...to doubt posters who say they feed a family of four on £50/week

[twofingerstoGideon]

I'm really broke myself, so I'd love to believe this is true, but that works out at £1.78 per person per day (£50 divided by 7 days divided by 4 people).

Some people go even further and say they 'run their household' on this amount, implying that they manage all bills, buy loo rolls, cleaning products, sometimes even nappies, etc., for fifty quid.

I'm really good at budgetting, freecycling, buying second hand etc., but I can't help feeling a bit about some of these claims. It's just a kind of one-downmanship, isn't it?

(Awaits flaming...)

I use English Providence Lazy garlic and Lazy chilli. its about 1.29 a jar - its says use in 8 weeks but tbh I have one that lasted 12 and still lasted absolutely fine. You keep it in the fridge and only need a little.

Its probably a bit of an extragance but I hate chopping garlic and wasted more than it saves buying fresh.

The frozen is fantastic because its in cubes, so you just pop one out and put it straight into the pasta sauce or whatever you are making. No idea what it costs though.

Mmm garlic!

I've got a huge tub of garlic salt cost about 70p. I can't be faffed crushing fresh stuff!

You're right I would probably have to buy a few more rolls but I don't think it would impact my budget much. As you can see I had plenty of breathing space this week. I bought the wine, s posh salad dressing (I class that as unnecessary as I've never bought it before and only me will use it) and a new face wash none of which were on the list or needed.

So that would have been 5.59 of my total, bringing me down to £42.

I'm rambling. Basically theres enough there to cover dh and his bacon rolls!

Whoever said it isn't fun us lying!

Frozen garlic cost about 90p in morrisons. You get a bag the size of a crisp packet and it lasts ages. It's cheaper than fresh. You can buy it in chi chi little pots in more upmarket stores but it's all the same quality.

I buy a lot of frozen veg. No waste and if I am particularly knackered it helps to motivate me to cook 'proper' dinner.

Frozen veg is fantastic!

Someone said they spend £24 a week on veg. A veg box delivered is £13 and I have to often not get one for a week to use it all up. There are 3 adults and a small one and we only do dinners at home with that (no veg used in breakfast or lunch) but includes enough potatoes for 2 meals and fruit every second week (an option). All organic and arrives at my door!

£24 a week on veg isnt that much for a family that are veggie or vegan or like us, just rarely eat meat. We spend alot on veg but we dont spend much on meat so it evens out. And does veg include beans and pulses etc?

This is back from towards the beginning of the thread, but just wanted to point out that Sainsburys has basics toothbrushes, a pack of 2 for 18p. Not budget busting at all. It's what we use. (since people were concerned that a toothbrush would fling someone completely off their budget!)

Bogey, that was me, and I was including lentils and butter beans and cannellini beans in that. And some of the costs on fruit is because two of my DC's have fruit allergies...

I FUCKING HATE ALLERGIES.

.

To the person who was at the lack of prescribed HC cream, I have to buy DS1's 1% HC, my 2% HC AND 18mo DS3's double base. I have to wet wrap him each night, so that costs, erm, more than I want to count!

This weeks meat for 5? 350g beef, 500g mince and a large chicken. Everything else is veg based. Hence £24 on veg!

I do think it can be done - I'm just not sure it would be food that anyone would recognise this side of the 20th century. It would be perfectly nutritious and tasty peasant food, such as pease pudding and porridge, but the kids would probably call Childline due to the lack of crisps and chocolate.

I just wish the £12.40 Healthy Start vouchers were per week, not 4-week's worth. Can't use them on dairy products for DS3 AT ALL (dairy replacements aren't covered by the scheme ), so they go on extra veg - green veg very good source of calcium if eaten with a drink of FRESH (not from concentrate) orange juice.

That's another thing, trying to ensure that a DC on a restricted diet due to allergies / coeliac gets all of their essential vitamins and minerals each day. It's harder than you think when catering for a child with multiple allergies, AND foods they won't eat because they are a fussy 18mo toddler...

A really nice ham joint on the bone even if it is £20.00 is probably worth its weight in gold.

1 hot dinner for 4
1 cold dinner for 4
possibly some sandwiches
1 carbonara or for a pie with some chicken (felatio made me think of a dinner my great grandma used to make: left over ham pieces, rolled up in suet (like a jam roly poly), all soft and unctious when cooked and served with a fairly thin parsley sauce, carrots and a green veggie - I remember it when I was about three and it was so yummy - I have made a few times and dh and ds thought they had gone to heaven).

The bone for a minestrone which will do for supper and lunch for a day or two with a few top ups.

Libellule, I make DS1 and " all their meals during uni holidays and still stay within budget because they have what the rest of us have then. During term time they get their own but costs are minimal because they don't like to spend money. DS2 for example gets a drink and a sausage roll most days, perhaps a bar of chocolate (he has AS and is funny about food), He's only their 4 days a week, so that's about an extra £8. DS1 sometimes takes something like pasta salad from home, so he gets lunch maybe three days a week so another £6. DH gets some sort of £2.50 meal deal near his work, so £12.50.

That's a total of £26.50 a week. Given that all meals in here this week will cost around £50, even adding a generous £30 still keeps us well within budget, bearing in mind that there are 7 of us, 6 of whom are adults or adult sized and that this is the holidays so DS1 and " are home all the time at the moment, so it's only Dh's lunch that is separate.

I am veggie but the others are not. Morrisons sell pork shanks for about £2!
I put them in the slow cooker and the kids love them.

My butcher sells bacon shanks for 99p. cook it in slow cooker and get a huge bowl full of meat off it that is used in sandwiches, cheesy pasta, chicken and bacon pancakes, pizza toppings, me snacking

They are good aren't they? I can never believe how cheap they are.

i know, I have 1 a week.

That's a great tip - will get down to the butchers and ask about them. I don't have a slow cooker though, can I just chuck it in a casserole dish while I cook something else in the oven?

TeWi - they need cooked for a long time. You could do it in the oven or you can cook them on the hob covered by water with an onion studded with a couple of cloves and maybe a celery stick. That gives you fabulous stock for soup.

Okay, thanks

I am sure those who say they do it can and hats off to you, we cant though, there is me, DH/DD1 13 yrs old/DD2 9 yrs old/DS1 is 15mths old, 4 cats 1 of which is a kitten, 1 dog with arthritis,3 mice, 1 rat, 2 horses although they have their own budget for hard feed but their veg is on our shopping. We are around £100-£150 per week, DH and I are at the gym 7 days per week and eat a high protein/low carb diet, DD1 takes £ to school for lunch/snacks at £15 per week, DD & DH take pack lunch with them, DS and I eat lunch at home. We all eat a lot of fruit and veg, at the moment blueberries/peaches/cherries are the favs, rat,mice,horses share veg which can come to £5 per week just for them. I am very lucky that I do not have to cut down but I would hope if I had to I could.

I have 3 pork shanks that I got for 89p each in morrisons mark down sections, I ccoked two in the slow cooker and I'm going to pick the meat off them and freeze it.

The ham is just the best off them.

DH wont touch them so more for me.

My economical ds(6) just asked me for a tub and came back with it filled with brambles from the field. Free dessert!