Feed a family of 4 on £100 for a month.

Phil3822

Hi all, come November we are going to start stuggling a bit with money. Having worked everything out we are going to be left with £100 for the month for food. The 3 meals per day for 4 of us. Me my wife and 2 children one aged 8 and the other 2.

Although I have looked at this section a bit we dont know where to begin. My wife will not mind admiting she is not great in the kitchen. I am so so but work full time. Wife currently out of work hence the struggle.

If I am honest I think £100 per month for food is going to be all we have for a few months until wife finds more employment.

Can you please help us plan to feed us all on £100.

Thank you.

lizzywig

Can I ask how much you've been spending on food up until now?

Hardup_Hester

http://www.cheap-family-recipes.org.uk/
there are some great ideas on this site

crazyguy

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/346932

This is £40.00 a week but may give you more inspiration, http://www.goodtoknow.co.uk/recipes/266969/Credit-crunch-weekly-meal-planner

Phil3822

Including toiletries about £60 a week. In the above £100 I am not wanting to include toiletries. Kind family will be helping with that.

lizzywig

I would suggest batch cooking, so cooking in bulk and then freezing off portions. Some ideas for you: (All from minced beef) Chilli, Bolognase, Mince & Macaroni, Mince, curry powder & peas (like keema curry) & Ragu. If you cook up a whole load of mince and onions you could freeze as is or you could spend a day cooking all of the above. Other meals: Bubble & Squeak (from left over Sunday roast), Chicken stew, Beef Casserole, Mac & Cheese & Vegetable curry. If you buy a large chicken for Sunday roast you could turn the remaining into chicken soup, chicken curry and still have some leftover for sandwiches....it's all about portion control. Also try this website which I've found quite helpful http://www.lovefoodhatewaste.com/

Look out for food in the reduced section of the supermarket and then freeze things. Get BOGOF's but only on things that you actually need. Shop around, I have shopped in Tesco and always spent £100 every 2 weeks. I recently decided to try Aldi and for the same food (and trust me when I say that the quality is just the same) and my shopping bill came to £36!! Granted I needed to go to Tesco for a few other bits but the Tesco shop came to approx £20, so overall my shop came to £56, down from £100.

Start googling frugal food and bulk cooking and add things to your favourites. I find this particulary helpful. I'm also sad enough to have put a spreadsheet together which lists all my different meals and down the left side and along the top says whether it's suitable for bulk cooking, or general week day dinner, or Saturday night dinner etc. Then I've applied filters and I select accordingly to help me meal plan. V sad but it works for me!

Lunches....generally I make sandwiches or soup (from leftover veg). I also found this website quite helpful when I started thinking about cutting costs http://www.theofficediet.com/2008/04/23/17-ingredients-6-sandwiches-10-days-of-fantastic-healthy-lunches/

Good luck!

tessie_bear

i think £100 a month for 4 will be quite hard......what sort of food do u eat now ?

quintwins

missusaka is doing this at the mo i'll try find her thread

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3380976

megan01

Can you give us a list of anything you may have in your cupboards like any seasonings, flour or oils etc ?

Phil3822

We have fry lite and a large bottle of sunflower oil. Also have loads of jarred seasonings. Garlic, tumeric, tyme, mixed herb, cardimon pods, rosemary and lots and lots more.

We are interested in batch cooking etc and we all love mince meals but how do you get mince for a good price. We currently get ours from supermarket etc and it seems to cost a lot and would take a huge chunk of our £25 PW.

To others, yes £25 will be tight and difficult no doubt however we have little choice right now.

Nicky2905

mince wise go to all the butchers in your area and see what deals they do - my local butcher for example does 3 "trays" of meat for £9 - one tray of mince makes 3 meals for my family (4) so if I spent £9 just on three trays of mince it would make 9 meals - worth checking if any butchers near you do similar.