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.

please someone tell me what AIBU means on here? and why do some trheads start with " To think.... ! What does all this mean??? Please someone explain to me

also, what does EOW mean too please??

If it means "each out of work" then perhaps they should start jobs so that they can afford to buy any treat type foods they might want. You can make your own bread ( I do this, and it saves money) You can make soup in a big pan to last half the week then freeze. Vegetables and fruit can be bought cheaply and things can be cut out, like orange juice, tomato sauce, mayo etc. £200 sounds a bit tight, but if you were to cook everything from fresh, Im sure youd be fine. The teenagers could be sent out to go fishing once a week!

Dunno.
My Child Benefit comes in tomorrow (£36) so I’ll be off to Heron for bags of their 36p pasta to feed us for the next week.

I’ve just been made redundant from a part time job whose hours were chopped to 8 a week 12 days before I was let go, so my redundancy will be calculated on that instead of my 16 hours a week minimum wage job it used to be. Plus my boss is taking ages to sort out redundancy (he won’t pay it). I was only there just under 3 years.

But my bank account is like this all the time anyway.

I have no credit cards.

This is poverty (shrug emoji). Hopefully I’ll find a job very soon. I can only fantasise about spending £200 on a food shop. My gawd, I’d make that shop last a year .

AIBU - Am I Being Unreasonable

EOW- every other weekend

I don’t want to be bleak but this sounds very difficult OP. Truly, good luck with this, please keep us updated as to how you are getting on with it. Is there anything else you can cut back on?

Weymo how the fuck do you manage????

@croftermum AIBU means Am I Being Unreasonable.

As its section lf fhe forum its just easier to start threads "to think" "to say" "to (do this thing this circimstance)" "to go to this place" rather than write out am i being unreaonable before it when its in the am i being unreasonable section.

So this title is actually "am i unreasonable to think that £200 is enough"

4 teens, no not doable, they need lots of protein as growing and that’s expensive.

I am searching for and applying for jobs daily but have had no luck so far. Obviously I will keep trying and hopefully I'll find something sooner rather than later and it'll ease the pressure a bit but in the mean time, I'm just going to have to make this work.

What are your skills? What was the job you're no longer employed at? Was that your decision - so no JSA or redundancy etc. - or theirs?

Increasing income is your best bet. What else did your salary go on that you're now not spending on? If your food shop used to be £200 more than this, that can't have been all you earn?

You can do it if you cook from scratch and not buy rubbish like crisps and chocolate. Jacket potato with a filling, spag bol etc. can all be cooked quite cheaply,

@Pauuuuuuline have a look at the 'earn £10 a day' threads in money matters. Loads of earning opportunities that would help you out.

You'll get 500g packs of spaghetti for 20p in both Tesco & Aldi, and 1kg bags of rice in both for 45p. Both do tins of tomatoes & chick peas for about 33p atm I think. Tesco has 13p tins of spaghetti hoops, lots of hoops, much less sauce & their 750g boxes of own brand Cornflakes are 75p & really lovely.
Pound shops stock 12 eggs for , well, £1. Check what the stamp on the eggs in the boxes say because quite often they're organic/free range not caged. Their big packs of misshaped bacon for £1 are great for adding to the pasta or rice you're cooking & go a long way.
If you can get to the big shops when they're discounting items you'll save heaps, as well as being able to get the kind of treats you wouldn't be able to afford otherwise. If you've a local fruit & veg market (not a pay through the nose farmer's market) stock up there. I got 3 large punnets of strawberries for £1 & 3 large bowls of bananas, oranges & grapes for £2 total last week - for £5-10 you'd probably cover most if not all of your fruit & veg needs when the teenagers are there.

Working on a 30 day month for 2 x adults plus 4 days of 4 teens that works out at £2. 63 per person per day
That's without allowing for toddler and cats

Make sure you join up with all the supermarket email shots, Iceland for example most recent one I used was £8 off a £50 spend and free delivery. Bought a lot of multubuy meat/frozen veggies/fruit stretched the budget that little bit further.

Forgot the 17p 2ltr coke/lemonade from Aldi & Tescos. Teens can go through a lot of that stuff.

Yes, for the short term it's doable. I have done it but it isn't easy and needs masses of determination. And the teens will call it child abuse for feeding them value sausages and cardboard bread.

Have a menu plan, a shopping list you never deviate from and know your supermarket prices.

You will have to move between supermarkets to get the best prices. And look out for coupons, special offers and learn what time each day supermarkets put out their educed sticker stock good luck with that one rugby player tactics will be required

Look at your local supermarkets for reduced foods. My local Tesco can be a treasure trove at about 17:30-18:30. One week I got 6 x2 free range chicken breasts for £0.79 a packet and froze the lot to stretch my budget. I pick up fruit too as o find it lasts a few days in the fridge if it’s apples/satsumas and stuff like that.

Buy full fat everything

Day's food example :

Peanut butter sandwiches and porridge made with full fat milk for breakfast

Veggie omelets and toast for lunch. With tinned beans maybe too

Pasta carbonara for dinner (pasta, bacon, cream cheese, onion, egg, maybe add some broccoli for bulk)

Can you make pastry from scratch? Quiche, pies, jam tarts go a long way. Could also do Manchester tart - pastry, sliced banana, strawberry jam, custard, dessicated coconut on top. Do jam/syrup sponge pudding and custard for desserts.

Make lentil and veg soups and curries. Add coconut milk, the fat will keep you fuller and the soup tastes better!

Ooh, and make sure you make the most of your oven when you have it on.

Don't just cook one thing - roast some veg also, do jacket potatoes, bake a cake. The oven needs to earn its keep!

Utterly grim
To cover all household items, not just food
and near impossible to make it healthy & enjoyable

Sell anything you can
While you are looking for another job, see if you can pick up a few hours cleaning or pub work etc per week
Even an extra tenner per week would make a big difference

You must tell the teens - and your OH - that noone can just help themself to food from fridge or cupboard
It all has to be served at mealtimes, or it'll muck up your menu planning
That's bloody horrible

Forget any drinks except tap water
Forget any junky treats - they won't suffer nutritional deficiencies from lack of crisps, cake, biscuits, choc

Get the cheapest basics like pasta, potato, rice and have meat only say every other day
Porridge for breakfast - cereal is more expensive
Cheapest protein: beans, lentils, eggs, tinned fish
Soup and bread is a cheap lunch

Fruit:
Forget berries - too expensive for the amount teens will gobble down
Don't have a fruit bowl, because it could get demolished

• serve up an apple / pear / banana as pud, once per day Don't bother with other puddings; you'll struggle to afford a nutritious main course

Bloody hell, it's miserable

If you have a higher budget before September bulk buy for the cats - we get the huge bags of Iams from zooplus. There’s usually an offer on and for £40-50ish we usually get two big sacks that would easily last us the 5 months (we have two cats, one that is very greedy). Would that be doable?

Have a look at the Old Style board on MSE. Also have a look around the other boards for money making/saving tips.

forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?s=&daysprune=&f=33

Shops, the Post Office etc will be recruiting extra staff for Christmas soon, could fit in well with your timeline.

There is also the Make £10 a day thread on the Money Matters board on here.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/legal_money_matters/3574061-may-you-earn-10-a-day-thread