Is £60 per week for family of 5 ever possible?

Chickenopolis

snugglemunchkin- feed a family of 5 for thirty quid a week https://www.thirty-quidblogspot.com/ . I hope this helps

prosaver

snugglemunchkin wrote: »

Hiya I'm new to this thread although I've been hovering for a while. There are 5 of us in my family 2 adults and 3 sons 6yrs 3 yrs and 4 months.
I am currently on maternity leave but from December 4th I am on ssp which is £127 a wk. After doing alot of reading on here and trying to work out my finances I have got £60 a week for food shopping, which scares me as we have always spent more.
This has to include packed lunch for my partner and my 2sons 5 days a week. Can anyone give me a help in the right direction for budget meal plans or shopping lists or even send me in the right direction to find threads that have this information.
Although I've looked through here there are so many posts im going around in circles.
I really appreciate any comments or tips from anyone please!
Thank you in advance!

own brand mince from tescos is cheap
big chilli powder from market or chinese store
spag
pasta
chilli

big lump of rolled pork or chicken ..on offer-= only on offer- buy 2 and freeze 1
rice

curry powder from farm fresh
sweet and sour
homemade pizza
flour tomato paste etc
food tins from b and m
stew pot make a big one then freeze the rest
yellow value labeled from morrisons... really nice taste
beans
marmite
peanut butter

cant think of any more:)

mrsmortenharket

http://thirty-quid.blogspot.com/

Am hoping this link works

maryb

This one is quite good as well, though I think the prices may be a bit out of date

http://www.ckmhome.co.uk/

snugglemunchkin

quintwins wrote: »

we are a family of 5 (me, oh, 2 x 5 years olds and a 2 year old who eats as much as the 5 year olds) the twins get free school meals (it's different over here you can get them if you get working tax credits and earn under £17k) we have dinner at mil on a sunday aswell which helps, we we live off £200 a month easily this includes takeaways and some treats

where do you live to get free meals if you earn under £17,000?

SpikyHedgehog

Probably being obvious here & it's already something you've thought about, but I used reusable nappies with my boys & fed them myself - I still had to eat plenty, but could make it monotonous without too much complaint... I saw reusable nappies on my local freecycle the other day.

I've been using the vegetarian meal planner from Cheap Family Recipes, with comes in at £100 per month for August 2010 prices. You can see from my signature I've spent more, I've included toiletries, cat food & litter, party food etc. But it's really helped me focus on getting the bills down.

natlie

patchwork_cat wrote: »

If you are on mat leave and OH is unemployed am I correct in thinking that 2 girls have free school meals. This would make quite a difference to budget although £90 is still very frugal

no both on sandwiches DD2 is allergic to egg and they wont change menu:(

valk_scot

SpikyHedgehog wrote: »

Probably being obvious here & it's already something you've thought about, but I used reusable nappies with my boys & fed them myself - I still had to eat plenty, but could make it monotonous without too much complaint... I saw reusable nappies on my local freecycle the other day.

.

Four months is a bit late to be changing to breastfeeding if the baby is currently bottle fed, don't you think?

Reusables are definately cheaper though, if you can get inexpensive or even free nappies to avoid the start up costs. OP, you should ask around your friends to see if they've got any tucked away from their own baby days.

outtawork

Some councils run a program where they will give you a start up pack of reusable nappies to persuade you to be more eco friendly and to recycle. Give them a ring

tori.k

Sometimes it helps to look at things in another way.
instead of £60 a week look at it as £240 a month as a lot of what you buy you wont need every week. a big bag of spuds cost us around a £5 and last us a month. keep meals simple things like jacket spuds, a roast dinner can be cheap if you up the veg and yourkshire puddings and a little less meat, left over stew can be thinned and blended for soup for lunch. eggs are are great source of protein, omelettes or scrambled eggs on toast cost pennies and are filling.
I find its easier to keep my lots filled this time of year breakfast is usually porridge or weekabix (store brand) lunch is a sandwich, fruit, a couple of twinks hobnobs and HM cake or muffin, tea will be sausage casserole & mash& peas followed by cake and custard for the lads.
Look at how you shop most places loose bananas work out cheaper then even the basic prepacked so always check price by weight. be crafty my lot love chicken currry by have yet to notice that i have been using turkey instead of chicken saving around £2 on the cost.
i dont have children in nappies, it was washable when mine were small but have noticed people rave about lidls and asda own brand disposibles save your baby wipes for the messy jobs, an old towel cut into squares with water is ideal for a quick wipe over wet bottoms.
get yourself over to the DFWB and post a statement of affairs sometimes it takes someone else eyes to notice small savings within your budget that you haven't noticed.
Most of all have fun with it see it as a challenge you have set yourself, when working with a small budget its easy to lose your sense of humor at times and get bogged down with it all, always look to the positives a hour spent making biscuits with your child is a cheap fun simple pleasure that they will remember