If you couldn’t do any food shopping from now...

[IsTheRainEverComingBack]

How long could you last feeding your family on what’s already in your house? I’ve always been a bit of a food hoarder and eat a lot of staples (beans, lentils, rice, pasta) that are easy to store, but I’ve just looked round now and reckon I could probably feed us (just me and DP) adequately for a month definitely, maybe longer at a push, on just what I’ve currently got. How would you fair?

Might take myself up on my own challenge and see how long I can go without a food shop. If I can at least buy milk for my coffee as that’s the only thing I’m low on!

Maybe ease off on assumptions before you begin to get snarky in future.

Oh FFS I wasn't being 'snarky' I was actually impressed that you can live on so little. I was simply questioning whether it really is possible for a family of four plus dogs to live on 25/30 a week including toiletries etc. You manage it so that's great but I would imagine you have to spend a fair amount of time cooking.

If by "feeding" you mean survival eating, ie eating enough to keep us alive then maybe two months (lots of tins of beans, soup, spaghetti, tomatoes, sweet corn etc and lots of dried pasta, rice, couscous).

If we wanted to have actual decent meals then maybe 3 weeks max until the fresher/frozen ingredients ran out.

Moot point though as I'd be out of milk for tea by then.

If I didn't have a 6 ft teenager, over a month. Having one right now I wouldn't like to speculate.

It depends if he’s old enough to drink. Teenager + alcohol + munchies I’d say about three days. 😁

We ran out of milk for tea locally after the snow this year - I got very twitchy.

Us too, @VeryBerryAugust - then I discovered the local farm sell their own milk via a vending machine in their outbuildings and have never looked back (and never bought shop milk again either!)

How are the kids eating bananas for breakfast unless your local farm is in the caribbean?

Definitely not snarky

getoff

The question was whether it was truly the case that you weren't supplementing that list at all. Which you have explained you are not because your local farm who drop in their farm box fill it with stuff not from a farm but from a supermarket.

Kudos to you for feeding a family of four plus dogs plus toiletries and household products including toilet roll etc on £25/30 a week. No snarkiness there wherever the food happens to be from.

Does it include my garden, or just my house? (Berries and tomatoes are about done, but would have some carrots, beets, salad leaves, and potatoes to go at). If includes garden...assuming survival level...couple of months? Maybe 3, but would be rather thinner.

Some stuff is from their farm, others is supplied in bulk to them by markets, I'm not sure why you're so bothered, ha!

My original point was that some people have loads in judging by this thread, and then someone said they didn't think it was much. The idea that someone thinks it's frugal to have a fridge full of camembert, wine and smoked salmon in is waaay beyond me which is why I put what we generally had in, but hey ho mumsnet!

Ag least a month but food would gradually get less interesting...

I'm not bothered. It could be hand delivered by fairies for all I care. It was a throwaway comment in conjunction with a question about whether you really live on that or whether you supplement the list.

You don't. So fine. Well done!

With interesting combinations and meal planning maybe 3 weeks but they'd be boring teas!

@Getoffthetableplease - it depends what you are going to do with the items
What I am going to do is -
Ready roll puff pastry £1.30
Mushrooms £1
Garlic - costs pennies
Fromage fraise (half tub) 50p
Camembert £1.50

...that's a mushroom pastry topped with garlic mushrooms and Camembert. Feeds 3 people for £4.30.... that's not exactly extravagant

The smoke salmon (£5) will make 2 appearances - cheddar salmon and broccoli quiche (I will make shortcrust pastry myself since it's only puff pastry I refuse to make) with new potatoes or maybe jackets and a few days later perhaps a salmon pasta sauce (using the rest of the fromage fraise). Probably both meals will be around the £4 or £5 mark.... £1.34 to £1.66 per serving

So no, other the wine surely not very extravagant???

We don't really eat meat so these are our protein foods.

Good for you, we're just very different people

bpisok comparatively though I guess you are spending a lot. Getoff spends £3.43 a day to feed four people plus their dogs and also provide all of her household items eg washing powder, loo roll etc. I am genuinely in awe. I supplement from the kitchen garden and also have chickens but still couldn't do that (although my DC are teen/tween boys and have hollow legs)

@cloudtree - yes I am in total awe too!!!

I must admit my food shopping isn't really driven by being frugal though- I am just fairly inventive and make things up based on what's knocking around in the fridge/cupboards (mainly because I can't be bothered to order any food in!) Some of the things I have produced have been absolutely foul though - my tuna balls were literally the worst thing I have ever tasted anywhere in the world hahaha

We clearly need some meal suggestions from @Getoffthetableplease though. Not sure about pea soup but I could always do with saving a few quid!!!

Well I guess it works out we spend about £2.60 per day on our food (although actually sometimes more as I did say we eat out on weekends sometimes - say maybe two occasions in a month?). We eat fruit, porridge or eggs for breakfast, leftovers or veg soup for lunch, and dinners vary a lot. Will always have a jacket spud with either cheese and salad or beans one day as it's our most hectic and this is so low effort. Keep in mind a 500g bag of pasta from lidl is 30p and can feed 4 people 2 x main meals with just a bit of roasted veg/dried herbs made in to a sauce, often with enough leftovers to mean there's some for at least the kids lunch too and you have already got a couple of super cheap days. There are plenty of feed your family for 20 quid a week websites and pages if you are genuinely interested. I don't do anything complicated to make things stretch, I'm just not used to having a great deal I guess. Always having fresh fruit and veg in makes me feel fancy compared to my parents who fed the 3 of us on mainly no breakfast, a cheap white bread beef paste sarnie lunch and a shared tin of campbells meatballs with ketchup for tea

Yep - going to look at those sites. I didn't even know it could be done!!!