Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To those who are not sure you can feed a family for less than £100 a week

327 replies

Metoodear · 28/05/2018 14:03

I posted a few pictures on the other shopping conversation of the food I cooked as people simply refused to belive you can weekly shop for less than £100 and not just eat pasta all week

Just come back from shopping and just wanted to show you my list and weekly plan Monday is not on their because I already have the dinner we are having salmon baby roasted potatoes and squash wedges with green beans

I have 3 kids and a cat no less Sp 5 of us in total this list includes stuff for lunch as well for me and husband

I it can be done if you don’t allow grazing and make a meal plan the

To those who are not sure you can feed a family for less than £100 a week
To those who are not sure you can feed a family for less than £100 a week
OP posts:
Thread gallery
5
LagunaBubbles · 28/05/2018 14:31

School dinners are free or are you not aware of that

School dinners arent free!

InDubiousBattle · 28/05/2018 14:31

Of course you can eat for less than £100 a week, I've never seen anyone say you have to luve on just pasta, but you do you have to use cheaper meat (sausages for example), pasta and jacket potatoes. As you've shown.

We spend around £120 for 2 adults and 2 pre schoolers. We shop and aldi/asda for most things, the butchers for meat and the local shop for eggs and bread. We cook from scratch but aren't extravagant. If I wanted to cut back a bit I'd have jackets for a meal too.

Anasnake · 28/05/2018 14:31

Mine and many other people's budgets also includes toiletries, cleaning products, pet food etc - and the 'school dinners are free' comment doesn't include my teens

gamerchick · 28/05/2018 14:31

School dinners are not free for all kids OP. I can't get free school dinners.

Do a meal plan for the bank holiday week when the kids are off school and it'll be more realistic for more people.

I can do it, I don't spend near 100 quid for 4 of us. But I can stretch a chicken to 4 meals. One portion of takeaway curry is 3 meals for 1 person for eg. Padding stuff out with red lentils and the like. Using all that tired veg in the fridge type of thing. The things you can do with a potato. How to store and jazz up leftovers. If people put more thought into it they could but not everyone has the inclination or headspace to do it. That's their choice.

LagunaBubbles · 28/05/2018 14:31

You keep saying 'I already have that' but you must have bought it at some point!

Yes unless you stole the chicken you already have youve bought it.

traciebanbanjo · 28/05/2018 14:31

Of course it's possible.

But my salad today would have been shit without pine nuts, sunblushed tomatoes and micro greens.

Heismyopendoor · 28/05/2018 14:32

I spend about £60 a week at Lidl and maybe another £10 max a week on top ups. That is for five, 2 adults and 3 kids (who seem to eat as much as me!).

We don’t really eat what you have bought though. We eats lots of fruit and veg, lots of lean meats. Breakfast are smoothies (from frozen and fresh fruit, oats, milk) or porridge, I meal prep all of mine and DH lunches and then dinners are things like Chili, cottage pie, roast dinners, tacos, Curry, soups, toast and beans, etc

Original poster
Metoodear · 28/05/2018 14:32

Just say this once so everyone can understand about breakfast unless their is some cereal rule I haven’t heard off you don’t have to eat cereal for breakfast

You can eat pancakes
Fruit
Eggs
Toast
Ect ect all of that I ha e the ingredients for

And for those who keep saying I have no veg or fruit just for your information
I also have mango chopped and raspberry in the freezer

To those who are not sure you can feed a family for less than £100 a week
To those who are not sure you can feed a family for less than £100 a week
OP posts:
Original poster
Metoodear · 28/05/2018 14:34

Their are also tomatoes knocking about somewhere

OP posts:
Anasnake · 28/05/2018 14:34

So your £100 budget is not taking account of all the stuff you already had in Hmm

NorbertTheDragon · 28/05/2018 14:35

I feed my family of 6 (me, 4 teenage boys and a pre-teen) for between £80-£100 a week. And it's not all shite cheap stuff! We get fresh fruit, but I tend to buy frozen veg as it keeps longer. They do have free school meals as I'm on benefits (single parent, carer of son with disabilities)

Breakfast is cereal or toast

Lunch at school

Dinner - pasta, rice dishes (chilli, curry, risotto, paella), stews/casseroles, roast dinners, salads, and sometimes freezer stuff like pizza, pies, fish fingers & chips if we need a quick meal.

Fruit for snacks if they need one (despite eating enormous amounts they don't actually snack that much)

It's not that hard if you meal plan and only get what you need and don't get drawn into offers etc.

