The cost of healthy living (UK)

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  • TRISTAR
    TRISTAR Posts: 105 Member
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    I have noticed it's alot more expensive, but I'm having to shop around now for the best deals. I buy my skimmed milk from Lidl (at the moment of offer for 39p!), and I normally go to Sainsburys where it's 79p!
  • mrskatiepowell
    mrskatiepowell Posts: 68
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    Maybe worth jumping on the Big Retailers websites and doing a bit of price comparison? Create a shopping list of 15 things that you buy all the time and see which is cheaper?

    I do this quite often...sad but true :)

    That's not a bad idea. We go to Tesco out of habit. We changed to Asda for a while but found that the fresh fruit and veg generally had a poor life span. I always though Sainsburys was more expensive than Tesco & Asda
  • mrskatiepowell
    mrskatiepowell Posts: 68
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    I have noticed it's alot more expensive, but I'm having to shop around now for the best deals. I buy my skimmed milk from Lidl (at the moment of offer for 39p!), and I normally go to Sainsburys where it's 79p!

    We get our milk from our local shop. £1.00 for a huge carton :smile:
  • Linda_Darlene
    Linda_Darlene Posts: 453 Member
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    Has anybody else noticed since having a healthier lifestyle that the food shop is now much more expensive?
    Is it just me or is it cheaper to be unhealthy than it is to be healthy?
    When my husband and I had a porr diet our weekly shop was about £50.00 now it's more like £90.00!
    Fruit, veg, meat, fish - the prices are astronomical!
  • Anonymou5
    Anonymou5 Posts: 92
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    Loads of good advice here.

    I think the problem is that we don't eat staples like cereal, pasta or potatoes.

    My OH and I eat mainly salads with chicken/turkey/prawns/salmon usually twice daily so it's pretty costly.
    I try and buy frozen chicken breasts rather than fresh but that's still approx £5 per kg.

    Of course we save money because we don't go out but a healthy meal for 2 of say steamed chicken(£2) with lettuce (£1), tomatoes (50p), spring onion (50p), beetroot (50p), peppers (50p) and some feta (£1) would set us back approx £6.00. Whereas a chicken kiev with mash and beans would be about £2.50.

    I just think it's outrageous that a large pack of Doritos is £1.00 but a punnet of blueberries can be £4.00

    Maybe worth jumping on the Big Retailers websites and doing a bit of price comparison? Create a shopping list of 15 things that you buy all the time and see which is cheaper?

    I do this quite often...sad but true :)

    Replace breast with legs, wings etc.
  • alliegeorge
    alliegeorge Posts: 114
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    Has anybody else noticed since having a healthier lifestyle that the food shop is now much more expensive?
    Is it just me or is it cheaper to be unhealthy than it is to be healthy?
    When my husband and I had a porr diet our weekly shop was about £50.00 now it's more like £90.00!
    Fruit, veg, meat, fish - the prices are astronomical!

    Not really - my family spend £100-£110 a week on healthy shopping (there's four of us); whereas my boyfriends family spend around £130ish on pretty crappy stuff & it barely lasts them the week.
  • MrsWilsoncroft
    MrsWilsoncroft Posts: 969 Member
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    The thing that annoys me the most is when you go into the supermarkets & everything on offer is all junk food etc!

    I'd like it if they put more things like fruit, vegetables & meats on offer instead of crisps, cakes and high fattening meals!

    I do find I spend abit more now i eat healthy though as i am always stocking up on fresh foods now rather than buying ready meals, tins and packets etc.

    I try to shop around though, i do some shopping at Aldi and some at Asda & Sainsbury's so i can get the most of each supermarket.

    I go with a shopping list too & stick to it & also try & plan our meals ahead so i know in advance what foods we need.

    Also going into the shops late at night i pick up alot of reduced items which i can freeze.

    Stacey x
  • mrskatiepowell
    mrskatiepowell Posts: 68
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    Loads of good advice here.

