# Household budgeting (Groceries/Toiletries etc) for a family in the recession



## Bronte

In light of the hot topic of the moment I was wondering would a thread about how people budget on 200 Euro a week for groceries for a family of 2 adults and 4 teenage children can be done. Economically, cheaply and nutritiously would be important factors. 

Groceries has to include toiletries and household cleaning products. 

Also ideas for the cheapest family meals. 

AAM does not have a form called budgeting so I've posted here, if it's the wrong forum please advise.


----------



## itsallwrong

Our budget is 150 a week, to feed mam, dad, 2 teens and 2 tots.
It includes nappies, wipes, toiletries, detergents.
Some of the things may sound tiny but the pounds will mind themselves if you mind the pennies.

*General shopping/cooking/budgeting tips*
Learn how to cook reasonably well. Affects the food/money ratio hugely.
Shop in Aldi/Lidl. Never in convenience shops.
Try and shop in the one shop only.
Do a weekly menu and stick to it.
If possible walk to the shop or cycle.
Only buy what you need unless it can be frozen.
Do not buy snacks or rubbish (I'm frowned on for this at home)
Frozen produce keeps longer. Freeze things you might not need for 4 or 5 days.
For several choices of the same product - check the price per gram/kilo not the packet price.
Stay away from big brand names.
Don't buy TV dinner meals - pure junk. To make a point on this, my teens don't like the taste of them anymore because I give them tasty good food.
Don't be afraid of using the last bit of a packet in with another meal. My dad used to call it mystery stew.
If the date has passed 'use by', bin it. If it's 'best before', the taste and safety of the food is usually fine (within reason).
If boiling vegtables, use the water to make the gravy/sauce - full of nutrients and you don't need to boil a kettle.
If you have a freezer, use it to it's maximum.
Learn how to make sauces (flour/cornflour). Packet stuff is not healthy or cheap.
Make people eat when they should eat. Then they won't want snacks.
Don't be afraid of keeping leftovers for the next days lunch.
Show people how much shampoo is needed to wash your hair - teens are brutal for this.
Make lunch for school - never give lunch money.
We have never bought ready made jars of food for the little people.
Keep bread in the fridge - keeps longer.
Try buy wholemeal/fibre food. Way better for you. 
Always fill the dishwasher (if you have one)
Buy the biggest packet of food that will keep for a while. (Rice, pasta,spaghetti etc..) Cheaper by weight.
Avoid buying 'ready washed', 'sliced', 'grated' items. They cost more. 
*Quick Cheap meals*
Spag Bol
Carbonara
Homemade Burgers
Stew
Soup (thick good stuff - not packet)
(I'll put on my Jamie Oliver thinking hat later)


----------



## Sandals

I know I buy the bacon in Dunnes Stores at the moment, its a prepacked off cuts 1kg for 1.99. Not salty etc. Large turnip 35cent and 1kg baby roosters in Dunnes at moment for 50cent. Dinner for less than €2.50 and meat left over for sandwiches the next day for lunch. (2 adults/three kids)

Butchers have great deals at the moment, I avoid cheap priced prepacked mince as draining off a cup of fat. 

My MIL gets us 40 toilet rolls for €10 out of a van seller door to door!!

I recently got a larger fridge freezer and it had allowed me to fill up and so avoid the running down to the local filling station for bread (loaf €1.59) and meat. Plus any special offers I can throw in a few.


----------



## Janet

itsallwrong said:


> Our budget is 150 a week, to feed mam, dad, 2 teens and 2 tots.
> 
> *General shopping/cooking/budgeting tips*
> Show people how much shampoo is needed to wash your hair - teens are brutal for this.



Or realise that you don't really need to use shampoo at all.   Google no 'poo or something like washing hair without shampoo and you'll find hundreds if not thosands of experiences from people all over the world, most of them very positive.  I ditched shampoo and conditioner about six years ago and doubt I'll ever go back.

Similarly, look at every disposable thing you use and find out if there's a reasonable non-disposable option (kitchen roll, STs/tampons, nappies, loo roll, paper plates, plastic cups etc, etc, etc.).  The amount of money I spent on sanitary towels over the years until I found out about non-disposable options like cloth towels and mooncups still annoys me when I think about it.  

Learning to cook from scratch and making sure to use up all the food so that you don't need to throw anything out are two of the most important things you can do, too.

But these are general money-saving tips, which isn't necessarily the same thing as showing how a budget of 200 a week could work for a family of six.


----------



## itsallwrong

general money-saving tips, which isn't necessarily the same thing as showing how a budget of 200 a week could work for a family of six. ..

Totally agree. But one side of the money spent is buying the food, the other is how you prepare it and use it.