I shop at Morrisons, I find it the cheapest.

Now I need to listen to my own advice and do it, I've been a bit lax the past couple of weeks!

TheViceOfReason · 28/05/2018 14:35

Ok, kids at school lunches are free - but what about adults? Older teens? Younger ones not yet at school?

Breakfasts? 10 eggs, 1 loaf of bread and a couple of pints of milk does not do 5 people for breakfast for a week - that's 35 breakfasts!

And saying you already have the bits for something expensive like a roast chicken is just daft! I could show you a receipt for £10 for a weeks shopping - but it doesn't reflect i spent £150 the week before stocking up.

I get what you're trying to do OP, but this shopping list does NOT show being able to do a regular weekly shop for 5 people for under £100.

LagunaBubbles · 28/05/2018 14:35

OP youre not getting it are you?

nicslackey · 28/05/2018 14:36

All that food looks vile Mrs Ella?
Wow, that's a rather harsh, rude comment. We all like different things. Looks tasty enough to me

MissMary0fSweden · 28/05/2018 14:36

I'm sure you think you have a point to make, I'm just not sure what it is Grin

Are you having a debate with an imaginary friend?

Original poster
Metoodear · 28/05/2018 14:37

LagunaBubbles

Yes I brought a chicken 3 weeks ago that didn’t get used so I froze it

Unless their is something very wrong most people have food left over from the last weeks shop that can be used the following week no one has bare cupboards on Friday and has to to a complete food shop from scratch

OP posts:
MiggeldyHiggins · 28/05/2018 14:37

OP, you do realise all the stuff you have at home you actually did buy and pay for, so that is included in your budget? You spent it already, but on this weeks food.
Hmm

MiggeldyHiggins · 28/05/2018 14:38

Bought, dear. You don't understand how budgets work do you?

InDubiousBattle · 28/05/2018 14:38

Exactly tracie, in our house we have 4 people, we all like fruit so to have 3 portions a day is over 80 portions of fruit a week. Cheap enough if we just ate apples and oranges but very boring. I could probably spend half what we do (and Ai have in the past when we were skint)but it would be tight, and repetitive and probably a bit boring.

RB68 · 28/05/2018 14:38

jeez would love 100 a week we would be living like kings. we have around 60

anyoldname76 · 28/05/2018 14:40

my shopping came to a grand total of 10.54 this morning, and will last me until friday obviously not including the food that cost me 100 quid on friday, but that was last week so doesnt count

Frequency · 28/05/2018 14:41

I also have mango chopped and raspberry in the freezer

I wish I had a freezer which produced free mango and strawberries. What brand is it OP? I might start perusing Facebook for a used one.

We're growing strawberries but they're so damn slow Sad

We eat shit to keep our food bill low, although, I do make sure there's a couple of fresh meals interspersed with the shit. The shit meals help with that. We could eat home cooked everyday if we gave up the shit but we'd have to cut the salmon and chicken breasts out and eat only cheap cuts or bland pasta/veg/rice meals (bland because seasoning and cooking utensils are expensive not because I don't know how to cook). I prefer having a few shit, processed meals so we can still have at least one meal we enjoy cooked from fresh.

I hate Aldi with a passion. It baffles me how people laud them so much. In ours the food is rank and and the dates are pathetic. Fine if you can get to one every two or three days, not fine if you have to make your shop last a week because the bus is too expensive to go more than once.

I do hate it when people on a reasonable income tell lower income people how to live better.

£100 p/w for food is a lot to me, especially as it doesn't include school lunches for the kids.

raisedbyguineapigs · 28/05/2018 14:41

Also isn't it half term? You'll have to feed the kids at lunchtime! £100 a week is not hard or boring or restrictive! It's about normal I'd say!

BrewDoggy · 28/05/2018 14:41

Of course you can. It is quite reasonable. And if you're tight, snacks can be eliminated or reduced. We dont really need to graze all the time, do we?

PinkHeart5914 · 28/05/2018 14:41

your post makes no sense, you say you can Feed a family for a week for £100 but you already had most days dinner so no you didn’t do a week shop?

What is the point in the meal plan you’ve posted? The meal plan is for 4 dinners only! No breakfast, lunch.

Admittedly my dc aren’t at school yet but I thought school dinners are only free for young dc or for those with parents on very low income/unemployed? My nephew school dinners certainly cost my brother but then he is at secondary school

If you want to post to show it can be done then at least do it properly!