Latest news with #KatieMorley
Telegraph
25-03-2025
- Telegraph
This is the holiday all middle-class parents want (but it costs £10k a week)
Katie Morley is the Consumer Champion at The Telegraph. She has won back more than £10m for readers through her Katie Morley Investigates column. It is usually around this time of year that the topic of conversation on local mums' WhatsApp groups turns to holidays, and the chats in my middle-class area of London are no exception. Predictably, someone chirps up, 'Looking to book a summer holiday, must be child friendly, any recommendations?' A flurry of messages will then follow with resort suggestions, mainly across Europe, with a scattering in Dubai and the Maldives. Having been a lurker on these WhatsApp groups for several years now, I've noticed there are two hotel brands that seem to crop up every time there's a mention of holidays: Ikos and Sani. So what is it about these resort chains, both owned by the Sani/Ikos Group, that makes them so adored by affluent Londoners? Well, for starters they have tapped into a group of holidaymakers who were previously underserved – the high-earning but permanently knackered parents who will pay any amount of money for a 'luxury break' with the children in tow. These are the parents who, pre-children, were used to living the high-life holidaying at stylish resorts around the world, frequenting chic cocktail bars and dining in fabulous Michelin star restaurants. Now searching for destinations to take the kiddies, they wince at the thought of frequenting one of the hundreds of bog-standard all inclusive 'family resorts' found on booking websites. To be clear, I'm talking about the type of resort where you'll tuck into basic beige buffets three times a day, sleep in wearily decorated rooms, and lie on white plastic loungers surrounding loud pools adorned with multiple snaking primary-coloured flumes. This is the type of resort where you'll be greeted by cheery but incessantly annoying travel reps, forced to join in with patronising quizzes, offered ghastly pre-mixed cocktails, and where you'll shut your eyes at night trying to block out someone's shouty Chesney Hawkes impression echoing from the nightly karaoke. Although probably their kids' idea of heaven, this type of place is unlikely to meet that type of parents' 'vibe check' and, far from a holiday, it may well be their idea of hell. Enter Ikos and Sani where you won't find a hint of such ickiness. The group's 12 resorts are situated in idyllic beach locations in Greece and Spain, and are fully geared up for families with children. All the usual pools, playgrounds, daycare and entertainment can be found there. Yet crucially, Ikos and Sani also boast the upmarket look and feel of a five-star hotel that even the more refined, typically middle-class resorts like Club Med and Mark Warner do not quite live up to. The all inclusive Ikos resorts boast a la carte menus designed by Michelin-starred chefs, tastefully designed rooms and public areas, tranquil spas and premium wine lists. All this sounds too good to be true, and I'm sorry to say that for most high-earning parents who are mortgaged up to their eyeballs and drowning in nursery bills or school fees, it may well be. Because for the many little luxuries that Ikos or Sani offer, the price tag is breathtakingly high. For a family of four to stay in a one-bedroom bungalow with a garden view at the Ikos Olivia in Halkidiki for the first week of August, it costs £9,878 including flights, according to For a sea view, it's an extra £1,045 and for the luxury of a two-bedroom bungalow, you can add another £7,042 to the already eye-watering price. Sani Club in Halkidiki comes in slightly more reasonably at £7,231 for a similar room during the same week, assuming both children are under 12. However it's half board, meaning you'll have to pay for food and drinks on top. Of course, early-bird discounts are available for the super organised and prices are significantly lower during school term-time for anyone with preschoolers or those comfortable with truancy. Even with the discounts, the prices are so high that it's difficult to understand how the likes of Ikos and Sani manage to fill their ever-expanding number of available hotel rooms. Yet they are growing in popularity. It makes me think that my colleague who argued earlier this month that we live in a consumerist society where keeping up with the Joneses is not an aspiration, but an entitlement, may well have been bang on the money. Even for someone earning £200,000 a year, spending £10k on a holiday represents a month of their take-home pay, which is the upper limit of what most financial advisers would recommend spending on holidays annually. The cynic in me wonders if the obscene price tag might also have something to do with some people's keenness to pipe up publicly about the fact that they've been to a Sani or Ikos resort. Granted, their Tripadvisor reviews are overwhelmingly 'excellent', but one wonders whether they've become another status symbol that people love to broadcast about in order to portray an image of wealth. I'm not the only one who's noticed the chatter about these hotels on public forums and then been horrified by the prices. Posh holidays have become a topic of conversation in the playground, too. Some parents I speak to say they could just about afford a Sani or Ikos holiday during term-time, but most are refraining from booking in case they become acclimatised to the higher level of luxury. No one wants their subsequent trips to mid-range resorts to feel sad and drab by comparison. By anyone's standards, £10k is a huge amount to spend on a week's holiday with children who, frankly, would be happy anywhere as long as they've got a pool to splash around in and an ice cream in their hand. But those who can truly afford it should fill their boots and enjoy all that these resorts have to offer. For everyone else, a family camping trip to France followed by a couple of adult-only weekends away to nice hotels might just quench their thirst for luxury, for a lot less money. The only problem might be finding someone to dump the kids with first.
