2 adults, 2 children, 4 weeks and £200 for food ........... the challenge is on..............

We spend tooo much on grocery shopping in this house..... we've cut down considerably but the last couple of months I've let things slip and now spend FAR tooooo much.

So with the cupboards and freezer looking a bit like Mother Hubbards House and hubby having just been paid I decided now was as good a time as any to start the food challange again.

For the purpose of this challange I am only counting actual FOOD and DRINK costs!  Not household essentials, not toys, games, books just plain  and simple Food and Drink.




Now £50 a week may not seem a lot for a family of 4 but:
my husband doesn't eat:
meat (except chicken and steak pie)
fish (of any discription)
salad, vegetables or fruit

He also doesn't cook - unless he can bung it in the oven.  This means for the 4 days I work (and fridays) he has to fend for himself for his tea.

Ben goes to school and has packed lunch Mon-Friday.  Tho lunch for all of us is normally salad/ sandwiches or something quick.  Hubby will cook something out the freezer (occasionally I can bribe him to make pasta) for their tea Mon-Thursday which means Friday and Saturday I am on the healthy fresh cooked meals for tea for them.

I tend to cook Saturday tea for me and hubby and my own meals when I get in weekday evenings.

Sunday we sit down for a family dinner - usually a gravy meal of some discription.

Desert is usualy something out the cupboard (jelly/ rice/ custard) or fridge (mousse/ yogurt) a bit of chocolate, fruit, ice cream or lolly.


1st stop........ Farm Foods.  I love this place, you can fill your freezer sooo cheaply.  And we are fortunate to have 2 fridge/ freezers so a fair bit of room.

The mission in  here (tho we don't add it up as we go along) is to spend £50 or less.  Typically I never rememeber to take the money off vouchers (£2.50 off £25, £5 off £50 and £10 off £100) that come through my door, or they have always run out the week before.

The total:  £49.94
Freezer:  £35.48
Tins/ cupboard: £12.07
everyday consumables (bread/ milk/ ham/ cheese/ butter): 39p

No you are right, that doesn't add up to £49.94 it comes to £47.94 ... because i just realised they have overcharged us by £2 (GRRRRR).

2nd step ..... Tesco online shop.   I normally spend £50-60 a week on this but that does include household bits and nappies etc.    I spent £95.40 but for the purpose of the challenge I am only recording below the food and drink spends.

The Total: £67.02
Freezer: £5.70 (smoked bacon - the one thing FF didn't have!)
Tins/ cupboard: £14.30
everyday consumables (bread/ milk/ ham/ cheese/ butter): £10.77
Drinks (fizzy, alcaholic, juice): £36.25

Now before anyone says anything NO alcaholic drinks are not overly important but:
1) I can count the amount of times I have been to the pub in the last 5 years on one hand!
2) I had a £10 goodwill voucher from Tesco
3) This is 4 weeks alcahol (24 cans of Fosters, 10 bottles of Smurnoff Ice - £25).

so total spent: £114.96 but this should be enough to feed us for the next 4 weeks with a quick top up once a week for bread/ milk/ cheese/ ham etc.

If you would like to see what I bought for this money then click here (hopefully)

Until then .............. this is what my freezer/ cupboards now look like..............

now I'm off to pick up Ben from school and work on a meal plan for the next 4 weeks.........