AIBU to be annoyed at this suggestion that £50 per week for food for 4 is realistic?

[MageQueen]

This article about feeding a family of four on £50 per week has annoyed me a lot. https://www.thetimes.com/money/family-finances/article/we-earn-six-figures-but-feed-our-family-of-four-for-50-a-week-fx8w5t9lw

If you can't see the piece, here's a picture of her shopping list.

I mean, the piece is about how a family on more than 100k might still struggle which is fine, although I'm sure some people would take exception to it, but if they're going to profile a family that are a good example and doing a complicated job of managing, surely pick one whose food bill bears some resemblance to reality? That would feed our family of four for about 3-4 days. Tops.

I get that there's a whole narrative about people who seem to earn well but dont' feel rich. Hell, I'm ONE of those people. But this just feels so ridiculously stupid it has irrationally infuriated me! (And don't even get me started on the weekly cleaner and nanny for a SAHM who is skimping, supposedly, on food....).

Those are two of my child’s favourite foods! Though there are lots if foods they dislike, so I know what you mean

Ha!
What kind of meals can you cook from that for the whole week?

Where’s packed snack and lunch for school again for the whole week?

This would last like 2-3 days.

I am in a similar income bracket and situation as a SAHM and I think the article is pointless and hasn't been researched at all! My kids are older, 9 and 13 and I can easily spend £150-200 in a week (including dog food, and kids packed lunches). Food is a priority for me, I'm a good cook and I'd rather trim the budget in other places before sacrificing a good hearty meal each night. I just think spending such a small amount on food when you can afford more is a miserable way to live.

Of courses it's possible, as was the case for survival before now. During rationing and real poverty you had to eat what was available or you went hungry.

So realistically yes, but meals would be mostly vegetables, stews, home made bread/baking but with some extra luxuries inaccessible and unaffordable back in the day.

Of course it's relative to expectations of desired nutrition and aspirations for meals now, so afore mentioned meals you could absolutely afford for that amount but no one wants to of course. Xxx

40oz (so over 1kg) of mixed fats - butter, margarine, lard - for 4 people per week before taking into account unrationed fish and chips or anything like sausages, meat fat, etc, sounds like a pretty significant amount of fat to me.

There’s just us two and two dogs in the house now but my weekly tesco shopping bill is still £100-120 taking into account toiletries/cleaning stuff etc. I see these articles and look at them and think but there’s not enough food for meals in there!

What do you mean by meat and snacks!! They dont count as part of your 5 a day!!!

Oh I thought you meant for everything ! My apologies .

You can get 4 basic frozen cod fish cakes for £1, for 2 adults and 2 children you would probably need 2 packs, then some carrot's and potatoes wouldn’t come to £15!

In not entirely sure I know what you're talking about

I replied to a post talking about people (the friend was African) whose cultural food involves a lot more pulses/cheaper food, making food stretch and I said it must be doable because its a lot cheaper to eat that way.

Someone replied and said you couldnt get your 5 a day on a budget like that. I disagree.

To all the points about fishcakes... true. I recently perused the fresh fish section at my local waitrose and nearly passed out at the cost of cod! So I was thinking fresh, overpriced cod used to make a posh fish cake! 🤣🤣 vs ready made ones!
Mostly I am just pleased it's not me who found this article annoying!

Iceland seem to have some multibuy fish cakes which look nice. But you would have to biuy several packs to get the best price, and then average it out over a few months

Whatever price you can get fishcakes for - they aren't on her weekly shopping list - she made them from the ingredients on the receipt!!

It’s all internet babble. I like her tbh she seems very pleasant. But like many she’s bought into trends. Her latest post is about the mental load. Loads of comments “men do sweet FA” type thing. But he doesn’t do sweet FA, he earns six figures which also comes with a mental load.

its an odd competition that a number partake in claiming they are cash poor and live really frugally thats why they can afford private schools and expensive properties has always been around

i have never met so many poor people as I did in the playground of ds prep school 🙄

its utter bollocks some people just don’t both cooking much maybe they eat a large amount of toast and gruel too that is left of the list

I think one of the frustrating things about this kind of article - and not necessarily blaming the family themselves, as the Times will have had an angle they wanted to present - is that this is a family who are making choices to live like this, so dont need to figure out if their £50 shop will actually last a full week and make meals for 4 people. She said she was saving £1000....so they could double the food shop (which imo still wouldnt be especially extravagant) and still have a healthy amount to save per month, or half the hours the cleaner does....and free up some money that way.
It doesnt really make sense as an article when they say they spend 50/week (but clearly have the means to spend a lot more) and then the list versus meals planned doesnt match up either. Like a pp says the tesco magazine has a section where they do recipes (with shopping list and prices) for 5 meals for 4 people for £25...which is a more genuine example of how to eat on a relatively low budget

Food rations, taken from the BBC archives.. weekly

Food rationing began in 1940 with sugar, meat, bacon, ham and butter, other items were added as the siege economy heightened. The basic rations per person, per week were:-
1s. 2d. worth of meat
3oz. Bacon and ham
8oz. Sugar
2 ½ tea
2oz. Butter
2oz. Cheese
4oz. Margarine
1oz. Cooking fat
1 egg per fortnight
2 ½ pints liquid milk
12oz. Sweets per month

So not 40oz of fat

I think the poster was saying its 10oz per person, per week

Considering the physical exertion, I dont consider that a lot

I literlyl tonught just watched a youtuber, WearyWolf, do a week on WW2 food rations, was eye opening tbh, might actually try doing that myself ( but the veg that was cheap and plentiful then isn't so cheap nowadays) we shall see
Am also wary of the power costs to cook it , again we shall see

Well firstly the use of hayboxes were encouraged, and Ive used these and they work fantastically, the original slow cooker

Secondly which veg is more expensive now? In season mind you?

Thirdly there is an excellent series back in the day, probably on iplayer or youtube of when people went back in time and lived as if they were in the war. They were very hungry, they said this a lot. They lost weight and looked glowing though and really reflected afterwards about food waste and overeating.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_1940s_House

I live alone and spend £50-60 a week! Thought I was being extravagant with that

These kind of articles are why people who are genuinely struggling are losing patience with very well off people claiming to be hard up or playing at poverty. As someone upthread said anyone can eat cheaply for a week. Try sustaining it for months or years at a time while working hard for long hours and pay that probably wouldn't buy a new lipstick in these people's world. They are utterly clueless and annoy me and I wouldn't even class myself as struggling at the moment.

There are ingredients for about 3 meals here- this family is only eating meat once a week ( and then it's meatballs) no fish, no cheese, the eggs might cover 1 meal if you are keeping portions small, and using the others for breakfast, the tofu might cover one meal. One green vegetable (cabbage) no root vegetables and a relatively small amount of fruit to go 4 ways, and the only dairy appears to be single cream.
This is not enough for a week for 4 people, maybe 3 days- but it's low on protein, calcium (essential to be abundant for children and women), and most vitamins, there re very few vegetables and no where near enough onions or other flavourings to make the meals interesting.
Plus if you are trying to keep costs down you would never buy ready made meatballs,I can't see them but apparently premade fishcakes also feature- a huge waste of money, also where are the tinned tomatoes and pulses?
You never eat sourdough or fresh herbs if you are hard up- completely unnecessary. I would think this article was written by someone who has never fed a family on a budget.

I’m vegetarian and they have the same effect on me and I love lentil dahl! Have had to cut them out sadly. Had a horrible experience after eating butter beans and haven’t touched them since.

chickpeas and brown lentils aren’t so bad.

I agree that the article is insincere and there’s nothing worse than listening to very well off people claiming poverty.