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.

£46 a week for toiletries/cleaning/cat food etc on top of grocery? I would have said very tight with two adults and a toddler but the rest plus cats and teens I don’t know how you can do it. FWIW my son and I are vegetarian and spend more than that on food alone.

It’ll be hard.. in an ideal world you’d have gradually cut back to this, it’s less crap when you’ve gone from a few treats/rare treat to none.
Bulk might help.. I get loo roll on eBay in packs of between 60-100 and it’s not the smart price sandpaper but works out to same if not cheaper (occasionally it’s christmas themed in July but tis for your butt)
If toddler isn’t dry/dry over night consider cloth if possible (some places let you rent out sets if you are potty training)
Check the cats aren’t grain intolerant or anything.. unfortunately cheap food tends to be crap but if it’s the difference between dinner or not (try small bags of cheap food first.. nothing worse than waste)
Sell whatever you don’t use or downgrade.. if you have a fancy iPhone sell it and buy a cheap basic phone even second hand (you don’t need tablets/laptops/games consoles/tv’s in every room)
Check you aren’t eligible or will become eligible for any grants (home insulation etc those can cut bills dramatically we went from £3.50 a day to £1 as the house now sits 5c warmer constantly)
Yellow stickers/freezing things is now the way forward look into what can be frozen with what prep. At the moment write down anything you throw out and look over why (over cooking portions/sell by dates/meal plan changed)

If all else fails on the job front Royal Mail usually take on thousands of christmas casual workers in December for their mail centres. There may well be one relatively local to you.

Keep an eye out online as they usually start recruiting in September. Its only 3-4 weeks of work but you can pick days or nights (nights pay slightly more)

I also know from experience that they take on everybody that turns up on the day with right paperwork.

Good luck with it all

Do you live near to any big-ish supermarkets, OP? I used to work for Waitrose and about 15 minutes before close, we would reduce everything that was going out of date that day to 10p. Usually we had lots of things you could freeze, like meat, bread and ready meals. I'm assuming it's a similar procedure at other big shops, too.

For the cats wet food is going to be better especially if they're male (not sure if you said) as you don't want a urinary blockage (mine cost me over £1000 for a blood clot in his bladder)
Butchers classic cat food is the cheapest "best" one if they will eat it
They can have raw chicken wings (NOT COOKED) too and any bits like that, mine likes heart, scraps of raw turkey mince
We also have a local meat place so might be worth googling, they do cheap meat and also pet meat which is balanced and cheap to feed

Of course it's doable. Find out when things get reduced in your local Aldi and hit it then, stocking up on meat which you can freeze. There's me, DH and the dog and I tend to spend about £50 a week including lunches and snacks. I can shop on £30 if I need to in Aldi. It just takes planning so you can make ingredients go further.

@Vebrithien those thrifty Lesley meal plans are genius and so well thought out.

Definitely doable with meal planning. And lots of bread/pasta/potatoes to fill the teenagers!!

I make homemade pizza and my dc prefer it, including my rugby playing teen (he adds a tin of tuna) Bread flour is cheap, I make the tomato sauce (you could do a bulk batch for pasta etc) whilst the dough is proving. Then add grated cheese and olives.
Cheese freezes well so you can buy big blocks and portion / grate and freeze.
If you want to liven up porridge oats make granola when you have something else in the oven. Oats, honey or syrup or treacle and oil add some spices if you want.

Sign up with Care . com. You could get a regular gig that would suit the hours you are available, or ad lib.

www.care.com/en-gb/profiles/childcare

Would you be able to do dog walking or cat minding?

Just a couple of thoughts:

• try signing up for the OLIO app - people and companies give away food they’re not going to use, reduces food waste and you might get lucky and get some great stuff. Eg when our freezer broke we used it to give away loads of frozen meat, ready meals etc.

• see what places do free meals in your area, eg our local community centre does a “social” lunch each week that families can eat at for free, the local Tesco gives away free fruit to children while shopping, the local Sikh temple does free food each week. Even getting one meal a week free, or some free snacks one day, will give you a change and free up a little of your budget.

