Do people really spend more than a fiver on feeding the family on an average day...?

[WillyWonka]

I'm just surprised that Sainsburys are making such a big deal about this in their current ad campaign as I only ever spend more for a special occasion (& I don't menu plan!). Am I just tight-fisted?

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what about you sunday roast? surey you don't do that or £5?

we dont have sunday roast every week, its a treat. But you can buy a chicken for less than £3

not free-range!!!

well no it wouldnt be free range but people tend to live within their means

Must confess that me and dd's are veggie though dh isn't. We have lots of rice/risotto dishes, pasta, pizza, fritata/omelette, bean stews, curries, chilli, various quorn things, almost all served with a pile of veg and/or salads. I also hate throwing food away so most leftovers reappear the following night...OK, so maybe I am tight-fisted

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i have meat about twice a week.

can't afford it otherwise.

DH has it more - he's dead skinny and his job is manual.

the girls have it, too, but i cut it out for me.

Most days I spend more than a fiver on our main meal, yes...but there are 7 of us!

Tiggiwinkle, surely you are allowed special dispensation!!

I buy a free-range chicken from waitrose..it was £7.58 this week. All 5 of us had it for sunday lunch...DP also had a roast chicken sandwich later that evening). I had a chciken leg with salad for my lunch on Monday and we boiled the carcass with the left over veggies and will have onion soup tonight..yum yum....oooh I am being economical after all! {grin]

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thanks VP - the onion soup is my favourite bit!! it's lovely!

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Yes! We hve french stick sliced with cheese meltedon the top, float or dip it in the soup...heaven!

Yes, I spend much more. Quite often it is more like £5 a head than £5 for the whole shebang.

There are 5 of us.

Tonight is quite a good value meal. It will have cost around £13 for all of us (not incl a glass of wine or two).

Dear Overmydeadbody - I feel for you and there are a lot of people inthe real world having to survive on very little money - you have my respect.

I would think that it was fairly infrequent that I spent more than £5 on a meal. I bought a chicken from the farm shop that cost about £7.50. But we had visitors so that fed 5 adults and 2 children - along with roast potatoes, carrots, cabbage, cauliflower, parsnips and gravy. And we have enough left over to make some sort of dish with tomorrow. Tonight we are having macaroni cheese with leeks, salad and crusty bread. This will be well under £5.

OK am impressed and humbled. We have been trying to reduce our grocery spend, but we are still nowhere near £5 average for a main meal. More like NdeP, I think (£5 per head).

When DH is away the DC and I will have much cheaper meals sometimes and those do come in under £5 so I can sort of see how it could be done. Respect to those who manage it week in week out.

I thought they were saying that one meal cost under £5, not food for the whole day?

We usually manage that, but it is only for two of us as dd eats such tiny amounts that I don't count her-she just has a bit of mine.

I think much of what we eat must come in under a fiver.

Today is lasagne, half a pack of sheets, tin of tomatoes, butter beans (don't buy tins buy dried and soak overnight), onion and some left over spring greens from the veg box. Add milk and cheese and 2 spoons of flour for the white sauce. Sorted. That has to be less than £5 bearing in mind that the veg box is under £10 and lasts a week.

We buy meat fortnightly from the farm shop, buy whole chickens and splint into legs for "roast dinner", breasts and wing bones. The carcass makes loads of stock for soups, risottos etc. We save up the wings in the freezer until we have enough to do spicy chicken wings or something, nothing gets wasted!

Mind you we are a family of 3, with a couple more to feed not so easy (ds may only be small but he will merrily sit and eat an adult portion of spag bol!)