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How DO YOU feed a family on <£250?

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  • I shop at waitrose and marks and Spencer's. 4 of us (2 teens) and spend less than £100 a week. That excludes teenagers toiletries usually (but sometimes it includes them- but we mostly use same stuff for everyone and to is not pricey). It was £62 this week at waitrose.

    I go once a monthish to morrisons and bulk buy long life food (cereal, pasta, some biscuits, tins). If something we use is on a really good offer I might buy 6 months worth.

    Cook everything else from scratch. The key is not to waste anything. If it isn't going to be eaten I freeze it. Biggest expense is 20 pints of milk a week! Buy I packet biscuits (when gone they are gone), don't buy crisps.

    Don't underestimate a simple meal. We love omelettes, cheese on toast is a real treat. Pasta with tuna or homemade cheese sauce etc etc

    I have lovely French jam, decent meat, seafood etc all in that. only what you need and don't buy junk food plus only eat as much as you need! Plus I don't have set days. I go when the food is running out. That might be 8 days rather than 7 - I spent much more and wasted much more when I used to go on a set day each week.
    June challenge £100 a day £3161.63 plus £350 vouchers plus £108.37 food/shopping saving

    July challenge £50 a day. £ 1682.50/1550

    October challenge £100 a day. £385/£3100
  • synky
    synky Posts: 10 Forumite
    We are two adults, a large dog, a preschooler and two toddlers and we spend £50 per week. My tips are - meal planning and eating vegetarian 3 days a week (also supposed to be good for you!), finding a good basics range and using it as much as you can ( IMO Sainsburys is the best), stock up when the products you like are on offer e.g. Washing powder, do an online shop so it flags your usuals on offer and you can see how much you are spending. I also get my delivery late on a sunday night to get the cheapest delivery fee. No wastage and freeze what you don't eat.
  • anguk
    anguk Posts: 3,412 Forumite
    edited 20 September 2012 at 9:15AM
    My best bit of advice is to have a shopping list and stick to it, it's all the little extras that we fling in the trolley that add up, I keep a notepad in the kitchen and as I'm running out of anything I add it to the list.

    I second the advice about not going into larger supermarkets, I always seen to spend more when the store is big, probably because there's more choice and more chance of throwing extras in the trolley. I don't like going into the supermarket for just a couple of things like bread or milk because chances are you never just buy those things, you always end up picking up a few extra bits. How many times do people nip into the supermarket for some loo roll and milk but end up spending £20-30? If I only need a couple of things I nip to the corner shop, they may be a few pence more but it actually works out cheaper because I don't buy extra.

    Reduced items from the supermarket are great if you can find them, unfortunately my local supermarkets rarely have the huge savings that I see posted on here. They only seem to knock a small amount off the price, less than 50p seems to be the norm, I once saw a joint of meat that was originally £5 and they'd only knocked 40p off the price, it was 5 minutes before closing and the meat went out of date that day. It seems to me that some supermarkets would rather chuck the stuff out than let it go cheap. :(

    It's worth having a look on Amazon at their subscribe and save items for things you buy regularly, it's often cheaper and delivery is free. I get my cat & dog food, cat litter and washing up liquid using subscribe & save. For example, I've got the fussiest cat in the world he will only eat Kitekat, in Tesco it costs £2.85 for a pack of 6, four packs would cost £11.40. Using Amazon's subscribe & save I can get the same amount for £10.26, a saving of £1.14, plus it's delivered free to my door so I don't have to hump heavy bags about and it's ordered automatically each month so I never run out.
    Dum Spiro Spero
  • ani_26
    ani_26 Posts: 3,700 Forumite
    CarolynCh wrote: »
    I would say apply the same principle to soft drinks too - cans (or bottles) of fizzy drink can be very expensive - don't add to the shopping trolley and members of the household can buy their own if they want it - drink water instead - much cheaper and healthier too!

    Another great tip, if you live anywhere near a spa town or spring.

    Collect your water direct from the spring. I've been doing this for decades now, and it has become hugely popular, across the years. I've waited at the spring for up to two hours...........:rotfl: Well worth the wait, although i'm told it's an acquired taste as the water is high in sulphur and magnesium. Barely discernible to me now. :rotfl:It doesn't matter whether you go at midnight or 5.00 am. There is always some lunatic there, collecting 100's litres of water. Idjeets. :D
    Debt free - Is it a state of mind? a state of the Universe? or a state of the bank account?
    free from life wannabe


    Official Petrol Dieter
  • nimbo
    nimbo Posts: 3,701 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    Spudsey wrote: »
    Sorry I didn't mean everyone does this I am glad you care where your meat comes from :). I use a traditional butcher and agree with bulking out mince. To be honest I think the world eats far too much meat and so try and do veggie meals a lot of the time much to my partners dismay!! After a few days he is asking where his meat is!

    I think it depends what you buy when comparing Waitrose and Asda. I buy veg, dairy products and tinned stuff such as chick peas etc from waitrose. If you buy ready made stuff and pizzas and things I think they would be far cheaper in asda.

