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?

Goodness... I've been eating poorly for ages due to economy, but when I did have money before I'd spend £40 on two people for a week, all homemade meals and lots of fruit and veg! Now can't afford to spend much at all on food, so it's very limited and small amounts. Would not choose it if I had the option of eating proper food of good quality though!

Hecate started a brilliant thread last year saying how to feed 4 people on 25 a week, including toiletries. I remember there being plenty of food on the list; all things like value eggs (15 for 1,35), cornflakes (31p a box), pasta (29p for 500g of penne), bread rolls (12 for about 50p) fish fingers (60p), chicken nuggets (72p), sweet potatoes (1 for 6 or 7) and baked beans (25p), but it would have filled stomachs. I can't find the link so it must have been in chat. Big packs of biscuits are only 25p - 35p as well. Mix in reduced items, Farmfoods and Aldi super 6 fruit and veg, plus Home Bargains if there are any near you, and you can possibly get a lot of food for 25. If you have freezer space, that is.

The pregnant thing was me as I just said your fine op even though you arent eating 700 portions of fruit or 20 pints of milk a day.

Well I have just been online and apparently I am entitled to healthy start vouchers which can be used for fruit, veg and milk, I never knew I could claim them. Should take a chunk off my food bill and enable me to buy more veg and milk as needs be.

Can I just ask, for the people who spend £100 or more per week, what's on your shopping list? And do you not have a lot of waste?

That's great that you can get the healthy start vouchers op

We spend upto £100 per week on 2 adults and 3 dc

This week I spent £70. This includes packed lunch items for 2dc as we do not qualify for fsm at the moment. Paying for their lunches would cost me just short of £20 a week.

Packed lunch list -

2x bread £2
Ham £1
Cheese £2
Baby bels £2
Yogurts £2
Juice cartons £2
Apples £1
Pears £1
Dunkers £1

So I spend £14 on their lunches. You don't have these costs because your dc has fsm

We also buy tea coffee and fizzy drinks. I buy 4 boxes of cereal a week costing £4.

I also buy bananas and oranges at a pound each. 2 bags of frozen veg £2. Brocoli x2 £1. Potatoes £2. Tuna £4. 3 bags of pasta (the 30p stuff)

We buy some fresh fish, bacon sausage, mince, chicken

We also buy some quick conscience foods like the packet pasta in sauces and pies in tins for when we are rushing (these aren't for dc)

We go through plenty of beans and spaghetti hoops too. Frozen pizzas, chicken things, potato waffles and potato shapes and things like that

Lots of milk

Not much waste at all tbh

Convenience obv

Dramatic - that's good to hear, how much does each voucher give?
Do you have a garden at all like others mentioned for growing? Many foods you can use seeds of own foods to plant to save buying new. Ie peppers. Just eat pepper and leave seeds on side on paper or similar for a few days to dry, then can plant. Entertainment for kids also. Also if you do have garden how do you feel about chickens? Many places will give you a few chicks for free if interested.

Our food is around £100 mark. We don't have any waste really. It's roughly £40 on fruit and veg, £20 meat/ fish, £20 eggs/ cheese/ milk/ dairy, £20 extras ie pasta/ rice/ toilet rolls/ tin tomatoes etc.
The first three amounts we get roughly same things every week, the £20 extras changes each week depending on what we still have/ don't have. Ie one week I might have brought a large amount of rice, so wouldn't buy that for a next few weeks, but might need oil/ spices / whatever

I don't think we get through mountains of food but a fair amount is brought. We have 2 adults, 2 pre school age children. The kids and ourselves will have breakfast soon. That will be between us roughly 8 eggs ( 2 each boiled even 2 year old), 4 pieces of bread ( toasted), 3 large oranges, 3 kiwis ( 1/2 each fruit for children), about 1 pint milk ( drink each for children, tea adults). So that's roughly amount at each meal but content obv different.

If we had a garden I would def get a few chickens as we prob spend a fair amount on eggs tbh

I'm glad things are looking up for you dramatic.

We have no waste although comparatively we spend a fortune but teenagers, especially very sporty ones, take a lot of feeding, I could spend less if I didn't work fulltime and had more time to chase bargains, and finally as the children get bigger you get through much much more stuff like soap powder, loo roll, shampoo, toothpaste, antiperspirant, etc..

when my kids were at that age I spent a lot of money on fruit like frozen berries outside of season
you can get blender like this and by using frozen fruit and adding a bit of youghurt or milk make lovely smoothies
I am adding sugar to make it nice and take the sour taste away.

You can bake muffins with bananas.

You never mentioned if your kids eat eggs? I buy quite a lot of those.

My kids used to love rice cakes.
Good quality cocoa to make afternoon drink/snack.
Grapes
Muffins
pitta bread (grill it first) + tuna mayo/sweetcorn for lunch

I think that people may be being a bit harsh on the OP. it's really hard being on a very limited budget. I spend between £1 and £1.50 per person per day because it is all I have and I'm feeding MUCH, MUCH bigger kids than the OP (think 6ft3 17y/old and similar). DH works his socks off, but his wages are just too low and things like travel to work costs too high.

My kids are well fed, appropriate weights, plenty of energy. They eat plenty of fruit and veg, get enough calcium and protein and are never hungry. So it can be done.

A typical day would be something like -

porridge made with milk and some dried fruit
homemade soup with bread, a piece of fruit and a biscuit
mixed bean chilli with rice, milk jelly with fruit

or perhaps -
toast and peanut butter, fruit juice
tuna pasta salad, fruit
baked potatoes with cheese and beans, rice pudding and fruit

or -
cereal and milk,
hummus and carrot sandwiches with pepper and cucumber, biscuit
spag bol, (made with 250gms mince, carrots, celery, pepper, tomatoes, passata, garlic, herbs, tom puree), fruit, piece of chocolate

snacks would be biscuits, crisps, cereal, toast, fruit, cucumber sticks...

