6000 meals under 50p in 2010; feeding your family on a low budget

PolishBigSpender

SavvyMoneySaver wrote: »

To be fair to PSB nicki changed the menu completely after he posted his comments. Good luck with the challenge nicki I will watch closely to see how you get on.

I was just thinking that!

Her comments, by the way

i have worked it out that orange juice is one portion, two portions of carrots, one in the jelly as in the strawberries, and one in raisens so ok not all veg but certainly getting our 5 a day

Orange juice is also only good in moderation - it's loaded with sugars and shouldn't be seen as an every day thing. But okay, that counts as one.

Two portions of carrots - you can only count one, no matter how many you eat.

Jelly? JELLY? You are joking, right?

Strawberries and raisins are fine and well, but what about portion size? If you've only eaten two or three strawberries, it doesn't count.

Raisins are also absolutely full of sugar - again, fine and well as an occasional treat, but not recommended in the long run.

Look at the (now changed) menu as a whole. There's at least two nasties in there, if not more.

I've just noticed that a child is being fed this stuff, too! Oh my... This is a dreadful diet for a child - butter on toast, cheese spread on bread, potatoes, yoghurt, jelly and even raisins - I could be here all day explaining why this is just a bad idea!

I have no objection with adults eating whatever they want - they're adults. But children should be eating balanced, healthy diets - not diets laden with sugar (the jelly, yoghurt, raisins, orange juice all contain high amounts of sugar). Feeding "cheese spread and bread" to a child for lunch is just...no. no. no.

nuttybabe

Kimitatsu wrote: »

Potatoes do not count as a vegetable for the purposes of your five a day.

I admire all of you on this thread but my query would be that there should be fresh fruit and veg included in there - as a guide for the purposes of a financial statement for any financial institution they allow £25 per adult and £15 per child per week for food (not including toiletries and cleaning products) which is deemed to be sufficient to have a healthy balanced lifestyle.

I will be following the thread from the sidelines but I am afraid I wont be joining in your challange :beer:

If only!!!!!!!!!!!! We are 2 adults and 3 kids and our food budget is now £40 a week so I will be following this and looking for ideas on how to eat cheaply.

Good luck Nikki.

Nancy888

Well, I'll be watching this thread too...

Good luck in your challenge

I too make lentil soup with red lentils, potatoes and carrots but also manage to get celery and onion in there - almost 5-a-day (not enough for the portions needed, I admit) but well on the way

k.o.d

nuttybabe wrote: »

If only!!!!!!!!!!!! We are 2 adults and 3 kids and our food budget is now £40 a week so I will be following this and looking for ideas on how to eat cheaply.

Good luck Nikki.

Why is your food budget this low?

PolishBigSpender

tiff wrote: »

I get the point about healthy eating, but some people have to eat according to their very limited means to get by.

I would argue that food is the most important thing for a child. A child can wear old clothes, they can play with old toys (or even no toys) - but you cannot feed a child bad food. It's just wrong on so many levels - especially when the parents are eating Waitrose Paella!

My parents, during the Communist regime always made sure that I was fed properly despite widespread shortages and complete inabiity to get certain things. It's stuck with me to this day - and I am horrified that anyone in the UK would willfully feed garbage to their child!

Kimitatsu

nuttybabe wrote: »

If only!!!!!!!!!!!! We are 2 adults and 3 kids and our food budget is now £40 a week so I will be following this and looking for ideas on how to eat cheaply.

Good luck Nikki.

sorry Nutty babe but that is YOUR budget not what is allowed by the financial institutions - if you are paying off any sort of debt then this comes out before any repayment plan is put in place. The financial institutions are not allowed to make you pay back any more if it would mean that you would cut into the amounts dictated by the common financial statement.

There should be a balance between frugal living and a healthy balanced diet, and whilst I am sure there are some ideas that many people could adopt from these threads, a diet laden with fat, carbohydrates, preservatives and sugars will not benefit you in the long run.

nuttybabe

Because of debts and overspending and stuff going wrong with house and cars going wrong and just life really!!

rachbc

ok so how do you know that the yoghurt isn't plain bio yog which is actually very healthy as opposed to processed pink gloop? The jelly could be homemade with fresh juice as it is in our house and whats wrong with bread and butter - homemade wholemeal seeded bread with a small amount of butter is a totally different beast to sliced processed white laden with marge (and btw children NEED fat in their diets before you go high and mighty on me)

k.o.d

nuttybabe wrote: »

Because of debts and overspending and stuff going wrong with house and cars going wrong and just life really!!

But as Kimitatsu has just stated, if you are working to a financial statement they allow you a lot more, I just think you need to talk to someone about your allowances and the CAB (see link above in previous post) will help.
I think you may put your childs development at risk following this plan long term, and no self respecting debt agency would allow that to happen unless you don't give the facts to them.
Frugal is good, unhealthy isn't

nuttybabe

Kimitatsu wrote: »

sorry Nutty babe but that is YOUR budget not what is allowed by the financial institutions - if you are paying off any sort of debt then this comes out before any repayment plan is put in place. The financial institutions are not allowed to make you pay back any more if it would mean that you would cut into the amounts dictated by the common financial statement.

There should be a balance between frugal living and a healthy balanced diet, and whilst I am sure there are some ideas that many people could adopt from these threads, a diet laden with fat, carbohydrates, preservatives and sugars will not benefit you in the long run.

You dont know what sort of food we eat so you cant really comment on how healthy it is. We dont eat alot of fat, preservatives or sugar. I cook from scratch and I am careful about waste. All last year I was seeing a healthy eating trainer and writing a food diary and she never had any cause for concern over what I was eating.

Also the debt we are in is our fault and therefore we are paying it back, I refuse to jump on the band wagon of getting our debt written off as that just does not seem right to me when we can pay it. I am looking for work and I am starting to sell craft items I am making so hopefully things will improve financially and this will be a short term thing.