Do you spend more on SW?

[realslimlady]

Hi there,

Just curious - do people find they spend more on their weekly food shop when they are doing SW? Junk food is supposedly cheaper than fresh produce, but do you find this, or is it balanced out by the lack of naughty extras in the basket?

 

[Jodieboo]

I find I do spend more.. A hell of a lot more actually. My "old" food shop used to cost around £30 a week, now it's doubled.

 

[rach1987]

hi there i believe my shopping bill has gone up. its all the resh fruit and veg . i find that im spending over £20 if not more a week just on fruit and veg , u can cook on a budget though but u have to plan plan plan , as a mopther of 3 i find it hard with the extra cost of slimming world , but the pros , we are healther , and will live longer xx

 

[Cai]

I spend a lot more, or it feels that way! I am having to go stock up on fresh fruit and veg 2-3 times a week; if i don't, i struggle to stick to the diet at all!

 

[AnnaFaraday]

I might spend more at the supermarket, but I don't buy the other things like sweets and I don't eat when I go shopping, or buy things at railway station shops, so overall it is either the same or cheaper.

 

[Ela ine]

Yes, a LOT more.

Although green days are cheap as (slimming world) chips! x

 

[JezVonSavage]

I do but only realised this recently. My average weekly shop is £50 (for 2) plus maybe an extra £10 per week going to the greengrocer for fresh fruit or veg. I didn't think this was bad for the amount we eat until Xmas week, when I sent OH out to do the shop. Rather than go to Asda and buy actual food, he went to Iceland and bought all sorts of pre-made stuff and oven faves (nuggets, chips, pizza etc). A whole weeks shop cost him £23!!! And he bought loads. It lasted about 10 days.

It was ok for xmas week but I couldn't do it now. It was nice in the chaos to just throw stuff in the oven whilst doing something else, but I must have put 4 pound on in a week. And I couldn't poo! Awful.

 

[Lucky7]

Usually yes. But I'm really skint this month though, so still buying fruit and veg (shopping at Asda), but going Green.

Breakfasts have been porridge with fruit in

Lunches have been home-made soups (made in batches and frozen in freezer bags as individual portions. (Favourite so far is made from lentils, swede, onion and a small piece of cooked ham we had left over from Xmas.)

Dinners in 2012 planned & ingredients bought so far:
Vegetable and Lentil dahl served with hard boiled egg and wholemeal rice
Bean, pepper and mushroom chilli with wholemeal rice
Baked eggs with lentils (spanish style - lots of peppers and onions with the lentils)
Spicy chickpeas with wholemeal rice
Mushroom pie (like shepherds pie but mushrooms & rice on bottom) and veg.
Aduki bean shepherds pie and veg.
Asda meatfree balls in spicy tomato and veg sauce served with wholemeal spaghetti and parmesan

For syn treats I bought a pack of 4 caramac ice cream bars for £1 and a pack of 5 Curly Wurleys.

I think that when I've got my finances sorted out, I may carry on the frugal shopping / eating during the week, and just have meat at the weekends as it's saving me a fortune!

 

[xMandyDx]

I do spend more. There's five of us in the house, and I used to get away with €100 euro a week... now it's more like €170!

 

[judimac]

Can't say I do, but that could be because I've always done everything from scratch, and the drinks bill has gone down

 

[Hamish's Mum]

I think my costs are about the same.

I have never bought lots of pre packaged 'junk' type food, have always bought good cuts of meat, fish and lots of vegetables. The fruit is very much more expensive but now I dont buy as much sweets, cakes, crisps its all evens out.

Lunches are much cheaper now, I just make up enough soup in whatever flavour to last 3 days and freeze whats left, so I have a bit extra to spend for our evening meals.

 

[chocolateworm]

I spend more on my actal shops, but i spend less in general- when not on plan i'm always not taking lunch to work and going out to buy some food, costin £2-5 depending on what i get.. It all adds up!

 

[judimac]

I've always known it's cheaper to batch cook but never done it till lately. Now I do a whole pack of chickpeas and make 4 curries for two (I use a pressure cooker for pulses), and do at least 4 meals at a time and freeze. That way I save on electricity too.

 

[BeckyT]

I don't spend any more, in fact I spend less as I batch cook and I have now started going to Aldi for my fruit and veg, some items are less than half the price of asda and Tesco plus they always have a super 6 offer on for 39p. I bought 3 bags o carrots for the same price on one bag at asda this week

Breakfast is usually porridge and now the allowance had increased I have just bought a bag of asda smart price porridge for 74p, it will last me weeks!

Lunch is usually a batch soup I've made and all the veggies come from Aldi

Dinner is often either fish (smoked haddock bought from Iceland, much cheaper than buying fresh fish or some kind of meat like chicken, pork chop, lamb. We always look out for the reduced meat and fish in the supermarket. Yesterday I bought 3 x diced chicken which we will use for a curry, all 3 only came to £3.60 and I will get loads of meals out of them

You can make SW as cheap or as expensive as you like. My advice would be to shop around!

 

[silly sausage]

I think I am spending much less. Scratch cooking works out so cheaply compared so buying readymeals. No takeaway food either and less alcohol.

 

[JezVonSavage]

Usually yes. But I'm really skint this month though, so still buying fruit and veg (shopping at Asda), but going Green.

Do you not find all the veg expensive in asda? In ours it's £1.79 for a pineapple but in our local green grocers it's £1 for 2!! Also, all the root veg in asda is basically £1 if it's pre packed, whereas pre-packed stuff in the local shop is 59p!!

Give the local shops a go!

 

[JezVonSavage]

I think I am spending much less. Scratch cooking works out so cheaply compared so buying readymeals. No takeaway food either and less alcohol.

If I factor in my weekly alcohol allowance then yes, I am definitely saving money. Good point Silly Saus!

 

[Shirleen]

When I think I could spend over a fiver on a sandwich, drink and crisps at lunchtime, and do that daily as opposed to a pkt savoury rice, a hardboiled egg, beetroot and picked onions costing less, or a jacket and beans with a salad for pence!

It also depends on your choices, buy and use a whole chicken will cost less than chicken breasts, pad out curries with lentils or chickpeas or potatoes. Grate loads of carrots into savoury mince it's cheaper cos it goes further!

A big block of cheese lasts ages now!

Choose cheaper veg to bulk your meals and have less of the more expensive ones, same with fruit, chop a couple of apples to go with a few grapes rather than eat half a kilo of grapes!
Value veg is the same just not as pretty.

Ok making your own burgers won't be cheaper but you'll know what's in it!

 

[chiefbridesmaid]

I love the Tesco value frozen mixed veg it's EUR1.25 here and I cook it up with a tin of mushy peas 25c, and fry it up as bubble and squeak or make a vegetable curry out of it.. I usually get 3/4 days breakfast of bubble and lunch vegetable curry out of it! Superfree and have some superspeedy in there too

Shopping around is def the key and ive been buying marked down veg, got a 2.5 kg bag of carrots for 9c the other day, green beans for 10c and a 1kg bag of pots for 19c so delighted and made loads of dinners from it!!

 

[realslimlady]

Thanks for all the replies folks - really interesting reading. I think overall I probably spent less last time I did SW, mainly because I tend to plan ahead more than when I am off the wagon (when I am more likely to impulse buy) and because I was more likely to make my own lunches/have less takeaways. My New Year's resolution, as well as losing weight, is to try and budget the weekly shop better, so I'm glad to see others agreeing that it can be cheaper, even if food costs overall are going up!!