As someone claiming to be a chef, perhaps you could show her how to make soups from scratch?
Tescos?! Much better off going to a market at the end of the day for all the cheap fruit and veg to be had.
How is that not still the case?
Food - £60-100 a month. Enough to eat well?
- Thread starter Indigo
- Start date
I'm divorced and don't live with my daughter but thanks for the parental advice.
The OP is more likely to visit their local Tesco on a regular basis but it was used merely as an example. Any market or supermarket will work.
As someone who is hoping to eat for a month on £60 - £100 they are going to find it difficult to include large amounts of fresh fruit and veg. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/a...g-reach-low-income-families-warns-report.html
My girlfriend and I cook 99% of our meals from scratch — our weekly shopping bill (not just food, but everything) averages out at about £50 (including wine).
We buy a lot of Tesco Value/Asda smart price goods and apart from one or two things, there really isn't any point in buying the branded stuff.
We also get a really varied, balanced diet. My average day would consist of the following:
Breakfast
50g of Tesco Value Oats
1 Tesco Value Banana (Chopped)
1 pot of Tesco yoghurt
Lunch
Always a salad with a variety of ingredients:
Asda smart price Feta or Mozzarella
A couple of olives (Tesco discount brand)
1 tomato
Some sliced cucumber
Some sliced Tesco value pepper
Asda smart price pesto (red or green)
Splash of balsamic vinegar
splash of olive oil
salt and pepper
Apple or orange for desert.
Dinner
We have a good selection of evening meals that we rotate but the cheapest meals that go a long way are bolognese or chilli because we get the big packs of Tesco Value mince and make 5-6 portions, freezing what we don't eat.
Tomato soup can be made quickly and easily:
Slice 1 Tesco value red onion and fry in a pan
Add 1 Tin of Tesco value chopped tomatoes
chuck in salt/pepper/dash of wine to taste
Add a couple of spoonfuls of Tesco value soft cheese
If you want a smooth soup, blend it before serving.
Another thing we do quite often is make a roast on a sunday and then use any meat we don't eat throughout the rest of the week. A whole roast chicken can make three evening meals as well as providing plenty of meat to go into the salads above.
Changing to value/smart price produce was probably the best thing we ever did.
There's absolutely nothing wrong with the food and you get a lot more for less.
Rice, pasta, potatoes, tinned veg, fresh veg — you can't really go wrong. If they don't do a Value version of the product, they usually do a 'discount brand' version which is much cheaper than the named-brand product.
We've had a lot of fun trying Value versions of things we used to insist had to be named-brand. Nutella, Marmite, honey, crisps etc.
Something else we noticed is, quite often the Value stuff tastes better than the standard Tesco branded equivalent.
The only named-brand item we can't ween ourselves off is Diet Coke!
We buy a lot of Tesco Value/Asda smart price goods and apart from one or two things, there really isn't any point in buying the branded stuff.
We also get a really varied, balanced diet. My average day would consist of the following:
Breakfast
50g of Tesco Value Oats
1 Tesco Value Banana (Chopped)
1 pot of Tesco yoghurt
Lunch
Always a salad with a variety of ingredients:
Asda smart price Feta or Mozzarella
A couple of olives (Tesco discount brand)
1 tomato
Some sliced cucumber
Some sliced Tesco value pepper
Asda smart price pesto (red or green)
Splash of balsamic vinegar
splash of olive oil
salt and pepper
Apple or orange for desert.
Dinner
We have a good selection of evening meals that we rotate but the cheapest meals that go a long way are bolognese or chilli because we get the big packs of Tesco Value mince and make 5-6 portions, freezing what we don't eat.
Tomato soup can be made quickly and easily:
Slice 1 Tesco value red onion and fry in a pan
Add 1 Tin of Tesco value chopped tomatoes
chuck in salt/pepper/dash of wine to taste
Add a couple of spoonfuls of Tesco value soft cheese
If you want a smooth soup, blend it before serving.
Another thing we do quite often is make a roast on a sunday and then use any meat we don't eat throughout the rest of the week. A whole roast chicken can make three evening meals as well as providing plenty of meat to go into the salads above.
Changing to value/smart price produce was probably the best thing we ever did.
There's absolutely nothing wrong with the food and you get a lot more for less.
Rice, pasta, potatoes, tinned veg, fresh veg — you can't really go wrong. If they don't do a Value version of the product, they usually do a 'discount brand' version which is much cheaper than the named-brand product.
