I spend €500pm on groceries

snubbleste

This feeds me and my very hungry partner. Every 10 days I attempt a “big shop” and buy things such as toilet paper, chicken fillets, onions and so on. This shop usually costs about €100.
Inevitably, though, by Wednesday I’m back in Marks & Spencer getting “just one pepper” that morphs into a multipack of cookies, truffle oil and chicken Kiev en croute.

http://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/food-and-drink/swap-shop-a-lidl-shopper-and-an-m-s-fan-switch-stores-for-a-week-1.2437997

€500pm for two on supermarket food. :eek: That is nuts!
The recession must be over.

robertobennini

I collect my groceries from public bins late at night.

kneemos

Sixty odd quid a week each.Not a massive amount.

€1.19 for brocolli? €2.49 for a courgette? Expensive time to be in Lidl.

Nodin

robertobennini wrote: »

I collect my groceries from public bins late at night.

I can't afford night. I have to fight the seagulls for scraps of takeaways at dawn of a Sunday.

Bored_lad

Ya she may overspending by some peoples standards but if she can afford to cover all her other expenses and save at the same time what's the problem?

Duggy747

Is it a crime to have a deep-seated love of pre-prepared giant couscous? I don’t think so. I’m in my late 20s, with no mortgage and no children, so instead of being a wise, grown-up type person and saving, I buy luxury mashed potato.

I wouldn't call it being wise, just being lazy. :pac:

worded

I find the shopping trolleys are not big enough at avoca and invariably have to shop twice there at one visit.

Their Indian chicken curry is to die for though ! Mmmm

nullzero

Not surprising if this person is buying groceries in Marks and Spencer. Just hit Aldi or lidl like the rest of us and enjoy the extra money in your pocket and a beautiful set of ski wear for less than €50.

Giblet

Do people really buy that pre-packed M&S crap and think it's high quality food?

worded

Lovely cheap food ....

Dried red chilli flakes
Oil
Salt

Cut some spuds in wedge shapes
Mix with the above
Roast

Mmmmm

Micky Dolenz

I've no idea. The hired help look after that sort of thing.

mad muffin

I eat wat my master gives me…

Neyite

Did Alison change her name?

smash

€500pm on groceries is easily done. However it's the following statement that makes this person an idiot and quite frankly, a wanker

"Inevitably, though, by Wednesday I’m back in Marks & Spencer getting “just one pepper” that morphs into a multipack of cookies, truffle oil and chicken Kiev en croute."

The Backwards Man

It's not an outrageous amount in fairness. I spend about €200 a month on groceries for just meself and I'm as tight as a whore's handbag. It's less than 50 quid a week.

Lights On

I must try chicken kiev en croute next time I'm in the shop, usually I just get chicken kiev en frozen in a box

BenedrylPete

Are you by any chance a rather portly couple.

Does either (or both) of you lift their abdomen before genitals can be accessed.

Tarzana2

Yer wan thinks it's chefs baking the cookies in M&S? :eek:

BattleCorp

BenedrylPete wrote: »

Are you by any chance a rather portly couple.

Does either (or both) of you lift their abdomen before genitals can be accessed.

If you like nice cuts of meat, fillet steak etc. then you could easily spend a fair bit of money on food.

You'll probably find that there are lots of items other than food in the weekly shop, things like razor blades, fancy shampoo, magazines etc.

Throw in the cost of that stuff on top of the food, then yes, you could easily go to 500pm on spending.

Giblet

Tarzana2 wrote: »

Yer wan thinks it's chefs baking the cookies in M&S? :eek:

The exact scenario she describes is actually what happens in Lidl! They cook them there. The Stillorgan Lidl has ovens behind the cookie / bread section.
Chefs is a bit of a stretch though.

Nodin

BenedrylPete wrote: »

Are you by any chance a rather portly couple.

Does either (or both) of you lift their abdomen before genitals can be accessed.

God no.




That's what the help is for.

blackvalley

Sounds excessive but if you break it down by total number of meals per month it begins to add up .
2 People X 3 meals per day X 30 day month = 180 meals .
500 divided by 180 = 2.80 per meal !.

homerjay2005

snubbleste wrote: »

http://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/food-and-drink/swap-shop-a-lidl-shopper-and-an-m-s-fan-switch-stores-for-a-week-1.2437997

€500pm for two on supermarket food. :eek: That is nuts!
The recession must be over.

€500 for two people, for one month is not that extravagant at all considering where they shop.

somebody in Lidl/Aldi will spend alot less, but they dont shop there so its expected. i saw a woman spend €361 in Super Value last week.

kowloon

Anyone with special dietary requirements gets shafted right in the wallet.

Captain Chaos

That's cheap actually. I was spending close to that on just myself at one point. It's easier and cheaper to buy and cook for more than one.

jamesbere

smash wrote: »

€500pm on groceries is easily done. However it's the following statement that makes this person an idiot and quite frankly, a wanker

"Inevitably, though, by Wednesday I’m back in Marks & Spencer getting “just one pepper” that morphs into a multipack of cookies, truffle oil and chicken Kiev en croute."

Truffle oil, what the actual f**k.

BelleOfTheBall

I feed a family of 4 €100 -€120 a week. That's kids lunches meat veg etc. we do eat a lot of fruit. I have kids with severe allergies and no biscuits, no diluted or fizzy Drinks. Bars of chocolate etc it's doable ud be surprised. Some things I'd make up easily enuff stuffing, homemade soup. Garlic butter, winter mix drizzle of honey etc .the list is endless. Only thing I cant master is baking....aldi is brilliant. There even Christmas selection box dairy free nut free egg free so I will aspire to that!!!when it's out in a few weeks brilliant!

snubbleste

homerjay2005 wrote: »

€500 for two people, for one month is not that extravagant at all considering where they shop.
somebody in Lidl/Aldi will spend a lot less, but they dont shop there so its expected. i saw a woman spend €361 in Super Value last week.