    I think the problem is that we don't eat staples like cereal, pasta or potatoes.

    My OH and I eat mainly salads with chicken/turkey/prawns/salmon usually twice daily so it's pretty costly.
    I try and buy frozen chicken breasts rather than fresh but that's still approx £5 per kg.

    Of course we save money because we don't go out but a healthy meal for 2 of say steamed chicken(£2) with lettuce (£1), tomatoes (50p), spring onion (50p), beetroot (50p), peppers (50p) and some feta (£1) would set us back approx £6.00. Whereas a chicken kiev with mash and beans would be about £2.50.

    I just think it's outrageous that a large pack of Doritos is £1.00 but a punnet of blueberries can be £4.00

    Maybe worth jumping on the Big Retailers websites and doing a bit of price comparison? Create a shopping list of 15 things that you buy all the time and see which is cheaper?

    I do this quite often...sad but true :)

    Replace breast with legs, wings etc.

    This will sound odd but i have a phobia of eating meat on the bone so thighs, wings and legs are a no go
  • skinyZ
    skinyZ Posts: 89 Member
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    Hmm, frozen vegetables for a week - £6-10
    Mince meat - £5 (1kg)
    Frozen Assorted Chicken Portions (1kg) - £3
    Sandwhich steaks (2 packs of 5) - £5.80
    Potatoes - £3
    Rice - £2
    Gravy granules - £0.50
    Sauces (occasional purchase) - £3
    Sausages - (£4)
    Eggs - £2
    Oatmeal - £1

    Don't seem too bad to me! (that's for 2 peeps)

    wow! no way is that your shopping for a week!
  • amy1612
    amy1612 Posts: 1,356 Member
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    Oh and Broxi, to save more money...buy a large bag of brown rice, cook it, and rinse it immediately in cold water until cool, thn you can store it in the fridge/freezer in containers and either heat it or have it cold in a salad. Much cheaper.

    I really should do that, it's more laziness on my part and I was worried about it spoiling. When you make a batch, how many days do you expect to get per cook?

    I was cooking it on Sunday night and making enough to last mon-fri :) You could do less if youre worried about it going off, but I never had an issue. :)
  • BSummers321
    BSummers321 Posts: 94 Member
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    It sucks that all the unhealthy food seems be the cheapest, having a wander around mysupermarket and all the major stores have offers on chocolate and doughnuts and everything that is bad for you, while the fruit (so glad that there is a lidl near my house - get fruit and veg for half the price compared to other stores!) and veg is expensive. What I do is buy in bulk when there is an offer!

    Also I noticed if you go to the cheap shops aka poundland, home bargains etc you can get things like crispbread and nuts etc far cheaper than in the major stores. Went into poundland a few months ago and got ryvita 2 packs for £1! And they're about 1.10 for one pack in most stores.

    I tend to stick to Lidl and Aldi, simply because they're much cheaper for healthy food, and every other day I check: .mysupermarket.co.uk or hotukdeals to see what offers are on in the major supermarkets! Saved so much money!
  • Hikaru37
    Hikaru37 Posts: 177 Member
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    Head to Tesco/Asda/Morrisons etc about half 11 and get all the reduced fruit n veg!! They last a good extra few days or freeze any you won't use. Costs about 10p each!!
  • Anonymou5
    Anonymou5 Posts: 92
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    Hmm, frozen vegetables for a week - £6-10
    Mince meat - £5 (1kg)
    Frozen Assorted Chicken Portions (1kg) - £3
    Sandwhich steaks (2 packs of 5) - £5.80
    Potatoes - £3
    Rice - £2
    Gravy granules - £0.50
    Sauces (occasional purchase) - £3
    Sausages - (£4)
    Eggs - £2
    Oatmeal - £1

    Don't seem too bad to me! (that's for 2 peeps)

    wow! no way is that your shopping for a week!

    It was this week, what's wrong with it like?
  • Kathrynha77
    Kathrynha77 Posts: 103 Member
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    I get my meat, fruit and veg at the local market, it's loads cheaper, and fresher.

