Can £200 for the month really be done now?

sammy_kaye18

Hi guys,

Well I thought I would re-try an old experiment......I am now back on the OS band wagon after finding myself in a bit of a financial hole after a spell of illness which means I have been unemployed for about 3 years now......and I stupidly borrowed from doorstep lenders when our money was tight and we couldnt afford the rent........note to self - they cost a lot to repay - dont do it again!!!!!!
...........however silver lining is I am feeling somewhat better (I had an MRI sunday and am currently on antibitoics for sinusitis but hey ho!) and have now gotten myself a new job but the hours are low at the minute but it is a job I enjoy and i worked with them over christmas so Im hoping for them to increase, however I only work 6hrs a week at the minute so I could technically take on a second job.

rightio - well I have sat in the library and worked out my outgoings, my debts etc with the help of Step Change and well to put it bluntly - my money doesnt stretch very far as well as bills and catching up is concerned.

The groceries suggestion asked me to change it to £293 as a minimum :eek: which I have reluctantly done so it would process the form but it got me thinking.....with the help of yellow labels, home cooking, growing my own.....if it possible to feed a family of 4 on £200 anymore?

Now I have hubby (yes hes hubby now not bf) Owen, my "little dude" Ben is now in comprehensive school and will be 12 next month (thats scary for those of you who remember me joining when he was weeks old!) and my "baby" Holly that I recently had ---- yeah well she will be 6 this summer! :eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek: we currently have the two dogs and some fish.

I'll be honest - Im not entirely sure whats in the cupboards at home so I am going to make myself a list as soon as I go home of what we have at the minute.

My challenge I am setting myself is this

£200 for groceries - by groceries I mean food for us.
Im not going to include things grown in our garden as that is technically free food :-) and I am working hard for it to grow nicely!
Ive also decided that £20 for things like shampoo, household stuff, deoderant as more a housekeeping fund is going to be needed too......

So £200.....lets see if its possible now.....Im in the planning stages at the minute so any ideas you can offer forward - much appreciated!

Payday for me is the 4th MAY

So far I have
Cupboard/Freezer inventory
Meal planning + shopping list
Yellow labels
Cooking from scratch - luckily littlies are a dab hand in the kitchen and make excellent helpers
Leftovers
Coupons/Vouchers
Shopping in Lidls
Im also thinking 2 shops of £100 might be better than one big shop.
we also have a mobile butcher who comes around once a week - who does us some good deals - last time I saw him we had 5kg of fresh chicken breast and about 10 thick cut (and I mean more like steaks that slices) of bacon for £27. He also gave me a rather large off cut of the left over bacon for the dogs as he didnt want to go back to the shop and try and slice it......(side note - the dogs didnt get it it went in a casserole)

Right, lets see if I can do this.....

Talk to you soon folks!

x

HappyMJ

Is it possible to feed a family of 4 on £200 a month? Yes it is.

If you're on income based benefits then your children will be entitled to free school meals which means you don't need to budget for 10 meals a week.

If you've got family willing to help out then visit them on the weekend for a large family meal together which when you're back on full pay you can return the favour.

If you aren't particularly active you can reduce your calorie intake from the recommended amounts (2,500 for men and 2,000 for women) which will help save money.

My biggest expense in the weekly shop is meat. Cut that down for a period of time to the bare minimum and you can see some significant savings. The 5kg of chicken breast meat you can get should be able to make 60 meals with about 3 ounces of meat per person per meal. I would cut the bacon into strips and just use it to flavour a meal rather than give each person a whole slice each. Just 1 slice of the thick cut bacon can be enough for a family. It's not substantial but you don't really need large portions.

C_J

Hi Sammy_Kaye

Yes, £200 a month is completely possible, and I am sure some of the regular OSers will be along soon to give you bags of useful advice.

I'd suggest cooking from scratch (especially things like cakes, traybakes, muffins or lunchbox snacks) helps save money especially when you have active children to feed (a friend of mine with a teenage son says it's like living with The Tiger Who Came To Tea!!!), and stretching stews and casseroles etc by adding lots of seasonal veg, oats or red lentils to bulk things out.

Now would be an excellent time to plant a few veg seeds too, if you have the space to grow any (even in pots). A couple of courgette and tomato plants sown now for a pound or two will reap huge rewards later in the summer!

mumtoomany

Hi Sammy, is it really that long ago? How time flies. It is possible, I am currently feeding five adults and a child. As you can see from my signature I had spent around £620 up to the end of March, around £240 this month. This includes household goods and some nappies. Possible but not easy. Good luck, I will be watching and reading with interest. M2m.

