to think £18 a week for food isn't that much of a "tiny" budget?

[Oakmaiden]

I just downloaded a free recipe book. It is actually a very good recipe book, and I am dead impressed by the author making a budgeting recipe book and then providing it free to people who need it. But.

It is subtitled "Eat well for £18 per week", and all the recipes are costed, and they have recently redone the costings etc, so I am quite impressed with the idea. But, as I say, there is a but. It is £18 a week per person. AIBU to think that is not actually a very tiny budget? For a family of 5 that is £90 a week. Sure, it is not a luxury budget by any stretch of the imagination, but it is not tiny, is it?

Also - I need to get through this month with a family of 5 on a genuinely tiny budget. I am aiming for around £50 a week if I possibly can (though I am not completely certain where I will find £50 a week, but I am sure something will come up. It generally does.) Anyone got any genuinely cheap recipe ideas please? I have a feeling we may be in for a lot of scrambled eggs and vegetable soup...

It's very low. I have a low income, can cook and do, including batch cooking and freezing and a collection of Distema boxes, know my nutrition, can shop around. I'd struggle.
Echo what others say about economies of scale - there's no point a single person buying huge value bags of fruit and veg, it will go bad long before it's used.

So a family of five should spend £150 a week on food by your logic.

Jemima232 We were told similar here in Ireland by the Money advice bureau-€5 per person per day which for 5 people works out at about £161 for a family of 5 a week. We are 6 and we spend about €140 a week on food ( less than five a day pp but we eat decently, albeit without many treaty foods!!)

If it’s for 1 week only it’s easy.

When we have a really tight week I set up a new email account and do an online shop with sainsbury or ocado. Can usually find online dis ount codes for about 18 off a 60 pound shop or 30%off when spend 60 with ocado up to a £24discount which is about 80 quid shop minus 24 bringing to 56. You may need to change name and give a different contact number n yes if takes a bit of time but you see all the best deals and can budget better buying in bulk on some bits.

£18 sound like a lot to me , but we’re vegetarian so probably that.

Tinned tomatoes are brilliant, add onions, garlic and any veg you’ve got / can afford. Add beans. Serve with mash or pasta or add chilli powder and serve with rice. So cheap.

Have a look in your freezer and see what you can make......even if it’s an odd mix.

Check cupboards too......only buy what you need to add to store cupboard ingredients for a couple of meals.

Dhal, rice and flatbread
If you buy some turkey mince which is £2 in Aldi, add half a bag red lentils to bulk it up for spaghetti bolognaise or cottage pie.

Thrifty Lesley tries to get you through on less than a tenner week and has meal plans:

www.thriftylesley.com/meal-plans/

OK, I've had to feed myself and my teenage daughter on about £18/week plus her free school meals, so I guess that works out at around £15 a week. It was fine, I did lose weight though (which was a good thing, lol), the only things we really went short on was fresh fruit.
If you can, shop at Aldis, otherwise buy the chespest supermarket brands. Tescos are pretty good.
I did things like lentil bolognaise, chilli beans and rice, potato wedges, beans and egg, lentil and vegetable stew, fishfinger sandwiches, nut roast with vegetables and gravy.
Breakfast - probably porridge or toast and marmade.
Lunch would be a cheese sandwich or similar, or some homemade carrot and lentil soup.
No need to buy cheap white bread, wholemeal is just as cheap.
I have no idea how you would fit meat into that budget though, or lots of snacks, so if your family is used to eating that way it will be tough.

In times of fluctuating food budget I've found this blog a really useful resource...
utterlyscrummy.blogspot.com/

Jacket pots - 3 packs of Jacket potatoes £3 2 tins of beans £1

Pasta bacon mushroom - Pasta x 2 £1 a tomato pasta sauce £1 mushrooms 70p bacon £ 1.75

Corned beef pie - Corned beef - £1.50 pastry 70p Potato’s £1.50 broccoli 60p cauliflower 60p carrots 30p

Chicken stir fry - chicken £3, stir fry veg 1.50 noodles £1

There’s 4 OP quick and easy too.

Sorry, should have said £15/head per week in my previous post.

If you are only eating on a reduced budget for a few weeks then a less nutritious diet is not going to kill you.

I would buy batch cook and freeze - make a good vegetable ratatouille (serve with pasta, rice, jacket potatoes or on a pizza base. I would buy a chicken, roast it, some meat for a roast dinner, some for a chicken curry etc, using bones for stock.

I add plenty of veg and lentils to chilli's, meatloaf spag bol. I use frozen peas as a protein source.

