urgent help with food budget

susieanne

Im im trying to write down a budget and for my food bill how much should i allow for 2 adults & 3 children ?

Also what about school dinner money i currently pay £1.95 per child each day . Would they allow my children to continue with school dinners and if so would i put this down separatly from the food budget ?

JayC1987

Hello Susieanne,

I had a problem with food when I used live alone. Would packed lunches be a better option?

£1.95 x 3 = £5.85 per day

Then 5.85 per day over five days is £29.25 for three children over five days.

So a packed lunch maybe cheaper, also a packed lunch could be healthier.

One trick I used to do was go to a Market just before they were packing up, I used to get a huge amount of fruit and veg at a knocked down price as the trader wanted rid of his stock and it was always fresh as well.

If I'm in a supermarket I've started getting the yellow label reduced food, that has helped me a lot.

Also when the weathers good if you have room why not plant seeds and grow your own food?

StressedSteph

Hi Susieanne

I have just cancelled my childrens hot meals. they were £2.20 each per day.

I put in their lunch boxes.

1 sandwich - Homemade bread
1 piece of Homemade cake
1 pot of cucumber / Tomatoes
1 piece of fruit - apple / Banana
1 small pot of raisins.

They seem quite happy with that and it definately does'nt cost me £4.40 per day.

Think if you could make your bread and cakes then it will be ALOT cheaper.

On the weekly shop. We are managing on a £50 per week budget and we are a family of four. Its a struggle but we manage.

xxxx

[Deleted User]

JayC1987 wrote: »

If I'm in a supermarket I've started getting the yellow label reduced food

I do that.

I got 4 bags of mixed pepper stir fry, for 10p a bag.

susieanne

Thankyou very much for your replys my children do love a hot dinner at lunch times but they are too expensive so will look to doing a nice packed lunch for them dont think they will mind .

Im am trying to write a budget plan to enter into a IVA i am not sure how much they would allow me to put for my food budget im thinking £80 per week does that sound ok ?

[Deleted User]

I think £80 pw is a bit low.

My mate went bankrupt a couple of years ago, and was allowed £350 pm, for himself, wife and 1 child.

sistafromanothermista

Bedsit_Bob wrote: »

I think £80 pw is a bit low.

My mate went bankrupt a couple of years ago, and was allowed £350 pm, for himself, wife and 1 child.

I agree. The cost of food (especially fresh) has gone through the roof!
If you meal plan (which we do) and if you buy near end of date veg, it doesn't last
I spent £90 in total this week (2 adults 2 teenage boys 15 and 13) :eek: I did buy a chicken for Sunday (i won't eat anything other than free range for ethical reasons) and that was nearly £7 :eek:

It soon adds up.....

FireWyrm

Bedsit_Bob wrote: »

I think £80 pw is a bit low.

My mate went bankrupt a couple of years ago, and was allowed £350 pm, for himself, wife and 1 child.

Yes, I've heard that figure too. I thought it was quite funny.

I can feed a family of 4 (2 adults, 2 children) on under £200 a month. We eat very well indeed and none are ever hungry.

The figure of £320 is set by people who dont know any better because they too have lost the art of home cooking, shopping carefully and meal planning.

Trust me, you can do it easily for much much less than that and I have organic veg too.

The best thing I EVER did was refuse to set food in Tesco, Asda or Morrisons again. I stopped buying 'convenience' and bought ingredients instead. I dont buy meat from the supermarket, I buy it from the mobile vans in the markets in bulk and always ask for a discount. I freeze or use the next day at least one adult portion of every meal cooked. Weekends are for baking and its when all the weeks cakes, biscuits, scones and other assorted pastries get made along with the savory pastries like sausage roles for lunches etc.

Once you've cooked your own sausage rolls, you'll never go back to those nasty shop bought abominations. Same goes for home made pizza. I was shocked the other week because my daughters didnt want to bother bringing home the left overs from Pizza Hut.

Beer and wine is home brewed and very nice it is too. I bought a bottle from the shop the other night because we had none ready...it was horrible. The difference is very noticable between home made/real and what passes for 'food' in the supermarkets.

Its clear we as a nation are being systematically ripped off, cheated and poisoned with additives by our 'supermarkets' and its about time people wised up.

mildredalien

Some good tips FireWyrm, I reckon most people would be surprised if they started looking up local markets and alternatives to the big supermarkets!

I do think there has to be quite a large lifestyle shift to reduce convenience shopping and cooking though. Not that that's a bad thing, but perhaps something to be worked towards over time - it can be hard to go from a weekly trip to your local supermarket giant to sourcing and seeking out markets, local grocers/butchers etc., and having the time, inclination and skill to cook everything from scratch. Mind you some people don't have a choice and have to learn to feed their families on a budget that makes convenience shopping impractical.

susieanne do you know how much you are currently spending on your weekly or monthly grocery bills? Do you need to reduce by a certain amount or are you just looking to save where you can?

kj*daisy

If you are doing the budget for an IVA I'd suggest you pop over to the bankruptcy board as they know what will be allowed. £80 a week sounds low for as many as you are feeding and wouldn't allow for contingencies such as parties and Christmas. List the school dinners separately as well as hopefully you would be allowed some of the cost. You need to make sure you have enough in the budget as you won't be able to access credit. You can always spend less than the budget amounts that you are allowed, and try and save a small emergency pot.

FireWyrm

mildredalien wrote: »

.... but perhaps something to be worked towards over time - it can be hard to go from a weekly trip to your local supermarket giant to sourcing and seeking out markets, local grocers/butchers etc., and having the time, inclination and skill to cook everything from scratch.

I agree to some extent, but people do have to take some responsibility here.

With regard to 'inclination or skill', lets take sausage rolls as an example. A pound of sausage meat is about £3 and you can make approximately a dozen small to medium sausage rolls out of that. You need a bit of chopped taragon, some salt, pepper, perhaps half an onion and all you need to do is mix that and the meat. Buy a block of frozen puff pastry from the fridge section for a £1 and roll it out. Cut the pastry in half, fill with meat and do that same for the other half. Roll into...well, sausage rolls, cut, score, glaze and bake for 30minutes at Gas #6. When it goes bing, take out to cool.

A dozen sausage rolls (easily), fresh baked in about 40 minutes. Those same sausage rolls in the supermarket would retail for around £2.20 each!

All its taken is time and a bit of minimal effort. We're not talking about Mitchelin star cooking here, just plain up basic ability. I'm no Jamie Oliver but I can follow a written recipe fairly well and when you get down to it, an evening meal takes about 30 to 40 minutes of effort. That's far from the 'convenience' of microwave food, I'll grant, but its better for you, cheaper and actually, by the time you factor in shopping, travelling and preparation time, no more than cooking from scratch. Jamie Oliver wouldnt be able to produce a book of 30 minute meals if it wasnt possible at all.

With regard to 'time'....turning off the TV helps. Its shocking how much time we spend in front of the box. Most people dont think it's that much...it is. Bread and circuses.