How do you do food budget?

kimplus8

thanks so much for your idea and advice.
I don't really know how much ive been spending previously as I tended to do lots of top up shops and give the kids money here and there etc, now im serious about getting sorted so im planning down to the last penny.
I checked the older style money saving boards and ive woken up an old thread I made on herelast year regarding value/saver items.
I think £100 a week should work well if I allow for the fact that some weeks it will be less an the weeks that I need to bulk buy staples, it will be more. however I will draw out the £100 in cash so once its gone we will have to make do.

kimplus8

PasturesNew wrote: »

Your budget is "loads".

Don't buy things because the packet looks pretty, or because you saw it online or in a magazine... question what you're actually buying, how much they want - and if that's cost effective for you and if you really need THAT version, THAT brand, THAT price.

I LOVE Pukka pies .... but I will never buy one at the chippy (£2.50), nor at full price in the supermarket (£2). I will go without until they're for sale at £1 at the supermarket and reheat it myself.

.

now I really fancy a pukka pie
I don't tend to buy already prepped food anyway unless its in the reduced/oops isle.
I buy meat and fish in the reduced/oops isle and freeze it with the exception of quorn fillets which I tend to buy when its BOGOF.
You are right about the beans on toast tho, I am a lover of Heinz but recent got branstons on the 2 for 50p offer in my local farmfoods. they tasted fine, I couldn't taste any difference and I don't ever buy posh bread unless its reduced/oops in my local coop.
Im actually quite excited about this and see it as a challenge.

kimplus8

Fireflyaway wrote: »

If you keep the meals simple and don't buy lots of expensive brands I think you could do it. Pasta, tinned tomatoes, beans and loads of veggies / rice are all cheap and go a long way. I think its meat that's costly but the other day I went to the butcher and got loads of stuff much cheaper than the supermarket. Got freezer bags and divided it all into batches.
My calculations seem to say your budget would work out about £1.50 per person per day. That seems quite tight. What do you spend now? Could you cut down on something else and increase the food budget a bit? Nothing worse than not having enough food / food you like.

the only thing I could cut is the kids swimming lessons BUT........ we live in devon and I think it is really important that they are able to swim.
when I was a child I fell into the river ex right by a weer (sp?) and had I not been able to swim out of the current I would have drowned.
It may seem silly but its a real fear of mine so im happy to cut the food budget and have boring meal plans for the next year or so to keep their swimming. We don't have a tv and everything else we do is free or with vouchers ive won. they don't do any other clubs so It neeeeeed to work at £100 a week.

Spendless

Keep your swimming Kim. The only thing I regret with mine with swimming lessons, especially for my youngest is that I didn't stop them when they could swim. Instead I carried on with them going up the grades, often for very long periods of time before they moved on to the next group, costing me loads of money.

Perhaps a suggestion might be to cost per person per meal, to see how the budget works out eg you have a breastfeeding baby, so his allocation is currently nil. If you have Infant school aged children and I think the free meals for those years is currently running, that amount is also nil, in term-time and more in school hols. If you did that you might see how your overall amount works out.

WibblyGirly

We put it all in the trolly and guess the total at the till. Usually its around £70 for 2 of us. We do meal plans and look at what we already have that we can use again but we're really bad at just adding a few extras in as if they are on offer.

LilElvis

When I was a student I used to go to the market at the end of the day when they were packing up and buy fruit and veg for a fraction of their original price - even cheaper than the supermarket reductions.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

It also depends on how old your children are - if they're going up in age by a year or thereabouts at a time like a set of Russian Dolls, the biggest you've got is not yet into their prepuberty growth spurt yet. If they're at assorted intervals, you could have a small 11 year old boy who is about to eat all the food all the time and shoot up to over six foot tall between the ages of 13 and 16 and a half.

And, obviously, teenagers need different food amounts (eg, calories from fat, calories from carbs, protein for rapid growth) than four year olds. It's also relevant whether your kids are teeny little things with bones like birds or are on the country bred stock side - as the OH tells me, he's a Dartmoor lad born and bred - strong in the arm and thick in the 'ed (yes, I know it's been nicked from elsewhere, but he certainly has broader shoulders for his height than most people I know who are much, much taller - and he can pack on muscle without any effort).

If they're always wanting more and more sweet things and starches and they're definitely the right size (ie, not having to wear clothes three to five years older than them to fit their tummies and bums - and no boy moobs or tummy overhangs in sight), it might help to up the protein content to keep them feeling fuller longer - adding a couple of tins of chickpeas and some leaves to a chicken curry, for example, or opting for a higher protein flour if making cakes or snacks/pancakes - two tins of chickpeas are no more than £1.50 if organic (the massive tins in the shops in ethnic food sections can be as cheap as 30p if you're not into soaking and boiling dried ones for mere pennies) compared to several pounds for chicken breast that would make the other half of the curry, for example.

kimplus8

Jojo_the_Tightfisted wrote: »

It also depends on how old your children are - if they're going up in age by a year or thereabouts at a time like a set of Russian Dolls, the biggest you've got is not yet into their prepuberty growth spurt yet. If they're at assorted intervals, you could have a small 11 year old boy who is about to eat all the food all the time and shoot up to over six foot tall between the ages of 13 and 16 and a half.

And, obviously, teenagers need different food amounts (eg, calories from fat, calories from carbs, protein for rapid growth) than four year olds. It's also relevant whether your kids are teeny little things with bones like birds or are on the country bred stock side - as the OH tells me, he's a Dartmoor lad born and bred - strong in the arm and thick in the 'ed (yes, I know it's been nicked from elsewhere, but he certainly has broader shoulders for his height than most people I know who are much, much taller - and he can pack on muscle without any effort).

If they're always wanting more and more sweet things and starches and they're definitely the right size (ie, not having to wear clothes three to five years older than them to fit their tummies and bums - and no boy moobs or tummy overhangs in sight), it might help to up the protein content to keep them feeling fuller longer - adding a couple of tins of chickpeas and some leaves to a chicken curry, for example, or opting for a higher protein flour if making cakes or snacks/pancakes - two tins of chickpeas are no more than £1.50 if organic (the massive tins in the shops in ethnic food sections can be as cheap as 30p if you're not into soaking and boiling dried ones for mere pennies) compared to several pounds for chicken breast that would make the other half of the curry, for example.

we are near Dartmoor- such a beautiful place to live.

GarthThomas

Yes, it's important that your children can swim, but that takes a couple of hours per child, once each.

As above, the question makes little sense, make some meal plans, work out the costs, stick to that. There's no point asking what others budget, no-one else here has eight children on a limited budget. The fact is yours will probably have to go without a great many things that other families find normal.

kimplus8

GarthThomas wrote: »

Yes, it's important that your children can swim, but that takes a couple of hours per child, once each.

As above, the question makes little sense, make some meal plans, work out the costs, stick to that. There's no point asking what others budget, no-one else here has eight children on a limited budget. The fact is yours will probably have to go without a great many things that other families find normal.

try telling that to my 7 and 8 year olds, they have had 6 months of lessons and still cant swim 25 mtrs which is the national curriculum standard.