food bill for 5 - is £35 a week unrealistic?

MATH

Penny-Pincher!! wrote:

LADIES & MATH-BEHAVE!!!!

PP
xx

I hear ya PP...What a shame there is not a tongue-in-cheek smiley

*Louise*

£5 a week for 5 people? yeah, that would be possible if budgeted propely. and you seem to be going about it the right way :xmassmile

I found a great way to save on my food purchases.....my partner and I take the kids to our parents once a week and have dinner with them.....so I only have to make 5 dinners a week, hehe. :snow_laug

MSE_ForumTeam1

Internet forums are often very difficult to convey the tone and sometimes what was meant as a jokey light-hearted post can come across as rude and unkind. I certainly hope that is the case with a couple of posts on this thread. If they were meant seriously I think you have missed to point of this forum entirely and would perhaps be better off posting somewhere else.

Sarahsaver

kitster wrote:

I could'nt scrimp like this,for christs sake.

I don't consider that scrimping! We live well, a large joint of beef on sunday, smoked salmon for a starter at xmas, free range eggs, always have a plentiful supply of fresh fruit in the house. I drink decent wine because I think the cheap stuff is a waste of money. I raise a glass to the people who give hints on here and also those who ask for them. And to those who doubt us, or don't like it they don't have to post here. I have been through really hard times and shared experiences on this board, and got flamed for saving money so as to bring my kids up healthy and with a roof over their heads. So I am not going to say what I spend on food a week, but keeping to a tight but manageable budget has enabled us to have great holidays, pay off debts and have repairs done on the house. So those of you who have felt a bit under fire, HUGS!
Those of you who dont like it: start a thread in the arms about spending all your wages in the 1st week of the month and eating at maccy d's half the time, when you are not glued to the telly or maxing out your credit cards. (note of sarcasm in case anyone was in doubt LOL)
Merry Christmas everyone!

taplady

To those of you who live well on £35 or less I'm impressed! :money:

I can only hope to follow your fine example

I have got my shopping down from over £90 to about £60 for 2 adults and 2 hungry teenagers :snow_grin thanks to tips from this site and hopefully will continue to lower it :j

thanks to all those who offer their wonderful tips! :beer:

jo_b_2

jcr16 wrote:

what is a moon cup ? i didn't have one of those and never seen one for sale. sorry am i being really thick here ?

There is a thread about mooncups over on the Families board HERE that you might find useful.

RacyRed

jellycat40 wrote:

I am very new to budgeting. I started on Friday. I have £130 a week for 5 adults and a child, two dogs and two cats.

I have never had to budget before and i am finding it really difficult. On friday I went out and shopped at Tesco and spent £76ish. Then I had to go to Kwik Save for the stuff I forgot £11.50ish. Then I had to go to Aldi £11ish. I have £20 left in my purse and need bread, milk, fresh fruit and veg all before next Friday when the week starts again.

On top of what I have spent i went to Makro and spent £148 on cleaning stuff, office stuff, dishwasher tabs, Daz, Black bags and milk for the teasmaid.

I cannot seem to get to grips with it. I am saving all my receipts and am trying really hard, even took some vouchers with me. But I don't seem to be able to shop with less. I have teens who contribute to the finances and they want certain foods, not necessarily branded, but definitely convenient.

Any suggestions.

Louise

ps I meant to start off by saying well done for making do with £35-50 whatever kitster says I am impressed it seems like a full time job

Hi Louise

Your post really struck home with me, I know exactly what you mean when you say you cannot seem to get to grips with it. I felt just like that at first and thought I would never get the hang of budgeting. But keep reading OS and the pennies begins to drop... hopefully straight back into your purse.

As well as all the useful tips you will find encouragement here and even permission to struggle and fail, we are none of us perfect. Take it one step at a time and don't try to do everything at once, most of all, try not to panic.

After struggling for weeks and getting no-where, I eventually sat down and calculated the cost of all the things that were "must haves" in the weekly shop. I was amazed at how much that came to, and at how much of it was at the request of others. In effect I was trying to budget with one hand tied behind my back.

Those who muttered, "I pay too and I want x, y and z were shown the figures and given a choice of either contributing a realistic amount to sustain their requests or accepting my budgeting decisions.

Now I really enjoy it. Can I suggest you try the pin money challenge to get you into the swing of using vouchers etc.? Even if it has to be virtual pin money it will give you such a sense of achievement when you can actually see what you have saved.

