To think it’s actually hard to live off this for the rest of the month?!

[munnyya]

I have 350 to last me and dd (2) until 29th of august. This is for food and household essentials like washing tablets, dishwater tablets, shampoo etc only. I think this is incredibly difficult to do? Am I going wrong somewhere? I can’t understand how this is meant to last us until then.

Absolutely possible for you and one DC.

This week I've kept to below 100 for myself, older teen and young primary aged child.

Planned meals include:
Lasange and Garlic Bread
Pasta and Meatballs
Gammon, Sweet Potatoes and Vegetables
Pork Steaks, New Potatoes and Corn on Cob
Burgers, Salad and Fries
Chicken Stir Fry and Noodles

I usually do an extra portion and keep refrigerated for younger ones lunch the following day.

Due to being off school also
Soup and Rolls
Paninis
Jacket Potatoes with Toppings
Hot Dogs

My two love to snack so apples, banannas, raisins, pears, strawberries, yoghurts, biscuits, crackers etc

I shop asda and aldi as well as Home Bargains for toilet rolls, cleaning and toiletries

No washing tablets; buy a bottle of fairy.

Why are you buying ready meals for toddler at 3 quid apiece?! You could make a healthy meal for 1/5 of that per serving, or less.

Seems like a lot of indulgence and waste in your budget.

Tesco and Sainsburys cost a fortune!
Shop around and compare prices. Aldi, Lidl, discount stores etc. Bulk buy anything ambient (toilet roll, tinned goods) either on an online delivery or if you can get out in the car. Minimise fridge stuff that's where they hit you on the mark ups, if you cook keep it to ingredients, but then if you find yourself throwing any fresh food away reassess how you eat.
There's loads of websites on frugal living, the money saving expert website has loads of tips on their forum too.
It is really difficult when you have children though isn't it.

Absolutely plenty. Get yourself to Aldi for the lot, it goes a long way!

And in answer to your op I generally have less than that in disposable income to cover petrol, food and basics for me, a 3 year old and a 9 month old (not counting dp money as his fluctuates). I know it isn't a race to the bottom and we are living in a serious cost of living crisis but sometimes you do have to see it as a little bit of a challenge and make the best of it. There's times I've gone into a supermarket with say 2.54 in small change and a fiver on my bank card and thought ok how can I get the most out of this.
I do tend to stockpile food though when money is good ready for hard times.

Bloody hell, are you eating steak every day??

My husband gets £900 a month state pension, I get the lower rate of PIP, which is about £400 a month. We pay all our bills, run a car, spend £90 a week on food and household stuff (soap powder etc).

I've seen posters on MN complaining about having to spend £50 a week on strawberries and raspberries and avocados etc and how their child eats a £4 punnet of blueberries as a snack. I can believe it.

I had a toddler and his mum visit me at home in June. He spotted that I had a large ripe mango on the countertop in the kitchen and kept demanding it. I gave in thinking he'd just have a slice but he kept wanting more and ate it all while his mum looked on proudly and told me he regularly eats a whole mango. And when I opened the fridge door for milk he saw a punnet of strawberries and wanted those too. I thought his mum would just give him two or three, but she rinsed them all and then gave him the punnet and he ate the lot. He was in my home for three hours and ate £4-worth of fruit. Apparently this was his normal daily diet.

Can't cook is bullshit. If you have functioning hands, eyes and half a brain cell, you can cook. My 9 year old can cook ffs.

Fill pan with water
Place on heat.
Drop pasta in
Wait 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Drain water, add jar of sauce
Heat while stirring.
Tip onto plate.

There, cooked.

This. And the MN definition of 'poor' is to be unable to afford to eat like this.

Don’t feel disheartened OP, you can do this. It’s never too late to learn to cook. My grandad had to learn from scratch after granny died and he really enjoyed himself in the kitchen once he got started.

Don’t waste money on branded items when things like dishwasher tablets, washing powder, washing up liquid, shampoo etc can be bought very cheaply from Lidl and Aldi and is just as good as the big name brands.
Clothes washing gel can gunk up your washing machine so stick with powder.

Good Housekeeping magazine regularly lists these items as their Best Buys.

There’s thousands of YouTube videos on cooking and Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsay both produce good basic ‘how to’ videos that you might enjoy watching. Frozen veg is very cheap and won’t go off in the freezer and you only need to take out what you plan to eat, so you won’t be wasting any.

Look online for your local Adult Education Centre and see if they offer a beginners cooking course starting in September that you can join? They’re usually free of charge. If it’s in the daytime, they might have a crèche available for your toddler too.

For food for two females, that is more than enough. Not if you havent paid all the bills already, or if you commute. A big shampoo can be bought for 1 pound and lasts for more than a month if you dilute it with water.

I have working away and my husband has been working from home , feeding the kids with salad, cheese and ham sandwiches, bananas and yogurts, very cheap.
For dinner we would have something more cooked-cooked when I come back.

I buy the Magum brand from Aldi at €2.50 for a box of 40 tablets.
So for a €12.50, that’s 200 tablets.

Much better value and work well.

I came on to suggest Gusto boxes too. They have an offer on for new customers. The recipes are really good and you get all the ingredients you need, measured up and a step by step set of instructions on what to do and when. Great for a novice cook. I still do them now we don't receive the boxes.

www.gousto.co.uk/box-prices

Buy own brand washing powder not tablets for a start

I don't know what cooking equipment you have, but scrubbed unpeeled potatoes can be cooked in the microwave - stab them one or twice with a fork, zap them until they are soft. Cool and peel, then you can mash them and add butter and milk and re-heat, or slice them and saute them in minimal fat or brown them in an air fryer if you have one.

