To think it’s actually hard to live off this for the rest of the month?!

I think what people are saying is that purely based on going to the supermarket and getting the basics to cook meals at home for the week they wouldn’t have an issue managing on that.

But I think if that’s your total food budget it’s really tough because it doesn’t leave room for any take away coffees, lunch while out and about etc. In this day and age very few people cook and eat at home for three meals per day every day of the week all month. It just doesn’t work for most people’s lifestyles.

To save money, I’d think about switching to frozen fruit and veg instead of fresh - it’s just as healthy but cheaper and lasts longer so you don’t need to rebuy as often or throw anything out.

You can also try the app “too good to go”. My friend who was struggling short-term used it pretty much daily for one of her meals each day. There’s companies like Morisons, Yo Sushi, Pret etc. who list food items that are leftover and need using towards the end of the day and you can go and pick it up for free. It might just help tide you over when you need it.

I’d also think buying one thing in bulk each month - it will feel like a big outgoing but it’s usually cheaper to buy things that way and then that’s one less thing to worry about for a few months. So a big box of washing detergent, the 16 roll packets of loo roll, the 2kg bags of rice etc.

Good luck OP 💐

And why not buy a sack of potatoes, they last a long time, and you can do a lot with them.

If it’s just food and basic household products it can be done.

would buying washing liquid be cheaper than capsules, added benefit of better for the environment.

Also if it’s just 2 of you can you not just do a bowl of washing up each night and save on dish washer tablets and running costs. We are a family of 5 and don’t have a dish washer or dryer for that exact reason.

It depends what your like with food, for us food gets wasted if we buy ahead for a full week. My DH is completely fresh food blind, cooking or using anything fresh no matter how many times I kick off just dosnt happen and when he packs the shopping away he will just chuck any fresh groceries on top of old fresh groceries resulting in me finding rotted food piling up in the fridge and constantly throwing food out. Today alone I fed the dog a whole packet of ham, 3/4 a packet of grated cheese, a full packet of corn beef and a massive sirloin steak for dinner. I didn’t even know the steak and beef were in the fridge as DH bought them without telling me. I also threw out several bags of lettuce. We are very different but DH dose the bulk of the cooking so it’s an ongoing issue. I’ve found buying as we go for fresh food reduces waste but increases cost as I buy smaller packs rather than in bulk. He’s away this week so I did a full weeks shop with fresh food I know won’t be wasted as I will have to do all the meals.

Anyway, shop at Aldi, Tesco’s is good for Aldi price match. Buy what you know you will eat that week. If you are a person who dosnt know what they feel like then try keeping certain things in so you only need to pick up fresh ingredients to add to them, such as if you have a favourite jar sauce or meal that you have the relevant herbs and seasoning in. Today I bought chicken thighs, no idea what I will make but I have DDs favourite chicken tonight in the cupboard, some curry pots, a pad Thai mix, plenty of tinned tomatoes herbs, pasta and rice in so I will come up with something on the day.

Shampoo and household goods I tend to do a quarterly bulk buy at home bargains and stock up on household basics & toiletries. Also at 2yo I never used shampoo on my DDs hairs, only ever plain water for baths and hair washing. They have 3 different types of hair and none of them needed shampoo at that age.

Buy the essentials and seek out the cheaper options. For example apples and bananas instead of berries. Beans and rice for some meals.

This is a huge amount!

Porridge/ cereal with milk for about £5 - breakfasts covered for the week. Or alternatively eggs.

I’ll let the others answer the rest. I tend to only buy organic/ premium ranges and for me that would be loads for food.

If you’re struggling but still want a treat I’d look at Too Good to Go and yellow labelled items too.

Feed your family is a good group https://fyf20quid.co.uk/ I use their recipes, and you could go to a food pantry if you are close to one. They also give budgeting advice.

Dishwasher tablets are really cheap in Aldi or Lidl. I assume other supermarkets have own brand versions too. I'm in Ireland and I rarely go to Tesco but I used to get own brand options there when I did go.

When DS was small he loved French toast and pancakes, good ways of getting eggs into kids, cheap and easy to make and quick to cook.

@mitogoshi, it's great that people are giving the OP ideas and reassuring her that it is doable. But I worry that the tone of some of these responses might not be making her feel great. She's being open that it is something she struggles with and everyone is saying 'oh its sooooo easy'. And maybe it is easy if you're used to meal planning, batch cooking etc. But OP has mentioned shopping for 3-4 days so she probably (like many people) hasn't always had to be so careful and has had more flexibility in what she eats - picking up food on the way home, thinking 'what do I fancy for dinner' etc. Changing the way you cook and eat is likely to be challenging for most people.

Sounds sensible

Also make the most of kids free meals offers at the mo! I got both mine a free meal at Tesco today, pasta with garlic bread and veggie side, plus I had coffee and a full meal, for under £10! Technically means only a sandwich or something for tea but mine are gannets are just ate two hot meals.

It's approximately £100 a week for an adult and a 2 year old, that's loads, if it's literally just for food and the odd household essential!
I'm always confused when people say 'Oh I have to buy toothpaste etc.'
How often does one adult living alone need to buy toothpaste or shampoo? They aren't the sort of things you need to get every week - I used to buy them maybe three-four times a year when I lived alone, and if you're on a budget you just get the 70p aldi stuff rather than the £6 brand surely?

im going yellow label, or supermarket budget range @munnyya

Bloody hell just RTFT, what on Earth are you spending £70 on.

For four days our typical meals for a family of four might be:

Breakfast - £11 for four days. Crumpets (£1 for a pack of 9, even two each per day would mean £2 total) with some fruit and yoghurt (kilo of yoghurt is a couple of quid again max, even if you get berries as fruit you could make £4 worth last for two day between you)

Snacks - £18 for four days. rice cakes and cream cheese, carrot sticks, fruit, hummus, pittas, cheap supermarket crisps, my son likes those cracker dips with cheese etc.

