Salary questions

Natalie, you may find that you fancy shopping differently over here - like more European-style (vs the US one-stop shopping thing). Of course, there are plenty of people who do shop more or less entirely at a supermarket (like most in the US), but I shop completely differently here from how I did in the US!

We have an organic veg box home-delivered weekly which is about 95% of the veg we eat - and the quality is so good!  For my husband & I, we spend about £12-15 (depending on how much we order) on that weekly, but you can skip weeks, pause deliveries, etc. Two of the most popular ones are:

Riverford and Abel & Cole

And our milk is home-delivered several mornings each week.  We go to our local butcher for probably 75% of our meat - meat that is sourced close to where we live.  Plus there are fresh markets, farm shops & lots of options like that.  We buy very few items at the supermarket itself.

Also a lot of grocery stores here offer home delivery - something that doesn't seem to be commonly available in the US.

Oh my gosh! Mrs Robinson, those look FABULOUS! I usually hit three different markets here (HEB, Whole Foods & Sprouts) to get different items and the best price on produce, so multiple shops won't be a huge change. But since we won't likely have a car this looks incredibly promising! I had anticipated using the delivery service - wish we had it here in Texas now!!

I think how you shop really depends on where you live. 

We are planning on doing a veggie delivery, but right now it works out cheaper for me to go to the store, especially since I don't really plan meals in advance.

There is no milk delivery in my area.

I would love to shop at individual shops, but the only butchers close enough to me always has ton of dead incests inside (yum?) and I work everyday.  They all open around 9 and close before I go home. 

I've been to some amazing farm shops, but for some reason the ones around Cambridge either have all frozen foods or are really posh and don't have anything you need on a regular basis. 

So Tesco and all the rest for me.

If you're in London and have a budget of £600 a month, the world is your oyster really, even with kids to feed you could get some cool stuff, there's endless fantastic producers in London. I don't get a veg box delivery service as there's no where to leave it in my flat and I can't be bothered to cart it home from work.

I am super lucky, I live in Covent Garden and work in Soho, so I buy my veg and stuff like brick lane bagels from the Bread Man on Berwick street Market, I get stuff like pandan leaves and fish sauce/sciracha etc from China Town, I get cheese from Neal's yard dairy and I get most of my meat delivered to my office from this guy who gets up at 3am to buy stuff from Smithfield market,  I also like http://www.thebutcheryltd.com/ Nathan has been a butcher at Ginger pig and barbecoa, I do also frequent the Ginger pig - http://www.thegingerpig.co.uk/ and Allens of Mayfair, but they are expensive. We don't eat vast quantities (especially me) so if I do it has to be high quality (yes, I'm a meat-snob ) 
We get our coffee from Monmouth or buy Square mile from Flat Cap.

I use Ocado to buy anything like laundry stuff and the grains, we buy a couple of processed things, mostly cereal and I will pop into Whole Foods in Piccadilly if I'm on that side of Soho. I'll also go to Lima for Italian Sausage or fresh Pasta.

It's just...a much different way of shopping to what I'd do in the US, which is probably hit up HEB or Whole Foods, for what it's worth whenever I go into a HEB or Trader Joes in the US I always seem to end up spending a  fortune and am surprised by the cost.

Also I appreciate that not many people have the time/budget/energy to do all of this, I can because it takes 10 seconds to get to Berwick street or to Lima, or five minutes to get to the Ginger pig and I'm fortunate enough financially to be able to prioritise this aspect of my life.

Smithfield market prices, in case you're interested -

T-bone steak - £19.00 per kg
fillet steak - £26.00 per kg
Dry aged ribeye steak - £25.00 per kg
Gressingham duck - £8.00 per kg
pig cheeks - £7.50 per kg
pork belly - £7.50 per kg
corn fed chicken - £6.50 each
leg of lamb - £10.00 per kg
shoulder of lamb - £9.50 per kg

I think how you shop really depends on where you live. 

Definitely - you can see by the range of posts so far on this issue! 

We are planning on doing a veggie delivery, but right now it works out cheaper for me to go to the store, especially since I don't really plan meals in advance.

Nor do we - we just get the veg box & roll with it! My husband plans a lot of the stuff he cooks about 15 minutes before he cooks it - we just see what we have & try to figure something out. I usually think about it at least the day before, but not always. Exception - I am planning a special Mexican meal for tomorrow night & had tomatillos added to our last veg box order specifically for that.

