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

[Metoodear]

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

The best thing I ever did for our weekly food bills was going veggie.

Without meat it is really easy to feed a family of four on 100 quid a week.

You don't actually need meat though. Meat for us is just an addition, certainly not the main thing.

I've been really surprised how much kidney beans soak up flavour. They're great.

Stocking up on jars of kidney beans, lentils and white beans is pretty cheap.

This is our week’s food for four people barring one Saturday lunchtime where we’ve actually got plans with friends but there’d be some leftovers if we hadn’t. Actually we will have three additional guests on one of these days so I reckon it evens out. We don’t eat crap. We do have a a herb garden, and a spice rack but even if you took the herbs and spices out it’d be good food.

Breakfast time is porridge, cereal and fruit, coffee, orange juice and dried fruits and seeds. Lunch dinner and some puddings are planned (we don’t have pudding every day) it’s all included in the total. Shopping at a bog standard supermarket chain, not Aldi or Lidl. Some of it I’ve paid for convenience, some I’ll cook myself.

The total is under £79. It’s half term week so no school dinners to pay for. No animals, so no pet food, and no cleaning items, but I’m sure they can be bought with the £21 of leeway I’ve got under the £100...

Monday
LUNCH Sweet potato and coconut soup with croutons
DINNER Chicken Curry, Naan Bread, Basmati Rice, Raita and fresh coriander
PUD Yoghurt and fruit
Tuesday
LUNCH Beans on toast or cheese toasties, sliced apple and melon
DINNER Roast ham joint, sliced, with mushroom fritatta, tomatoes and green salad
Wednesday
LUNCH hummous, raita, toasted peanuts and cashew nuts, crusty bread and cucumber/carrot dippers.
DINNER spiced lamb cutlets with tomato and chick pea sauce, couscous and green beans.
Thursday
LUNCH Pea and Ham soup, cheddar and chive stuffed jacket potatoes on the side.
DINNER Sausages, new potatoes, cauliflower cheese, peas with mint.
PUD Chocolate brownies
Friday
LUNCH Ham slices, potato salad, green salad
DINNER Burritos with black bean and feta, roasted sweet potato, sweet corn salsa, melted cheese and herbs
Saturday
LUNCH leftovers
DINNER Fish pie topped with mash, softened leeks, braised carrots
PUD Flapjack and fruit
Sunday
BRUNCH Eggy bread with bacon, baked beans and mushrooms
DINNER Roast chicken, Yorkshire puddings, parsnips, roast potatoes, carrots,
cabbage, broccoli, gravy
PUD Apple pie and cream

I feed me, DH, DC1 plus nappies for both DC, cleaning products, alcohol and toiletries for

I can do all meals for a family of six inc (two teens, two adults, two kids No babies) + any house guests that show up for just under £100.
Fruit is super expensive. I think its a bit of a modern British obsession. So instead we eat mountains of grated carrot, raw red cabbage, etc.
We always buy chicken thigh rather than breast, bacon & Ham off cuts, cans of Lidl potatoes. Tinned fish, mackerel, potato salads . Homebaked sweet stuff. Seasonal produce. Lots of sourcream, herbs.
So basically a fairly Eastern European type diet with curries etc thrown in. Seasonings stocks etc I but from cheapo shops like home bargains etc.

I think a basic understanding of accruals accounting would help here.

Let’s take Christmas for example - how much does it cost? Many of us will spend nothing on Christmas Day but it doesn’t mean it’s cost us nothing. If I buy a present in October but give it to someone at Christmas then that cost should be allocated to Christmas. If I buy the food for Christmas lunch on a credit card which I pay off in January then that cost should also be allocated to Christmas. If I stock up on booze in November which we gorge on Christmas Day then that cost should be allocated to Christmas.

Same with your week’s food budget. It could have been in the freezer since February but if you eat it this week then the cost counts towards this week’s good budget.

You don't actually need meat though. Meat for us is just an addition, certainly not the main thing

Right. If people ate meat 2-3 dinners a week instead of 7, they'd save money. I guess culture and ignorance both play a large part in why people eat meat 7 dinners a week (and often 7 lunches, too).

Forgot to say TattyFrench The bread we use on the day for soup, but it's fine for a couple of days for toast.

After the first prove you can add anything you want, some herbs, a spoon of honey, some chopped sun dried tomartoes, whatever you like.