----------



## DerKaiser

Great thread idea and some good contributions already. This reminded me of the following thread:
http://www.askaboutmoney.com/showthread.php?t=168071

Post #2 by itsallwrong above (presumably compiled in about 20 mins) has the potential to help people in tight financial situations infinitely more than years of posturing by the likes of SJI could ever achieve.


----------



## fraggle

2 adults 2 kids pre teen.

we budget 100/week on food but go over it a bit now and again for detergents etc

we can afford to spend more but we try to stick to it so that we get into a habit of not buying junk, and not wasting food, but sometimes we buy treats as the money is there... but in general the 100 is adhered to.

we buy large quantities of fruit and veg and my wife enjoys cooking/baking so we eat well, good home prepared and cooked food.

we have become more vegetarian to keep costs down.
we do buy a lot of Quorn products as a sort of substitute.
when we do have meat it is usually high quality/organic etc but we are not big meat eaters so it is usally just some burgers, or chicken for a pasta/stir fry.

Some thought/planning has to be done in order to not exceed the 100. This is tiring I suppose, to some, especially if you don't really have to do it, so I guess sometimes we break it just for the thrill of having something nice/different 


We started off with about 150/week and I decided to gradually lower it to see how far we could get without a nervous breakdown. I don't feel hard done by on 100. I would prefer to spend 20-40/month on takeways as treats, rather than increase the weekly budget.


----------



## truthseeker

Ive posted on this before.

Look for deals. For example, my butcher does a ham (its called an oyster of ham) and a chicken for a tenner. 
I boil the ham for 2 hours or so and then slice it and you'd have ham sandwiches for days off it. Lovely tasty ham sandwiches, not the wafer thin processed tasteless rubbish you get in packets in supermarkets. 

The chicken can be used for 1 roast dinner, sandwiches the next day, curry the day after. 

I also find if I shop in the butchers late on a saturday he is willing to offer me very good deals because he cant resell the meat left in the counter on Monday - but I can freeze it.

Ask your butcher the cheapest cuts of meat to prepare tasty food. You may end up cooking some of the cheaper cuts for longer, but you will have more food for your money.

Supermarket - I use LIDL/ALDI for the most part but a number of people here have posted about Asian supermarkets or places that do things like 40 toilet rolls for a tenner - such places usually have cheap shampoo and shower gels.

Grow your own herbs in pots on window ledges. 

Get your hands on older (much older - your mothers) cook books, you will find they have much cheaper recipe ideas than their more modern counterparts.

We tend to have a system of certain dinners become next days lunch (or part lunch), it works for all 'wet' meals like spag bol, chicken casserole, stew, sheppards pie, etc..

If something is coming close to its date, cook it and freeze it if possible, itll last longer.

Dont buy any fancy stuff for washing windows/floors etc... Just hot water, lemon juice and a drop of bleach in the water should clean and sterilise any floor. Same for washing windows, hot water, drop of vinegar or lemon juice and thatll do it.


----------



## ramble

Porridge for breakfast (made with half milk half water) with apple or banana
Rice, cous cous, with veg for lunch. Or home made brown soda bread (make a few at weekend and put in freezer) with peanut butter
Lots of veg and very little meat for dinner - spuds carrots cabbage usual stuff - whatever is cheap and in season - local veg shops can be cheaper for inseason stuff. Also if you buy fruit juice (without added sugar) also buy cheap fizzy water - makes a little juice go a very long way

Cheap recipe - Bean Stew: One can chickpeas, one can tomatoes,  2 onions, 2 tablespoons garam masala (cheap in ethnic shops or Aldi sometimes), 2 garlic cloves, some veg, whatever's in the fridge, courgettes, carrots, parsnips... Fry onions in some oil dump in the rest with a veg stock cube and water, cook for half an hour. Serve with brown rice (a little goes a long way). Also good the next day in tortilla or on your homemade bread. 
I can feed 4 adults and one large child on €100 a week - including a couple of cans of beer and some chocolate for friday treat. Only branded item I ever buy is laundry detergent - hate the stuff from lidl and aldi but can usually get a deal if you're not fussy on the brand.

On nutrition - I had the good fortune to have a friend who was a dietician at a time when I was pretty broke. She pointed out that if you ate everything you are supposed to eat according to the food pyramid you would get very fat very quickly. The ratios are right but the amounts are way out of line (food industry lobbying it seems). Also new research has shown that going for low fat basic foods like milk actually makes you crave fat. So eat butter, drink fullfat milk, just don't over do it. Also if you don't have a weight problem and buy lowfat milk you are paying more for less.


