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!!

@ImplementingTheDennisSystem - well in your example that’s still three things a month, ie almost one extra toiletry item per week. An extra £2-5 depending on what.
Maybe one week it’s bin bags, next toothpaste, toothbrush, multicleaner, washing powder etc.
We buy the large £18 laundry powder which would last small household most the year, but that’s still 0.34p per week if you divide that way.

[quote mrsm43s]@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.[/quote]
I think if I was in that situation I’d rather be the cat

do people buy toiletries and cleaning products every week?!

Yes, most weeks we'll have run out of something, be it washing up liquid, hand soap, toothpaste, bin bags, sponges for washing up (we don't have a dishwasher), shampoo, shower gel, tampons, painkillers...the list goes on.

This week it was bin bags, toothpaste, deodorant and a new toothbrush for me. Those four items alone came to about £7 out of our weekly shop of £65.

We don't live anywhere near an Aldi or a Lidl so we can't shop there to get things cheaper.

I maybe buy a new bottle of bleach, a new toothpaste and a big pack of toilet roll a month.

So that averages out to about an item a week then

I think a lot of people responding are forgetting all those little things that easily add up to fairly significant amounts over a month.

Most months we buy laundry detergent, shampoo and conditioner, shower gel, some kind of cleaning product, painkillers, tampons for me - those items aren't cheap and not everyone has access to shops or the storage so they can buy in bulk.

Agreed, so one value item a week out of a £35 budget is absolutely fine 👍

@ImplementingTheDennisSystem

Agreed, so one value item a week out of a £35 budget is absolutely fine 👍

But it won't always be just one item a week, that's whole the point....

Some weeks you won't need anything, which is fine, but other weeks you'll need 4-5 items which will eat up half your budget.

It probably is more though. I think for example your supposed to change toothbrush head/ toothbrush every 3 months. So two adults are looking at 8 toothbrushes/ heads min per year. I think most 2 person households use say 2 loo rolls per week, aka 8 a month. You can’t buy that for £1

Cat isn’t just cheap food. They ideally need decent food. Dry and wet. Our cats need flea/ tick treatment every month from now until October. That’s £40 per cat.

We are an adult and a 15 year old boy, currently spend £50 a week. Two cats but their food is bought separately online.

2 adults 1 child + dog (but not inc dog food) £70 on big shop and prob £30 on bits in week. That includes all cleaning and alcohol. Stick another £50 on if dds are home from uni.

How much do you usually spend? Where do you shop? Which supermarkets are nearby? I could do it for £30 but that would involve you cooking from scratch and freezing leftovers to be used at a later date. You would also need to meal plan as it just doesn't work if you are scatty and need to do lots of top up shops. Totally depends on whether you can cook and more importantly have the time and inclination. Some people are funny about leftovers and won't eat them the next day or freeze them.

I think when you're drawing up budgets like this it's so easy to forget those little things that you buy occasionally but that really add up over a month/year.

Things like batteries for the remotes, painkillers, plasters, toothpaste, sanitary supplies, bin bags, toilet roll, sponges to wash the dishes etc.

You can't realistically buy all those things, plus cat food for three cats, plus food for two adults on a long-term budget of £100 a month.

I did a charity challenge a few years ago called live below the line where for 5 days you can only spend £1 per person per day on food.

It's difficult but doable.

Lots of of lentils, not very much meat (Tesco sell 'cooking bacon' which are the scrap end bits 500g for about 80p). Potatoes, rice. Cheap bread for breakfast or porridge. Water only to drink.
Not very healthy long term.

I get the point of those saying but what about xyz other non food items if the OP has asked about overall budget but the original question was specifically regarding the food budget

We have two cats, for them I buy:-
One bag of Lidl clumping cat litter per week £1.80 (best one I've tried, quite fine so more absorbent than a lot of others).
Butcher's Classic meat in jelly wet food tins £3.40 for 6, we use 3.5 tins per week as the cats have a quarter of a tin each (100g) per day.
And Morrisons own cat biscuits which are £1.20 for 1kg, a box lasts probably a week to week and a half. Both cats are male and a healthy weight (about 5kg each, they're large cats not overweight). We mix some boiled water into the wet food to make sure they drink enough water. So I think they cost us about £5, maybe a little less a week on food and litter.

@poshme

I did a charity challenge a few years ago called live below the line where for 5 days you can only spend £1 per person per day on food.

It's difficult but doable.

Lots of of lentils, not very much meat (Tesco sell 'cooking bacon' which are the scrap end bits 500g for about 80p). Potatoes, rice. Cheap bread for breakfast or porridge. Water only to drink.
Not very healthy long term.

I would substitute buying the bacon for fruit, veg and eggs (obviously carrots and peas etc, not avacados!) and you would have a healthy diet on rice, lentils, potatoes etc. Porridge is far healthier than most breakfast options

P.s. water also far healthier than most other drinks!

I think it would be a struggle on £25.00 pw though .A more realistic amount may be £10 or so for puddy tats and about £50 /£70 pw for your shopping .If you include loo roll and Soap powder Bleach and so on.

@R00K

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

😁

One week for me and DDog - £29. I eat the same meal two nights in a row - whatever I cook this evening is reheated tomorrow, whatever on Tuesday eaten again Wednesday etc.

Breakfast - banana and a brunch bar
Lunch - I got three cartons of fresh soup, have some tinned in the cupboard & bread
Dinner - one beef meal, one chicken meal, one veggie meal.

Dog has grain free food, is purchased separately as Lidl don’t stock it.

I do £80 a week for family of 4

I think £30.00 is manageable short term, I've popped some meal suggestions below that are healthy but would stretch a few days each!

Veg chilli
Spaghetti neopolitan
Spag bol
Jacket potatoes
Roast chicken dinner

I mean, sure, @fairylightsandwaxmelts - if you're absolutely determined not to make a low budget work!
Spend £35 a week or spenddouble that it's of no consequence whatsoever to me! 😅

£40 ish per week. If you can, go shopping later and get any meat bargains to freeze / batch cook with

I think the key is looking what you already have in and making the most use out of that. For a couple of weeks at least I know I could probably eat pretty well buying nothing other than fresh items needed, and even then I have plenty of frozen veg.

Being able to plan and be organised always helps, as does bulking things out so you have left overs for the next day or freezer.

Have you tried the Too Good To Go app, where you can buy unsold food from restaurants at the end of service, to prevent it from being thrown away? I’m not in the UK, but we use it a lot and in some places you can get really good restaurant food and a lot of it for a couple of pounds.

@LagunaBubbles

Come on, there is no way £25 would cover a week's worth of meals, snacks etc and cat food, no way at all.

No one needs snacks, though. There’s a saving right there.