FOOD BILLS PER WEEK

[Diamondsareforever123]

We are two adults, middle aged, with 3 cats. Very low income. What's the cheapest food bill we could budget? We're not veggie/vegan, no food allergies or intolerances. I think we're spending too much.... and the fuel bill has knocked me for six!!

Two of us here and I’d say between £40/£50 a week at aldi. We do have maybe a takeaway or a cheap pub meal out once a week most weeks too.

[quote mrsm43s]@fairylightsandwaxmelts

Okay, if it's so easily done, what would you buy with your £25 to feed two adults and three cats, including litter, cat food, human food, toiletries and cleaning products?

In fairness, that wasn't what the OP asked. She asked for the cheapest food bill for 2 adults and 3 cats. It absolutely could be done on £25-£30 per week. It won't be an exciting diet, or even the healthiest, but the cheapest food bill, would not be a lot of money.

Asda Smart Price is the way to go.[/quote]
I always assume food bills include stuff like toiletries and cleaning products as the vast majority of people get them all at the same time, no?

I spent £34 this week for 2 adults and a child.
As an example:
Mon - fajitas
Tue - chicken curry
Wed - soup & crusty bread
Thurs - shepherds pie
Fri - pizzas
Tonight- chicken burgers.

I also made sandwiches for lunches, yoghurts for DD, fresh fruit, fresh veg but didnt need any cleaning products this week which helped. I never spend more than £50, I make a meal plan and stick to it which saves me money.

Just spent around£180 for 2 adults and a dog. Ok, there was cleaning products, meat and a bottle of gin as well, but it used to be around £120. The system is so fucked!!

@fairylightsandwaxmelts
Well that's not what they asked though.

In any case

Asda Smart price porridge made with water for breakfast 75p

Breakfast total - 75p

Lunches (each for 2 ppl)
2xSmart price beans (22p x2) on toast
2xSmart price spaghetti (16px2) on toast
2xSmart price plum tomatoes (28p x2) on toast
Smart price tomato soup (24p) with toast
Add 2 x smart price loaves of bread (39p x2)
Add spread Asda Sunflower spread (£1)

Total for lunches - £3.34

Dinners (each for 2 people)

2 meals of Asda smart price sausages (£1 for 20 pack so 5 sausages each per meal), Asda smart price tin potatoes (2x 33p), tin ASP carrots (2x20p) ASP tinned peas (2x21p)

2 meals of Asda smart price tuna (2x59p), ASP pasta (29p per 500g), ASP tinned chopped toms (2 x 28p)

1 meal of ASP chicken nuggets (85p) ASP savoury rice (25p) ASP coleslaw (37p)

2 meals of ASP breaded fish portions (4 portions £1.25) ASP chips (f90p for 1.5kg), ASP mushy peas (2x 18p)

Total for dinners - £8.49

Total for human meals £12.58

Cats 3 x Asda Tiger complete cat food at £1.05 (each pack will do 10 days for a medium cat according to feeding instructions)

Total for cat food - £3.15

Total - £15.73.

So a budget of £25-30 per week would leave £10-15 for additional fresh fruit and veg snacks (big bag of carrots approx 40p, 6 pack asda garden gang apples 89p, bananas approx 80p per kilo) ASP squash is about 40p, ASP teabags about 25p.

Would be enough to squeeze in some cleaning products and toiletries too as needed.

It's absolutely doable on £25-30 p week, albeit a basic diet.

Stop feeding the cats. They can catch mice

I just don't see how that's possible week in, week out.

With the lunches, you're also assuming people are home and have access to things like toasters and microwaves - many workplaces have neither.

You're also not including milk, sugar, coffee and other basic cupboard staples. I know you added teabags at the end but it's all those little things that add up.

In any case, my cats wouldn't eat Tiger cat food so buying it (however cheap it is) would be a waste of valuable money. We've tried about 15 brands over the years and all they'll touch is Felix.

They get through two boxes of wet food (£4 each) plus a decent amount of biscuits each week. There's just no way I could feed all three of them on just over £3 per week £10 a week is much more realistic when you have multiple cats in the home.

Yes, OP asked for the cheapest way to feed them all but you also need to be realistic too.

