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.

CantankerousCamel
There is plenty of veg in that shopping list which is better than fruit. Recommendation is what 5 a day still? So 2 bits of fruit 3 veg? You should know that it's government guilines.

Dungeon I actually included home made muffins in mine and Cath included a dessert in each of her meals.

I should have added that on the odd occasion anyone admits to cake on their "perfect" meal plans, they are always "homemade".

Ahh sorry Dungeon didn't realize you were being goady never called my meal plan perfect and home made muffins are cheaper than shop brought. Damn my enjoyment of home baking.

Calories are the last thing I think of when meal planning. I am convinced thinking of calories makes you fat! - I know it's a radical theory, but there you go!

I though that fruit was only thrown into the 5 a day recommendation at the last minute because they though 5 veg wasn't a realistic goal. Don't the french have 9 a day?

Well I went into M&S just now and bought 3 ready meals, a frozen toffee pecan roulade, a frozen lemon roulade, a key lime pie, some beef with herbs, some salad stuff, 2 packs of raspberries, 2 packs of grapes and spent about £35 No-one seems to have anything sweet and yummy in their shopping baskets, Don't people have sweet stuff nowadays

for those who love their vinegar the indian side salad is the one for you.chopped cucumber,red,onion,mint sauce.its a delight

kateandme I make this a lot

Some of our dinners include...

Mackerel and roast radish salad.
Jacket potatoes with tuna and salad.
Chicken/ prawn and vegetable stir fry.
Vegetable Thai green/ red curry.
Chorizo and tomato risotto with salad.

Breakfasts are a selection of eggs, cereal and fresh fruit/ yoghurt.

Lunches are a combination of homemade soups, salads and sandwiches/wraps.

Our food budget is £250 a month (2 adults and 2 children 3 and 7)

I think we eat healthy on our budget and we always have an abundance of fresh fruit and vegetables thanks to the wonderful market we have locally.

It's tight and takes a lot of planning, but it's doable. I'd question anybody who says we don't have a healthy diet.

Ahh sorry Dungeon didn't realize you were being goady smile never called my meal plan perfect and home made muffins are cheaper than shop brought. Damn my enjoyment of home baking.

Of course, nobody ever says that their meal plan is perfect. You clearly want others to be impressed though. I don't actually agree that home made muffins or cakes are cheaper than shop bought (my DDs make a lot unfortunately and it usually cost about the same if not more).

I don’t know if home made cakes are cheaper or not, I’ve never added it up, but we have home made ones because the DC love baking and it’s an activity to keep them amused (both pre school).

Home made cakes biscuits in my experience, cost about same or are cheaper. ( especially cheap to make fancy, occasion cakes) but they have much better ingredients. No corn syrup or preservatives.

Or the hydrolized fat. That’s really mucky stuff

Known - this is the corned beef hash/stew I make but I add a hefty amount of oxo cubes and sometimes lea and perrins. Serve with crusty bread and pickled red cabbage!
http://www.grouprecipes.com/80576/corned-beef-stew.html

So it can be done for less- very impressed with the poster's £60 menu. Doesn't contain any toletries, cleaning products or San pro tho. Also sausages aren't great from a health POV. Definitely the less you spend the harder you have to work at getting all the micros and macros in. I can see on the £60 budget how you could end up counting the apples by the end of the week, doesn't make it unhealthy though

Actually, I believe every family is entitled to a cup of tea and a packet of biscuits. I’ll stick to my £80 minimum. Looking at it, those shops just don’t make sense. Who doesn’t need bog roll or a bit of shampoo?

It’s just unrealistic

Durham - add ons? That is expensive but not as bad as I was expecting.

"CARBS ARE NOT UNHEALTHY." Totally agree! Any dietician will tell you we need all food groups to get all the nutrients we need. Carbs aren't JUST carbs, they also contain vitamins, minerals and sometimes 😱 protein.

Children especially need carbs Bd fats for growth, muscle development and because they expend more energy (are more active) than adults (generally speaking). It's damaging to muscles to burn protein rather than carbs/fats. Children's bodies aren't ready to consume high protein levels especially from foods high in fat. I would not recommend drastically reducing or cutting out a food group in a child's diet without medical advice.

I don't hold with fads that are about cutting out/right down whole food groups

A it's cutting the nutrients we gain directly from those foods

B it can seriously affect our absorption of other nutrients from other food groups. Eg healthy fats with foods rich in vitamin A, vitamin c rich foods with iron rich foods, carbs help with calcium absorption.

"sugar in fruit are very different.they are nutaral so able to be broken down within the bodies natural enzymes." Nope another myth.

Sugar is sugar is sugar - your body treats it the same whether it's fructose, sucrose or whatever form.

And what makes you think cane or beet based sugar isn't 'natural'?

Fruit is a healthier source of sugar because when you consume it you're not just getting sugar but also fibre, vitamins and minerals and are less likely to consume the same amount of sugar than if you're eating eg haribo which has a much higher concentration of sugar.

It's the ratio that's different per eg 100g of item consumed, not the type of sugar.

Plus what about oil and loo roll and toothpaste etc?
You don't eat loo roll and toothpaste, and I assumed there would be stuff such as dried herbs, oils and condiments in the cupboard. I was just posting a meal plan and shopping list for those meals.

A I'm not convinced of that conclusion, if they were that harmful they'd be banned

How do you explain cigarettes? Alcohol? Sweets?

What a great post graphista. Total agreement. Thank you.

Non edible items were included in my calculations camel but I suppose, strictly speaking, they shouldn’t be.

Although I agree wholeheartedly that you don't have to spend a lot of money to eat a healthy diet, can I point out that in a lot of cases, it costs more to bake your own treats than buy them, assuming you are not buying homemade organic cakes at a farmers' market.
Before anyone jumps in, I know hm is better, and you know what is in the recipe, but it is misleading to suggest you can cook cakes, biscuits etc for less than you can buy them for.
Add up the cost and I promise you will get a shock. I think it's because, if you bake, you would have most of the ingredients in stock anyway
I know home baking has many other benefits, but, on a purely financial basis, it's cheaper to buy
Not that anyone on MN would ever admit to feeding their DC's cakes

This is just showing off posh twats!

CathF I agree it probably is cheaper to buy but I have everything in because I stock up on offer/end of line discounts. It would be cheaper to buy than stock up on the ingredients but in the long run it can work out cheaper particularly with things like flapjacks (if you don't use the MN recipe with condensed milk anyway - which is amazing) and the taste difference is huge.
I do however buy cakes and biscuits on occasion i.e I'm lazy, kids are mithering for it or the lidl bakery section smells good

I bake too Lady, and I know it's a great activity for kids, better tasting etc. I just wanted to jump in when the usual guff about it being cheaper to bake started to raise its head. Honestly, I can recommend costing out everything you cook for a week - it's a real eye-opener, I promise you!
Funnily enough, the reasoning did it was because I was trying to prove to my mum that £2.50 wasn't extortionate for a cupcake at a foodfair once you had factored everything in. Mum was adamant that the cake would cost no more than 10p to make, so it went from there