to spend £280 a week to feed a family of 5?

[TempleOfBlooms]

I spend about £280 a week on food. This includes my work lunches which tend to be salads from places like Leon plus coffees etc. The rest is food eaten at home.

Breakfast for all five of us tends to be things like Bircher muesli or chia based stuff with fruits and nuts. Fresh juice too.

Lunches in summer are usually a selection of dips and cheese and meats and salads.

Dinner is usually fish or chicken with a selection of salads and grilled veg.

So fresh food but not caviar or ridiculous indulgences.

It seems like everyone else on here can feed a family of four on tiny amounts. How? We certainly could eat more cheaply but that would mean fewer veg, fewer fruits, less fish etc.

Is it really so unusual to spend so much on food? I never see anyone else admit to it.

BloodyBridget yes that sounds ok.
And yes you do, conversely get the feed a family of four for a week on a chicken posts which are tedious.

We used to spend that much, but we were eating a lot of seafood (salmon, scallops, etc) and wasting a lot of food. I have decided to save around 40% of the food budget per week, and we're not anymore eating seafood all the time but we're still eating well.

Our biggest extravagance is cauliflower rice, which my husband brings to work and eats for dinner too. It's $3/pack and my husband eats 4/day and me 1-2/day.

Now that I have written this, I think I should make my own cauliflower rice instead! Maybe it will be more economical.

I think a lot of people under portion and eat rubbish foods especially the posters sagi g things like "i feed a family of 4 on less that £80" etc. MIL is a nightmare for this dinner at her house consists of a tablespoon of peas 3 potatoes half a salmon fillet etc drives us mental when she comes over to ours and marvels at the big meals i dish up and DH wolfs down while denying the fact he was practically starved living with her

I think a lot of people under portion and eat rubbish foods especially the posters sagi g things like "i feed a family of 4 on less that £80"

We definitely don't spend more than £80 on a family of three and we eat reasonably well. I'm not a meal planner or creative with recipes - just decent food.

Last night we had vegetable lasagne, green beans, broccoli and new potatoes. Total cost for two main meals (we'll have it tonight as well) about £5-6, not including herbs and oil.

Other nights we will have risotto, toad in the hole, mushroom kievs, fish and vegetables - we have decent variety and we don't spend a fortune.

£280 a week? I wish i had that amount. £130 a week for 6 of us and that covers everything from nappies to fruit etc. Buy tinned fruit or veg or similar for fruit,get in juice tho healthier. frozen fruit and veg are good too. Eat less meat and fish plus go for cheaper cuts etc. Stop eating lunches out too, that would save a bob or two. Buy the shops own in things that don't matter e.g squash, toilet rolls, yoghurts.

Hi I feed a family of 4 for around £50 a week by mainly bulking up meals with frozen veg. I don't buy any treats or anything like alcohol so that keeps the price down and to he honest if we wernt piss poor I would spend more. So if you can afford it go for it I know I would.

www.geniuskitchen.com/recipe/corn-and-wild-rice-chowder-491832
Not exactly the same but similar

I think a lot of people under portion and eat rubbish foods

Used to know someone, very high salary, extremely bright, who said she was able to feed her family for less than £15 per week.

However her dh because of his business always ate out.
Her idea of breakfast was a round of toast and a glass of tap water, lunch and dinner was beans on one round of toast or baked potato (think the smallest baked potatoes you could imagine)
As a side dish she would make up a tiny salad. And a piece of fruit or a tiny yoghurt for dessert.

At times she thought she should cut back because she was over eating

We spend between £50-£70 a week on our food shop, depends on what extras we need such as cleaning products. For a family of 3. Plus we also get a meat box delivery once a month and spend about £50 on that. Unless you spend money on junk food I don't understand how you spend so much. Most of our shop is fresh produce.

How is salmon potatoes and peas rubbish ? Boring I grant you, but it is reasonably balanced meal, no ?

Let me just clarify;

I’m the poster who said that I don’t understand why people on decent incomes choose to eat low quality food so they can ‘save’ on food spending. I’m talking about people who say they feed a family of 4/5/6 on £80 for a family of 4 etc.

I do question people who say that they eat lots of fresh, varied foods for less than that though. I don’t see how that’s possible.

Even when I do a roast chicken (£8-£10), garnishes (£3-£5) then add veggies (£3/£4), roast and then make soup the following day, add noodles (£1) plus a few nice fresh crispy bits to go in it (£3) I’m spending £25 just on three days dinners. That’s not including lunches, or breakfasts and then you have the rest of the week!

