Posted by
worf
16 yrs ago
Curious to see how much people spend each month on food. We seem to spend around $5k per month not including eating out (does include the occasional take away and Sushi though) It seems like a lot to me. There's two of us and we eat fresh salad and fruit daily and most of our shopping is done at park & shop. I'm sure we can cut it down if we shop at the wet markets but the salad and veg doesn't taste as good to me and there's no way I'm buying meat from China.
How do you manage to eat well but not spend so much?
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We are a family of 3, with a young boy drinking nearly 1l of milk/day. I have my veggies from the organic farm everyweek, I try to get some products on sale (cheeses, yogourts, deserts), I get my fruits from the wet market, order my meat via an internet site, I make my own bread... at the end of the month I think we spend around 4000$HK or less, including bottled water.
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cd
16 yrs ago
Our food bill has definitely gone up in the last year or so. used to be around $10-11k, now nearer $13. Sometimes more if we have a party in their somewhere. Thats for 3 adults (depending on time of year), plus 2 teenagers, and 2 kids, not to mention several extra kids each week on playdates and sleepovers,that also includes cleaning stuff, and cat food/litter. The majority of my shopping is done in Wellcome, with some fruit from the market. and a bit in PNS. Milks a big thing for us too, we get through about 3l a day. I too also buy stuff on special offer as much as I can. This does not include eating out or takeaways (which we hardly ever have), so I think $5k including that is reasonable.
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190k
16 yrs ago
Fruit and vegies from the wet market are in my opinion fresher and tastier than Park n' Shop. I get organic chinese lettuce and other salad stuff from our wet market. I only buy stuff from Park n' Shop if I can't get it at the wet market. There are two of us and we eat a wide variety of fruits for b'fast and salads with 7-8 different vegeies in for lunch. I make my own dressing from olive oil and herbs I grow in my garden with fresh lemon or lime juice. I reckon we spend about $3k to $3.5k per month and that includes beer and wine for home drinking
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hey yonon11, i think its quite reasonable..given that its for 7 people..! 3 adults, 2 teenagers, and 2 kids. On avg thats HK1,857 per person per month...or HK 464/ person / wk.
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We spend 10-12k per month for 2 adults, 2 kids and one dog. This includes wine and beer.
"well food in hong kong is expensive but 13K for food alone is so much. the toliet cleaner has a salary of 5 to 6k a month. hope you can think about that."
Certainly we could spend less. But we choose not to. That's our choice.
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My family just moved to HK 3 months ago. We have 3 adults and 3 very young kids and we spend about $8-9K per month at Taste and PNS every month. We eat out or order in about once a week. We don't shop at the wet markets mostly b/c it is less convenient and a bit intimidating. My kids go through 2L of milk per day (they think Pura taste best). We buy US chicken, Australian beef, Japanese eggs, Swiss yogurt and Chinese pork, seafood and vegetables. We don't have country preferences for food but tend to buy what we think taste the best with consistent quality.
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cd
16 yrs ago
To Yonon11
I do buy a lot of our fruit at the market stall, and I also buy local meat and veg, albeit from welcome.
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Gee I think you are actually all doing wuite well, we spend so much on food here! Just two of us at the moment and I would say we would spend about 2K a week, and there are no luxuries. Saying that I don't consider Aussie fresh produce (veg, meat, fish, dairy) a luxury. Having a nutrition degree and reading labels in terms of what's in some of the local products, I can only say - no thanks! I would rather put our health first rather than buy an extra pair of shoes each month.
And is anyone here really claiming that the Pearl River Delta seafood is healthy? I hope not...
...and just an obvious comment - just because something tastes better doesn't mean it's healhier, read your labels so you know what you are eating :-)
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expaninhk, I agree completely. I'm better safe than sorry so I avoid "Chinese" foods in shops. Too many scares.
Here's where we get food apart from our local Wellcome and Taste. Not saying they're cheaper, but the quality tends to be quite high in these places:
- Great – Bottom of Pacific Place (Admiralty). Has “everything”.
- CitySuper – IFC Mall (Central) and Times Square Mall (Causeway Bay). Smaller than Great but still quite fine.
- Gourmet – Bottom of Lee Gardens (Causeway Bay). Smaller than CitySuper. It’s ok but I’d rather go to Great or CitySuper.
