...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...)

You can get The Very Hungry Caterpillar toothbrushes at Poundland. Can't remember how much they are, but defo less than £1.78 :)

You doubt posters when they say this, you'd love to believe it's true... Your words.

We spend about £80 a week for 5, including loo roll/kitchen towel and most cleaning stuff but not washing powder. That also includes veg for the guinea pig. I could spend less if I had to but that would involve more precise meal planning. I can also include a bottle of wine for that. However, we get some of our milk delivered and that's about £10, so if I cancelled that and bought milk in Lidl, I would save £6.

Actually I did pick up a kit from superdrug with 8 toothbrushes and a cup thing for a quid. that'll keep dh and I in toothbrushes for a year and no danger of blowing our budget!

Oh I meant to say in my first post, I shop between Tesco and Lidl (Lidl for nappies) and Poundland for kids treats, toiletries etc.

twofingers - thing is, if I had to provide 10 more lunches myself I would just buy some potatoes/baked beans/bread and cut out the wine, bagged salad or fromage frais. 10 sandwiches or jacket potatoes or bowls of soup isn't going to add more than a fiver to the shop.

I think it can be done, - I do it, I have to - but to be clear I have a household of 3 adults, not four and obviously don't have any of the expenses of small children, or have to fork out for school stuff.

I save by - cooking everything from scratch - no prepackaged food, and making big meals that last 2 days (i.e. shepherds pie or lasagne etc. I always make a double sized one, then it can be microwaved the next day so don't have to have oven on)

If we want cakes or biscuits I bake and freeze.

I grow some of my own veg. and veg swap with neighbours and friends

I buy basics lines of foods and shop in cheaper stores or on the market for fruit.

I buy my toiletries in Savers or pound shops.

My DH does a lot of shopping around for deals on energy prices, banks prices, insurance etc - lots of good tips on the Martin Lewis website.

I buy clothes in charity shops. I get my books from the library.

But I appreciate it is hard work and not possible for everyone, - obviously I'm not in the depths of poverty - I have a microwave, a garden, a freezer etc - which help me do my money saving things. I also have access to places that it would be hard to get to if you live somewhere with v.bad transport etc.

I also find that when you can't afford things it gets a bit self perpetuating - we can't afford to buy in bulk each month which would be cheaper - because we don't have the cash flow, we have to buy cheap versions of appliances - Sainsbury's basics toaster, microwave, kettle and so on, and they tend not to last as long.

errr twofingers with regard to this 'No-one has accused you of lying MrsKeith'

maybe read your op?

I don't doubt that people can do it, but I'm doubtful that we could do it.

When we still lived in the UK, we never had a car, rarely lived in a flat big enough to store bulk items (or had a proper freezer even!), did not live near an Aldi or Lidl. My DH worked long hours and I was a freelancer so except when I was on ML I did not have a lot of time to invest in getting the best deals.

Also, and I'm really sorry to say this, but having seen some of the meal plans often posted on here, as a non-British person they would be tough to adhere to for very long (very starchy and pulse-y). My DH usually works on his feet and I have ongoing health problems so we do try to eat well and make do by skimping on nearly everything else (can't remember the last time I bought clothes for ex)

Basically just because it's possible doesn't mean everyone can do it!

pmsl machadaynu at you can get the hungry caterpillar toothbrushes at poundland but you cant remember how much they cost, umm i think the CLUE is in the name of the shop!

anyway i think it can be done but it does depend on where you live, for instance there are no aldi/lidls near us, that dont involve a drive that includes the ring road/very busy roads, so the amount we spend in deisel and time its not worth it imo.

we shop at tesco/sainsbury/co-op depending on what we need, if we have vouchers etc.

i jsut did a shop this week and did all meals etc i spent about £80 that is for me and 5 children, 4 of whom are boys who eat loads, one is a teen and the other is 10yrs old and both eat adult portions. my dp is away this week but it would have fed him as well. i got formula and some expensive t-gel shampoo (only one i can use due to allergies)

i WILL need to buy more milk and bread tho as we get through loads, possibly more cereal and cheese, i havent checked the cupboard! so could end up spending another £10 i guess?

oh and i did get some snacks/treats as it was ds1's bday yesterday.

it wasnt actually trying to budget and we have got bits like pitta bread and falafals and stuff for a bbq, but i DID plan the weeks meals, it is always much cheaper if we do that rather than shop in dribs and drabs without meal planning!

given we are a family of £7 and generally spend £80 a week i can see how a fmaily of 4 can do it on £50 but there will be odd weeks where you go over i would imagine.

and when i remember i get toothbrushes, toothpaste,shampoo etc in poundland but it requires a trip to town, i tend to walk one way and then get bus back which is £2:40 for me and then i may have some of the older childrne with me who i need to pay for so can quite easily spend £5 on bus fares.

oh and fruit is a killer in this house, my children eat masses of it! all very good for them, but i do end up buying more sometimes in the week.

