AIBU to ask if you had £50 for a weekly food shop what would you buy?

[FuckingDiet]

This is not my situation and in no way a begging thread. Between now and the run up to Christmas we see a lot of these types of threads so I thought it would be a good idea to put all our advice in one place. That way if anybody is in need everything is in on place.

I will set a challenge of 3dc aged between 2-10 and 2 adults, your meal plan for the week, shopping list and where you would buy it from with a rough total. Lets see which one of us can come up with the best result.

so tired of "why don't you grow your own" being paraded forth!

...on the other hand, anyone with a windowsill can chuck some seeds in a window box and grow salad leaves and herbs in a couple of weeks in the summer!

I get your point, but I would also want to encourage people to know that growing something is possible, and fresh salad leaves are a lot cheaper than in the supermarket!

I get your point, but I would also want to encourage people to know that growing something is possible, and fresh salad leaves are a lot cheaper than in the supermarket!

We're currently growing fresh salad leaves in the window. It's going to take seven weeks to grow one meal's worth, and the cost of seeds and compost will be very similar to the price of a bag of mixed leaves at the supermarket. I'm not convinced by the economy, though we're doing it for the science lesson.

Agree, with you, Namechange. Some people do grow a few veg, like tomatoes. Some people also forage things like apples, blackberries etc. There's nothing wrong with that, and there's no need to take the mick when people suggest them on these threads. It's what people used to do, when working class people were truly poor. In any case, these kinds of things are just a top up to supplement the budget, no one is suggesting that people can live on them alone.

I'm not convinced by the economy, though we're doing it for the science lesson

At this time of year, definitely will take longer to grow. But in the summer and late spring, you can grow cut and come again crops that will go for weeks. A pack of mixed leaf seeds is only about 49p in B&Q!

It depends how you use them, obviously, but one pack usually gives us salad leaves as a side dish and sandwiches etc. for about three - four weeks.

I am not very green-fingered and I can't be the only one. And we're growing them in the south-facing window, not a window box, so the season ought to be irrelevant.

I think mostly it will be my plant-killing curse.

I'm sure you're doing fine! The light levels are a lot lower at this time of year and it does make a difference - they'll grow like wildfire in the summer!

I'm quite green fingered but have very mixed success with vegetables.

I attempted quite a lot but this summer was such a wet wash out that many of the vegetables ( peas and courgette) failed to set. Those that did simply rotted on the stem.
Carrots and roots were also affected. Even lettuce ended up a sludgy mess eaten by slugs and birds.
I bought canes, compost, tubs, netting, seeds.
I got less than a carrier bag full of produce.

I won't be wasting my time and efforts again.

Cheaper to buy the vegetables from ALDI.

Few things are cheaper to grow than buy, but lettuce is very cheap and easy to grow.
Agree foraging is useful. I have a friend on the dole, no kids, who is a brilliant cook and forages lots of her food.Obviously only any good if you are not working as it does take time.
Also if you are truly skint, there are food banks and some cities have free meals once a week provided by a community cafe.
Markets are brilliant, especially in poor areas. Cheap fruit and veg, and chocolate close to expiry date. Lots of bargains to be had. But it does take time so not possible for everyone.

This has gone on a bit of a tangent!

The one thing I will say is worth it in terms of "growing v buying" is herbs, I use my herb garden all year round and it mainly looks after itself, it was about a £30 all in initial investment 2 years ago but it is handy to always have a few herbs that I can jazz up most veggies with.

Also it was only a few generations ago that toiletries like conditioner were a luxury. You really don't need it. Bars of soap, cheap shampoo and deodorant is all you actually need.

I agree.

I don't use shower gel.
A bar of soap does the same job, lasts ages and is a fraction of the price.

Good point brasty plus lot's of them will last even with a few people using it a bottle of shampoo should last at least a few weeks.

I might start tracking how often we buy non weekly things (soap, washing up liquid, tinfoil) and see if I can get them to run out at similar times so I can do one huge monthly shop and then a much smaller weekly shop. I think buying in bulk saves money if you can afford it.

DP is out of work as of this week and I think we will start feeling the pinch in a week or two.

You don't need tin foil either, it is a nice to have. Scrub grills rather than putting tin foil over, and cover leftovers with a clean tea towel.
Basically look at what people used to do. So many things we now see as essential that people did not or rarely used in the past.