Telegraph
25-03-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
Amazon versus the high street: which spring sale has the best deals?
This article contains affiliate links. The products or services listed have been selected independently by journalists after hands-on testing or sourcing expert opinions. We may earn a commission when you click a link, buy a product or subscribe to a service. The Amazon Spring Sale has begun but the week-long deluge of deals might not be as good as they first appear. If you take the time to shop around, you can likely find a similar saving, or perhaps an even better one, on the high street instead. From Argos to John Lewis, some of the biggest UK shops have jumped on the spring sale bandwagon this year, so if you're unsure where to start looking, we've put together a guide on how to find the best deals, complete with some handy bargain-hunting tips. Here at Telegraph Recommended, we've reviewed everything from the best air fryers to the best fitness trackers and we know how prices can fluctuate month on month, especially in the run-up to a major sales period like Black Friday or the Amazon Spring Sale. I've personally been covering these events since 2015, so I'm well-travelled when it comes to sifting genuine bargains from duff deals. The Telegraph's consumer champion, Katie Morley, says: 'Around four in five of us shop during the sales because, let's face it, nobody wants to pay full price for things if they don't have to.' However, Katie warns: 'In high-demand sales, prices have often been hiked up in the weeks prior before being 'reduced'. If there's a big ticket item you know you want to buy, always monitor the price ahead of time.' Find more tips from Katie below. Which are the best high street deals? At a glance: Why you can trust Telegraph Recommended Our thorough, real-world tests will always help you find the best product. No manufacturer ever sees copy before publication and we do not accept payment in exchange for favourable reviews. Visit our Who We Are page to learn more, or read our article explaining how our experts spot the best deals. How I found the best spring sale deals If we spot what looks like a great deal, we use CamelCamelCamel to check Amazon prices and PriceRunner, PriceSpy and Idealo to check price histories at other retailers. Using these sites, we can identify the price of the product at competing retailers, without having to trawl through them ourselves. This helps inform us whether it's a good deal or if it's better to shop elsewhere. When you see a price reduction on a website, especially on a product you've got your eye on, it can feel as though you've hit the jackpot but it might not be the great bargain you think it is. 'When retailers advertise a sale price next to a previous price and therefore state a discount, the previous price must have been the most recent price for at least 28 consecutive days. But in reality, much of the time the price will have been lower if you go back further in time,' Katie explains. Rather than checking the RRP (Recommended Retail Price), we compare sale prices against a product's average cost. Katie explains why: 'For most items you can forget the RRP. What you want to be looking for is how much items actually sell for at different retailers. Sometimes manufacturers dictate how much items can be sold for and when they can be discounted, but most of the time retailers can decide their own prices and discounts.' Below, we've compared sale prices from various high street retailers, including Boots and John Lewis, against their prices on Amazon and decided on the winners. This page will be regularly updated as the Amazon Spring Sale progresses, so you can rest assured that you're always getting the best deal possible on the below products. Amazon Spring Sale versus the high street: Where are the best deals? 1. Dyson Gen 5 Detect Why we like: Our current Best Buy vacuum cleaner is currently significantly cheaper on Dyson's website than on Amazon. This is a cordless vacuum with plenty of oomph, offering more suction power than its stick-based counterparts. Despite the increase in power, we found that its battery life was much improved on the previous generation, at around 70 minutes per charge on average. 