    For toiletries, washing powder, loo roll, tinned stuff, packets, soft drinks, cereal etc check out B and M, Home bargain, pound stretcher, or similar stores. These things are often loads cheaper there.

    Also my main money saving at the moment is getting stuff out of the garden, My fruit and veg plot is all in pots, so not loads of space, but I'm getting lettuce, radishes and herbs at the moment from it, and in the next week I should be getting strawberries and blackcurrants, and later in the summer loads of other things.

    Last year I got a packet of Strawberry seeds for about £1, then the cost of some pots (try freecycle) and compost and this year I have about 80 strawberry plants with fruit developing on them. Over the summer each plant will probably produce a punnet of fruit, so thats about £160 of fruit, and strawberry plants last 3 years so thats £480 of fruit in total from a £1 packet of seeds. And that isn't taking into account the fact that strawberry plants send out runners and produce new plants.

    One word of advice - don't sow the whole packet of seeds unless you really really love lots of strawberries :)
  • BSummers321
    BSummers321 Posts: 94 Member
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    Yes go for the reduced stuff at the end of the night, although I've noticed my local tesco has stopped reducing food as much as they used to (10p for a cauliflower! I was in heaven that day, oh what a saddo), used to be pennies for food, now they knock 10 or 20p off veg, when I could get it next door in lidl for half price and fresh!
  • blazeybug87
    blazeybug87 Posts: 226 Member
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    Don't know if any of you have a Farmfoods locally but they do frozen meat/fish really cheap and Weightwatchers meals (great for quick low cal lunch) for £1 etc.


    May have to take a little walk down there now I've said that...
  • mrskatiepowell
    mrskatiepowell Posts: 68
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    The thing that annoys me the most is when you go into the supermarkets & everything on offer is all junk food etc!

    I'd like it if they put more things like fruit, vegetables & meats on offer instead of crisps, cakes and high fattening meals!

    I do find I spend abit more now i eat healthy though as i am always stocking up on fresh foods now rather than buying ready meals, tins and packets etc.

    I try to shop around though, i do some shopping at Aldi and some at Asda & Sainsbury's so i can get the most of each supermarket.

    I go with a shopping list too & stick to it & also try & plan our meals ahead so i know in advance what foods we need.

    Also going into the shops late at night i pick up alot of reduced items which i can freeze.

    Stacey x

    Thanks Stacey.
    I never buy impulse items - i'm pretty strict, i agree with you though. It would be nice to see a BOGOF on berries rather than bakery items :happy:
  • amy1612
    amy1612 Posts: 1,356 Member
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    Hmm, frozen vegetables for a week - £6-10
    Mince meat - £5 (1kg)
    Frozen Assorted Chicken Portions (1kg) - £3
    Sandwhich steaks (2 packs of 5) - £5.80
    Potatoes - £3
    Rice - £2
    Gravy granules - £0.50
    Sauces (occasional purchase) - £3
    Sausages - (£4)
    Eggs - £2
    Oatmeal - £1

    Don't seem too bad to me! (that's for 2 peeps)

    wow! no way is that your shopping for a week!

    It was this week, what's wrong with it like?

    Think they were impressed that it seemed so little, thats a good sensible shop right there.
  • roachhaley
    roachhaley Posts: 978 Member
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    Yeah, but we manage on about 45 a week (2 people, only me eating healthy)
  • robinhardysmall
    robinhardysmall Posts: 246 Member
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    It's not just the UK that it is more costly to buy healthier~ in the U.S. it is very expensive as well. Buying healthier costs more- however I realize that the cost now will be very little compared to the cost of multiple prescriptions for multiple medical comorbidities as I get older.

    I do try and use specials when I can- coupons, etc...

    I am worried ~ as my husband and I are going to the UK for Christmas this year- (my husband is British) and we are coming to see his family for two weeks. But now I'm worried I will have to get a second job to pay for the food :)

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