Minimum food budget for two people? £50 reasonable?

craigywv

We all on here for the same reason either been ther done that or doing it! Xxx i came on 2 years ago oh being made redundant etc i was in nerves panicking etc and the folks on here helped me more than they can ever imagine. Roll on 2 years and oh working and things all good but im still here as i dont think there is any more wiser words spoken on this site xxx your not on your own hippo xxx

RAS

Hi ChilliHippo

Thanks for the response.

One thing to consider is that you both go through the house and identify the things that you no longer use. OH's other job is to make as much dosh from these as possible. If you can get £100-200 this gives you say £20 extra a month planned and a small emergency fund.

And go through all the other stuff - smellies, kitchen cleaners, bathroom cleaners and see how long you can last without buying more.

And join freegle/freecycle so that you can look for replacment stuff that costs zero.

Then ask OH to check and overhaul all your utility and insurance accounts. You might save a bit or just get some cashback for swapping.

iris

Have a look here https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/326929


lots of cheap meal ideas. HTH

Butterfly_Brain

There are plenty of cheap ideas on the £7 a week thread, although it would be more like £10 a week now.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4084527

Or try the excellent cheap family recipes which was put together by some of the girls on the forum

http://web.archive.org/web/20130815202750/http://www.cheap-family-recipes.org.uk

Another thing that you could do is to look at wartime recipes, they knew how to stretch meals

Offal is cheap and tasty, we had ox cheek tonight done in the slow cooker, it was really tasty.
You can pick up cooking bacon in Sainsbury for £1.10 a pack, which will easily stretch to four meals for two of you, likewise make the most of chickens, I was lucky enough to pick up 6 large chickens in Asda reduced to £1.96 each last week, everyone else was doing the same.
So I have enough meat there for around 30 meals for 5 adults.

Upsidedown_Bear

JackieO wrote: »

I shop as I did when I first got married in the early 1960s ,in those days there were no credit cards and what money you had was meant to last you from pay-day to pay-day.

It still is

honeythewitch

Upsidedown_Bear wrote: »

It still is

But people did seem to manage without overdrafts and credit cards if they ran out of money.
I think being paid weekly helped.

Ladyluck1

Take advantage of offers if you will eat them. I like lidl fruit and veg offers and weekend offers. Also aldi super 6.

I managed 3 meals from an £8 lidl shop. And I still had more for the rest of the week...
Whole chicken £3 did a roast, made stock with bones and did a risotto with stock and a few shredded bits of chicken. Also a curry with the leg meat. Then there's enough stock left for me to make a lentil or veg soup for us all for 1 lunch
I also got things like potatoes, broccoli, onions for a couple of £.
A mango for 75p. 3 Bananas.
70p growing lettuce leaves.
A pack of rice.
Some 30p passata.

I'll make pasta swirls with tuna (from cupboard) and some sweated onion/garlic and passata. Side of salad.
You could also do jacket potatoes for another meal plus some salad.

I feed 2 adults and 2 young children too!

hollycupcake

Do you have a Farmfoods near you, OP? They do an offer where you can get 5 x 1kg bags of chicken breasts for £15. Actually I think it might be a mix and match so there are other products that you could get with the chicken in the same offer. I tend to buy 5 bags at the start of the month and hope it lasts! (family of 4) In addition to that I get fruit and veg from Lidl and then any branded "must-haves" (Heinz ketchup, Old El Paso fajita powder!) come from Farmfoods or Asda.

My OH is also likes meat with everything (although an omelette without meat will often suffice) so I cut the meat up small so it looks like there's more and bulk it out with cheapo veg and pasta.

patchwork_cat

Yes I would back up hollycupcake have a look for Farmfoods. I wouldn't recommend the 3 for £10 deals at the supermarket you can get better value. If your OH is out of work have you thought of applying for an allotment, or offer his services to allotment holders in return for some surplus stock. Sainsburys does milk powder for 400g for £1.15 that is 4L of milk. Porridge for breakfast is excellent. I would recommend joining the grocery challenge sticky at the top of the board.


Have a look at this recipe http://lowcostliving.co.uk/food/recipes/193/batch-bake-minced-beef-recipe/. Also a girl called Jack http://agirlcalledjack.com/ , http://mortgagefreeinthree.com/ and google for frugal blogs as there others that I can't quite remember at the moment, it will come to me.


From Aldi you can get fresh mince for £3.45 or £3.50/kg, which is cheaper than the cheapest frozen at Asda.

yadayadayada

Might be a bit late now but here's some ideas. There are two of us in our house.

Make a massive pot of bolognese. Use cheap tinned tomatoes, onions, garlic and herbs for the sauce. Use a small pack of mince and bulk out with split red lentils, chopped carrots and other root veggies. This normally serves about 8 so we would get 4 dinners. I normally freeze and reheat later so we don't get bored eating the same thing. You can buy massive bags of pasta in Asda and cook and freeze at the same time. This also cuts down on the energy bills too. It's also nice not having to cook every night, knowing you have something you can whip out of the freezer.

You can do the same with curries and bulk out with lentils aswell.
I use garlic powder from the World Foods isle and it works out alot cheaper than fresh.

I make alot of soups for lunch, great coming into the winter. I stick to veggie ones as are cheaper. They are so easy to make. Just veggies boiled with a stock cube. You can also make large batches and freeze and eat for lunches throughout the week.

Rice with forzen fish and peas - so cheap, about .50p per portion.

With meat being an issue, go for cheaper cuts and make casseroles and stews. Try a local butchers and see what deals they have on, sometimes it can be cheaper than the supermarket.

As a rule of thumb, I find Lidl more expensive than Aldi so I shop there more often than not.

I think £50 is a stretch though. At the moment, we have breakfast, lunch and dinner for about £25 for the two of us and I think that is the best I can get it, without sacrificing nutritional value.

Best of luck!