As you will see from my username and previous posts I'm a terrible reprobate who was thought to be beyond hope. But I now have a breadmaker, am on my second slow cooker (first was a freeby coz I thought it would end up in the back of the cupboard).

So keep going, try not to get discouraged and you will get there. Good luck Hun.

swampytiggaa, let us know how it goes, that is inspirational moneysaving. :xmastree:

Gawd! if Nelski sees this post :eek::p

calleyw

jellycat40 wrote:

I am very new to budgeting. I started on Friday. I have £130 a week for 5 adults and a child, two dogs and two cats.

I have never had to budget before and i am finding it really difficult. On friday I went out and shopped at Tesco and spent £76ish. Then I had to go to Kwik Save for the stuff I forgot £11.50ish. Then I had to go to Aldi £11ish. I have £20 left in my purse and need bread, milk, fresh fruit and veg all before next Friday when the week starts again.

On top of what I have spent i went to Makro and spent £148 on cleaning stuff, office stuff, dishwasher tabs, Daz, Black bags and milk for the teasmaid.

I cannot seem to get to grips with it. I am saving all my receipts and am trying really hard, even took some vouchers with me. But I don't seem to be able to shop with less. I have teens who contribute to the finances and they want certain foods, not necessarily branded, but definitely convenient.

Any suggestions.

Louise

ps I meant to start off by saying well done for making do with £35-50 whatever kitster says I am impressed it seems like a full time job

Louise,

As has been said try it a bit at the time. Try to much and if you fail you feel so disheartened.

I personally think that meal planning is the first thing to take on board. There are only two of us. But I have been slack and must get back to it.

Before I start I go to the cupboards/freezer and fridge and see what I have. Then start to plan meals using that up first. Only do a week to start with. I have even planned drinks and snacks to help me. That way you know what you need to buy to make the meals.

And in turn that means you will only buy what you need to make these meals. And in theory should help bring your bills down in the long run.

All the best.

Yours

Calley

Loretta

This whole idea is not about being mean or going without as can be seen on some posts here, roast beef, smoked salmon etc. I just want to know what I am eating so nearly everything we have is made from scratch, after all these food scares who wants to be eating minced up chicken beaks or whatever? HM tastes like real food, I think if you buy those ready meals etc you would never know what proper food tastes like. I also do not want to be ripped off, 99p might sound cheap for a ready meal but what is in it? does it actually taste of anything and how many would you need to fill you up?

It is all about getting more for your money not going without.

Reading on this site you can see when people start off they have no idea how to shop or cook and don't seem to know that you can actually make things and with slow cookers, breadmakers etc it doesn't have to take long it is just learning how, getting organised and getting food rolling, making one meal for today and one for the freezer, using the left over roast chicken for another couple of meals.

It is great when you can see the penny drop and they realise how easy, cheap and satisfying it can be and they actually live better. I think certain foods affect children's behaviour too.

I am not a beginner but every day reading on here I see new ideas, tips and easier ways of doing things, things that are obvious but I hadn't thought of them or read them before.

This board is part of my life now I couldn't live without it, you very quickly become completely addicted!

Mr_Proctalgia

If I may please :-

I'm fairly new to all this money saving stuff too, but looking back I have always been "old style" the last ready meal I remember eating was a Vesta when I was a teenager and that was about 30 years ago. I only know a "buy the stuff and cook it" kind of lifestyle. But from information gleaned from this site and others I now save a fortune and eat much better. The trick for me was to write down what I liked to eat, what I loved to eat and what I would never eat. Then using sites such as Fixtureferrets and asking around I found out what was cheap and when and where
it was available.


Now I study the BOGOFS and offers, shop when the reduced stuff is readily available and when WHAT I WANT is available I get a shipping order in, not just a can or bag or two, I fill my boots and stash it away, if it is a daily essential or a KVI (Known value item) I may even get it from the warehouse in bulk. The trick is to know what you like to eat and be an opportunistic buyer!

I realise that it will take time to stock up on your favourites (it took me about 2 months) but it is achievable, you will need dry storage and maybe 2 freezers. Learn to love your oven, learn how it behaves and work it, if you are cooking anything then do not waste the space - get something else in too, even if it is only Yorkshires or a simple crumble then freeze them. It costs no more to cook a bucket full than a pan full so get it organised. I think you have done brilliantly so far - keep up the good work.

Shopping bill for the last two weeks = £0 not a sausage zilch!