£100 a week to live on. This can be done right?

[MsGameandWatch]

Food for three people and a dog. Petrol, gas and electric. Summer coming so hardly any gas usage. Car only used for short local-ish trips. Need to do it till November.

It doesnt sound very low to me. I expect loads of familys live on a similar amount.

Cheap dog food is a false economy as you have to feed a lot more or pay vet bills for poor health, I'd look for a decent mid range brand, bulk buy something on offer. That should save Quite a bit.

Exactly, SoloDance.

You'd rehome the dog longlost? Hahaha! (incredulous). No wonder shelters are full, (if you weren't actually joking), if anyone thinks like that! Other dog input - Wagg is pretty dire stuff. Would go Chappie for cheap but still ok.
Yeah, it would mean no treats really, but it's doable, scour the reduced stuff and make lots of stews and vegetarian things. Currently spend £50 a week for me and my DD on food getting whatever I like plus £18 on the dog - could cut all that stuff down by £20. And as you say it's summer, so energy's less. You could also time your showers, be conscientious about turning lights and chargers etc off.

I already get everything I am entitled to. I need to change my whole money mindset though and get us onto a secure financial footing. I have no savings and a big overdraft this can't continue it really is that simple. When I was single I lived on far less and life didn't seem too bad but I suspect I have Rose tinted spectacles.

I would never rehome my boy but I knew someone would suggest it.

Aldi for food. I can do one week for me and another adult for less than £25, most weeks. Working dog food is good value in there - quality is ok.
Meal plan and batch cook.

Your dog is an expensive luxury. Find it a new home until you can afford a pet.

how many meals? Are children on FSM and therefore more money will need to be spent during holiday time on food.

Ignore the posters telling up to her rid of your dog. They will be telling you to get rid of your phone and internet next.

Do one high there's a dear.

Kids on packed lunch but do get uniform allowance.

A few years back we had less than £100 pw for absolutely everything (food, bills,ct, travel) for 2adults,a child and two dogs. we ate better than we had in years! It was summer too so we didn't need heating and if it was cold we sat under a blanket. Meal planning and lots of veg & soups got us through and being anal about switching plugs off at the wall. We were actually not to badly off but we didn't have a mortgage to pay which made a huge difference,

You to get rid of *

Dogs love soup btw!

Very doable.

I've already recommended the thrifty lesley website once this week but no apologies for doing so again (and I don't get commission) . Lots of tips for mealplans for £1 a day per person and the recipes I've tried were lovely. Even if you couldn't manage that every week doing a week at £20-25 for all food every few weeks would free up a little extra from your £100 for treats or unexpected expenses.

I'm fairly sure she did a packed lunch article /plan recently too.

It's do-able and doesn't have to be horrible but if there's a way to earn extra cash or ask family to chip on on the dog's food, it would be easier. I know not everyone can just do a car boot or sell on facebook, but if you can, there's cash to be made.

How's your dog with others? You may have friends needing pet-sitters for holidays- obviously just for friends, you'd need insurance etc. to do it as a business.

At the end of the week, if you've only spent £95 what will you do with the other £5? Will it roll over, so some weeks you have more to spend, or will it be used to pay something else (debt/savings/treat for someone etc)?

Have a look on freecycle. Sometimes, people give away excess seedlings at this time of year. A few home grown veggies would help a little.

There are lots of great Facebook groups like "feed yourself for £1 a day" which share money saving tips. Also websites like Approved Food and Clearance XL are great

In my opinion, every adult should challenge themselves to attempt living on £73.10 a week, at some point. That is what you get on JSA and anyone could easily lose their jobs or split up with a partner, etc. and find themselves in the position of having to live on a tight budget.

Try Harringtons for dog food. It's available from Morrisons. I haven't looked into the pricing, but we get the cat biscuits and it's the same price as Whiskas but much better quality.

If you're trying to pay off an overdraft, can you transfer it to a 0% credit card and do it that way? Look on moneysavingexpert for offers that allow cash into your current account.

Hi, some good tips here already, feel free to join us on the frugaleers thread anytime to chat to us for more tips.

Definitely the very first thing you can do is use a price comparison site to find best deal for gas and electric if you haven't changed in a while.
If your kids are eligible for FSM that would be cheaper than packed lunch during term time? I don't know anything about FSM eligibility though.
Re: dog - this will be an expense but you can stop buying treats etc and just bare essentials. If you're in receipt of Housing Benefit (which it sounds like you are), you should be able to access your local PDSA for veterinary treatment but you might want to research how practical that is for you as it can depend on location a lot.
Tinned and frozen foods are your friends for cheap meals. Own brand. Lidl & Aldi if possible.

It's very tight. We are on benefits (JSA, CTC and CB) and we get £200 a week for two adults and one child. That's £64 child tax credits, £20 child benefit, £114 JSA. Our rent and council tax is covered and DD gets FSM, so that needs to cover gas, electricity, travel costs (not petrol as no car), food. Plus irregular stuff like clothes, school costs and saving towards anything like appliances and days out. We struggle to manage on that, and we don't have any pets and I know they can be expensive. Food is about £50pw for fairly basic groceries (could be cheaper), gas/elec is about £15pw as we have a modern insulated flat, travel is about £30pw. So I guess it could be possible if it was just the food/fuel/travel you had to pay for and you didn't have unexpected costs. But with a pet and car I think there's always the possibility of unexpected bills. I had to spend £60 the other week on train tickets to visit my mum as she was ill. Things like that are hard to deal with on a small budget.