----------



## Dearg Doom

itsallwrong said:


> Buy the biggest packet of food that will keep for a while. (Rice, pasta,spaghetti etc..) Cheaper by weight.



Be wary here. Bigger boxes are not necessarily better value - you still need to check the price per unit. A notorious example of this is Weetabix which I find is often a cheaper price per weetabix in the 36 pack than the 48 pack.


----------



## jackswift

€330/week 2 adults 2 teens.


----------



## Kkma

jackswift said:


> €330/week 2 adults 2 teens.


 
This made me whistle!

I would be interested to know what people think is a reasonable price to pay for one dinner. I was working out Shepherd's Pie at about €2 per large adult portion (steak mince, carrots, celery, onion, garlic, peas, stock, potatoes). Didn't count in the electricty/gas.


----------



## Bronte

Sandals said:


> I know I buy the bacon in Dunnes Stores at the moment, its a prepacked off cuts 1kg for 1.99. Not salty etc. Large turnip 35cent and 1kg baby roosters in Dunnes at moment for 50cent. Dinner for less than €2.50 and meat left over for sandwiches the next day for lunch. (2 adults/three kids)
> 
> .


 

I like the way you costed that out Sandals, would the potatoes be cheaper if you bought a larger bag? As it's an off cut, is there much fat?

I wonder do people know how to cook a standard Irish meal for their families anymore, you have to wonder when you see that the statistics for McD are rising in the recession. How much is a meal for a family there I wonder.

The bacon idea for sandwiches idea by you and Truthseeker is also excellent. I do the same with chicken by cooking an extra chicken at the same time as the family meal. 

Re the DIY shampoo. Own brands are very cheap, as are large bottles of kids, I'm currently very slowly working my way through a large kids own brand bottle.

Kham, any chance you'd do the costing on the shepards pie, the price of the mince and it's weight would be good.

Ramble I think you're on the ball there re the food industry. My husband being old style Irish thinks a meal isn't a meal without meat. And we won't talk about the potatoes and 2 veg. But I try to stick to the rule of 150 g of meat per person.

Truthseeker I realise you posted on this before, any chance you know of a good Irish cook book that shows a family how to do simple Irish meals or indeed any meals for a family that are healthy and reasonably priced. 

Anyone have ideas for fish, very important part of the diet. 

Luckily I'm not on a budget, but I hate to see waste. Pork at the moment is seriously cheap. Was able to buy a roast for around 5 euro's for a family recently, plus sandwiches. And last week, a load of pork chops were about 11 Euro and would do more than 2 family dinners.

Itsallwrong totally agree with you re baby food in jars.  I think it's full of sugar and other additives and couldn't possible be right to be feeding kids their first meals that way.  Never mind the cost of each jar.  My own theory of those products is that they are designed to make kids addicts to certain tastes for the rest of their lives so that the kids will grow up to be adults eating the products of the manufacturers.


----------



## orka

itsallwrong said:


> Show people how much shampoo is needed to wash your hair - teens are brutal for this.


This drives me nuts. My girls in particular think that they need half a bottle of conditioner to make their hair soft. I've taken to using large bottles (1 litre) with pumps that I refill with shampoo/conditioner/shower gel and this has cut consumption dramatically (and removed the problem of empty bottles scattered on the shower floor) - while they will happily squeeze half a bottle out of a regular dispensing bottle, they won't press the pump 20 times - usually give up after 2 or 3 pumps - which is probably still more than they need but an improvement.


----------



## truthseeker

Bronte said:


> Truthseeker I realise you posted on this before, any chance you know of a good Irish cook book that shows a family how to do simple Irish meals or indeed any meals for a family that are healthy and reasonably priced.



I actually have the old family cookbooks! Not necessarily Irish though. And they are stuffed to the gills with old Superquinn leaflets with recipes, old cut outs from magazines and newspapers and hand written recipes. 

But some are still available on amazon - The Hamlyn All Colour Cookbook was a favourite in my house, you can buy it secondhand off a marketplace seller for a penny plus postage. Another favourite was the Womans Weekly Popular Cook Book - again, a penny from a marketplace seller on amazon.

My personal favourites for more modern cookery are Darina Allen, Catherine Leyden, Jamie Oliver and Nigella - but although I own cookbooks by some, I would be more inclined to google specific recipes.

Im personally on the lookout for a really nice stew recipe, I dont have my mothers recipe and no matter what I do or whose recipe I use I cant seem to make a stew like she used to!!

IMO budgeting is mostly making smart decisions while shopping. For example, we normally use wholewheat pasta - its much more filling, you will use less of it and you will get extra fibre.


----------



## Sandals

Bronte said:


> Luckily I'm not on a budget, but I hate to see waste.



