The Early Financials Are In

Experiences
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After two-plus months on Huel, I finally got around to checking out my actual grocery spend.

I’d assumed that I was spending less. Happily, to pull myself out of a financial crisis a few years back, I got into the habit of maintaining a spreadsheet and noting down all income and expenditure, day by day, so it was easy enough to go back and pull out all the lines marked ‘groceries’. (Stop me if this gets too confusing…)

Just as a bit of context, I live alone, mostly, though my son comes to stay a couple of times a month, and longer in the school holidays. And I don’t eat meat. I don’t drink much at home, but there could be the odd bottle of wine or beer included in these totals. It’s mainly food, though.

So, my last two months without Huel, April and May, I spent a total of £355 at the local Co-Op.

My first two months on Huel, June and July (replacing one or two meals a day, occasionally three), I spent a total of £153 on groceries.

So as well as effortlessly dropping more than 2kg, and seeing my two (moderate) food cravings (for bread and chocolate) evaporate into thin air, I’m also saving a hundred quid a month on groceries!

Now, to be fair, across those two months that I’ve saved £202, I have spent £176 on Huel, BUT I’ve got a bit of a Huel glut going on at the moment, with a bag in the London office, two bags in the Nottingham office, a bag in the Nottingham flat, and four bags just arrived at home.

So, whenever I finish all that I have now, I’ll come back and update the numbers here. As of right now, though, I’ve saved £26 overall, plus I have several weeks Huel supply in hand.

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2

This is really awesome to read. Of that £176 of Huel, how much do you estimate you have already eaten?

Thank you for doing the maths, I’ve always been curious about how much you could save by using Huel!

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That’s a very good question, Tim.

I’ve just gone back through my order history and I’ve bought 16 bags so far. My order history also revealed my spreadsheet record isn’t as good as I thought! My Huel spend is ACTUALLY £328.70 and not, as previously stated, £176.

Of those 16 bags, I know the last regular order of 4 bags is still sitting in my shed at home as I’m away in Majorca currently. In addition, I have a partial bag at home, plus three partial ones in Nottingham, plus one in London. It’s hard to estimate what’s left in these, without actually looking, but I’m going to guess that those five partial bags add up to four bags in total.

Therefore, of my purchased 16, I’ve actually only consumed 8 which, at the subscription rates, comes in at £154.80. Therefore my Huel consumption over June and July was right about £77.40 a month. Which, when set off against my saving of £101 a month at the Co-Op, delivers a pretty clear saving of £23.60 a month. Or £283.20 a year.

Which is enough, at todays prices, to invest in a gold sovereign (£240) with enough left over for a decent meal out and a couple of beers.

Oh, and I just discovered from Julian’s article in this thread that UK households chuck out around £200 a year in wasted food. I reckon that takes me safely over the £400-a-year saving mark, even if I do still throw out the occasional floppy cucumber…

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Forgive me, I’m a bit dim, but are you double counting the potential savings on food waste?

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I don’t think so. He’s saved £283.20 over the course of a year by using Huel for 1-3 meals a day. In addition, the average UK household wastes an apparent £200 a year on food. So added together this takes him…

:+1:

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But if he’s consuming less conventional food then there’s also less food waste. I would expect replacing 2/3 of all meals with Huel would decrease food waste by about 2/3 as well.

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Tim’s right.

My actual saving on food I’m not buying due to using Huel is extrapolated out over a full year to be £283.20.

In addition, there’s the question of food bought and then wasted. This is put at £200 per household per year in the UK, according to Julian’s article. I’m not generally wasteful, and there’s only me most of the time anyway, so my wastage will have been less than £200. So if I take that down to, say, £150 pre-Huel, and zero now (both of which are estimates, of course), then my overall saving in a year is £283.20 plus £150, which comes to £433.20.

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That’s a good way to look at it - which would take my savings higher again.

This just keeps getting better! At this rate, I’ll be able to stop working by the end of the year :grinning:

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TerryBaker59 is correct. The standard of math in this country is terrifying.

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Hi Robert, Thanks for your reply! interesting stuff. I suspect you’re over estimating the food waste difference. I acknowledge you’re taking the pre huel waste estimate down by 25%. Depending on the size of your household, i wonder if the reduction should be greater? An average household would probably be about 4 people i guess? Post huel Your assumption of zero waste would be valid if you consumed no normal food, but i believe you’re consuming some? Should your current waste assumption not be based on the proportion of normal food you’re consuming? So eg, if your household is one person, you’re waste pre huel might be as little as 25-50% of the average, (less if you’re careful.) post huel, if you’re eating 33% normal food, your waste would be about 33% of the pre huel waste. So, perhaps £100 before, £33 after. Forgive me if this is entirely wrong, i don’t have access to your original post. I’m not generally so nit picking, but I’m very interested in the potential savings from huel and it’s good that you’re including waste in your calculations. I mostly use huel when travelling, so it saves me huge amounts as the alternative is mostly restaurants.

Do let me know if I’ve misunderstood!

BW
Terry

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You are counting bought groceries in your totals of food spend, so therefore waste food can’t be counted.

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Michael - firstly it’s maths in this country, math in the States :smirk:

Secondly, this isn’t really a maths discussion. I made it clear from the off that this is all estimation. The savings are extrapolated from two months grocery spend pre-Huel, and two months grocery spend post-Huel. The chances of an entire year working out exactly as extrapolated are pretty slim (and that’s another estimate!) The wastage figure is extrapolated from the average household waste in the UK - an estimate in itself - and then my estimate of my own food waste, based on that estimate.

I’m happy to stick at zero as I am pretty careful, and there is only me, though I’m equally happy to go at 33% or 66% of the estimated UK average - because in reality, I don’t know, and I don’t really care enough to measure it!

Let’s not lose sight of the main point, though - that I’m saving money by using Huel.

Oh, and what I haven’t counted here is petrol costs. My nearest store is three miles away, and while I do occasionally walk or cycle, I mostly use the car. That’s another saving to add to the above (though I’m reluctant to put an estimate on that, in case the math police come back…)

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terriann - you’re right that it can’t be counted (or it can, but I can’t be bothered) but it can be estimated. In many different ways, as we’re discovering here :grinning:

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I don’t mind which abbreviation you use as it’s irrelevant. I now prefer math as it is somewhat more elegant. FWIW I’ve always lived in the UK. I mention this only as you brought up the subject of spelling & regions, seemingly in a “lighthearted” attempt to put me down.

Mathematics is the science of reason.

The issues in question do not involve estimation. You’ve made a mistake in your reasoning, It’s a common mistake & reminds me of an error exploited by numerous cons in which someone is shortchanged.

You may add together whatever numbers you like, however if you make claims about the meanings of these number which are not consistent with logic & this is pointed out to you by three people, metaphorical hand waving is not an effective response.

BTW I love Huel & its objectives. I’m also prone to making lots of mistakes & being generally annoying, but that much is probably obvious. Sláinte.

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He’s using correct American-English grammar and you’re falling over maths vs math? And then you call him math police? Grammar police much. And the only reason he’s precise is that he obviously cares. Now if I would write color instead of colour, would this take away from my message in any way?