This week, I bought 750gms mince from Asda. it cost £3 and has made cottage pie for 4, spag bol for 4, pasta bake for 3, chilli for 4 and tonight I will make the left over chili into a cornbread topped pie for 4. I don't eat meat, so I have been eating things like roast mushrooms, beetroot salad, bean salad etc.

Believe me, if I had more money to spend then I would spend it, but you have to cut your cloth according to what you have. it's a grind having to account for every penny and not be able to just buy something that you fancy, but that's just life.

I spend about that on 3 people, DS is an eating machine.

I remember Hecate (where is she?) and her food list.

Tesco 33p yoghurts are great for dustbin kids. 750g of mince from tesco does two lasagne or other mince based meal and it's £3 so 50p each per portion. I pay £1.35 for 15 eggs.

The best thing I ever did was get a second freezer, freecycle is great, and it allows me to buy in bulk when the meat is reduced (think turkey legs for £1 after Christmas!) and freeze what we don't use.

I struggle with fruit and veg, bananas and apples are a staple, we use tinned veg. I try to use the local markets for a wider range of fruit for DS.

Hereshoping99 - i have question - you told us how you economised 750gms of beef mince - you made it into 19 portions:
cottage pie for 4,
spag bol for 4,
pasta bake for 3,
chilli for 4
ornbread topped pie for 4.

no disrespect but each portion has 750/19 portions = 40 grams of meat
you say you are feeding 6ft3 teenager and a hard working husband on that

I can assume 40g makes about 2 tablespoons of meat (please correct me if I am wrong)

I am assuming they weight 70kg each

for a 70 kg person you need the following amount of protein:
70 kg x 0.8 g/kg. = 56 grams of protein per person
(I assume this is for 2 males in your family)

if it was lean beef it would have 20 g of protein per 100g of meat - you are providing 4 g of protein that way

which is less than 10% what your son and DH need per day
where else would they get the reminding 52 g of protein from?

3.4g per 100 ml of milk - lets assume each drinks a pint a day - that's only 17 g

still short of at least 35g of protein

do they each eat every day at least 2 cups of boiled beans?
that is a pint of boiled beans!

with a couple of tbsp of meat

if that's the case then they get enough of protein daily

btw - 1 egg is 6 g of protein - so the option would be to have
2 tbsp of meat, a cup of boiled beans and 3 eggs

From what I can gather I will get 2 or 3 vouchers a week, each one being worth £3.10. Only one of my children gets fsm busymom so the other two I obviously have to feed at home! I really need to educate myself on what their nutritional needs are, I have no idea how much protein they should be getting.

Does anyone know what page the op posted her meal plan on?

Sorry op I though you had a child in nursery too or is he/she not fed there

Ah I forgot about the turkey legs. Morrisons do huge ones for 3 quid.. They go lovely in a slow cooker and you get a shedload of meat from them. 2 family meals I remember when I was feeding 5.

I've heard of celebs doing this. Name me one...

cottage pie with Turkey mince - bleuggh. That's not a cottage pie of any sort, that's an abomination.

I don't think the OP is getting a hard time. She posted in AIBU to say that she feeds her family a healthy diet for £1 per person per day so why can't everyone else manage it. She has been told that it is not that everyone else can't manage it but that their diets aren't healthy. To give her her due she has taken this on board and is remedying it.

We are on a fairly tight budget and spend about £80 a week. This includes toiletries, cleaning stuff and dog food for 2 adults, two teenagers (18&16), a seven year old and a Labrador. I buy the 3 for £10 meat/fish in the supermarket and each pack only does one meal for 5 with perhaps a portion left for ds3 for another day (and I bulk the mince out with lentils, kidney beans or veg depending on what I make with it) on the other nights we eat baked potatoes, egg or pasta dishes. Lunches are usually home made soup and bread or rolls but I do buy quite a lot of fruit and grow rhubarb. I often go to the supermarkets late to get reduced items but I do have the luxury of a freezer. We are still eating post Christmas Brussels sprouts that I got from Tesco for 2p a net!

OP - go to page 5 on this booklet:

www.thpc.scot.nhs.uk/wordfiles/under5s.pdf

there you will find general advice such as:
Children aged one to five need about one pint of whole milk a day.

because children need 2?g/kg/day of protein

No antimatter. I got six portions. Two lots of lasagne or mince based food (spag bol, chilli, shepherds pie). Bulk it out with lentils or kidney beans and it can go further, but I never said 19 portions.

750g of mince from tesco does two lasagne or other mince based meal and it's £3 so 50p each per portion. That's based on 3 people.

'for the people spending 100 or more, what's on your shopping list?'
I think what bumps my bill up us mainly the fruit - my weekly buy would include a few packs of blueberries, raspberries, passion fruit, figs, dried,mango etc those kinds of fruits. So, I'm lucky I can do this as it encourages the girls to enjoy fruit, but you could achieve the same with bananas and apples if budget tight.

apologies Hereshoping99 for my sloppy copy&paste!!!
my comment was to post by stressedHEmum from Sun 04-May-14 09:35:12

Just to add, about protein. Protein is found in nearly all foods, not just obvious sources such as meat ,eggs,etc. Even foods that we think of as'carbs' eg bread contain protein. Vegetables contain protein.
Anyone who eats a reasonably varied diet will get the minimum protein requirement, by default. It's only bodybuilders and professional athletes that really need to think about eating lots of protein, and even then they often use things like whey rather than lots of meat or extra eggs.