What is a good salary in UK at present?

[regulus]

Interesting thread. Our HH income is quite high.

We've been looking at potential moving back to the UK, and as such I've been loosely looking at jobs. I'm quite shocked at how little the permanent jobs in my field pay in the UK. Contracting, yes, it can be quite lucrative, but the permie positions don't pay any more than what I remember getting 10 years ago when I still lived there.

 

[Things change I've changed]

Probably need to add more for food. I do £100 a week just for myself!

Holy moly!, 5k a year on food just for yourself!?, I'm assuming you're including eating out, restaurants, takeaways in that?

Also what to people consider as "decent quality food" as I've seen that mentioned quite a few times as justification, I personally consider 'decent' food as simple whole foods which are quite cheap, or you guys meaning expensive artisan foods from Waitrose?

 

[XeNoN89]

Holy moly!, 5k a year on food just for yourself!?, I'm assuming you're including eating out, restaurants, takeaways in that?

Also what to people consider as "decent quality food" as I've seeed that mentioned quite a few times as justification, I personally consider 'decent' food as simple whole foods which are quite cheap, or you guys meaning expensive artisan foods from Waitrose?

I don't really eat take aways anymore. Maybe only a few times a year, same with eating out. £100 is just my usual weekly shop and hello fresh meals

 

[regulus]

We're in NZ and our food bill for 2 adults and a growing little gnome is about £100 a week, give or take. And that's shopping the specials almost exclusively.

Crazy how expensive food is here and how comparatively cheap it is in the UK.

 

[NotAGolf]

I don't really eat take aways anymore. Maybe only a few times a year, same with eating out. £100 is just my usual weekly shop and hello fresh meals

How much is hello fresh? I'm guessing a decent chunk of that £100.

I've had a couple of decent looking offers (40-50% off) from them and similar providers, but after pricing up how much it would cost to make myself, they're way more expensive. Even with the convenience factor, I still don't think think it's worth it, even with the a heavily discounted rate.

If anyone pays full rate for these sorts of services, they're either loaded, lazy, or have very little spare time.

 

[LiE]

3 meals per day delivered each week is £70 (without discount). This is what I’d do if I was a single guy.

 

[NotAGolf]

We're in NZ and our food bill for 2 adults and a growing little gnome is about £100 a week, give or take. And that's shopping the specials almost exclusively.

Crazy how expensive food is here and how comparatively cheap it is in the UK.

I'm in the UK and average 550 per month. That's for 2 adults and 2 young kids. We shop sensibly, make most things from scratch, batch cook a few dishes and stick to own/value brands, so I wouldn't say it sounds much cheaper than than NZ.

Admittedly that is our grocery spend, not just food, so includes things like toilet roll and cleaning products etc.

 

[NotAGolf]

3 meals per day delivered each week is £70 (without discount). This is what I’d do if I was a single guy.

You're showing the 3 day plan. Is that not just 3 meals a day for 3 days, meaning you're on your own for the other 4 days of the week?

 

[Nitefly]

I think we pay around £45 a week for 5 meals from Gousto (for two). Pretty good I think, don’t think you could do it for cheaper buying it yourself and get the same variety… add in the time of going to the shops, planning etc. Good value I think.

 

[LuckyBenski]

I think we pay around £45 a week for 5 meals from Gousto (for two). Pretty good I think, don’t think you could do it for cheaper buying it yourself and get the same variety… add in the time of going to the shops, planning etc. Good value I think.

£4.50/head sounds reasonably expensive for home cook ingredients. I suppose if you're eating quality meat then that can be £2-3 of each portion but still, when I start approaching a fiver just in ingredients I start considering it a fancy/premium meal.

 

[XeNoN89]

How much is hello fresh? I'm guessing a decent chunk of that £100.

I've had a couple of decent looking offers (40-50% off) from them and similar providers, but after pricing up how much it would cost to make myself, they're way more expensive. Even with the convenience factor, I still don't think think it's worth it, even with the a heavily discounted rate.

If anyone pays full rate for these sorts of services, they're either loaded, lazy, or have very little spare time.

Hello fresh works out about £35-40 for the 4 meal plan. I usually split the meals over a dinner and lunch so I get 8 meals for that which doesn't seem too bad

 

[Nitefly]

£4.50/head sounds reasonably expensive for home cook ingredients. I suppose if you're eating quality meat then that can be £2-3 of each portion but still, when I start approaching a fiver just in ingredients I start considering it a fancy/premium meal.