Yeah, I'm not doing without my hair conditioner. There's room for it in a £50 budget.
Soap is ok but prefer shower gel, these things are cheap enough at Aldi.
Just a suggestion that might help someone, I use basic soap as a stain remover on my washing, works great on things like food stains, pooey knickers (don't ask), and is a fraction of the price of things like Ace or vanish. The very best stain remover/whitener is hanging things out to dry in sunshine and is free if you have a garden or balcony.

Sure, we all trade different things in our budget. I would rather have chocolate than conditioner personally.

I wondered about the tin foil. The poster who mentioned it said she buys a roll every few weeks. We cook quite a lot and have leftovers etc and a roll of foil from Aldi that I think costs a couple of quid (or £2.79 rings a bell for some reason) must last at least six months, so I wonder what on earth she is doing with it? Is she one of those people I see that wraps sandwiches in foil and puts them in a plastic box?

Likewise, I think a lot of people use a lot more than strictly necessary of things like shower gel, toothpaste, washing up liquid, bleach, etc.

I've seen the enormous squirt of Fairy and mound of bubbles produced when our office martyr passively agressively washes up at work and I'm sure it is far more than needed for washing up.

Granted we have a dishwasher and use one tablet per load (always buy Aldi, never Finish at nearly four times the price ) but we do have a bottle of washing up liquid as well and it must last at least a year.

For the sake of the environment and the shopping budget, I bet a lot of people could use a lot less of these sorts of things than they do normally, which would be great if trying to economise, because more would be leftover to buy actual food.

Lots of people use too much toothpaste, which is actually a bigger issue as young kids then can swallow it. You only need a pea size amount.

I don't really care if someone uses a lot of tin foil. Just cutting down on it is a very easy way to save a bit.
I am always amazed so many people buy cleaning wipes. They are such an expensive way to clean.

I suppose what is essential will come down to people's opinions as well.

I don't think meat is essential, or bread but other people will disagree and while you can live without tinfoil or cling film or tea or peanut butter I think most people would not choose to spend hours scrubbing a grill pan etc.

Just because people are struggling for money doesn't mean they should only buy things that are "essential".

I probably buy tinfoil once or twice a year just to clarify.

Pasta with chicken thighs/stock/creme fraiche/nuts/herbs etc.

Sausage and mash with onion gravy (as cheap or expensive as you like)

Gammon joint to slice for ham sandwiches

Jacket potatoes with cream cheese and chive/bacon/cheese/beans etc.

Cous cous mixed with halloumi, veg, spicy chorizo etc

Veg/chicken/prawn curry with rice

Homemade pizzas on wholemeal bread dough

Eggs are always a winner and can be very cheap. Can cover sandwiches, omelettes, poached egg on toast, poached egg on smoked fish etc.

Soups are very very cheap and with a nice load of bread are still a cheap meal

Porridge/overnight oats for breakfast or cheap weetabix alternatives. Greek yoghurt has loads of protein and can buy cheap at Aldi.

It's also good to be aware that manufacturers deliberately design packaging to encourage the consumer to waste a good amount, because then they buy more.

Any sort of cream in a tube (hand cream, sun lotion, face cream etc) will have quite a lot left when it starts making the farty squirty noise.

Cut the tube open and scrape it out into a pot to get a good few weeks more out of it.

They made the hole in the toothpaste tube bigger and show people covering the whole brush to encourage them to use 3 or 4 times too much each time.

One of my personal bugbears is the Sunpat peanut butter jar. About 10% of the contents lurks in all those curves when the jar appears empty. I bought sundae spoons from the pound shop to get the last dregs out of the jar easily.

Does shampoo still say 'rinse and repeat'? Totally unnecessary especially if washing hair reasonably frequently.

So whether you need to save money or not, experiment with using a bit less than you're used to, things will last longer and need replacing less frequently.

My retired fil (and mil when she was alive) forages and barters or sells foraged mushrooms to neighbors - you really have to know what you're doing though! I couldn't do it for fear of killing someone or making them ill, and for some reason they didn't pass their knowledge on to DH, but DD has learnt loads from them and hopefully will be able to keep the skill going and use it.

It's not something you can suddenly start doing when you realise you've too much month at the end of the money this month though!

Morrisons for the 3 for a tenner fish and meat and also stuff like lentils, chick peas, kidney beans.... and everything else in Aldis and Iceland.

A breadmaker helps as making your own bread can be cheaper. Ditto yogurt maker. I have just kyboshed my own budget by having to go gluten free which has forced me back into Morrisons or tescos for some things, each week. That said, the more supermarkets you shop in, the more loss leaders...

So get things like bagels etc when on special offer and freeze.

God I've no idea - I spend over £30 a week and there's only me and 3yo DS!!