...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...)

Of course it can be done. When £50 is all you have £50 is all you spend.

My OH and I are incredibly fussy eaters, and we don't eat an awful lot (never have done) and he can do a weeks shopping for us two on £20.

Just depends on eating habits and how good you are at budgeting and shopping.

A big blowout tesco delivery for us is 70 quid and that's with a ten pack of coke and a chicken to roast and lasts for nearly 2 weeks. Could I do 50 a week absolutely.

However, we don't drink or have a child in nappies and we don't eat much meat or buy any 'children's' food ie individual yogurts, cheesestrings etc. We just have a big tub of natural yoghurt that gets toppings ie honey or raisins.

One packet of lamb mince will do 2 meals for four people, another day will be one pack of 8 chipolata sausages, tinned or fresh cheap fish will be Friday and another day will have bacon ie cheese and potato pie or story fry veg with bacon fro flavouring. One weekend meal will be a scratch meal ie veggie curry.

Oh and the dc don't drink fruit juice or help themselves to anything. Fruit will typically only be in season or what is cheap.

We also don't buy many cleaning products and use bulk buying when things are on special like toilet roll etc.

It is easy to do you just need to plan in advance. Also make a base for the week

e.g Mince can be made into a cottage pie, add tomatoes for pasta, add Kidney beans and spice for chilli and then with the left over chilli do a baked potato (four days meals for about £10) you can also make a pastry top and make a scouse pie.

A roast chicken can be used for Sunday lunch and then added to vegetables, with sausage and bacon one delicious stew. (do in the slow cooker) Also use the chicken and sausage, bacon and make a stir fry.

Also learn to bake.

Perhaps they don't actually buy some of what they eat. I spend about 50 euros a week for a family of 5.

But we get a lot of fresh fruit and vegetables for free from my MIL's vegetable garden, I grow herbs and spring onions on my balcony, PILs also give us eggs and chickens, my close friend gives us cheese and other produce from their farm.

Meal plan for griphook

Breakfast
milk (Aldi)
cereals -choice of Shreddies, Corn Flakes, Honey Hoops or Rice Krispies (except all Aldi own brand) We rotate, so sometimes there are Shredded Wheat, Weetabix, Porridge or Fruit Bites from Sainsburys - mini shredded wheat with fruit (and sugar) in)
Other options / additions: toast, yoghurt (all Aldi)
Sunday breakfast - croissants (Sainsburys) perhaps with bacon, but the kid doesn't like it, so not often

Snacks
Breadsticks / dips (Aldi)
Oat cakes (Aldi)
Bananas (Aldi)
Raisins (Aldi)
Aldi Quavers

Lunches
fish fingers (Aldi)
tins (and toast) - beans, spaghetti, ravioli, soup, macaroni (all Aldi)
breadsticks and dips
Pasta salad (should make it, but Aldi - note if you take one out with you, they don't have a fork in)

Evening Meals
4 Ps Pasta (pasta, pnacetta, peas, pesto) with cheese (all Aldi)
Chilli & Rice (Aldi mince is as good as anyones. All ingredients are cheap. made from scratch)
Chicken Korma and rice - lazy tea from a jar. We use Morissons for the curry sauce as it has less salt than the Aldi one. We have one not too far away, and we buy it 4/6 jars at a time when every month or so)
Sausage and mash and peas (aldi sausages are good, potatoes are cheap, peas are always in the freezer) Sometime stick a sweet potato in the mash)
Spaghetti Bolognese - just pasta, tomatoes, herbs and some of the mince
Lasagne - a stratified bolognese with more cheese. Easy to make.
Chicken Kiev / Dippers and chips - all Aldi.
The odd joint and veg - also Aldi - but not so much in the summer

Toiletries - all Aldi or Poundland Nappies also came from Aldi or Lidl, or the 3/£10 ones at Asda. Kids till has one at night, but obviously the cost has dropped dramatically. There seems to be little difference apart from the pictures on them - the kid tells me quite often that Lidl do Dolphin bums, Aldi do jungle bums and Asda do car bums, spotty baby painting bums and various others. They all work, anyway.

It is genuinely true that if you eat from ingredients you find processed food less pleasant. We used to eat Dominos a lot, but if we have one now we get a kind of hangover. Weird.

Perfectly doable. I buy reduced meat & freeze it. Morrisons & Lidls both do great value fruit & veg. Home Bargains/Poundland for snacks/tiletries/cleaning stuff.

For example, yesterday we had a beef pot roast (£3.41 for brisket beef in Asda, 2 carrots, an onion, 2 sticks of celery & a stock cube all less than a pound) roast potatoes (half a bag of potatoes so 75p) and HUGE yorkshire puddings (flour, 2 eggs, milk so probably less than £!) That fed five of us and was very filling and really tasty!

You can get toothbrushes for as little as 19p in Home Bargains, and squash for 49p a bottle. Morrisons do fruit and veg for 50p a bag, each week its different. Some weeks they do 30p specials.

I couldn't run my household on that and there's only me and DD. Maybe if it's just food and meals are carefully planned by someone who can cook fairly well then yes that could feed a family of 4. When I'm very skint at the end of the month I feed us on around £25 per week but we are not at home every day and that entails batch cooking and freezing stuff, pasta a few times in the week and if necessary me just having toast in the evening to make sure she gets what she needs. Food is very expensive especially if you want to eat a balanced diet.

