£100 for 5 weeks food - family of 4

merlin68

I have the same problem need to be debt free by february, so feeding 4 on £100 a month.

happy35

i will be watching this thread for a few tips, I think I am quite frugal but spend double this although I am feeding 2 adults and a teenager

ifonlyitwaseasier

have a lookie here, Weezl has some great recipe ideas and they do help keep the costs down

76rosie

my mr m's has cheap seconds fruits and veg on a sunday morning. Recommend checking it out but you must get there early and suss out how your store does it as all SA's are different. In the past i have got 25p mushrooms and even bags of potatoes and onions. Also heard from the locals that the evening reduced is worth a look too

SpendlessKaren

If you have a local co op they do a lot of reductions daily. Depending on when you go you will either get 25%, 50% or at the end of the day 75% of fresh food going out of date that day including meat/fish and bakery items. Worth going in and getting food to fill your freezer

nataz

Sounds like an interesting thread. We're having the same prob, family of four, two adults and two little-uns aged 4 and 2 (one still in nappies)

I've pretty slashed the budget over the past year by shopping in Aldi and Mr Ts, grabbing offers and reduced items when I can - but Im a useless cook, I'd probably be ok if I actually liked cooking or food that much in general, but of course, my family loves it! So we tend to have a lot of frozen easy to cook meals (not ready meals though) and very few from scratch meals.

I bought a SC but havent used it, Im generally not good with meat, not sure what to look for or how to cook it, except chicken and some fish.

How can I encourage myself and my kids to cook more and still keep costs really low, and without buying lots of ingredients that sit in the cupboard gathering dust

Any tips greatly received and can't wait to hear more debtfree2012

ceridwen

Well - actually one tip that never seems to come up - but I use it myself is trying to eat at least a little bit mindfully. That is - once I have had a noticeable amount of whatever I have on my plate is to try and stop before sticking another forkful of the food in my mouth to ask myself "Am I actually hungry for this - or am I about to stick it in my mouth just because its there?"

To me - quite often - I will reach a point where I think "Nope - I dont think I do feel hungry any more - so I will leave the rest of the food I have made up for this meal and have it some other time".

Its not a perfect system - as, having a full-time job, I do multi-task often and eat some meals whilst surfing the Web (my note for future reference is "when I have more time - when eating just eat" and then I will be able to focus better on whether I actually feel hungry for another mouthful or two of food or no). However - even at a "read computer - whilst eating" level it does curb my intake to some extent and helps my figure (which is my own personal main concern) and my finances.

Seraph123

Good luck with your challenge DF2012. If you could feed your family on good wishes, encouragement and fantastic advice then there'd be enough of it on here to last you for years.:)

I'm new to all this so please can somneone explain to me the sealed pot thing? Sorry if this isn't the right place to ask

DebtFree2012

Monday
Breakfast: Porridge * 3.
Cost 750g pack of Hot Oats £1.32 hopefully will last the month.
Made with Jam 84p last 10 days (it’s used when I am not there on toast etc and the invisible man that eats everything)
Milk for the week £3
Breakfast juice for the week 65p

Tea: Gammon, eggs, beans and HM wedges – already had in. Cost £0.

Tuesday
Breakfast: Porridge * 2.
Wheat biscuits pack of 48 £2.48 (last 14 days at least)

Tea: Mam and Dad's for tea every Tuesday Cost £0.


Wednesday
Breakfast: Porridge * 3.

Tea: LO chicken from Sunday with LO pasta from last night in HM milk/cheese sauce and HM sun dried tomato and rosemary bread (Thanks Weezl :T). Cost £0.


Thursday
Breakfast: Porridge * 2.
Wheat biscuits

Tea: Diced beef (slow cooker) with Yorkshires, carrots and peas. Cost 65p bag carrots (last 10 days?) 99p bag frozen peas (last all month)

Friday
Breakfast: Porridge * 3.

Tea: HM chicken parmesan with HM chips (kids veggie soup and bread) Cost £2.30 for chicken 39p for soup. Everything else is in the cupboard.


Packed lunches (1 week)
1 loaf bread 90p
Tin tuna 64p
Fromage frais 88p
Mousse 28p
Raisins (to last the month) £2.99
Spead £1.20
Yoghurts 8 for 58p
Biscuits (whole month, 2 packs) 90p
Bananas £1.07
Malt loaf 28p
Cheese £2.81

This is the first week’s write up (I will get better at this I hope!). There are other things that came in the shopping such as teething gel and soap etc. The shopping total (inc items not mentioned yet) came to £52.05 as I said but I had £2.05 in purse so I have £50 left for the rest of the month which is week commencing 01/08, 08,08, 15/08, 22/08. Gulp

This Saturday’s meal is accounted for and everything is in for it so not spending there.

I will go shopping on Sunday for the following items for next week:

chicken whole £4.00
carrots £0.76
prawn crackers £0.69
veg stir fry frozen £1.09
waffles £1.00
gravy granules £0.20
mozarella £0.84
cherry toms £1.00
fromage frais £0.44
mousse £0.27
yogs £0.58
lasagne sheets £0.39
garlic clove £0.30
baguette £0.39 (HM Garlic bread)
golden syrup £0.77 (this is to make flapjacks and such like for the packed lunches)
porridge oats £0.75 (ditto above plus to bulk out if possible, haven't tried latter yet)
milk*3 4 pinters £3.00
breakfast juice £0.68
bananas £1.07

Total £18.22

This allows me to make the following evening meals:

S: Sunday Lunch - Roast Chicken
M; Chicken stir fry (from Sunday LO) with prawn crackers
T: Mam and Dad's
W: Gammon, eggs, beans and waffles
T: Minced Meat and Yorkshires with veg
F: HM Pizza
S: Lasagne
S: New shop

With any left over veg I will make a soup or something using the carcass.

If you don’t see it on the shopping list then I already have it in (or have forgotten to add it:eek:!).

I have forecasted week 3 which is £19.97 as it contains meat (bacon and sausage for multiple meals) and also week 4 which is £7.38 and is a using up of everything that’s left week but will do more detail nearer the time.

Therefore I have just under £5 left which I have no doubt will be taken up by things I have forgotten.

Please feel free to comment.


My Comments/Notes:

• I work full time and try to cook from scratch where possible.
• Breakfast is for 3 of us, me and the kids, DH has his but hours before we do so I can't monitor what he has other then when I see something running low. He isn't extravagent though.
• We have 2 portions of fruit in the packed lunches, only 1 of which I buy as DH brings me apples home from his job.
• I vary veg based on what’s on offer so although it’s peas and carrots this will change if possible and will incorporate more as I can.
• My kids love prrodge and weetabix with raisins and fruit so the jam is a basic if I don’t have the fruit available however it’s added when possible.
• We drink water with tea and the kids have juice for lunch and I have water. God knows what DH has as he is at work and doesn’t come out of my pocket lol:T.
• They all, not me, have puddings every night and this is fruit, tinned fruit, meringues, HM rice pudding or a yoghurt and if they eat their tea they can have a biscuit before bed – even DH if he is good LOL.:rotfl:

OK there will be loads that I have missed but I am trying and although there will be room for plenty of improovement I am sure, it's one step at a time for me and writing it down is really helping me. Thanks to all that have commented so far - I am going to read those now.:A

DebtFree2012

tessie_bear wrote: »

good luck...have u tried aldi super 6 which is various fruit and veg every 2 weeks...they also do meat offers....lidl do weekend offers on meat fruit and veg and other essentials like taxi bars this weekend:p

have u tried markets for food ? there are threads on here like whats your cheapest meal which might be worth a look
hth

Thank you to all wishing me good luck.:D

I plan to walk to Aldi this w/e to see how they compare to Mr T which is my closest SM. Lidl is a drive away and so is the market so I can't justify the petrol yet to try them out - if I need to go to town though I will do check them out when there - thanks