Family of 5 -very tight budget help

SmileyS_2

Hi,
I wonder if anyone could offer advice please.We are a family of 5 and through no fault of our own we have very little money available this month for food/toiletries/cleaning product etc shopping.I think we will have about £200 which will be the absolute max! if that.I have 1 teenager and 2 pre-teenegers and my husband and I plus 1 dog and 1 cat.Two of my children have school lunch provided one has a packed lunch,I don't work and my husband chips in at work so only needs about £4 p/wk.I already cook from fresh and shop in tesco or Morrisons but we do have pretty much every supermarket here
Many Thanks for any suggestions you can give me
SSx

Feanor

Do you have an Aldi supermarket close to you? I know alot of people recommend it for some things. Might be worth a look.

I think it would be a good idea to sit down and do a meal plan for the month, and then just buy the ingredients you need and stick to it.

I'm sure someone else will be along with better advice though

Jo_R_2

You can make some really cheap stuff and I'm sure on £200 for the month you can easily manage. I'm doing £160 for the month for me, DD1 (4) and DD2 (1.5) and making extra portions to freeze and use later, this week I've already made 7 servings of veggie lasagne made from 4 tins of tomatoes, lasagne sheets, cheese and various veggies and seasonings (skipped the white sauce on that one!) and frozen them and have two extra servings of lentil bolognaise so can use that for a meal later.

A good way to handle it is to do what Feanor said and make a meal planner for the month. Have you done this before? Just go through each day and each meal and work out what you need to have, for who and then fill it all in. Work out if you can make extra and then use the leftovers for the next day, as a different meal or for lunch. For example, I sometimes make veggie chilli and use what's left to take to work the next day to heat up. Or if oyu can make extra then freeze it for another day.

Bulk things out with veggies. Like, in the lasagne I put a load of onions, peppers, mushrooms and courgette which nearly doubled the volume in the pan! Use potatoes, lentils and rice to add to things. I always chuck these into a soup, you don't notice they're there really but it bulks it out.

Skip buying biscuits, cakes and sweet stuff and make them yourself. You'll need to get some recipes and buy the basics, such as the right flour, sugar and butter, but they're so much nicer homemade and again you can make extra. This last week I've made oat and raisin cookies and chocolate brownies which went down a storm!

Hope that's useful for starters, I'd recommend popping over to the Moneysaving Old Style board at http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.html?f=33 as they're great at offering advice for you and there'll be people in your position who can give you loads of tips!

Good luck.

Savvy_Sue

Hi, Martin’s asked me to post this in these circumstances: I’ve asked Board Guides to move threads if they’ll receive a better response elsewhere (please see this rule) so this post/thread has been moved to the Old Style Board, where it should get more replies. If you have any questions about this policy please email [EMAIL="abuse@moneysavingexpert.com"]abuse@moneysavingexpert.com[/EMAIL].

If you look round over there you will find all sorts of ways to help you not spend money this month!

ravylesley

There are 6 in my household and I could manage on 200.00.But you will have to be disciplined and abandon any convenience foods that you buy as these are expensive and homemade taste a lot better.Dishes like Corned Beef Hash and Cottage Pie can all be bulked out to fill everyones tummies and leave a portion or two to plonk in the freezer for weektime lunches for yourself.One of the biggest expenses you are going to find is Bread I would seriously consider joining your local freecycle group and asking for one as it will save you a fortune.If you do decide to make all your own bread make two as then you can freeze one.This is a lesson I have learnt to my own cost because its all well and good making your own bread but sometimes crises arise and if you havent got a stash of bread then you have to buy some

A whole chicken is a good buy as a decent sized one can be turned into three different meals on different days

Some of the more experienced OS'ers will be around in a moment to sort you out and they are far cannier than me when it comes to saving money

Lesleyxx

whatatwit

If you have a look through your cupboards and freezer and do a list of what you have, then I'm sure there will be some ideas to follow.
I agree with Lesley that a lot of the meat/potato based dishes can be bulked out with pulses or oats and made to go a lot further.
Slow cookers are great, as they can transform a cheaper cut of meat into a tasty meal and any leftovers can be made into a pie for the next day.

maypole

Try to get as much shopping in, in one trip, of course you will have to shop again for perishables, but I find not having to go to the shops so often means you are not tempted to buy things you didn't go for in the first place. Don't buy unnecessary cleaning products. I use star drops and bleach through choice, I have given up on the Flash bathroom/kitchen stuff etc, it's just not essential for cleaning. Hope you get on ok.

trigger2

Yes you can manage on that budget. Before you make your shopping list check out what you still have in your cupboard/fridge/freezer that could be used to make meals & take a note of them. If you manage to stretch things like mince and chicken, shepherds pie can be bulked out with beans or oats, a whole chcken can be roasted then make a curry/stirfry with the remains (take time to pick the chicken apart throroughly), sausages can be padded out to toad in the hole, have one night a week something on toast , h-m soup, omlettes, h-m pizza, scones and biscuits can be h-m (although they do tend to disappear quickly), remember too fruit can be canned & veg can be frozen. Stores own brands wherever you can get away with it (I regularly decant cheaper brands into named boxes/jars). Hope this helps
Regards
Trigger

dlb

Meal planning is the only way i can manage, and really dread to think how much i used to spend before i did meal plan. I am a family of 6, 2 adults and 4 kids, i shop on approx £55-£75 a week, but i can when needs must manage on £40.
I write everything down i need on the meal plan, include everything from breakfast, right through to supper, pack ups and snacks inbetween, Then make shopping list including everything you need to complete the plan.
The hard part is sticking to the list.
Good luck

miserly_mum

Not much else I can add as everyones posts have been so helpful.

Just to say we are also a family of 5(2 adults and 3 kids 10,8 and 2) and I spend about £230 per month.This includes all food , toiletries, cleaning stuff plus nappies and wipes for my youngest boy.

We eat very well on this by buying own brand supermarket stuff and looking out for buy 1 get 1 free offers and reduced supermarket stuff etc.Also cooking from scratch 95% of the time

OH and the two older boys take a packed lunch everyday and the kids get nice cereal ,choccy biccies, crisps etc as treats but just not the well known brands unless they are on offer

However I know if we got a really tight months (as most of us do from time to time) I can do it for a lot less than £230.

The menu might be more basic and with not so many treats but we'd still be well fed.

Just see it as a personal challenge this month.Your kids are old enough to understand that things will be tight for 4 weeks and after that things will be back to normal.

Good luck and I bet you'll surprise yourself how creative you can be with what you have.

purpleivy

maypole wrote: »

Try to get as much shopping in, in one trip, of course you will have to shop again for perishables, but I find not having to go to the shops so often means you are not tempted to buy things you didn't go for in the first place. Don't buy unnecessary cleaning products. I use star drops and bleach through choice, I have given up on the Flash bathroom/kitchen stuff etc, it's just not essential for cleaning. Hope you get on ok.

Me too with the stardrop, if you don't go down the aisle for cakes, cleaning stuff then you don't get tempted. Microfibre cloths have helped reduce the amount of fancy cleaning stuff too.

I've started to make some things myself. Worked out the savings and that's an incentive...

dried beans instead of canned, I do a whole bag at once, then make bags of the remainder and freeze

Home made pastry is cheap to do.

Home made tortilla wraps can be made in a few minutes and are easy to do.

I've started to make my own tomato sauce for making pizzas and putting on pasta, this is much cheaper than bought, nicer than bought and can be done in batches and frozen