Feed a family of four for £20 a week challenge

nursemaggie

I thought the same about the mince. I eat a loaf of bread a week on my own every week DS hardly eats any. How do you stretch only 1 loaf of bread between 4 people for a whole week.

If the children are over about 8 years old they usually need feeding as soon as they get home from school and then again in the evening. My eldest boy, from aged 9 used to eat half a loaf of bread when he got home from school and the other half before he went to bed. He had a full adult sized evening meal about six every evening too. I used to buy the 2kg tubs of margarine then. He would go back for more food at school up to 4 times. Guess what, he looked like a bag of bones. Not a bit of fat on him at all.

The only fat is in the elastic sausages, custard and rice pudding if they are not made with full cream milk and not skimmed. You need at least 30% fat in your diet even more for children. There are only six pints of milk.. With two secondary school kids you would likely use 2 litres a day just for them. Even little ones need quite a lot of milk DGS6 drinks over a pint of milk a day.

I think it would just about give enough calories if the children are very young say 4 and 6.

I think the worst part is it is so bland. Bland enough to make you lose your appetite.

RAS

nursemaggie wrote: »

You need at least 30% fat in your diet even more for children.

These are the USDA suggestions

KEY RECOMMENDATIONS

• Keep total fat intake between 20 to 35 percent of calories, with most fats coming from sources of polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fatty acids, such as fish, nuts, and vegetable oils.
• Consume less than 10 percent of calories from saturated fatty acids and less than 300 mg/day of cholesterol, and keep trans fatty acid consumption as low as possible.

Key Recommendations for Specific Population Groups

• Children and adolescents. Keep total fat intake between 30 to 35 percent of calories for children 2 to 3 years of age and between 25 to 35 percent of calories for children and adolescents 4 to 18 years of age, with most fats coming from sources of polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fatty acids, such as fish, nuts, and vegetable oils.

My bolds.

The eggs, dairy, meat and meat products listed would all contain fat (mainly saturated), as would the pasta in small amounts. The tuna at that price will be in salt water so is unlikely to contain much fat.

There is an almost complete lack of unsaturated and polyunsaturated fats.

Fruball

RAS wrote: »

These are the USDA suggestions

KEY RECOMMENDATIONS

• Keep total fat intake between 20 to 35 percent of calories, with most fats coming from sources of polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fatty acids, such as fish, nuts, and vegetable oils.
• Consume less than 10 percent of calories from saturated fatty acids and less than 300 mg/day of cholesterol, and keep trans fatty acid consumption as low as possible.

Key Recommendations for Specific Population Groups

• Children and adolescents. Keep total fat intake between 30 to 35 percent of calories for children 2 to 3 years of age and between 25 to 35 percent of calories for children and adolescents 4 to 18 years of age, with most fats coming from sources of polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fatty acids, such as fish, nuts, and vegetable oils.

My bolds.

The eggs, dairy, meat and meat products listed would all contain fat (mainly saturated), as would the pasta in small amounts. The tuna at that price will be in salt water so is unlikely to contain much fat.

There is an almost complete lack of unsaturated and polyunsaturated fats.

Vegetable oils are not good for you (except olive oil and never to be cooked with at high temps). We have moved back to lard, dripping and butter as these have now been proven NOT to cause issues with cholesterol or thickening of the arteries and can actually reduce bad cholesterol in the blood over time.

Processed carbs, such as pasta, bread and cereals are bad for you too. This is why Paleo/Primal diets have such an upsurgence.

We stick to everything in moderation but have binned all oils/marg in our cooking.

Soworried

RAS wrote: »

That is scary; not singularly coherent or sensible. I have heard of rubber chicken but this pack of sausages seems to be infinitely elastic.

Protein content is actually fine and there is some fresh fruit but there is no fat for spreading on bread or cooking. Nearly a quid spent on salty goo when it could be spent on a couple of tins of tomatoes and some decent recipes.

Plain pasta mixed with tuna and frozen mixed veggies? Sausage, rice and mixed veggies?

The mince is wasted on the chilli when a tin of kidney beans would allow some of it to be used for another meal.

Anyone done a calorie count on this?

It comes to 22882 calories if you used the full jar of jam. That is only 817 calories a day per person
Mean while this company will be taking it's cut from the poorest people in society :mad:

mashedavocado

Soworried wrote: »

It comes to 22882 calories if you used the full jar of jam. That is only 817 calories a day per person
Mean while this company will be taking it's cut from the poorest people in society :mad:

Ah you beat me to it, I never got round to totting everything up.

That really is shocking though...

I think I might email them to ask where they're getting their facts/stats from.

moneyistooshorttomention

nursemaggie wrote: »

I thought the same about the mince. I eat a loaf of bread a week on my own every week DS hardly eats any. How do you stretch only 1 loaf of bread between 4 people for a whole week.

.

I eat 2 (large) loaves of bread a week (for my one female-size appetite). That's despite my bread normally being homemade wholemeal (ie filling bread and not bread that seems to be 50% "air").

Start with the 2 slices of toast that I have for breakfast (after I've had my morning cereal) and that's 14 thick slices per week just for breakfast. Then add in if I have some at lunch and if I have a bit of bread with dinner or want some toast as an in-between meal snack.

= Yep...2 loaves worth.

nursemaggie

Wow Soworried that's low even for a weight reducing diet. They not only used the so called stew with nothing much in it is used 3 times but the bread and the milk too. If like me you would cut out the rice pudding and the custard it could be considered downright dangerous.

I too have two slices of toast for breakfast and sometimes some for lunch. If we have beans or eggs on toast we use 4 more slices that is both most weeks and we often have sandwiches for lunch so I think we must use two loaves for only two of us and around 6 pints of milk for just the two of us.

Think we better get back to some meals of our own.

RAS

Soworried wrote: »

It comes to 22882 calories if you used the full jar of jam. That is only 817 calories a day per person
Mean while this company will be taking it's cut from the poorest people in society :mad:

Thank you.

I tried to do a month for one person for £20 and only managed part of the calorie intake - just under 47K. And it was monotonous and not nutritionally sound, see https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4416655

BHB

Just popping in to say thank you everyone for such an inspiring thread.

Haven't read all the way through yet .... may take a while.

Food for thought ... (excuse the pun)

BHB

Butterfly_Brain

Had an awful night coughing all through and can hardly talk today, so the meal plan is going to be a little later than I thought
I went straight back to bed when we got in from shopping and slept until DD woke me up at 4pm

Went into Aldi this morning and got 6 bags of short grain pudding rice for 49p for 500g normally 99p a saving of 50p a bag I might pop in tomorrow and get some more

The new super six is much more seasonal

1 Swede
500g Chantenay carrots
1kg Red onions
4 pack baking potatoes
600g parsnips
750g sweet potatoes

All at 59p