To ask if you could make £400 last 2 weeks?

Let’s do a life swap 🤣. I feed me and two kids on £300 a month!! In all seriousness, unless you’re driving from Lands End to John o’Groats a few times in a Range Rover, you’ve got plenty.

I am guessing, OP is going away for a couple of weeks and is unsure of how much money to give the person caring for the dc to cover essentials, or OP is going to babysit a 5 yr old and is unused to children so is asking.

same here. How insulting to the many posters and people in this country who have to manage everything on this amount per MONTH and there is no spare money for extras for their child
BUT
speaking as I find most people in this situation are resourceful and resilient and spend time and effort sourcing free activities and second hand items and still manage to have a decent quality of life
i I include myself in that, I am disabled managing and enjoying a simple life on lifelong disability benefits
i had 3 children and managed similarly
it’s mindset not money
Goady as fuck @FreshStrawberries97
if your user name reflects your age… snowflake

Of course it's enough. We're a family of 5, including two active teenagers with appetites to match, and we're financially comfortable, so not watching every penny while grocery shopping. I do a weekly grocery shop which generally comes in between £80 to £120, depending on whether I'm buying the more expensive, longer lasting things like dishwasher tablets or olive oil, or just stuff for that week. I then buy extra milk during the week as it disappears in about 5 minutes in this house. I have a small car, so petrol is only about £50 each week - and a tank sometimes lasts longer than a week.
So on an average grocery shop, and normal petrol expenditure, that would leave us £100 for extras. You essentially have three adult-sized eaters fewer to worry about. Why wouldn't it be fine?

If you need to trim down food spending id try and use on joint of meat for 2-3 meals.
Roast chicken dinner - use leftovers to make a pie
Gammon and eggs - use leftovers for campfire stew
Chilli and Rice - chilli and jacket potato or loaded fries
Beef stew - beef pie

Really cheap meals - Jacket potato and beans or cheese
Omlette
Pasta and pesto ( nice with bacon lardons)

Yes it is enough. You can ɓuy groceries, and will have money left over. I took my kids out every day, weather permitting, to one of the local parks or green areas and didn’t spend much money. We were We went to the library kids programs, to a local splash pool type thing in a park, we would sometimes have a picnic on a blanket there. Kids that age are easily entertained.

Yes £400 is more than enough for 1 adult, 1 child for food petrol and activities for a fortnight. What kind of budget do you usually have to think this is might be impossible?! Gosh, we’d be having an expensive day out each week… so the zoo/ aquarium etc and I’d still have some change !!
If I had £200 for my family of 6 for a week, I’d have about £50 left over , which with my family size would probably mean a free day out but being able to go to Greggs for lunch and get an ice cream!

Not for my family as our shopping is over £200 a week but there are lots of us.

But for myself and 1DC? Absolutely, how could £400 not be enough for just food, petrol and outings?

Cancel your reservations at the Savoy and get a McDonald's or two. You might even have change.

£400 more than covers our food for two adults for a month. Unless you are eating out every day you should not have any problems. Do you meal plan? Are you using budget supermarkets like Lidl or Aldi? Do you do takeaways or eat out a lot? £200 a week is plenty.

For one child and one adult then this is lots of money in my opinion. Especially as the child is getting a free lunch at school.

So food wise: breakfast - cereal and milk, or bread to toast and butter. Buy own brands and that is cheap.
Your lunch. Use the bread to make a sandwich. Get a spread like marmite as a jar lasts ages.
Dinner pasta, jacket potato, bulk cook, as a family of 4 if we do spaghetti Bolognese the meat lasts for 2 meals, so for you that would be 8. Same with chicken curry.

Petrol. Depends on size of car and how much you use it. I can usually get by on £35 for 3 weeks. You just know roughly how much to put back for that.

Outings. Go to the park. Check out the library - ours do Lego club at the weekend. The reading challenge also starts this Saturday so they might have other activities on too.
Do you have a local museum? Ours is lovely. Free to enter (donations welcome) and they have trails and puzzles for children to do.
Bike ride if your child has a bike. Walks round the local area. A friend does geocaching which can make a walk more interesting.

Yea many us could only dream of having that much to spend. You could go to a take away every night, so never have to cook dinner once in the 2 weeks with thay budget.

Sorry but I am getting upset and rather ffing furious at the naivety or button pressing of the op. This, for many people including me, would be an amazing amount of money for 2 weeks. I would be buying treats, stocking up and putting aside presents for dare I say it .. Christmas. You are very lucky to be in this position; grow up and stop feeling hard done by.

Maybe shop at Tesco instead of Fortnums 😁

A spreadsheet and a mealplan is your friend along with a weekly travel ticket if you don't have a car. Forward planning should be a way of life.

What activities does a school age child need that chat that much? They’re in school until the 19th

Easily! I have £200 until the end of the month and no further bills. It’s plenty!

How much difference is this to what you would usually have in this period?
What would you usually do?

Yeah - I'm sure this is real 🙄

For one adult and one child?

For 1 person and a child though? Really? It doesn't go far no, for a family of 4, but for 1 adult and child?!

You’re getting the expected comments about how £400 is loads for two weeks. I mean yes you will be fine but £200 does not go far now at all for a week and it would give me anxiety as well. I’d do a £100 shop at aldi probably a £40 top up shop leaves £260 for petrol any activities and unexpected expenses

2k a month and you sit up all night panicking? You need to seek help with this.

That's three weeks food shopping...for six of us (two of whom are teenage boys so eat A LOT), two dogs and two cats!!

Well it kind of depends. If you usually spend £150 a week on petrol, you're going to find it a bit tight. If you spend £20 a week on petrol, not so much.

Your child is 5. Take her to the park.

More budget recipes here - https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/collections/budget_slow_cooker_recipes/