(edit title) What's your weekly food bill? And how many are you feeding? Options

[brownkitten]

Does anyone know what the 'seasons' are for certain fruits and vegetables here? Maybe a list like this but for Sweden? http://beta.primal-palate.com/ingredients/...and-vegetables/

What about farmer's markets here? Are they generally cheaper or more expensive than the store? Any good ones in Stockholm to keep an eye out for?

[entry]

It's just a pleasure that I want, and deserve.

Same here Trow. We enjoy my cooking much better than the slop that is served in restaurants. We do not eat fancy but we do eat well.

Not for nothing but the wife's cat does not like canned cat food, so I give him a spoonful of
räkor i lake three times a day(livein' high on the hog).

[David S]

Potato 5.90SEK-6.50SEK/kg, onions about the same, Bell Peppers(green, red and freaky orange) I like to purchase at 18SEK/kg but during the winter will pay 22-24SEK/kg.

Where it heck do you buy bell peppers at 18SEK/kg? We eat a lot of them and I don't think I've ever seen them even close to that cheap.

[entry]

During the summer at Willys the price drops to 18SEK/kg for the bell peppers. They offer red, green and orange bell peppers. I cannot discern a difference in taste between them so I purchase the cheaper. When the price for bell peppers is as high as 44SEK/kg I roll my eyes and if I have a hankering I purchase the huge jars of shredded paprika(3L) for about 35SEK.

[JulieLou40]

Generally, the orange and yellow peppers tend to be sweeter...the red and green more sharp, crisp tasting.

[Rick Methven]

Our usual weekly shopping bill is around the 700kr mark sometimes up when we buy things like washing powder.

We never buy ready meals or frozen veg just fresh meat and veg. I also tend to buy organic vegetables if they are not to outrageous. We Tend to eat a lot of chicken, lamb (NZ, not Swedish which is dry corky and tasteless) I also buy Brazilian/Argentinian fillet steak when the whole fillets are on sale for around 250 kr/kg as they are good value for money. I bake my own bread and make our own muesli for breakfasts. Lots of fresh fruit and vegetables. I also have fruit and veg from the garden in the summer. Organic (krav) Eggs I get from a farm up the road for 50kr for a tray of 30 extra large eggs. I eat lots of cheese also cheddar and extra mature Dutch Gouda. I make my own salt and roast beef for slicing on sandwiches that is much tastier and cheaper than buying from the shop..

[JulieLou40]

Sounds good, Rick. I'm thinking you should start a separate thread with more of your tips about cost-saving and eating cheaply. I know I would like to hear more...

[carterhayes]

My unemployed gf told me off once this autumn for 'wasting'. I had to think about it and she was right. No more taxi home in the evenings, no more planless shopping, but most of all, we started buying almost all food on LIDL instead of ICA. They do have excellent saussages, large packs of washing powder (these used to be sold in packages half the size of a corn flakes package for the same price as todays giant package!) and a fairly good selection of what we need for cooking home. Since we got 'our' LIDL a couple of years ago, i have noticed that more and more 'middle class' is doing their shopping there. Times are getting tougher...

[entry]

I bake my own bread and make our own muesli for breakfasts.[...]I make my own salt

Very impressed Rick, it sounds like we have some very industrious individuals/families here that participate in the user forum.

I make my own bread but haven't got the kind of bread that I like for sandwiches down yet, but I am working on it(and I have not decided to create/adopt a pet sour dough yeast that I have to feed three times a day).

Rick, I like muesli also but I would appreciate it if you would elaborate on your making of muesli and salt.

[Snood]

We spend between 500 and 600SEK a week for the two of us, including non-food extras like tootpaste, scourers etc...

We cook all our meals from scratch, save for the occasional pack of potato wedges when I can't be bothered to make them. We do buy some frozen ingredients, Peas in particular are pretty good frozen, not as good as fresh but much better than canned. We bake bread frequently but do supplement this with shop bought bread. I have a very sweet tooth, and bake all my own snacks, treats, cookies, cakes, etc.. I do this not because it's cheap but because I like to bake, I really like the results and most of what i make doesn't even exist in Sweden.

