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.

Good luck OP - it will be hard, but anything you can do to up your income would be helpful to make it more reasonable.

Dog walking, babysitting, any shops taking on staff (including restocking over night) in the run up to christmas would be good.

Is childminding an option? Not all tenancies allow it, but it's good money. (Around here, a full time place for a baby is £1k a month, you can have a couple and take older children to school and back)

@IsobelRae23 I tried the laundry nuts but was not really impressed with them. The eco egg is much better. I have been using that for around a year now and am really happy with it

Interesting thread with some great budgeting ideas. I'm laughing at the deprived teens - a pulse based, mostly vegetarian diet is as nutritious as it goes and is much better than fizzy drinks and convenience foods - it could be regarded as a 4 day monthly detox and will probably be great for their health.

Yes you can do it.
Pound shop or home bargains for cleaning products/toiletries.
Make a meal plan stick to it.

I second farm foods if you will be able to afford to run a freezer. (When my budget was very tight we often had no electricity as it was too expensive). Powder milk instead of fresh for things like pancakes and look up vegan recipe to cut out eggs. Lentils, split peas and pearl barley to bulk things up. Oats can be baked into bars or slimming world baked oats (I know you're not dieting but the idea works to liven up daily porridge). Market if possible especially near closing time when they are selling things off. But no off plan eating or fussiness, it's very tricky especially over time.

food will be repetitive and bland. Lentils and beans or rice, root veg.

As a pescetarian that describes a large part of my diet and it's not remotely bland! If you're eating those things and you're not veggie there's always meat stock or anchovies for different flavours.

If you have to do it OP then you have to. Long term is extremely difficult but with an end in sight it's possible, just. I would look for things to sell though. Fortunately the autumn is great for foraging and apple and blackberry crumble can be made very cheaply.

I agree with Vanhi is you can find some blackberries freeze some now! Great for adding a handful or 2 to cheap cake mix for a treat too!
I'm a Jack Monroe fan too! Love these burgers
cookingonabootstrap.com/2019/07/10/carrot-kidney-bean-burger-recipe/
Lentil cottage pie is yummy, make double of the lentil sauce for using with pasta.
thehappyfoodie.co.uk/recipes/vegetable-and-lentil-cottage-pie
Just remove the spinach ( too expensive) and change the sun dried tomato paste with ordinary tomato paste.
Also for a weeks meals plan
www.itv.com/thismorning/food/feed-your-family-for-five-pounds-a-day-phil-vickery

Sending you hugs, good luck with everything OP

I'm just thinking of things that probably help to bring our food shop down. We buy powder washing powder and use a shot measure for each wash, this means a pack lasts us a good month. (Family of 5)

I meal plan and when I'm trying to cut back I always have lentil based meals so cottage pie , chilli, spag bol ect. I also make a lot of cakes / snack bar type of things for snacks also my kids prefer carrots for snacks instead of apples and they are cheaper. We are veggie so its normal for us. As for cleaners I buy the concentrated all in one and decant into previous bottles and it does the job for the whole house.

I’m not sure if it’s been mentioned but if you have sufficient national insurance contributions you might be eligible for what is called new style jsa which is not affected by your partner’s income.

Also, get a proper benefit check done. The online calculators can be really inaccurate.

We eat lentils several times a week also, however the fact remains they are an imcomplete protien. Also takes time and skill to learn to prepare them in a variety of tasty ways. A largely vegetarian diet without fresh out of season produce (no nuts, avocado, tomatos or soft fruit) is unlikely to meet growing teens' nutritional needs. Realistically for £42 a week there will be precious little that isn't either carbs or processed s@#t. Mumsnet chicken is a great idea, good luck with any leftovers after it has fed 6.5.

OP you sound very responsible. Just ignore the critics.

Hopefully a part time evening job will come up soon. My ds worked in a bar for a while and earned £10 an hour so 2 evenings a week would earn you £80 a week. Plus he got to bring home left over food.

You see suggesting things like powdered milk or making porridge with water is what prompted my workhouse comment. I've just looked it up my 5'8" 15yo DS needs 3,200 kcals daily. Pasta with veg sauce, porridge with water and powdered milk isn't going to cut it.

It’s 2800-3000 hopeful but your point still stands.

We spend 70-80 a week in Aldi. Two adults, two dc and a cat. If they don’t sell it at Aldi tough. The only thing I don’t buy from there is shampoo. I’ve tried them all and can’t get on with them.

