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?

Looking at your shopping lists the cuts I would make would be to cut out the 3 packs of antibacterial wipes if you are you are also buying antibacterial spray.
Cut down on the juice.
Cut down on the amount of snack foods too, see if you can find cheaper homemade alternatives, swap to fruit or just cut it out.

One of the biggest ways I found to save money was at the start of the month buy all of my store cupboard stuff, toiletries and cleaning products online and then only go into the supermarket to buy fresh fruit and veg and meats each week avoiding all other aisles.

I already use aldi wash powder, but have to use branded fabric conditnor as we have very hard water

We have no ready meals or takeaway

If you can shave money off, I would put it into savings

I don't think your list is extravagant at all, but equally if you didn't buy the juice or the anti-bac wipes I think you'd save money and not really change your quality of life any. Easy fixes there.

If you wanted to go further and make changes to the way you cook, then I'd swap the micro rice for normal rice, stop buying tinned soup and just make a batch every week, and stop buying oven chips - home made wedges are the easiest thing in the world. I par-boil potatoes and freeze them in bags with a little oil, they then go into a hot oven so you get roasties/wedges in 20 mins.

I think that would save quite a bit without making that much extra work.

You do have ready meals on your list- the pizzas, oven chips, fish fingers, microwaveable rice. There are also items on there that can be substituted for cheaper alternatives - wipes (use a cloth & bleach), juice cartons (decant into drinks bottles), out of season fruit (go with apples and oranges at this time of the year)

For super scrimping style make your own biscuits, bread, salsa, bacon, ham and hummus. None are difficult and taste better home made.

We use asda smartprice multi surface cleaner watered down by half & put into a spray bottle to clean. I spend £1.25 a year on it.

As a PP has pointed out - have you actually checked whether you will be able to take a toddler and a baby swimming by yourself? Most pools will not allow a single adult to be responsible for two non-swimmers.

TBH I would cut down on the shopping list (mine is a similar amount to yours, but we can afford it) and put the 'spare' into savings. I think that if you are really struggling this much, choosing to have a second child was a mistake, but one that you will have to live with now. No-one 'needs' a sibling, but families do 'need' to live to their means.

However, you need a safety net, not swimming lessons or soft play. God forbid something happens to your or your DP that stops the money coming in - you would be screwed. You need a back up plan.

YANBU. We spend about £70 in Aldi each week (what can't you get there?). We have four DC but one is an ebf baby so doesn't really count. You can definitely spend less on shopping.

Wow that's amazing if I cut out the fruit juice and wipes I will have enough for swimming and soft play :)

For cleaning, and a fantastic shine.... I have yet to find anything better than £40p vinegar from tesco.
Swirl in on, leave a while. Wipe off, and you are left with sparkling draining boards, taps...

I think you could cut £10 from an £80 food bill without too much trouble if you shop carefully. But I agree with the once a fortnight treat for swimming or soft play. That's enough.

I really don't like the comments that we shouldn't have had a sibling and that it is a mistake we will have to live with! We have a lovely 3 bed home with large garden, endless supplies of clothes and toys from my four nieces castoffs, and having a sibling will provide so much love and fun for my 2 year old and us as parents that we won't need loads of extra 'stuff' for dd1. I was keen for swimming as I think it's important as we live by the sea, soft play I can see is not essential now, it's just that lots of the mums from the toddler group I go to meet there weekly so I thought it would be nice to go for my sake to have a break. The reason our budget is tight is because I would like to be a stay at home mum until dds start school, so I am happy to have just enough to make this possible, I just felt swimming is a life skill and couldn't see how we could afford this. But thanks to the helpful replies I can see that there are some luxuries in my food budget that can be rid of to make enough for the swimming :) it's strange as I thought we had no luxuries so it has helped to see what others think we can cut back on from there own experiences. Thank you everyone! :)

I'm amazed you spend £80 a week on food for just the 3 of you! There are 7 of us (5 dcs ranging from 13 to 1), dh and I, and we spend around £90 a week on food. It can be less depending on what I've run out of.

Oh, and I'm also a sahm, dh works.

Can you get a swim membership? I pay 23 a month at the local leisure centre and children under 4 are free.

Also dd goes to gymnastics which is only 15 a month for every Saturday

Something like that may work out cheaper

I agree with those posters who say you should be saving as well. I would aim for a reduction of £20/week. Half into a savings account, the other on leisure activities. Anything left out of that can go into a little pot then into the savings account when it mounts up.

I think it could work in the short term yes.

But what will you do when your DDs are bigger and need more things then ? Have you a back up plan ?

I've found bulking out with lentils i.e. half mince, half lentils makes things a bit cheaper. I also managed to get a slow cooker (try freecycle) which lets me buy cheaper meats and they still taste as great. You can also make good cheap soups in them.

I'd try for a couple of weeks saving the £10 before you start taking your DD otherwise she'll possibly be disappointed if she has to stop. A couple of weeks should tell you if you can shave the money off.

Oh I see your plan is to go back to work and being in more money when DDs are a bit older.

Well that's fair enough.

In the short term then I think shaving a bit off the food bill would work.

I'm with whoever said I don't think £80 is that much really. Yes, you could cut down but having read the meal plan that somebody upthread posted, I wouldn't see a weekly trip to soft play as a decent trade off for eating in such a way.

Of course, if you have no choice then that's fair enough but I wouldn't choose to eat value eggs and meat to sit in a soft play once a week. I would make cut backs for swimming though, but not so that I was eating battery hen produced eggs, I'd be ditching the fresh juice and packets of antibacterial wipes first.

We spend about £100 a week for a family of 4 - 2 school ages DCs. Yes, we could probably cut it down but I would prefer to give them fresh fish and a wide variety of food each week.