I have £50 per week for food in February

[Lovelybitofsquirrel3]

After 2 big unexpected bills in a few days since getting paid, I have £60 a week for February for food for myself and 1 child, dog food and toiletries not included. I usually spend about £80-130 a week. I usually batch cook so that’s fine. Will eat a lot of things. The first week of the month I don’t need to buy anything as I’ve got enough in. I feel really overwhelmed.

I've never seen a mumsnetter say they spend £10 on food a week. Are you sure it was here that you saw that?

Also, do you have any useful suggestions for the OP?

Have a look at Cardiff Mum on Instagram. Her thing is 5 meals for 4 for £25.
I have flicked through her book in the library and there were some good ideas.
Do a stock take of your larder/store cupboard so you know what herbs/spices/pasta you have.

I know there’s loads of others who do similar things but that’s the only account I can puta name too.

Agree. We are three adults including pack lunches and struggle to get to the £250 a month on the Lidl app to get a 10% saving on our next shop.

We only shop at Lidl though

So your budget is fine

Someone mentioned cut meat out of some meals, I love meat but it does add a lot to the weekly shop.
Pasta, fried eggs, beetroot, baked potatoes all fill you up and are inexpensive. I'm sure you'll get by, don't waste anything and stop eating before you are full.
All the best.

£60 for one adult and one child is a normal amount surely? Do you shop is Waitrose or something?

From another thread, in case it is useful:

Shopping list (Morrisons)

4pt Milk £1.45
Pack frozen juicing berries £2
flour £1.95
1Kg natural yoghurt £2
1Kg brown onions £0.99
1Kg frozen veg £1.19
Chicken Stock cubes £1.20
1 pack mushrooms £1.19
Garlic £0.45
bread £1.90
Savers spread £1.71
400g mature cheddar £2.69
Savers mayonnaise £0.95
Pack 4 baking potatoes £0.79
Porridge £1.25
500g easy cook Rice £1
Eggs (6) £1.65
500g Pasta £0.75
Baked beans £0.45
Tinned tomatoes £0.45

Total 🟰 £29.56

Breakfasts:
Hot porridge or yoghurt with berries
Toast and margarine spread with peanut butter or jam

Lunch ideas:
Vegetable soup (onion, garlic, frozen veg, stock cubes)
Egg mayo or peanut butter jam sandwiches
Tinned tomatoes on toast.

Dinner ideas:
Mushroom stroganoff (melt tablespoon of spread, fry chopped onion, 1 clove garlic and 1/2 mushrooms; add crumbled stock cube, 1 tablespoon flour, yoghurt to make a sauce, salt & pepper). Serve with rice.

Mac n veg cheese (melt 1 table spoon spread, fry 1 chopped onion, add 1 tablespoon flour and mix, gradually add 1/2 pint milk, stirring constantly, grated cheese, cooked pasta, thawed frozen veg)

Pancakes with garlic mushrooms. Mix 115g flour with 250ml milk and 1 egg. Fry 1/2 pack mushrooms chopped, in spread.

Jacket potatoes with baked beans and cheese.

Add a little meat of your choice if the budget will allow.

I spend £60 for food for 3 people. That’s plenty

Just to add that I bulk buy pasta and rice and other cupboard/freezer goods. I don't go mad, I just buy an extra pack or 2 of pasta, bags of frozen veg, jars and tins, every other time I shop. I am used to having a lot of food in reserve for these type of scenarios. Then just top up fresh food weekly. Obviously this might not work for everyone.

Are there any community food projects around? A number of our local schools have food pantries where people donate food, there are community fridges and community food bank (which is separate from the food bank where you need a referral)

Go on YouTube and search budget cooking uk. There’s loads of videos of people making a limited budget stretch. If you buy dried beans and lentils, yellow sticker items and in season vegetables I don’t see this will be difficult at all. You could also look at some of the other people who follow WW2 rationing. Very healthy and also cheap.

It's a reasonable budget. We spend about £100pw for 4 people and don't scrimp, although the children have school lunches.

It's about £8.50 per day. If you mix up cheaper meals with some more interesting ones you should be fine. Can you price up some meals, maybe even do a 3 week meal plan to feel less panicked. As an example pasta pesto for 1 meal would be about 40p for the pasta and about £1 for the pesto, assuming you used the bag/jar across 2 meals. You could add some veg - tinned or frozen will be cheaper.

That is doable - I know you say there is no point in auditing the food cupboards as you will likely use it in the first week - but there will probably be some things that will do another two or three meals like pasta or rice. As for other things unless you have actually run out - don't buy! Have a look at any gifts that are not used like bubble bath, shower gel etc. You would be surprised at what you will find that will eke your supplies out for a little while.
As others have said meal plan - and maybe buy in larger quantities so you can make your money go further. Mince can go further if you add in lentils say for cottage pies or savoury mince. Have a finish up of odds and ends with a meal from the freezer - so a small pizza, three chicken nuggets, one beef burger literally any odd bits with tinned beans and bread and butter. You can make it fun with a six year old! Mac and Cheese is cheap and filling. A full roast chicken will do a roast dinner, with leftovers in a curry or mixed in a tin of chicken soup and served with rice. Get creative. There are plenty of people here who are giving you ideas and are prepared to offer suggestions so don't panic!