2. Apple MacBook Air M4 (2025) Why we like: Apple's M4 MacBook Air is brand-new for 2025 and it's already received a healthy discount – just not on Amazon. The entry-level MacBook is speedier than last year's model, with worthy performance gains in our testing and a generally smoother and slicker experience across the board. It also comes with double the starting memory as its predecessor and the best battery life across the MacBook range, lasting for a full day of heavy use on a single charge. Read our full MacBook Air M4 (2025) review for more details 3. Withings Body Comp Smart Scale Why we like: This Withings Body Comp Smart Scale is our current top pick for high-tech features. The bathroom scale is on the pricier end, but offers in-depth insights such as cardiovascular health and even assesses the nerves in your feet for various conditions including peripheral neuropathy. It's accurate, too, providing detailed, reliable weight readings every time we used it. It's out of stock on Amazon but is discounted at Boots. Winner: Draw 4. Apple iPad A16 (2015) Why we like: Just like the Apple MacBook Air listed above, the iPad A16 was also only recently launched just a few weeks ago. It's so new, in fact, that our review is currently in progress, but we like what we see so far. Our resident Apple expert, Britta O'Boyle, is already calling it 'Apple's best-value iPad yet', with improved performance at a great price. To see a discount this early in its lifecycle is incredibly rare. 5. Braun Series 9 Pro+ Why we like: Sitting at the top of our list of the best electric shavers, the Braun Series 9 Pro+ is unbeatable when it comes to a close shave, with our shaving expert, Miles Wood-Smith, referring to it as 'the Rolls-Royce of shavers'. You won't need Rolls-Royce money to buy one at the moment, either, with Amazon knocking £111.81 off the average price, making it the cheapest it's ever been at £269.99. Winner: Amazon 6. Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 FE Why we like: Samsung's Galaxy Tab S9 FE is cheaper than it's ever been on Amazon, with other retailers in the UK failing to keep pace. Even though it launched at the end of 2023, the mid-range tablet is showing no signs of age and is the tablet I personally own and use on the regular. It's fast, lightweight and the OLED display is miles better than the entry-level iPad's IPS screen. At this temporary price, you won't find a better alternative. 7. Remington One Dry & Style Why we like: Yet another Telegraph Recommended top pick, the Remington One Dry & Style hair dryer is unbeatable value for money. With a wide head and powerful 2,000-watt motor that delivered fast-drying in our tests, the One Dry & Style is a great choice for less than £70. Our only complaint is that it felt slightly top-heavy during prolonged use, but otherwise, there's very little to moan about. Amazon takes the top spot here, but only just. 8. Google Pixel Buds Pro 2 Why we like: Google's signature headphones are jam-packed full of improvements over the previous generation. They're smaller, easier to fit comfortably in your ear and benefit from an entirely re-engineered audio subsystem, offering better-quality sound across the board. If you own a Pixel smartphone or are a Gemini AI subscriber, you can also make use of a variety of AI features, including being able to have a full conversation with Google's AI assistant. Read our full Google Pixel Buds Pro 2 review for more details Amazon deal: Save £10 (£194) Alternative deal: Save £15 (£189) at Very Winner: Very (just) Which UK high street retailers currently have a sale on? Boots: Up to 20% off fragrances, 3 for 2 on selected No7. products, up to £75 off GHD, up to £100 off Dyson John Lewis: Up 70% off John Lewis items, up to 50% off Reiss, up to £100 off iPad/MacBook Argos: Up to 30% off gaming, up to 20% off outdoor toys, up to 20% off furniture Very: Up to 50% off site-wide AO: Up to an extra £150 off selected products with code 'CLEAR20' FAQs When does the Amazon Spring Sale end? The Amazon Spring Sale finishes at 11.59pm on Monday 31st March. How long is the Amazon Spring Sale? The Amazon Spring Sale lasts for seven days and began at one minute past midnight on Tuesday 25th March. What are the best deals to look out for during the Amazon Spring Sale? Amazon's own-brand tech, such as Kindles, Echo smart speakers and Fire TVs are regularly discounted during sales events. Retailers have also been known to drop their prices on Ninja air fryers, Sage coffee machines, Dyson vacuum cleaners and electric toothbrushes. Can I return items bought during the Amazon Spring Sale? Yes, all purchases made via Amazon can be returned for a full refund if returned within 30 days of purchase. You can find more information and the full terms and conditions on Amazon's refund FAQ page. There are no restrictions on using Amazon gift cards and vouchers when purchasing discounted products during Amazon's sales events.
