How do people feed families on £40 a week?

quintwins

sophlowe45 wrote: »

I wish I could change my mindset to be more like yours quintwins, I will eat an entire bar of 90% dark chocolate, and I see posts on MSE saying one piece is enough.

Although last one I have made last three days, two pieces left for today.

Crisps get eaten straightway, when Tyrells are on offer for £1, its very hard to walk past, at the moment Co op have their own brand crisps on offer for £1, I am trying not to buy a packet every day!

My best option is to shop online so I don't order that stuff and not go into Tesco Express' and Co op stores on the way home.

If i open a bar of chocolate i usually eat it all but i can stop at 1 mini snack sized milkyway or malteasers, infact i got a box of malteasers for easter (the poundland sized ones) and i've only eaten half the box and thats all the chocolate i've eaten since sat, we still have unopened xmas chocolates and sweets that we got as gifts (i don't buy any).

I do find shopping online saves me money on impulse buys i don't really need tho.

sophlowe45

I found the Tesco 85% dark chocolate for £1 not very nice in taste, i have the Lindt one too. Yes, I don't buy expensive small bars of chocolate when I am out and about now, but wow small bars of chocolate are expensive, can be 75p for a small bar of milk chocolate. And no Coca Cola when I am out and about now too, again very expensive £1.20 for a 500ml bottle i think, so less money wasted.

I need to go buy buy big packs of spices, lentils and dried beans, works out really cheap for meals, possibly served with rice as big bags of brown rice are much cheaper than small packs. (I personally use quinoa or other grains as even though I use brown rice, it still makes me really bloated )My big packs of raw cashews and almonds are lasting for ages.

paulineb_2

I agree, shop around. I used to shop at Lidl more and not Aldi as the Aldi was further away but its moved now so I usually walk to the gym, walk over to Aldi and walk home. Iceland are good for meat free meals, they do 4 Linda McCartney pies for a quid, tesco take 2.50 and they do 5 sausages for a quid, tesco do 6 for 2.25. I dont eat meat so Im the worst person to ask about anything to do with that.

Id say I now buy the bulk of my shopping in Aldi and other staples in approved foods with the very occasional trip to Tesco. Yes I understand comments about people buying crisps when they should be buying veg, but to me, Tescos fruit and veg isnt cheap, even when its reduced. (forgive me not only do I like crisps, but I hate turnip and parsnip). But I bought stuff from aldi last week, super 6 and its not all finished and Im going to get more before this weeks change.

My local corner (rip off) shop charges £1.89 for 4 leeks. Theres a fruit and veg shop in my town and Id love to shop there, but its extortionate. As for whether people should be getting 5 a day, 5 is just a number thats been plucked from somewhere, no one is going to come to any harm eating 4 a day or 7 a day.

Also, if people do want to get their 5 a day, you are generally better off eating veg, its better for you than fruit. Im not really into chocolate or puddings. But I can understand, given the junk thats on offer, why some families fill up their baskets with crap. It wouldnt be the way Id want to eat or shop, but some of the really crap meats, think Turkey Twizzlers and the like are cheap, finish them off with some cheap chips or oven chips.

There are millions of people out there with poor cooking and budgeting skills, Im not one of them, but some people my age or a bit younger than me literally cant boil an egg, I know several. (Im 44).

I would suppose the economic times just now are sending people back to the days of thrift when my mum was growing up, she was born just after the war when food was still rationed and everything was used economically, make do and mend, people had to.

I think along the way when people have had much more disposable incomes and more advances in gadgets such as toastie makers, deep fat fryers, people have just become bigger and unhealthier.

And, looking along my local high street, every chip shop has some offer to tempt kids in, chips and curry and a can of juice for £1.50 etc etc etc. Everywhere I go you see kids snacking on chips at lunchtimes and the queue at greggs is always a mile long (that I'll never understand)

Nothing wrong with an occasional splurge, just that for a lot of people, its more than occasional.

gailey_2

SandA wrote: »

I feel he is very old school, he isn't a bad person. He does say he wants me to go out, but I know we cannot afford it, so I choose to stay in and just be happy spending my evenings with him and baby or baby if he's out. He has always been a very social person and had a typical young mans lifestyle before I got pregnant. I always feel guilty for taking that away. I think he tries to hide it but I know deep down he misses his old life and that's why I cannot ask him not to go out. I know deep down that when I ask how much he has spent, he doesn't tell me the truth. I don't wish to be difficult about it, but I know whats coming and he doesn't.

It hasn't been to bad lately for me to spend a little bit more on shopping since I haven't had to pay council tax, but that starts u again in April, so thats £101 a month out of my pocket.

I'm sorry this whole thing has gone off topic, I don't want people to feel I am attention seeking or anything because I am not. I have taken advise on board and I thought the thoughts I was having about him being selfish were unreasonable, however its reassuring to see they are shared by many and its not just me being selfish.

That aside, I am actually quite excited to visit a few different shops this evening, I think I am so brainwashed that I always felt tesco prices were reasonable but I hope to be pleasantly suprised later. As for another poster who advised making my own korma sauce, does anyone have a recipe?


Thanks all

OP Do you work and on maternity leave?

ust got confused with child tax credits/working ta credits as normally 1 or other.

Do you rent or get any housing benefit?

Are benefits changing this month or just not going up?

we only get cb lost tax credits last year.

but husband pays

rent
water
tv licence
home contents
phone/internet
energy.

i contribute towards food and buy things kids need.

neither of us rarly go out or buy ourselves stuff.
Yougest 2nd birthday on weekend brought load 2nd hand pressies and making a cake, blowing up some balloons and taking him softplay they so much easier and cheaper when they younger i have nearly 4year old and 7year old too.

I did baby led weaning with no 2 and 3 so they ate what we ate.
Use cloth nappies for all 3 saved us lots.

I do think hes being incredibly unfair and he needs to change.

my 2nearest aldis are fairly new and lovlely stores with quite posh cars in carpark.

I also find farmfoods fab if you go to their website sign up for mailing list and they send 10%off coupons.

I try go various poundshops for household and odd food item.

we have b&m, homebargains, 99p stores,m family bargains, poundland, pound world, poundstrecher.

Hope you sort it out as sounds like you quite down.

just getting out walk round corner shop. libary do free ryhme time for babies, picnics in park, browse round charirty shops, nice bath with tashy mag ans choc. Aldi does very nice cheap wine.

I try ration crisps prefer as side to sandwich. Uusally no more 1pack a day and in lunch boxes.

Georgiegirl256

quintwins wrote: »

Is it just me who has will power and doesn't eat stuff just because it's in? i've seen us throw easter eggs out at haloween because there uneaten and i've had the same 6 pack of crisps in the house for over 6 weeks with 2 out of it, kids don't ask for crisps they'd rather raid the fruit bowl so we really only stick them on the side of sandwichs or much on them sometimes while watching something.

Easter eggs would never get thrown out in our house, they don't hang around long enough! :rotfl:

I have willpower where I feel it matters the most, and that is staying off the fags! I gave up 3yr, 43d, 22h and 39 minutes ago....I have an app that helped me that's how I know how long....I'm such a nerd! :rotfl:

Like I say, I don't buy as many crisps as I used to, same goes with chocolate as the OH has a very sweet tooth.

Fire_Fox

paulineb wrote: »

My local corner (rip off) shop charges £1.89 for 4 leeks. Theres a fruit and veg shop in my town and Id love to shop there, but its extortionate. As for whether people should be getting 5 a day, 5 is just a number thats been plucked from somewhere, no one is going to come to any harm eating 4 a day or 7 a day.

Also, if people do want to get their 5 a day, you are generally better off eating veg, its better for you than fruit. Im not really into chocolate or puddings. But I can understand, given the junk thats on offer, why some families fill up their baskets with crap. It wouldnt be the way Id want to eat or shop, but some of the really crap meats, think Turkey Twizzlers and the like are cheap, finish them off with some cheap chips or oven chips.

Actually most countries advocate seven, nine or ten servings of fruit and veg a day, we are stuck in the dark ages advocating at least five a day (not simply 'five a day' as many believe).

Seven or nine was not plucked out of thin air, they are based on research, longitudinal population studies and meta analyses showing that up to a point those who eat more fruit and veg have much lower risks of a raft of health conditions. The UK guidelines start at five partly because that was felt to be manageable for a population averaging just three servings. Based on a body of evidence I disagree you are not going to come to any harm only eating four, both the UK and the US populations ARE getting fatter and sicker year on year eating just three.

You are actually better off eating bright and dark coloured produce, a really wide variety and from the full rainbow, not an excessive amount of sugary fruits but not all fruits are anyway (tomatoes, bell peppers, aubergine, butternut squash are all technically fruit). Since there are few blue/ purple items widely available, frozen mixed berries can fill in a gap and are absolutely packed with antioxidants and other phytonutrients. Don't know about you but I get bored eating red (purple) cabbage every day even if it is very cheap.

Georgiegirl256

That was interesting Fire Fox! It's made me want to go and make myself a fruit salad! For purple items, I like to eat blueberries and grapes. I guess I'm lucky that I was brought up to eat a lot of fruit and vegetables, and so that has stuck with me, I don't think there is a veg I don't like!

Georgiegirl256

Meant to post this yesterday, a good website to use to get cheap and easy meals ideas is https://www.bbcgoodfood.com I have found loads of tasty new recipes off here!

blackandwhitebunny

Fire_Fox wrote: »

Actually most countries advocate seven, nine or ten servings of fruit and veg a day, we are stuck in the dark ages advocating at least five a day (not simply 'five a day' as many believe).

Some of the countries that advise nine or ten servings count potatoes as a serving. Its easy to see why they didn't take that approach here as people would then count crisps and chips as part of the daily allowance.

Fire_Fox

blackandwhitebunny wrote: »

Some of the countries that advise nine or ten servings count potatoes as a serving. Its easy to see why they didn't take that approach here as people would then count crisps and chips as part of the daily allowance.

It's also slightly confusing that serving sizes vary from country to country, the US uses cups instead of weight and the Japanese advocate seventeen but I *think* only have a modest amount of each so it's disingenuous to trumpet it. World Health Organisation recommendation is at least 400g which does not include potatoes or any starchy tubers so stricter than the UK definition.

Here in the UK potato crisps and chips clearly fall into the 'maximum 10% of daily calories' as sugar added/ fat added junk group. Even commercial vegetable crisps fall into this category. The potatoes are usually peeled so not even whole produce, akin to fruit juice which only counts as one serving per day.

I wonder what the 'official' stance will be on purple potatoes if they become more popular, both Asda and Sainsbury stock them now. :think: