To think that £200 a week for a family of 4 is doable?

[Bluebridge]

So I've become a sahm due to the cost of/ lack of flexible childcare. We are 2 adults and 2 young dc.

We obviously checked the figures before I became a sahm but some things have changed and now we are left with £200 a week after bills except food. I'm having a panic but this is fine isn't it!?

[CreamCheeseBrownies]

Yup I think food is something of a red herring, the challenge is to capture all the other expenses - haircuts, party gifts, shoes and coats for you all, after school activities, petrol and gifts for trips to visit relatives, or extra food for hosting them. Having a way of covering car repairs and emergency house repairs is important too.

Doable though and you're going about it the right way.

Camping gear is cheap second hand but campsites tend to be at least 25 quid per night, plus charcoal if you're bbqing, petrol etc.

[Crunchymum]

I would go down the meal plan / strict weekly budget route. So if you spend £100 but it feeds you all for a week then you have £100 a week to save / use.

Work out how many meals you need a week (is it breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks for 2 adults and 2 toddlers x7 days per week? ) put it all onto an excel sheet and get planning.

Breakfast can be porridge / cereal / toast with yoghurt and fruit on rotation.

Again pick 3-4 lunches and do them on rotation. Hummus, pitta, homemade crudites / omelette / tuna pasta salad.

So it just really leaves dinner.
Have a few veggie evenings to keep costs down.

I think planning is key but you'll be fine.

[BarbaraofSevillle]

It's a long time since I looked at Sun holidays but when I did you had to pick 4 sites and give 4 dates and you wouldn't know straight away where/when you were going.

Also, once you'd added in compulsory extras like electricity, linen and entertainment passes, you saved hardly anything over booking direct, so I didn't bother and just chose my own holiday as not knowing the date until much later wasn't compatible with work holidays.

Another thing that might make it a bit easier is to agree with your family and friends not to do presents for adults at Christmas and birthdays and limit those for DCs to very close relatives. That will save you all spending money on things that no-one really wants or needs.

[Pizzaexpressreview]

Cream I think you're right. I need to make a proper list of all those extra expenses. If the car costs 500 on mot that's 50quod a month already knocked off. And I don't know how much we spend on fuel.

Barbara - I'm going to have to be stricter about Xmas this year. Last year I got it down to a fiver for lots of people who send the kids something but still plus postage x lots of people it really added up. :(

[Bluebridge]

@tazer have a word with yourself instead, if you haven't got anything helpful to contribute keep your bitchy comments to yourself. I've already explained why I'm worried.

No room or time to grow veg or care for chickens at the moment.

Dc are preschoolers so no uniform/lunch/trip costs.

[cheminotte]

Fine for food but I would start building a rainy day fund as it's the things like car / house insurance, white goods needing replacing, kids growing, birthday and Christmas that will blow your budget. Best to have at least 2 pots - absolute emergency only and planned costs eg insurance / birthdays / holiday.

[Bluebridge]

@crunchy I like the idea of breakfast and lunch on rotation. Definitely need to start a veggie night or 2 a week, we get good value meat from the butcher but i'd like to cut down our meat consumption.

Undecided on wether to try aldi/Lidl or do an online shop.

[Booboobooboo84]

Try approvedfood if no ones suggested it. Their website is hard to use and you have to be careful about best before dates as some will be out of date. But the prices are fab and you can bulk buy

[Booboobooboo84]

@tazerface everyone has a different budget and different constraints. The op asked for advice not someone to be outright mean to her for no good reason

[Pizzaexpressreview]

We have a Lidl near us but wasn't sure if it was cheaper than asda basics! I know it's cheaper than branded stuff but we didn't buy branded stuff in the first place!!

[5rivers7hills]

Do both you and your DO work erratic hours?

Could one of you (you?) get a job with regular office hours? Then you can get day time child care and both work.

[Bluebridge]

Going to do a meal plan tonight. Meat from the butcher usually comes to around £50 which does us for the month. Is that an ok amount? Usually get 2kg of mince, loads of chicken breasts and a couple of whole chickens for that.

I'm thinking each week to do main meals based on:
1x roast joint/whole bird
1x chicken breast
1xmince
1x beans on toast/baguettes/toasties
1xveggie
1x freezer
1x leftover

Lunch is usually sandwiches or leftovers, sometimes soup.

I think the idea of 2 savings accounts a few posters have mentioned is a really good one. Dh has just said his work runs a xmas savings scheme where they deduct directly from his salary so will look at that for next year.

[Bluebridge]

@5rivers childcare cost for 2 would take all of mine and some of dhs wages. We did try it for a while but it just wasn't viable for us.

[InDubiousBattle]

pizza I have found Aldi to be a little bit cheaper than asda basics and the fresh fruit and veg is good, however I think tgey're variable from store to store and there really isn't much in it. I don't drive so weigh up taxi v delivery costs. Last week I wasn't organised and the only delivery slots available from asda were £6.50! I've found the things I like from aldi through trial and error so do a mixture of aldi/asda or morrisons/butcher.

I think it very much depends on how much you're aiming to save and what you spend now. Someone spending £200 a week on organic food from wait rose and M&S could easily half it by going to Aldi. If you already get basics from Asda you won't save a lot by switching to Aldi.

[Tazerface]

Didn't think I was being bitchy thought I was being realistic? You explained that circumstances have changed and now you're panicking about it. Can't see why you might be panicking at all under the circumstances - most people go through this to a certain extent when their children are born!

Sorry if you find that less helpful than comments like 'Obviously luxuries would be out of the question, it mostly depends on his old your children are-would you be able to find time to grow vegetables, keep chickens, make everything from scratch etc?' which is bollocks quite frankly.

Make sure if you are claiming tax credits you have given them a forward projection of your salary (esp. if you are earning significantly less than last year) because otherwise they will base on last years earnings.

[Bananamama1213]

Family of four here - our weekly shop is roughly £50-£60 a week. We also have to buy things during the week like bread so add another £20 on at a guess.

[Earlyriser84]

Meat packs from local butchers are often good locally sourced quality meat and a lot cheaper pound for pound than supermarkets.

An approx £30 pack lasts us two weeks for 2 adults and 2 children (with some fish nights thrown in).

Lots of asian inspired recipes are quite cheap and batch cooking fresh food. Saves so much money !

[onemorecakeplease]

We shop at Asda and I do it online so there is less temptation to impulse buy and it helps me meal plan.

I choose the £1 slots usually 8-10pm but I'm going to be in anyway after the dc are in bed.

Then we top up with bread, milk etc.
I probably spend about £100 a week in food, household items and lunches.
I don't buy luxuries either just healthy stuff which is way more expensive than buying cheap crap!

Back to school was a nightmare it must have been about £300 for 4 x shoes (indoors and outdoors) logo uniform, bags etc.

We need a new washing machine, I need the septic tank emptied, dh's car is on its last legs, my leggings all have holes in, dd is outgrowing her trainers, its ds's birthday next week....it's never ending - I put the child benefit into a savings account each month and try to forget about it so when new things are needed I can have a backup.

I also buy second hand, so for ds birthday he has some hot wheels cars which he collects and a brand new set of hex bugs - both from Facebook site. The rest of the stuff is little things I've picked up from amazon and one of dh's pals gave him an old PlayStation.
So it looks a lot but cost very little - you just have to plan ahead.

To be honest I am weary of it. I can't wait to get back to work full time when the dc don't need me quite so much but it's so hard when school finishes at 2.30!

[Pizzaexpressreview]

Yep. Afterschool care would be 15 for each child here and before school 10. So if I needed both 50quid!! minimum wage would only pay a few pounds more. :(

I'm hoping for mornings only or some revelation of a profession i can retrain in!

[Bluebridge]

I've just finished meal planning and I think I can do it for £70 a week. So plan is £70 shopping, £30 savings which at this point will be for xmas, £100 for fuel and weekly spends.

We will be £200 a month better off in January, I will try and save all of this into 2 separate accounts. Fingers crossed we don't have any major expenses before then!

[Violetcharlotte]

That sounds fine. If it's only til January then even better! I spend about the same as you on good, but I spend about £40 a week in fuel to get to work, so that makes my £200 budget tighter!

[Bluebridge]

We are very lucky that dh's fuel for work is pretty much covered by his employer.

[cheminotte]

I'd reverse those numbers tbh. If fuel is covered by dh's work, what on Earth are you going to spend £100 pw on? That's a lot of soft play trips. Better to put that to one side and build up a good safety net.

[Xmasbaby11]

It's doable but I think you just have to watch daytime spending. I frittered a lot on maternity leave - lots of popping to cafe or shops! Lots of activities are only 30 mins long and then there's the rest of the day to fill, so I went to library and play cafes a lot or friends' houses.

[Oly5]

We could live on £200pw but I wouldn't want to. I agree with not much wiggle room if things go wrong