Agree that veggie food is cheaper. Also buying pulses, rice and spices from international shops, if you have one - it's amazing how cheap they are. It's a different way of cooking though - you can't just swap a pork chop for a handful of mung beans. So then you need to get hold of recipes, try them to find out what works for you, probably get extra ingredients such as herbs etc that you don't have sitting around - these are all barriers to switching that can seem not worth making the effort to overcome when you're pushed for time and headspace and crucially you really can't afford to cook a meal that even one person doesn't like because there is no alternative.

What a hysterical OP!

You can feed a family of 4 plus pets for £100 a week if you ignore half the meals, don't feed the pets and include a load of stuff you had in anyway 😂😂😂😂

Well my children are in reception so I am afraid mine do so I can’t count on what I don’t have to pay out

Well I manage to feed us from Waitrose for £75 a week. Granted I don’t have kids but I can’t count in what others have to pay out. 😁

So you haven’t done a full weeks shop for what you are claiming. You already have some items and are somehow counting them but not the price? Also, who the fuck keeps potatoes in the fridge?

There is a lot of stuff on the receipts that don’t go towards the meals and a lot of things you need for the meals that aren’t on the receipts. I don’t really get your point.

It's great that you can budget and feed your family healthy meals.

We're two adults and two teen DSs (who eat as much if not more than we do, and don't get free school lunches) and can usually get away with about £120 a week at Aldi, for six home cooked meals, one pizza type meal, packed lunches for all 5 days a week, snacks and home-baked stuff.

DiggertyDamn, I’ve just screenshotted your recipes as they are genius. I already do what you do with mince but I’m struggling with chicken and other stuff as I too am a veggie and don’t really know how to cook meats that well. Thanks muchly!

When I was at uni I used to live off £5 a week and it was rough. Now it’s two adults, a toddler and two rabbits and I spend around £65-£75 a week but that includes pretty much everything (food, toiletries, nappies, cat litter/hay/bedding, treats and occasional alcohol) bar me topping up milk and bread maybe once afterwards. I’m quite stingy with money so get everyday food items cheap but do indulge with certain treats sometimes. I don’t feel like I’m missing out or particularly budgeting. Since I started weaning my son I had to learn to cook healthy food from scratch and turns out it’s quite cheap! (I work part time though so I have a few days a week when I have time to batch cook and freeze meals.)

I always find these threads interesting and do nick everyone’s money saving ideas and recipes so keep them coming!

I don't know what the problem is.
I feed a family of 4 (1 adult 2 teen boys and 1 child) for £100 a week, including packed lunches for the teens and cleaning products etc without thinking about it, from Tesco. I thought that was a normal budget? I cook evening meals from scratch, perhaps one night a week we have something from the freezer.
I don't buy expensive snack foods or booze out of that though.

How did you do that weekly planner op? I like that with the links in v useful

i could feed a family of five (without grating sawdust into every meal and adding lentils/chickpeas to stuff to bulk it out)

What you have done is shown that you (personally) can't and don't!

You're welcome WonderTweek Hope it goes well.You really get the hang of it quickly.
I get the foil food tray with lids from amazon.
Listen to some music and have a beer while you cook. Have fun with it.

One punnet of blueberries for the whole family for the week?!

We get through apples, pineapple, kiwis, grapes, stawbs and rasps as a minimum and there's only 2 of us.

Ooo I forgot.
If you have left over bread, instead of it going to waste. Line a baking tray/pyrex dish with baking paper, lay the bread on. Spinkle with some chopped veg. Pour over a mix of cheese, eggs and milk. Bake.
The DC love that.

Well that's great 👏

When I studied food economics many, many years ago we had to include everything in our budget, and I mean everything. Whether it came from the shop, the store cupboard or nicked from the neighbour's veg patch. We had charts so you could look up the price of 1 tsp of mixed herbs or a tbsp oil etc. We even had to factor in hidden costs like the cost of running the cooker and other utensils.

Our teacher may have turned a blind eye to the occasional missed bit of cornflour or pinch of salt, but a whole chicken out of the freezer and all the ingredients for some meals? I think that'd warrant an F.

By your logic I can feed my family of 4 plus 3 cats, 2 dogs and hamster for a week for £1.50. (We live in a remote place and DH does 1 food order once a month. So everything I used last week was out of the store cupboard/freezer except the icecream I bought DS when the icecream man came round)

I guess culture and ignorance both play a large part in why people eat meat 7 dinners a week (and often 7 lunches, too)

Or people like meat