So yes, if you’re telling me you’re feeding a family of 4 for less than £80 a week, I’m questioning the quality of the food yours eating. Because that’s got to be where the sacrifice comes from.

This place is baffling sometimes

@Pengggwn, well said!

What's your AIBU? You seem to just be stating what you do? Not my OH thinks we spend too much but I don't think so!

It's just a stealth boast really??

DH and I (plus one other adult part of the week) spend around £100 a week. I think £50 per person per week is OK, that's less than a tenner a day. If part of that is going on takeaway coffees and lunches then I can see how it would be that much.

But what is the AIBU actually asking for?

A free range chicken is £5. Potatoes £2, carrots 49p, broccoli 52p total £8. Next day soup carrots would be left over (or another 50p) noodles 50p-£1,can of corn -50, soy sauce 79p ( would use all of it), spring onions 49p, loaf of bread £1. Total 1£12-14 . Am I missing something ?

Stillwishihadabs

Where is a free range chicken £5?

A free range chicken is only 5 in lidl

STILL

A large free range chicken from Waitrose is £8ish.

A small chicken doesn’t have enough meat on it for chicken noodle soup for 4 people.

Plus we like to add baby sweetcorns, bean sprouts, crispy runner beans and so on to our noodle soup. Not ‘day old carrots’

I get the stock and the meat from the day before, but I’m quite happy to throw extra veggies in.

Often we have enough stock to do two nights of noodle soup with extra bits thrown in (we might get some minute steak for the third night for example.

It’s not a meal we make because we want to feed ourselves for pennies but one we make because we enjoy it and it saves on waste.

A free-range chicken starts at £5 in Waitrose too, but they’re really small.

I need a nice large one for the amount I use them.

OP you sound disorganised. That's what you're doing wrong.

Buying lunch daily instead of bringing premise lunch from home and stopping in the way home from work to buy whatever you're having for dinner that night.

If you had a weekly meal plan and shopped once a week, with a small top up mid week.

Batch cooked and packed the family lunches from home you would save a fortune.

I would guess that your disorganisation and paying extra for convenience filters into other areas of your life as well.

StillwishIhadabs

Lots of that isn't true where I live. Semi-rural and no Aldi/Lidl. A free range chicken for six is £10+. The fresh veg would be a bit more (our farm shops haven't got the reasonable price memo and the supermarkets can charge what they like) and the store cupboard stuff would be at least double your prices. The noodles are an exception - probably similar price.

We spend about £150 to feed six, not including any takeaways or meals out. Because cost of living is high, that involves spotting every deal going! We are eating mostly veggie at the moment which is saving us a fortune so probably under £100 at the moment - clearly the charm as we never managed that when we lived next to Lidl!

I have a sneaking admiration for people spending £300 a week for two! I want to see your shopping trolleys and drink your wine.

One privilege we have is cheap oysters. 60p each. So we tend to have those as a Friday night treat. Cheaper than a takeaway.

Lucky you!

We don't have Lidl, we only have Sainsburys, and a free range chicken from our local Sainsburys costs between £9 and £11 depending on weight. Prices differ from supermarket to supermarket, and from town to town. I don't doubt that some of you can feed a family of six (or whatever) on a low budget, but not everyone has the same access to that. Our prices are significantly higher than they were at Sainsburys in Birmingham (for example), plus I'd have the choice to go to about six other supermarkets in the same area. I can't do that here, there is one supermarket (Sainsbury) a seven minute drive away, or I have to do a 1 hr 20 minute round trip, which just isn't feasible on a regular basis.

You leave some carrots in the bag to use the next day ! Of course baby corn/ mange tout are more expensive than British carrots and canned corn- but to say you don't undweratand that it's possible is disengenouis (sp??)

I’ve also found that Aldi (there’s no Lidl) have such an obscure amount of stuff that I often have to make two trips out to different supermarkets (one being Aldi, one somewhere else) to get the bits I need for the week.

This is frustrating and a waste of my time.

Some aspects are great (£6 Pimms anyone?) but some of the stuff just isn’t what I would want to feed my family. I went the other day and they had a really mediocre selection of fresh veggies, I ended up having to go to Waitrose anyway and, because Waitrose do a 3 for £10 on a few of their meats, it is actually cheaper/same price to get some stuff from there