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.

Meal plan, shop around, baking and homemade meals too. Baking especially will help fill the youngsters up more healthily than what's in bought. Its something you can do together so will be enjoyable.

Google meals on a budget and the like. Its tight but doable. I have had too in the past by comparable amount from then until now, when my youngsters where little as ex was self employed

Doable but as other have said very tight. Be prepared to shop around and try to find out what time of day the local supermarkets mark down the fresh produce, and stock up the freezer. Bulk buy and batch cook, meal plan to the nth degree and be prepared for some monotony. I’m sure that you have checked but is there anything at all you can cut back on or sell to raise a bit of cash?

I have between £100-£150 per month for the same for me, my partner and dog and step son 3 weekends out of 4. Step son is 13 and always gets filling meals. I batch cook lunches for me and partner on a sunday and we have a lot of soup. Farmfoods is great for veg (5 bags for £4 I think) and we stock up on fish, chips, pizzas, chicken bites and frozen chicken breasts from there. We have a lot of Maggie's so juicy and put a couple of the chicken breasts and a load of veg in then bung it in the oven, add some potatoes and done. I then portion it up for lunches/dinners. Step son likes having birds eye crispy chicken, potatoes and sweetcorn so we do that often. I also got a weekly meal planner for the fridge which means everyone knows what they're having and theres no trying to work out what to have.
I also keep a list of what I have (using my shopping receipts) and score off what I use so I know what I have. Repeat monthly.
Costco are great for toilet roll. Cushelle is £15 ish for 5 packs of 9 which lasts us about 2 months or so (I have a sickness issue which uses a lot of it). We also have a treat night some weekends and get a load of the £1-£2 party foods and make a load to pick at which might be an idea for the teenagers.
Farmfoods and Iceland are good.
It will be hard but you'll manage.

During the last recession we literally lived on home made soup. Veg soup bulked with lentil pulses or potatoes. It was a huge bowl for lunch with bread and a bowl b4 a much reduced dinner portion at night to fill up. Kids got tinned or seasonal fruit for afters with a wedge of v cheap icecream if they were still hungry. We actually ate 3 courses but smaller plates and cheaper meats you could stew. So lots of slow cooking. It reminded me of my mum talking about rationing lol

We were on an incredibly tight budget a while back. I found out when the local supermarkets did their reductions and planned my main shop around that, mainly so that I could get meat for the freezer. Bulking out meat dishes with pulses made things go a lot further.
I occasionally found that where there were houses with bigger gardens and/or allotments, I could also pick up some fruit and veg very reasonably - but only when people had a glut, so definitely not able to rely on this.
OLIO is a good resource if you have it where you are. All sorts of things get put on there.
Haven’t rtft so apologies if these have already been mentioned.

A bit tight, but I’d say ok if you are really careful. There are 3 of us, but I’m Coeliac and vegan, so a bit more expensive, we spend about £100 a week. It’s worth hitting Asda’s reduced shelf when you can as there is often cheap fish/meat which you can freeze. If you use Morrison a lot (I do), I signed up with complete savings.co.uk- even though you pay £16 a month, you can claim that back as a bonus, and you get 10% off all Morrison shopping. I generally get around £40 cashback a month from them, not a lot, but enough to make a difference !!!

Stick to aldi and lidl for the cheapest shops plus they don't tend to have name brands or tons of snacks on display to try tempt you into buying so its easy to get all the basics without going over budget. Shocked at people spending £200+ a week!! Your diets must be so unhealthy for that amount or excessive sized portions because that's not a normal amount to be spending on food maybe if you had 5 or 6 kids i think i saw on a tv a while back that radford family only spend 300 a week on their huge family all i can imagine is a river of fizzy drinks sweets and convenience foods name brands etc at £200+ for a family of 3 or 4 people!

Hi, can I suggest you have a look at cookingonabootstrap.com by Jack Munroe. I hope you find it helpful.

2 adults, 3 teenagers and 2 kids here. I spend £200 a fortnight plus topups.

I think if you're very organised it's definitely doable. You can make a lot of cheap meals with some mince, tomatoes and herbs. Pasta, rice and potatoes are cheap and filling. Steer away from brands, do a meal plan, freeze leftovers. Good luck

Totally agree here. Look for reduced organic chicken (Friday nights places like Asda sometimes sell at a ridiculous knocked down price of £1). Add rice, chopped potato, cabbage, spinach, cheap supermarket baked beans, a bit of tomato purée and anything else going - even wilting veg like bendy carrots to save waste). Totally delicious and costs next to nothing. A hunk of bread with it & everyone is filled up with a healthy vitamin packed meal.

Of course it’s doable. menu plan, menu plan.

Also perfectly fine for the 15 y/o to work both our DDs have jobs in a local cafe and earn £50 + a week for a few hours on a Saturday and worked then since 13

I reckon it's doable especially as the cats aren't fussy.

