as you might remember i recently lost my husband, and now am facing getting on with the reality of trying to go on living as best as we can without him. one of the more mundane difficulties is money. can i ask you how much you all think is a realistic amount to spend on feeding a family of three ,( myself and twins of 5) as i'm finding it hard to budget consistently and just would like to hear what you all think. sorry to be so boring.thanks in advance..

It is difficult and I can sympathise having been in a similar but not the same position.  I spent years on a budget of £17 a week to feed a family of four.  Now I budget £22 per week for food for three and can do quite nicely on that.  We do have treats some weeks and I've recently found eBay which has made loads of difference as I've paid for my sons school trip with this.

Try checking out www.moneysavingexpert.com for handy hints and help.

If you do have a budget you need to stick to it and plan in advance.  I find that internet shopping helps as you don't buy any extra's.

Hope this helps.

Wow Im impressed! I strugle to feed 2 adults on less than £100 per week. Now I know Im being extravegant somewhere.....

I spend about £60 per week on 2 adults and 2 teenagers foodwise :) Obviously this doesn't include cleaning stuff, and tioletries and so on which I generally try and get once a month

Try and buy fresh and make your meals from scratch if possible, freeze any excess. Don't buy premade packaged stuff as it costs more and it isn't as healthy

Chicken is quite cheap, buying a whole chicken should give you at least 3 meals for a fiver, a roast , a soup and maybe sandwiches. Mince is cheap and very versatile ...mince and new potatoes, shepherds pie, spaghetti bolognese.

Try to buy LARGE packets of rice and pasta, they work out cheaper :)

Aah well we include cleaning stuff and toiletries in that and I know I spend at least £10 on alcohol. I do prepare most meals from scratch. BUT OH will not eat rice, pasta, soup, curry and insists on sharing all meat and fish with our furry companions :rolleyes: So a chicken does  a main meal each and a couple of rounds of sarnies max. Still sainsburys have tinned mackerel on special so everyone is happy for about 35p :)  

Hi can someone plz tell me how to feed myself and my son on £22.00 i would love to come out of asda having only spent so little, on a average week i spend at least £60 and still have to buy during the week, i think im going wrong somewhere any advice welcome

Sit down and work out a week's menu, remembering that leftovers from one meal are easily reused in another - ie meat left over from Sunday's joint can go into a shepherd's pie, for example - and only buy what those meals will need.

That all depends really on what you feed.

It is much cheaper (and healthier) to feed a family on fresh foods in season than to buy pre-packaged, processed meals which contain all sorts of unecessary if not even potentially harmful things, not to mention all the waste packaging etc etc.

Money can be saved by buying own brand labels which are often made by the same manufacturer of named brands and tinned foods such as mackeral, sardines etc are cheap, good and have a long shelf life.

End of day buys at supermarkets in the meat section can be successfully bought and frozen for later.

I can feed 3 people on £5 per day (not including gas/electricity/water etc).

The key to budgeting is meal planning in advance...........

Also using really nutritious cheap foods such as pulses etc, a very overlooked source of complete protein.

I spend at least £60 a week on food to feed 2 adults and 2 children........ i wish that i could feed my family on £22 per week!!!!

Take care
kerry xxxxx

It must be hard but a tip I think is best is to buy fresh veggies,fruit, and meat rather than convenience food and eat lots of pasta and rice dishes. You will find it is much cheaper and will go a lot further and is also good for those growing twins :)

Have you looked into all the benefits you are entitled to now you are coping financially on your own ? You may well be entitled to more help :)

Try and post on here as I am sure there are people that can give you some more help and advise :)

http://messageboards.ivillage.co.uk/iv-ukprsps

Take Care

Lucy
xx

I spend about £50 a week on food for me and my 8 yr old son and when i get home, there still isnt anything in the fridge!!! I have to buy convenience and junk food cos healthier stuff is just so expensive, its stupid. The goverment should make healthy food cheaper and give a free gym pass to the whole nation, that would give relief to the NHS. Id love to go to the gym but cant afford it :(

With £50 you could quite easily spend this on fresh ingredients for some really nice meals :)

You can buy lots of veggies, most supermarkets do the value ranges which includes veg which is just as good but doesn't look the part ! As in mis shaped carrots etc. You can buy things like chicken thighs etc which are absolutely fine although not white meat has an absolutely lovely flavour when you make chicken stews etc ! Mince is another good meat as you can make that go so far if you make a for example a big saucepan of bolognaise sauce packed with veggies. It can last for so many meals as you can then freeze it ! Buy in bulk then you will also save a lot of money :)

It can be done just means that you have to spend more time cooking but I would rather do that than waste money on junk food which is normally high in fat, salt and sugar :(

Lucy
xx

I agree Lucy.  I cannot understand it when people say fresh, healthy food is more expensive than processed junk.

