How much to feed family of 5 each month

saltnvinegar

fd1972uk wrote: »

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.

Yes that includes cleaning products too!

Bear in mind this is for 2 adults and 4 children (2 teenagers and 2 'little' ones so includes:

Nappies and all baby related stuff
Washing Powder/Fabric Softener etc
Bleach/Cleaning Products etc
Toilet Roll
Toothpaste/toothbrushes etc
Deodorants/Shampoo/Conditioner/Shower Gel etc
Razor blades/Shaving Gel etc

This also includes Pet Food too. We budget £100 and the stuff above can quickly add up to this. However we also buy bulk or offers too so some months the budget is actually less than this.

Not sure if any of the above counts as 'luxuries' unless you enjoy eating cat food? :rotfl:

SnV

silkglade

Wow, thank you for your comments everyone. I am very grateful.

I have to say honestly and hanging my head in shame that our food bills have been coming to approx £847 a month!!!! Shocking, but this also included toiletries and cleaning products in addition to cat food.

We are hoping to cut this down to £350, what do you guys think (we will be hitting the basics instead of branded for a start.

flippin36

It does sound a lot, but thats good because there is more potential to save . I think for £350 you won't necessarily be on the basics, but you may have to cook more from scratch, possibly down grading your brands. And perhaps look into buying non food items from poundshops, wilkinsons, homebargains perhaps. Your freezer will become your best friend.

A couple of links if you like cooking

http://www.cheap-family-recipes.org.uk/recipes-dinners.html
http://thirty-quid.blogspot.com/

Pollycat

silkglade wrote: »

Wow, thank you for your comments everyone. I am very grateful.

I have to say honestly and hanging my head in shame that our food bills have been coming to approx £847 a month!!!! Shocking, but this also included toiletries and cleaning products in addition to cat food.

We are hoping to cut this down to £350, what do you guys think (we will be hitting the basics instead of branded for a start.

How much? :eek::eek::eek:

Well, the good news is you've got lots of leeway for reducing that.

What sort of things were you buying with the £850?

Rather than drop straight to the basics range, why not do it in stages.
If you buy Heinz beans, try supermarket own (rather than basic).

There are some things that I won't compromise on e.g.:
tea
coffee
loo rolls

but if you're careful and can afford the extra expense and have the storage space, you can buy decent stuff when it's BOGOF.

Let us know how you get on.

saltnvinegar

silkglade wrote: »

Wow, thank you for your comments everyone. I am very grateful.

I have to say honestly and hanging my head in shame that our food bills have been coming to approx £847 a month!!!! Shocking, but this also included toiletries and cleaning products in addition to cat food.

We are hoping to cut this down to £350, what do you guys think (we will be hitting the basics instead of branded for a start.

Don't worry, we've all been there.

£350 certainly sounds achieveable.

What I found really useful to help me budget, especially starting out, is do my groceries online and get them delivered.

This way you can't be sucked into the clever shelf positioning, smell of bread and cooked chicken etc and only spend what you budget for.

Once delivered don't be tempted to 'top up' by going to the local corner shop!

Good luck
SnV

silkglade

Thank you everyone.

I am going to do my shopping online from now on so that I can keep track on it all and have more control.

To be honest I have no idea how I spent that much...... Apart from the fact that I got meat from an online grocers and I ended up at the supermarket almost every day having either forgotten something or WANTING something.... Grrrrrr

Fell into that horrible circle of events...

Oh and as requested earlier, I am a full time shift worker (I work a 6 week rotating shift patten of days and nights).

My partner is at home and looks after our 2 year old and sorts out the older two for school runs etc (and my rota is impossible to work around)

OrkneyStar

saltnvinegar wrote: »

Yes that includes cleaning products too!

Bear in mind this is for 2 adults and 4 children (2 teenagers and 2 'little' ones so includes:

Nappies and all baby related stuff
Washing Powder/Fabric Softener etc
Bleach/Cleaning Products etc
Toilet Roll
Toothpaste/toothbrushes etc
Deodorants/Shampoo/Conditioner/Shower Gel etc
Razor blades/Shaving Gel etc

This also includes Pet Food too. We budget £100 and the stuff above can quickly add up to this. However we also buy bulk or offers too so some months the budget is actually less than this.

Not sure if any of the above counts as 'luxuries' unless you enjoy eating cat food? :rotfl:

SnV

Confusion has come about, I think, because you said you are spending £100 on toiletries when really you are spending £100 on pet food, cleaning, baby supplies and toiletries, which sheds a new light on things . Still once bubs are older you might be able to cut this by about a third as you won't have the nappies to buy ?
Anyway all the best OP, budgetting isn't always easy but is worth it.

silkglade

Well as it was pay day yesterday for us I am starting the new food and petrol budget from then too....

Our aim is to get the food spending to a minimum and was stupidly around a monstrous £847 mark.... This month we are aiming to improve this to £350 for a start or as little as possible.

Out petrol is being set at £100 (we will be using the cars for essential trips only) as I need the car for work and my OH needs his for school runs.

Want to try and save as much as possible as soon as possible while we have the passion to help us through, then hopefully if we see debts going down quickly or being paid off it should help us to keep at it.

Wish me luck

Serida

Please don't beat yourself up about spending so much on groceries, etc. I spend approximately £20-£25 a week but that includes a £3 delivery charge for on-line shopping and two bottles of wine (about £8) so that means I spend about £9-£14 on groceries/toiletries/cleaning stuff etc. but as a widow I live on my own and the wine helps to make eating alone bearable otherwise life is pretty grim! However, when there were 4 of us (about 15 years ago) my shopping bill came to about £40 a week and things have gone up a lot since then. Frankly I don't know how a family of 4 can survive on a £50 shop. Although I have tried cooking cheap meals, when there is only 1 person it costs the same to heat the oven as it does to cook for a family so I rarely do that anymore with electricity so expensive. I mostly survive on bought quiches, fish fingers, tinned pilchards, etc. (pretty boring stuff really hence the wine!)

Good luck and I'm sure others will be along to help you achieve your goal.

Pollycat

Serida
Have you thought about buying a small slow cooker?

The running costs are small and you can cook tasty, inexpensive meals and if you double up quantities you can freeze a portion or two.

I sometimes buy reduced veg from Tesco or Co-op and make batches of soup.