How much to feed family of 5 each month

silkglade

Hi Everyone

I am just wondering what amount of money I should be aiming towards for feeding my family each month whilst trying to pay off my debts.

Thank you in advance for taking the time to read this.

Sorry, should have said that we are starting our DFW journey this month and I have a 12 year old, 6 year old and 2 year old... then there is other half and I.

We are going to be doing this for a VERY long time so need some realistic starting point please.

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chevalier

Whilst I can't answer that question can I direct you to the money saving old style board as there is loads of advice on there on stretching things out foodwise, and cleaning product wise too
Obviously if you cook from scratch and batch cook this will be cheaper than ready meals.
chev

Pollycat

silkglade wrote: »

Hi Everyone

I am just wondering what amount of money I should be aiming towards for feeding my family each month whilst trying to pay off my debts.

Thank you in advance for taking the time to read this.

Sorry, should have said that we are starting our DFW journey this month and I have a 12 year old, 6 year old and 2 year old... then there is other half and I.

We are going to be doing this for a VERY long time so need some realistic starting point please.

Hi silkglade

Maybe a better way of looking at this is to work out what you are paying for food now and then ask for ideas on how you can cut down.

What works for one same size/same age family may not work for your family unit.

For example, do you work part-time, full-time or not at all?
How much time do you have for cooking?
Do you buy ready-meals now or do you already cook mainly from scratch?
Are your kids fussy eaters?
Do they eat junk food or do they relish home made shepherd's pie?

As chevalier says, there's lots of great ideas on the Old-Style board on menu planning, bulk cooking etc.

One way I save on food is instead of buying a pack of mince weighing 1lb and using it all (there's 2 of us), I buy 3 packs then split them into 12oz bags and freeze.
So instead of getting 3 meals out of 3 x 1lb packs, I get 4 x 12oz portions - 1 meal for 2 free!

saltnvinegar

silkglade wrote: »

Hi Everyone

I am just wondering what amount of money I should be aiming towards for feeding my family each month whilst trying to pay off my debts.

Thank you in advance for taking the time to read this.

Sorry, should have said that we are starting our DFW journey this month and I have a 12 year old, 6 year old and 2 year old... then there is other half and I.

We are going to be doing this for a VERY long time so need some realistic starting point please.

Our groceries bill for a family of 6 we budget £400 a month which includes all toiletries too.

This is broken down into £100/month for toiletries and £75 a week for food.

Although it is tight with no room for luxuries we certainly don't starve and as has already been suggested there are many ways you can make meals stretch by buying in bulk/freezing meals etc.

Best
SnV

OrkneyStar

saltnvinegar wrote: »

Our groceries bill for a family of 6 we budget £400 a month which includes all toiletries too.

This is broken down into £100/month for toiletries and £75 a week for food.

Although it is tight with no room for luxuries we certainly don't starve and as has already been suggested there are many ways you can make meals stretch by buying in bulk/freezing meals etc.

Best
SnV

I am quite impressed by your food budgettting :T, but what toiletries do you buy to spend £100 per month ? Or does this include cleaning too ? :eek:
OP, the Old Style board is a good place to start ?

CH27

Look at the Old Style boards. You will get lots of advice & inspiration there.

flippin36

Hi Silkgade - can I suggest that you work out what you normally spend in a month (do you keep receipts?) then try shaving say £50 off, then the next month a little more and so on.

I have done the dramatically cutting back game and its fun for a month and then it gets depressing and I go back to having huge grocery bills. I find cutting back a little bit at a time was much better psychologically for me and it wasn't such a massive shock for the family either. I now spend a steady £200 pm (2 adults 2 teenagers) and we feel we eat very well on it, we used to spend £500. HTH

ceebeeby

We're currently working to approx £50 per week for family of 4 to include all foods, cleaning products and toiletries. It is doable healthy style, but helps if you can shop at the time the whoopsies come out :-)

Should have said we've managed to sustain this for about two years - sometimes going over, sometimes under. But it's a rough guide.

Our pre-budgeting grocery bills two years ago were between about £600 - £800 pcm, I kid you not!!!

fd1972uk

OrkneyStar wrote: »

I am quite impressed by your food budgettting :T, but what toiletries do you buy to spend £100 per month ? Or does this include cleaning too ? :eek:
OP, the Old Style board is a good place to start ?

LOL, I was going to say that, Salt says she has no luxuries spending that much on toiletries I'd be wondering what exactly is a luxury.

We are a family of 3, (kid @ 5), and we budget around £45, maybe stretching to £50 per week, that includes everything for the house, food, cleaning, toiletries, booze.


FD

sugarcube84

Ive just cut my budget down from around £400 (includes meals out) to £180 a month and we managed it, in fact we have eaten better than we usually do! We have frozen a few portions of leftovers for lunches and still managed to have the odd bottle of wine/beer - which i plan to use in cooking as well.

I found the key was doing a proper meal plan on paper not just in your head and working out exactly what you need e.g i always buy dry spaghetti because i think i need it, this month i checked the cupboards and i have 4 unopened packets!! Also shopping a brand down- some things are naff but others are suprisingly good.

Also shopping at lidl/aldi im planning on going once a month to stock up on few items that i like that are better quality and value for money than asdas own such as lidl choclate, aldi pop and curry sauce.

As other have said cooking from scratch - ive always been a dolmio fan but this month i made bolognaise sauce from a carton of passata (lidl), a few mixed herbs, a squirt of garlic puree, a squirt of tomato puree, balck pepper and a dash of wine (which we were having anyway. It was lovely much more authentic tasting and just as easy im a convert!!

Laundry ask on the os forum as they have a secret for cutting down on powder, washing soda crystals and it works.

Cut down on meat and add more veg ive started adding more mushrooms/onions/celery to bolognaise and found i can strech a packet of mince.

Thats a few to get you started sorry for the long post.

Sorry forgot to add mine works out as £41 a week and thats for 2 of us plus an 18 month old, and includes essentials such as shampoo, conditioner, shower gel, toothpaste, washing up liquid,toilet roll, cleaning spray (anti bac) and washing powder.

Pollycat

sugarcube84 wrote: »

I found the key was doing a proper meal plan on paper not just in your head and working out exactly what you need

Definitely.
If I'm doing a recipe that needs a green pepper, instead of buying just one at an extortionate price, I buy a value pack and use the rest in maybe risotto, in pasta dishes, with chicken breasts in tomato sauce.

Same with mushrooms. I buy a large box and use them in all sorts of recipes.

sugarcube84 wrote: »

ICut down on meat and add more veg ive started adding more mushrooms/onions/celery to bolognaise and found i can strech a packet of mince.

Lentils (I like the green ones) are also a good way of stretching mince.

If I see bags of potatoes reduced (quite often in the Tesco Metro I pass regularly), I'll buy them and cook up a big pan and mash them, then freeze them.
Not only is it a cheap way of having mash, it's handy to just get a portion out and defrost then reheat in the microwave.

If I pick up some reduced carrots, parsnips, turnip or swede I'll pop them into the slow cooker with some stock & herbs and then blitz with my hand blender - makes tasty, cheap soup.