If you buy IN season vegetable and fruit these are very cheap but as you say, many people think it takes more time but in actual fact you can save loads of time by slow cooking the night before, even cheaper you can use a hay box to save on fuel.  Root vegetables and pulses are very cheap and very tasty if you use the right recipes.

>The goverment should make healthy food cheaper

Healthy food is cheaper! It's more time-consuming to prepare, but you get a heck of a lot more for your money.

But it goes off very quickly, like salad stuff, it doesnt last a whole week!!

It does in the fridge!

Thats where i put it :(

Swedes, parsnips, cabbage, turnips, cauliflower etc do not need a fridge, neither do apples, oranges etc and they last for ages ............

I find it best to eat most salads at the start of the week and other veg towards the end. Tomatoes, celery, cucumber all lasts well - it's only lettuce that I find goes off. Fruit lasts for ages, as do root veg, cabbage.

My Grocery bill on Friday was £59.30 which was for a whole months feeding for one, this included firelighters and cleaning stuffs. Milk and bread go in freezer.  I probably spend around £10 on good fresh good meat and fish.  Lettuce if kept in a colander washed and spun can last 5 days in bottom drawer of fridge.  My supermarket at moment has many good offers, 2 chickens for £5, etc. Mince can be stretched out by adding plenty of veg, not just carrots and onions, but turnip and potatoes to make stovies, extra portions can be easily frozen. I practically live on homemade soup, Massive pot and then freeze into indivual portions, good healthy cheap 'convenience' food. Own brand bread, crap texture etc, but makes great toast. Eggs, excellent source of protien,

Meals, two slices of toast, veggie omelette on top of toast = meal for three for under £1
French Toast, same
Fish is also excellent, slighter more expensive but can be stretched out.  Beat four eggs in bowl, add some milk, flake white fish into eggs, season, pour into microwaveable bowl and heat for 3 mins or until set.  Slice and eat with veg. Can be made for under £2 depending on choice of fish and eggs. 

Being so old......I find it very amusing that people nowadays assume they have to go to a gym in order to keep fit. What about incorporating more activity into daily life - e.g. walking instead of bus/car, using staircases instead of escalators, walking the dog a bit further...I'm sure you can all think of many more ideas. I wouldn't want to return to my mum's day - washing by hand, using the mangle,cleaning floors on hands and knees, walking into town every day to shop....but housewives in those days were certainly physically active. :-)

Oh, yes, by the way she did work as well...and so did her mother in the 1900s.

God I hope my husband never comes on this site.  I spend about £130 on housekeeping per week for 5 of us although it does include £10.00 for sausages for the dogs.  I dont agree though processed foods are particularly expensive if you buy the ones on offer they are good value.  Got to admit though the only one who cooks in our house is my husband as I am a very bad cook.  My kids do eat masses of fruit I would guess it comes to around £20.00 per week.

I buy boxes of jacket spuds, easy and great, much cheeper by the box and always available. Ditto carrots and other root veg in winter. In summer a grobag of letuice just requires a little water every now and then.

We are having steak tonight at 50p for a piece big enough for two :) I've often fed steak to the dogs as we have bought a lot at 50p a throw :D

Daisy

normally (aka b4 baby archie)? £60 on food, £100 on wine :D :D

Woha so thats how babies happen :D

Thats about where we are on the ratio as well :p :p
My first bottle of bud after Indigo was pure heaven :D

Lucy
xx

Well, up until a week ago I was having a couple of glasses a week still. When they took my 28 week bloods it was thick and black and dark and my iron levels were brill. I put it down to the wine  :D :D J says that they should test my winestream for blood content :D

I'm in the same position as yourself, only no kids left at home and I find it hard to shop for one person, supermarkets are mostly geared for families.  Now that I'm a pensioner finding it quite hard money wise. The dogs are better fed that I am at times, but I do buy a lot of chicken, and turkey breasts, mince, braised steak etc, cook and freeze what I dont use. Any tips would be welcome.

If you cook a chicken in a slow cooker, all the meat simply falls of the carcass, no wasted meat, plus the stock can be used for soup, also over a period of time, slow cooking saves on elec bills. Not much, but if you are money conscious it does make a difference.   If you have a good butcher, like I do, ask him to cut of the bones from pork chops etc, it will make a small difference when weighed for pricing, then be really cheeky and ask for the cut off bones for the dog :D foc of course. If buying prepacked from supermarket, don't buy the single packed cuts, buy the family pack, they tend to be cut thinner so you get more per weight for your money.

I got a chest freezer and bulk buy its great I can get a months supply of food except veg into it. My food bill has droped from over £300 a month to £200 a month for four of us. We rarely eat junk meals as its cheaper to cook from fresh and the kids enjoy helping to cook.
Mary

Slow cooker is a saviour Kay I think.

I even do my chicken wings in it etc in it then  but count all the bones coming out though?

There is only 3 of us in the house but all 3 like different food so occasionally ( very)  I make a big lasagne or curry.

macaroni etc  all the dishes that are great homemade but also great the next day. I freeze them up.  

Goodness I'm doing something wrong!  Excluding dog food I can't seem to spend less than £135 per week for six of us and I buy virtually no pre packed food.  Mind No2 son has 8 weetabix and a munchie bowl full of Shredded wheat every morning for breakfast.

I shop on a Fri/Sat and there is never anything in the house to eat by the next Thursday - and I mean nothing!  I buy loads of fresh fruit and veg and cook a proper meal from scratch every night - except Friday when the kids will eat nothing but their fish and chip shop treat.  I only buy biscuits and crisps occasionally and I occasionally buy a bottle of wine (it's cheaper from the local shop and that isn't included in the above £135!) and I buy own brand cleaning materials and any suitable bogof offers.

Andrea (crying at the ludicrous amount that is spent in this house)

thanks to all who replied. i'm very impressed. i will have a budget of £50 per week, which i cannot really go over or the bills won't get paid. your replies have  made me less scared and made me realise that i should be fine on that.  still can't work out whether to do weekly shop or monthly to take advantage of the bigger sizes, but then find i have stuff in the freezer that never gets eaten...thanks very much to all

I find the Tesco Value to be excellent. You can save a worthwhile sum buying that rather than the brand name varieties of the same product. When we were unemployed it was a life-saver. Good luck!

will look at that . thanks jg.

It's something like 12p for 500g of dried pasta - that's enough for about 6 people I reckon. Make a sauce with a chopped onion, garlic and a tin of Value chopped tomatoes (again, about 10p) and a little grated cheese on top, and you've got a decent meal for almost nothing.
:)

Oh, and another tip I was given when we were very hard up was to work out a week's menu in advance, and only buy what was needed for those meals, including snacks. Just doing that cut down our food bill by about a third, without buying the cheaper products.

If you shop via the internet you only buy what you need rather than browsing aisles.  For those of you who spend huge amounts on a shop, I am quite happy to give lessons on bargain shopping!!!

Oh dear - I don't fall into that category jackyat - I have a back problem at the mo and decided to get Tesco's to deliver.  I went online and spend £112 - unbelievable, as I usually spend about £40 per week.  There's only two of us, and I'm buggered if I know what I spent it all on, as once I'd put the shopping away, I still appeared to "not have much" in the fridge! LOL :)

Lol Vicki...... i do that, and then when you put it all away..... you think to yourself i've hardly bought nothing.......i went to asda today and spent £84 for the weeks shop.... and my fridge still looks empty.

Take care
kerry xxxxx

Take a list with you when you shop and you WILL save money ;) Only buy what is on your list . Also, but fruit and veg from local shops or market :)

again, thanks to you all for the tips.

Is there anyway to cook pasta apart from on the hob???
I could do with shoving it in the oven or microwave and fgorgetting about it when I get in from work. I have asked for a slow cooker for my bday next month so will end uyp doing alot of things that are good with pasta, but would like to be able to chuck the pasta in the microwave or oven while sorting kids homework out etc.
any ideas????
Lea :)

I have a microwave rice cooker that can also cook pasta. I wouldn't cook rice/pasta any other way :) You just cover the rice/pasta in boiling water and cook, stirring half way. Always works - never sticks or boils over. I've had the same one for about ten years and both my children have requested one to take to uni :) They cost £4.95 (including a free apple cooker) from Lakeland Ltd, but I've seen them (or similar) elsewhere (it's not worth buying them from Lakeland unless you want to buy a lot as the postage is expensive).

http://www.lakelandlimited.com and put 4241 into the product ref search

Daisy

Thanks Daisy, I will get one next time I am in Lincoln.
Do you think pasta in a bowl in microwave will do the same for the moment???
How long do you put it in for?????
Lea :)

Don't know - I've never tried :D It takes 11 minutes in total in the rice cooker.

Daisy

Will try it in a glass bowl. Got spag bol in oven so will see if it works :D :D
Thankyou :D :D :D
Lea :)

Yes please Jackyjat :D :D :D