...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...)

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

This is true, but it proved terrible value for us as the kid wouldn't touch it. I eat it made with water in winter, but even I then feel like I'm living in a workhouse!

twofingers I thought you raised an interesting point when you mentioned that I hadn't factored in the cost of electricity in baking bread and so on, so I pushed off to one of ose sites where they work out what it costs to run your appliances and worked it out. (I'd hate to have been wasting time making bread if it is actually a false economy!)

Anyway, I use a breadmaker, so based on that, all the costs of making a loaf of bread, with ingredients (flour, salt, water, butter, yeast) PLUS electricity come to 30 pence.

Lidl doesn't have a website which shows this (bah!) so I looked at Tesco and Asda, and the cheapest loaf I could find, which would be full of all sorts of rubbish, made by the Chorleywood process to disguise the shortcomings of the ingredients and not taste anywhere near as good as homemade bread, costs 47 pence. So by baking bread at home, you get nicer bread and you save about 20% of the cost of the bread as well. Win/win!

How much are breadmakers?!

I want one.

I guess it depends what you call fussy.
I suppose I'm also considering a situation where I can see the family adults spending money for things that the adults like, and they partly afford that by economising so much on food. I like my food too much to want to be so restricted in the choice of it :). Even the teenagers aren't expected to have any right to complain is tea is value beans on toast 3x/week, or apple crumble (just apple crumble for tea) or strange cheese on old potatoes.

I got a breadmaker second hand for 20 quid. It's not flashy but it does the job.

Hi Blackholes - Ebay! It's fab, particularly as breadmakers are one of the most unused and got-rid-of appliances. So there's stacks of hardly used ones about. I have a Panasonic, and would recommend it.

I have done it for that.

There was a time when I did it for less than that.

you'd be amazed what you can do when you are existing in total, crushing poverty.

a massive sack of spuds costs a fiver, from the local farm. Most of your meals are potato based.

value sausages, 20 for a quid. That's several days meals. value burgers 80p for 8. several days. value cornflakes 30p. value bread 50p. value multipurpose cleaner 25p, etc etc.

If you doubt it, log on to tesco website. Search "value" and load yourself up a basket of all the very cheapest own brand stuff. It is doable.

It can be done. I have done it. You don't eat well, I tell you that! But you can do it on £25 a week. family of 4.

I got my breadmaker off freecycle but rarely use it. We're not big bread eaters, a loaf does a week.

Asda sell packs of two Smartprice quite soft toothbrushes for 20p. Deliveries at 'unpopular' times during the day cost £3; free delivery any time for orders of £99+

I laugh hollowly at those who think their 3 year old eats lots. I have 3 teenagers - this is the same as 3 adults and you havent seen the amount of food a teenage boy can eat!

I was doing a family of three on £30 per week. No top ups. Bulk buying from places like Apporved food, only ever buying reduced produce/meat. Careful shopping for regualr items at lidl and home bargains. Making our own jam/bread/beer/wine/mead/cider. Making several visits to shops I knew were going to ridiculous pre-closing reductions and freezing things in two freezers.

No car either, just a bike with a baby seat and a trailer.

Fortunately OH has finally after three years got a full-time job. I'm hoping to be able to push the boat out a bit and maybe pushing the budget up to £50. But it does seem frivolous after so much scrimping.

twofingers not sure about the balanced diet. I assume so - she's a great mum

My kids don't eat at school as they're home educated. I know we could eat for way, way less if I were more careful and planned ahead more. Using a food co-op would help us a lot, but we don't have enough places to store food if we bought things in bulk and the local food co-op requires a lot of planning.

We could bake our own bread, and grow more of our own vegetables. We could eat cheaper fruit like apples instead of bananas. We could eat porridge for breakfast instead of kids' breakfast cereals. I reckon we could eat very well on whatever the equivalent of £50 for a family of four is for a family of six, but it would be harder work and I can't be arsed right now

I certainly don't think it's impossible, though.

i struggle with the attitude that unless its expensive it cant be tasty or varied.

or if its a value product that automaticly makes it crap. there are many things that arnt a carrot is just a carrot no matter what it costs

Machadaynu I used to love porridge when I was little! Mind you, it was served up with milk and a couple of spoons of soft brown sugar melting into it. These days I cook it with water and add a spoon of sugar.

My mum isn't impressed with my fifty quid a week. She fed us on less. There was never any treats in. Even when times got better my mum never bought rubbish. Cooks everything, freezes loads.

I think it often depends on the ages of the kids too. I think i could have done it when mine were little, but not now.

Here there is me, three dc aged 14/12/9 and 2 cats. I spend roughly £70 a week.

I have to do it - just made redundant from a reasonably paid job to a min wage 38hr week (over six days) job - family of 2 adults, 2 teens, one dog.

Last weeks Aldi bill was £56 - no top up shops anywhere else, all done in one.

People cut their coat to the cloth they have. Right now we?re up the creek, but we?re veggie and I?m fine on one meal a day, adults don?t need half of what they eat.

Offspring moan a bit about endless soup for filling up on, (not main meals) but it?s good natured moaning, they know there?s plenty on less.

Now that teen DS has braces and can't just eat whatever's cheap I?m really struggling to give him the level of nutritional balance I?d like, but hopefully he?s at an age where it?s less essential week in week out anyway.

We buy Tesco value toothbrushes at 20p for two when needed. It?s actually one of the things we can afford to just replace at will.

My DS food bill is about £45 per week. Eats like a darn horse and as skinny as a rake.

I don't need to spend less than £50/w but often do. Some meals are more complicated than others - my fajitas, for example, use 50p of vegetables, £3-4 of naice local butcher chicken, £1.50 of wraps, 50p of salsa, 75p of cheese, etc etc, whereas my pasta bake is more like £2-3 in total. The grocery bill totally depends on the menu.

But I agree that lunches, particularly packed lunches, are the killer. DH needs at least four slices of bread in his lunchbox, plus meat filling (he is a total carnivore and complains if there is "only" cheese), plus crisps, etc. By comparison a quick pasta or jacket at home is under £1 for all of us.

Incidentally the advice to bulkbuy and freeze (either raw or batch cooking) is only useful if you have a massive freezer. Once there are peas, homemade stock and a few ice lollies in our freezer, it's chocka.

We started out of necessity but do it as second nature now.

I can fee 5 if I am careful, but two are three and not big eaters and one is a baby!

When I was on maternity leave I would go round to Aldi, Tesco, Asda, Iceland, Home Bargains, greengrocer, butcher and find all the best deals. I don't have the time to do that anymore.

We spend way more than that though at the moment as we are too lazy to meal plan.