£200 a week family of 5?

Hanky_Panky

Seems jalaneme has other budgeting issues !!

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3366668

dorsetlady

There are 4 adults in my house and I spend £100 a week on food - we eat well and this includes all drinks, packed lunches etc. I thought I was overspending! If I had £200 a week AFTER bills like the OP - I'd consider myself VERY wealthy!

ChiefGrasscutter

Hanky_Panky wrote: »

Seems jalaneme has other budgeting issues !!

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3366668

From their latest rant on the above thread it seems they have a serious attitude problem as well.

getmore4less

Any back to the op issue............

It's what they spend that we are trying to help with.

What you need to do is a very detailed spending diary to identify where the money is going.

The more catagories and subcatagories the better to start with.

Common high spenders(not saying these are yours)
booze
fags
Meat
Snack food
ready meals(incl things like piza)
things(stuff you done need just want)

do you have a seperate budget for takeaways(if you have them)

Another parallel task is meal cost diary.
estimate what each of the 3 main meals are costing

and finaly cost of everything you throw away.

Another thing that can help is go through the stores and find out what you have that could be used up plan some meals around those.

darkvader

My folks have been with us visiting the UK for few weeks now and must say, with 4 good eating, well fed bodies at home, we still dont go over £80 - we cook meat every day of the week too and have seafood. I am discounting the amount I spend on alcohol as that is not considered relevant as per OPs post

For just the 2 of us, per week including the amount we spend to sort out our work day lunches (10 in total) we spend around £60 so I'd definitely say with £200 for 2 adults and 2 kids, you can manage well enough and afford the odd luxury item for the week

Dont worry, you should have some extra cash left over once you're done with the shopping :-)

DV

bengalknights

We have 4 adults here and including meat we spend around £200 a month on food, although most of our meals usually are homemade and one of the daily meals is rice.

Oldernotwiser

Hanky_Panky wrote: »

Seems jalaneme has other budgeting issues !!

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3366668

As s/he's on benefits, s/he may well have confused the amount per week with the amount per month.

(Whoever mentioned an attitude problem is right, though.)

mrmrsbibbs

Me and my husband are classed as obese, and support me him and our oldest daughter on £50 a week for food, we dont eat out or eat processed food, also as im the only one working I take packed lunches which is all veg, and a few slices of meet. so being obese has got jack all to do with the amount we spend !

Alikay

If the £200 is for everything else except bills, and includes the £30ish for petrol, then it's not a lot for 5 people. My "general living" pot would cover haircuts, cards and small gifts (not including close family's birthdays or Christmas), car parking, bus fares, newspapers or magazines, stamps and stationery, school trips, dry cleaning, odds n ends from the chemist if anyone was ill, any school or work-related expenses like sponsorship money, leaver's collections etc plus the odd little treats like ice creams when we're at the park or a coffee in town. Probably loads of other stuff too, plus of course the usual household "consumables" of food, drink, pet food and cleaning stuff.

I'm always amazed how much those little sundry expenses add up to!

z1a

We have 2 kids, 13 & 7 Y.O. and have about £550/week after bills, and we can't save on a weekly basis, struggle to save for hols etc.