£350 till end of the month. family of 4 + dog

[AnxietyLevelMax]

How do we survive? Needs to include formula for the baby. Other ds is almost 5 yrs old. Fuel to be included. We are sorted for this week and have few lunches in the freezer for the next week, but otherwise have to manage within the budget and just dont know how! Each grocery shopping is about £200 for a week with careful planning, we just cant afford it

Is this just for food and fuel? How much of the budget do you need for fuel? £200 a week seems a lot for food, there must be lots of non essentials you can take out?

Aldi. Bulk cook. Use tins, pasta, rice. No snacks, or cheap snacks (lots of fruit and veggies)

Re the dog, I've found (ok, cats in my case) buying litter etc on amazon is cheaper than in shops, might dog food be?

Batch cook and freeze at the weekend.

How much is fuel per week? If needed for work, thats non negotiable so deduct and rebudget from there.

What do you need the car for? Fuel it I fully and keep it for necessary journey's only. Try being tourists in your own area and go where you can on foot. Check your tyre pressure etc as well so the car is running at full efficiency

Work out how much formula you will need and buy it.

Keep meals simple. It's a bit boring but if you eat the same kind of thing everyday it's easier to cook in bulk/prep. For example making a big soup and having that with a cheese toasty for lunch is cheap. Batch cooking chicken/salmon and having with rice and freezer veg. You can buy popcorn kernels very cheap and make your own salty/sweet popcorn for a treat.

Ok - first off how much fuel do you actually NEED for essential travel only and how much will formula cost? Are there any other essentials that need to come out of this - we need to know how much is available for food and the number of meals needed. Xx amount of dinners,amount of lunches still to source etc. And special dietary restrictions if any

Are you serious?

You can spend far less on the grocery shopping - way less.

It’s easy to eat cheaply. It won’t be exciting meals, sure, it’ll be fairly repetitive and plain, but it’s absolutely possible.

Aldi. I can get our food for family of 4 for around £100 if I shop there and buy their own brands and am careful and could probably get it lower if I went very basic on meals. You can do a lot with pasta, tinned tomatoes, some bacon, rice, cheese, a packet of chicken thighs, etc. Apples and bananas for snacks. It won’t be very exciting but you’ll be fed.

Porridge, crumpets, cereal and milk for breakfast. Dinners can be spaghetti, chili con carne maybe with lots of extra kidney or butter beans and extra tomato tins then add rice, maybe do breakfast for dinner some days so you can incorporate eggs and beans and toast? Stretch things out by adding extra frozen veg like peas, onions, peppers.

Depending how much fuel is, it's definitely doable. Do you have a community larder? Your meals might be very boring and repetitive but you can eat cheaply and healthily. £200 a week for a family which includes young children is a lot....

what sort of fuel? gas, electric, petrol??
work out the cost of baby formula and dog food and then see what you've got left, and do a meal plan and food shopping list to suit your budget.
You should easily be able to feed everyone for under £100 a week unless you're feeding the dog steak on a daily basis.

If your already sorted for this week, then it’s only about 2.5 weeks left of the month .

Firstly how much fuel do you use in a month? £200 a week just for food seems a lot.You say you meal plan which is good but what are you eating that you spend so much? Look through the cupboards and freezer and work your way through that.Vegetarian meals of in season produce at the moment are plentiful.No need to buy expensive fruit all the time make it a treat.Is the baby weaning if so give food that you all eat.You can do this remember many many families live on a lot less every week..Good luck.

Also, if you would usually have £800 to spend on groceries for the month, never mind fuel and formula, what has happened this month. Can you use a cc and clear next month?

£200 a week is a lot, if baby is having formula then you are looking at food for 2 adults and one young child.
Buy a bag of potatoes - jacket potatoes one night, mash another and then a roast dinner. Buy a large chicken and that can be used for roast and then curry the next day with the leftovers. Bulk out mince with veggies for spaghetti Bolognese. Pasta is another cheap meal that is filling.

Would you qualify for the Healthy Start scheme?

@VaseofViolets yes i am serious. Great its easy for you. 🥇 for you for being so efficient

£200 includes formula and dog food (cheapest), household essentials like toilet paper, toothpaste etc etc, not only food. Should have been more clear. Husband is also huge (no joke, not a normal average size), so he eats practically for two.

formula is £14 for 5 days. Car is used for work only and grocery shopping atm anyway. We will probably need £70 till end of the month for fuel.

we dont eat fruit, only for our ds, we get the cheapest snacks, have baked potatoes a lot for dinners, but everything just adds up. My mom cooked us a meal to freeze which we have once a week every week. We always have some basic pasta with sauce and veggies once a week.

We use savings every month, i am on maternity atm. But savings are almost gone now and we have few months left before i go back to work so need to live of what we have after bills etc

He needs to start eating for one then.

£100 per week for food is more than do-able.

You need a spreadsheet, a shopping list and some meal ideas. There's no shortage of meal plans on Google or Copilot.

Will mean that you'll have to go without takeaway and bought coffee til the end of month but you'll manage.

So after fuel,dog food and formula how much do you have left? And what day is payday? Ie: how many days need covering

Meal ideas that are cheap and filling:

• chickpea curry. Handmake some simple naan breads if you want. butternut squash + carrot.
• big batch chilli with kidney beans + black beans. carrots, red peppers, courgette.
• baked potatoes with beans + bacon + cheese. boil whatever veg to have with.
• toad in the hole. + boiled potatoes + whatever veg to boil with it.

Have you got a local community pantry? They're fantastic.

Well he's going to have to eat for one. Sort the dog food, formula and petrol first. Can you shop online and do enough to get free delivery and freeze stuff. Or get the bus if it's cheaper (sorry, London here, so it is only the cost of one ride if you get the one back within the hour).

It's annoying when you run out of cleaning stuff/toothpaste etc at the same time, but it happens.

Where do you shop? Could it be somewhere cheaper?

It's very simple, your husband needs to eat less to make the food go further.

Frozen veg is also your friend.