Could you and your family of 5 live comfortably on £175 a week

[Shinyshoes1]

After all bills are paid but excludes food shopping ?

This is the budget I have left to feed myself DP 2 teenage sons and a 5 year old

I struggle every month

Is this doable or am I being unrealistic

are you just buying food with this?

Yes just food and any treats like the cinema .

All bills are paid including Christmas

well I would have thought it was realistic - teenage boys can really pack it away.
If you are going over-budget, perhaps make a weeks menu and shop around that?

Yes, 4 of us spend £40-£50 a week on food and treats, we eat well, lots of scratch cooking. We don't really snack, cinema 3-4 times a year. Perfectly doable if you have some cooking skills. Can the teenagers help cook, given a small budget? I did this with DS and he now has a good understanding of how to cook cheap, tasty meals (a useful life skill).

Do you really mean just food and 'treats' - what sort of treats, how often do you go to the cinema etc? What other sorts of things are you spending your money on? Do you have to buy school lunches or meals out?

We eat and drink very well on £100 a week. But to me the cinema is a huge extravagence and we very rarely go as a family; DH did take DS to see the recent James Bond but if you are taking teenagers to the cinema every couple of weeks I can imagine that really adds up.

Our family of fours weekly grocery budget is £70 per week. That includes toiletries and baby milk.

If we had £175 per week after all bills and xmas I would consider us very well off.

What "treats" are you getting with that? How often do you eat out?

We maybe eat out as a family once every couple of months . The same with cinema that's every couple of months or every 3 months .

We may get a takeaway once a month

I eat out with friends every 2 or 3 months

That as far as treats probably go . I may give the elder 2 a tenner once a month or something

Do you meal plan? How much is your weekly shop usually?

Well I normally spend the months budget within the first 2 weeks ! I don't meal plan as much as I'd like by the start of week 3 I have absolutely no money left and have to ask DP for more

The money is normally spent on food then wine then more food . I don't even think I'm being extravagant with it

So you are spending around £700 in two weeks. On food.

Where do you shop?

If you really want to reduce the bill you are going to have to look at what exactly you are spending it on and see where you can cut back.

Do you throw a lot of food out?

I don't throw away huge amounts . £700.00 on food for 2 weeks. It can't be .

I'll have to start taking note of where the money is going . I have no clue

That's £7 a day each, surely that's loads? What do you eat for breakfast, lunch, typical evening meal? What do you drink? Where do you shop ?

Need more info to be able to help.

I think you need to meal plan. Write a shopping list, and stick to it.

Would you say you are bad with money? Could you get your DP to only give you a weeks money at a time until you have mastered the art of budgeting and restraint?

I would also recommend writing down every single penny you spend and what it was for, for a whole week. That way you can see in black and white where the money is going!

That should be plenty to go at with a bit of meal-planning, taking advantage of special offers and choosing inexpensive ingredients. Home-cook rather than use prepared foods. Eat out less. Drink less wine. As you have teenagers, keep copious amounts of dirt-cheap things like bread, bananas and apples for them to snack on.... saves them nibbling through the expensive stuff!!!

You spend £350 a week on food and wine? I'd say that was extravagant. Where do you shop that is so expensive?

We are a family of 4 and spend £175 a week which covers food, petrol for two cars and extras, and we often still have some left over.
Food shop includes all toiletries, often extra little bits of clothes eg pants and socks/ hair bobbles, wellies for the kids and about once a month a DVD for the kids and one for us. (usually from the£3 section) with popcorn and snacks for family movie night. Oh and the food Includes lunch for DH, ds and I every day too. We eat quality food, mostly home cooked and have the occasional bottle of wine or beer.
Eminently doable IMO. You must be eating steak every night to spend the months budget in 2weeks! :o

Oh and we shop at Sainsburys. Where do you shop? I don't think that makes a huge difference tbh, unless it's at Harrods!! we used to shop at Waitrose and spent about the same, because there were not as many extra non food items to be tempted by!! :)

There are 3 of us and we spend £40 a week at most. Can I recommend you join the Grocery Challenge over here? You start by cutting your budget by a small amount and work at it going down further each month

Blimey you must be buying all your food from Fortnum and Mason!!!! £125 a week on food should be plenty, leaving you plenty for treats.

Big pan of bolognaise sauce shouldn't cost more than a few quid (say £2 on mince, £1 on tinned tomatoes, £1 on purée, carrot onio.n garlic , plus another pound on a bag of pasta and that's a meal for a fiver. A loaf of bread plus marg and ham and tomatoes between you for sandwich lunch maybe £3, cereal an milk for five maybe £2 a day plus another fiver a day for tea, biscuits and fruit comes to £15 for three meals, tea, biscuits and fruit. So for a week that's £105. Add a tenner toiletries and household stuff and another tenner for a slightly more expensive meal like Sunday roast and you should be easily able to manage!!!

I was going to say no way when I saw the thread title, but when I read that it was just for food and treats I changed my mind. We could easily do it.

I agree with other posters.

You need to write down where you spend your money. Try to do it for a few weeks and see what you find.

family of 4 here. spend £100 per week at tesco, but £70 if we shop at aldi.

Thanks guys I'll have to seriously look at ways to cut back . I only shop at tesco but admittedly I spend a good portion of the budget on wine.
I buy sausage rolls , scotch eggs , satays, fresh deli counter meat and other snacky bits for the kids , but I should just give them bananas and bread etc until dinner time.

I get paid at the end of the month , already I have just £20.00 left :-(( ( although cos of it being Christmas I get wages early this month )

I've got to seriously look at my spending , it's not like I'm being frivolous , I'm walking around with holes in my shoes :-/

Yes you absolutely can feed a family of 5 on £175 a week.

Cut out all processed and prepared stuff for a start. Fruit for snacks. Which shop do you go to? What kind of meat do you buy? Is it expensive cuts?