How do you do food budget?

Spendless

kimplus8 wrote: »

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.

Is that a length of the pool? Sorry I'm hopeless at measurements and also 6 months ago were they non swimmers? If they were, neither of mine could do that within 6 months of learning to swim.

Also I was thinking today of a thread on the oldstyle board where there's a comment about the '£5 loaf' meaning you pop out to buy a oaf of bread and return having picked up several other bits as well. I recall having a milkman for this very reason when mine were small. I'm not suggesting a milkman, though do you get free milk? I vaguely recall some scheme where a parent of under 5s on certain benefits could get free milk, but I've no idea if it still runs. What I was thinking about was another thread where a few people mentioned having a food cupboard where they had their spares' and only when the spare was moved to the main cupboard did it go on the shopping list. Don't know if you'd have room to do this?

Lunar_Eclipse

I think it really depends on what you want to eat and what your budget needs to include - just food I'm assuming, but what about drinks - milk, juice, alcohol?

I don't think it's enough if you eat well - i.e. 8-10 portions of fresh fruit and veg daily and good cuts of meat/fish. We probably spend about £10/day on our evening meal alone, for 4 people, but I buy what I want us to eat and not based on cost. We scrimp elsewhere, but I did shop to a food budget for years; I learnt first hand that it is much cheaper to eat badly than it is to eat in the way we should.

Markets at closing time, learning when local shops start yellow stickering, cooking from scratch and to a well thought out meal plan will help loads - though I appreciate time is probably short with 8 children!

Grenage

When I lived alone (until just over 4 years ago), I ate well for £10 a week. You eat a lot of the same thing, but you can vary it plenty if you have the freezer space.

ViolaLass

GarthThomas wrote: »

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

A single two hour lesson to learn to swim?

??

jaemac

Hi, I found this site a while ago, https://feedyourselfforapoundaday.wordpress.com/ and it's been really useful. Also check out https://cookingonabootstrap.com/category/recipes-food/. I've been doing the £1 a day challenge since January and at the moment my average is sitting at around 74p per day. I don't deprive myself but neither do I waste anything and I must admit I've eaten some things that I'd never have tried otherwise.Look on it as a challenge, not a chore and get the kids involved, they love trying to outdo each other. Some people have to do this day in day out with no end in sight so hopefully all of your family can benefit from the experience and look on it as something positive. It'll stand them in good stead for when they fly the nest. Good luck.
P.S. I've no TV either. Great isn't it.

mum2one

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.

Weird to read the saying from Devon, always thought it was just our Shropshire folk x