How do people feed families on Ј40 a week?

A question about : How do people feed families on Ј40 a week?

I have seen online many people claiming to feed there family of 4 on Ј40-Ј50 per week. They claim it is a balanced diet.

I really want to save money, as I spend Ј70-Ј90 for a family of 3 per week (me, OH and 8 month old). This does include Ј8 a week on formula and nappies when needed (although in laws have been giving us a lot lately, so we rarely have to buy).

I try and buy good food since baby is now eating our food. I cannot see a way to cut the costs down other then eating pizza and nuggets everyday, and I won't feed baby on that.

We already do the 'rubber chicken' technique as I have read on here. We usually buy another meat for meals, so a whole chicken and maybe a Ј4 pack of mince. We tend to buy just frozen veg as it always seems to go of so quick, we buy LO pure fruit pots.

We don't really try much basic range, but I am willing to give it a go. Other then meat that is because I am scared what could be in the cheap meat. Can anyone recommend any basic staples that are okay?

I typically shop at Tesco or Asda since OH is scared of Aldi, but I will go on my own. We really cannot afford to be spending so much each week, and our fridge isn't even full. I meal plan so we don't have any leftovers, well rarely anyway. We don't eat chocolate and crisps, and we just get tea and juice for drinks.

I have also found shopping online takes it down a little bit, but nothing significant.

My average week, well this week our menu is:

Yesterday: Roast dinner
Today: Sweet and sour using left over chicken (using a jar, bab will have steamed veg and some chicken)
Tomorrow: Pies and croquettes (bab will have omelette)
Wednesday: Toad in the hole, home made with veg
Thursday: Jacket tatas with beans and cheese

I don't think we have anything extravagant, we sometimes have stirfrys, fajitas etc for treats, perhaps one a week usually excluding this week.

Any advice please?

Best answers:

• If you price up those dinners, what do they come to? Do you make the pie and croquettes yourself?
  What do you have for breakfast and lunch and do you include toiletries, cleaning stuff etc in your food shop?
• Run a search for Weezl74's many threads, her crew were doing feed a family of four according to the healthy eating guidelines on Ј100 a month so you should get some ideas.
  Tesco has really gone up in price lately, much more than Asda, Aldi, Lidl etc. With my ex I stopped taking him grocery shopping, suddenly spent loads less and didn't have to listen to whinging! Although the World Foods section in Tesco is well worth exploring if you have one - really cheap for larger packs of beans, lentils, brown rice, spices, sweet chilli sauce, green or red chilli paste, cooking oils.
  Foods that tend to be expensive are many meats, processed products (including breakfast cereals and bread) and soft fruits. Cheap but healthy foods include organ meats (chicken liver/ pig kidney), canned oily fish (mackerel/ pilchards), dried red or yellow lentils, green split peas, canned kidney beans or chick peas, frozen vegetables, fresh root vegetables, red cabbage, canned tomatoes, mixed dried fruits, fresh pineapple.
  It's well worth pricing up meat, fish, fruit and veg per kilo the differences can be incredible. Look at your portion sizes, for meat it's recommended to have the size of your palm or about 100-125g which is actually really small. What do the fruit pots cost per kilo, could you make them cheaper with frozen mixed berries (Farmfoods or Aldi)?
  It can save quite a bit purchasing dried spice blends or jars of paste rather than jars of ready made sauce, because with the latter you tend to be be paying for cheap ingredients like sugar and water. Sweet and sour is surprisingly easy to make from scratch (tomato puree, vinegar, soy, garlic, something sweet like pineapple, any veg). Once you control what it is in the sauce your baby could have it - Tesco have Amoy reduced salt soy sauce on offer at present.
  You look to be having meat on a daily basis and processed foods fairly regularly plus possibly a fair bit of salt; maybe have more dairy, eggs, seafood and vegetables? I find it helpful to aim for the recommended rainbow of produce each day (blue/ purple, red, dark green, orange/ yellow), start at breakfast and build evening meals around veggies rather than planning around the meat, it concentrates the mind on having enough and not letting them go off in the refrigerator.
  HTH.
• Based in your meal plan, that nowhere near equates to Ј70 on food
  A large chicken (Ј5) should feed two adults for at least 4 main meals, plus soup if you boil up the carcass
  A family sized pie can be anywhere between Ј2-Ј4 again this should feed 2 adults for 2 meals
  Toad in the hole, 2 sausages per adult (40p-Ј1.50). Flour, milk, egg Ј1 tops. So Ј1.40-Ј2.50 depending on quality of sausage used
  Jacket potato with beans and cheese would cost about Ј1 for two people
  Add in your frozen veg and sauces, your spend for main meals only comes in at around Ј15 for the week.
  Few loaves of bread, pints of milk, fruit/yogs, ham for sarnies, still doesnt add up to Ј70
  Maybe look at your last till receipt and then compare that to what you have left in the cupboard. Could be you are buying unecessarily and could create meals from what you already have, so technically, some weeks you dont really need to soend the full Ј70 you just like to keep your cupboards full
• Yellow stickers
  Free school meals.
  Eating at family on Sunday
  Tiny portion sizes.
  Rubbish quality sausages with 40% meat...or high fat meat especially minced beef which can be 20% or more fat...it's cheap.
  Bulk buying with neighbours, friends, family.
  I've seen all the reasons.
  It costs me Ј25 per person per week for ALL 21 meals inclusive of a takeaway once a week. I try and get every meal to cost Ј1 or less if possibe...some go over and some are under. I aim for the meat portion to be about 50p and about 100 grams or so...so the meat should cost Ј5/kg.
• I much prefer Aldi to Lidl but thats just a personal choice. That and I shop at Approved Foods, one of the discount online shops. I dont have kids though and its just me to feed. I dont eat meat either and I make a lot of meals from scratch including soup.
  You'll get loads of ideas on these boards. Theres also a blog written by girl who used to have Ј10 a week to spend on her and her son and it includes some of the recipes she cooked during that time, its called a girl called Jack, some decent recipes on there.
• Probably not helpful but we have found being vegetarian/vegan much cheaper and it forces us to eat more healthily too. On food/drinks alone we are spending approx Ј50 a week, maybe a bit less and we're a family of six xx
• tescos currently have 3 chickens for Ј10
• I think flexibility is key to saving money on weekly food shopping, buy what is on offer to make meals. Do you eat pasta as I find that a really filling and cheap family meal. Tesco have 500g bags pasta for 50p at the moment or buy bigger packs to save more if you can. You can then make a cheese sauce or use a tomato based one, add what you have in fridge/cupboard eg tuna and sweetcorn or ham/bacon and mushroom the choice is endless. I normally serve with some garlic bread or a small baton (less than 50p again I think). Same with flexibility on cereals if you want branded or if nothing is on offer buy tesco own. Good luck with your money saving
• Do you have a food co-op near you? One has recently started up near where I live and it's fantastic. Every week I purchase the Ј3 fruit, veg and salad bags and that does us three adults for the week. Food co-op's also accept healthy start vouchers.