I think good on you OP for embracing this instead of wallowing and freeing sorry for yourself. See it as a bit of health kick too.

Poundshop shampoo and conditioner is good. See if you can get Jobseekers too. I use Approved Foods for cupboard stuff too and Aldi and Lidl nappies are great. I'm glad you're seeing this as a challenge rather than a hindrance (I can't think of the correct word). What about offering an ironing service? Turn off all plugs when not in use etc. Have a look on topcashback I'm using it to save up for next Christmas. Do a car boot? That could be fun too.

As long as you're not including cleaning/toiletries this is doable. I have 2 kids and 2 adults to feed incl pack lunches for myself and the teen, and we can do this. Meal planning and usually a week of 'whatever is in' teas are required. Lots of eggs cheese potatoes and bread... tinned veg is great aswell as soups made from scrap ends in the fridge...

We've been on a really tight budget before of course its doable you just need to manage expectations.

In dire straits (not ethical obviously!!) You can buy (Tesco) oats for 75p, 15 eggs for £1.15 I think and a pack of frozen sausages for £1. Tesco do value meat willow farm for the chicken and Boswell farm for their meat, lentils will bulk out any meal to make it go further. A gammon joint in the slow cooker with tomatoes and beans and potatoes or rice pasta for a few meals. I used to make the kids have left overs for lunch and I'd skip lunch when we were at our poorest. Tesco frozen veg is about £1 per kg so I'd always get a few bags of them. Tesco do really cheap farm apples less than £1 for a bag of 5. This time of year lots of people in my village sell apples from their trees for £1 for a whole bag. Check out your local fruit and veg shop, they are normally very expensive but sometimes seasonal foods can be cheap if they are locally grown

It's hard and I hate having to be that person that always worries about money, I stopped taking my girls to a playgroup as all the parents went to the cafe after and we couldn't afford to go.

It's going to be a bit tight but it can be done.

Shop at Aldi and meal plan.

Soz no way we allow £100.00 a week for 2 adults and 1 dog !!!!. even if we cut out beer and wine reckon you are still looking at £75.00 a week my kids are students and they do £50.00 a week each and that's tight.

Hi there

Please can one/ many of you on this thread just get together and put a website book together of how you survive food wise on a low budget for a family . I think we are approaching Brexit and there allegedly are going to be higher food prices so these tips are invaluable to a lot of people including me ! I would be grateful

I think it’s do able

Hi I we find it cheaper to make things from scratch and make use of ‘free’ food such as windfall apples and blackberries for pies. That way we have a store of pies, biscuits and so on ready to pull from the freezer as a treat. We shop at the market too and often get bargains that we couldn’t get at the supermarkets.

Panelbase surveys are a good place to start. It's not great money but you cash out after earning only £5. A lot of the other sites you have to have a balance of £20, £40 or £50. Populous pay more per survey but you have to make £50 before they send you out a cheque. If you have time it's worth signing up for some. I would also look at the £10 a day thread on here. I cannot get my head around matched betting but a lot of people make good money from it. I wish you well.

I think your going to have to embrace carbs on the teen days, plenty of bread and butter to go with dinners (can highly recommend Aldi’s bread)
I manage it (without teens) but we have a lot of beans on toast, omelette type dinners. And we don’t really have fruit (lots of veg). My lunches (work from home a lot) are usually just bread and butter /toast.
I find Lidl and Aldi better than the poundshop for cleaning stuff, Poundland or wilko for toothpaste if you need fancy stuff.
Lidl premium catfood is nutritionally great.
Drop the brands, see what you notice and what you can live with.

I do Lidl:
Oj
Apple juice
Yogurt
Ketchup
Catfood
Shower gel
Deodorant
Sanitary stuff

Aldi:
Milk (ethically quite good and their cows use a self milk system to milk themselves!).
Bread (comes in a brown wrapper)
All their baked goods, wraps, pittas, muffins.
The meat marinades are great too.

Meats are much of a much, but my local Aldi have more variety.

With male cats then definitely DO NOT change to solely dry food or you're likely to end up with a urinary issue
Butchers classic (not the choice, that's for dogs!) is £2.80 at Sainsbury's - that's for the 400g tins and you get 6. Best quality cheapest wet food, and you can probably find it cheaper elsewhere
Anything you order online like cat litter or food, shop around, use Quidco and vouchers

I recently did a Sainsbury's online shop after not using them for ages and got a £18 off £60 voucher. Then went in store and got a £12 off £50 voucher

Get points cards for everywhere, boots, pets at home, Morrison's etc etc

I'd recommend signing up for weekly emails from Money Saving Expert, for offers and reductions.

For instance, this week he has highlighted a £5 off a £25 spend voucher for Lidl (available in tomorrow's free Metro newspaper), how to get vouchers for cheaper petrol, and a website selling food past its best before date (but perfectly edible) at discount prices: Approved Food, with an offer code.