to ask how much your weekly shop is and how much your two year old eats?

[RalphLaurenLover]

Just that really.

A friend told me she does her weekly shop for £25 this includes her husband and her 2 year old and her 4 week old she said that this includes her veg, fruit, fresh meat at £2 a go etc etc all from Iceland.

It's only me and my nearly 2 year old son and I spend about £40 a week on fresh meat, veg, fruit etc and I thought that was reasonable, I don't buy fizzy, chocolate, sweets froozen food, ready meals etc.

She made out I was way over spending for no reason and my son doesn't eat enough because she feeds her two year old the same portions she does herself and her husband and she's been told he's overweight for his age.

I'm nbu am I?

About 100 a week(2 adults 2 dds) including nappies for 2 dds, wipes, baby milk, fresh meat (3 for £10), fruit, snacks, cereals and toiletries. Then top ups through the week, i know thats quite excessive including the top ups but we can afford it and id rather eat well and enjoy it than be like some people some MNers who spend £20 a week and sound proud of it My question is, what do you wipe your arse with and wash your clothes etc with

She's talking rubbish if she claims this includes baby milk, nappies, toilet roll etc as well.

I think she's either eating dahl, chick peas and butter-beans all week or spending money on utter crap. Our veg and fruit alone costs about 25

Maybe she gets milk tokens which pay for the milk?

I'm always dubious about these threads because people don't compare like with like. I spend around 130 for 2 adults 2 children but dh works from home, it includes some wine, a birthday present for one of dds friends etc. I like to eat (and drink) well and other people I know spend similar. ...

3Quid a week bertie

I dont include alcohol in our main shop because it would be quite a bit more, i pop out for a bottle as and when :)
I could probably budget 25 a week if we didnt feed or nappy the dcs, wash our clothes and shopped and ate cardboard chicken from iceland

It's only me and my nearly 2 year old son and I spend about £40 a week on fresh meat, veg, fruit etc and I thought that was reasonable, I don't buy fizzy, chocolate, sweets froozen food, ready meals etc.

See I think that's a lot to spend on 1 adult and a little toddler

Unless you're including all your cleaning products/laundry/toilet products etc?

I don't believe her.

We spend £90 on a good week on our online shop, 2 adults, 2yo and 3month & a cat.

My DS eats alot -. He can put away an adult portion (he's not overweight either).

Worral Including cleaning products so ie my shop this week was;
meat
Hovis wholemeal
peppered ham
persil
vanish
youghurts for DC
shampoo & Conditioner
2 bottles of cravendale
pasta
rice
sauce
veg
fruit
salad stuff
bin bags
freezer bags
bleach
andrex quilted
ambrosia rice puddings (as a treat for LO)
heinz beens/spagetti etc

I spend just under £40 and i don't really buy own brand as you can see lol.

Milk vouchers are £12.40 for the month so that just buys on box of milk with a little change

I don't believe her. I spend £100/w on all three of us and I know I could spend slightly less (and will need to in future), but seriously, I think she's treating it like a competition and isn't quite coming clean about something.

The only way she can be feeding them for £25 is if they are eating those horrible reformed 'turkey' things with chips and other similar junk every day.

I remember reading one thread on here a few years ago where someone was crowing about how little they were spending on food. After a little digging it transpired that her parents always took them out for a big roast on a Sunday, and also had an allotment so they got nearly all their veg and some fruit for nothing.

I bet your friend is similar, somewhere along the way there is somebody else who is subbing them - or they are eating utter shite - or she is lying. Or a combination of all three.

I don't believe your friend.

Well for some reason she uploads a picture of her LO eating dinner every day it's always about 5/6 turkey dinosaurs and an adult portion of chips with ketchup or deep fried sausages and then chips and sausage or cake. So it's not all healthy like she's saying.

She defiantly doesn't have an allotment so I'm going with she's lying for some weird reason and eating utter shite i know that for sure

Family of four inc two year old. Our bill fluctuates between £85-£130 per week,depending on what I need to get and if it's a special week- someone's birthday etc. I tend to only buy one ready meal such as pizza each week the rest is homemade meals or a cheap jacket spud dinner one night,all lunches and breakfasts for the four of us. My bill also includes all toiletries,cleaning products nappies,wipes and soya formula and soya milk as both girls have a dairy intolerance. Our two year old would probably eat around a quarter of what we eat as an adult (on a good day!) and our 7 year old about half. She isn't bothered about snacks yet except the odd biscuit occasionally so eats three meals a day. She is a little chubby and quite tall for her age despite smallish meals! I can't imagine a two year old eating an adult size meal!

Jack Monroe does it. But she can cook well and it began from necessity, when she was in a terrible financial bind. She uses a lot of tinned and frozen veggies etc as well as fresh, as they tend to be cheaper. And she makes her own granola etc as well which is obviously cheaper than cereals. (She has a blog with recipes, and also writes for the Guardian now.) I don't think you can do it and eat well if you are buying ready meals, no.

We spend probably about £75 a week, which is Waitrose, Aldi and the local butcher. It's me, DH and DS (who is 5). We do eat really well but not many treats I don't make myself - mainly because homemade produces a quality I couldn't afford to buy, and if you bake etc cheap bought starts to taste minging.

I think your budgeting sounds fine, OP. You could probably cut it by eating less meat etc if you wanted to, but you're not being extravagant I don't think, no.

I didn't realise it included the milk. In which case, I don't see it's doable.

Maybe she stockpiled store cupboard ingredients before she had her baby. Pasta, long life milk, rice, lentils and frozen food can be stored for ages. She would then only have to buy fresh ingredients.

But she has 2 under 5 and IIRC you get double for under-ones, so that would be about £9 a week. Plus when I was on them yonks ago it was something like £3.20 so would be more like £9.60 which is about the cost of a box of milk I think?!

Actually I have no idea if you get more for having more children.

That's true then again my son had about 2 tubs of aptamil a week so the vouchers would only cover half the cost unless he was just greedy and they normally only have one haha

Chunderella she doesn't have to do it anymore, and it definitely isn't something to aspire to - she says as much herself, and is a food poverty campaigner! Agreed on the needing more to feed a man, as well. But I don't think her food is cheap and empty calories, actually. Just low on meat and high on pulses, tinned tomatoes etc. We aren't on her sort of limits, thank God, and we also have an allotment, but I make some of her recipes sometimes because I like them (her granola is really nice, for example, and IMO healthier than most cereals are). And I am glad there is at least some way people on horribly low incomes can feed reasonably healthy food to their families.

I don't include things like freezer bags, loo roll, shampoo etc in my food budget though. I think yours is quite low if you are, OP.

Sorry, reread and realised I'd misunderstood your post - I absolutely agree nobody could get a toddler overweight, let alone feed a bloke and self and child with any pretence at health on that budget.