Yup you can do it a bit cheaper but you have to factor in the effort + faff of shopping / variety / time saved as well as the price.

Here’s a few weeks of our recent orders… there’s just no way I’d be cooking things like this of my own accord (researching what to cook, shopping lists etc) and they are generally pretty darn tasty.

The usual thing is just “dinner time uuhhh which card uhhhh this one” and 20-40 mins later you’ve prepped something nice that’s also a surprise.

Edit - that carrot one at the bottom was amazing. Drizzled honey over curried roasted veg and chopped pistachios… puree’d carrots with cream cheese and that over the curried risotto rice. Just awesome.

 

[M1k3H]

We have been using Gousto for at least a couple of years now and although the cost is a little bit more expensive than buying the ingredients yourself (provided you can find small portions you need; otherwise you are spending loads on big bottles or large quantities of spices you might never use again), the variety, quality and taste of food is extremely good; so good in fact that our eating budget has fallen as we can cook better quality food at home than going out at most places. So we eat more at home.

Couple more things are: trying so many new foods that I may never have tried going out and the ability to control our calorie intake (with less fuss anyway).

 

[LuckyBenski]

No doubt about the variety and planning/decision making benefits. When I was vegan I tried some meal kits as my usual "Don't eat meat, can't buy those" excuse didn't work on the salesperson

It was so great knowing all the midweek meals were sorted with zero warmup time. Just go in the kitchen, grab the ingredients from the card and get cracking.

I did find after a few months the discounts dried up and we'd tried all the recipes. At that point we kept the recipe cards but would go and buy the ingredients ourselves. That was still a good method as it was zero brain effort.

 

[Freefaller]

Holy moly!, 5k a year on food just for yourself!?, I'm assuming you're including eating out, restaurants, takeaways in that?

Also what to people consider as "decent quality food" as I've seeed that mentioned quite a few times as justification, I personally consider 'decent' food as simple whole foods which are quite cheap, or you guys meaning expensive artisan foods from Waitrose?

For me it's going to the local butcher and the local farm shops that are all around us. We do multiple shops a week and only go to supermarket for large shops for frozen section, and cooking ingredients and larder fillers.

We only have a Waitrose in town which suits me nicely. But our butcher is all locally sourced meat and it's heaven. Yes it's more expensive than supermarket meat but it's not even comparable in terms of quality.

We normally get 5kg of chicken breasts form them, steaks, and minced meats (pork and beef). Bacon, lamb etc...it clocks up but the quality is second to none.

 

[dlockers]

We have been using Gousto for at least a couple of years now and although the cost is a little bit more expensive than buying the ingredients yourself (provided you can find small portions you need; otherwise you are spending loads on big bottles or large quantities of spices you might never use again), the variety, quality and taste of food is extremely good; so good in fact that our eating budget has fallen as we can cook better quality food at home than going out at most places. So we eat more at home.

Couple more things are: trying so many new foods that I may never have tried going out and the ability to control our calorie intake (with less fuss anyway).

You only need to avoid 1 takeaway for Gousto make financial sense. Even if it costs more, I found I was saving a fortune. I stopped because I got a bit bored but I am likely to kick it off again.

 

[LiE]

You only need to avoid 1 takeaway for Gousto make financial sense. Even if it costs more, I found I was saving a fortune. I stopped because I got a bit bored but I am likely to kick it off again.

My wife complained that too many of the dishes were a variant of a curry so we stopped.

 

[Freefaller]

Well I've learned something from this thread. Gousto. Never heard of it. If it helps broaden palates then it seems good.

 

[A2Z]

All these food meal sites, they just send you the ingredients right, and you still have to make it yourself? Never used them.

I find cooking the most boring thing ever and hate doing it. Need to get a wife in the house to do it all for me .

 

[dlockers]

All these food meal sites, they just send you the ingredients right, and you still have to make it yourself? Never used them.

I find cooking the most boring thing ever and hate doing it. Need to get a wife in the house to do it all for me .

Yeah. Basically. The key thing is you don't have to meal plan and they come with recipe cards. I like them as they are super low brain power. Lots of feedback from trolls when I made a thread in La Cuisine who couldn't understand it, but I still really rate them. Some folk obsess/look forward to the big shop though, which I find even weirder.