Hard_Up_Hester

Sammy-Kaye, so nice to 'see' you I used to follow your blog and missed you when you disappeared.
Hugs Hester

tessie_bear

hello i wouldnt rush to buy anything if you can help it...use up what you have maybe just go for bread and milk or whatever you need...i wouldnt buy in bulkat the mo ie from the butcher it probably cheap but instead of chicken galore for the same money you could have pots/veg/fruit/milk/lunchbox stuff and money incase you have missed a bill...just myopinion

what have you in already ?

good luck tessa

Tink_04

Sammy im sure I remember you from the preparing for winter thread a few years back - nice ti see you back & congratulations on getting married.

I feed a family of 4 on £250 but that included cat food/litter cleaning things but not toiletries and nappys - on a 4 week month im great but hit a 5 week month and its really hard!

I find the key is batch cooking - meal planning and streaching out food as much as I can.

I buy a lot if veg frozen but find fruit harder as its really expensive, I try to only get 2 types as a time (like banana & apples) because if i get more all the 'nicest' stuff goes first and the other stuff gets left. Ive tried frozen fruit but the kids were not keen.

Soworried

I feed a family of 2 adults and 2 teens on £240 a month and we could cut back more if needed.
We eat a lot of vegetables as they are cheap and filling. Then we shop for our meat by buying yellow stickers at the end of the day. Often 90% marked down.
Shop at Ald1 for our staples.
I think you can easily do it and I hope your feeling better soon

[Deleted User]

Sammy kaye where has that time gone to girl !!!well done on sorting things out I'm sure with help you will get on top of things again.Shop less often, (i go twice a month ) and use up and streeetch stuff Oats or lentils in mince will extend stuff for sheps pie and spag bols,chilli's etc.

Home made cake and biscuits are better than endless bags of crisps which after all is basically a potato thinly sliced and spread over several bags for around a pound ,just not worth buying IMHO

Good luck and congrats on getting wed

JackieO xxx

meanmarie

Sammy Kaye, how nice to 'see' you again!

Sorry to hear that you have been ill, best wishes for a speedy and full recovery.

I am sure that when you put your mind to it that you will be advising others on how to feed a family well on £200 a mont h!

Good luck

Marie

Huskyrunner

Yes it is possible re the 200pm shopping budget me and my partner do it for just over 120.

Both me and my partner are gym bunnies so we try too eat and have a blow out on a saturday night, everyone thinks eating healthy has too be expensive but it doesn't. I have put some lil meal ideas below that we use they may not be everyones cup of tea. My diet is quite strict as i work nights 4 nights a week and after nights i run home which is 8miles, 6 days a week i eat the same on a saturday i eat what i want ie cheat day.


breakfast

porridge oats i have 100g a day , you can buy a kg of scotch porridge for 1.50-2pounds.
Coconut alpro milk 1 litre in asda is £1.25, i use 200ml in my oats and 100ml semi skimmed milk.
i also chuck in a handful of mixed fruit ie the stuff you make cakes with.

Thats 30-40p a meal.

lunch mid morning snack.

3eggs scrambled 1-2 slices of homemeal toast. 15 eggs in asda are around £1.50 so thats 30-40 pm per meal.

We tend too also eat a lot of chicken and sweet potato and mix salads. You can buy 2-3 bags of salad in asda for say 3-4 quid we mix and match say a bag of the spinach and kale/ a bag of normal salad etc. You can get chicken breast for say £3.30 a kg you should be able too feed 4 people per 400grams. Too make it less boring we buy honey and cut everything into tiny pieces once cooked, then we mix it all together and drissle honey over the top.

We eat the chicken/sweet potato and salad 2-3 times a day boring i know but its doesnt work out that expensive. We buy the chicken in bulk from Sainsburies(nectar points ☺)

Another cheap meal is
arla skyr, sultanas, a banana sliced, and honey. A couple of tubes of skyr is 2.50, the rest well a couple of quid on bananas honey and sultanas say 50-60p per meal.

Take advantage of things like topcashback and nectar too, we shop in Sainsburies and get fuel there and we build up our nectar points then collect the online vouchers and use them too get our dog food cheaper off ebay.