I do it easily, Aldi & Lidl for food, poundland for toiletries and brand crisps, bodycare for other toiletries.

We eat pasta about 3 times a week, the frozen 99p pizza for a weekend dinner from Aldi is gorgeous. Menu plan is the key though. We also go to costco once a year for toilet rolls and tea bags.

Aldi is on my way home from work, poundland/ poundworld/ bodycare/ card factory on my lunch hour so no extra travel expense.

I don't understand those who spend £100+ pw at Tesco .

We do £70 a week that 2 adults 2 children and two cats incuding cleaning stuff and baby milk

My children dont graze all day which put £££ on to alot of parents hsopping bill there and no cheese strings and shit like that in our house i cook fresh every day expect fridays when we have take out or chips for dinner

When i look it many people shopping trollys when shopping is often filled with shit i saw a person with kids buying frozen jackets yesturday she also had postman pat beans

I dont really give a shit what she feeds her kids but she was infrong of me at the till and her shopping came to about £120 most of she had in her till i wouldnt touch mostly name brand highly processed stuff the amount the two packs of mccans frozen jackets coast her she could of brought about 3kilo of potaoes and had jackets evry day for about 3 months

Yes i do find it very strage that many dont freeze meat

Also costco is very good value

I think it is completely possible if you are prepared to put some work in to it. We are a family of 3 (2 adults and 6 year old DD) and we spend about £80 a week which includes cleaning stuff, alcohol and the odd treat. I shop in Sainsburys, but I have been known to be able to stick within budget in Waitrose if I fancy it. We do leftovers, so I get a chicken and can make roast, curry and pasta with that easily for all of us. It also does all of our meals.

If I see something I always use on offer, I'm lucky enough to be in the position that I can stock up on it.

If I wanted to get down to £50 a week, I could easily just do a Lidl shop. I think it is perfectly possible.

£1.78 per person per meal may not sound a lot but spaghetti bolognese only costs around £3.50 to feed 4 made from scratch so less than half the per person budget.

I don't know in all honesty. I have just been to tesco and spent £32 on food and supplies for the week, however we have loads in ie pasta, risotto rice, frozen chicken etc AND there is only me DH and 3 year old until saturday. DD3 also goes to nusery 3 days a week so can just have a snack tea.

Yes but it does take time. I can spend 3+ hours meal planning and sorting the shopping list (hunting down coupons, checking best value, using mysupermarket and also comparing aldi costs first etc) before I go near a supermarket.

I plan 3 meals a day plus snacks, and cleaning stuff, bathroom bits etc where needed.

Usually spend 35-50/week. £50 is a lot, but there are just 3 of us at the moment.

My meals are healthy. We eat loads of fruit and veg (thanks aldi super 6!) and cook traditional meals like shepherds pie which is cheap to make and nutritious.

I use potatoes instead of frozen potato products which cuts it down and gives lots of options. Basic rice for everything instead of quick or specialist rice as flavour and veg/egg etc is easy to add.

It can be done. Not the living expenses thing in total, certainly the shop.

I spend £50 a week for 5 of us.

I am within walking distance of asda, lidl and morrisons so can pick offers from them. I work near aldi and tesco so can pop in there straight from work if they have good offers. I do a monthly shop to an out of town butchers who are quite cheap.

I make my own yoghurt, snacks, bread and cleaning products.

And yes, we all do get a minimum of 5 a day (except dh but thats his choice).

I have friends who manage to feed 6 (including 2 hungry teens) on £100/week.
BUT... there are aspects of how they eat I wouldn't want to do myself. Very much you eat what you're given attitude, even it's kinda weird, not so many veg most the time, & Lots of bread-based meals, for instance.

I couldn't do it, if I didn't freeze meat I buy reduced meat, cook it in various guises then freeze.

iljkk What's so bad with an 'you eat what you're given' attitude?

Rather that than have fussy children. I'm curious.

A massive bag of porridge oats is cheaper even than cheap boxed cereals and lasts ages.

Frozen veg is very cheap and you don't get any wastage. It's just as healthy as supermarket fresh veg.

lljkk not strage at all its alled setting boundries most ums kitchens dont double as cafes their are no orders taken so you eat what your given or dont i dont see whats the issue

In my house no one has to eat anything they dont want but i will be buggered if i will cook more than one meal

What i find strage are people who cook one meal for smaller kids then somthing for their teens then somthing else for them and oh

I wish but if I'm obsessional I get it down to £75 per week for 4 of us. We are not gluttons we both just really enjoy making lovely meals. The youngest dd has got the bug now and watches cookery programmes. We are planning a come dine with me where we each have to prepare a meal each night.

I've just come back from a shopping trip, £120 which included bulk buy tea bags, potatoes, basmati rice, the only processed or treats where a bag of onion rings and a tub of cheap ice cream. Apart from bits of fresh veg (I only like frozen peas and sweet corn) bread and milk that will be it for about 3 weeks. I have no idea how much I spend per week to feed a family of five but based on the amount I go shopping I guess I spend about £250-£300 a month in the supermarket and then £50 pm in the local shop.

I think the other mistake people make is the amount people cook for each meal they over estermaite loads and then dont use left overs