    I agree that not tested on animals is rubbish on most products, its the ingredients not the product anyway. I believe a lot of unneccessary testing still goes on and feel happy buying buav products only. If it didn't go on I don't understand why big companies such as marks and spencer, co-op, superdrug and sainsburys would be bothering to go through applying to be buav approved if it didn't.

    Organic food: no better for you, or the planet - really interesting article there.

    The thing is we breathe in all day everyday so unless we live in bubble than we're already full of the !!!!! that is in the air...


    http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn22240-organic-food-no-better-for-you-or-the-planet.html

    and a quick scan on my supermarket shows that:

    Chick peas in a can
    ASDA 3 for £1 (400g tin) or 500g dried for 95p
    Waitrose 69 p each can (400g tin)...
    Also ASDA had more choices than those shown, Waitrose did not...

    4 pints of Milk
    ASDA £1
    Waitrose £1.69 or two for £3

    Mozzarella
    ASDA 125 g - 85p
    Waitrose 125g £1.35 / 250g £1.90

    Small pineapple
    ASDA £1
    Waitrose (also referred to as super sweet) £1.50

    It might be worth shopping with the 'dirty unwashed pizza eating' hoards for the savings you'd make...

    Stashbuster - 2014 98/100 - 2015 175/200 - 2016 501 / 500 2017 - 200 / 500 2018 3 / 500
    :T:T
  • camNolliesMUMMY
    camNolliesMUMMY Posts: 1,000 Forumite
    500 Posts I've been Money Tipped!
    edited 20 September 2012 at 10:58AM
    One thing I've done for a few years is going to makro and getting a 5kg bag of chicken breast for around £19.00 between 20-23 breasts lasts us one month. I also grabs sack of spuds around £5 for 10-15kg bacon 60-80 rashes at around £6.
    My mum has a makro card and added me to her card so I now have my own joint card.....thanks mum.
    Toiletries bog roll cleaning items....home bargins or b&m
    5kg sack of broken basmati rice at tesco for £4 last us around 2 months nd I try nd get a large bag of pasta too.
    Sauces I try and make my own and look for recipes to add to my menu plan.
    We are a family of 2 adults 1 child and 1 baby with a cat our budget is £150 a month :)

    I went shopping yesterday for some bits and only spent £12 lol and I also walked out with 2 reduced whole chickens at £2.40 each which has covered this Sunday and next weeks Sunday dinner. It also included Yoghurts for dh, son for school and babies Fromage frais, bread, 3 bottles of 4 pints of milk a bag of sausages, and I treated us to some white wine sauce on offer for 90p yey
    Ds2 born 3/4/12 8lbs 8.5:j
    Ds1 born 28/4/07 9lb 8 :j
    Frugal, thrifty, tight mum & wife and proud of it lol
    :rotfl::j
    Make money for Xmas challenge 2014 £0/£270
  • DH likes big, filling meals, and isn't fond of pasta or rice, so we eat a LOT of potatoes. Most of our local veg shops and markets do 25kg sacks of spuds for about £3, which lasts for a few weeks is the basis of a lot of cheap meals - homemade oven chips, baked potatoes, champ (just on it's own with butter sometimes!), or maybe even gratin, if I'm feeling enthusiastic. It's coming into winter so we will make a huge pot of stew at least once a week. We also make potato bread, and you could try gnocchi (potato pasta) but it's something I've yet to do.

    I agree about some supermarkets having rubbish "reduced" sections, unless it's quite late or you get there just as they're putting stuff out. I try to never throw food out of my own fridge - tonight I'll be scraping the mouldy bits off some carrots I only bought the other day (I'll not be buying them there again), and add some lentils, onions and bacon misfits for tomorrow's soup. I try to make my lunches as cheap as possible, by just using leftovers or storecupboard ingredients, and I plan to make some nettle pesto, for pasta, next Spring. It's practically free food!

    One Love, One Life, Let's Get Together and Be Alright :)

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  • susybu wrote: »
    Feeding a family of four on about £60-65 per week.
    Super tested site. Highly recommended, always includes loads of food and treats, nothing boring here!

    utterly scrummy blog page. Blogger is a fab cook and know personally to me. Highly recommended. Would not let me post link as I am new but just had to tell you about Michelle Rice's blog. Great value

    Thanks for this - I will definitely check it out!
  • Great tips so far..NorfolkJim, I hope you find some new savings for your family.

    My tip would be to STOP buying cook books! Even at the charity shops...a penny saved is a penny earned. I get all my recipes online (even most of Jaime Oliver's or Nigella's are online). I also go on https://www.food.com & have a search on there as well as Pinterest. So many great sites & you save all that cash & NO books to clutter your house!

    I know you aren't keen on the OS board, but the "sneaky ways to save money" thread is genious...I now ALWAYS buy the blue topped milk & water it down by half ;) x
  • I now ALWAYS buy the blue topped milk & water it down by half ;) x

    Hmmmmmmmmmm... :D
    Wealth is what you're left with when all your money runs out
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