We've had a lot of fun trying Value versions of things we used to insist had to be named-brand. Nutella, Marmite, honey, crisps etc.
Something else we noticed is, quite often the Value stuff tastes better than the standard Tesco branded equivalent.
The only named-brand item we can't ween ourselves off is Diet Coke!
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£100/month seems on the low side - me and my partner spend roughly £60 a week on food, cooking all meals from scratch. Fruit & veg comes mainly from the market, meat and bread from Waitrose and most other stuff from Sainsbury's or Morrisons (depending on which shop we're going closer to that weekend). I suppose if you ate lots of basic stuff and instant noodles you could do it; I'd rather spend a little more and get good quality food and not be eating packet noodles every other day myself 
Some value stuff is fine and some isn't - the trick is finding which ones you're OK with. Sainsbury's basics peppers for example (£1.35 I think for 4/5) are good and generally better quality than the market ones. Waitrose basics stuff is generally on a par with the better versions of other supermarket stuff
Some value stuff is fine and some isn't - the trick is finding which ones you're OK with. Sainsbury's basics peppers for example (£1.35 I think for 4/5) are good and generally better quality than the market ones. Waitrose basics stuff is generally on a par with the better versions of other supermarket stuff
2 adults and 2 kids and we easily spend £100 a week on food, and it's not like we pig out or have mountains of snacks and stuff.
Food prices have gone up about 25% though, couple of years back we'd spend on average about £80 for a weekly shop, we buy roughly the same stuff now and it's £100. Mad really.
Food prices have gone up about 25% though, couple of years back we'd spend on average about £80 for a weekly shop, we buy roughly the same stuff now and it's £100. Mad really.
Apologies then, just seemed unusual advice coming from a chef to be recommending things like packet soups.
Again, as above. If we're talking about produce then a market or grocer is nearly always a better bet.
That's a very misleading headline, on form for the DM.
The cost of pineapples increasing 33.6%? A good example of cherry picking, it's hardly a staple.
The article actually concludes quite sensibly...
It's largely an issue of perception/ignorance. Prices have gone up a few percent, which is to be expected, but it hardly puts things out of reach.DM said:
And that's the heart of it, people have different priorities these days, they're spending a lower proportion of their income on food than they ever have. Saying fresh fruit and veg is too expensive is just a very lazy excuse.
My weekly bill today was £9.11 and included fruit (bananas and apples). Yeah, ok I do a "big shop" ever 4-5 weeks whereby that weeks bill is around £25-30 which is when I buy the main part of my evening meal (chicken, pork, beef) which I then split and freeze.
I would suggest (for a single person) that £20/week would be a minimum you could spend to cover breakfast, lunch and dinner and have it relatively balanced. I spent that for the month of November (£80) and a little more for the month of October (£100) which was a 5 week month (payday to payday).
I will leave it up to you to see if it is balanced:
Brekkie - Porridge with milk and sliced banana
Lunch - 4 x sandwiches with cheese/ham/salad leaves/salad cream + an apple
Dinner - Meat (pork, chicken, beef) with boiled potatoes and some frozen veg
I drink water with all meals which I get from the tap via a Brita filter jug or water machine at work
Do I eat like a king? Not at all but it is nice enough and includes fruit and veg daily.
Edit: I meant to add - I don't have any snacks or sweets/biscuits in the house. Sometimes I can be sat there and I feel like a bit of chocolate or a biscuit so it can be a pain at times but the OP never asked if it was good, just if it was possible
I would suggest (for a single person) that £20/week would be a minimum you could spend to cover breakfast, lunch and dinner and have it relatively balanced. I spent that for the month of November (£80) and a little more for the month of October (£100) which was a 5 week month (payday to payday).
I will leave it up to you to see if it is balanced:
Brekkie - Porridge with milk and sliced banana
Lunch - 4 x sandwiches with cheese/ham/salad leaves/salad cream + an apple
Dinner - Meat (pork, chicken, beef) with boiled potatoes and some frozen veg
I drink water with all meals which I get from the tap via a Brita filter jug or water machine at work
Do I eat like a king? Not at all but it is nice enough and includes fruit and veg daily.
Edit: I meant to add - I don't have any snacks or sweets/biscuits in the house. Sometimes I can be sat there and I feel like a bit of chocolate or a biscuit so it can be a pain at times but the OP never asked if it was good, just if it was possible
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I agree, it's high in fat but it's far from disgusting.
It tastes no different to 'regular brand' mince once you've drained the fat off.
Considering how much cheaper it is, I think it's a small inconvenience to put up with.