feed a family for £50 a week

[frazzled74]

Didnt fancy the sainsburys meal plan so have just spent all eve on my supermarket.com and eventually shopped from asda, £49.87
breakfasts-toast/ cereal except saturday when we have eggs and mushrooms on toast

lunches, sandwiches /beans on toast/tomato soup
main meals- mon- tuna pasta, tues-pork and butterbean stew, wed- chicken enchiladas, thurs-veg lasagne, fri-salmon and brocoli pasta,sat-minced lamb curry, sun roast pork dinner.
The £49.87 covers all food minus herbs and tin tomatos, jams,spreads and milk.I have also sneaked in a bottle of wine so not bad at all!

[GillyMac93]

I bought Anthea Turner's perfect houseife book and use her all purpose cleaner recipe , its just as good as branded cleaners.:
2tbsp white vinegar
2tsp laundry borax
2 teacups water
3 drops of lavender oil , i put it into a water spray bottle for plants and its much cheaper .hth

[alphabettyspagghetti]

Just noticed on the Sainsburys site, if you order all of the ingredients for their meal plan priced at £50, you can get £10 off that if you have not had deliveries from them before.

[PoopyFingers]

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/1262268-Sainsburys-basics-range-dark-chocolate

[PoopyFingers]

Vegetarian, not vegan (although not far off due to restricted diet)

[PoopyFingers]

For the past 3 months I have typed every single grocery receipt into a spreadsheet, and sorted it into categories for meat, veg, fruit, toiletries, clothes (socks etc).

I have found that we easily eat for less than £50 a week (2 adults 2 kids) - but our bill is larger due to nappies, tin foil, cleaning products etc etc etc...

We have a gluten free / dairy free / egg free diet too, which adds an extra £50 a month on average to our bill

If we were vegan, teetotal and didn't eat chocolate we could live fabulously for just over £60 a week, including cleaning products, nappies, toilet rolls etc - and we eat very very well, lovely biryanis, roast dinners the whole lot

My spreadsheet is making very interesting reading, and tots up each category as I go...

It has definitely made me ultra aware of every single purchase.

There's a thread in Chat about the Sainsbury's Basics Range - very enlightening!

[BleepyBloop]

I found some shampoos and conditioners from Poundland to be better than the expensive brands from the drugstore. Microfibre cloths 3 for a £1.

As for meat, we have a crockpot and it does wonders for cheap cuts of meat, not to mention it uses little electricity.

[LieInsAreRarerThanTigers]

The alternative to meal-planning is to go round the shops and see what is on offer then build your week's cooking around that. I have often found meaty bargains on the butchery counter which can easily be the basis of a meal for under a fiver.
I have been costing my own meals recently as I have been cooking just for myself a lot (dieting) and having something like basics stir fry with chicken thighs does me 2 meals for about £3. (That's freerange chicken - mostly veggie and do without rather than buy the cheapo stuff)
Free range turkey mince is £3 for enough to make 4 good size burgers, or any mince dish, a healthier alternative to all that beef mince.
There are certain things I will only buy when they are on offer - e.g. have a pool of about 10 different cereals I know we like, and buy 4 packs when one is on offer.
Also I always look at the cat food and the washing stuff to see if it is on offer even if I don't need it that time. Can go 6 months without buying cat food sometimes!
Same at Lidl as we have to travel to the next town to go there, we stock up with their best value items about once a month.
Monthly bill for 4 + 2 cats + 2 gerbils is about £300. (Kids have school dinners and often eat at after-school club in school time, so have to add at least £20 a week to that, though)

[LieInsAreRarerThanTigers]

tegan I do 2-3 loads a week for us four and did 3-4 when I had one in cloth nappies!
I stock up on method liquid when it is on offer and one pot lasts me about two months! Huge savings on fuel bills and if you are on metered water.
Good to hear you are trying to cut down

[DaveGrohlsgirl]

I am currently working my way through "How to feed your whole family a healthy, balanced diet with very little money....." (title is exceptionally long).
A fantastic book, with loads of ideas and menu planners at the back including copies of receipts from various supermarkets.
I have managed to get our bill down to £55 per week (roughly) for a family of 4.
Have to go on pre school run now, but shall return!!