Telegraph
25-03-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
Amazon Spring Sale live: The only deals to shop today, according to our experts
Amazon's week-long Spring Sale started at 00:01am this morning, with thousands of deals now live across tech, home appliances, grooming products and more. New deals will continue to drop each day of the sale, until it ends on Monday 31 March at midnight, while lightning deals ‒ a limited-time discount, sometimes only lasting a few hours ‒ will also appear on selected products. The Telegraph Recommended team, usually responsible for testing and reviewing products, is well-qualified to help you find the best genuine deals in the Amazon Spring Sale. We've witnessed many sales events and know how to spot a good deal among the many advertised. Every deal featured below has been through our extensive filter system. This spans several pairs of eyes and spreadsheets, and a lot of cynicism. We don't just compare discounts to the RRP (recommended retail price), we find the average price of each product over several months and calculate the percentage decrease from that instead. This is because many products are rarely sold at their RRP, and we always want to make sure we're recommending a genuine discount. We also only recommend products we've tested ourselves to ensure you're buying a product that works. Today, our experts across tech, home, garden, health, fitness, beauty, grooming and travel will be posting their top deals below, whether that's from the Amazon Spring Sale or an alternative high street sale. You can also expect advice and tips on how to navigate a sale from Telegraph consumer champion Katie Morley. Today's trending brands are Shark, Shokz, Phillips, Google, Oral B and Amazon's own-brands like Kindle and Echo, but find the specific deals we recommend you shop below.
Telegraph
07-03-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
Amazon spring sale 2025: five tips on finding the best deals
This article contains affiliate links. The products or services in this article have been selected independently by journalists. We may earn a commission when you click a link, buy a product or subscribe to a service. If it follows past form, the Amazon spring sale 2025 will be held at the end of March. It's one of four annual Amazon sales events, preceding the summer and autumn Prime Days and Black Friday in November. In the spring sale, the best Amazon deals tend to be on homewares such as vacuum cleaners and air fryers or tech, particularly their own products such as Fire TVs, Kindles, Echo smart speakers and Fire Tablets. Read my guide to the best Amazon deals right now to find out which products have already been discounted ahead of the sale. However, it's important not to get carried away. Not all Amazon discounts are as large as they appear and the best can be hard to find. As Recommended Reviews Editor, tasked with helping you make the right choices on your biggest purchases, I've been covering sales events like this since 2021. I've learned a few tricks that I'll share below, along with some insight from the Telegraph's consumer champion Katie Morley. But let's cover the basics before we get to the advice. Amazon spring sale FAQ What is the Amazon spring sale? Taking place towards the end of March, the Amazon spring sale sees discounts comparable to Black Friday on items ranging from consumer tech to home and kitchen appliances. When does the Amazon spring sale start and end? The dates are under wraps, but judging by past sales, it will be a five-day period at the end of March. Do I need an Amazon Prime membership to access the spring sale deals? No, the discounts are open to anyone. Are there any special perks for Prime members during the Amazon spring sale? It's likely some lightning deals (where prices are reduced for as little as a few hours) will be Prime exclusives. Look out for the label 'Prime Early Access' when they appear on the Lightning Deals page. Why you can trust Telegraph Recommended Our thorough, real-world tests always help you find the best product at the best price. No manufacturer ever sees copy before publication and we do not accept payment in exchange for favourable reviews. Visit our Who We Are page to learn more. How to find the best deals in the Amazon spring sale 1. Make sure prices aren't lower elsewhere 'If I'm looking for a big ticket item, I'll usually monitor the average price across all retailers before buying,' Telegraph consumer champion Katie Morley says, 'I never trust that 'sale' prices