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.

2 adults 1 teen 1 toddler pack lunches and 3 cats £160 a month. Plan meals and hit Aldi’s

Definitely stock up on all kinds of lentils. The split red are extremely easy to cook and are very filling served with rice. My sons also eat "lentils on toast", something I made up one day when I had nothing else to feed them! It's same principle as beans on toast.

Cooked red lentils and potato curry in a wrap makes an inexpensive, simple and filling lunch option, esp if you get store brand wraps.

I also use the brown lentils in tomato sauce over pasta, creating a sort of alternative bolognaise.

If the teens are able to eat meat during the week/EOW, I don't think it will be so hard for them to go veggie EOW.

Best of luck to you!

There's a fb group called feed yourself for £1 a day. Lots of info, recipes etc and advice. Might be worth joining that.

Couple of other tips

• you can make a lot of your own cleaning products with vinegar/ bicarbonate/ washing up liquid. Eg window cleaner, floor cleaner, bathroom cleaner etc. Refill old bottles. Better for the environment and your wallet
• nappies- you might not want to go full washable because of upfront costs & additional washing- but cut up an old towel or a couple of flannels & use with soap and water instead of wipes, then stick in wash with cleaning cloths etc. Also flannel not wipes for wiping mucky hands and face. Again better for planet and wallet. I have a 8 month old and have used 1 pack of wipes in last 4 months - pretty much only when away overnight.

Hope that helps - good luck x

@dea56

if you had bothered to RTFT, the OP has already stock piled some stuff already and will be using her last pay queue for cat food and other household bits so the £200 should just be for human food.

This is not long term but until the New Year.

Anyone can load up on home grown cheap seasonal carb rich foods (potatoes, cheap veg like carrots cabbage etc) plus pasta/ cheap wholemeal breads and tinned and frozen fruit and veg (which can work out cheaper than fresh which would have been sitting on shelves for bloody ages losing their nutrients) and cheap cuts of meat until then and be perfectly healthy! Plus throw in dried beans/ lentils and Bobs your full up Uncle and Aunt Fanny has to lie down and undo a button from her skirt.

Its coming up to Autumn and Winter when salad veg will be pricey and out of season and frankly normally tastes crap. Make no sense saying "have salads!" when it's Autumn/ winter time. You can make your own colslaw (if you fancy it) with seasonal veg which will be more filling and better for you than a rubbish salad of imported overpriced tasteless produce.

How much of that £82 a week is for branded over priced products and cleaning things and other stuff we don't ACTUALLY need? I bet a bloody lot!

OP you can do this! It won't be easy but I think it'll be fine albeit with a lot of planning. My main worry is Brexit so stock up on tinned goods now.

We had the equivalent budget for a short while during the recession. It was a challenge but we managed and as a result we now eat a much better, healthier diet than we did before. Think home made soups, bread, casseroles, vegetable curries, lentil bolognese, pizza, chilli, jacket potatoes, eggs etc. Everything tastes so much better if you make it from scratch!

You'll need to eat less meat. Use chorizo and bacon for flavour, chicken thighs instead of breast. Use lentils and chick peas to bulk out your meals as well as pasta and rice. Porridge for breakfast, soup for lunch.

Jack Monroe's book A Girl Called Jack has loads of great recipes and any of Miguel Barclay's books - try your local library.

Good luck!

Frozen veggies and fruit would help. My teenager nephew when I was at university bought everything at Iceland to save money. Incredibly cheap. Including beef and chicken with the plus that it wouldn't go off quickly so let's waste.

• less waste

Have a look at local charities to get you through to then get ahead of yourself. There are a few charities that offer 4 weeks of food delivered. If you want to pm me I can help as set up to be a referrer depending on your location.

Get yourself down to Iceland.

You can feed the 5000 in there with that budget.

