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Food shopping/food budget

Hi

Just looking for a general consensus about food shopping. I'm wondering whether it is possible to feed two adults on £100 per month. I am happy to meal plan and I can cook fine, so I certainly don't have any reservations about cooking. I tend to cook in bulk and freeze quite a bit. I'm generally quite frugal anyway, but I'm just looking for confirmation that it's possible! I also shop in Ald! which keeps costs fairly low. I've also stopped taking my partner, as he sees things he likes and just chucks them in the trolley! He also has expensive taste meat-wise! I don't waste anything either.

Do other people manage this or am I wildly underestimating?

Thank you :o
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Comments

  • PasturesNew
    PasturesNew Posts: 70,698 Forumite
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    £100 is easily doable if you want to do that. And you won't feel hard done by. It's "all the other stuff" that makes bills higher, like better quality, or not checking prices, or not waiting for offers, or lobbing bottles of booze in the trolley ... and crisps... biscuits.... cakes.... few sweets.... a nice new cushion from the home decor aisle.... "organic" because it makes you feel good/smug .... and rounding all that off with a couple of magazines and a glossy magazine from the newspaper rack.
  • That's great thanks PasturesNew. I'm good at going in with a list and sticking to it so I'm not easily distracted from it!
  • Haha Pastures, well said!
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  • I have to say I spent about the same pre month pre kids as I do now with 3 of them (and a husband). It does depends on what you like though, esp if a meal has to include meat. I've just made 3 portions of root veg soup from a basics casserole pack that was reduced to 24p :D if my kids would actually entertain the notion of having that with a crusty loaf I could shop a lot more cheaply than I currently do!
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  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User] Posts: 17,413 Forumite
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    edited 19 November 2014 am30 10:09AM
    Shortypie as my old Mum would say 'eat up or go without'.Suprising what a little bit of feeling hungry does for kids.HM soup with crusty bread is gorgeous (although I have crackers with mine as I have sworn off bread for nearly a year now.Don't miss it either or the two stones that went with it :):):)I love 'bendy bottom of the fridge ' veggie soup and chuck some smashed up pasta in towards the end to 'bulk' it out a bit.I keep a jar with the bottom of the pasta package broken bits in just for this purpose :):):) Every little helps :):):)
  • Judging by what is on here I would say yes definitely! I live alone and shop at Lidl. I give myself a £25 a week budget for food, but to be honest I only ever surpass this when I need a bit of hangover food at the weekend and it saves me getting a takeaway (classy I know!). But really, depending where you shop you can eat quite well on this.
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  • Yes, you can. If you have to live on a very tight budget and you can control your urges to buy takeaways, magazines, Starbucks etc it's amazing how little you can survive on.
  • Change4Life
    Change4Life Posts: 33 Organisation Representative
    Hi BachSoon,

    It sounds like you already have some great strategies (and self-discipline!) to help you to keep costs down. Meal planning, bulk-buying ingredients and making batches of meals at a time, are all good ideas.

    It can help to consider what you are buying and when - fruits and vegetables that are in season are usually cheaper and keep an eye out for good deals on frozen, dried and canned fruit and vegetables, such as frozen peas, dried lentils and pulses and canned fruit in their own juice, which keep for longer.

    Using more vegetables and less meat/fish as part of your meals is a great way to eat healthily while keeping the cost down. Another helpful tip is to buy cheaper cuts of meat, such as shoulder of lamb instead of leg of lamb.

    If you're stuck for healthy meal ideas and need some help getting started, Change4Life's Meal Mixer can help! Most recipes make four adult portions and only cost around £5 in total to make! You can even search for recipes by ingredient - ideal for those times when you've bought lots of something and need ways to use it up!

    We look forward to hearing how you get on.

    Best wishes,

    - GS, Change4Life
    Official Company Representative
    We are the official representatives of Change4Life. MSE has given permission for us to post in response to health, fitness and lifestyle questions. You can see our name on the companies/organisations with permission to post list.
  • NewShadow
    NewShadow Posts: 6,858 Forumite
    Seventh Anniversary 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic

    If you're stuck for healthy meal ideas and need some help getting started, Change4Life's Meal Mixer can help! Most recipes make four adult portions and only cost around £5 in total to make! You can even search for recipes by ingredient - ideal for those times when you've bought lots of something and need ways to use it up!

    Just did a fun calculation - because I'm a geek...

    Assuming the evening meal does 4, as you say, and that each meal costs the same - no leftover ingredients to carry forward.

    £5 x 365 days / 12 months = £152 a month spent on 1 meal a day.

    Divide that by 2 (as there are only the 2 for the OP) you get £76.

    That leaves £24 for breakfasts and lunches and drinks and snacks for the rest of the month.

    £5 to feed a family of 4 might not seem like a lot to some people, and it might cost a lot less than an M&S ready meal, but its still an awful lot of money to someone on a tight budget...
    That sounds like a classic case of premature extrapolation.

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  • It is possible yes
    https://web.archive.org/web/20120516095012/http://www.cheap-family-recipes.org.uk/index.html?opt=rcost
    That was in September 2010 for a family of 4. Prices have gone up but to feed 2 on £100 should be possible if you think outside the box/don't waste anything/shop around/aren't too fussy about what you eat etc.
    2 adults groceries: June £35.79/£200
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