Very doable. Buy 3 packs of pasta - that's 3 meals a week, to go with in buy 3 jars pesto from Lidl (99p each) plus mushrooms (89p enough for 2 meals), onions (99p for 1kg it's plenty for multiple meals), peppers (59p each currently).
Another pasta sauce is puttanesca, I can anchovies (70p approx) half a can chopped tomatoes (39p, freeze other half) packet fresh chillies (50p, with 2 left over) onion (from bag above, dried oregano, garlic (39p lots left over) capers £1.50 enough for a few meals)

Make bolanaise 500g mince makes 4 portions or more, freezing extra portions.

Another cheap meal is dal, you'll need red lentils (£1.29 this week, enough for 5 meals for 2 so 10 portions) which I cook with onion, garlic, red chilli (all from items bought already) small knob ginger (40p) stock cube (60p for 10)and creamed coconut (£2 for 4) then curry powder (80p) and turmeric (80p) serve with rice (£3 for lots of meals worth) you can serve with something like beans with cumin, pickled cucumber, pickled aubergine, or just raid the fridge for veg left over.

Try sausages and mash as a meal, under £5 for 2 people, buy a pack of 6 chops and freeze spare for future meals, serve with veg .... if very easy to plan out meals for about £5 per day

Great shopping list and menu ideas from AIBot. (Though only 5 evening meals)

So add a bag of frozen chips or waffles and have omelette n chips one night.(With baked beans or broccoli if wanted)

Add a tin of tuna and tinned tomatoes to go with the pasta or rice with some fried onion added.

7 meals well under £40 for the week, so you could add a roast chicken too.

Best of luck.

Are you in England? If so I'm presuming your 6 year old has free school meals so at least that's lunches covered. And if he's having a hot lunch at school you could get away with sandwiches for tea at home. It's definitely doable. How much are you spending on dog food?

Half term is in February however so that’s a week of extra lunches

WTF?! Where on earth does she say she's prioritised food for her dog over her child?! 😂She has a child AND a dog - she has to feed them both.

Ignore this person OP.

I think you will be able to manage but it will need carefully planning
Lots of rice, pasta, omelettes, toasted sandwiches, soup and fruit and vedge

Agree Cardiff Mum is great - are there delivery services you haven't tried where you could order once to take advantage of the crazy first time discounts (and then cancel)?

So Sainsbury's will often offer money off your first online shop - I won't share the one currently live as it runs out in a few days, but it's normally about £15 off your first £80 shop - so you could get a £80 shop like you normally do for £65.

Gousto/Hello Fresh you can normally get 50% off (sometimes more) which could bring a box of groceries for 5 meals down to £20 or so.

Uber Eats often runs £10 off your first £15 order deals (again, one running now but about to expire. You can search again in a few days) ~ you can combine it with 50% off fruit and veg on Mondays and order from Coop/Waitrose etc on the app and pretty much get £30 of fruit/veg (or £15 of other groceries) to your door for a fiver.

You can always use up any Clubcard points you have too.

Porridge for breakfast, or overnight oats with a basic milk and basic yoghurt added

Soups or rice or pasta salad for lunch - make using veg that is in season and cheaper

Pasta, veg, lentil based dishes for main dinner
Use chicken thighs, mince etc to add a less expensive meat option.

Ask Chat GPT to give you a meal plan at the cost you have and then refine it for likes and dislikes. Then ask it for a shopping list.

Red Lentil soups, add chopped cook sausag for a main meal.
Lentil dals
Veg curries and stir frys
Drop the meat for a month
Jacket potato & baked beans
Spam fritters and beans was my favourite as a child, I didn't realise until I was an adult that we had them because we were hard up!

i had similiar once, ate bread and Jam or butter for breakfast. baked beans on toast or potatos for lunch and for dinner was curry and rice, curries made with spinach and potatoes for boosting it up

For context I spend £80-100 per week for 4 adults including all toiletries and household and that's just normal spend, not budgeting and we're not short of money. I can't see how £67 per week (£200/3) is going to be a problem for 1 adult and a small child.
I would actually do a 3 week menu, because some things (chicken breasts or big bags of frozen fish etc) are cheaper bought in bigger quantities, so buy them at the beginning. Therefore expect the first shop to be more than a third of the overall budget.

Tinned chickpeas are a great and very cheap protein to add to pasta in tomato sauce or a put in a curry.

It’s really doable, would it help if we gave you meal plan ideas for the week?
edited to say I see someone already has ☺️