I don't know about cheaper or whatever - but for us, we eat loads more vegetables getting the box than we did before.  Because we get this great lot of it once a week & we don't throw food out, so we for sure are eating our veggies now. 

I've been to some amazing farm shops, but for some reason the ones around Cambridge either have all frozen foods or are really posh and don't have anything you need on a regular basis. 

I've never had much to do with farm shops, and I hear such different things about them from one place to another, one person to another.  Someone I know thinks they're great & swears by them. My MIL (lives in Norfolk so in the East Anglian vicinity to you) thinks they're horrible & overpriced - but they grow a lot of their own veg (free!) & as OAPs - they're always onto the deals at Asda & Lidl etc.

Thanks for the prices Cheesebiscuit! Those are great to know. I think I will probably lean towards using delivery services & boxes due to our family size. Obviously, I won't really know until I get there. I don't want to get too far ahead of myself I tend to cook like Mrs Robinson's family here. Unless I have a specific dinner in mind I just get in there and go for it... Sadly Whole Foods will probably be too far for us to frequent regularly. My husbands office would be just north of Heathrow and I have been looking at Ealing for housing...

Just out of curiosity I registered with Tesco and ran a fake delivery order (I didn't submit it of course). I spent $224 at HEB today since I hadn't been shopping in about 10 days, usually that is lower. My Tesco order came up to £143 or $228 roughly. Obviously, I don't know the brands over there to get a truly fair comparison, but seems to be somewhat on par without taking into account veg boxes and other things that we don't have here (CSA boxes would be somewhat comparable, but they don't deliver to your house).

I love to cook and try new foods so I will love the access to ethnic foods and ingredients that just aren't all that common here!

Natalie, just another quick tip -- I personally don't recommend using the veg box delivery services for fruit - I still go to the shops & pick that out myself.  But I am really picky when it comes to fruit.  The veg is excellent quality, but bear in mind there's not a great variety of fruits that are actually grown in the UK (things like berries in season, apples, plums, pears -- orchard fruits, yes....but the other stuff comes from France & Spain & other places).  When I have had fruit added to my veg box order, I didn't find it any better quality (and it was sometimes worse) than what I would find in a shop.  So I prefer to pick that out myself, & also my preferences tend towards fruits that aren't actually grown in the UK.

I use Riverford & have been very happy with it.  What we like about Riverford is that they are pretty transparent & upfront about where what you are receiving has been grown & how - preferring produce grown in the UK (fewer food miles).  So far, they don't tend to use polytunnel hothouse methods of growing - as that actually consumes more energy than trucking the same thing (such as tomatoes, etc) up from France or Spain.  Riverford has its own farms dotted around the UK, and they form cooperative arrangements with selected farmers abroad.

On the other hand, I know some members of the forum are very happy with Abel & Cole - and there are certain advantages to using them as well, like opting out of stuff you don't like from its showing up in your box.  We didn't go with them because (at least the last time I had a wander around their website) they didn't seem to have as much specific info about where the produce was actually being sourced as what Riverford does.  I don't think they have their own farms, but rather make arrangements with independent farmers - though I could be wrong about that.

Your mileage may vary. 

Just out of curiosity I registered with Tesco and ran a fake delivery order (I didn't submit it of course). I spent $224 at HEB today since I hadn't been shopping in about 10 days, usually that is lower. My Tesco order came up to £143 or $228 roughly.

I think you find that once you discover all the deals, like the 3 for £10 mix and match meats that almost all supermarkets do, and like you said, get familiar with the brands and also with selection, you'll likely spend a lot less and adjust accordingly.

For me and my husband, we spend $100-$150 per week at Whole Foods, Traders and mid-week Ralph's top ups, and in the UK we spend £30-£40, with a combo of independent shops and Whole Foods/Waitrose. No big difference in what we buy, really. Here our milk (organic) costs $3.99 versus £1.69, and our bread costs $4.99 versus £1.25. It's just cheaper, especially when you think that the UK prices have 20% VAT included and our tax hasn't even been added on yet.

It's just cheaper, especially when you think that the UK prices have 20% VAT included and our tax hasn't even been added on yet.

Actually, most  food  items in the UK aren't taxable (exceptions include things like alcohol and ice cream) and most states don't charge tax on food items or charge lower levels than sales on other items.

Guys, what is HEB?

PA doesn't

food (except for ready-to-eat), most clothing apparel, textbooks, drugs, sales for resale items and residential heating fuels.

LOL, sorry HEB is a grocery store based here in Texas. You generally won't find them too far outside of Texas, if at all. I think there are some  in northern Mexico...