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.

Make sure that you split it into 3 and don't go over the allocation for that week otherwise you'll be stuck at the end of the month. It's plenty though...

What do you have to get? Does it include nappies? Where do you shop?
I can easily spend so much money on crappie easy food but if you go to lidl for fruit, veg, pasta, rice, tinned tomatoes and assuming you have herbs and spices in already you can create a fair few meals just on that. Toiletries, again lidl or savers.
It's boring, especially if you're someone who doesn't like cooking and wants crisps and cola etc but it's perfectly doable

Plenty, tho revisit your choices, cavier, steak and chips no, beans, full , veg and fruit not nearly as much.
buy budget versions of dishwasher tablets and stuff

I'd do an inventory of what you have in. I'd sort out your categories that you need eg toiletries, household goods, fresh food etc
If you aren't used to this budget then research some cheaper meals and meal plan.
Maybe do an online delivery being a new customer of somewhere like Ocado to get money off.

What are you eating on those days that costs so much though?!!!! Or do you have a lot of dietary requirements?!

How about something like:

Roast chicken, spuds and salad (Sunday)
Leftover chicken noodles stir fry (Monday)
Beetroot risotto (Tues)
Spag bol (Weds)
Bean and bacon chilli (Thurs)
Courgette and mint pasta (Fri)
Bangers, mash and green veg (Sat)

Chicken sandwiches for lunch for a couple of days
Or leftovers

Or something like that

That's plenty, it's £100 a week. I don't spend that on the weekly shop for me and my teenager who is a bottomless pit, and 2 year olds don't eat much.

I spend £120 a week - family of 5 with teens who eat enormous amounts of food. I cook from scratch 5-6 times a week, frozen pizza or homemade fish and chips on my lazy days. Takeaway max once a month. You'll be fine!

Also it's much better to do a big weekly to ten day shop and get it delivered, having planned out each meal, than to do lots of little shops.

You just need to meals plan

That would be plenty for me, DH and teen. I do one online Tesco shop every week, meal plan and cook from scratch 90%.

Do you need 3 meals a day? Packed lunches? Do you have a freezer?

Porridge for breakfast. Or cereal or toast if you prefer.
Sandwich, pack of own brand crisps and fruit for lunch. Or egg on toast or soup.
Pasta, sausages, pie, salad, Mac n cheese, vege bolognese, quiche, all sorts of options for dinner. Yoghurt if you need a dessert.
Tea, coffee, milk, squash.
Own brand cleaning products.
You'll find loads of deals on toiletries.

The key is to meal plan. Don't go into shop without a list.

I hope these comments aren't making you feel crap, OP. I have a similar food/essentials budget (for 2 adults and a 7 year old) and we really struggle. We meal plan and cook from scratch but our food bills are extortionate! And we shop at Aldi. I don't get how people do it.

2 adults and a 7 year old is a bit different to 1 adult and a 2 year old.

£70 every 3-4 days for food for one adult and a 2 year old us extremely high, what on earth are you buying?
£350 should be absolutely fine for household items and food for such a small number. Not loads if it includes other day to day expenses through the month but it shouldn’t actually be a struggle to keep to that.
If I havent planned a good weekly shop I find I can spend £70 every couple of days but I that’s a family of 4, nappies, a couple
of tins of formula, wine and snack foods etc. I definitely spend more than the bare minimum to hit that, it’s easy to see how it could be reduced if I needed to.

I over spend on food shopping but at tesco

Shampoo 79p
dishwasher tablets £3.29 for 40
washing powder £4.75 for 40 washes

@munnyya
What are you buying for £70?

I think it sounds enough, more than enough but then does OP have a freezer and good storage? What cooking equipment do you have?

I wouldnt waste money on washing tablets and dishwasher tablets, that is an expensive way to do laundry and wash up, use powder and less of it and washing up liquid

Meal plan and have 3 meat free days a week.
Buy a big tub of plain yoghurt instead of invidual plain yoghurts
Have some meals of jacket potatoes, pasta pesto, beans on toast
Eggs or porridge are cheap, filling and healthy breakfasts.
Apples and bananas are much cheaper than strawberries and blueberries.
Bulk meat dishes out with lentils (eg bolognese, chilli or chicken curry) and freeze half for another night.

Meal planning is the way to go. I do online shopping and plan meals for the week, using the supermarket’s recipes. They generally have ‘feed the family for less than a fiver’ recipes, which you can adapt to feed two people. Lot less waste, and no having to think what to cook each day. Works really well for me.

I spend that a month on food shopping for me and my 18yo. I cannot imagine what you are eating that comes to £70 for 3 days unless you are factoring in a deliveroo habit.

That's loads More than I spend in a whole month on that stuff including feeding a full sized 20 year old lad

I always buy the giant bags of rice and pasta and keep plenty of spices in house along with onions/tomatoes etc.. stock up on mince/chicken breasts when on offer…the big bags go a long way and work out much cheaper than smaller ones..

look into community larders near you, join olio, plan meals before you go shopping.
sometimes it's cheaper to visit multiple stores than get everything in one, prices do vary between them. If you can go when they rotate the days stock because that will be when there's good stuff with yellow sticker/reduced on; normally use by items (so chilled stuff) gets reduced in the evening/afternoon if it expires that day and best before stuff that expired the day before can be found in the morning.

pasta, cous cous, rice can all be bought really cheaply then made healthy by adding tinned tomatoes, beans, packets of chopped frozen veg are really quick to cook and cheap to buy. beans on toast is a filling meal, 70p for a cheap wholemeal loaf and a plain tin of beans 47p (ish).
even cheap garlic bread is 70p or so for two, then you can do alongside soup or whatever as a lunch or dinner

That's plenty. Cereal & milk breakfasts. Water / squash to drink. Cheap lunches like cheese / eggs and toast. Pasta, jacket spuds and other cheap dinners. Some fruit & veg. Some protein. Not sure what you spending £70 on

I think that’s fine, we do £500 for food and household essentials for a month for a family of four and that includes two very hungry toddlers! Different if you had to pay travel, bills etc out of that but £350 on food / house stuff is fine.

I think some of these replies make it seem easier than it is! This would be difficult for me too, because I'm not a fantastic cook and I'm not used to planning meals hugely in advance. But it seems like others are confident it can be done - so I'd do meticulous planning now and then I'm sure you will be able to execute.

The way I'd actually plan would be to google cheap meals and come up with an actual meal plan for the week. That would be a couple of veggie recipes that could do a couple of nights each if I did a big batch. And then plan for sandwiches/pasta salads for lunch and maybe cereal or porridge for breakfast. Get the household items in the first shop in the cheapest possible way you can. I wouldn't actually order online because the delivery fee is likely a waste if you can get to the shops easily, but I would add all to basket online so I was really clear on costs ahead of going to the shop and could adjust accordingly rather than being thrown off track in shops,

You have 24 days so I'd probably plan just one week and then be confident I could repeat that x 3 if I needed to.

Sorry you're finding it a bit tight and stressful at the moment. Hope you've got some good ideas here and the month goes ok, money worries are horrid.

I do family of 4 for £400 a month and I have change. I plan, I shop at Aldi or Lidl and I cut back on non essentials.
Shampoo costs £1, dishwasher tablets if you can't live without cost a couple of quid: you need to seriously look at what you are spending and where. Try using cash instead of card. It makes you massively more mindful of what you are spending x