You can cook a big pan of rice, drain it, serve what you're going to eat then spread the rest out out to cool. After dinner, once it's cold, divide it up and bag as much as would do the two of you for one meal and freeze the bags. Then you can put the rice out on a plate and microwave it for any dinner it's needed.

For adding into sauces and cooked food, frozen chopped veg will be cheaper and fresher than buying fresh prepared stuff. Likewise berries for puddings - not a nice textured for eating as fresh and raw, but fine of you're going to process it anyway.

A cooking apple peeled, chopped, and zapped in the microwave is cheaper and better that stewed apple / applesauce.

Some canned food is good - don't underrate tinned tuna, tinned sweetcorn, and the eternal wonder that is tinned tomatoes.

If you're asking your librarian about cookbooks, Annabel Karmel has written some good stuff about food that adults and small children both enjoy.

Havent read all through - can I recommend a charity called Bags of Taste - they give bag of food for £1 (may have gone up_) which bring to you then teach you how to cook the meal with phone tutorial. The recipes are tasty and huge quantities

I lived off far less than that as a single mum.

OP, I’ve recommended this website on here before but it really is great if you’re not a confident cook. She has a video on every one of her recipes showing you how to do it so you can see what it should look like at each stage. Most of her recipes are really simple, quick and easy. Have a look around and find a couple that you like….

recipetineats.com

You are going to have to learn to cook, its the only way to get the good shop down

Learning to cook is easy enough , it just takes practice

I was 13 when I had to cook the christmas dinner for 10, sure the turkey was that well cooked it fell off the bones , the sprouts were like bullets , but hey ho, nobody died, the food got ate

I think I can now say 47 years on and Ive cracked the christmas dinner :)

I learned via Delia Smith, back in the days when you only had books to learn from and along came Delia with her learn to cook programme - she still has free online cooking classes

Nowadays I would advocate Jamie Oliver. Hes got lots of series on the catch up channels - ALL 4? And his series meals for £1 or less is an excellent starting point - good solid easy recipes with no fancy skills needed - and all costed to £1 or less per portion. Think its called £1 wonders. So it may be 4 or 6 portions made, you eat once, then freeze the rest in portions using washed out take away tubs so you eat again without the stress of cooking another day . See him make something you fancy then look up the recipe - they are all free - check you have all the ingredients and follow along. Watch him make it so you understand the recipe

Just keep it simple, you dont need it to look perfect, just to be edible and hopefully tasty

I do cook every bloomin day and Im busy and tired and often do a chippy tea - but for me thats still peeling the spuds, cutting the chips and cooking them in the air fryer and then sticking baked beans in the micro and frying a couple of eggs and if thats not filling enough theres bread and butter. Like I say, putting something home cooked on the table doesnt have to be fancy and Im not buying processed frozen chips when peeling a spud is hardly taxing and you can get quite a few spuds for the cost of a bag of frozen chips. Enough spuds to do a variety of dishes for the week

Personally, I think that is extravagant especially as PP says the child can still eat her ready meals 'if she doesn't like' the Gusto box.

You do know that most major supermarkets have recipes online?
They are categorised into 'cheap, quick, etc.'

AND you can add all the ingredients in the recipe to your basket for delivery or click and collect.

OP, how old are you?

Oh mate. I think you’re getting a hard time. Times have changed and lots of people who didn’t/couldn’t cook before have to now and it’s hard.

I’d start with googling ‘how to’ grills sausages and make a baked potato. Then microwave frozen peas. That’s one meal.

Then I’d buy mince, pasta and a jar of pasta sauce. Follow the instructions on the jar - meal two.

Then start googling ‘tray bakes’. I use the green roasting tin book but there are other idea that just involve chopping something, throwing it in a baking tray and putting it in the oven.

You can work up to cooking. It’s ok to start with what you think you can manage.

If you are buy washing tablets you are not budgeting properly, why choose the most expensive option and why on earth do you need laundry cleaner, dishwasher tablets and shampoo etc at the same time ? Try buying one expensive item a week from now on instead of needing them all at the onetime. You need to plan not just wait until things run out.

It can take a little time and effort, but you should be able to make your money last with some preplanning. Try to plan all your meals for this month and do one big shop. See where you can batch-cook meals (such as pasta sauces, curries etc) and freeze extra portions to be eaten later in the month or have the leftovers for lunch the next day. Don't be too proud to buy cheaper options for some food and shop around for special offers on things like shampoo, conditioner etc.

Most supermarkets have nice recipes you can download, that provide cheap and easy meal suggestions if you're not too confident in the kitchen. Again, make a larger portion and freeze hald=f for another dinner next week.

There's also a really good app you can download onto your phone called "Too Good To Go" where you can buy food at a fraction of the cost from local supermarkets and restaurants. It's a great way to get some treats and try different foods. My daughters used it quite successfully when they were at uni and living on a very tight budget. Most of the time, it was a great mixture of fresh fruit and veg, but as you never know what you're going to get it can be "interesting"! ne time my daughter ended up with 20 bunches of spring onions and another time she got enough clotted cream to keep her in cream teas for two years! The bags only cost £3.50 and you get upwards of £10 worth of food, so they are helpful.