AIBU to think £200 is enough?

[Pauuuuuuline]

AIBU to think that £200 a month on groceries is enough?

As of next month, as a family, we'll have £200 a month left over after essential outgoings to spend on our shop.

This £200 will need to accommodate two adults, a toddler, two cats. Will also include four teens EOW.

Can currently spend (and often do) roughly £400-500 a month, so for us, £200 seems quite small but it's doable right?

Any thoughts and tips on how to do it would be much appreciated.

If i was the nRp and you only had to have them EOW and this is what they got to eat I would be

I used to be a support worker and we got a budget of 70 a week for 4 adults including staff, didn't include toiletries or cleaning products. We did a meal plan and stuck to it and we ate really well. We didn't buy much convenience food as it was nhs and we had to cook from scratch. Things like treats you might be better baking your own. As winter is looming I would make fool use of slow cooker to make huge batches of meals and bulk them out with lentils, beans etc. Also we have a purecard which is a card you pre load and use to buy your shopping and you get a percentage back, its only 3-5% on food but it all adds up if you are short of money.

It IS the time of year for foraging, and if you have a big freezer you can freeze blackberries, apples and other fruit. Crumbles are filling and inexpensive to make. Mince dishes like spag bol can be bulked out with lentils, grated carrot and veg like courgette. Shop at reductions times to be in with a chance of reduced things for freezing - milk will freeze. I think on the teenagers weekend, make something like a big frittata everybody can have a wedge of or provide a loaf, marge and jam or peanut butter (one choice, so theyre not eating more for the taste) for toast - you're going to have to get good at saying no wait for lunch. Making a tray of breakfast bars or big vat of porridge is also cheap.

Male a big pot of hearty veg soup for lunch, serve with bread. Include beans, chickpeas etc for protein so it's filling.

Dinner, one big pot of a chilli or stew, with potatoes, or something like jacket spuds and toppings. Pudding one night, home made jam sponge and custard or crumble. Consider baking a cake or tray bake for weekend snacks/chocolate fix to avoid mutiny but either make it clear when its gone there's nothing replacing it until next week, or exercise strict portion control.

IsobelRae23 how does your kitchen cleaner differ from your bathroom cleaner apart from bottle ?

Most of these responses have been brilliant and incredibly helpful, so thank you all!

@hopefulhalf not quite sure how to respond to your replies. 19th Century Work House Conditions is a pretty dramatic response, to be honest and entirely inaccurate. Nowhere did I say that my desire to be a SAHM was the driving force behind depriving four teenagers of essential food and nutrition. In fact, I haven't once said anywhere that this change in circumstance was due to my desire to be a SAHM nor did I say it was due to my own refusal to work opposite shifts to my DH. Both of those statements are completely untrue. I have also said on this thread that I have been applying for jobs daily.

bobster mum that's £303 a month. A few years ago ? No cats. Did that include cleaning stuff ? Cosmetics ?

If it has to be it will be! I would invest in some of jack monroe's books for very cheap but still excellent recipes.

Your teenagers are likely to be the tricky spot, so I would stock up on cheap and cheerful things for them when they are on offer (frozen pizzas / bread for toast etc). Do you have a decent sized freezer?

It is doable. I've started shopping in Aldi and food warehouse because we've been on a tight budget for the last 3 months (easier after next month thankfully!). You need to plan, bulk buy and not expect the most amazing meals. But you can do things like make a huge stew, bulk it out with veg and freeze it into portions. Frozen veg is cheap and as good for you as fresh. And things like bread, you can freeze the loaf and take out only what you need to thaw. We always end up throwing at least half a loaf of bread because it's gone stale before anyone eats it. You won't need to buy cleaning products or shampoo/conditioner every week (or we don't anyway). I spent £68 and had nearly enough meals for a fortnight, just had to get extra snacks and milk/bread/yoghurts etc. Just be really really organised and you can do it.

It may be dramatic. I am a mother of teens and it is my response to your proposed course of action. I am seeing this from the teens perspective.
Let me ask you directly are you prepared to do bar work, night care work, evening supermarket shifts or night shifts in a fast food place to ensure these teens have a standard of life they can reasonably expect in 21st century Britain ?

I don’t think you have a choice about being vegetarian. Then it’s possible. Multiple sources are convinced food prices will rise after Brexit, so you need to be thinking and cooking like a student in the 1970s! A girl called Jack/Rose Elliot/student cookbooks.

No, not doable. You need to earn more.

Let me ask you directly are you prepared to do bar work, night care work, evening supermarket shifts or night shifts in a fast food place to ensure these teens have a standard of life they can reasonably expect in 21st century Britain ?
Are the teens prepared to do the same?

To subject them to 19th century work house conditions (only plain soap, porridge, lentil and veg stew) is simply not on.

Please fuck off.

OP, I do think you have to choose between being vegetarian (or maybe mostly vegetarian) or eating shite cheap meat. IMO being veggie is preferable in that scenario. My household isn't veggie but rarely eats meat because we'd rather eat good-quality stuff than lots of it. It really isn't a problem.

Ooft, just seen it's to include toiletries and cleaning products too. It is going to be tight.

These things are usually cheaper in pounds shops / home bargains etc than supermarkets so do shop around.

Lidl sell a 5kg fruit and veg box for £1.50 - that might be helpful to you.

Frozen and tinned veg is just as good as fresh, so absolutely fine to use this. Value brands of tinned tomatoes with veg and pasta is a very cheap and healthy meal that will fill everyone up.

I agree cereal is expensive - but porridge oats are cheap, so if you can switch everyone to porridge it will save on that (and use less milk if you make it with water and a splash of milk).

I just had a quick google and there are loads of blogs about feeding a family on £50 per week, so would be worth having a read of those for tips.

The eldest teen is 15,they can't work unless they get a paper round.
Why can't the op work more??
And you can't afford 2 cats anymore either.

Chalk, Why should the teens have to go out to work so they can eat at their NRPs every weekend?

If I were their RP I would be furious that their diet was likely going to be heavily compromised because one adult wasn’t working and had added to the financial commitments by having another child.

If the notice period was known, you could have signed up and been temping by the end of it if wanting to work.

As teens though they are old enough to stop going to the NRP if they so wish and may choose that option.

• It may be dramatic. I am a mother of teens and it is my response to your proposed course of action. I am seeing this from the teens perspective. Let me ask you directly are you prepared to do bar work, night care work, evening supermarket shifts or night shifts in a fast food place to ensure these teens have a standard of life they can reasonably expect in 21st century Britain ?*

OP has to balance earning money with actually being there for her kids. She has young children as well as the teens. She says she's applying for jobs, so this is a short term problem. It's not as easy as saying she should get any job going when she's also responsible for childcare.

The teens aren't going to die because EOW they have porridge for breakfast instead of Frosties.

If I were their RP I would be furious that their diet was likely going to be heavily compromised

Compromised because of 4 days a month? Seriously?

@moccaicecream and @hopefulhalf the OP is being made redundant and is job hunting. I don't think you've read her posts very well. It's not about her not working. The OP is acknowledging a short time financially difficult situation that she knows will improve in January and is also job hunting in the mean time.

Ask at your supermarket when is the best time of the day for mark downs of fresh meat and fish products. Monday nights at 8pm are great in my local Sainsbury’s for fish, meat, etc. It’s not unknown for salmon fillets to be reduced to 10p!!

Cooked meats can be bought in the reduced section along with a loaf for pence and you can make up packed lunches and freeze them in individual bags. I did this for a while and DH hadn’t a clue! When I eventually told him, he said he would never have guessed. And we’re all still alive and well .

Value brand versions of cereal, pasta, etc excellent. I was on a tour of a big brand potato crisp factory once where I witnessed value brand and other supermarket crisps bring made alongside the main brand and have been buying the cheap ones since!

For teenagers, make your own pizzas. A bag of flour, a tin of dried yeast, a tin of chopped tomatoes, value cheese and reduced ham (they regularly have pepperoni etc in reduced section, which can be frozen) and you will be pleasantly surprised at how many pizzas you can make for less than the cost of one ready made!

Don’t see this challenge as a chore - look on it as a competition (with yourself) and celebrate all the savings you make.

Good luck!

I'll say it again, despite already saying it - the teens will not be going out to work. The eldest is only 15! No, it is not their responsibility. I agree. It is mine and DHs.

Again, @hopefulhalf I have already said, I am applying for jobs daily. Evening Clean Jobs or Supermarket Jobs are ideal for me as it means I can work whilst DH looks after the toddler in the evenings. I am not being fussy. I am prepared to undertake MOST work.

@IceCreamAndCandyfloss My last day at work is 4th September and so far during my notice period, I have, as above, been applying for jobs daily.

I am also trying my best to plan, organise, stock up, etc. To ease the pressure of the next few months should I not find a job as quick as I'd like to.

I bloody love those teenagers and think of them as my own. I do, and will continue to do, everything I can to make sure they don't miss out.

Very tight but do-able in my opinion.

Red split peas/lentils - get it from whole food section at supermarkets.

Great for vegetable & lentil stew, add it to curry & pasta sauce etc.

Jacket potatoes with baked beans

Veg curry with rice

Pasta with frozen veg & tinned toms

Shepherds pie made with brown lentils

How well stocked are your cupboards/freezer at the moment?

Do you have any tesco clubcard vouchers (or similar) you could use?

SciFi, the OP doesn’t state she I see being made redundant. Therefore with a new toddler it’s not unreasonable to assume it’s just known notice period at the end of maternity leave.

Why should the teens' quality of life be compromised by the 2nd relationship and prescence of toddler half sibling ? OP is an adult she chose to take on these commitmants the teens didnt.

Are the teens prepared to do the same?

To afford extras/pleasantries, yes, they should be prepared to do so when they come of age. And if the parents can’t afford those things in the meantime, well, tough luck, kids.

To be able to eat when they stay at a parent’s home, no, they shouldn’t have to work in order to be get fed as a minor.

Since the eldest child in this scenario is 15, it’s a bit of a moot point and not one being suggested by the OP in any case.

I don’t really think this sounds doable when you factor the 4 teenagers into the equation but at the moment, it doesn’t sound like OP has much choice. I just imagine the kids may scale down the visits whilst the austerity kick is on.