For 2 Bag of porridge oats £1
14 bananas £2.50
12 eggs £2.60
2 loaves bread £2
8 jacket potatoes £1
Cheese £3
6 tins of beans £3
6 tins of chickpeas £3 4 tins of tinned tomatoes £2
Onions x 3 60p
Butter/oil/miscellaneous/tea/sugar £3
Lentils £1.60
Pasta £1
Frozen peas £1
Carrots £40p
Clementines £1.50
Packet of nice biscuits £1
Milk £2

Myself and 1 toddler- mine comes to £50 I’m vegetarian and my child only eats fish no meat (doesn’t like it) I can’t get mine any lower and if I did we would be eating very unhealthy.

@fairylightsandwaxmelts

I just don't see how that's possible week in, week out.

With the lunches, you're also assuming people are home and have access to things like toasters and microwaves - many workplaces have neither.

You're also not including milk, sugar, coffee and other basic cupboard staples. I know you added teabags at the end but it's all those little things that add up.

In any case, my cats wouldn't eat Tiger cat food so buying it (however cheap it is) would be a waste of valuable money. We've tried about 15 brands over the years and all they'll touch is Felix.

They get through two boxes of wet food (£4 each) plus a decent amount of biscuits each week. There's just no way I could feed all three of them on just over £3 per week £10 a week is much more realistic when you have multiple cats in the home.

Yes, OP asked for the cheapest way to feed them all but you also need to be realistic too.

Whilst it wouldn't be my choice to eat like that (and thankfully I don't have to), it's not only realistic, but necessary for many people to eat like that. You are very privileged if you've never been in that position.

( For lunches, tinned foods could be swapped for sandwich fillings, e.g. pastes 20p ish or cheese slices 50p ish. There's also a spare £10-15 which would cover milk/tbags etc. Plus I only touched on the range of ASP items. There's so much really cheap food out there - 20p tinned fruits, 20p tins of rice pud, 40p bags of rice, 10 pack of sultana scones for 49p, 10 pack fishfingers 69p, 10 chicken burgers £1.50 etc)

I think £30 a week for just food would be manageable.
Aldi cornflakes are 55p a box, porridge 70p or there are other cereals for similar costs. 4 pints milk £1 and 14 bananas £2. Thats breakfast for 2 people for a week - £4

Lunch - 1kg pasta 1.39, jar of pesto 85p, fresh spinach £1, tomatoes £1.35, 400g feta cheese £1.35
That's lunches - around £6
Alternatively a loaf of bread 85p, ham trimmings £2, or cheaper fillings such as marmite, cheese spread, peanut butter, crisp multipack £2, apples £2

Dinner - bag of potatoes £1.20, various meats on e.g. mince, chicken breasts, gammon steaks - 3 for £10, bag of carrots 43p, onions 65p, stock cubes 55p, 2x tinned tomatoes 80p, tin of lentils 55p, tinned beans 35p, tuna 79p, curry powder 95p, 1kg rice 45p, frozen peas 70p.

That would make meals such as

• gammon, chips and beans
• cottage pie
• spagetti bolognese
• chicken biryani
• chicken hot pot
• lentil curry and rice
• jacket potato with tuna

Total approx £28 so a few £ for extras like tea if you drink that, or snacks.

And since you're not living on a week by week budget, you could cut costs by e.g. buying bigger multipacks of crisps, larger bags of pasta and splitting them across a few weeks. Things like stock cubes and rice wouldn't have to be bought each week and they last a few meals.
Thats assuming you have storecupboard ingredients like flour and could stock these up from time to time. I think £30 to 35 is realistic. Also it would be cheaper if you didn't have meat or went for cheap meat e.g. liver, pork mince,

We are two adults and an older teen and two kittens and we spend £160 a week. That does include all lunches for us all

Is it just food or cleaning products etc?

I'd say about £200 a month if you shop at Aldi or Lidl and buy the above there too.

A £30 week is possible but difficult to sustain long term. There are always more expensive weeks when you need washing powder or such like.

I find bigger cuts of meat work out cheaper. Ham joint in the slow cooker or a whole chicken go much further. Leftovers for packed lunches is often cheaper than making sandwiches and good for the waistline as it stops you eating a massive portion if you can get tomorrow's lunch out of it!

Lentils to bulk out mince (your husband won't notice!), Using frozen veg in cottage pies etc, and making soup also saves a lot

Hi OP. Do you have access to Lidl, Aldi or Asda OP? Tesco is next best in terms of own priced food. I think it varies by shop, we do our shop in Lidl and it costs us 35-40 a week without cat food, without cutting anything back. In Asda, the same shop is at least £50 and I've normally had to cut some things.