It's a lot, a friggin lot!

sonny.knowles

nullzero wrote: »

Not surprising if this person is buying groceries in Marks and Spencer. Just hit Aldi or lidl like the rest of us and enjoy the extra money in your pocket and a beautiful set of ski wear for less than €50.

By 'rest of us' you mean less than 20%.

BoJack Horseman

jamesbere wrote: »

Truffle oil, what the actual f**k.

Well, what do you use to keep your truffles lubricated?

Overheal

It's all about clearance pricing. I don't care that this expires tomorrow I'm eating it tonight, yo.

jamesbere

BoJack Horseman wrote: »

Well, what do you use to keep your truffles lubricated?

WD40

Nodin

jamesbere wrote: »

Truffle oil, what the actual f**k.

I did a search and found it mentioned on boards at 35 Euro a half litre two years ago. Obviously a vital foodstuff that would be on the weekly shop. I never eat a batter burger without a dash of it.

titan18

250 pp isn't too bad tbf. I wouldn't get close to it myself. 150 a month is plenty really. If you like food, 250 isn't an awful lot. 500pp would have been ridiculous

smash

jamesbere wrote: »

WD40

5W30 might be more suitable

Eugene Norman

The Backwards Man wrote: »

It's not an outrageous amount in fairness. I spend about €200 a month on groceries for just meself and I'm as tight as a whore's handbag. It's less than 50 quid a week.

Cooking doesn't really scale up like that. It gets cheaper the more mouths you feed and the easier bulk purchases become.

It depends, though, on whether "groceries" included other items like cleaning equipment.

nice_guy80

I must tot up how much I spend on food per month

basic shop in Aldi or Lidl

the local butchers and fruit and veg shops love me though

Red King

There is enough in Dominique McMullen's Lidl experience for Paul Howard to launch a whole new series of books.

Absolutely painful.

Anyone ever shop in Iceland, I had never been in one till the other day, its really strange it had very cheap frozen food and very expensive frozen food, lobster tail and turbot side by side with the cheapest of cheap frozen meat.

I can see how you'd spend that much in Ireland if you were keen on things like free range and organic meat and veg. To be honest, as a student I spent a lot on food for that reason - about £260 pm, rather than the Ramen that were the staple diet of my peers. I didn't consider it a waste of money either.

I had a decent student job and I don't drink, before I'm asked how I could afford that.

lisasimpson

Morto for her.. It really was like reading a ross o carroll Kelly piece

kowloon

Overheal wrote: »

It's all about clearance pricing. I don't care that this expires tomorrow I'm eating it tonight, yo.

They see an almost expired kilo of cheese, we see a challenge.

homerjay2005

Captain Chaos wrote: »

That's cheap actually. I was spending close to that on just myself at one point. It's easier and cheaper to buy and cook for more than one.

and come here, while you can see why they spend it (as i said in previous post due to where they actually shop) its not cheap at all - its at the upper end of extremely expensive if you want to be realistic and compared to the average person in ireland.

if you want to buy the most expensive stuff on the market, which you don't have to by the way, thats choice.

but you can be pretty sure theres couple eating in Aldi, getting quality almost as good and spending only about €250-€300 maximum per month. we have guests over regularly for dinners/dinner parties etc and most of the time we buy the food in Aldi.

we have yet to have one bit of food not eaten and we are talking about 200 visitors to our house over the last 4 or 5 years since we started doing it.

"Quality" tends to associated with brand names and price, its food snobbery to be honest.

YFlyer

That's about right. An Indian and a bottle of red each evening.

simdan

When we were doing our mortgage application 2 years ago we realised that our monthly food spend was 1500-2000e per month. This was a combination of fast food, restaurants and grocery shopping and treats. We thought this was normal until I talked about it at work. Lol. Now we manage things differently and are actually able to afford to buy other things haha.

Sebastian Dangerfield

We wouldnt spend too far off that each month, and its certainly not extravagant. I do cook a lot though, and use a lot of ingredients for sauces, rather than use packets / bottles.

Two €120-€150 shops in Aldi, a couple of €50 runs to FX Buckleys for meat and then a few €10-20 stops in Centra for things like salad, milk etc. That covers toiletries, householder cleaners etc though.

We do waste a lot of food which contributes to the bill. Its warm in our apartment and things like broccolli tend to turn after 3-4 days. Open a packet of pittas, use two, and the rest are mouldy 2-3 days later. I also buy lunch meat to offer sandwiches if someone drops over, which generally gets thrown out as we dont really eat much bread.

But no truffle oil to be seen

steddyeddy

That's f-ing idiotic. Some people should learn to budget properly.

Is nobody amazed at the second woman in the article, she managed to feed a family of five for a week from M&S for less than 70 euro.

Galego

We don't mind spending money on good food so would possibly spend something between 100-150 per week for two adults. I would rather eat well and healthy than cheap ****e. We cook all our meals from scratch.

steddyeddy

Galego wrote: »

We don't mind spending money on good food so would possibly spend something between 100-150 per week for two adults. I would rather eat well and healthy than cheap ****e. We cook all our meals from scratch.

That's still stupid IMO. Good quality food shouldn't be that expensive.