Good luck op. You sound to be planning and preparing incredibly thoroughly. As others have said focus on the helpful posts and ignore the muppets.
100s of great tips here already but a few more I don’t think I’d seen

Check out weezls weblog.
Hot chocolate (cheap powder one made up with water) can really help to ease a hungry tum before bed or satisfy a sweet tooth
Oats or lentils can bulk out a mince dish
Stuffing, either homemade or packet mix (honestly packet probably cheaper) will stretch a roast dinner, bulk out mince into a substantial meatloaf or turn a toad in the hole into substantial dinner without needing to bankrupt yourself with extra sausages
Beans on toast/tinned spaghetti on toast/egg on toast/macaroni in tomato soup for lunches for you and the toddler
ClickSnap cashback and other similar apps for shopping, quidco and topcaxhback etc for other purchases.

If dh is entitled to any sort of workplace scheme that allows you to buy supermarket vouchers with a percentage off do that
Sign up for whatever discount cards you can

And finally come and join the friendly frugaleers on the credit crunch board for a bit of moral support. We are all in different financial circs but we’re a great source of support and there will be no judgey bollox

I have a £10 pw food budget for one ravenous toddler and 1 adult. Tap water, no chocolates, biscuits, alcohol etc, no red meat, no exotic/expensive fruit, frozen meat so it lasts over several meals over time (e.g. You can get 30 fish fingers from asda for £3, if everyone only has 2 fish fingers, that's 15 meals right there), lots of own brand tinned things (especially veg), not buying things that go out of date/mouldy before I can finish it (e. G. Bread), you can bulk out meals with cheap carbs e.g. rice or pasta. If I'm having a particularly hard week, I'll skip dinner so that money can be spent on DD. When you have to eat on a budget, you make it work.

I've not RTFT so I do apologise if anyone else has already mentioned this, but if you know anyone who has a wholesalers membership (like Costco, or similar) bulk buy meat each month. So save a tenner each week and after 4-5 wks go and bulk buy meat like chicken breasts, mince beef. Then divide into portions that will take you through the month and freeze.

It's better quality meat at a far lower price than buying smaller amounts in supermarkets, and will last you all month (possibly longer).

Also get tinned & dried things like beans, tinned toms, pasta, rice, tuna, soups, cereals. Also much cheaper than the supermarkets.

We started doing this during a super tight period and it worked well. The very first time you go it's expensive, but evens itself out after the first shop because then you only need to use supermarkets for your low cost fresh stuff like bread, fruit and veg.

Despite now being more comfortable financially we still do it. I get so annoyed when I see the price of two skinny pathetic chicken breasts in Tesco when you can buy 10 huge fat ones in Costco at far better value.

If you are interested in reusable nappies, keep an eye on freecyle or put out a 'wanted' shout out on there, we picked some up that way.

I think the budget is do-able short term.

I would hesitate to feed your cats dry food only due to the risks of UTIs and kidney issues but a mix of wet and dry is fine (that's what we do).

We've moved to soap bars to reduce plastic use, but it's also cheaper, I think the last pack we bought was 65p for 3 bars in Asda (bargain!).

Sign up for the money saving expert and hotukdeals e-mails, also mysupermarket alerts for price drops on any of your favourites.

Go shopping to Asda/Tesco etc about 7.30pm at night, that's when they seem to do the decent reductions for fruit/veg/bread - we often get things for 10p.

Check out contribution based jobseekers allowance (claim anyway even if you only get your NI contributions paid whilst you are looking for work) www.entitledto.co.uk/help/jsa

It's also well worth booking in to see a careers adviser through the National Careers Service. If you're applying for lots of jobs but not getting responses it might be worth seeing if they can help you improve/target your applications and they may also know about additional opportunities coming up nationalcareersservice.direct.gov.uk/

Good luck!

