can i ask a personal question?

[brambles]

How much do you spend a week on food?
there is 4 of us and i have had to get my food bill down to £40 a week and i am finding it hard .

I don't see how it could be possible to spend only £40 on 4 of you to be frank. How are you managing?

Around £100 a week for four of us and cat, this is food, cleaning products and alcohol. I would really struggle to get it down to £40.

I spend a minimum of £80 per week. There are 4 of us too and that includes a couple of bottles of wine, a little fish but no meat as 2 of us are veggies. Good luck, I don't think I could do it

no we are struggling its a pre run to decide wheather i can give up work we will live on £120 a week thats food,petrol which is 35 food 40 and what evers left for the children and every day living do you think ill manage?

To be honest brambles I think that may be just to tight. I certainly couldn't live with the stress of living on such a tight budget. I suppose for a short lenght of time it could be done but in general no.

we spend around 40 on 2 adults and one baby

that includes organic fruit and veg box! we buy pretty much everything organic...

so i would say that if you aren't an organic-y kind of person then it's easily manageable!

we have 2 adults and a 3 year old any my bill is anything between £55 and £80 depending on what I need that week. £40 seems a bit tough to me!

you could try avoiding supermarkets and going to local butchers and markets for veg etc, buying in bulk and cooking in bulk then freezing things down.

personally I don't thimk you could do it where is the contingency money for emergencies what if pertol prices rocket? I think to spend 10 quid a week per person and make it nutritious interesting and tasty would be impossible... you would have to spend hours eaking out cheap food into meals and ages sourcing it... I doubt it can be done for less than 60 quid a week myself.. but I do insist that we don't eat crap ie no processed food, no pasties from gregs, no chippy suppers etc... nothing fancy just plain meals with good meat/fish/ lots of fresh veg and fruit -- nice range of cereals etc... I would get very depressed if I had to live long term on the kind of diet 10 quid a week would provide me... never mind the health consequences

its such a shame to have to chose weather to carry on working and have more money or spend time with the children and suffer such is life

it really depends what kind of things you buy!

i am going to go off on some kind of earth-mother/domestic goddess thing here, although i really, really, really am not one!!!!

I am vegetarian so obv don't have the cost of meat.
We have a lot of veggie stews with chick peas/pearl barley/quinoa etc in
I cook everything from scratch (most of the time)
If we're running low on food we make up weird vegetably concoctions!

I always have in my cupboard:
tinned tomatoes
rice
various beans and pulses
pasta

add a load of vegetables to that and you're on your way!

then what do i do give itup or stay at work help

I spend around that, but I don't have a man in the house. They do eat more!

However, it is possible. Do you live near a market? If you do, then you can easily buy masses of fresh fruit and veg really cheaply.

Also, my big tip is to simply avoid supermarkets if you can, or to only take cash with you, and only enough for what's on your shopping list to avoid impulse buys. I go once a week for the big weekly shop where I buy meat, fish and milk for the freezer and manage to limit expenditure to about £25-£30. The other tenner is for the market.

Get into offal. Liver, kidneys, hearts are very very cheap and incredibly full of nutrition. And if your kids get used to it young enough, they'll like it. I try and serve offal at least once a fortnight, and fish twice a week.

Plan your menus. This will focus your shopping and minimise wastage.

And avoid processed foods and ready meals. They cost more.

HTH!

give up work if thats what you want to do. Yes it will be tight, but its amazing how you will be able to manage if you need to - Deals at iceland, end of day reductions in the supermarket, heating a notch lower, etc etc
And you may be able to earn a bit from home - Avon, Kleeneze or something
Wish I dared

I think it is possible as long as you really cut down on the booze. I have a £60/week budget which I come in below and that allows us a takeaway/pub meal once a month and thats for a family of 4. I do save money by getting lots of £10 off vouchers for my internet shopping. That £60 includes food/cleaning stuff/booze/nappies for 1 child.

I don't do organic but cook everything from scratch. I work on cooking 3 times a week and we have one "expensive" meat (a chicken, briskett, chicken breasts/thighs, braising steak), one cheap meat (minced steak, bacon, sausages), one vegetarian and I always cook double so thats 6 days of food. Then the other we are either visiting family, having that pub meal or I make something do 3 meals.

As for your last comment - thats the basic choice for a lot of us.

that figure is based on getting a partime evening job god knows what we would live on if i didnt try and find a part time job

I spend around that for 4 of us.

Not much meat
Nothing pre-prepared
Not much alcohol
Small amounts of quality things

I also do the thing where you make a planner for the week and buy only what you need, I find this helps.

we spend between £100 - £120 per week on food - no alcohol though.

Would love to cut down to a more manageable figure if Im honest.

There are 4 of us although I eat mainly vegetables and fish. My dh and 2 children take packed lunches to school so I do buy stacks of cooked meats/cheese etc and loads of fruit

And I don't consider it suffering BTW!!!

i fell brighter reading the last few messages. never thought of iceland or the market it would be a lot cheaper doing it that way .Thank you all so much for your advice.

clayhead what is btw?

When do you need to decide? Could you have a trial for a few weeks following people's tips from on here and see if you feel you could manage?

by the way

We had some homemade soup and bread for tea tonight, soup with potatoes, carrots, apple, onion, lentils, probably cost about £2 max for the whole meal. Filling, low fat and tasty! I prefer to do some dead cheap meals like that and then have some money left over for treats, just what suits me best.