are actually the cheapest.' You can use various websites to compare prices at multiple retailers. Idealo compares prices, delivery costs and times and includes ratings so that you can judge sellers' bona fides. Price Spy and Price Runner also allow you to see price history, which you're highly advised to do (see below). These comparison sites include second-hand models, which can be much cheaper, but should be weighed against how much you trust the seller. Telegraph Recommended staff have bought good-as-new refurbished tech at Amazon itself or at specialists such as Back Market, for lower prices than are seen in the spring sale on new items. Category-specific sites such as Mattress Online, Air Con Centre and are also good places to look if you can't find deals at Amazon. 'However, don't forget to factor in the cost of postage and packaging when comparing prices, as expensive fees sometimes can eat into perceived discounts,' Katie says. One Amazon Prime benefit is free next-day delivery. 2. Make sure prices are genuinely at their lowest This is absolutely key to finding the best Amazon exclusive offers. At Telegraph Recommended, we always calculate discounts against the usual price, rather than the RRP (recommended retail price). Many products are never sold at their RRP and some only for very brief periods of time to make a deal look more impressive. 'Which? research found that nine in 10 (92pc) of Black Friday deals it analysed were the same price or cheaper at other times of the year,' Katie says, 'so genuine deals are harder to find during these shopping events than you might think.' When we look for the best deals on Amazon, we always check the price history. The graph above shows how the price of one television fluctuated over the last 12 months. Note that it was only sold at its full price for three extremely brief periods. It was at its lowest price for three slightly longer periods, corresponding to Prime Day, Black Friday and Christmas. The rest of the time it was somewhere in the middle. That's the average price you should calculate discounts against. The source for this graph is CamelCamelCamel, a third-party price tracking site which we use to check price histories. Keepa does largely the same thing. Both are specific to Amazon. Price Spy and Price Runner, mentioned above, allow you to check price histories across multiple retailers. Having done all this, the good news is that many deals in the Amazon spring sale are at or near the lowest they will be all year. Even if the discount is only 10 per cent, that can be a significant saving on a big-ticket item. Here are some examples, showing how Amazon's claimed discounts make it hard to tell which deals are worth grabbing: Lenovo Tab Plus 11.5-inch £189 An example of a genuine deal Amazon is selling this at a claimed discount of 35 per cent against the RRP of £289.99. Our price trackers show that the average price over the last year was actually £236. But you're still getting a comparative discount of 20 per cent. This deal may get better in the spring sale, but you might prefer to buy now in case it sells out. Read our guide to the best tablets to see why reviewer Britta O'Boyle called this the best-value tablet on the market. Philips Smart Sleep Wake-up Light £139.99 An example of a deal to avoid for now Amazon is currently selling this at a claimed discount of seven per cent off the RRP of £149.99. However, the average price over the last year was actually £141.48, making this a saving of less than one per cent. That's how things stand a few weeks ahead of the spring sale. Our price trackers show that it has in the past been sold for well under £100, so this may be one to keep an eye on if you're in the market for a sunrise alarm clock. 3. Shop at smart times If an item you have your eye on is going to be discounted, it's likely the discount will be applied at the stroke of midnight. In-demand products might have sold out by the time everyone else wakes up, so this can be a clever time to buy. The early hours of the morning can also be a smart time to look for Lightning Deals. Prominently displayed on Amazon's deals page, these are limited-time deals where Amazon and third-party sellers make a limited inventory available at a lower price for a set time. Some lightning deals can be as short as a few hours. Often the inventory sells out well before the period ends. Discounts here can be substantial, but don't let haste prevent you checking that the price is genuinely lower than usual and that it can't be bought cheaper elsewhere. 4. Use wish lists and price alerts 'Retailers love to create events because it gives them an excuse to sell higher volumes of the items they are looking to sell,' Katie says. These may not necessarily be the items you're looking to buy. Keep a cool head and focus on buying things you would have bought anyway, but at a better price. One tip is to create a wish list. Log into your Amazon account. Select 'Accounts and Lists' from the top of the page. (On the Amazon app you'll find it behind the 'Me' tab at the bottom of the screen.) Create a list. When you see something you like on Amazon, you can select 'Add to list' instead of 'Add to basket'. You can filter a list to show only the items with current deals. Checking it regularly could give you a head start on time-limited deals. You can also enable Amazon deal notifications on your phone. Go to the 'Me' tab in the Amazon app and click the 'Settings' gearwheel to find the Notification settings. Within that, select 'Deals And Recommendations' and finally click 'Savings'. All the price checking sites mentioned above allow you to set price alerts on products. You choose the price you're prepared to pay and when it falls to that price or lower, you'll receive an alert. 5. Shop out of season 'Reductions are most likely when customer demand for seasonal items is lowest and retailers need to shift physical stock to make way for new items, ' Katie says. 'For example, if you're buying Christmas decorations in January, or summer clothes in autumn. If you can take a longer term approach with your shopping and buy ahead, this is how you'll snap up the best bargains.' In the spring sale, look out for shopping deals on winter clothes, electric heaters and heated blankets to save a few pounds compared to buying on Black Friday. Once the Amazon spring sale starts, we'll be identifying all the best deals and adding them to our top buyer's guides. If you see an eye-catching deal promoted elsewhere but not at Telegraph Recommended, that's a sign that our competitors aren't working quite as hard to sort the wheat from the chaff.
Telegraph
05-03-2025
- Health
- Telegraph
I tried the Zoe app and now I'm shedding the pounds
Katie Morley will be rowing into the health eating debate at 1.30pm today. Get involved in the comments section below. Until recently, I thought shaky episodes resulting in scoffing chocolate just to be able to function were a normal part of life. Well, spoiler: they're not. Or at least they don't have to be. I finally broke the habit of a lifetime after trying the Zoe programme, in which you do a series of health tests including wearing a continuous glucose monitor on your arm for two weeks and logging everything you eat to see how it affects your blood sugar. The results were enlightening, to say the least. Suddenly my shaky episodes made sense because I could see that they were happening at exactly the same time as my blood sugar was plunging below healthy levels. Certain foods were creating almighty blood glucose peaks and troughs, sending me on a rollercoaster of faint-feelings and sweet cravings. I didn't like what Zoe was telling me, but it was a reality I had to face if I was ever to break the cycle – the problem was too much bread and pasta. According to the app, my biggest ever spike came not after devouring cake, chocolate or other sweet treats, but a simple chicken bagel on an empty stomach. Afterwards came a crashing blood sugar low which left me so jittery I had to eat three marshmallows to stop feeling sick and carry on with the day. You may be wondering if I have undiagnosed diabetes, but according to Zoe, my blood glucose control is actually 'good' which, I'll be honest, I do struggle to believe. However, if I once suspected it, I'm now confident about the impact that copious amounts of refined carbs are having on the way I feel throughout the day. After the initial 'test phase', after which you remove the glucose monitor, you can take photographs of your meals through the app and it will grade your meals out of 100. For me, anything involving more than a tiny amount of bread or white pasta will score lowly. To achieve high food scores, one has to be eating beans, lentils, grains, nuts and seeds, plenty of protein and a rainbow of fruit and vegetables. One can still eat pasta, but much better if it is the 'high protein' type made of lentils, peas or chickpeas. And if one insists on eating bread, it should be sunflower, rye or bakery-style sourdough. Anything sliced and ultra processed is to be avoided. Many