You can definitely do this, OP! It’ll be tough but you can. We’re currently in a similar situation and both due to start new jobs but not until late October so it’s tight here too. We spend around £140 a month for two adults and two children, one in nappies.
Sacks of potatoes, pasta, lentils, rice, tinned beans and tomatoes, all staples. Check our your local supermarket’s reduced section. Even if the veg is slightly droopy you can cook it up straight away and batch cook something. Sorry if you’ve said but are you entitled to any JSA until you find work? Sell things on Facebook, gumtree etc. Also have a look at doing surveys online. They’re quite laborious but if you’re at home anyway you could give them a go. Even if you make a tenner a month it’s a tenner you didn’t have. Enter competitions too (I do it through Facebook). It’s obviously not a given but you could win things to either use and save money or sell. Could you swap your bank account to another bank that offers an incentive? Some offer £50-£100 if you swap to them. Have you got birthdays coming up (you and DH) where you could ask any gift buyers for money or things you’ll need such as cosmetics? (I don’t mean ask friends for money but my parent’s always ask if we want cash or gifts each year). Have a dog under your sofa cushions, check all your coat pockets and bags for any loose change hanging around. Again, even if you get a tenner it’s a tenner to get some more food.
I really hope things pick up for you on the job front. And that people start reading your posts that actually state you ARE job hunting, haven’t stopped work to be a SAHM and won’t be sending the teens out to work 🙄 and for the record, I’m sure they come to see you as well as their dad and sibling, you clearly care about them. Good luck!! 💐

Will be very tight. I recommend buying lots of cheap frozen vegetables, cooking everything from fresh and bulk cooking. No snacks like crisps, biscuits etc. which always add up. Own brands cereals, baked beans, condiments etc.

DON’T have a dog under your sofa cushions. You don’t need another mouth to feed. Have a DIG instead

I’ve not read all the thread but I often go to supermarkets in the evening and buy reduced food and then stock the freezer. The only issue here is that you have a toddler so you may not be as flexible with time. I can normally only do it at weekends because I need to have the children in bed early during the week. This summer I have been doing the reduced sections more regularly and it’s been fantastic. I don’t know what I spend on groceries monthly- I have a large family and it’s a huge amount but the savings in the evening make a big difference and if I needed to I could cut back even further.

I find school dinners the most difficult because that’s a big and non -negotiable cost for food that is often wasted- but that’s for another thread!

One pot meals tray bake style are your friend. Fruits in between meals although they go like lightening. Budget supermarkets and bulk buying if you are using meat. Good luck, it is doable but it may not be much fun.

@dea56 I understand the maths thanks... But it IS doable. Plenty of people have said that. A diet with lots of pasta and no meat in it is not unhealthy. Do you think all vegetarians are unhealthy?!

Those teenagers will wipe you out!

Replace all the things you can to reusable eg wipes, sanitary products. Clean with natural products. Smart price everything. Enquire about healthy start vouchers if you have a under 4. Cut out meat. I've been balls to a wall and I know I can feed my family of 6 with 80 quid for the month. It's boring but can be done.

Amazing tips here.

We are very comfortable but I like to cook from scratch and want to reduce meat for environmental reasons - some good tips.

Batch cooking is probably worthwhile - a veggie chilli can then be made into pasta sauce or chilli on a jacket potato etc.

I went from working to a SAHM, it’s not a comparable situation BUT when you have to budget for something it’s easier than you expect (in my experience). You will make it work, because you have to.

Look at the Facebook groups, Thrifty Lesley-Feed yourself for £1 a day & Reduce your supermarket spend for meal ideas.

Do able but you'll have to plan carefully.

We feed 2 adults, a 9 year old and a cat (including loo rolls etc) for around 50 a week. Shop online maybe every 2/3 weeks, then you can shave costs and keep an eye on the total bill (you have to factor delivery cost though, but there are cheap slots). Buy stuff that is on offer. Compare prices and use Aldi/pound shop where its really cheaper. Meal plan. Make soup. Not much room for treats/wine/puddings within 50 quid. But then it really is a treat when you have it.

As people say, its the teens who are monster munchers. You'll have to sit down with them and crunch the figures - negotiate terms.

Hopefully it won't end up like Brexit.