Baking your own bread is a bastard for the electricity bill, though

How ? I use my mixer for 5 minutes to knead the dough and then put the fan oven on for 20 minutes to cook it.

i have a bit of a strange way of shopping, i tend to get loo rolls and cleaning products inc all laundry detergent and washing up liquid in huge bulk from wither amazon or direct from the company i do the same with tea and coffee. but i make sure i order over the ammount that you get free p&p with, the only thing cleaning product i dont do this with is bleach as i get value bleach.

i never get anything other than cheap shampoo because all the premium brands that i have tried have caused me or one of the kids scalp problems.

all of my soaps shower gels bubble bath deodrant basicly any other person washing item i get from avon when they have offers on.

i get most of my milk from a milk man as i prefer to do that but if i couldnt afford it then i wouldnt if we need more than he delivers then its tesco what evers on offer.

food wise we only use meat twice a week often i may get a much bigger bit of meat and try to do 2 or 3 meals at the same time and stashing stuff in the freezer we use rice a lot,im not bothered about using value products unless its yuckky and i cook from scratch as much as possible i dont buy crisps or anything like that and we go through huge amounts of fruit.

if you looked at my weekly amount it wouldnt really reflect a true impression but if you looked at it spread over the whole year you would probally be quite impressed at how low it is (obviously taking into acc the size of my family) take this week ive spent less than £60 on household food/goods but last week it was nearer £650 but then again i wont need to get any loo roll for 4 months or any cleaning stuff for about 6 months.

I'd love to be able to spend 50 my shopping is far too much. Can someone put on here what they buy as I'm really skint

i think lunches can be expensive actually, we can get through a loaf of bread in a day. with fillings and i will NOT buy cheap water filled crappy ham etc it can add up. for lunches this week we have cold meats and salad etc to have in rolls or pitta bread. i deliberatly found ones that were on offer on the tesco site, but two packets of nice cold meat was £3 you get 6 slices in each packet, so thats £1:50 for ones days lunch meat and then there is bread and salad on top. you could quite easily spend more than £5 on 10 lunches.

We spend only a bit more than this and have lots of treats.

eg cider 3 quid
nappies 112 for a tenner from asda
3 700g of minced beef tenner from asda

chocs all sorts if different boxes a pound from poundland.

quorn

You could easily live on 1.78 per person per day if you have under 5s.eggs on toast brekkie, pasta and sauce for work and lasange for tea with salad with fruit after for example.

It is possible with meal planning and Aldi. I am currently doing meal planning with healthy food and try to do my shopping mainly at Aldi.

Yesterday we spent £35 on food for two adults and one DS - five cooked dinners and contents for DH and DS' packed lunches for 3. It doesn't include any value products, but asda own cereals, yoghurts etc. We eat meat for dinner twice a week, the rest of the time we are vegetarian.

We stay under our £40 budget most weeks, might stray over it occasionally if we buy a lot of meat or chicken - which gets split into portions and frozen for use other weeks.

YABU to doubt posters. It can be done. Prisoners are fed on less per day and they are mostly strapping blokes. I am now on mat leave and am feeding four with a budget of £50 per week. Cooking from scratch, no alcohol, value or half price goods. That is including toiletries, and I have swapped to washable nappies.

That should say "and contents for 5 packed lunches for 3 people."

forgot to add i use reusable nappies.

nigel my bread takes a couple of hours, what sort do you do? one of my dc's loves doing bread but gets fed up when he gets no results for what he thinks is ages. he would probally like to try one that didnt take so long

Also you can get 4 toothbrushes gor a pound in poundland.Hardly blowing the budget!

I thought I'd read that even the Saino's challenge to feed a family of four for a week on £50 is rather economical with the truth in that it doesn't include the cost of store cupboard items - and it seems to rely heavily on things like sausages (and cheap ones at that!)

My biggest moneysaving tip is to cook with quorn pieces instead of chicken for things like fahitas, stir fry, curry, etc. And the stores own brand of vege mince for chili, spag bol etc.

I was veggie for years, but now eat chicken and bacon. But when we are skint, that goes, and we stick to quorn as it is under £1.99 for a bag which is about 500g, where as chicken would be £3-4 for the same amount.

I've always cooked with veggie mince, won't eat mince, and no one has ever mentioned noticing a difference, or refused an invite for tea because its not 'real meat'

I find that £50 is completely unrealistic to me right now, as I work full time, but soon on mat. leave, and free time to shop around. I will be meal planning too. So I am giving myself £70 a week I think that is do-able and won't mean no treats at all. I spend £100-120 now. Anything can be done if you have to. It just doesn't mean it will always be enjoyable!

Oh, I find home and bargain pretty good for junk food btw. keeps DS happy anyway!

It can be done and lots of people do it.
It's hard work though.
Which is why I am too lazy to do it unless I have to.
Dread having to.