Food bill

Jon_J

Hello everyone,

I have read plenty of threads where people's weekly food budget is say £30. How on earth do you manage to feed a family healthy, home cooked food for that and buy your cleaners, etc???

If you can tell me how, plus give me your typical week's menu I would be appreciative?

I spend £70-80 per week on food and household goods, like washing up liquid, toilet roll, etc.

Thanks.

MissKJ

John do a search on user name "black saturn",she has a thred on the oldstyle money savers boards entitled somehting like "feed a family of 4 for £30" or something like. I will see if I can find the thread and come back to you. Althiugh it is a while since she put her prices on there, inflation may have out it up to £35 I suppose. There are recipes too.

bank_of_slate

Hi Steve!

for household cleaners just buy one product that is multi purpose

Plan meals for the week, make a shopping list and stick to it

Get a slow cooker to make large meals like soup, curry, chilli, stew etc....easy, cheap and you can freeze portions for later or to take to work as lunches.

Add things to large meals to bulk them up, my favourites are baked beans in a chilli and add grated carrots to spaghetti bolognese
...Linda xx

shelovestobuystuff

The grocery challenge thread is a great one too with lots menu advice and weekly plans etc as well as links to others on the forums.

ltm07

Hi,our food bill used to be around the same as yours & sometimes more,but we have chaged our regular shop to Aldi & Farmfoods & our food bill is never more than £50 a week for 2 adults & 13 year old DD. It is hard keeping the costs down,but shopping at Aldi has saved us around £30 a week on average & we use this to help clear our debts or treat ourselves to a takeaway now & again. We try to cook from scratch most days,but we too need to check out the OS board to see if we can cut down anymore.

MissKJ

I am afraid I can't figure out how top link another thread. can anyone tell me? Anyway,here is the start of Black saturns post feeding the family on £30

black-saturn wrote: »

I've had a few people asking me for another meal planner so I thought I would do a weeks main evening meals and puddings this time.

I'll do the days, a shopping list and the recipes when needed like last time. Feel free to comment or ask questions in the meantime.

Monday
Potato Bake and HM Vanilla Ice Cream

Tuesday

Mince and Dumplings and HM Vanilla Ice Cream

Wednesday
HM Fish Fingers, chips and peas and jelly.

Thursday
Chicken curry and rice and jelly

Friday
HM Pizza (but with a bought pizza base ) followed by HM vanilla ice cream

Saturday
Sausage, mash and peas followed by fruit and jelly cake

Sunday
Pork Roast dinner followed by fruit and jelly cake.

firesidemaid

sammykaye also has a thread for feeding a family on £100 a month.

but just live on the old-style board for a week or so.

make your budget slightly less each week. make meals from scratch with cheaper ingredients eg. cheaper cuts of meat and as other posters have said add in loads of cheap veggies, beans and pulses. base meals around pasta, rice and potatoes etc. buy in season too and use your freezer well.

what you really need is 7 breakfasts, 7 lunches (pack-ups etc) and 7 dinners. it's all the extras that add up.

use stardrops for cleaning. halve dishwasher tablets etc.

buy or borrow martin's book 'thrifty ways for modern days' - packed with loads of ideas from these forums.

good luck x