The Project

[poliphilo]

The project is to keep our weekly shopping bill under £45.

I hasten to add that we're not doing this because we're skint. Well, not really skint. It's more to do with making life interesting.

We've been at  it three weeks now. Last week was fab; we spent about £21. This week we spent just over £40. We've proved it can be done.

Every trip to the supermarket becomes a challenge. We write shopping lists and stick to them. Every aisle bristles with temptations we heroically resist.  We fall on special offers with cries of joy. 

We walk back into the car park with  our £12 worth of cheap groceries feeling good about ourselves. Also- and this is the weirdest thing- we're almost certainly eating a healthier diet.

Comments

[solar-diablo.livejournal.com]

I wonder if this serves as a counterpoint to those who argue that eating healthy is expensive and part of the reason behind why lower income families tend to have higher than average rates of obesity.

[four-thorns.livejournal.com]

i doubt it, because you also have to consider that time is money, and that a lot of lower income people are too busy working multiple jobs to have the time to carefully plan shopping lists, scope out the best buys, and then cook those healthful meals. or for that matter, their working hours may make it difficult to get to the grocery store when it's open... but there's plenty of fast food places open 24 hours a day. it may not cost less monetarily to eat a hamburger, but when you factor in the time cost of eating a home-cooked alternative, fast food may consume less of a lower income person's available resources.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I think the secret is to stay away from convenience foods. They're the ones that do the damage-both to your pocket and your health.