to think it's impossible to feed a family of four for a week for £10

[horseyhorsey17]

On one of the forums where journalists look for case studies recently there was a call from one of the right-wing tabloids for 'savvy' mums who are able to feed a family of four for £10 a week. This got a few people's backs up (including mine) as I see this as normalising poverty - and the only way anyone can feed a family of four for a week is by using food banks. This isn't 'savvy', it's desperate - I have friends who run a food bank and the bank is on its knees and might actually have to close due to the massive pressure of increased demand, so it's immoral to normalise their use.

I also Googled a few of those 'I feed my family for a tenner/£20 a week' type articles and they're all highly disingenous, the portions are tiny (would at a stretch feed two adults and two babies but not two adults and two hungry teens), were really only one meal a day, poor nutrition and didn't include snacks or drinks. TBH I spend more than a tenner a week on food for my pets - as they don't just get the cheapest food out there as I care about their health - and that isn't weird or profligate. It boggles my mind that people think actual humans can be fed healthily for less than that.

Am I wrong? Can it be done without resorting to food banks/begging for food on local forums (something I am also seeing a lot now)? Is it OK to describe this as 'savvy' rather than a sign of the poverty that's now endemic in the fifth richest economy in the world?

£150 a week! What are you doing - shopping at Sainsburys? Flagellate immediately and say a prayer of repentance, you wealth-flashing wastrel!

horseyhorsey - I wouldn't believe anything Jack Monroe says, her stories just don't add up.

Please don't use blackberries from the road side. They're covered in exhaust fumes that's they've absorbed.

I think you could but they’d be eating pasta with tinned tomatoes all day for 3 meals a day 🙈🙄

Also don't eat the ones from lower branches - they'll be covered in dog wee.

I do love a good blackberry picking sesh but they're around for about two weeks a year so can't actually be factored into anyone's food budget.

Nope, not a chance.
Another student here, who back in the last millennium put 10 a week into a tin with her housemate. It did us for the week, and there was sometimes enough at the end of term to grab a takeaway.
So, even 25 years ago, we were spending 4 times more per head than this is suggesting.

I mean, I COULD do it for a singular week. But I have cupboards and a freezer. Week 2 would be impossible tho.

I struggle to keep evening meals at £1 a portion

Actually, this is probably outing to people who know me IRL and are aware of this ex, but this whole rhetoric reminds me of a real dick I used to date who, despite earning well in the financial sector, used all his income for cocaine and to pay off some blackmailers, then "borrowed" more money from me, who was a student at the time.
When I told him I couldn't afford to keep giving him money as I didn't have any food in the house, he opened my cupboards, found a bag of flour and a jar of jam, and went, "What is wrong with your brain?? Make chapatis and put jam on them. You just can't think outside the box is your problem!"

I mean, that's basically what this government and these "food bloggers" (looking at you, Jack Monroe) are saying, isn't it? "Stop complaining. Just think outside the box and eat tasteless, nutritionally empty food. And be grateful for it!"

Particulate poisoning and dog piss for all of us Zebedee? Enjoy your roadside berries. Must go, I evidently have a lot to learn from this thread. As do you but I suspect you won't.

we could do it on a tenner a week id say - but only because my 2 year old is fed 3 meals at nursery 5 days a week and we pay over £450 a week for her to be there - and we go to the office and only need our dinner at home.

so you are not wrong - it's ridiculous!

i spend more than a tenner yesterday on some butter, fish fingers, packet of pasta and some fruit and veg & bread.

I have coeliac disease so even basics like bread and pasta cost a small fortune!

Off topic, but what is the "thanks" that you can tap at the end of each post? Is that instead of a "like"? Have only noticed it today.

I've just thanked you @3dogsandarabbit

Well the Jack Munroe article is 18 months old and I think we all know what has happened to food prices since February 2022 plus she is talking about £20 a week so that is probably £25 a week now. Not great but a whole lot better than £10.

I could feed a family of four fairly well for £45 for a week.
As it is I spend about £100 a week for 5 of us.

I spend £10 for two adults and no children, and I’m quite frugal. Unless you eat plain rice for all 3 meals then they’re chatting shit.

Yanbu. Even at aldi and lidl prices and eating veggie it would be impossible. What's porridge, 50p a bag or something? Even breakfasts would be a big chunk of the budget as you'd need a couple of bags plus milk.

Unless you wanted to be very very hungry for most of the week.

I wonder if these articles - by the right wing press, which let's face it has an agenda - are designed to make those of us who spend a lot more than £10 a week on food feel guilty? I work full-time and also have a side hustle (bleurgh hate that phrase) but am far from minted, thanks to the extortionate price of just about everything and the fact that wages in my industry have done down rather than up due to the economy flatlining, but suggesting I am simply not being 'savvy' with my money rather than, you know, not being paid enough to work bloody hard does make like a lot easier for our wonderful Government overlords doesn't it? It's our own fault if we're struggling, we're just not 'savvy enough.

It may have been possible a few years ago, if you had a cupboard of basics already and only needed to purchase the bare minimum.....and didn't mind eating chicken bone stew three days in a row!
Nowadays....not a chance, and you are right, this is trying to normalise having an absolutely 💩life!

They probably can feed the family in a very low budget if the kids have free school meals

@Iop i’ve just laughed out loud at the jam
on chapati and thinking outside the box comment. Sorry, I’m sure it was a real low point but the lunacy is staggering!

Maybe in 2019 at a push but certainly not possible now !!!

You could eat the same thing everyday, not saying I'd want to, but this has been fairly standard across history and still is for much of the world, and if your poor is far more cost effective.

The idea that you must have unique meals every day is very modern (and social media has a lot to answer for as they now put the pressure on to do fancy breakfast and cute packed lunches as well), and it is also pretty sexists as the majority of the time it is women who are under pressure to meal plan, shop and cook this way.

I couldn’t even feed me and 3 DC for that, DS2 has ASD and many restrictions/intolerances and DD has dietary needs. I spend more than £10/week on food for the cat!

It's just clearly utter bs. At the start of the year I did two separate weeks for £70 for 6 of us.

1. it was tight, not extremely healthy so it's OK for a week or two in thr month, not as a standard week
2. it gets impossible if you add on things like toilet roll, washing powder etc over a year.

So as someone who can budget hard when I had two school trips and a new tyre, I'd say its fantasy.