The cost of reducing UPF

[jimjamjoo]

For the last 6 months or so, we have been trying to reduce our UPF intake and buy more healthy food and cook from scratch.

I am really struggling with the cost of it. We are a family of 5 with 3 children under 6- one still in nappies. Our monthly food bill is about £600 which just seems crazy.

When I decided to reduce our UPF intake, I shopped around and found that Ocado did the best range/tasting food. So we get a weekly shop from there and I do a monthly bulk shop from Sainsbury's to get the few no UPF bits they sell. We also do a bulk shop from Aldi once a month to buy nappies and kids' snacks.

We have a bread maker so use that every other day and we have maybe one takeaway a month.

Has anyone found a way to reduce the food shop when focusing on reducing UPF? I don't find the quality of fruit/veg and meat at Lidl/aldi to be very good so I'm not planning on changing my weekly food shop to go there.

It's better to buy your fresh food from Lidl/Aldi than UPF from an expensive shop. The quality isn't that bad.

You could get a veg box delivered, try to eat more cheap and seasonal food rather than blueberries and asparagus (for instance). Check out your local butcher or health food shop, they may be cheaper than Ocado. Can you get a bulk sack of flour delivered or fetch it from a local mill?

If you are wedded to Ocado, you just need to look at what is cheaper and plan your menu. What are the big ticket items in your basket? Don't forget the value and frozen/tinned ranges.

Do you have a local market? I ask because our is brilliant, super cheap fruit and veg, and the greengrocer also does online ordering and delivers free if you spend £30. I'm always banging on about ours and people invariably say"oh it's no good for me, I have a full time job" but ours is open all day Saturday and Sunday plus three days in the week, it's just that you can't shop in the evening.

It depends what you want to eat.

My bill is cheaper for eating non-processed.

But we love things like dhal and rice, and potato, spinach and chick pea curry. Large bags of frozen spinach leaf are very economical.

Bags of frozen fish (the pollock white fish, I avoid the Vietnamese basa and similar) form the basis of fish pie.

Chicken: big packs of skin on / bone in thighs, separated and frozen. Tray bake or casserole with loads of economical root veg. Or curry, or any chicken recipe, or laksa, or paella.

Porridge is inexpensive. Bags of frozen berries.

Salads are made economically with shredded cabbage (red or white) and carrots. A filling protein rich chick pea salad.

Big tubs of Lancashire Farm yogurt.

What are you eating that it costs so much?

Surely eating proper unprocessed foods must be cheaper? What am I missing?

We don’t eat upf (except some breakfast cereals) and our meals are pretty cheap. We get a veg box delivered with seasonal produce from our local greengrocers and eat a lot of pulses and grains. We don’t have kids, though, so appreciate it’s a lot harder if you’ve got fussy food requirements. My DP is grateful for whatever I put on the table and hoovers it up without complaint.

This. Just buy basic ingredients and cook them.

Frozen berries and vegetables, especially if not in season - Aldi, Lidl
Do you have a plan so not much wasted? Using basic, cheaper "alternatives" ingredients like eggs (rather than meat) or beans/ pulses (not from cans) , especially to bulk up foods.

Wow, I was thinking £600/month was great. I wish I could get mine down to this.

I agree that £600 is reasonable for a family of 5, including nappies. Ours is between £5-600 for 3.

You need to say what you're buying. I don't think ocado will be cheapest for basics like veg, fruit, pasta, rice.

Well who knows what the OP is buying for a start? She could be buying organic for most of her food, which would obviously push up the budget, or get her meat from an expensive farm shop.

What is stopping you?

The cost of food I guess

You buy things that are in season and eat a lot of vegetables. I don't eat meat (real or fake) but I know it's very expensive.

My cheap go to's are different vegetable based patties/burgers, kan be chickpea, black bean, lentil, carrot, courgette, beetroot, kale the options are almost endless. I usually have that with some roasted veg, bulgur and tzatziki or hummus.

Vegetable soup is incredibly cheap and so is pasta with a tomato/vegetable sauce. Shakshuka is another cheap option, I just eat it with bread.

Don't buy fresh berries or exotic fruits and veg. Buy frozen herbs such as parsley, coriander, dill, basil. There is lots in those pots and cheaper than the fresh pots.

There are ways to mitigate some costs. I have learnt a lot about that on MN. There have been some really helpful threads, to help people get the most with their money, when food shopping.

