To feed my family on £1 per person per day

[Dramatic]

I've heard about celebs doing this and finding it almost impossible but really it's not that hard, I spend £25 a week (or less) on me and 3 kids. Am I a cheapskate or do other people spend this much? I shop at Aldi if that makes a difference. Maybe I'm depriving my kids by spending £1 a day on them. How much do you spend per person per day? Surely it's not that unreasonable to think £1 a day is plenty to feed yourself, why are people making such a fuss about it?

[RhondaJean]

May I ask for a sample weeks shopping list?

[YoureBeingASillyBilly]

Well i spend £25-£30 on me and two dcs and cat and dog each week so that's roughly the same. We eat well and are never hungry. Not sure if teen dcs would survive on that though. We dont eat large portions either.

[itiswhatitiswhatitis]

What do you eat?

[MrsKoala]

i am also interested in the shopping list and what meals you cook and whether you get 7 portions of fruit/veg out of that. What calorie consumption do you all need/have?

[BIWI]

Welcome to Mumsnet, Dramatic. I'm sure we're all dying to know how you manage this.

[BelindaAllWorkedOut]

Quality sources of protein are expensive, so our food bills will always be high.

[RabbitSaysWoof]

I wonder this too, but I shop in Aldi too. I spend around the same as you for 2 of us (me and ds) but I think if I were poorer I could get this down further by buying different things, eg we have 2 main meals, could have a sandwich for lunch, could have more jacket potatoes and eggs than we do, rather than 2 meat/ fish meals every day.

[SoonToBeSix]

Yanbu if your meals are healthy, please could you post your list/ menu.

[antimatter]

Is that for all 3 meals for 7 days a week?
Are your kids on free school meals perhaps?

[CalamitouslyWrong]

I had to feed the 4 of us for £25 a week for about three weeks last year. It was not great (and we had cupboards stocked with herbs and spices). We ate a lot of lentil-based food. I haven't cooked with lentils since.

If it were a choice of death or lentil bolognaise, I'd choose death. (Luckily other lentil dishes are available).

[redandchecker]

I spend that in fresh fruit and veg yes, also dying to know how you manage this, I'm obviously going terribly wrong

[BarbaraPalmer]

oh yes, we do this too.
And it's all organic, free-range, locally purchased and we eat seventeen portions of fruit and veg a day.

[AlpacaYourThings]

That's very wasteful of you, usual

I buy one turkey for Christmas and my family are still eating the left overs on Christmas Eve the following year.

[gamerchick]

It's easy to say but can you prove it OP? Shopping list and menus for eg?

[GiniCooper]

I spend approx €25 per day.
It's a bank holiday weekend so Sunday's breakfast will be that alone.
AIBU...

[Thomyorke]

It does depend on choice or need, I spend more than that on fruit and veg. What is in their lunch boxes? If you have to spread the money and have no choice that must become a grind and people bragging how easy it is can not help.

[Sparrowlegs248]

I have no idea how you manage that OP. There is me, DH and the cat. I shop at Aldi but top up in sainsbury for things I can't get in Aldi. I spend about 50 per week on average, including some wine but not cat food.

I read a recent article where someone gad done this. Their menu was truly awful.

She bought oats, rice, lemon curd, eggs, frozen veg, oxo (i think) not much else.

[WhistleTopTomato]

My view is that if you are lucky enough to have enough money to be able to afford decent quality food then decent quality food is what you should spend it on. I've shopped at Aldi when I lived near one and I don't think I even managed to feed myself alone for £25 a week so I have no idea how you're managing to feed 4. Or why you'd want to if you didn't absolutely have to.

But if your point is just that poor people are whining cunts then I think you should get fucked.

[stilllivingbythesea14]

Well, you COULD.

I don't think it would be very healthy food, though. But if you think about the snacks available in bargain supermarkets like crisps and biscuits are really, really cheap.

Big box of value cornflakes, pasta, tuna (basic range?) lots and lots of beans on toast, spaghetti hoops on toast, scrambled egg on toast ... a LOT of toast!

[Dramatic]

My eldest is on free school meals and my other two are not at school yet. I buy meat (chicken and mince) and our meals are based around pasta, rice and potatoes. They eat plenty of fruit and veg (not seven portions though, more like 4). I think they have a relatively good diet.

[EyelinerQueen]

Sounds utterly miserable to me.

I have huge sympathy for those who have no choice but if you can afford to spend more on food then I just don't understand why you wouldn't. Life is too short to eat badly.

[LegoCaltrops]

Any chance of a shopping list & meal plan for the week?

[hotcrosshunny]

Do you buy one chicken and a pack of mince to last all week?

Are they getting enough calcium?

[Valpollicella]

You wasteful bastards.

I'm still using the scraps of gammon juice from Xmas to make 4 people s dinner. and it was only 2slices of meat