To feed my family on £1 per person per day

[Dramatic]

I've heard about celebs doing this and finding it almost impossible but really it's not that hard, I spend £25 a week (or less) on me and 3 kids. Am I a cheapskate or do other people spend this much? I shop at Aldi if that makes a difference. Maybe I'm depriving my kids by spending £1 a day on them. How much do you spend per person per day? Surely it's not that unreasonable to think £1 a day is plenty to feed yourself, why are people making such a fuss about it?

Thank you antimatter that doc is really useful, had a quick scan but will read it properly later.

Lauranda, the kids have weetabix for breakfast and sandwiches for dinner (ham or jam usually) then for tea we have shepherds pie, spag bol, chicken with veg and mash, curry, pasta with sauce that kind of thing.

Will do a shop tomorrow and this is what's on my list so far:

Washing up liquid
Dishwasher tablets
Lactose free milk
Ham
Cheddar
Bread
Yoghurt
Melon
bananas
Grapes
Kipling cakes
Jelly pots
Juice cartons
Mince 750g
Salad stuff
Juice
4 Beers
1 bottle of wine
Loo roll
Scampi tails or Kievs
Smoked Haddock
Rice
Eggs
Muffins
Curry powder
Chicken thighs and drums
lemons
Cous cous
Mint

I hope that will do us until about Friday but I might have to top up. I imagine that little lot will come to about £75.00. Includes dd's lunches because she won't eat school lunch.

I know I am very very lucky because I don't have to scrimp at the supermarket but I honestly do try to spend wisely and spend far less than some of my contemporaries. Am feeding two adults and one teenager at the moment and am finding it hard to scale down from two teenagers and there is a bit of over prep and freezing going on.

One thing I have always done and I know MNet finds this excessive is that because I work full-time - often not home until 7 and they get home from school at 4.45ish - I have always made sure there is stuff for them to graze on when they get home - be that bread and cheese or made up bowls of cold pasta with a sauce. I just remember getting home from school absolutely starving and having to wait two hours for dinner and being unable to really focus on much until I had had a meal. Also, when ds was about 14 and rugby training three times a week (or whatever was in season) he could wolf down a microwaveable meal for one when he got in (two sometimes) and then eat a full dinner at 8ish! That was the year he grew 9 inches though!

I've been looking through this page and I like the way the ingredients are laid out with the price next to them and how to make the dish.

www.facebook.com/pages/Budget-Menu-Queen/1419027591676019?fref=ts

Some pulses are protein as well. As well as something like tofu.

Maybe it is worth considering and understanding that, the price of food in some supermarkets are actually linked to the price of housing within a particular region. A can of coke, in the North of England is different to say a can of coke in South of England, or in some remote village or other. I bought a packet of biscuit in S. Yorkshire, which only cost 49p, but that same packet cost around 1 pound in outer Leicestershire in a village's Co-op. I was so surprised, and did wonder how people survived. But then I realised that local fresh produce are actually cheaper. Meat near Cambridgeshire is also cheaper as well comparatively. As I believe that it was closer to the actual farms.

I would always advocate to go to an actual market, and not necessarily aim for the supermarket chains, because this can fluctuate a lot, depending on how they wish to operate internally. But the overall food pricing is more or less the same by wholesale pricing level. With added logistic costs, it is then more than what it needs to be.

These days, I work out the pricing by price/kg. I found out that if you ordered a bag of rice from a Chinese supermarket. It costs around £1.6/kg.
The Waitrose "3 meat items for 10 pounds", can work out around £4/kg.
www.wingyipstore.co.uk/p-8636-green-dragon-fragrant-rice.aspx

Something that is really economical is to buy a little joint of ham/gammon for about £4.50. That will do the following meals.

Ham roly poly with parsley sauce and carrots

Half packet of suet, SR flour (double the volume), twist of pepper, add water to make a dough, roll out to about 1/4 inch thick, cover with a layer of finely chopped uncooked ham and steam for about two hours.

Serve with Parsley sauce (tablespoon flour, tablespoon butter made into a roux and add 2/3 pint of milk and a large bunch of chopped parsley, salt and pepper).

Accompany with carrots and a green veg.

The same bit of ham will then do a carbonara: chopped ham, chopped shallot, bit of chicken stock, handful of cheddar, creme fraiche or tiny tub of cream, salt, pepper. Serve with economy pasta and some salad.

You should still have enough ham left to make something like a pea and ham soup (use tinned peas and chicken stock) or a quiche, or a ham a potato bake (ham and potato bake: chopped ham, two three big bakers peeled and sliced, onion sliced - layer it all up and pour over a pint of cheese sauce - serve with carrots and cabbage).

This flapjack recipe with tesco value syrup, value butter and value rolled oats is great for packed lunches and treats and works out a good price for a batch. Low cooking time too for those watching the electric/gas metre.

fatlazymummy - I agree with you that protein is found in most food, however for growing kids you have to watch it and can't assume they will get enough of it
esp if they are fussy eaters

0.75 g per kg body mass is for someone who stopped growing and is not doing a lot of physical work

as it states - small kids need 2g/kg and toddlers even more

Antimatter what do you suggest hearshoping does ? She's already said she can't afford more. Is she supposed to magic the additional protein out of thin air ?

I think I would go alongside advice given to OP - go to foodbank if you think you can't provide with enough nutrition.

