How much should we be spending ?

interested_81

Hi everyone been lurking around this website for a while and was just wondering how much should we be spending on a family off 7 in a week for food shopping ?which is two adults and 5 kids oldest are twins which are 14 then 10 , 8 and 3 , Have currently lost my income off £260 per week so just be relying on hubby income have gone through the finances and the biggest thing going out is on food shopping weekly is £120 which does not include toiletries are cleaning products can I still reduce this for a family off seven taking into account the kids do all take a school lunch too school 4 days a week they have school dinner on friday .
Any advice would be greatly appreciated thanks in advance

Rainy-Days

Not sure if they would be entitled to receive free school meals now - you might want to check on that. Not sure what the threshold income level is but it's worth looking at as that might slice a bit more off your food bill.

As for costs of food I cannot comment on that as there is just the two of us.

interested_81

Rainy-Days wrote: »

Not sure if they would be entitled to receive free school meals now - you might want to check on that. Not sure what the threshold income level is but it's worth looking at as that might slice a bit more off your food bill.

As for costs of food I cannot comment on that as there is just the two of us.

No unfortunetely they wont be entitled too free school meals but thanks anyway

mardatha

Somebody will help, we got families of all sizes in here. My daughter has 5 kids too but I dono how much she spends on food.

oldtractor

I keep 3 adults and 2 cats on £70 a week ,includes cleaning things and toiletires,so I guess about £150 a week on food and cleaning stuff for your family? I make Laundry Gloop and we eat lentils and other pulses instead of meat several times a week. I find that I menu plan starting on a sunday with a roast dinner then go from there, monday is left overs fry up,tursday is soup made from leftovers from sunday and the roast carcasss or bones. I find HM bread is cheaper as is cake and biscuit which is HM.

interested_81

oldtractor wrote: »

I keep 3 adults and 2 cats on £70 a week ,includes cleaning things and toiletires,so I guess about £150 a week on food and cleaning stuff for your family? I make Laundry Gloop and we eat lentils and other pulses instead of meat several times a week. I find that I menu plan starting on a sunday with a roast dinner then go from there, monday is left overs fry up,tursday is soup made from leftovers from sunday and the roast carcasss or bones. I find HM bread is cheaper as is cake and biscuit which is HM.

yeah it's about that i try too bulk buy when offers are on in toiletries and cleaning products also try too go easy on them so id say about £15 pound a week on cleaning products toilet roll is a big thing in our house we use about 12 a week need too start rationing it out lol only joking but sometimes wonder where it goes

lizzyb1812

Whilst doing something like the Grocery Challenge is useful, what we all need to be doing is to "cut our coat according to our cloth" ie spending what we've got, not a specific amount.

interested 81 - I don't mean to minimise the difficulties of your situation, I just think you'd be better off using the strategies and methods and recipes and tips you'll find on here rather than trying to stick to a target spend. By using the info on here you will find your spend will reduce to (hopefully) levels you can cope with.

Good luck, and keep posting

Gingermillie

I couldn't say how much you should be spending but our local butcher sells meat packs for £10 which contains 4 1/4 burgers, mince, bacon, eggs, sausages and a large pie. The pie feeds 4 adults with minimum sides, extra veg and spuds it'll do 6, the mince I can stretch to 6 adult portions (half in a cottage pie with mushrooms, carrots, celery, onions & peas to bulk it out and half as chilli), sausages do 3 as bangers & mash, more if a casserole or chpped up with pasta etc. If you've got local places like this it might be worth looking out for. We also have another butcher that does a lot of three trays for £10/£15/20 and a local grocer where a weeks worth of fruit & veg is around £10-12. Minimal spend on cleaning products, washing up liquid, bleach, soda crystals and washing powder.
All in there's three adults in our house & no kids and we can keep ourselves fed and clean for £60 each a month. It's taken practice and learning where is good value but it can be done.
If you don't have shops like this try a Market about 1/2 before packing up. They'll usually give you a bargain rather than carry it back.
So, not exactly an answer to your question but hopefully some useful ideas how to cut the shopping bill.

troll35

Interested 81 where do you normally do your shopping and what sort of foods do you provide for your family? (do you cook from scratch or do you buy ready made things?). Do you have to make lunchboxes for the children?

kippers

Gingermillie wrote: »

All in there's three adults in our house & no kids and we can keep ourselves fed and clean for £60 each a month. It's taken practice and learning where is good value but it can be done.
.

£60 per month for three adults...wow that's amazing...what do you eat?:T

paulwellerfan

i think that was 60 pound for EACH adult