Same here but the old home economist in me has seriously started working overtime since I had my second child. It all about opportunity cost and what I can do with the money saved. The bacon has a layer of fat on its side (its not offcuts like scraps but three/four large pieces put together in the plastic) but not marbled in flesh etc. As for the small 1kg bags potatoes, Id have waste if I bought 7.5kg/10kg. 

I always buy my eggs in vegetable shop as €1.99 for 18. 

I only use condition on the ends of my hair as thats all that needed, a quick last rinse of cold water is far more effective as its closes the cuticles of the hair, leaving hair softer/sleeker.


----------



## ajapale

When shopping never ever believe the special offers! Allways check the unit price (per kilo / litre) to determine whether the "offer" is any good or not. Have a list of reference prices in your head. For instance milk in dunnes is currently 66c/l (6l for €4) with this information you can safely ignore offers at other stores which are dearer than this.


----------



## wbbs

MABS actually have a cookbook with practical recipes, I am sure you can get it in any of their office, it's free as far as I know.


----------



## mf1

wbbs said:


> MABS actually have a cookbook with practical recipes, I am sure you can get it in any of their office, it's free as far as I know.



This is the link to the recipes page on their website.


[broken link removed]

mf


----------



## STEINER

I remember my mother's old schoolbook, All in the Cooking.  She used it in school in 1950's/60's.  Lots of good recipes.  One funny recipe for invalids is sheep's brains soup.

From my own cooking experience.....

Collect blackberries from hedgerows, an hour or so with wife or kids.  They are free and make good tarts or crumbles.  combine with some apple and custard etc.  freeze them too.

back home I can get a ham hock from butchers for < €2.  A good bit of meat for 2 adults and my wife hates fat! Just buy a few if more mouths to feed.

Fry stale non-sliced brown bread with an egg for a weekend breakfast.

Make bread and butter pudding with stale white bread, butter, milk, sultanas, nutmeg.


Rice pudding is cheap and easy to make, especially with egg and nutmeg.  Jelly and custard is a cheap and nice dessert.

Make a tasty fish pie with some white fish, haddock or hake, generally cod is too expensive.  Use smoked haddock or coley or similar.  Sweat some chopped onion, add some chopped up fish, cook for a few mins. Prepare some cornflour sauce, add to fish. Throw in a few peas if you want. Pour into pie dish.  Top with mashed potatoe.  Pop in oven or freeze for another time.

Mother used to cook us a very tasty corned beef hash using tinned corned beef, onion, peas, mashed potatoes, gravy.  Its still my favourite meal.  Unfortunately tinned corned beef today is not great.  Clover used do a good one.

Mother used to do lambs liver, onions, gravy, mash once a fortnight or so.  Liver is very cheap.  I also like fried lamb kidneys every now and then.


----------



## Mel

The old Home Economics book from the 80's/ 90's - All about Home Economics - is great for this type of thing. 
I still have a copy that I dip into for basic recipes. 
Just be careful if you're watching your weight, as they tended to add things to make recipes more 'nutritious' that we probably would avoid nowadays. Extra eggs, butter, that sort of thing. Just use the basic recipes.


----------



## becky

truthseeker said:


> I actually have the old family cookbooks!
> My personal favourites for more modern cookery are Darina Allen, Catherine Leyden, Jamie Oliver and Nigella - but although I own cookbooks by some, I would be more inclined to google specific recipes.



I find some of nigella recipes have hard to get ingredients.  I also have to cover my eyes when she's eating.  No one eats food like that.

Jamies 30 minutes meals was a good program to watch but he would often use €10 worth of basil for one dinner and his own body weight in lemons.

Nigel Slater is my current fave.  He did a nice chowder and wholegrain mustard lamb steak last week.  It's on bbc on friday evenings.

I own one cook book by Rachel Allen given to me as a present but I have yet to use it.  All my recipes are downloaded or torn out of mags/newpapers.


----------



## truthseeker

becky said:


> I find some of nigella recipes have hard to get ingredients.  I also have to cover my eyes when she's eating.  No one eats food like that.



Ah I wouldnt watch her!! I have 2 of her cook books and in both of them for any of the hard to get ingredients she suggests easier substitutes. Maybe its different on the telly.

Yeah Jamie Oliver is mad for the lemons, Ive noticed that. Although I did suggest growing your own herbs earlier.... 

Ive a tendency to want to try a thing and I google it and find a few different variations and I make it up between them to suit my ingredient set.

But there are some things that are beyond me. Try as I might Ive never been able to make carbonara thats nice. Or curry.


