Cost of Living

As a student nurse on placement currently I'm spending most of my money on travel expenses so have little money left over for food and other expenses. Whilst I will get my travel cost reimbursed the upfront cost is putting unimaginable strain on my bank balance. When money is stretched I firstly, stop going out that often as it costs a lot of money. Secondly, I look at my food shop and try to cut the cost.

Where you shop plays a big part in the cost of your food. Now we all think supermarkets such as Aldi and Lidl are cheapest, with Tesco, Morrisons and ASDA taking middle ground and Sainsburys and then Waitrose at the top. I am a Sainsburys shopper, I prefer their store layout, I like the range of food and I find the price about right for the quality you get; plus the nectar card offers are great for me.

I know quite a few people who buy pre-prepared food, eg, the packs of pre-cut veg for roasting or cooking with. I always think these must cost so much more than buying the fresh ingredient and cooking from scratch that the convenience isn't worth it.

I wanted to find out two things this week - are low cost supermarkets really that low cost, if so, by how much? And does buying fresh food and cooking from scratch save money, and again if so, how much?

I took my standard shop to each supermarket to compare prices. N.B. My standard shop will last me two weeks.

• Chicken Breasts (pack of 4)
• Beef Mince (500g) 
• Sausages (pack of 6)
• Bacon
• Pasta (500g)
• Pasta Sauce (350g)
• Fajita Kit
• Chopped Tomatoes
• Chickpeas
• Coconut Milk
• Rice (500g)
• Bread (400g loaf)
• Bananas (6)
• Raspberries (250g)
• Grapes (500g)
• Avocados (2)
• Spinach
• Broccoli
• Potatoes (1kg)
• Onions (3)
• Milk (4 pints)
• Yoghurt (2 Tubs)
• Butter (250g)
• Eggs (a dozen)

Sainsburys came in at £36.22

Tesco was £34.87 

ASDA was £33.37

Aldi - Unknown - I couldn't find all of the items on their website but what I could find wasn't drastically cheaper than main supermarkets.

Morrisons - £34.59

So, yes Sainsburys is the most expensive, but not by a big enough margin to make me swap supermarkets. It should be noted that in Sainsburys 4 chicken breasts weigh 650g and cost £4. In Tesco 4 breasts weigh 580g and cost the same. ASDA was 500g for £3.59, Aldi 540g for £3.19 and Morrisons was 485g for £4. So whilst the cost was pretty equal across the board, the weight varied a lot. It is smaller bits of information like this that mean I will stick with Sainsburys.

I am also very fussy about where I buy meat from, I buy meat for the meat content (funnily enough) but often packs of meat contain a lot of starch, fat and water to bulk out the size. Always check the back of the pack to see how much 'meat' you are actually buying, some sausages can have a meat content as low as 60%!! 

I hate seeing people buy pre-prepared fruit and vegetable packs, it's a bug bear of mine because it is a waste of money in my opinion. To show how much more it costs I've had a look at some prices online at Sainsburys and here's the breakdown.

Example Butternut Squash Soup

• The Soup Mix pack costs £1.50, weighs 600g and gives you pre-cut butternut squash with a small amount of onion as well.
• A whole butternut squash costs £1.50 and weighs 1kg. Add on half an onion for 8 pence and you're up to £1.58 for just over 1kg of soup veg. 
• If we bought the separate ingredients it would cost £1.58 for 1kg, so how much would 1kg of soup mix cost? Answer - £2.50

I understand pre-cut vegetables save time, but they definitely don't save money! 

I am biased, I prefer home cooking and cooking my own food from scratch. But the cost of pre-cut/prepared food doesn't seem worth the small amount of time it will save.


Next Week - Coping with stress :)