can u feed 5 adults+pets on £140 pmth?

pudding06

I did my soa yesterday and after paying everything, and assuming I get no work, I'm left with £140 pmth to feed

5 adults:eek:

a biggish dog:p

and a lovely moggy.:D

Do you think that its at all possible?

What budgets do you have for you food and household?

all suggestions greatly received:T

pudds

recovering_spendaholic

I think that would be perfectly possible, however it depends on what you feed your animals, as changing their food can affect their stomachs - I have a scottie and if we give him cheaper food then he gets really bad colitis so I am stuck with spending £10 a week on Pedigree pouches.

You will need to do meal plans and there are a few really good ones on here (sorry I am not so good at doing links but if you put meal planner in the search you should get some).

I don't really meal plan properly, but do know that I can easily feed my two kids and I for about £30 a week, but I don't always do it as I am a terrible impulse buyer.

Good luck!

thriftlady_2

Check out the menu plans here, some are on a very low budget
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=161168

£140 a month for 5 adults does sound quite a challenge, you'd be spending £35 a week or less, good luck

pudding06

Yikes - It sounds even worse when you say £35 per week!!

pudds

Bad-Boy-Button

Just to put things into perspective, thats 93p per day per adult, and thats without the cat 'n dog.

Good luck,

jellycat40

Have a look at some of Black Saturn's threads she just did a month shopping for her and her 2? kids for £47 or £42 i think.

Louise

cattie

I've just had 2 strapping 21 year olds from overseas staying with me for a month. Last night I worked out that I'd fed them for the 4 weeks for around £44 total. This was with a hearty evening meal & dessert daily, & cereal & toast breakfasts.

By buying carefully & being ingenious it can probably be done. Just look out for the bargains.

Bargain_Rzl

jellycat40 wrote:

Have a look at some of Black Saturn's threads she just did a month shopping for her and her 2? kids for £47 or £42 i think.

Louise

I think Black Saturn has a dog too

B_S's meal plans did come under some criticism for not involving enough fresh fruit and veg, but if you read through her meal planner, you could still use it as a base for your own meal planner but add in some extra fruit and veggies if you wanted, if you see what I mean. Even with scaling it up to the size of your family, I reckon your budget should allow for this.

Also do a search through Old Style for threads about the Storecupboard Challenge - it's about making the most of stuff that's already in your kitchen cupboard so the things you need to buy fresh are minimised.

Another suggestion is to do a trawl of the supermarkets near closing time to look for mega-bargains on fresh meat and fish in the yellow-sticker section, then freeze it and draw up a meal planner based around these ingredients so you will just have to add to your cheapie meat with pulses, fresh veg and so on. That's what I do when I want to keep costs right down.

My mum swears by Lidl dog food

lynzpower

Bargain_Rzl wrote:

I think Black Saturn has a dog too

My mum swears by Lidl dog food

thats one way of keeping the costs down!!!

bommer

One cheap alternative which I use all the time is soya mince from Holland and Barrett. It is £1.25 for a bag of flavoured soya mince. You need to rehydrate it with boiling water. I get about 4 lots of 3-4oz portions each one rehydrates to about 1lb of mince which is enough for a decent portion for 4 people. I use it to make vegetarian chillis, spegetti bols, cottage pies, curries. I also add a can of beans to my cottage pie mince mix and double the portion up - top with sliced boiled potatoes and topped with cheese makes a very tasty meal.

You could also use it to pad out REAL mince meat.

Bargain_Rzl

lynzpower wrote:

thats one way of keeping the costs down!!!

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

I didn't mean it like that, as you well know

Although there was the time that my grandfather consumed an entire bowlful of Vitalin dog food with milk, thinking it was muesli The only difference he noticed was that it "seemed a bit salty" :rotfl: