Feeding 1 adult and 2 children off barely nothing?

SunshineButterfly

I need your help please. I have been given a living allowance for 1 week, but after that I am on my own. They have give me £6 per day for food (4 for me, 1 for each child).
Both children have their lunch at school / nursery in the week.

I have had a nosey at smart price items at asda and have so far got for £39.18 the following (I hope listing it alls ok) :

4 x baby wipes £2.04
4 x skimmed uht milk £2.12
10 x whole milk uht £7.40
4 x beans and sausages £1.40
2 x bolognese sauce 78p
5 x chicken flav noodles 55p
2 x ravioli 70p
4 x rice pudding 60p
2 x chicken pasta 64p
2 x beef pasta 64p
2 x chopped toms 62p
4 x sweetcorn 1.28
2 x princes chick n mush pie 2.00
2 x princes steak n kidney pie 2.00
2 x beef n onion pie 2.00
whitworths sunny raisons 8pk 1.00
5 x princes fruit cocktail 3.75
1 x frozen breaded chicken nuggets 72p
1 x frozen fish fingers 60p
2 x frozen mixed veg 1.50
1 x concentrate laundry conditioner 66p
big pack toilet roll 1.96
3 x macaroni cheese 1.20
orange cordial 42p
blackcurrant cordial 42p

Now I know this isnt the healthiest of foods, but I cannot currently afford healthy. I am hoping the less I can spend on cupboard and freezer the more free for buying fresh bread and fresh fruit when needed.

I am also hoping this list will last much longer than 1 week. But I am wondering if anyone has any other items I could add on there that I may not of thought of?

sugarwalsh

Hi, £6 a day is possible, it may not be very 'conmfortable' but I think you could make much better use of your money than your list.

I know you say you can't afford to eat healthily, but with a bit of thought and planning there is no reason why not.

Start with porridge in the morning - oats are really cheap and filling. You can add some dried fruit or honey if you want. Failing that, eggs on toast is a great way to set you up for the day - buy wholemeal toast when reduced to keep you feeling fuller and eggs from market - 6 for £1 ish. They have (In my experience) more flavour and leave you feeling more satisfied. you could even fry some mushrooms/tomatoes etc to go with it. If your kids like cereal there are large boxes of cheerios on sale at £2 in Sainsburys at the moment, I am sure other places will have same offer, or look for supermarket alternatives.

For lunch, try eating left overs from the night before, or soup (Use left over veg, buy reduced price stuff etc). Things like oatcakes with cottage cheese and salad are cheap enough, healthier than supernoodles, as well as more filling.

Lastly, in the evening, try buying bigger bags of things like pasta, rice, noodles and then making your own sauces. We eat vegetarian most nights, making sure protein is included with beans etc. Scour the shops for reduced price items you can freeze - today I got a massive chicken for £4, it will feed all 6 of us for tea and then again for lunch. If i was being really savvy I could make soup from the bones too.

Sorry if this doesn't seem helpful, but I am sure with a bit of research through the recipes on here, (And ask!) you can easily manage,

Best of luck!

Hardup_Hester

http://agirlcalledjack.com/
Check out this blog, loads of cheap recipes

paulineb_2

What do you mean when you say a living allowance? Is there no other benefits you can claim?

CookieMonsta

Cooking from scratch and buying fewer processed foods will help a lot. Also buying less meat products.

I second the agirlcalledjack recommendation - her recipes are amazing!!!

I would use flannels or cut up some old towels to make into reusable wipes. It seems a pity to spend so much of your budget on baby wipes that will get chucked in the bin.

And I wouldn't bother with fabric conditioner. Horrible stuff....

paulineb_2

If you can spare the £5 for delivery have a look on the site approved foods, they sell food close to and past its best before date (but still safe to eat), youd get quite a lot for your money on there.

SunshineButterfly

paulineb wrote: »

What do you mean when you say a living allowance? Is there no other benefits you can claim?

I was granted residency of my children a week and a half ago. Their father is currently still claiming child benefit for 1 child and tax credits for both children.

My current income whilst waiting for my change in circumstances to be assessed and for them to ask for evidence is 20.33 per week.

That £20 a week is to pay for food, gas, electric, rent, travel to and from school every day... so the less I spend the less I sink.

The living allowance is the replacement of the crisis loan. You do not pay it back but they only allow you 2 payments in a 12 month period. So I would be able to apply in a week if stuck, but after that if I cant buy food then I cant buy food

DawnW

Definitely lose the baby wipes - they didn't have them when my children were little. Use flannels that can be washed, different colours for faces and bums.

I agree with the above posters about the processed foods - but having said that, are you ok for electricity etc?

SunshineButterfly

Dawn I am currently almost out of my electric emergency and have just gone into my gas emergency.

I assumed buying smart priced tinned things would use less electric in the micro or on the hob than me cooking things in the oven daily?

It also costs me £12.50 minimum a week to get my children to nursery and school and back. There is no way around that as it would take 1.5 hours to walk there which a 2 and 4 year old cannot do. Plus we would end up getting up at 5am each morning.

Not sure what else to do. I can skip meals if it means my children get fed well enough. In fact I have some slim fast shake powder at the back of the cupboard so I am going to use that up by having it for my lunches to save buying extra food for just me.

pink_princess

Can family not help out?

paulineb_2

SunshineButterfly wrote: »

I was granted residency of my children a week and a half ago. Their father is currently still claiming child benefit for 1 child and tax credits for both children.

My current income whilst waiting for my change in circumstances to be assessed and for them to ask for evidence is 20.33 per week.

That £20 a week is to pay for food, gas, electric, rent, travel to and from school every day... so the less I spend the less I sink.

The living allowance is the replacement of the crisis loan. You do not pay it back but they only allow you 2 payments in a 12 month period. So I would be able to apply in a week if stuck, but after that if I cant buy food then I cant buy food

Ok, how long will it be till you can claim the child benefit and tax credits?

My advice and Im sure kids like stuff like pies, fish fingers and nuggets, buy anything in the short term just to see you through, bread, pasta, potatoes, eggs. Ditch the tinned stuff and the frozen stuff. Get as much food as you can thats cheap and that will fill you and that hopefully you can do a few things with.

Also soup, make as much soup as you can. You can get stock cubes for about 20p. If you go to asda between 7 and 8pm at night you'll get the yellow stickered stuff.

I dont shop in asda anymore much as its not on my way home from work, but I used to go in there about 8 every night, I used to get tons of stuff cheaply and I got 4 bags of shopping in Tesco the other night for 3.50, again I went in at about 7 when everything was being reduced. I got veg, fruit, bread, loads of stuff.