We don’t bother with special bathroom/kitchen sprays; just water down multi surface cleaner. Laundry products are excellent. We do find the quality of food generally better from the likes of Tesco but for what we save a year (it’s hundreds) we are more than happy with Aldi!

He is active (as most 15yo are) walks 3 miles a day. Gym, rugby and football (1.5 hours) twice a week each from September-March.

So 2 hours moderate/ vigorous exercise per day.

Yes hopeful 2800-3000 is cals for an active teen boy.

www.eatright.org/food/nutrition/dietary-guidelines-and-myplate/how-many-calories-does-my-teen-need

Whats your credit rating like op. If its good you may be able to make some money switching your bank account?

Have to say I use a ton of lentils too more for bulking out mince. I generally avoided the reduced section because it was time consuming and a bit random and not very reduced , in saying that on one occasion on a public holiday I got 2 packs of mince for 10p and a huge pork shoulder for £2.50 had pulled pork for bloody days lol but it was a complete accident I find having a set list and plan cheaper in the long run I u find something in with a sticker on your list bonus!! In the very recent past was very skint bulk bought mid range mince (best I could afford) and added lentils in about a third of the total weight of mince to stretch it and made two/three Shepard's pie with frozen veg and the leftover monster pot of mash I made on Sunday 😁. So the meals would go chicken dinner (chicken, homemade Yorkies making extra and freezing them, frozen veg and the huge pot of mash to save time and cooking costs) next night made the shepards pie or cottage pie but put one in fridge and two in freezer that night we are leftover chicken frozen veg and rice stir fry, next night the cottage pie, spicy veg rice next evening, something easy like beans on toast, a vat of homemade soup the next night that did lunches the next couple of days then Yorkies sausage and veg and maybe cabbage.Next week would do a Bolognese with mince an lentils mix split it up and eat one family portion with pasta and cheese freeze a portion and in two nights time add a tin of kidney beans, chilli and some veg for "chilli con carne" with rice I hate eating the same food repeatedly so meal planning in a must for me!! After a month you have a great stash in the freezer so you can have a no cook night and keep replenishing on your bulk cook nights. So it works out nice dinner with meat on night bargain busting cheaper veggie or beans on toast dinner the next broke it up a bit. My food spend for those weeks was about £40ish for everything for myself and 3 teens. It's not fun though you are well fed but I found having no extra wiggle room for treats miserable tried hard to be inventive packing up what we were having for lunch and taking it out with us even soup and bread in car on a cold day after a long walk broke the monotony a bit. The cats will be fine on cheap dry food for a few months will not have a long-term affect on their overall health!!

In 6 months then. Still is double mine (on a lazy day) and possibly 4 X that of the toddler. In my experience for example yesterday he ate ; 4 slices of toast, 2 eggs, half a can of beans. A jacket potato with the other half of the beans, cheese and salad. 2 bannas, an apple, a nectarine, 2 homemade brownies, 2 glasses of orange juice, 2 glasses of milk, a stir fry made with a big chicken breast, 1 carrot, a stick of celery, half a red pepper and half a courgette, another egg and 100g of rice. A bowel of salted popcorn.

A bowl of popcorn. I happen to know exactly because we were both at an all day thing together yesterday. Usually I wouldn't be so precise. But I would say it was fairly typical.

A slow cooker and batch cooking is your friend. You can make a big batch of quorn chilli for about 50p a portion. There's only 2 of us and I make enough for 10 portions in one go. Works out at about £4 if I shop smartly. Pad it out with lentils, use smart price kidney beans and tinned tomatoes, add lots of diced carrots and chopped up onions. Serve with loads of boiled rice.
I agree with what a pp said, Jack Monroe has excellent recipes that are priced up. I'll look for the web link.
Make batches of tomato sauce for pasta, curry sauce base for different curries. Don't buy loads of junk for teens to snack on. Buy bread when it's on offer and freeze it.

cookingonabootstrap.com/category/recipes-food/

An added bonus of slow cooker batch cooking is the savings on your energy bills.

I think a lot of people here are being unrealistic.

I couldn't do it. I easily spend £200 a week on a family of 4 and more if we want/need any extras. I think you need to find a back up plan fast and look into food banks. I don't understand how you're not entitled to any benefits on such a low income.