Ah yes...like us, you eat quite cheaply - but it's not quite correct to say that: you, like us, grow some food, which means our situations can't directly compare with 'living on £X a week'.clv101 wrote:My partner and I, over the last year, have averaged just under £21 per week, per person on all food and drink. That's buying bulk from Essential Trading all the dry (flour, rice, bulgar, lentil, nuts...), most tins (beans, chickpeas...), local green grocers for fruit and veg, local milkman for milk... and yes, the supermarket for cheese, yogurt, eggs... We don't tend to eat any meat at home. Milk, eggs, most dried, flour, butter pretty much always organic. We also have a very productive allotment, around two thirds of our evening meals over the year contain something from the allotment (potatoes, squash, parsnips, carrots, cabbage, beans, artichokes...).emordnilap wrote:£10 a week sounds very low - a product of industrial pharming. I very much doubt you can buy sufficient nutrients for so little and you're probably turning yourself into a toxic repository.
The figure is skewed high by the meals out - mostly associated with 3rd parties (work, friends, parties etc.). It's always a bit annoying to blow a whole weeks 'domestic' food budget on one meal out!
Basically, even good food can be incredibly cheap, circa £1000 per person for a whole year. However, many people are in situations that see them spending £5 on weekday lunch alone (over £1000!) and another few hundred on takeout tea/coffee - before you even think about alcohol! The problem isn't expensive food - in the UK we have some of the cheapest in Europe.
Not growing food would stretch our budget considerably. Conversely, if our money situation weakened, we'd have to put more effort into the garden.
