food budget question - please?

dottyanne

Hi - what would you all suggest is a reasonable food budget - weekly or monthly, family of 2 adults, 3 kids (teenagers) 2 pets, dog and cat. we both work full time and kids at school so need to incorporate packed lunches in there aswell as pet food, large dog and a cat...dont have time to make everything from scratch as we both work full time and kids are usually starving by the time we get in - any help would be appreciated.

Magentasue

We have a slightly larger family and spend between £60 and £100+ depending on financial circumstances. I think the best thing to do is work out your HONEST weekly spending and decide how much you are willing/able to cut back and then do it gradually. Cut out the things you find easiest to do without and go from there rather than trying to make too many drastic changes at once.

How much do you need to cut back?

Pink.

Hi dottyanne,

It's hard to give advice about a realistic budget as all our needs/wants/family circumstances are different but a good place to begin is the monthly Grocery challenge. In that thread you can see what others budgets are and it's a great place to get support with cutting the grocery bill.

I would also recommend reading Martin's article on Supermarket Shopping which has lots of tips on saving money on groceries.

Menu planning is a good idea...where you plan what you are going to eat for the next few days then shop only for those things. If you look in The Complete Menu Plans Collection there are lots of threads with good advice.

If you're all out during the day a slow cooker might be a good idea as you can pop the food into it in the morning and come home to a cooked meal. It's quite moneysaving too as it works particularly well with cheaper cuts of meat.

As you have another thread on this on the DFW board I'll merge this one into June's Grocery Challenge later.

Good luck with working out your budget.

Pink

Uniscots97

Good luck Dottyanne, I was about to mention the Grocery Challenge but Pink beat me to it.

Uniscots97

dottyanne wrote: »

dont have time to make everything from scratch as we both work full time and kids are usually starving by the time we get in - any help would be appreciated.

We got around this problem by batch cooking and freezing portions. Its like having home made ready meals!

jackk_2

I'm a batch cooker too, means when i'm rushed off my feet we still eat cheaply. Goodluck.

Jackie x

carriebradshaw

I cook in batches it saves time,money and sanity,another thing I do to save time is to prepare veg like spuds or carrots while I'm waiting for the kettle to boil for a cuppa in the evenings then put in cold water in the fridge ready to just pull out and use the next day.But the best thing you can do having teens in the house is to delegate,get them to help cook sometimes or at least prepare some veg,wash up etc that will give you a chance to sit and meal/budget plan for the week

katiecoodle

good idea about pre-preparing the veg. i like that one.
For the record I cook for 2 adults & 2 pre-school children who despite their ages, have very hearty appetites. My mum also joins us for tea 3 days a week. I spend about £70 a week although I've noticed it increasing recently. If things were tighter I'd be able to cut it down I guess, but we like our little luxuries like certain types of squash, biscuits etc...

dottyanne

i guess im just going to have to get a bit more organised, a main problem is ive not much of an imagination when it comes to food so we end up eating mundane things, i need to probably try to work out meal plans for the week ahead then write a list toi stick to and thats it...problem is as ive posted on DFWB board, im struggling monywise at the mo so havent been able to fork out for a full weekly shop, find myself buying in each day - probably works out more at the end of the week - need to get round this too i guess.

carriebradshaw

have you looked at the links that Pink Winged suggested? there's some really good tips that would be so useful to you

these threads are worth a look too

Sneaky ways to save the pennies

and this one

Show Jamie How To Cook On A Budget Champagne Contest

Uniscots97

dottyanne wrote: »

i guess im just going to have to get a bit more organised, a main problem is ive not much of an imagination when it comes to food so we end up eating mundane things, i need to probably try to work out meal plans for the week ahead then write a list toi stick to and thats it...problem is as ive posted on DFWB board, im struggling monywise at the mo so havent been able to fork out for a full weekly shop, find myself buying in each day - probably works out more at the end of the week - need to get round this too i guess.

What do you and you family like eating? and what won't you eat? This might help us come up with some more ideas for you.