100 a month budget!

[swingsandroundabouts2]

Hello..im trying to save up for my kids future, so this is my budget monthly from now on. Il have all bills etc coming out of my bank, but on the 1st of each month il take 100 cash out and this will be for food, petrol, toddlet groups ect. I have 2 kids, i can do a full shop at aldi for 20..this woukd last us for almost 2 weeks. I rarely use the car so 20 should do me for the month maybe more in petrol. Any other tips or ideas or am i mad??!

£10 shopping list from Aldis (prices are fairly accurate but not exact) -

Loaf of bread 50p, bag of potatoes £1, chicken thighs £1, bag of carrots 40p, brocolli 40p, other veg of the week 40p, bag of bananas £1, huge bag of pasta 80p, cheese £1.50, 3 tins of baked beans 60p, 2 tins of tomatoes 50p, 6 eggs £1.00, 4 pints of milk £1.

That could feed one adult and 2 small children with small appetites easily for week. I think it's fine to live on very reduced budgets for a few months.

The Aldi Super Six offers are 49p for a different set of fruit/veg each week (changes variety every week) so you could get your fresh produce for even less. Jack Monroe fed herself and her son for £10 a week healthily and I'm sure an extra toddler wouldn't cost much more. You can pay very little for washing powder/toiletries by using old-style cleaning (soap nuts, lemon juice/vinega etc).

But the fact remains, unless you had to live like this, why would you choose to? Because it sounds dreadfully grim to me.

What are you actually asking, OP?

You could possibly live on £10 a week BUT you would be eating very repetitive meals and very small portions and probably lacking a lot of nutrients.
We spend at least £10 a week on fruit alone for 5 of us.

Quite honestly this sounds like a "project" dreamed up out of boredom. Or have you got very excited with a calculator and worked out you can save up thousands for your DC if you spend x,y and z on necessities now? Either way its an extremely short sighted plan and sounds miserable. Meet in the middle. Feed your DC properly, you can afford to!

That's a very tight budget, some have no choice but to stick to a budget like this but I can't imagine anyone doing it through choice.

Our budget is seen as quite tight to some, £200 monthly grocery budget plus £150 for miscellaneous so presents, clothes, days out etc.

Even if you do choose to spend £10 per week on food... What about little things? Yesterday I bought vitamins, plasters etc for the first aid box and some toiletries. Ok, it was in Boots and I could have probably sourced the things cheeper elsewhere, but that was £20 in one shop. Even something like Calpol will take up a huge % of your budget.

Next week there will be school photos or a pair of shoes for one of the DC . I get some people really don't have the money for such things, but there is saving and there is saving. (There are lots of school photos I didn't buy over the years, but kept the proofs and now I wish I had bought them )