Budgeting for a family of five - how much the basics?

rainbowkanga

I have found some of the recent posts on menu planning/budgetting very helpful - thank you. I am a mum of three with an OH to cook for - plus once or twice a week a couple of other adults for lunch/supper. Before I started budgetting I spent around £100 a week on food. I aimed to cut it down to £75 which I did relatively easily and am now aiming for £50 a week. This I have found tougher I think partly because my husband works from home (he is a vicar) so there can often be other people appearing out of nowhere for a meal, so I feel that as well as menu planning which I do, I also have to keep a certain amount in to make up the numbers! Also I have given up on cloth nappies for my 18mth old as he is the worst wriggler so getting a nappy and wrap on was a nightmare, so am now having to budget for (cheapest) disposables in my shop too.

I would love some tips on how to cut down on the basics. I've got a breadmaker and do rolls most days so that means I'm not buying any bakery items. But at the mo, we get through about £8 a week in milk - all my children drink it, and as they're not overweight and its good for them, I guess I would rather they drank that than anything else (although they do drink weak squash/basics OJ/AJ too)- and with cereal/porridge and lots of coffee/tea consumed during the day, the milk is got through. So that's one non-negotiable in my shop. Buying fresh veg/fruit adds a fair bit too - we do have a market in the centre of town but by the time I've paid for car parking there isn't much in using that or buying supermarket stuff and my local grocers is more expensive than supermarket. We have cut down on meat and are eating less so that's helped.

Would love any tips for cutting back on basics - it was easy to trim the excess (always cooked HM food anyway but ykwim - bought biscuits, more expensive brands etc.) but just struggling a bit with the next stage! Advice gratefully received....

:xmassign:

thriftlady_2

Hi, I also have OH and 3 kids to feed although rarely other adults and OH takes a packed lunch to work.I reckon I average about £55-£60 a week on basics.

I get all my fruit + veg from my local farmshop (lucky for me I have quite a good choice of these around Worcester)My farmshop is a fruit grower and has owngrown apples from late August until around March,they usually cost £1.40 for a 4lb bag which is the cheapest I've seen - mind you my ds2 gets through about 5 a day if allowed so I buy about 12lbs a week.I don't buy them at all in the Summer as local, seasonal produce is a priority for me.The other brilliant bargain from the farmshop is a 20kg bag of spuds for £4 -works out at about 9p a lb.

I too have cut down on meat,tending to buy it only for weekends.I'm quite fussy about its origins and go to a very good butcher who can tell me exactly where it came from and how it was reared.I always make stock with the carcass of any bird we eat.My butcher also has wild rabbits for£3.99 each which are a really good buy as a rabbit stew will easily serve the whole family once and me and OH again later in the week.

For dairy stuff and dry goods,baking supplies(I also make my own bread) and household items I go to Tesco, which I loathe but its my nearest shop -in fact my very nearest shop used to be a Onestop but that's now a Tesco Express, they're taking over the world.Their value lines can be quite good.The ones I buy are flour,tinned tomatoes,baked beans,OJ&AJ,loo roll,cheese,pitta bread,oats and the value chocolate is very good.

I also do a lot of Grandma-type stuff like making jams, jellies and chutney, and damson gin - just started this year's batch delicious! I use an electric yogurt maker to make fantastic yogurt for 92p a litre.

Sorry, was that too much information? Once I get started.......

anyway hope it helps :santa2:

kiwichick

In terms of disposables I always use the shops own brand. I find tesco are the best and at £3.97 a pack are good value too. The only ones I really dont rate too well are asda, not too much give in them which can lead to leaks.

I also keep my eye out when in boots as they will sometimes have their own brand (which is made by huggies FYI) on a 3 for 2 offer - BARGAIN!!!!! There own wipes are normally 2 for £1.99 but asda do a pack of 4 for £3.87 - even cheaper.

I will be keeping a close eye on this thread and hope to add more as I can. I am a mum to 3 as well and at about the same stage as you in terms of the budget slimline.

Best of luck
Al.

thriftlady_2

What does ykwim mean btw?

Penny-Pincher!!

you know what i mean-ykwim (I think :rolleyes: )

MATH

HI, Well done on making the initial cut down. You are doing all the right things. Cutting out waste and extravagance nets bick buck returns, the second stage takes more thought and is not as dramatic, it can be a bit disheartening but stay with it.

We are also a family of five and entertain family most weeks and cater tea,coffee,biscuits for a variety of church meetings that by tradition are always at our house.

Here are my tips:

Always make a cheap OS milk/sponge type puddings. Greatfully accept all windfalls/free berries. Puddings fill you up and reduce expensive nighttime snacking.

Drink plenty of water. I used to buy 6 litres of squash a week.(I can ahrdly believe I used to do this) I now buy 1 litre a fortnight.

If they sell it in economy label - buy it and give it a go.

Stop buying all the cleaning products they tell you you need. I clean my whole house with a damp cloth followed with a buff of newspaper for glass/chrome. Economy washing-up-liquid (16p) and economy bleach (35p) do everything.

