Can a family of four be fed for ?50 a week?

[masur123]

I agree, in fact my weekly shop is ?20 Butchers, about ?25 supermarket. However this is for a family of 3 (2 adults, 1 child)
As people say, have to be prepared to cook from scratch . I make plenty so there is enough left over to take for lunch the next day.

I always shop for the offers if they are available, as this seriously cuts down on expense as does buying more in bulk (rice & pasta & Cheese etc)

[thered]

it's not just dinner though, there's breakfast and lunch as well. i guess they could drink tapwater most of the time, and cups of tea, and you can get quite cheap cereals and bread in some shops, or make porridge.

now your talking eva

tap water and porridge


makes you wonder why the prison service costs so much to run

[super jumbe]

You all are not considering that you need extras to add before you will able to even start cooking, cooking oil, salt, sugar, pepper, chilly, herbs, onions, etc, I could keep adding unless you are going to eat all food just boiling with a bit of salt and no proper cooking.

[Evastar]

plus the cost of electricity or gas to cook on

[masur123]

You all are not considering that you need extras to add before you will able to even start cooking, cooking oil, salt, sugar, pepper, chilly, herbs, onions, etc, I could keep adding unless you are going to eat all food just boiling with a bit of salt and no proper cooking.

I have, and I do. Its ?50 a week, again buy bulk items from your local euro shop or wholesaler for your herbs/garlic and oils. Use the market for fruit and veg, buy exactly the right weights from your butcher for meat and only use supermarkets for the deals and stuff you cant get anywhere else.

[masur123]

plus the cost of electricity or gas to cook on

That doesnt come out of the food bill but the power bill

[Shady]

The size of lamb chops no way you need about four each .............

thems shoulder chops.. nice sized ones

[oneman]

You all are not considering that you need extras to add before you will able to even start cooking, cooking oil, salt, sugar, pepper, chilly, herbs, onions, etc, I could keep adding unless you are going to eat all food just boiling with a bit of salt and no proper cooking.

Go to an asian supermarket, those 'pantry' or staples can be purchased fairly cheaply in bulk. e.g. 15lt of sunflower oil for ?7.

[Shady]

xant14 reliably informs me that badgers, hedgehogs, rabbit and squirrels can be had for around the price of a gallon of petrol. , he recommends tomatoes to go with them as in his thread http://www.digital-kaos.co.uk/forums...es-20p-183420/

[ruudvandan]

although I don't have a family of 4 to feed, I generally do feed myself for this much, proportionally speaking. The way to do it is wait for stuff you use to go on special offer, and then buy loads of it bulk and store it.

if you shop at supermarkets, rotate them so you can get an eye for the offers they have on at the time. A couple of months ago ASDA were selling 2l Ribena for ?2 a bottle (normal price ?4.74) so I bought 13 bottles which should last me about 8 months. I would have bought more but they'd go out of date too quick. At the moment Morrisons have 6 pack Muller corner yoghurts on offer at 2 for ?2, whereas the normal price is ?3.69 for 1. It's madness not to buy them at that price. I don't normally eat them but I will do for the next couple of weeks.

tins of beans, macaroni cheese, peas etc can be stored for years.

buy rice in 25kg bags - asian/chinese or even most kind of foreign supermarkets sell these and fresh fruit and veg much cheaper

basically buy your essentials, buy in bulk and take advantage of special offers when they appear.

[oneman]

if you shop at supermarkets, rotate them so you can get an eye for the offers they have on at the time. A couple of months ago ASDA were selling 2l Ribena for ?2 a bottle (normal price ?4.74) so I bought 13 bottles which should last me about 8 months. I would have bought more but they'd go out of date too quick. At the moment Morrisons have 6 pack Muller corner yoghurts on offer at 2 for ?2, whereas the normal price is ?3.69 for 1. It's madness not to buy them at that price. I don't normally eat them but I will do for the next couple of weeks.

Often branded goods on offer are still more expensive then store brand especially at aldi/lidl.

Saying that the muller yogurt is a good price but I would definately consider that a luxury and would not be on my ?50 a week shopping list. Much cheaper to make your own yogurt.

[masur123]

Often branded goods on offer are still more expensive then store brand especially at aldi/lidl.

Saying that the muller yogurt is a good price but I would definately consider that a luxury and would not be on my ?50 a week shopping list. Much cheaper to make your own yogurt.

I agree that sometimes the branded on offer is not as cheap as own brand Aldi/Lidl, but sometimes you got to push the boat out! You can still live within in your budget and eat walkers crisps for lunch!

[thered]

You all are not considering that you need extras to add before you will able to even start cooking, cooking oil, salt, sugar, pepper, chilly, herbs, onions, etc, I could keep adding unless you are going to eat all food just boiling with a bit of salt and no proper cooking.

i know where your coming from but a litre of oil will last us about 3 month a bag of sugar a month salt and spices are negligent you by them as and when you may last ages without

i grow chillies i dont use oil for cooking much at all even frying bacon there is enough fat in the bacon to cook without it

i dont deep fry anything either i dont have sugar on cereal or cups of tea the wife does i dont i only have 1 sugar in coffee

if you use you ?50 as a guide you will find some weeks you may spend ?60 or ?70 if you find some bargains then some weeks you may spend ?30 i think the general census is you could make it avearage out too ?50 a week not neccesarily spend exactly ?50 a week