, batch cooked cheap meats in a slow cooker, thats your friend

chuck everything in a tray bake or slow cooker, you dont have to stand up for long for that, then freeze left overs and rotate a number of different meals. Bulk it all out with the lentils, beans, rice whatever, lots of veg to bulk it but also keep your nutrients up

Having read the rest of the thread, not sure I get the criticism on here for OP paying extra into her pension, almost sneering at her for that

If she didnt and she is left as a pauper on benefits as a pensioner no doubt people would be criticising why she didnt pay more in, NHS gold plated pension blah blah blah

The only issue for her is that she is trying to use the coop for basic shopping, the coop is only any good for picking up milk.

Which pension scheme are you in? If you have anything in the 1995 scheme you should take that bit now (as can be taken at 60) and just leave the 2015 scheme to grow. Of course if you joined the NHS later you could be in the 2008 scheme so ignore what I say.