How do people live off like £30 a week?!?

People who need to spend £50 a week on food must be so over weight.

You can't call the results anomalous until you've conducted a proper study, calculated the statistical significance of the results. You actually agreed with this, so really you're the idiot here. All of my friends at univeristy didn't spend less than £30 a week, so i think i have some grounds for saying it's rather tough to live on less than this.

I actually find meat can be cheaper from M&S (not steak) because of their 3 for £10 offer, but I think that may have ended

Ham and chicken are definitely cheaper from M&S with their 3 for £5 deal (again, this was not on last time i went), dependig on the kind of ham/chicken you usually get.

£50 on food a week for one person is a lot of money, y'know. :/

Assuming a family of four, that'd be more than £800 for a month's worth of shopping - I doubt your mother spends that much at home, and if she does then... . That's nearly my step-dad's monthly wage, and I suspect it's more than half for a lot of people's income on here, so you gotta get cheap with stuff sometimes. :P

You can easily survive on £20 a week for food just by buying in bulk/buying smart/buying reduced items (especially the latter, although it usually involves visiting the supermarket more often because of the forward expiracy dates :P). It's more of a struggle not to spend too much money on random crap throughout the week, although I suspect that depends a lot on what kind of person you are, or if that's your modus operandi.

Why are you so desperate to be right about this? Clearly not everyone finds it difficult to live off £30. If you do, that's just fine. That doesn't mean you have to make everybody else feel the same. Your uni is one of hundreds, your friends a handful out of millions of students. Let it go? You don't have to win, here.

All of my friends at univeristy didn't spend less than £30 a week, so i think i have some grounds for saying it's rather tough to live on less than this.

I would NEVER buy reduced stuff from a supermarket, unless it was non-food. I have seen where they store the "damaged" goods, and it is not pretty, and tends to be next to a maggot infested (outdoor) skip.

no, i will win.

My Shopping List last weeK:


1 Garlic: 25p
1 Large onion: 30p
2 Carrots: 27p
1 Large Parsnip (enough for 2 servings): 27p
1 Large Courgette (2 servings): 89p
Handful of Mushrooms: 35p
1 pot of Creme Fraiche (for pasta, will be enough for four portions) £1
Packet of Bread Mix (for home made bread): 67p
1kg dry pasta: (enough for an entire week) £1.10
Pork Shoulder Joint: £3 (on offer, will be a roast meal for two, plus meat for curry and sandwiches)
4 Large spuds: 70p
Tin of Baked beans: (2 servings) 49p
Block of cheese (will last two weeks) £3.89
Tinned Tomatoes: 31p
6 free range eggs (not the cheap battery farmed ones) £1.63
16 Rashers of bacon (enough for two weeks) £3
1 litre fresh orange juice: 56p
1 pint milk 45p
2 packs noodles: 56p
1 frozen pizza (on offer) £1
1 Jar Strawberry jam (will last 2-3 weeks)


I bought double portions with a friend, we split the costs and it came to £12.40 each, but if you bought it alone It'd be about £15, doesn't include things you'd already have around the house like salt, pepper, cooking oil, butter etc.

With that, I can eat:

Breakkie:
Omelette or scrambled eggs on toast
Jam on toast
Eggs and bacon
Many cups of tea
Fresh Orange Juice

Lunch:
Noodles, alone or in a stir fry
Many Fried Egg and Bacon Sandwiches (guilty pleasure of mine)
Cheese sandwich or Jam Sandwich, or Bacon Buttie if you want
Dippy soft boiled egg and soldiers

Dinner:
Home Made Vegetable soup (potato, parsnip and carrot) with homemade bread
Bacon, courgette and mushroom pasta with creme fraiche (very nice)
A home made curry (with the onion, garlic, canned tomato and a zillion spices we have in the cupboard)
A Jacket potato with cheese/beans/etc
Home made loaded skins with bacon and cheese
Roast potatoes for my roast pork joint with roast parsnips.
A lazy day when I just eat a pizza for tea

And any mix and match variant thereof. I'm eating very well thanks

no, i will win.

It is tough to live on less, if you are not used to it. Going from Finest/M&S down to value brands is going to be uncomfortable.

I doubt it, it's called higher quality food.

I would NEVER buy reduced stuff from a supermarket, unless it was non-food. I have seen where they store the "damaged" goods, and it is not pretty, and tends to be next to a maggot infested (outdoor) skip.

Sainsbury's is cheap as! <=D I work there ^_^

You'll make people who can clearly quite easily live off £30 a week for food believe they can't? Wouldn't that involve hypnosis?

I doubt it, unless you're comparing it to supermarket's own brand. Most products are made in the same factory, just put in different packaging and priced higher for people like yourself who think higher cost = higher quality. Can't say I blame them if it brings in more millions, it's an extra gold toilet seat for the CEO.

No i'll introduce them to my regular food and then they'll no want to go back to their £30 a week food.

In the supermarkets I frequent, I often see the staff take stuff from the shelf, look at the dates, and use that little ticket-thingy machine to give it a new price sticker before putting it on a shelf at the end of aisle, in full view of anyone passing by. :P

Without the reduced food section, I would be subsisting mainly on cereal, fruit and 9p noodles. :l