£600 for 5 people...

5×3×7×4.5 =472.5

600/472.5 = 1.27

(People by meals per by days per week by weeks per month)

That's an average spend of £1.27 pp per meal. If you're feeding everyone healthy tasty food for that then I think you're doing pretty well.

If you're saying that £600/month for a family of 5 is high, I disagree.

What were you spending before you changed to non-UPF?

Is there a Costco near you, and can you get a card or do you know anyone with a card?

I find most of it good quality & cheaper than the supermarkets. You can buy big bags of bread flour, rice, pasta. The fresh fruit & veg is good, frozen chicken, fish very reasonable prices, as is the fresh. Big pots of yoghurt, blocks of cheese, butter, way cheaper than Tesco etc. Sparkling water & cartons of fruit juice really good value.

We do a monthly shop there & just little top up shops of fresh stuff we run out of - mainly milk. It has saved us a fortune over the years.

I shopped around and found that Ocado did the best range/tasting food.

I would look again at this if you are finding it expensive. The whole point of giving up UPF is to eat real food - not food from a "range".

Fruit, vegetables and pulses aren't better for you because it says M&S on the label and not Lidl. I splurge on farmshop meat when I can, but my food bills have otherwise decreased since I stopped buying ready meals and processed cereals.

It is cheaper to eat fresh IF you eat the right things. Lentils, oats, turnips, carrots, potatoes, whole chicken, apples, pears etc. If you are eating strawberries in winter and avocadoes from Mexico then it will cost more.

Bear in mind that although UPFs are often a good deal based on calories per £, they have little nutritional value. You are better to eat one sausage made of 100% pork than two sausages made of shite. Then fill up on the cheap oats, pasta, turnips etc. You need vitamins and minerals, not just empty calories.

What are you buying? It doesn't need to be expensive at all.

Number one for me is only buying fruit and veg in season. They are pretty much always very cheap. So currently eat carrots, parsnips, swede, cabbage, sprouts etc. - all under £1 for many portions. Satsumas, pears are all good now. Even if your DC prefer out of season fruit, train them! Or tinned fruit is still nutritious and reasonable. It does actually taste much better in season too, plus fewer air miles, plus looking forward to the first delicious asparagus or tomato of the season is fun.

We spend just over £600 a month. We are also a family of 5, no nappies but 2 teenagers who eat adult portions. We don't eat meat but all our animal produce is organic, I would estimate that if we switched to non organic we could get our groceries, including cleaning stuff etc for £550.

We eat very little upf, breakfast is toast, porridge or eggs most days, pancakes at weekends. Lunch is a packed lunch for dc and usually leftovers or soup for the adults. For dinner I cook one meal, I don't cook something separate for the adults.

I noticed that you said you buy nappies and kids snacks from Aldi. What are the snacks? A banana is 10p, savoury flapjack, plain popcorn or a boiled egg are all very cheap, non upf and not sugary choices. Realistically, you're unlikely to lower your bill that much and eat healthily, food costs have gone up 40% since 2020 and likely to rise another 4% this year, with 5 people to feed as the pp showed your bill is always going to be high. There probably are some changes that you can make though

Our food shops have massively reduced moving to less UPF.

What works for us:

• Freezer veg and fruit with a few fresh treats each week
• Large joints of meat/ whole chickens or whole fish that get cooked and then leftovers used for something else
• cut down on snacks
• only drink water (or milk)

Also I'm growing herbs from seed as I buy lots each week but can never keep them alive on the windowsill, and want a fresh supply over winter. My husband jokes he can tell if a recipe is ottolenghi as it is 50% meal, 50% herb, so I hope this will be a decent saving.

I also concur that £600pm isn’t too bad if that includes household cleaning stuff, nappies and toiletries too.

i shop at Lidl for 4 of us (1 adult, 2 teen girls, 1 child) and that’s my budget but I struggle to stay within it

Work in a supermarket and all the Spanish/ Portuguese people seem to have it right- tons of fruit and veg but tbh with kids I don’t know- they literally buy chicken, fish and fruit and veg. Maybe one loaf of bread and a tub of Pringles or a bag of peanuts. I don’t see how you get a child through a school day and eg to go do other school runs with them/ collections for train or going to sports- that’s where upfs really come out I suppose