I am pointing out at what was discussed earlier on this thread - that it is important to understand nutritional value of food. I would stop buying mushrooms as a first step and replaced it with dried beans.
I would grow my own herbs to add flavour and perhaps (health permitting) look for an allotment or grow my own veg if I had a garden. Or turned vegetarian and money spent on meat use to buy veg and pulses. That is common knowledge and everyone would agree that vegetarian diet is cheaper.
Asian shops have amazing value beans, veg, rice and spices. Even small ones.
Some goes for chinese supermarkets.
Obviously - easy for me to say as I live on the outskirts of London - but I can't predict every person's circumstances. I can only share what I know.

I don't drink milk or eat yoghurt as it doesn't agree with me - but I won't tell others - stop buying them & you will save lots of money! I can only comment at nutritional value of food others are writing they use.

I hate shopping which is why I do all mine online. It stops me from getting stressed, and also overspending. And I don't get the 'am I going to have enough' anxiety at the checkout.

@ mrsd

You just made me laugh Mrs DV.

Is the extra £40 on the bill worth it for the Waitrose bags that you pack as you go along and do your own zapping so you don't have to do the belt business and just at the self-checkout? I've never thought so but increasingly I'm seeing people in my sainsburys just put the shopping straight back into the trolley and then put it into boxed laid out in their boots - freezer box, chilled box, veg box, non food box, bottle box, etc..

I think it might be to do with parking and getting the stuff sorted and unpacked in a manageable way as well as for speed at the checkout.

Do you think it might catch on?

I think I would go alongside advice given to OP - go to foodbank if you think you can't provide with enough nutrition.

My parents volunteer in a foodbank. You can only go 3 times.

I'm well aware of how to balance out protein. Meat is only a small part of the protein that is eaten in here. Over the course of a week we eat eggs, cheese, milk, beans, lentils, porridge, peanut butter, grains/cereals and fish, sometimes soy protein. There is also protein in veg. And yes, sometimes DS3 will sometimes eat 2 cups of cooked beans at a sitting, Dh regularly eats a whole tin of baked beans at one go. The chilli I made yesterday, for instance has 3 cans of kidney beans in it, so that is 4 1/2 cups or over a litre of beans. Add that to the protein in the mince, the protein in the other components of the meal, in the cornbread today and the other protein consumed over the period and everything is fine. I also tend to take the long view with food. If everything balances out over a week or two then that is more important than a daily breakdown.

No-one is deficient in anything, all are well proportioned, active, optimum weight (except me but I have ME and fibromyalgia which kind of limits my activity levels), almost never ill etc. DS3 in particular, hikes for a hobby, and can do 50miles in 2 days carrying his own equipment (he's the 17year old.) He wouldn't be able to do that if he wasn't properly fed.

I think that people often get into a tizz about things like protein/calcium and the like, forgetting that if you eat a reasonable varied, balanced diet you will get the recommended nutrition as a matter of course. Nutrients are found in all different kinds of food, not just the usual suspects.

*careeristbitchnigel8 - is that the same rule everywhere?

then I don't know what anyone should do if they find themselves in such situation and wages + child benefit don't stretch for a family of 4 to buy a decent food

I am not sure if anyone who commented on this thread knows the answer.

You also have to be referred to a food bank. When you say pulses what exactly do you mean by that? I know that probably makes me sound really stupid but I actually don't know. We do tend to have a lot of meat (well most meals have meat in them) and I wouldn't mind cutting down, especially if it will end up being cheaper.

Yes, it is the same rule everywhere. I run a food bank and the recommendation is 3 boxes a year. it is at the manager's discretion, you can give extra ones but it isn't recommended in order to stop dependency.

Lots of people can't afford what many regard as a good diet nowadays. I think that a lot of the answer has to do with education and helping people to make the best of what they have. Also with adjusting expectations. For instance my kids would love to eat grapes and strawberries, but I can't afford them so they have learned to be happy with apple, bananas and tangerines.

Pulses are things like beans and lentils, Dramatic. we eat a lot of them. I could give you a few easy recipes if you want . You don't sound stupid at all. Why would you know if you've never cooked with them?

pulses means dry beans and lentils
they are used in many ways in various parts of the world

you can buy them ready cooked in cans or dried and then soak overnight

some you can cook them on the day, but only if they are split

do you like Indian food OP?
there are many recipes for inexpensive bean and lentils dishes you could cook and they don't cost much, also add variety

my kids still love dish which is called parappu in South India
fry slowly one onion, ad a 1/2 tsp of tumeric or mild curry powder
ad 3/4 cup of red split lentils, stir and fry for around 3-4 min
in Indian shops you can get them cheaper than in supermarket

add enough water to cover it +1/2 inch
boli slowly, but it all should be ready in 15-20 min, you may have to add more water so they don't dry
they are going to change colour to pale orange and split open
add a pinch of salt, eat with rice

do you have garden?

the allotment where we used to live took us 4 years to get. They are bloody hard work and require investment for tools, soil improvers and most of all time. If you are working long hours for minimum wage you might not really relish the thought of working just as hard on your time off

"celebs doing this"

In my universe Slebs are famous & rich. WHY THE FIG WOULD YOU live on such a strict budget for "fun"? I can't figure out the angle, what does it matter what Slebs might have done?

And Slebs don't do their own food shopping or even much of their own food prep. So presumably they paid somebody at least minimum wage to sort out their food shopping.

I don't think your children are getting enough milk. They should have a pint a day so 4 pints of milk for the week is no way near enough for your family.