- Oliver’s – Prince’s Building (Central). Quite small and exclusive.
- Three-Sixty - Top of the Landmark Building (Central). “Organic” image but frankly I find it a bit overhyped.
- Gateway – Corner of Wing Lok Street and Des Voeux Road Central (Sheung Wan). American foods.
Online stores that deliver:
- http://www.aussieorganics.com. Weekly delivery of excellent vegetables and fruit. Also a limited but good quality selection of fish and seafood.
- http://www.south-stream-seafoods.com. Mostly fish.
- https://www.meatmarket.com.hk. Mostly meat.
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We have a fixed budget of 2.8K per month for food & grocery stuff. We buy from PNS, kai do & wet market, & boil tap water. That's for 3 adults & 2 kids. Includes milk, orange juice & lots of snacks for the kids, and occasional sushi, beer and inexpensive wine for me & missus.
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Hubby and I (no pets or kiddliwinks) spend around 3-4 k per month, not including eating out. We eat in 5 out of every 7 meals, but do occasionally buy pre-made sandwiches or rice boxes for lunch.
We're not yet on the 'Organic train' and I'm not sure we ever will be. We eat a LOT of fresh fish from the wet markets, prawns, crabs and steamed fish. Yes, we'll probably die of mercury poisoning, but I'd rather die glutting myself on seafood than chewing on an overpriced piece of moo cow. Most of our fruit, veg and fish come from the wet markets, followed by Wellcome and City Super for the occasional treat of fresh oysters.
We also drink tap water.
Our main expense other than proteins, fruit and veg would be milk. We go through 1.5L of skim milk per day. we've learned to 'like' Australian UHT instead of fresh as at least we'll never find that our $40 carton of milk has spoiled before opening.
I'm not sure about others here, but bread seems to have dropped off our diet here in HK, rice has replaced it as the dominant starch in our meals. We must be doing something right, as my ever present nightly heartburn that I used to suffer back in Aus has completely disappeared here. Bless the Asian diet!
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For 4 persons, i only spent 3k a month or sometimes less for foods including fruits, wine, vegetables and drinks. 70% from the wet market, 10% dispensaries and 20% in the supermarket. I went to the wet market twice a week for fruits and vegetables. Fish once a week and meat every 15 days or it depend. I make our own bread, roast lamb and pork for our sandwiches, we grown herbs and vegestables in the pot.
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Jobin, I would never say American produce is healthy... some of it is but some of it isn't. Unfortunately the US food market is as badly regulated as it is in China and HK - so a lot of odd practices appear and also problems with E Coli and similar bugs. Also US allows chickens to be fed hormones, and the unorganic meat comes from animals treated quite poorly, something you probably can't even imagine. Some people choose organic / free range meat for the exact reasons that they eat meat of animals that have been treated humanly and have not been fed for example other animal's feaces (this gives raise to things like mad cow disease or other new viral diseases). Australia and the EU are very different, they have strict food manufacturing and labelling guidelines, and their products are so much more safe. It's easy to just wave a hand and say it doesn't matter what we eat but if you look at the closer picture the choices we make (provided we are fortunate enough to make these choices) do make a difference.
Also as for cultural eating, most foods traditionally weren't processed, and offered good nutritional value, however today it's a bit of a different story. Again look for example at Nestle HK made yoghurt and compare with any Aussie yoghurt available here for example - the local one has no beneficial gut bacteria, contains gellatine, a ton of sugar, starches, preservatives, colourings, flavourings, and maybe some milk and maybe like 1% of fruit. That's why the Nestle yoghurt costs so much less than his Aussie counterpart.
At the end of the day this is a complex subject, and everyone can make their own choices. If anyone is interested, there is a good book called ‘The Omnivore’s Dilemma – A Natural History of Four Meals’, by Michael Pollan. Quite an eye opener and offers an objective view at both ends of the spectrum - the cheap discount food and the organic food - and what's in between.
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Stand
16 yrs ago
We spend around 12k per month but that includes everything... food, wine, cleaning products, toiletries, the lot. This is for 3 adults. Our fresh fruit, veg and fish come from the wet market but meat comes from PnS, Olivers or Great, depending on what it is.
