does this ound about right-food budget?

[mothersmilk]

im having to start being very frugal for the forseeable future have sat down with dh and worked out money for food we have allowed £100 monthly shop consisting of nappies toilettries and alot of pulses and chopped tomatoes and then another £30 a week for milk bread fresh veg/fruit. does this sound about right for a frugal family cosisiting of me dh ds 2yr dd 4yr and dss 10(shared custody so half the time)
tia

That's about what I spend on my shopping a month, just depends what you buy a lot of the time I think. Remember to check out reduced racks & try the value ranges

its alot of value and own brand very few branded products i figure aswll i may be able to knock between £10-£20 off some months as certain thing wont need replacing iyswim like lentils and such do you find this?

I tend to find that if I spend a good £100 ish to include everything at the beginning of the month (wash powder, softener, shampoo, nappies etc etc) I don't need to replace everything the next month. & also, sometimes I'm able to last an extra week or 2 without shopping as there's always plenty of food between the cupboards/freezer so if we have a poor weeks wage on the week when I'd normally shop then we don't struggle.

I do find that things like a big bag of pasta/rice will last a good couple of months before needing to be replaced though. & always check your cupboards before you shop (including wherever you keep bathroom type stuff . . . I found 4 bottles of shower gel, a bottle of shampoo & 4 loo rolls in mine last time I checked so didn't bother with them)

Most things though, I just buy enough for 4 weeks & then replace. If we don't have any of something (say a tin of beans) in the cupboard, then we simply don't have it if we don't need to get bread/fruit/milk from the shop. Otherwise, whichever of us goes to Tesco up the road for the one thing, comes back with a carrier full of random stuff we don't actually need

sounds like us. so its good to hear it works for someone else
thanks

Also think about things like egg beans and toast for dinner one night.

Filling and cheap and if DH is on board with you with this then he wont be demanding steak!

Also before you shop, feed the family from what is in the freezer even if you end up with a mishmash! We had corn on the cob, onion rings, peas and sausages the other night and the kids loved it!

Meal plan.

Mon- sausage and mash and onion gravy
Tues- Roast chicken, potatoes and veg
Wed-Pasta with tomato sauce and leftover chicken
Thu-Roasted vegetable couscous
Fri-Frittatta with leftover veg from the week
Sat-Pasta with bacon and peas
Sun-Chilli and rice

Do double of some of these and freeze them.

Shop in Lidl and Aldi. We do this when I have the time as they are a bit out of the way but it is soooo much cheaper and DH has never moaned about any of their products and he is a chef!!

collision, my oldest dd loves freezer surprise night!! We do beans on toast & fried/scrambled eggs at least one night a week, or some other variety of 'on toast' or picnic night when dp is at footy training.

Freezer night is good fun and gets the little portions of things that you have frozen and forgotten about out of the way!!