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?

[Kissmequick123]

Swap the wheatabix for porridge. Wheat isn't that great and best avoided if you've prepared sandwiches or pasta (0thrr wheat products)

[PancakesAndMapleSyrup]

Im surprised you say you can eat well on such a little amount, however that is all you have so you must work within your constraints. I agree with some other posters could you try to vary it a bit more again e.g. fish. Also different types of veg. How about with your fussy one saying you try this then you can have your jam sandwich, he/she would be better being exposed to more foodstuffs. Do they eat what is given at school or not? Keep going and google to try new things and try to be a bit more inventive perhaps.

[Thetallesttower]

These quantities look tiny but that might be because, if you are a small eater, and your littler ones are at home (with the biggest one eating school dinners) you are not feeding that many on that budget. If it were say two normal eaters plus two teens, the quantity would probably have to be twice or three times as much. If you have basically four adults (or nearly adults) in the house, then one packet of mince and one chicken is a stretch for five meals without a heck of a lot of veg/pastry/other soup ingredients.

I think you are probably doing ok on very little because you have to, and that is why school dinners are ace (I hate that they have puddings all the time but if they need the calories this is not an issue). You are also little eaters at this time point. Once they get bigger, this will not be enough at all.

It sounds reasonable enough though for now and if you don't have any spare, you don't. Your children won't be malnourished on this, whatever anyone says- they are having protein, carbs, enough fruit and veg to mean they are not malnourished even if it is not optimal. There are children who eat nothing but jam sandwiches, I have a friend with a child like this and he eats no, as in none, fruit or vegetables at all, he seems to be shooting up and growing just fine.

I do spend more than you, mainly on extra veggies like carrots/broccoli/peas, natural yog and more meat but I have bigger children to feed. Your basic diet is not dissimilar to what I was doing when we were pretty hard up last year though.

[TequilaMockingbirdy]

We're a family of 4 and I spend about £25 a day on food
A day? can I ask what you eat? sorry if that's rude!

Me and DP spend £50 a week at the minute. I've lived off a lot less than that when I was single poor though.

[unrealhousewife]

YABU. The question is why do you - is that all you have - or allow yourself to spend?

There's no way you can buy 1600 calories for a pound. Even 6 mars bars would cost more than that.

[Thetallesttower]

The person who is probably the most calorie deficient in this scenario is you- as you are having no breakfast (kids are getting weetabix plus milk), no calories in tea or coffee/milk added, half the right amount at lunch and a modest dinner with a small amount of protein with no snacks (from what you have said). Are you doing this deliberately or have you always had a small appetite? You may have got used to eating very little.

Do you really not keep tea and coffee in the cupboard for when guests come?

[TequilaMockingbirdy]

Do you really not keep tea and coffee in the cupboard for when guests come?

If she's on a limited budget why should she? I don't because we don't have guests

[PancakesAndMapleSyrup]

Tequila,
just noticed you were surprised at the other poster spending 25 per day. We are also a family of 4 and spend a similar amount just a bit less. My 2 sprouts devoured a £2 punnet of strawberries EACH for pudding at dinner. We had a homemade curry for dinner but that included two packets of chicken thigh fillets so £8 alone on meat etc gives you an idea anyway. :)

[PancakesAndMapleSyrup]

P.s we arnt loaded but the three important things for me: roof over our head, warmth (heating) and food. Everything else can give, but not those.

[TequilaMockingbirdy]

Thanks pancakes It's probably because I don't have children so I have little idea of how much they cost, I think I just multiplied me and DP by 2

Then I realised after I posted that kids can eat loads!

[missingmumxox]

In support of OP, a portion of fruit or veg for a child is by a rule of thumb, approx the size of their fist, so I don't think she is off on her portion sizes.
I had no limit on budget and I discovered I was malnurishing my children due to many factors, first the calories children need, they need a lot compared to size, I never limited food but because of my misunderstanding on portion sizes and high fibre foods, I was filling them up but not giving them the energy to grow and they where missing vital trace elements.

I also believed that sugar was evil, so no Buscuits, cake sweets, chocolate, small children actually need some empty calories...as they need them for energy, not a lot but a bit.

I had twins they where 95th and 75 percentile for height but 4th and 25 for weight until I heard a radio 4 program on child nutrition, I felt sick but fortunately had a tame dietitian at work who went through their diet with me.

They are still at 9, 95 and 75 for height but 50 and 25 for weight, they have more energy ... Unfortunately lol.

Against OP when are you buying? 2008? 95p for milk? £1 for 2 loaves, I shop in Aldi tis brilliant but I can't buy for that price.