Lunch - £13 approx for four days including beans or eggs or cheese on toast with side salad.

Dinner - £18 - jacket potatoes with Tuna or beans (£3), veggie burgers with sweet potatoes and corn on cob (£5), chilli with microwave rice (£5), spaghetti bolognese (£5)

= around £60

And this isn’t even trying to save money and for a family of four! If we did cereal and cut back on snacks etc would be less.

Have you tried Hello Fresh or Gousto? They may seem expensive but sometimes it works out cheaper per portion if you get their offers, and saves the outlay on different ingredients!

Meal planning is key. Eat veggie where you can (beans and lentils are fab for bulking up meals like bolognese). And don’t be afraid of the odd freezer meal!

@inthislight

It really is simply for one adult and one toddler, even if you bought hello fresh/gousto boxes you could do it. I pay £43 a week for 4 meals, then pesto pasta £2, chicken tray bake £5 (both with leftovers for lunch) 6 loaves bread (2 per week which is lots for 2 people) box or two cereal, milk, cheese, baking potatoes, beans, a cheat meal perhaps (instead of takeaway) like supermarket pizza £5. That's 7 meals, 4 high quality. I have coupons I'll post on the promo links. I also have a free hello fresh box available if anyone wants it

Shop at Aldi or Lidl, have a meal plan (I have a monthly rota), only buy what is on your list, check prices don't just shove things in your trolley without comparing, you do have to be firm and not be tempted but you should have enough for some treats. I do two big shops a month for under £200 all in then a couple of top up shops for milk, fruit, bread say £7 a time - two adults.

You do not need to use dish washer for just yourself and 2 yr old. So no dish washer tablets and less electric cost too

I divide what I have after bills by the number of weeks until payday, then I have a budget for each week, I recalculate each Friday so if I haven’t spent the budget I have a little more wriggle room the next week.
I currently have £688 until payday which is 3 weeks away. So £229 a week - we have a take away each week so that’s about £70 and I usually spend £110 on food shopping (4 of us 2 adults -2 kids but ones 18 so should I say 3 adults 1 kid) so next week there will be wriggle room and we can have a day at the zoo.
(for anyone worrying about our take away habit on what seems a low amount, I have standing orders for our savings and the children’s savings as part of what I consider essential bills)

The way I do food is as follows:

1. Breakfasts - are you eating these at home? What do you like? Cheaper things are a big bag of porridge oats which could be had with jam or some frozen berries and can also be made into overnight oats (rather than instant oats), plus milk. Yoghurt also very viable as a breakfast base for this - a 500g pot of greek style yoghurt is 1.10 and would do 3 days for you and a 2 year old, so maybe £2.50 for 7 days plus some fruit etc would be maybe a fiver and that's quite a nice breakfast.

1. Then thinking about lunches - again are you in or out for lunch, what do you like? If you want things like chicken then I'd recommend buying chicken breast and cooking at the weekend.

1. Dinners - this is often the main expense. So I plan this by thinking of foods and then using the leftovers ingredients in the next day's food. So for example I might do a butternut squash risotto with bacon, which you could make for 3 to do you and your little one for 2 nights. Then use the rest of the butternut squash to make a feta, butternut squash and other veggies salad. Then the leftover feta would go into a dish with roast chicken thighs and potatoes and roasted red onions. All those things would do 2 nights each so cooking 3 nights a week. Then the 7th night personally, I'm usually out or at a friend's or whatever but you could either make something else or commit to an easy tea like cheese on toast or jacket potatoes.

1. Drinks - you can cut to tea/coffee, water, milk and maybe some squash. Cut anything else out if you're struggling to manage on the money you have.

1. Other stuff - don't buy branded washing liquids etc, own brand is fine, and you don't need enormous amounts or anything - I get through about £15 of washing liquids a year and I hear of people spending this per week! I don't know what else you buy but you really don't need scent boosters etc. Some for most cleaning things: washing up liquid and bleach will cover almost all needs, could add a surface spray in if you want.

Does that help? You might want to look through your receipts and work out what you have spent on what?

Another thing is that while technically ordering online might be more expensive (because you don't get yellow sticker bargains etc) if you aren't good at meal planning on the fly I think they're often cheaper. This is because you can plan exactly what you're buying and make sure you know how you're going to use it all.

Can you post what you bought for £70 for three days? Then posters can suggest swaps and recipes. What cooking equipment do you have?

Personally, I think that's plenty. I'd be happy with that amount left to live on. Not as a long term thing as I understand you can't do much fun things with that but yes you can live

Are you able to share what a sample shop (items and prices) looks like?
I agree with others, if you are just buying food and household items then it's very doable.

Where do you shop OP? There were lots of supermarkets doing a meal plan for 4 last summer on the value of the free school meals vouchers so I'm sure we can dig some up for you.

I watch a TV program ages ago and I can't remember what product it was, maybe crisps? And the factory made the crisps and they got separated at the end of the conveyer, one to be packaged in branded packaging and one to be packaged in own brand! I'm sure there are some differences in most items but I think a lot of the extra money you spend is for nice packaging and advertising rather than the product!

August makes it worse. People always say Christmas is expensive but I find August pricey, either paying for childcare or being off work and wanting to make the most of it. In December I'm happy to sit in the house and watch a film but in August I want to be going on adventures!
She's 4 so prime age for a weekly trip to the library. Does she have a bike so you can get out and about together?
Definately do a mix of meal planning from what you have in the cupboards already and whatever you can pick up that is in season / cheap. Managing on that budget is totally doable, the art is in making it fun. Also hitting that line between optimal nutrition and what your 4 year old will eat.