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Wet markets are sometimes cheaper - perhaps always if you're a local - the last time we shopped in one, we then went on to Taste and found the food cheaper and looking just as fresh. Perhaps a subject for a different thread, but are the fruit and veggies in the wet market as 'safe' as the highly priced Australian stuff in Olivers, for example. We spend a lot on fruit and veg and even tried to grow our own tomatoes to cut down on the huge amounts charged for this particular item. Alas, our veg and herb garden has not fared well in the summer rain. Our French beans grew very well in Spring, though. Roll on Autumn.
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way too much - i spend about 6-8k for myself :( that includes eating out though and booze
wthout boozing its about 4k
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Just look for shop name KAI BO, YIU KI and few more corner shop, rather shopping in Park N shop, Wellcome
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watch out for Park and Shop 'offers'. Tinned tomatoes at the moment are now at a ridiculous price! Higher than before the offer. Also if you use the money back card...all that is happening is they are tracking which food everyone prefers and then whack up the prices. Supermarkets here are robbing us and we should try and use local shops for non perishable goods at least. I agree that the fish and meat should not be trusted, but a lot of the fruit in the markets is actually imported from overseas - for example, great mangoes from the Phillipines and grapes from the US.
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cd
16 yrs ago
Agree with PNS, was in there this morning, and noticed that several of the items that I buy regularly have gone up at least $2 since last week.
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I spend a good amount of $ every month but it really varies cus we don't eat at home a lot cus of our busy time table.
Sorry to get off topic a little~ Sometimes I don't check my reciept from the grocery store as it's usually correct and I watch the sales person scan the items but when I'm with my kids it sometimes difficult to watch all items being scanned.
Anyways one time I actually had time to check my bill carefully and notice whoever scanned the shampoo i bought missed my bottle or something ~ on my bill it costed $79.90 for a 700ml of lux shampoo when it was suppose to be $39.90. Luckly the sales person aWellcome was easy to deal with and they refunded the extra amount of money I paid for my shampoo.
So just want to tell everyone to check their Bill as prices are going up like crazy!
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We are also looking to reduce our food bill in Hong Kong. We buy fruits and veggies at the Wan Chai market yet find Expat Grocery stores to be very expensive.
Where can I find cheaper stores such as Kai Bo and Yiu Ki? Are the signs in Pin-yin or only characters?
THANKS
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190k
16 yrs ago
I got some T-bone steaks from the Kai Bo in Yuen Long $52 for two steaks. Nothing wrong with them, the package says they are Brazillian. Whole leg of lamb from NZ for $160. I think you can find them around most wet markets. Wanchai Road should have them
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There's a meat store near the Wanchai wet market that sounds suspiciously like the aforementioned local meat stores. Forzen lamb legs (2 kg) were $160, I nearly did a happy dance on the spot!
They also stocked steaks, chops etc at reasonable pricing, most of it all imported.
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Amer
16 yrs ago
it is not surprising that you are spending 5k at PNS.first of all, stop shopping at PNS, it is overpriced supermarket.you can buy your essentials such as milk etc, cheaper at Wellcome. However, if you want don't mind drinking carton milk, such as Paul's, Nestle's, you can buy those at much lesser price, HKD 125-HKD140 for 12 x 1ltr cartons, from Indian Store, at Mirador Mansion.You can buy fresh veggies for salads from fresh market, and they taste equally good and works out cheaper.I am a salad eater too and I know it is not cheap to buy salads in hkg.Meats- if you eat frozen chickens, you can buy ones from Brasil, they r good and cheap.if you eat lamb, it is about HKD 88/kati in fresh market,I am not a beef eater, so cannot advise you there, but I think it is about hkd 36/kati.Fish- better buy them in fresh market, they are cheap there.Juices- i guess, not much of choice, either Tropicana or Sunkist or Mr Juicy.Fresh Breads- both Wellcome and PNS are bad.if you are looking for fresh croissants, you can buy them in City Super, they r good and reasonably priced.it all depends on where you are living and where is your work place.
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We are using Park n Shop and Wellcome for basic items but are afraid of Chinese meat. I am also caring about the environment.