----------



## becky

I make a nice carbonara (well I like it). It was based on a recipe from a blogger in limerick (can't find it).   There's no cream, just egg yoke and Parmesan. I scatter the parmesan over the pasta and then stir in the yoke rather than trying to get the paste right, saves time too.

Rachel Allen curry with sweet potato curry is nice too.

But I've gone off topic.

A tip I heard is when you have a little left over veg / spud but not enough is to freeze it over a few weeks until you have enough to make a soup.


----------



## Bronte

That sounds like a lot of work Becky to get a soup? 

I had a look through the Mabs guide. Very good and basic, good place to start. Interestingly it didn't have bacon and cabbage, or Irish stew. Both really simple meals, easy to make, cheap (though for me lamb is very expensive) and nutritious. 

Steiner you've great ideas for cheap desserts. Also easy is custard with stewed apple. I used to like semolina too. And rice pudding with a spoon of jam. 

Personally I love looking at Nigella. Not sure what that says about me, my OH also loves her.

Another poster mentioned about not eating too much meat. For the kids I do pasta with home made tomato sauce. *Very* large pot, olive oil, garlic, 1/2 carrots, 2/3 celery sticks, lots of tomatoes, basil and parsley, S&P. It's a bit of work but I can get at least 20 dinner out of it by freezing it. Really handy when you want something quick as it's easy to defrost and most pastas only take 10 minutes. We add grated cheese, parmesan or a mild chedder on top or on the side is what my kids go for.  It's great for those days when I'm chauffering them around.


----------



## commonsense

Bronte said:


> In light of the hot topic of the moment I was wondering would a thread about how people budget on 200 Euro a week for groceries for a family of 2 adults and 4 teenage children can be done. Economically, cheaply and nutritiously would be important factors.
> 
> Groceries has to include toiletries and household cleaning products.
> 
> Also ideas for the cheapest family meals.
> 
> AAM does not have a form called budgeting so I've posted here, if it's the wrong forum please advise.




Hi there, we are the same size family and here's what we do.

We buy our meat (a lot of chicken) at the start of the month from a certain place, it's not really relevant where, as you can get special family offers in most places, I seperate and bag them and take them out as I need them. 

This has saved me a fortune.

The trick is to do up menus that you all like. 
Ask the kids their favourite meals and then yourself and husband, and already you have  covered 4 days, a sunday roast is 5 days and you can juggle the other two days.  

We have a budget of 260pm for meat and this works out at less than 9 euro per day. For that we get plenty.

I don't buy my fruit and veg in bulk. At most I buy for 2/3 days (I appreciate that everyone wouldn't have the time), but I found that buying too much fruit put everyone off and the veg didn't hold great. I used to blanche and freeze it, but it is a bit of work if you are restricted for time. I buy what I know the family will eat and I don't throw out half the fruit I used to. 

Stock up on tinned tomatoes, these are great and versatile for making your own sauces. Check out your dry cupboard and add plenty of herbs and spices, experiment a little. 

For example, I make a huge batch of bolegnese on a Monday, we use what we want and then I add chili powder (and/or kidney beans if you like) I freeze it and a few days later we'll have a chili, if there is any left over then have burritos for lunch the next day, simply heat the sauce a bit, throw it into wraps in an oven proof dish and put some grated cheese on top, heat in the over for a few minute, add some our cream and off you go, kids love them.




For cleaning and toiletries I always buy on special. 

Try to seperate into 4 groups. (use your own preferences, just giving you an example) and only buy what is on special, even if you pick up one thing it will save you, as it's when you need it then you pay more.

Week 1. detergent and dishwasher items.

Week 2. toilet roll, kitchen towels.

Week 3. Shampoo, shower gel, toothpaste.

Week 4. Cleaning stuff.

You can build up your little stock, nothing blows a budget quicker than having to buy all the detergents etc when shopping for food.

My tip, buy Lidl or Aldi brands if you can't afford to stock up on the brand specials, if you run low on something if it's not on special just get something to tide you over. 

As has been said by ajapale, keep an eye on "specials", if they are on an aisle outside, go to the main aisle to check that there aren't better offers, I used to make the mistake of pulling from the special aisle and then one day I noticed a brand that was cheaper.

Also be careful of "big value packs", many times I have seen if you buy two smaller packs this can work out cheaper.

Check out your local supermarket "reduced shelf", you can pick up bits here that you have to use on the day or the next, but you can get the makings of a meal for a bargain.


----------



## amtc

I popped into Dealz in Blanchardstown the other day and got a pile of stuff - Fairy Liquid, Shampoo, etc....all the same makes and dead cheap. Also a great fan of Heatons for bed linen (Clerys last year) and toiletries.


----------

