You've really got me thinking Linda...There are 5 of us here all the time, often 7 and extra friends quite often as well. My shopping bill was about £120 today, loads of SW stuff in there. I don't buy ready meals, biscuits, cake etc and have always cooked our meals. I buy tinned pulses, baked beans, sweet corn and tomatoes. Frozen peas, broad beans, spinach....We have our own eggs , but that's not cheap as the corn is expensive; fruit from the orchard and grow veg, especially in the late spring/summer. Meat sometimes, I think all the lamb and mutton has gone now though. I've still got a couple of sacks of spuds which I hope won't start to chit, but it's a bit late and they might. We never waste any food, anything that isn't fit for us to eat goes in the chicken bowl - stale bread, tea bags, scraps from plates, veg and fruit peelings....I probably won't have to do a big shop for a week, but you can bet we'll need things like loo roll, tea and main meal type protein later on. I still need to get a chicken from the butcher tomorrow and there may be odds and ends I've forgotten - I was away from home and didn't have a list.
I used to shop online and if I bothered to get myself organised really should do again, I'm sure that I would spend less. I think the weekly bills are high, but ours always have been, sometimes I think I should just chuck £20 notes into the septic tank and cut out the 'middle man', after all that's where it all ends up!
I often work on that government survey which you see on the telly about the cost of living - the one where they show you the basket of goods. The results of our work in February have just been released....From the information I collect, people with families the size of ours often spend more than I do and a lot of processed food is bought and very little fresh.
It's difficult working and cooking economically, sometimes I get organised with the slow cooker, or put something in the Rayburn in the winter, but often not. Actually, planning better would be a very good idea.
We eat lots of soup though - at the moment nettle, pea and mint and I've used Alli's recipe for butternut squash soup recently.
Rarely have puddings, again often fruit, fresh or from the freezer or garden - wonderful forced rhubarb there at the moment - cooked with ginger and Splenda, yum!
Poor OH has just come in to say he's a mini's widow! I'll go and see him now! xx
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