will poo-poo all this as a nonsensical fad designed to squeeze a few hundred quid out of the 'worried well' population. I too was somewhat sceptical going in, and I still am to some extent. I find the diet too restrictive to stick to religiously and, frankly, logging everything I eat and drink all day long is an unspeakable bore. However, I cannot deny that when I've been 'good' and followed the diet in the round, my faint and shaky episodes disappear and my sweet cravings massively subside, and I'm altogether more energised. As a busy working mother, this discovery has been hugely helpful. I'm no longer running to the vending machine to meet my work deadlines or raiding the biscuit tin to get through bathtime. If hunger strikes, an apple and some cheese will usually do, or I can just power through. But there is, I've found, an annoying downside of the diet and health plans like it, which I feel deserves more air time, and it's this: eating this virtuously can be downright expensive. Zoe customers have been vocal about the relatively high upfront cost of the plan (£299 a month followed by £9.99 a month), but in reality the higher shopping bills you'll likely face afterwards are just as financially ruinous. Nowadays, I'm buying very little cheap processed food (crumpets, sliced bread and biscuits are out) and a lot more fresh, whole produce including high-quality protein sources (organic chicken, nuts and lentils are in). Because of this, it wasn't long before I realised I was going to have to start cheating on my trusty Sainsbury's for the weekly food shop. Its selection of Zoe-friendly foods is underwhelming, to say the least, online. Bread and pasta alternatives like sunflower bread and protein pastas are scarce, and wholemeal sourdough and sunflower bread are simply not available. I began to look elsewhere and, like a middle-class crunchy cliché, ended up signing up for that go-to health food hub that is Ocado. Needless to say, it is no longer my blood sugar soaring but my food bills. Ocado has no less than 16 types of 'high protein pasta', with packs ranging from £2.50 to £4.75. A far cry from the 75p packs I used to buy. The range of 'healthier' breads at Ocado is also vast. It sells loaves from M&S and Gail's, but again these don't come cheap. And when the Gail's loaves arrive, they seem smaller than the ones I buy at our local branch for the same price, £4.40. Sprinkling nuts and seeds on everything like a maniac also doesn't come cheap. Linwood pouches of ground seeds are £6.50 and I've several in the cupboard. I bitterly regretted spending £6 on an M&S 'gut booster' seed mix which tasted like eating stones on the beach. Lunch is also a real wallet killer now that I'm avoiding sandwiches like the plague. Instead of spending £5 on the usual Pret baguettes, I'm now splurging £13 on a massive salad at health food bar, Atis. Cheaper salads elsewhere are fine but often aren't satisfying enough on their own, I find. Snacks, which ought not to be carb-heavy, can also set you back more if you're eating the Zoe way. At work, my £1 chocolate bars have been replaced with £1.50 tubs of Fage Greek yoghurt coupled with some chopped fruit for another £1.50 a tub. I also munch on packs of Daylesford Organic chilli salted corn & beans, which Zoe scores an angelic 88 of 100. But at £5.10 a pack, these really do have to be rationed. There will be people reading this crying out that eating healthily doesn't have to be expensive. I myself have long held the same view. But usually our point of comparison is someone who cooks nutritious meals from scratch versus someone who heats up ready meals and orders takeaways willy nilly. But here we are talking about switching things up further by ditching standard ingredients for 'healthier', higher quality varieties and increasing the variety of different nutrient dense foods we are consuming. Cooking with fresh herbs. Sprinkling seeds on things. Not filling up on cheap, white carbs. I'm afraid the companies like Ocado have seen the likes of me coming, and are cashing in big time. It is simply a fact that a lot of health foods, especially if they are convenient and delicious, do come at a huge price premium. Spending this much money on food wasn't something I ever anticipated, and the next step for me will be to find ways to economise. But if being charged through the nose for some chickpea pasta or a delicious, filling salad at lunchtime means avoiding the exhausting rollercoaster I used to live on, then, for me at least, it's money well spent.