[Machin11]

I try and use wholesalers for the cleaning stuff, I use fabric conditioner in my wash, and supermarket bottle cost £2 (sorry I like Comfort), however at wholesalers it was on offer, 5 litres for £2.70 inc vat, stored it in the garage and refill my smaller bottle when needed, also I never use two tablets in my washing machine as advised, even for the really dirty clothes, 1 tablet is absolutely fine, and I buy in bulk here as well, store them in the garage and keep a few packets in the house!
Food seems to be where I can't cut it, I was doing really well and spending around £40 a week for biggish shop for 2.5 of us (DSS spends half the week with us) and it's just seemed to increase to £80 minimum shops now

[RantyMcRantpants]

Can also be served with flatbreads (which are great with any curry type meal)

400g SR flour (I use gluten free because of my kids but I don't see a problem with using normal.)
1tblsp cumin seeds-toasted
300ml naturel yoghurt

Toast cumin seeds

Mix the flour and cumin seeds in a bowl and season to taste. Stir in the yoghurt + 100ml of water. Mix well to form a saof dough.

Divide the dough and shape into circles about 1/2cm thick. Dust lightly with flour.

Put a dusting of flour on a baking sheet. Put flatbreads on and grill for 3-5 mins or so on each side, untill puffed. Serve.

[RantyMcRantpants]

Falafel Burgers

800g Chickpeas (2 tins usually, drained and rinsed.)
couple cloves of garlic
handful of fresh parsley (I have pots of herbs on the patio and pick as needed)
2tsp ground cumin
2tsp ground coriander
1tsp chilli powder
red onion (if you have none then white onion or shallots work just as well)
3-4 tbsp plain flour
oil

Pat chickpeas dry with kitchen paper. Put into food processor along with the other ingredients, add a little salt to taste. Blend untill smooth and then shape into patties.

Heat oil in pan and quickly fry until cooked. I use a ridged pan so the burgers don't get to much oil.

Serve with salad. Again I have different salad leaves in pots. Make salad from leaves and herbs. I sometimes add things like sweetcorn or such like. Easy to make a homemade dressing as well.

A healthy meal for pennies.

[defineme]

My suggestion would be to eat less meat if you can. Make it veg bolg with pulses, jacket pots w beans and cheese, pasta with tomato veg sauce and cheese.
Do yoiu buy value brand stuff or labels? I find beans, oats, apples, loo roll, cottage cheese, frozen salmon, nuts, cream cheese and so on all fine in smart price- . Bread, meat and anything processed is crap in smartprice though! Bulk out bolg with pulses and use half mince-I used barley in my lamb casserole yesterday and didn;t spend much on meat.
Do you look for cheapest fruit? Don't buy berries fresh, buy frozen-much cheaper.

As for the washing! My kids get clean uniform everday because they're mucky kids, but don't get to change out of it unless we're going somewhere special! You're kids can only be in their evening clothes for a couple of hours-what are they doing to get so dirty? Hope you're not ironing it all too....

[RantyMcRantpants]

Go and have a chat with the lovely ladies and gents on the Old Style Board They are great for moneysaving.

[tegan]

all suggestions on money saving welcome

[tegan]

i am truly taking all your comments on board.

Dh sweats alot so often changes his clothe regularly
I have just been brought up to have clean on everyday and find it really hard to wear something twice.

I am going to try to not use as much liquid in my wash

I am going to do another online shop this week in the hope of spending less

[RantyMcRantpants]

2 adults and 3 children, 2 with food allergies. I cook from scratch, bake and have a Panasonic breadmaker. My spend includes breakfast, lunch and dinner, toiletries and cleaning products. I also meal plan.