Our freezer is packed with chicken which we've bought reduced, close to it's use by date and immediately frozen.

We're now starting to look at buying some grocery items from the UK online, we just saved a load on shampoo and conditioner.

We shop at ICA Maxi mostly, A few years ago my Swede shopped at Willys but she had to travel for some time to get there. In the end we drew up a "standard" shopping list of items we usually buy as well as some things regularly bought but not every week. We went to Willys, ICA Maxi and COOP Forum and jotted down the price of everything. We didn't test out the likes of LIDL. We found that the price of shopping at ICA (or nearest large supermarket) was only more expensive by a few tens of crowns. the biggest factor though was that Willys just didn't have anywhere near the range of products available meaning we'd have to go elsewhere to get these items anyway... Hence we now shop at ICA.

I think we spend less than some, but we do not skimp and scrape at all. Ingredients must be quality.

... Don't ask how much I spend on good beer though.... although I do make my own as well as buy it also!

[Solith]

I have to wonder if the ICAs near the student areas are more expensive... I struggle because I don't have a car so I grab what I can when I can. And because of transport and being a single person (miniature violin here) with a single shelf in a freezer, bulk buying doesn't work. And I don't eat the cheap starchy foods such as pasta, potatoes and bread because it doesn't work with my stomach very well.

But there is some really good info on prices here. I would also be interested if anyone (Rick?) was going to start a frugality thread!

[JulieLou40]

I don't know EXACTLY how much our weekly food bill is, as my sambo likes to go on his own to shop, citing my fondness for impulse shopping as the reason ..I would say tho, that it's probably around 850 for 2 adults and a 12 year old boy. We tend to go for a biggish shop on payday ( well he does!), which is around 1000kr, and then there are often some small shops done during each week, too. All in all, I think it averages out at about what I've said.
Finding ourselves pretty skint recently, we've started thinking about cost-cutting a lot more. I've started baking a lot more,so we no longer buy commercial biscuits, cakes etc (well, rarely, anyway). That's saved us quite a bit, as we all like the occasional fika.
Also, I often mentally go through what we have in the cupboards/fridge/freezer, and plan meals out of what we have. I type a little list on my phone, and can often plan a week's worth of meals without having to buy most of the ingredients, if I'm clever about it.
We tend to buy frozen vegetables rather than fresh (especially peas), as I find the quality of fresh fruit and vegetables here to be atrocious on the whole. We also keep an eye out for supermarket special offers for things like fläskfile, minced beef, and steak, and buy in bulk when there's a good offer.
We also get a takeaway on average twice a month. It's (like most things here in Sweden) pretty expensive and I noticed that the portions were quite big, so we now only have half of it when we get one, and save the rest for the next night. Meaning the cost per meal has halved.

Small changes, but I do think they are helping.

[Gordy]

I watched a great documentary on Netflix recently about dumpster diving for food in the States.

It was absolutely incredible the amount and quality of food that was thrown out by the large supermarkets because it was past it's best before date or because say one egg in the box was cracked.

The guy who made the documentary had a huge freezer full of food within a few weeks and lived like a king.

[Solith]

I've worked for 2 organisations who binned their food. One of them thankfully sold things due to expire on that day to the employees, so I ate excellent food during my early student days!

[byke]

I am sorry, but any food that has been disposed of in Sweden ... will clearly deserve to remain their.
I have never come across so much poor quality overpriced produce in any western European country compared to Sweden.

A few years back, ICA was exposed for repackaging meat that had passed it sell by date.
Only to be constantly repackaged until some sucker bought it.

If any larger EU brands came to Sweden and offered the same services they did in Europe, I am pretty sure many of the major brands in Sweden would be unable to compete against them in service, quality or price.

Imagine a Tescos, to go against a willys?
Or a Waitrose to go against ICA ....

But yes dumpster diving in a foreign country could easily compete with produce on Swedish food shelfs.