£50 a week to feed family of 6, does anyone do it cheaper??

MUMOF4_2

Hi,
Thanks. As im fairly new to the board, what is the weekly email?
A couple of you have mentioned growing our own veg, we do have a couple of tomato plants and a big courgette plant. Nothing is ready yet, 'fried green tomatoes at whistle stop cafe' may be on the menu. Green tomatoes galore!
Its my daughters birthday today, so im wondering what i am going to come up with out of the things i have in already. Made her a lovely bd cake, only one disaster, galaxy chocolate doesnt melt properly, smoke blazing out my microwave, i kept checking on it every 8 secs, thankfully lol i managed to rescue it by digging out the charcoal in the middle, threw it in a clean dish and mixed in some butter, looks rather like frosting now!!!I do have 4 pizzas in the freezer that i grabbed in lidls when they were 2 for £1, so it may be pizza!
Dog food, i buy a large bag of bakers for £9.99 I think thats lasts for 3 weeks, i would have to check, and the cat food, we always buy a big bag of jame wellbeloved which again is around £10, That lasts well over a month could be closer to 2 months actually. I will have to jot down when i buy it and when we finish it.
I like buying vegetables from lidls and the market, as you can pick up lots of offers and fill the fridge, which will then keep for nearly 2 weeks.

kunekune

Well, as someone who struggles to feed 2 adults and 2 children on a notional budget of £110 a week (excluding alcohol), I am amazed.

It's a funny thing, when we have these threads there will be the people who say "wow, that's extravagent, I could feed a family of 10 for £30 a week" and then the others like me who have a much bigger budget. But the thing is that we all have different amounts of time/space/money and part of what MSE is about is making informed decisions about where to save and where to spend. What's doable for someone with a garden, lots of cupboards, transport and some time might not be doable for someone with a yard, limited kitchen space, no driving licence and working a 60 hour week. We don't need snacks, mind, most days: no-one in the house between 8.30 or so and nearly 6!

What I really like about threads like yours is seeing how people take what they have and come up with creative and interesting meals out of next to nothing. I've sometimes been tempted to post my shopping list, but I would be laughed off the board for my spendthrift ways (yes, dear trolley watchers, maybe that's ME with the case of wine). OTOH, it's 50% down on what it was before I found this board, and that's what I'm proud of.

BoingBoing_2

Well done! I did an Asda shop yesterday and managed to spend £55 for 4 of us plus 2 cats, but if I work out how much I spend over a month it's probably gonna be closer to £350 ouch!

I do bake my own bread (in the machine) but I add flour improver from Mick Heaton on eBay. Makes the bread more expensive, but much more edible lol.

I'm off to find some nich cheap health menus and see if I can cut enough off my monthly food bill to fund a holiday with the kids next year!

Pennylane

Lidl have tinned tuna which I buy as dog food. It is SO cheap and indeed cheaper than the little cartons I buy for my 2 small dogs. Very good for their coats and general condition too. I don't suppose it would be so economical if you had wolfhounds though!!

primowino

well done mumof4, I believe if I feed my kids well most of the time then the extras do not count! I have 3 kids who are all good swimmers, in a normal week I have 17 training sessions to take them to, this means my eldest son sometimes swims 4 hours a day and needs about 6000 calories, all of these cannot be low fat healthy calories as he just cannot eat the volume. He will often have the healthy tea I cook, and then a pizza and/or quiche, both of which I will have purchase from a reduced counter in a supermarket! I spend about £80 pw on 2 adults, dd 12, ds 15 and ds 8 I would say up to half of it is on convenience food such as pizzas/pies/quiche and lots of angel delight all of which is eaten after evening training. All the kids are thin, and never sick. I would love to feed them healthy all the time but it is not possible working full time and trying to have time to enjoy myself and the kids as much as possible.

Does anyone have a recipe for raspberry jam? found some bushes full of raspberries yesterday in a local park when I took DS2 to play football with a friend, they berries were delicious eaten straight from the bush but I would like to try to make jam. I beleive red berry fruits are as good for you frozen, cooked, raw as jam etc. I am sure I read somewhere one of the Scandinavian countries had a bad health problem and they as a nation reduced their fat intake and increased their red fruit intake and it led to a big improvement in the nations health. I think I saw it at the Edinburgh science festival so it must be true!

Penelope_Penguin

MUMOF4 wrote: »

Hi,
Thanks. As im fairly new to the board, what is the weekly email?

It's an e-mail that Martin sends to subscribers every week Take a look at the main site and add your e-mail address.

Penny. x

madmoneysavingmum

A really quick and foolproof recipe for raspberry jam (I have done it with blackberries, too) is to take equal volumes of raspberries and caster sugar (500g of each will fill a 500ml jar or 2x250ml jars/250g of each will fill a 250ml jar) and heat, in separate bowls/dishes, in the oven for about 25 mins at about 180c or gas 4, until really hot. You want the fruit to be spread out a bit, rather than piled up, and this dish also needs to be big enough to take the sugar as well, eventually. When really hot, remove both dishes from the oven and pour the sugar into the raspberries. The whole thing goes funny and jam-like. Give a quick stir if needed. Pour into a clean jar and cover. Once cool, store in the fridge. This jam is a little runnier than 'normal' jam, and needs storing in the fridge, but is a lot less hassle! I have kept it for a couple of months in the fridge, but only because it got forgotten about. Normally it is polished off very quickly. I especially like it in cakes.

HTH

madmoneysavingmum

BTW raspberries also freeze really well. Spread out on a tray and freeze until solid, then decant into plastic bags and store in freezer. This way they are 'free-flowing' and you can remove as many or as few as you want at a time. My treat on Christmas Day is a raspberry pavlova as I don't like Christmas pudding, made with the raspberries I have frozen in the summer.

mardatha

Can you make jam with Splenda ? OH is borderline diabetic.

Pink.

mardatha wrote: »

Can you make jam with Splenda ? OH is borderline diabetic.

Hi mardatha,

This thread might help: Reduced sugar jam recipes

Pink