To cut back on food to afford to take dd swimming and to soft play?

[Shortofcash]

All our money is allocated each month for bills, there is nothing spare. Dd is age 2 and we have always done free activities like go to the park or surestart activities. All her clothes are hand me downs from my older sisters daughters. I would live to be able to take her to swimming and soft play, I estimate it would cost me about £10 a week. We currently spend £80 a week in a mix of aldi and tesco (mostly aldi - just go to tesco for bits I can't get in aldi). If I shaved £10 a week off our food bill I could afford to take her swimming and soft play (although soon we will have a dd2 so will probably be only be able to afford swimming for both and no soft play :( ) would I be unreasonable to cut back on food so my dd can swim?

I agree find some good toddler groups.
The ones I went to ranged from 50p to 1.50 a week and had loads for the kids to do. Plus a snack and.a cuppa. Also they are often looking for people to help set up which meant you didn't have to pay that week.
There's lots of cheaper stuff to do than soft play!

We probably spend about £100-£120 per week on groceries. That's two adults, 3yo and cat. However we do only buy organic/free range meat/milk/eggs.

My husband does weight lifting and a very physical job, so we probably get through about 40-60 pints of milk a week, 2-3 dozen eggs and 4 bunches of bananas.
Its balanced by the fact that I don't eat a huge amount and we don't buy treats/snacks other than fresh fruit.

People don't claim to spend that amount each week some people only have that each week so have no choice , yes it's nice to shop in waitrose and not look at the prices but not everybody has that luxury, I'm been skint and it's fully doable to shop for £25 a week, not much fun but you won't go hungry now I never have to look at a price tag but I still don't forget what it's like to be hard up

Who spends £130 a week on food? I can't imagine how you could shovel that much food in! I certainly wouldn't even be a ble to carry that much home. We do a big shop about every other month and get a taxi and it might come to that, but that is all the tins, frozen food, cat litter, cat food, potatoes, sauces, rice, pasta, tea, coffee, flour, sugar, etc that we need for 8-10 weeks.

I can't see how it is possible to spend that much every week. Not unless you are living on champagne and caviar or similar.

I agree about soft play too, a once a year treat.

OP if you think cleaning products are pushing up your bills, do you have a home bargains/quality save/wilkinsons/B&M bargains near you? You can make decent savings there on cleaning products,tinned food,packet food, toiletries etc. we do that, then use local shops for veg and meat &supermarket for other bits. We also try to grow the herbs we use the most. I second advice to check out moneysavingexpert for tips and moneysupermarket for price comparing the expensive stuff.

I also agree with PPs that swimming,soft play etc don't have to be every week - although soft play might be a good option when the new baby arrives. Check out local church play groups too.

The idea of economising on food is a good one. OP is not suggesting the family should go hungry and not have enough to eat to fund social activities. We all have to make choices about what to spend our money on and choosing some leisure is just one choice. Some people face the choice of an expensive holiday abroad or a new car ......it is all choices involved in living within our means and deciding what we value most.
If the OP was spending £25 currently and talking about saving £10 for leisure, it would be a different story. And of course for some people there really isn't a penny left for lesiure because absolutely everything else is already being done in the very cheapest way. Fortunately the OP has some flexibility.

Yes to Church/community play groups being very cheap entertainment when it it is too cold for park. Soft Play might have a cheap rate session, as may swimming.

84 is the average weekly shop for a family of 4 according to watchdog a few weeks back. I would expect they would be talking about older children to so you are definitely spending too much.

We budget for soft play every week. It is something fun to do in the bad weather.

Look on MN local for community playgroups. Loads of toys, interaction with other kids and I only pay £1.50-&2 a session.

If people do spend 100+ on food I expect it relates to 60% of adults now being overweight. I expect lots of families by way too much.

Do you have a garden centre near you that has softplay as that is free and the one by me is a great softplay.

Caronaim it's not a question of "shovelling" in food, which actually sounds quite offensive and I shop in Asda and Aldi so hardly Waitrose (in fact they hardly exist here in Scotland) and I do realise some people have a very limited budget, I have a budget to. There are 3 adults, a teenager and a child in our house. But a whole weeks worth of breakfasts, lunches, dinners, snacks, toiletries, all other groceries is about £200 for us, there's certainly no gluttony or champagne in there!!

Tropical none of us are overweight.

Given that you finances are what they are and you are currently pregnant, you can definitely save money on your weekly shop but I wouldnt waste it on soft play and swimming.

And yes OP I'm sure you probably could cut some money if you really planned so you could take your DD swimming.

Tinkerbell, we are talking about 2 adults and a toddler, which is about half the size of your household, but even so, I can't think what you find to spend £200 a week on!

There is 5 of you, that is £40 a week each! That is a lot. What do you eat?

Tinkerbell I am surprised at your high figure. We have 5 people here. We buy 2 kinds of nappies, and baby milk every week but never spend more than £80. I even think that is quite high, and it could easily be cut back.

I feed four of use with carefule meal planning, fresh & frozen veg - no jars but buy value items too for £50 per week. I do this so we can do the extras like swimming, cinema (cheap Sunday am tickets) have a coffee out.

I do it all online with Tesco shop and put meals on a spreadsheet. We eat all food groups every day.

I think I need to go through my receipts and see where I am spending too much. I do feel we already eat cheaply but I must be going wrong somewhere. I will try and find a receipt and type it out to see if someone can tell me where I'm going wrong!

Yes I already use aldi cleaning products

See I tries aldis cleaning products but wasn't keen I found I was using twice as much therefore not actually saving!

Depends what is in the £80. I would look to cut it but not to pay for swimming or soft play but to get some savings behind you. If you can't afford hobbies or clothes for one child then with two you are really going to struggle. Once they start school it will only get more expensive.

Cutting the food bill by £10 May not cut it alone. You may have to look at everything inc upping the household income.

Family of three here; we spend £25 a week in Lidl with occasional brand products from other supermarkets ( I'm funny about my washing up liquid and coffee) and eat exceptionally well, get more than our 5 a day. My tip is to eat a lot less meat; it doesn't need to be in a meal for it to be filling, delicious and nutritious.

On another note, won't DD be a little put out if you suddently start doing all these new things with her, only to stop when DD2 arrives?

OP the cleaning stuff can really eat into a budget. All I buy is bleach, washing up liquid and washing powder. I clean everything with bleacy solution and if there's something stubborn like the cooker top then I use a mixture of laundry detergent which works well.

What cleaning things do you buy?