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...

Sorry so yes YANBU!

My understanding has always been that £25-30 per week PP is the basic! So I would say that £18 is very little!

DH and I spend about £100-£130 per week between us atm which I think is VERY pricey but I’m battling early pregnancy cravings and horrible sickness/nausea that’s only soothed by eating what I fancy when I fancy it and praying it stays down!! Still makes me cringe though!

I do understand that food is expensive etc but it seems like one of those things (like childcare) that families constantly complain about...but you know the facts before having children. Surely nobody has a child without considering that they’ll be costly to care for and feed? 🤔

I understand if a pregnancy is ‘unplanned’ but I see/know A LOT of fully planned pregnancies which seem to have just ignored the practical issues like feeding/clothing/childcare as an after thought. Once baby is here they just turn to the government and start pointing the finger! 🙄

I'm feeling quite stressed about the number of posts recently with people trying to live on small food budgets. £18 a week is 85p a meal and no treats. I think its ok short term but to be really nutritious a bit more is needed.

In terms of cheap recipes, turkey is cheaper than chicken. You can get a turkey leg joint for not much and have it over a couple of days - like the mn chicken(If you have a fridge?)
Bean burrito

I lived on about £13/week ten years ago.

It tended to be very simple food for breakfast and lunch (cupasoup and a banana for lunch, for example), then a combination of Tesco 3 for £10 meats (bought and frozen - often included 24 pack of meatballs, which was 5 meals) and Aldi Super Six Veg, and some of a bulk bag or pasta.

Whilst it certainly wasn't a luxury diet, I didn't feel massively deprived in calories or nutrients. It was certainly far better than the diet I had a couple of years back when I was richer!

I do think it can be nutritious if you don't mind cooking from scratch.

Carrots are so cheap and my kids will snack on them instead of fruit.

I realize I'm lucky because I live in a small market town with lots of supermarkets.
And it's rural enough we can boost micronutrients with food from the hedgerows. Our brambles are ripe now. We were having elder flower fritters before that

On a political level what annoys me is the amount of mental energy it uses up.

I think about this too much.

£25 per person per week is about the minimum I could do so £18 pppw sounds like not much. £10 pppw sounds extremely tight. Jack Monroe for sure - she has proper, rationing-style cheats in her book and I've cooked some of her stuff and it's alright.

You defo need to stretch out meat - one chicken breast per person as someone upthread suggested is far too much. That's about 150g meat each - 50-100g is a more budget friendly portion if you are really stretching things. If you're used to eating that much meat each for every meal you will have to learn some tricks for bulking out meals. Carbs are cheap filler, but other sources of protein keep you full for longer - lentils, beans, mushrooms, eggs. Vegetables can be used for bulking if done smartly - grated carrot works well in mince based dishes, especially tomatoey things like bolognese.

OP also check out Thrifty Lesley's blog: www.thriftylesley.com/

If you usually spend more, you probably have some food already in the house, so a full inventory (down to things like spices and the weird tins you have had lurking in the back of a cupboard for years) might be useful, especially as this is temporary.

Porridge with nuts/dried fruit sprinkled on for breakfast (or just plain) - don't buy normal cereals as generally they're filled with sugar so don't keep you full for long and work out a lot more than porridge anyway. Don't get the pre-packed things of porridge, get a proper bag of it.

Avoid meat. Our food budget dropped massively when we cut out meat. Use lentils in place of mince (or alongside mince, if you still want that).

Dried beans/pulses/chickpeas - buy big packs if you can. Cheaper than buying tins - you can prepare them (soak overnight/boil etc depending on what it is) and then freeze in portions so it's just as handy as using tins.

Veg & lentil soups are good and filling and freezable.

No need for puddings and extras like biscuits, choc bars etc - tho they may be a habit!

We spend £70-£80 a month for two adults and two children, including cleaning stuff, toiletries, loo roll etc and the odd bottle of wine / treat.

£18 a person a week seems pretty high to me!