We are using South Stream Seafoods for meat and fish. They are importing good quality meat from Australia and New Zealand and we can buy from their website store. South-stream-seafoods.com. The fish is very fresh and wild and we can ask them to cut the meat exactly like we like. Sometimes we are liking the steaks very thick and they can cut this for us. They are also packing the food very good in vacuum packing bags and the food is quite cheap. Much much cheaper than Great and City Super and I think is better quality also.
We are buying our vegetables from the wet market which is okay. I think the flavour is better than Park N Shop. We are very carefully to wash them. Sometimes we are buying the organic vegetables from the HK farm but really the price is quite high.
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"it is not surprising that you are spending 5k at PNS.first of all, stop shopping at PNS, it is overpriced supermarket.you can buy your essentials such as milk etc, cheaper at Wellcome. However, if you want don't mind drinking carton milk, such as Paul's, Nestle's, you can buy those at much lesser price, HKD 125-HKD140 for 12 x 1ltr cartons, from Indian Store, at Mirador Mansion"
You're assuming we all have time to go to the wet market, let alone Mirador Mansion, which is quite far for me. Sure, I sometimes have the time to do that, but by no means as often as I would have to in order to get all my stuff there.
Also, Nestle and Paul's milk, apart from the first being produced in China, tastes nowhere near as good as Pura or Clover. We choose to pay extra for the taste.
Believe me, I know there are other options apart from Wellcome, CitySuper, Jason's, Taste and Great. It's just that, after having tried the wet market, we still prefer shopping at the supermarkets.
"We are using Park n Shop and Wellcome for basic items but are afraid of Chinese meat. I am also caring about the environment."
We are also quite afraid of Chinese meat. We just don't trust the system. Remember, though that those imported products may have been grown in a better way for the environment, but let's not forget that they were then flown in, so the carbon footprint is not trivial. Not judging, just saying. We buy all the imported stuff too.
"We are buying our vegetables from the wet market which is okay. I think the flavour is better than Park N Shop. We are very carefully to wash them. Sometimes we are buying the organic vegetables from the HK farm but really the price is quite high."
You can also try Aussie Organics online. Given the current weak Aussie Dollar, the prices are not bad on most of the stuff. They also have good fish.
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cd
16 yrs ago
The local places aren't always cheaper, I do most of my shopping in Sai Kung, and often the fruit at Welcome is the same price or slightly cheaper than at the local fruit stalls.
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Amer
16 yrs ago
there is nothing wrong with local supply.just eat normal food and be normal.they make local delivery. the wet market is cheaper than PNS and Wellcome.and you get a better variety. depending on the location of the wet market.the one in central and in TST, are two good places to buy your veggies.
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It is very time consuming to save money on groceries in HK. The wet markets also sort of, well, gross me out. The smell is very hard to take and I have to be in the mood for tolerating all the crowds and unslightly environment. Everything feels dirty to me there.I want to get a shower after going there. The fruit and vegetables from there often seem fresher than PnShop or Welcome,but I could never bring myself to buy meat or fish that is not refridgerated!!I know some of us xpats weigh more than locals. Why is that? My guesses are:
We eat more potatoes than rice, more potato chips, cookes and meat than we should and we don't eat enough vegetables.
We cook in butter rather than oil.
Americans are also used to being served hugggeee portions in restaurants so I think we don't understand what normal serving sizes are.
You can save money by going to Japan Home.
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cd
16 yrs ago
We weigh more, but we're also taller, have bigger boobs, bigger hips and bigger feet. Europeans are generally a bigger 'race' than Asians.
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I don't mind paying more for US foods outside of USA. I understand. I don't understand some stores charging 8x the price! Honestly!
As for it being time consuming, I hope that this forum can help us find less expensive yet SAFE ways to feed our family. I am finding where to buy things for better prices then stocking up and/or having my helper go for special items in further away stores.
I tried Kai Bo and did find some things to be MUCH cheaper than Park N Shop and Wellcome, local things to be almost exactly the same price. Thanks to this forum for that suggestion!
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"I don't understand some stores charging 8x the price! Honestly! "
Well, if they can get away with it the practice will not go away. One of the issues, if you will, is that expats tend to have more disposable income than locals, and spend money more indiscriminately. So the prices can stay high.
I save a lot by simply looking at the price label on the shelf. In the US or Europe I would barely glance at it, knowing that given the competitive environment I would likely not be badly surprised. Here, you never know what the price will be. Looking at the label is essential.
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