Food budgets

[Mumofgirls89]

Can anyone advise on their food budget, shop and whether that's a skimpy shop, normal or luxury one?
I've had a £140.00 pw budget set for a while for my family of 5 with pet and its not cutting it anymore and I need to act on it really. I did a skimpy shop and still came in at £120.00 without washing, pet stuff or toiletries. Most items are not branded per se, but maybe more asda brand.
I shop at Asda atm and use the rewards.
The pet is non negotiable, I have other budgets for his basic items, it's only if I buy him treats or a new bowl etc.
Also feeding the children is non negotiable...apparently they need feeding too 😆

Last visit to asda I saw Mr kipling cakes £4

Assuming you mean a pack of about 6 small cake slices, I'd never buy anything like that.

I'd get whatever is on offer for a couple of quid maximum, or I'd get a pack of kit kats or similar instead, again whatever is on offer.

Or I'd make brownies (because they're very easy) with the value chocolate and the cheapest butter they have. Always have flour and sugar in and that costs hardly anything.

A tray of brownies might cost nearly £4 to make but you get a lot more cake that's a lot nicer than Mr Kipling crap that's full of rubbish.

Little changes like this can really add up to a big saving on your grocery spend.

My main thing has been to not get ultra processed foods and cook genuinely from scratch. This has reduced bills massively, and freed up money for genuine treats like fresh salmon, fresh berries, etc.also shop around 5-6 pm when fish meat produce are reduced.

Also, you can freeze them, and they are amazing if defrosted in the microwave, warmed slightly, and served with a little scoop of ice cream. Yum!

We spend about £180 a week, family of four, two pets. Dd has gluten free products which can be expensive. We eat a lot of fresh fruit and veg, which isn't cheap. We buy a lot of supermarket brand stuff. You get so little in your basket for a lot of £££.

Ah it’s so hard…and boring but meal planning etc is the answer. But also think about what basics you all like. For example baked potatoes? Pasta and sauce? Beans on toast/potatoes etc? Spaghetti hoops on toast? Super noodles? All of these cost less than 50p per person.

Also quite nice oven chips eg McCain with Heinz ketchup and nice breaded fish or fish fingers and maybe a tin of nice mushy peas or curry sauce waaay less expensive than a takeaway.

I try to alternate ‘nutritious’ and ‘cheap’. Not ideal …but the toddler loves it!

Also fruit- apples, pears, oranges, tinned peaches go much further than other fruit and last longer.

Have you tried the 2good2go app? The boxes from supermarkets/ bags from Greggs etc are really good sometimes and great as a treat

My eldest son doesn't eat sandwiches or toast. He eats a ton of Dahl instead for nearly every meal do that helps.

Interesting as when I posted this before I was told we eat way too much. I do massive vats of meals normally. One of the things with more kids is one pot cooking

We do 2 adults about £300 a month including laundry and toiletries. I buy very few cleaning products-I get a big white vinegar off Amazon, and occasional cream cleaner and bleach. Mostly using washing up liquid and water. We plan everything and use our freezer a lot. I don’t buy anything pre-made, always cook from scratch even if pasta pesto. Never buy brands. Try and buy bigger packs of meat and split into smaller portions and freeze. And reduce portions, we wouldn’t have a chicken breast each for dinner we’d share one and then have more veg and salad. I buy frozen berries and cheapest natural yoghurt for breakfast.

For the majority of families, 3 loaves of bread still wouldn’t do breakfast and lunch for 4 for 4 days and lunch on 3 other days. That can’t be considered large portions by anyone’s standards.

And definitely consider frozen and tinned fruit and veg, so much cheaper, doesn’t go off, and just as healthy.

We're a family of 4 and get through about 2 loaves a week, plus a bag of bagels. Its plenty

Yes, but presumably you aren’t making those 2 loaves and bagels do breakfast and lunch for 4 for 4 days and lunch on 3 other days, which was my point.

It's plenty if you don't have bread for every breakfast and lunch.

3 loaves of bread is about 60 slices, so 15 slices per person per week or two a day.

