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....).

There was 2 x 4 pints of milk i think.

...so obviously thats a whole lot more reasonable! 🤣
Tbf I dont drink milk so id be ok with 1 pt of milk per week....but id want a lot other stuff added to the list!

I can't feed a family of 3 on that, not even with minimal meat. The vast majority of my food budget goes on fresh ingredients and like you, having grown up in poverty, I find it difficult to scrimp on that. The list in the OP has fruit and veg but I can't see how that stretches to four people all week.

There's quite a lot of bread products but yeah it's 4-5 days at most. I assume they're having plain toast for breakfast or eggs on toast at the weekend. No cake or fruit juice or alcohol or tea or coffee? No cleaning products or toiletries?

Agreed. I wrote a blog post about that kind of claim around 13 years ago. Nothing has changed.

Not many meals out of that! Or packed lunches for children?!

What they have missed off that whole article is the fact they eat out every night so their food is just for breakfast and lunch, obviously!

Lee Anderson the food planning genius from The Reform Party has already informed us that a meal, balanced and nutritious should cos no more than 30p for a family of 800, so I don’t think people are trying hard enough 🙄🤔

I fucking HATE lentils and they make my stomach hurt - I hate it when people suggest them. As if I have never heard of them 🤯

What do they wipe their bums with - air?
cleaning products?
washing powder

I did notice but I didn't like to say. 😂

I know a lady who is like this. We once stayed with them (in their very large mansion in Dubai) and the attitude to food was just so weird. There was no butter or spread to go on bread because she said it was unnecessary. She made a salad to go with lunch and it included one tomato between 9 people.

All 3 of her children are now grown up and all of them are morbidly obese, doubtless because of the scarcity mindset they were brought up with, really for no reason at all. They were and still are loaded.

I've just read the article. Millie must be shoplifting the cod, potatoes, pasta, porridge, wraps, Marmite etc. cos they're not on that receipt.

What a load of shite and nonsense this is.
🙄

In fairness her kids are 2 and 4, so probably two meatballs for them and 4 for the adults. And only one egg per kid per meal.

But so much is assuming a stocked larder - broccoli macaroni and cheese, but she's only bought broccoli and not pasta or cheese.

There are snacks for a toddler - easy peeler oranges, the lentil crisps - but would a biscuit kill them?

I can forgive the lack of nappies, loo roll age cleaning products because it's "I can feed my family for a week on £50" and not "I only spend £50 a week at the supermarket".

But it's still bullshit.

Same here, I live on my own and I have that wide eyed stare of astonishment sometimes when I see my food bill! But I don't have any financial constraints so I don't need to worry about it. I still need to keep it in check though, it's ridiculous.

Ah I knew it. I see there is a whole chicken on the receipt so that means it's true that will feed a family of 4 for a week.

Same! I thought it was just me for a long time. I do love the taste of lentil soup but lentils just for some reason don't agree with me in any format. I also hate porridge and a lot of people would have had me raised on lentils and porridge given our poverty 😅

My immediate thought when it comes to wholly unrealistic supermarket budgets like these is that mum has a raging ED and probably lives off half an almond and a cherry tomato every day. That's also why she's also obsessed with food as normal people don't tend to itemise their groceries for online entertainment.

Her children are only 4 and 2 so barely eating anything.

Millie is a Content Creator so I had a look at one of her tiktoks about her office packed lunch. Millie must also be shoplifting the "bitey" cheddar, truffle pecorino and coffee.

Lidl need to ban her.
🤣🤣🤣

Ha! People do think they are some magical food that bulks up meals. Not for me 🤢

Thats a top up shop.
Or what happens when you go in for a loaf, something for tea and get distracted 😂

To be fair, I do it on about £60 a week - although our DC get free school lunches due to age, in September it will go up as DD1 goes into yr 3, so that obviously takes out a chunk that I don’t need to pay for. We’re in a sweet spot where they’re out of nappies so no longer paying for those, but young enough that they don’t have massive appetites and get fed at school.
I’m sure if they were teens it would be more!

I think considering they're 2 and 4 there's nowhere near enough bloody berries on that list 😅That would be £50 a week on its own with mine at that age.

There’s nothing of any substance there really.

The only carbs they seem to have are 2 loaves of bread and microwave packet rice 🤔

That receipt would feed 4 only if some meals were takeaways/eat out and dc ate at school.

I only spent £36 last week for 2 people but I have a substantial pantry and freezer is stocked (mostly where packets are too big for 2 people eg 2 pork chops from a pack of 4), this week I’ve spent only £3.24 so far, but Gousto is be £31 for three meals and I’ll get dh to pick up bread, milk, an aubergine and fresh ginger tomorrow, I have the rest of the ingredients.