Cost of living, family of 4

I am so impressed by anyone who can feed themselves and their family for €60 a week. Congratulations.
I spend double that forthe two of us but am very much aware that there is a great deal of unnecessary expense included in that amount. My husband likes espresso coffee pods, these are pricey and a luxu4y compared to coffee out of a jar. Breakfast of smoked salmon and avocado with grilled bacon could be substituted with weetabix or porridge. Our choice of food is very much what your pocket can afford or indeed what you are prepared to spend. I was shocked when I checked my Aldi bill the other day and saw that I had paid €3.33 for 7 large potatoes. Salmon has become much more costly as has chicken. Mince is cheap and you can make delicious meals using it in a variety of ways. If money is tight, then you must be sensible and choose good food at realistic prices. Years ago, the mistress of the house kept records of all expenditure for household food etc., it was known as home economics. Nowadays, the variety of foods available are all to enticing and many unnecessary when you stop to think about it. We expect to open a cupboard or fridge or freezer and reach in to get something yummy to munch on! Choc ices, biscuits, crisps, yoghurts, chicken drumsticks, the list is endless I went to boarding school in the 1960’s and we were provided with 3 meals a day and permitted to snack on something out of our tuck boxes mid afternoon. Suffice to say, there was no obese children or better still, we rarely were sick....any of us. Nobody had asthma, we were healthy as trouts.

So, to conclude, buy lots of fruit at the market to snack on and cook nourishing meals and you will survive very well in Spain on whatever you can afford.
Best of luck to you.

Mac, have you/your husband tried the nespresso pods from Lidl? Myself and my partner are total coffee snobs and yet find their €1.99 ristretto ones some of the best out there, irrespective of price. Nearly half the price of the official nespresso ones.

PGA wrote:Mac, have you/your husband tried the nespresso pods from Lidl? Myself and my partner are total coffee snobs and yet find their €1.99 ristretto ones some of the best out there, irrespective of price. Nearly half the price of the official nespresso ones.

Avoid ceriian brands of cheap Dulce Gusto pods, they cant take the water pressure and have a habit of bursting the seal, resulting in coffee and coffee grounds all over the place


BTW, did you know the Indians employ used coffee grounds to soak up puddles of elephant pee ?

Chrisdee wrote:So what do your 3 meals a day consist of for the amount of money?

richardlionheart wrote:We spend €180 a month of food for the two of us, thats like €45 a week, €7 a day, and we eat very well on it.

If you never cook and live of convenience, processed food and restuarants, then yes, you can easy burn a lot more money

I would love to know what you eat very well for each day on €7.

Ronnie it's easy! I suppose been a chef for forty years might help but if you shop for seasonal produce make your own sauces stocks etc bulk out things like mince with extra onion tomatoes even use jars of chickpeas which take on all the flavours etc you can even freeze leftover chickpeas you can eat like kings and queens!

cheflady wrote:Ronnie it's easy! I suppose been a chef for forty years might help but if you shop for seasonal produce make your own sauces stocks etc bulk out things like mince with extra onion tomatoes even use jars of chickpeas which take on all the flavours etc you can even freeze leftover chickpeas you can eat like kings and queens!

Wish I was a chief

Ronnie112 wrote:

Chrisdee wrote:So what do your 3 meals a day consist of for the amount of money?

richardlionheart wrote:We spend €180 a month of food for the two of us, thats like €45 a week, €7 a day, and we eat very well on it.

If you never cook and live of convenience, processed food and restuarants, then yes, you can easy burn a lot more money

I would love to know what you eat very well for each day on €7.

Well i just cooked a chicken curry
600g chicken £3.50
1 potato 400g 20p
2 peppers 50p
400g mushrooms £1
1 large tomato 25p
1 onion 25p
3 leeks £1
1 pot greek yoghurt 18p
spices (cumin, coriander, black pepper, red pepper, kashmiri chilli, fenugreek, salt, garlic, ginger)

Total cost appros £8, makes 4 large potions.
4 portions rice in rice cooker 80p


£4.40 one days meal. We take it in turns to cook . We would have a sandwich for lunch.

My wife in a previous existence ran a Restuarant in Louth, Lincolnshire with her 1st husband, and is a cordon bleur cook, and makes fanatstic meals out of almost nothing.

Buy fruit and veg from the market. 50 cents for a kilo of potatoes. 1.50 in Aldi last week. I make lots of vegetable souls which cost next to nothing. I once added up our food bill excluding treats like biscuits etc. 100 euro for two people for four weeks. No fish or red meat. Mostly veg and chicken. I hasten to add this is not our budget just what we spent that month.

Reading some of these comments there's either some really tight people out there or may be they shouldn't be living here as they can't afford to.

Thats what makes us human, everyone is each to their own, theres no set rules in this life, if people can live on small budgets then hats off to them at least they have the sunshine as a reward for looking after the pennies

Some people will seek to find negativity in anything
To give them a feeling of purpose

Have a good day folks