We spend about 60 a week on two adults and two teens. Lidl is the key here. Also cutting out meat.

Oh and if you still want meat, the recommended portion size is the same as a deck of cards - which I always found surprising! Much less than people expect probably.

For four years I have lived alone. I spend £10-£20 a week.

My dd has just moved back with me and we now spend about £30.

I couldn't afford £30 a week for just me.

I am feeding a family of 4 adults. I buy 2 large chickens cost me £8.50 last week and cook them both at once which saves fuel cost, this then does a nice roast dinner and 4 other meals in the week eg stir fry, tortillas, pasta bake. I add lots of veg. I do this more to save time cooking but find it very economical too.

Visit your butcher and ask for bacon offcuts then cut it up and make a vat of soup:

Onions, potatoes, carrots, parsnips, pearl barley with a couple of knorr stock cubes - for some reason they're the only stock cubes ok for soup.

Buy pudding rice and lots of uht milk, also bread and butter pudding.

In your slow cooker make pork and beans with the bacon and some white beans.

Spend £80 a week on food for the 4 of us shop so that's £20 a head so £18 per person does sound reasonable. But if you wanted to spend less than that then I think its absolutely possible. Try shopping at aldi, picking up store own brands, making meals such as lasagne, cottage pie, spaghetti bolognese, pasta dishes, jacket potatoes etc. Also buy food in the reduced section and freeze the meat for a later date if.

I don't think I ever spent 18 even when I lived alone.
It is a low budget plan

*only 18

OP, a temporary embarrassment is very different from longterm poverty. If your embarrassment is only temporary, you probably have your own well-equipped kitchen (saucepans, knives, freezer) etc, your gas/electricity bill is probably already paid and doesn't need worrying over, and you probably don't have to share your cooking space with other families. And it may well be that you don't live in one of the most deprived parts of your local community, where food shops tend to be vastly overpriced and very badly stocked.

I, as a well educated middle-aged person with over 20 years to build up stocks and equipment in my kitchen, no worries over gas and access to perfectly reasonable shops, own fridge/freezer can easily feed a family of 3 adults on £70/week. Take my luxuries away from me and dump me in a refuge in one of the poorest areas of town and I couldn't.

It may be the book is a good book and accounts for that: it may be it's a crap book and still provides recipes you couldn't possibly cook under those circumstances. But circumstances matter.

The further back you can go in the processing chain the more savings there are. So buying dry beans rather than canned, flour rather than bread.

Also i think we've all been sold a pup re cleaning stuff, there's not much that can't be cleaned with washing up liquid or just water.

I'm a member of a group on Fb called feed yourself for £1 a day. It's amazing how cheaply people can feed themselves for, some of the meals are really dire but I have also had a lot of good ideas.

Some of the ideas are really good. But with some I really wonder how people get the nutrition body needs. It did get much better now though.

Veggie chilli delicious is delicious and cheap and much better than beef chilli.

For a meal for 4/5, you need oil, 2 carrots, a red onion, tin of tomatoes and 2 cans of beans (red kidney, black eyed beans etc). Tesco does 3 tins for £1 in the Asian bit of World Foods aisle. If you have the money to stretch to some sour cream/cheese/tortilla chips great, but it's not essential. Easy, quick, cheap dish.

I grew up in an Asian household, so we had plenty of tarka dhal, chickpea/spinach/potato curry, potato curry with halved boiled eggs for added protein, aubergine curry, rice kedgeree, potato hash, etc. All quite cheap, filling and delicious.

We spend £70-£80 a month for two adults and two children

A week... A week...!

I am an idiot in need of an edit button!

cory that's very true, take away my oven, mixer, store cupboard, breadmaker, utensils, gas and electric and cooking skills and it's a different kettle of fish. Actually also my car and nice area where I could pop to the butcher and greengrocer at the end of the day.

Temporary budgeting is so different from true poverty.

If i had to i could probably feed us from my cupboards and freezer for a month. But it would take skills, equipment and electric.