My local area has a community fridge that's open twice a week. The supermarkets send them food that is nearing its use by date and for a donation you can take whatever you want. They even had birthday cake the other day as well as veg, bread, juice, pastrys and even toiletries and flowers.

Maybe they have something similar near you?

You might find after a few weeks of what is on offer the teens might not want to come round anymore. That will save you a few bob!

It is amazing what you can get by on when you've little choice but I think it will be really tough for you all and not much fun 😕

It is definitely doable. We spent about £30-35 a week on groceries including treats (if shopping at aldi/lidl) and it certainly isn’t joyless! Just normal meals and desserts and snacks. That’s for two adults and a toddler, so would leave around a tenner a weekend for the extra teenagers. You can definitely do it!

@PickAChew

Glad you liked them, I came across her website by chance several years ago. I like that there are 15 or so different week plans, and that she's done all of the hard work with the nutritional stuff!

If I just want a couple of cheapie meals, then I'll go to her full recipe page, and pick a couple, but I like how the meal plans even have the shopping list!

www.thriftylesley.com/thrifty-lesley-recipes/

Get rid of the cat

Also, you’ll be screwed come a No Deal Brexit. Hope you didn’t vote for it.

Doable if you have beans on toast and lots of potato based meals and no snacks! Aldi and Lidl are the way to do it if you don't get distracted by the middle aisle!

It’s probably doable but you’ll have to plan extremely carefully and probably make do without a quite a few things.

I disagree that you should cut out treats entirely. E.g. at Tesco packets of biscuits from 30p, lemonade 35p and 100g chocolate bars 30p (probably find cheaper if look around) - treats can help to keep your spirits up and make it all bearable.

This is why poorer people are more likely to suffer from obesity.

It's all about attitude. On a low budget an avocado is a treat, bit it's they kind of treat which should be aimed for, not a packet of biscuits to make life bearable.

I spend £200 a month for me, my husband, one toddler and a 50kilo dog. I meal plan weeks in advance, and don’t really scrimp as my daughter has multiple allergies which limits what I can buy and a lot of cheaper alternatives. I look for deals first, plan out a month in advance and have two freezers so that I can store meat/bread etc and avoid top up shops as I found that’s where I would buy so much unnecessary stuff that would blow budgets! It’s possible, it just takes planning :)

Sorry but that is not doable at all if you are including all your toiletries and cleaning products/ loo rolls etc in that amount. I shop at Aldi, savers and a few bits at Asda that I can't get in Aldi and I still spend around £75-80 per week (2 adults, 1 child, 1 baby, 1 tortoise) Like a previous poster mentioned how on earth will you survive Xmas this year? Are you not entitled to any benefits to help top up your income during this period that you're short? I'd also consider food bank.

I think it's just about doable but it will become a job in its own right as you will have to plan to the nth degree, go to lots of different shops/markets to get the best deals and chase reduced items at the end of the day - fine if you have time to do it - not so great if you don't and your plans may be scuppered a little if food prices rise after the dreaded B word in October therefore I would put away whatever dried goods / cleaning stuff you can now to help ease that transition
At times you may need some assistance from a local food bank, it won't be fun but it's doable. Do you know how long you will be in this situation because I would also be looking at everything you can to ease it as long term this may break you.

Lentils/pulses are your best friend now. Ideally fontina local indian/Chinese shop and get them, but otherwise world food aisles have cheaper lentils/rice etc

I don't think it's doable so my suggestions would be ..

Speaking to the mum of the teens. Put it like this, if you had my kids EOW and told me you were struggling temporarily food wise, id be more than happy to send up food with the kids / even if that was just treats and drinks etc. Wouldn't be an issue at all. My responsibility would be towards my kids so a few multi packs of crisps, sweets and whatever else would be something I'd do without an issue. Of course, she may not like it but you won't know if you don't inform her of the situation

Food banks. Can you self refer?

Making more money. This , as highlighted by others, is where you need to focus. It's not about cutting back, it's about making more. But I know you're exploring this already