[Ohbyethen]

This is where the difficulty lies though, you can of course relatively easily buy cheap calories. But pure caloric intake is not what's important, a bag of microwave salty popcorn is over 500 calories but of very little nutritional value.
Good bioavailabile protein costs money - whether that's meat, cheese, beans, nuts etc beans are cheaper but you need more.
Fruit and veg is expensive - 7 unique portions a day is different to 7 portions but even hitting 5 a day for growing children adds up.
Fillers are cheap but the cheapest - value white bread, pasta etc don't provide much in the way of nutrition particularly when you have to bulk out a meal with them because the good stuff is too expensive.
Margarine is cheap but not very good for you and actually butter at least is a good source of fats.

I don't think it's a fair assessment to say we are paying less for our food now as a monthly percentage because it's not like for like. You will pay less for Iceland food with poor quality and small amounts of cheap imported meat - anyone can knock off tenners from their bill by leaning heavily on carbs and the cheapest meal deals but I absolutely don't find it acceptable that good quality food is still difficult to get for a lot of people on lower incomes, with the poorest people getting beige stodge with a side order of beige. Because some people are lucky enough to live near a market or run a car, maybe can afford to bulk buy & store (of you have a freezer) there's a popular view that it's perfectly doable if you just try harder. Most of the lists I've seen that incorporate the proper amount of fruit, veg, dairy, fish and meat (or vegetarian alternatives) borrow Peter to pay Paul - the bill is £40 but that doesn't count because they calculate that as meals across the week/month not honestly addressing what you do if you only have £10 to your name until you're paid - if you buy £10 worth of the same list you can't make any meals.
Or if you have £10 and the bus fare is £3, you have to take your dc so hopefully they are small enough to go free - if you want to get home you now only have £4 to spend. Here it's 10 miles to a supermarket, I couldn't negotiate a 20 mile round trip on foot, with children and shopping.

But benefits are still being cut. Why are there families working like dogs and still having to squeeze every penny to eat?
It's not a piece of piss to eat a good quality, nutritionally balanced diet on £1 a day, even if your portion sizes are correct (and not the large ones many of us eat) that's still light on fruit and veg. And that has lunches not having to be bought for 5 days out of 7. It's a disgrace.

[LibraryMum8]

Calamitously sorry but...the meals seem dismal. Outside of the fruits I remain unconvinced .

[Ohbyethen]

Had a bit of a rant there. Sorry, it's off the back of a discussion with one of my mum's food bank clients, she's was telling me about her test results, she's overweight but anaemic & vitamin and mineral deficient.
She's on her own, working her arse off to keep a roof over their heads and she just doesn't have the hours in the day to keep track of, travel to and buy offers up and even if she did she can't afford to.
But it's fine because obviously she's just feckless poor and if she listened to her betters she'd manage fine and needs to stop frittering her cash on luxuries like rent and heat [anger]

[Ohbyethen]

even. I can't even emote properly!

[JulietBravoJuliet]

missingmumxox 4 pints of milk at Aldi is 95p and their Everyday Essentials bread is 47p for whole meal - just checked yesterday's shopping receipt!

[Busymumto3dc]

I wish my shopping only cost this much! But don't think I would like restricting my dcs to so little!

I have 3 dc. 1,4 and 6 years

We go through 12 pints of semi skimmed milk and between 6 and 8 pints of whole milk per week. 3 or 4 boxes of cereal. At least two loaves of bread. 36 fromage frais.

The list is never ending!

[Glastokitty]

Sounds utterly grim to me.

[giggly]

Op I think your doing well, when we are skint it is a nightmare with my fussy dd so much easier to feed when flush
However a cheap an easy way to up her protein intake is to make my own fish cakes which she loves but funnily enough she hates fish and potatoes!
Mashed potatoes with butter and milk, steamed white fish, usually around £1.50 for a big/frozen piece( usually enough for around 8) tomato sauce, dipped in egg if I have one spare or just covered in breadcrumbs which are £1, the packet last for months.
My 2 will only eat grated cheese which they get for a snack or sprinkled on top of almost everything.
Good luck.

[PrincessBabyCat]

Well, just because you can do something doesn't mean other people have the same abilities...

[RedFocus]

I don't have an aldi or lidl near me and I prefer to shop online anyway and I've found Sainsbury's to be my preferred shop. I spend £160 a week on a family of 2 adults, 3 dc's, 2 dogs, 6 cats and various other small animals. I thought that was pretty good

[Busymumto3dc]

I wouldn't say £160 was good but if I could afford it I could easily spend that I reckon

On a scraping the barrel week I spend about 60-70, on a better off week £100

[Busymumto3dc]

Oh and we have 2 adults and 3 dc too

[nennypops]

Don't they have milk with their cereal?