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 .

brambles you're in crawley aren't you? (sorry if you're not who i am thinking of!)

anyway, if you want you can come shopping with me!
seriously, i don't spend any more than 45 a week and that is shopping at sainsburys and buying all organic

it can definitely be done

i have till xmas to decide. i am off sick with exhaustion (please excuse my spelling) due to the hours i work but i will be trying tose ideas out.clayhead sorry bad choice of words saying suffer its just really hard for me at the moment i should had said my children suffering without the things they are used to

I spend between £60 and £80 a week for 4 of us and a dog. I tend to buy offers so we stock up and don't need as much the following week. I would struggle to get ours down to £40 a week but we do seem to waste a lot of food.

kid we used to waste lots of food too. and it's only recently that i've really started cutting down.
i normally shop online but we had a few issues and couldn't get on to do it
so i ended up using up all kinds of things and made meals for 3 nights on nothing! lol

it's amazing what you can make when you don't have anything else.

last night i got a carrot, a tin of chickpeas and a jar of curry sauce. it cost 1.50 altogether... had an onion and rice at home and we had a lovely big meal with leftovers for todays lunch

I've just done the monthly internet shop and it's come to £165 (which is a high month for us), there's 5 of us. I'll spend another £50/80 over the month on bread, fruit, sandwich stuff etc. I could cut it down though - not buy junky stuff like crisps, biscuits etc, but it would be very boring!

hope you remember to use the vouchers which are available on some sites to get some money off your online shopping bill. I got £15 off at Tesco when I spent £100

Would you be entitled to anything extra in the way of Tax Credits if you changed your job? I realise you may have already taken this into account in your calaculations but thought I would mention it just in case.

i budget £50 a week on food but sometimes its £35 to £50, very rare its more than that we have 10 week old baby 6 yr old dd and then me n dp.

when i used to have to be very strict only spending £20 a week i used to add up what i was putting in the trolley so i knew how much i was spending.

I think you could probably do it if you think in terms of 7 meals and what you need for them + HH goods like loo roll.

We spend £100-£120 pw in Tescos plus bit here and there. But TBH, a lot of it is junk like crisps, biccies, nuts and the odd tesco finest ready meal. Also booze adds up.

I think if you just buy what you need and you cook lots from scratch rather than be a lazy cow like moi, you can do it. Perhaps try it for a week before you need to to see if you can.
Good luck

I shop like starlover and its fine I buy all my cleaning stuff in lidl now and it lasts ages.eat loads of vegi stews etc Buy organic meat/chicken/fish if its on special offer although dp and I are exclusively vegi now(since last week!)so more for ds.Dp and ds take packed lunches and we have cats too.It is possible with menu planning.Don't buy ready meals and eat out about once a month.Pasta is cheap so is couscous and stock up on good 2 for 1 offers

Brambles - is there another adult wage earner in the household?

What are the major outgoings that you have allowed for before the £100 left per week that you have mentioned?

Perhaps you can do something with your mortgage?

Now that dh worls away a lot I have got it down to £70 for me, ds 12 and dd 3
one cat.
I struggle tbh and I get an extra veg box delivery
When it ws just me and ds, we coped on about £35 per week for food, but he was having lunch at school and dinner at childminders

love to know how u shop for £40 especiall if u go online. I use Tesco and if cooking from scratch with household goods etc for 3 ofus I still spend £100 per week. Any tips gratefully received. What sort of meals and lunches do u have. My dh has packed lunch so have to buy sandwich meats etc and then theres myself SAHM and my dd (2.2)

£40 for three is our budget
it's bloody hard work

There's 4 of us and I spend £40 a week on food and the weekly shop (nappies, washing powder etc etc).

I buy my veg on the market - 7lbs of potatoes for £1, 2lb's carrots for 60p etc etc.

Then for tinned tomatoes, beans etc I buy value stuff, and also cheese (because we eat a lot) is value too (although I always keep my eye open for the specials in Morrisons and often end up with a nice piece of 'proper' cheese).

Cleaning and 'sundries' (clingfilm, kitchen foil, kitchen towel, loo roll etc etc) I buy in Wilkinson's - there's a washing powder in there (can't remember the name) which is about 80p a box - and it lasts me about 1 1/2 weeks.

oh meant also to say - that it's only been in the last few weeks I've been spending £40 - before that it was £25-35 (someweeks £20ish!)

£70 a week for 2 adults and one toddler. Almost all meals are cooked from scratch - but lots of meat and fish. Includes household products but not wine/alcohol. Does not include dh's/toddler's lunch on weekdays (when at work/nursery). Would struggle on £40 tbh but imagine I would have to cut down on the meat, fish, fancy cheese, snacks, cakes. We love food so that is our indulgence/vice.

I have a budget of 50 a week for our food for 2 adults, 1 child and dss every 2nd weekend (he eats more than dp atm as hes a growing lad of 14)but quite often I dont spend that much. Last week I spent 35 and bought the Xmas pudding and some extra baking stuff.

My tips are make stew with dumplings and lots of veg and only a little meat. Add tins of beans (haricot, flagelet etc) to mince and itll go much further. Buy packets of beans and soak and boil them. It takes a bit of time but is well worth it. I can make a bean chilli for less than £1.50 for 4 adults.
I buy value white fish for fish pie. Its pollock which much nicer than cod and also value prawns which are small but who cares in a fish pie.
Popcorn is cheap and makes a great snack.
Sainsburys value shampooo makes a great bathroom cleaner and is only 30p a bottle and is so thick I water it down to use it too!!!
Smoked mackerel is another good buy and we either have it as a lunch snack or make fishcakes which feed 4 of us easily.
We also do alot of baking and make scones and jam pies as treats.