I usually do a big shop at the beginning of the month of around £100 to £120 and then the following shops are around £35 to £55 a week. I don't do top up shops, if we don't have it then we make do without.

Tegan, I always use half the amount of washing powder that they say on the pack and I do 2 washes a day, sometimes up to 4 if we have wet beds or back from camping etc. A box of 50 washes lasts me around a month. When I do a white wash that is especially grubby ie: DC's white school shirts that are a bit grubby around the cuffs then I top up with soda crystals. I put the powder straight in the drum rather than in the drawer which seems to help.

I do things like put a chicken in the slow cooker, stuffed with quatered lemons, I put garlic slithers under the skin and put herbs and butter on the skin. My 2 eldest have a leg each and the youngest has the legs and any meat that has dropped off. DH and I share a breast plus a little bit. I serve it with potatoes and veg. The carcass then get stripped then I make stock from the carcass and use in cooking or if I have a lot of veg going over then I can make soup. Later in the week the chicken can be made in to a chicken and veg risotto or a chicken and veg pie with mash (the veg is whatever is left from the week. Also can add bacon if I have some left over.)

I do 2 or 3 veggie meals like sweet potato curry a week as well. I do use my slow cooker for a couple of meals a week. I try and bulk cook and put meals in the freezer so I have my own ready made frozen meals for those days I don't want to cook or if I need to save some money for any reason so I have a ready made stash, DH also will take one to work for lunch if he wants. I have a rolling 5 week meal plan which I am just looking at changing for a summer menu plan with lighter meals.

[Ragwort]

tegan it does sound as though you are doing far too much washing - unless your children are exceptionally grubby is it really essential to have clean uniform and a fresh change of clothes every day??

A lot of mumsnetters people seem to think clothes can only be worn once - but unless you have spilt something down a t-shirt or rolled in the mud surely this isn't necessary. My DS has a couple of changes of uniform each week and only changes if he is doing something after school but he would have the same t-shirt and shorts for 3-4 wears (at least ). Even if he's got a bit of mud on his football shorts he can still wear them the next day to play football.

Am I really grubby?

[tegan]

The washing thing doesn't seem odd to me. Dh has 2 outfits a day both jeans and hoodies. Dd1 and dd2 have clean uniform everyday and also an evening change of clothes and ds who is 2.5 always has 2 changes a day but is currently potty training and getting through extra trousers

[tegan]

My dc's are 13, 7 and 2.5 all eat hugely. Dh is diabetic and i do eat alot of low cal/fresh items.

We always shop in asda but have tried other supermarkets and spent more and then end up picking up bits we have forgotten.

in 1 week we usually have 2 roasts, bolognese, curry, burgers chips peas, bacon and veg pie, ommlettes. All meals are made from scratch no bought sauces or chips

[defineme]

tegan- how old are your kids, have you got any special dietary needs and what supermarkets do you use/could you use?
I never budget particularly and there's 5 of us (2 adults, 2 6 yrolds and 9 yr old) and a cat and I have never gone over £150 including take away, 2 bottles of wine and all cleaning and so on. Usually around £110. We eat free range meat too.
What are typical meals for you?

[tegan]

i do about 4 loads a day of washing and get through a 57 wash of persil in a week and a half. I have bought own brands but due to dd1's skin persil non bio is the only one that doesn't make her have a reaction

[HmmmIwonder]

Just a comment to those of you still buying washing liquid (for clothes, not dishes) - no need to ever buy it again if you buy Ecoballs. 2 balls for £10, each one lasts about 6mths to a year then you have to refill soap nuts inside (refill bag of about a million costs £9 I think), then off you go for another 6mths-1 year (depending on how many washes you do a week). I do 3-4 washes a week, got Ecoballs 2 years ago, I've refilled the in just one of them, once. Get yourselves to Lakeland.co.uk!