I want to stop drowning

I budget £425 a month for food for 4 of us and usually come in at about that or sometimes a bit under. I've had a really cheap month this month as we have an allotment - grossly underused as we've only just took it on, but its been really good for things like potatoes, salad stuff. Not the right time to start now, but might be worth a thought for next year.

I have a husband and 2 lads age 10 and 11 who are big eaters and adult size physically and eat as much if not more than I do. My budget has to cover all our toiletries and cleaning stuff too. Its included packed lunches for my husband for work and also a packed lunch for one son.

We are big eaters and snackers too, and the kids are happy with what they get on this budget.

I shop mainly at aldi and home bargains, but some meat comes from the local butcher. They do a savings card, so I save £46 on that, they add £4 to it, and when I get the £50 I stock the freezer up. I try and co-incide this with deals they have like spend £20 and get a free whole chicken.

We are also members at costco, so any bulk purchases like toilet rolls are done there. There own brand toilet roll works out about 25p a roll.

Meals are a variety of dishes - curry, soup, stir fry, omlette, spag bol, tuna pasta bake, tagine, home made meatballs. My lads always feel fuller if they have a bread based thing to go with it like a garlic bread or naan bread. I am going to start trying to make some wraps and naan breads myself to see if that can help the budget further.

Snacks - fruit, I always keep in plenty of crackers, carrot or cucumber sticks. I bake sometimes for the kids but its not every week. I will pack up the odd pack of biscuits, or they like snacking on things like banana chips.

I find it hard to stick to the budget as the temptation is always there to get something nice, or a bottle of wine for the weekend, but I try and count my shopping up in my head as I am going round the shop and have an idea in mind of I want to spend X amount.

If its a tight month, something I will do is try and delay going shopping for a couple of days and using up stuff out the cupboard. It could mean you only do 2 big shops in 3 weeks rather than one a week. That only works if you don't go silly doing a top up shop in between. I sometimes send hubbie for the top up shop as he really does only get what is on the list.

Hope some of that is useful to you. Its not nice thinking that money has to come off the food budget. Food is a necessity, so its about getting the best for your money. Good luck whatever challenge you set yourself.