We feed our cat each month for £20. We buy Whiskas 80 pouches in bulk and that lasts him the month at 2.5 packs a day. Of course, there is always own brand but that makes my cat sick. I find buying 80 pouches to be at least 40% cheaper if you can front the cost? For litter we buy this litter. It can seem expensive but I kid you not, it is cheap in the long run. One pack that size lasts ours at least 5 months. It's clumping, smells less than normal litter and my cat will actually walk on it, unlike the other wood pellets. They do sell wood pellets cheap in Asda and pets at home so if you can find it and your cats get on with it then I would switch to that. If you can find asda own brand of cat food and they get on with it then that's 7.50 a week on the cat food.

@R00K

Well if you treat the cats like the mumsnet chicken, you could probably cover about 3 weeks worth of food there.

This comment made me laugh.

I'm easily £80/100 for two adults and a baby. I'm on mat leave and husband takes own lunch to work. I don't even buy lots of branded food.

Is your budget solely for food op or also things that most of us add in a weekly shop like toilet rolls, cleaning products, foil, soap/handwash, toiletries etc?

Definitely around the £50, unlikely to be less than £40

We're not vegetarian either but we eat about 70% vegetarian meals out of choice (health/environment) so I'd definitely look up some lovely recipes and give that a go. Also we love to make frittatas which can use up leftovers, or things like bubble and squeak?

Me and DH, no pets. About £50 a week including cleaning stuff, toiletries etc. Mostly cooking from scratch, not much booze., both wfh so no lunches out.

To the people saying: "How on earth can you feed 2 people and 3 cats on £35 a week, including all toiletries and cleaning products..." do people buy toiletries and cleaning products every week?!
I maybe buy a new bottle of bleach, a new toothpaste and a big pack of toilet roll a month. Our products last us an absolute age!
As for cheap (crisis-style) meal ideas:
Value porridge oats made with water and a dash of milk
Sandwiches made with cheap brown bread and a box of garlic cream cheese (one a day for a week)
Value bananas as snacks
A big pan of rice, onions and beans (kidney etc) with spices
Cheesy mash with brown sauce
Scrambled egg on toast
Tinned tomatoes on toast
Minestrone soup made with any veg that are going cheap and value pasta

I have hungry teenagers who would not eat baked beans etc. My animals only want the most expensive food too! If it was me I could probably eat on £20 a week:-
2 loaves of bread £1.20
2 packets of eggs £2
2 bags of frozen vegetables £2
2 packets of chicken thighs £3
6 icecream cones £1
Rice x 2 £1
Pasta x 2£1
Spices £2
Milk £1 (2 x longlife)
Cereal £1.30

But I am not that into food. Things that make food go further and last longer are using big, bold spices- last night I added them to a rice dish and everyone wanted more, whereas they would refuse to eat plain rice. Add a few vegetables and a couple f bits of meat. Also use a tiny bit of oil - it makes food taste better and tricks your brain into feeling more satisfied and fuller - this is why fast food is popular.

Bulk buy discounts- which does take looking at your local supermarkets online and seeing what is on offer.

I find the local shops in my area can be cheaper than supermarkets especially for refuse sacks, washing up
Liquid. Toilet paper, washing liquid and spices. They also have massive bags of lentils and rice etc.

Nowadays, time to cook is massive- thanks to energy price increases. I can do potatoes in the microwave in 20 minutes- but I am sticking to pasta and rice which take about 15 minutes to cook.

OP have you done a benefit check if you're on a very low income? Are either of you able to work more?

Dry food for the cats is probably cheapest, if they'll eat it and if you can buy in bulk but that's easier said than done as you'd need to have money tied up in it and meet minimum order for free postage, eg Smilla dry is decent food from zooplus and can be well under £2 per kilo but the above caveats apply. If you have any friends or relatives that could help you with a very small loan (£50) to get you started that would help enormously.

There's also human and pet food banks if you're really struggling on a very low income and no benefits available.

You've had lots of suggestions on human food, my other tip would be to be very very economical with things like cleaning products and toiletries. Lots of people on here seem to buy lots of things I never bother with and use things like bleach, shower gel and fabric softener in enormous amounts, so unless you're buying hardly anything, you might have scope to cut down to free up money for food.

I think it very much depends on what you’ve already got and if you’ve got tins of tomatoes that need eating up, coconut milk, pasta etc and all you’ve got to do is buy the fresh meat and vegetables you could probably do it for 40 quid a week.

Otherwise probably 60/70.
We are quite careful about what we buy but the two of us have never got it below 90 quid.