running out of food budget - did I underestimate my food cost or did I buy too much luxury food item?

[cjs5]

@confuseddeist You are eating lots of ready meals which are more expensive than cooking for yourself so it’s not too surprising, also as someone else has pointed out are you eating 2 pizzas for one meal? Il

 

[confuseddeist]

@cjs5 I'll try to cut it later and look for some good breakfast recipe.

 

[kiritsugu]

@confuseddeist

Butter Croissant x 3 £1.11

pasta 500 g x 2 £0.58

Some of these seem really expensive! Tesco do 4 croissants for £1.75, and 20p for 500g of spaghetti.

 

[confuseddeist]

@kiritsugu The pound amount is the total, not each. That is 1.11 for 3 croissants and 0.58 for 1 kg pasta (spaghetti is cheaper though).

 

[cnghello]

@confuseddeist Two ready meals or two pizzas per meal? That seems a bit excessive to me.

 

[confuseddeist]

@cnghello Do you mean that ready meals or pizzas are luxury food items that I shouldn't eat many on a budget?

 

[cnghello]

@confuseddeist Not saying they’re luxury, I’m saying it’s over eating. One pizza is one meal.

 

[anma]

@cnghello Yeah I don't know if the list is misleading or if OP is really buying 21 ready meals in a 5 day period on top of all of the ingredients for another dozen meals.

e: Oh right. Yeah OP if you eat twice as much as a normal person per meal then yes you will spend twice as much as a normal person.

 

[confuseddeist]

@anma So if I eat twice as much as a normal person per meal is £10 / day appropriate? If so I change my budget from £5 to £10 per day. (Moreover, I suspect that I'll still dropping weight now - I'll need a few more weeks to confirm if I'm eating the appropriate amount of food)

 

[ribs26]

@confuseddeist Yes! You could make meals four times the size of a ready meal for less money.

 

[resjudicata]

@confuseddeist Yeah, I'm kinda lost on two pizzas a meal and such? By myself one pizza is more than enough and they're about £1-£1.59 at Aldi, when there's my partner it's still one between us and usually chips. Maybe alongside some onion rings or little chicken bites.
(I'm a sucker for their "takeaway" pizzas).

As a single person, I'm probably spending £20-£30 a week on a shop at the lowest or £40-£50 highest when I need extras like cleaning products, toiletries, or a restock of tinned products etc. and/or budgeting my partner staying but he usually contributes those times, too.

 

[jjrakman]

@confuseddeist We're a family of 4, adult couple plus a 5 year old and 2 year old, and our food shop is £70 a week or thereabouts. And we don't skimp on stuff. We're in Worcestershire.

 

[haldog]

@confuseddeist Jesus. We are a Waitrose couple who live very well on fancy artisan cheese, organic meat and lovely things. We pay £10/day/person (£140/week) for three meals a day. How on earth are you spending the same money in Aldi?

 

[confuseddeist]

@haldog I haven't visited Aldi yet. I've compared prices in Lidl and Asda. Is Aldi cheaper than these 2?

 

[haldog]

@confuseddeist Aldi, Lidl, whatever. The point is that is a vast amount of money to spend on food.

 

[michaeltenebro]

@confuseddeist How long are you averaging over to get £10 a day? If you are bulk buying then you will sometimes spend what looks to be more than your budget (when you buy the bulk items), but it should even out over time because you should spend less than your budget when you are using up the items you bought earlier.

For comparison, we budget £40 a week, which works out at less than £6 a day for two people, so if you really are spending £10 a day on average then it will definitely be possible to reduce it.

 

[confuseddeist]

@michaeltenebro I'm not bulk buying. Every time I buy only last me 2-3 days, at most 5 and I'm visiting the supermarket every day. The refrigerator in my studio is not big so I can't bulk buy a lot.

Currently I have 9 days of data since I moved into my first home in the UK.

 

[looktothefuture]

@confuseddeist You should be bulk buying meat and use the freezer

 

[confuseddeist]

@looktothefuture My freezer is very small, 2 supermarket pizzas already fill it up.