Use a couple of spoons of Soda Crystals (52p) in your laundry and reduce your detergent by half. Economy detergent works ok IMO

Stop using fabric softener. A spray of hairspray or hair conditioner and water mix kills static cling if needed.

I'm sure other Ol'Stylers will come up with many more ideas. Keep posting to let us know how you get on.

freyaluck

hi
I also have a family of 5 and feed us all for about £45 a week,
Breakfast is cereal, - no kellogs in our house , usually supermarkets own brand porridge , corn flakes and rice pops are the norm.
lunch a cheese or salmon(basics) sarnie with yogurt and fruit.
Dinner can be anything home made from stew to soup wedges, beans and eggs always goes down a treat as well as curry or rissoto.
We have meat most days. I buy organic milk, eggs and potatoes.
I don't buy bisquits crisps or fizzy unless it's xmas, then I tend to splurge, on all the things we don't normally have. I buy my 2yo a pack of pull ups a week, also a pack of baby wipes.
My baby is in terries so that saves a bit , I understand why you have gone to diposables as my 2 yo was a big wriggler.
If we have bisquits or sweets in the house they are 99% of the time home made eg shortbread, fudge, choc chip cookies, sponge cake flap jack ect. Also make my own bread.
hope that may help
hugs frey

auntywalker2

Have you tried long-life value milk? I find long-life skimmed tastes like fresh semi-skimmed and it's about 35p a litre and you can bulk buy as it doesn't need to be stored in the fridge until opened.

HTH

foreverskint

We are a family of 6 and I have found that by doing a monthly on line shop at Tescos ( and using a vouvher code) for all of my basic non perishables ie flours washing powders etc, helps me to budget. This one shop usually comes in at around the hundred pound mark, although I am finding it harder to spend that much!


I then use the butchers and Lidls/market for veg a couple of times a month and spend around another 100 altogether.

What I have done over the months is find cheaper alternatives for things I use.
Spices and herbs from a local market stall are far cheaper than the supermarkets. Lidls fruit & veg cheaper than the market when they have their half price offers. A good butchers will offer cheaper cuts of meat that I slow cook or nice big joints that go a long way/freeze half for the same price as a piddly joint from Tesco.

I have now built up a sizeable store cupboard of all the dry goods I use regularly, and make sure I always have stuff in to bake, bread/cakes/ biccies etc.
I have two freezers so that I can take advantage of BOGOFs and freeze meat from the butchers.
In the new year I hope to take advantage of buying a whole lamb and half a pig to cut my meat costs down further.

I mix a good washing powder with the same quantity of value powder and washing soda and then use half the recommended dosage. This means that my two 45 wash boxes last me on average 3 months + and my machine is on at least twice a day :snow_laug that = 168 washes from two boxes of powder instead of 90.

I also use UHT milk for all cooking, such as porridge/ milk sauces / milk puds etc. This stops me from 'just popping to the shops' and invariably buying more than I need.

Some things I can't go cheaper on, such as my tea & coffee but then it's not all about doing without is it?

HTH:xmassign:

Penny-Pincher!!

Hi

There is only 3 of us in our household, but easily manage on between £25-£35 a week. We eat very well and still have all my little luxuries (nescafe, tetley, decent washpowder, lenor, lux loo rolls and kitchen towels) but only buy these on special at Makros. A few weeks back I bought from there Persil Wash liquid x 2 boxset (each bottle 100 wash) for £6.99 +VAT, so bought 2 boxes of 2, so that should last at lwast 6 months and only cost £16 for 400 washes=4p a washload and I love persil.

I could cut back further, but my diet means I need high protein/fat/calorific foods, so Im eating constantly to maintain my weight :rolleyes: so in our shopping we always have things like crisps, biscuits (smartprice), milk, yogurts, cheese, good quality ham, crackers, butter, fruit, veg, squash-sp,
In my tin cupboard, always have baked beans, kidney beans, chopped toms, sweetcorn, tuna, soup (has to be baxters-so only get on special), spagetti, rice pudding, tinned fruit, raviolli, etc and all these are bought from Aldi which I find to be the best quality for the price and the baked beans are lovely. All meat is normally from Asda and I do a large shop every 4 weeks using a voucher code and making the best of their offers. Its all frozen but tastes OK. I will buy organic if on offer.

Breakies are normally:cereal, fruit, toast, egg/toast, porrige, bacon sarnie etc
Lunches:baked spud with filling, toasted sarnie, leftovers etc
Dinners: roasts, shepards pie, toad in hole, chilli, curry, meat-spuds and veg, spagbol, lasagna, stews etc etc

Good luck and am sure you can do it.

PP
xx

thriftlady_2

That's a brilliant idea about the washing powder Foreverskint I'm definitely going to try it.

My lovely butcher also sells half or whole animals for the freezer which works out considerably cheaper.I've been thinking about this for a while and think I'll do it when we've eaten the contents of our freezer.

I use uht milk(not value because they don't do a value wholemilk) in my yogurt maker.Its much less hassle this way as you don't have to heat it first because its already been heated.I add half a cup of value dried skimmed milk and that makes the yog richer.I also use dried milk in baking but I think uht would be a lot easier, thanks for that. :rudolf: