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

I'd tackle the next Tesco shop this way

1. Check your cupboard and freezer contents and plan a full week of meals that uses up a lot of the things you already have.
2. Work out what you need to make up the rest of the meals, make a list then go online and start filling the basket
3. Start with 'real' foods, cleaning products and other essentials first and leave all non-essential things like wine, savoury snacks, confectionery and so on out completely
4. Keep an eye on the running total and, once you've filled the basket with the essentials, see how much you have left in your budget for wine etc.
5. Aim to spend £25 less than your allotted budget so that you have a bit of spare left for emergency top ups during the week.

This probably sounds harsh but if you did 'spend a good portion of the budget on wine' and you are also walking around with 'holes in your shoes' then there are bigger issues here.

You need to keep receipts for everything you buy and record it so you can work out where the money is going. I record everything by shop and then group (food, toiletries, household etc). Wine budget is probably £15 a month and that is for a half decent bottle when (if) the inlaws come for dinner!

How much are you spending on wine? Do you drink a lot of wine or is it just really expensive wine?

Pretty blatantly you either need to drink less wine or buy cheaper wine.

Thats an awful lot of money per week. I can food-shop for my family of 5 for about £60 per week, perhaps a little bit more for top up milk etc. You need to cut back on the wine I'd say and the ready-made snacks.

I only drink tap water. That saves some money. My teenage boys eat food cooked from scratch on the whole.

I always think though that it can be easier just to earn more - see threads like women who earn £1000 a day for inspiration - much more fun than credit crunch threads.

Even if she earned more its still a ridiculous way to spend money!! Its not as if £175 a week for food and treats is a miserable amount.

"Xenia Mon 10-Dec-12 11:32:13

I only drink tap water. That saves some money. My teenage boys eat food cooked from scratch on the whole.

I always think though that it can be easier just to earn more - see threads like women who earn £1000 a day for inspiration - much more fun than credit crunch threads."

And as usual you have completely missed the point. I really don't know why you post on this site as we are all so clearly beyond help as we don't earn loads and put our children and family before money all the time.

We were asked for tips. I just drink tap water and actually in terms of health that is better than caffeine, fizzy drinks and alcohol and all that Starbucks rubbish. What is wrong with that? The teenagers pour in into big glasses, they add ice to it. It costs zero. If we could get the less fortunate only to drink water and given the role fizzy drinks play in ruining the nation's health we might have a double benefit. I have said nothing objectionable on this thread.

The bit about earning more is objectionable (I agree about the fizzy drinks).

If it were so easy to just earn more I doubt there would be a credit crunch board.

Also the term "the less fortunate".

Do you know how you come across? Or are you oblivious?

We are a family of 5, at the moment our weekly food shop including cat food/litter and cleaning is about £75.

I meal plan, we don't have any alcohol now as we were struggling and it was a real luxury. Same goes for fizzy drinks. We also just drink water, tea or coffee.

We don't have many ready made snacks at all, just a large multi pack of crisps per week, and once it's done it's done. I try and bulk cook at the weekends so we have a stock of meals I can take out the night before in the freezer.

We haven't been out for a treat for months, but do let the children pick a "birthday treat" takeaway.

It sounds like you have enough money but you spend it in the wrong place. I don't know how substantial your wine budget is, but maybe you'd feel better if you dropped the wine for a week, and got yourself some new shoes instead?

Plus all the other things people have already said about understanding your budget, meal plan etc.

I spend about 90 a week for four and that's from ocado/one stop for emergencies. So yes, 175 a week should be doable. Do you eat meat every night.

I think the holes in shoes and wine part go together