Shopping just before shops close can often mean cut price food that can be frozen and used another day.

ExH and I were absolutely strapped in the early 90s and £30PW was the bare minimum for not living just on pasta, beans and toast, washed down with tea. £18PPPW is very little, even with the advent of LIDL etc.

This site has some nice recipes, though the costings are American, should think most of them should be reasonably cheap in this country
www.budgetbytes.com

Jacket spuds need the oven to be on for a long time. Frittata is quick and cheap. Too late now but grow your own lettuce! So easy.

Use frozen fruit and veg, or tinned. Use tinned potatoes for the frittata or Spanish omelette.

Potato waffles can be done in the toaster. Nice with beans and egg.
Avoid meat as it’s expensive.

We spend roughly £50-60 a week for 2 adults, a child, 2 cats and a dog.

that includes all food, lunches for my partner, cleaning stuff, basically everything.

It is going to go up in September, when free lunches stop for DS, but hopefully not much.

I do bulk buy and more importantly (to me) to get to this point, when we came into extra money, I bought everything for the cupboards such as herbs, tins of tomatoes, baked beans, vinegars, oils and four lots of each cleaning product I use.

This way I only buy what we finish using and if we have a really tight month, I can reduce it right down to just what we need fresh food wise. We can go, probably 2-3 months with just buying food.

Protein for the week for us, back then, was half a pound of bacon bits, a pound of mince, a couple of pork shanks (they cost pennies) a massive block of cheddar and a box of eggs, plus whatever pulses needed replacing, that week.

Dd (8) and I average about £37pw if we eat 'well' and I don't have wine
We can go down to £26pw if she eats pizza one night and cheese and pasta another and I eat her left overs for a couple of the days as a meal. Tasty!

Budget stuff we do

Pesto pasta
Spaghetti with olive oil and butter and chopped up pepper (I’m not a fan particularly but the kids love it)
Baked potatoes
Fish fingers and waffles and sweet corn or peas
Soup and nice bread
Eggs esp french bread here
Tortilla chips with cheese melted and some veg / dips

I buy most non salad type veg frozen and I also buy things like mango and pineapple in tins rather than fresh if needed so it lasts longer.

However I’ll admit I’m shit at food planning and I think that’s a HUGE part of the battle on saving money on stuff like this / not wasting food.

Also head to the discounted shelves after 3pm - there's usually something there that has a Best Before rather than Use By date.

Eggs on toast is a nutritious go to esp if your child hates beans like mine...grrr

Make a lot of veg curries (they don’t need to have lots of chilli, or any at all) and Dahl and rice dishes.
Very filling and really cheap.
Pasta and basic tomato sauce is very cheap too. Use veg mainly and small amount of meat.

As #Watchingthyme said 'If it’s for 1 week only it’s easy'
Its always eas to do something unusual -almost like camping . Just to see if its possible to stick to a budget. And with a fully stocked cupboard and freezer then yes it is possible.
But try it with nothing at all in the cupboards. No herbs and spices to help bland food along. No extra veg to add to the mn chicken to eke it out.
Only basic white bread from the local shop as we dont all live within spitting distance of helpful supermarkets that reduce food just as you come out of work.
I can make a meal go a long way and do wonders on a tight budget. I can spin out yesterdays leftovers to make a meal for 4 by adding a tin of beans or whatever to the casserole . But its shit and always will be to HAVE to do this. I dont always have £18 per person to spend.I sometimes have less than half of that when bills are due.
So yes OP I am with you and aiming for around a pound a day per person for food with a blow out of 2 pounds a day on a pay week.

Jacket potatoes, beans and tinned sweetcorn.
Omelette, home made potato wedges, frozen peas
Roast chicken, carrots, brocolli, stuffing, Yorkshire pudding, roasties
Chicken casserole (made with left over chicken)
Spaghetti bolognaise
Pasta, Tuna, peppers, mushrooms,
Shepherds pie

AT least if it’s short term you can shop to cupboard and don’t have to stress too much about nutrition. Meat ball pasta? Onion garlic celery carrot tomato paste and cans of tomatoes simmered with browned meatballs?
You should do some veg meals. Mushroom risotto?
Tuna pasta bake was a big one for us growing up (hate it). Mac and cheese , with frozen spinach if that doesn’t mean your kids won’t eat it.
Honestly beans on toast with salad so the fresh salad averages out.

chilli con carne, veg stir fry, toad in hole & you can do veg version, home made fish cakes, lasagne,