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?

Yes often spend more than £5.00 a meal and it is just me and two DC's - even if it is a pasta meal, we eat a lot of veg - 2 x green beans is £4.00 I don't know how you manage.

Yes I think it is definitely the meat, riven, imo.

We aren't veggie but only have meat 3-4 evenings a week. I can easily spend over £5 on just the chicken breasts one night. Another night I may make veggie soup with mixed lentils and this is probably only £2-£3. (and the veg would be a lot cheaper than that if we didn't have an organic box).

Other nights I might do jacket potatoes with a tin of organic baked beans. 4 potatoes and 1 tin beans not much more than £1. On that sort of night we would have a more substantial pudding (e.g. rice pudding and fruit) but still way under £5 for both courses. Omelette made even with free range eggs is again not much more than £1. I make home made cheese sauce and stir into pasta with veg...

Enough of the lollipop menu for now!

Were in a simalar situation to you Overmydeadbody I would love to be able to buy steak, chicken breasts ect but we can't anymore.
Dp has taken a pay cut to do a job he has always wanted with very good career prospects. So one day we will have what we want but at the min we can just about pay the mortgage and bills also his new job is 25 miles away so he drives 50 miles a day to work and back costing close to £70 a week in petrol, which leaves us with 30-35 for food ds eats cereal or cheese spread sandwiches most of the day and we will do a pasta bake or sausage and mash for tea for us all.

With a budget of £50 a week (on a good week)for 3 of us we def dont spend a fiver on our main meal. There are loads of easy recipies that cost less than a fiver and I'm certainly not impressed by Jamies ones either. Last night we had smoked
mackerel fishcakes with salad (total cost about 3.50 I'd say) and tonight I thnk its spaj bol which uses up a half a packet of mince as we tend to add a tin of borlotti or haricot beans which bulks it out. Rest of the mince will go for burgers on thursday with the remains fo the salad stuff.

I ahve noticed that meat has gone up hugely in price so will be digging out all my veggie books if it continues.

Some of you eat more expensive veg than us as well. Frozen peas and sweetcorn, fresh carrots and root veg in season are significantly cheaper than things like baby corn, green beans and asparagus.

meat's dear.

we're definitely eating more pulses around here, tarantula!

I'm feeding 5 inc 3 teens and regularly spend more than a fiver.

Cooking for teens is more like catering TBH.
Tonight is lasagne and whilst that itself is less than a fiver to make - add in a large amount of salad and some garlic bread and there you go!

tarantula I am making smoked mackerel pate in a bit - first time. Were the fishcakes nice?

expat I have also started to get used to pulses.

I very rarely spend over a fiver on food for one meal. I cant justify it.

IUn fact i go shopping on sunday and 9/10 things in my basket are reduced. I eat alot of veg.

I feel a bit pikey at times but i can only afford to buy stuff that has been reduced for my son and i.

I spend about a fiver a week on food for us both (excluding breakfasts) as i just cant afford any extra.

Our meals vary from incredibly cheap vegetable and bean stew (we are vegetarian and get our fruit and vegetables from the market), to the quite expensive such as pizza with lots of deli toppings like artichokes and fancy cheeses. Overall I would guess our main meals cost £5-6 a go. We could eat cheaper than that if we had to but fortunately we can afford to eat how we like within reason. That's mainly because we do without other luxuries though.

I think we may spend more than £5 per evening meal (but not every day)

Main reason being dc and I are carnivores, dh eats fish, dc aren't keen on veggie food.

The secret is.... not to shop at Sainsburys! We use local butcher, greengrocer, fishmonger. Butcher and fishmonger more expensive than supermarket, but better quality so need less and no shrinkage on meat. If you take in to account that we often use leftovers for another meal, it's very rare we spend £5 on a single family meal. But we almost always cook from scratch, which is cheaper but people don't always have the time/inclination.

seems expensive for one meal - a special meal ok but everyday we spend much less.