2 slices of toast for breakfast and something else for lunch. Or something else for breakfast and a sandwich for lunch.

I agree with the PP who talks about eating vats of dhal. This is how I eat too and I almost never eat sandwiches by choice and probably have toast 2 or 3 times a week.

Breakfast is often an omelette (probably quicker than toast and omelette pans don't need washing for the inevitable 'I couldn't cope with all that cooking and the washing up comments') and lunch and dinner is whatever is on the go/batch cooked. So it could be soup, dhal, curry, chilli etc.

Healthier, more satisfying and can also be less calorific and a lot of the time cheaper than something like a ham sandwich.

this! Supermarket bread is so nutritional deficient. We buy one small sourdough probably every fortnight and slice / freeze it. Yoghurt or eggs for breakfast, and soup or salad for lunch. Crackers as a snack

You have completely missed my point!

I was replying to a poster who posted a shopping list which included 3 loaves that they state supposedly covers lunch and breakfast for 3 days for 4 people and then lunch for 4 the other 3 days.

A normal portion is usually 2 slices of bread.
2 slices x 4 people x 4 days x 2 meals (for breakfast and lunch) = 64
2 slices x 4 people x 3 days = 24
So, that is 88 slices of bread i.e. more than 3 thick loaves. Therefore, if the pp covers all those meals with 3 loaves their portions are smaller than what the majority would have, which was my point.

Yes, 3 loaves is enough if it covers less meals. My point was it isn’t enough to cover what that pp stated.

Yes, there is plenty of other food you can eat for breakfast and lunch, but you have also missed my point. The pp states they do eat bread for breakfast and lunch on 4 days and just lunch on the other 3, their shopping list doesn’t include other food for those meals, so I was posting 3 loaves isn’t enough as it isn’t.

We find that ordering Gousto has now become more budget friendly than doing a supermarket shop and meal planning. With Gousto we usually have leftovers from every evening meal for the following day’s lunch which saves money that would be spent on breads, cheese etc. Eating healthy, varied recipes, can’t complain.
Used to have it as a treat but now we have two boxes delivered a week and financially it works out similar.

@Mumofgirls89 im shame but when you say not cutting it do you mean you need to spending more time or less

I use ocado and a top up monthly from alcohol for snacks, choclate bars etc and waitrose for some reason small bits I can only getting trim there.

I mean the amount budgeting isn't cutting it anymore. I don't want to increase the budget or make anybody go without.

I appreciate the ideas unfortunately when you're trying to save money, sometimes healthy foods fall short. I'm definetely buying the more boring but British fruits like apples and Pears as they're cheaper all year round. No more strawberries and fresh fruit salads. I will be looking for the alternatives you guys mentioned.

As a family of 5 we use 1 loaf of bread a week. We buy 2 packs of wraps and maybe a pack of pittas or bagels. May look into bread flour and yeast at this rate!

you spend about £900 a year on takeaways

£180 family of 4, 2 cats. Having what we want

£220 family of 5, loads of fruit, veg, fish and meat. Takeaways about twice a year

£180 -£200 family of four (including 2 very very hungry teenagers) and 2 cats. That includes all lunches for us at work and school and all toiletries and cleaning products. No booze and lots of fresh fruit and veg. Apart from 1 frozen pizza and my Lloyd Grossman chicken tikka masala sauce (so good!) everything cooked from scratch. Same shop.used to cost £110 to £130 pre pandemic. ASDA online delivery. People tell me to shop around but takes me about 30 mins online then 20 mins to unpack. Really haven't got the time to shop around or go in store .

Regarding laundry and cleaning products, I stopped using detergent with dark clothes a few years ago. Unless it’s something like a rugby kit with ground in dirt or similar no need for detergent.

For cleaning, hot water with washing up liquid for most things, for kitchen and bathroom use cheap disinfectant.

Morrisons: £120 a week for two adults and a baby inc toiletries and treats (no alcohol).

But at least £40 of that is ttc vitamins (£5 each) formula (£18 each), nappies, and baby food.