£100 a month food budget for two

[Raikiri]

I thought I was being conservative at £150 between two people a month. I literally couldn't survive on 100.

I could on my own, but not for two people. I just made my lunches for the rest of the week (on holiday so no making staff meals ) and did a price breakdown.

4 Portions
Chicken - £1.25 - 8 drumsticks - 936 cals
Carrot - 10p - One large - 80 cals
Red onion - 15p - Half - 40 cals
Beetroot - 34p - Half bag - 120 cals
Quinua - 67p - 200g dry - 780 cals
Stock cube - 5p - one - 10 cals
Feta - 60p - 100g - 264 cals
Spinach - 45p - 1/3rd bag - 10 cals
Spices - 10p - Spice blend/harrissa
Dressing - Honey/Oil/Lemon Juice 30p - 100 cals

Total - £3.91 - 2240 cals

£0.98 per portion, 560 cals per portion.

I think £3 per day, per person if you cook everything yourself is totally doable. But £1.58 is really low.

Edit: Of course you could buy a ready made pie or something for a quid with a similar calorie count, but it's going to be way worse for you.

 

[jpaul]

They are intensively raised chickens, often in very poor conditions. A stroke of genius by the M&S marketing team. https://www.peta.org.uk/features/uk-chicken-farms-high-welfare-myth/

Indeed - Aldi have better quality RSPCA standard meets >> red(intensive) tractor standard .. not sure how much their whole rspca ones are;
any of the supermarkets not adopting standards are conning you imhop; M&S aren't rspca.

Butter does not cost much.

butter has gone up massively 2 years ago ~ £1 now nearer £2 .. I would no longer categorise it as cheap.

 

[chroniclard]

A chicken is about 2-3 meals at most, for 1 person.

 

[Raikiri]

A chicken is about 2-3 meals at most, for 1 person.

1 breast per meal, one thigh/drumstick per meal and then a soup. Could make 5, easy.

 

[Webster]

£100 is two man trips into sainsburys for milk or some bread.....

 

[chroniclard]

1 breast per meal, one thigh/drumstick per meal and then a soup. Could make 5, easy.

Suppose, but then you would have to eat two meals at a time as they were so small.

 

[SeatIbiza]

Indeed - Aldi have better quality RSPCA standard meets >> red(intensive) tractor standard .. not sure how much their whole rspca ones are;
any of the supermarkets not adopting standards are conning you imhop; M&S aren't rspca.


butter has gone up massively 2 years ago ~ £1 now nearer £2 .. I would no longer categorise it as cheap.

It's £2 and it's not like you're lobbing a block of butter in your pie hole every day. It will last a few weeks for pennies a day, I'm pretty sure that is classified as cheap.

To the OP - why are you wanting to only spend £100 a month on your food. It's ridiculous and, as you've stated, you're doing ready meals so also impossible. Home cooking might work, but you'll be using poor quality food. Cut your costs elsewhere if money is a problem...

 

[Scam]

It's ridiculous

I don't think it's ridiculous. My quick maths assumes 3 meals a day. Call it 50p per portion which allows for less at breakfast, more at lunch and dinner... 50p x 3 (a day) x 2 (people) x 30 (days) = £90.

If he checks out https://cookingonabootstrap.com/ (Jack Monroe's website) there's a heck of a lot of meals on there for under 50p. The peach and chickpea curry is a midweek staple for us now, although we cheat and use a Pataks paste because we're not trying to be quite as budget.

I am interested in his reasoning though. But why shouldn't people try to save money?

EDIT: And we can tell from our Ocado receipts that butter has gone up massively over the last year or so. Depressing

 

[Regy53]

£3.28 a day for two? wow I am not suprised you cant do it.. surely at that budget your eating pretty quality / standards of food

 

[Martynt74]

I agree with @Scam. For breakfast something like porridge is hugely cheap and reasonable. I bet a portion would be around 20p each. Then with a lot of bulk cooking and things like soup for lunch and curry/chill etc for tea and it's hugely do-able. I've just made a chilli, 850g of Pork Mine was about £4, a tin of chopped tomatoes will be around 50p and then kidney beans at £1 and an onion at around 20p. That's about £6 and i reckon you'd get around 8 portions without limiting yourself too much. Granted i have all the spices/herbs otherwise, but that and rice is cheap enough.

Eating cheap doesn't have to mean eating rubbish.

 

[Raikiri]

I agree with @Scam. For breakfast something like porridge is hugely cheap and reasonable. I bet a portion would be around 20p each. Then with a lot of bulk cooking and things like soup for lunch and curry/chill etc for tea and it's hugely do-able. I've just made a chilli, 850g of Pork Mine was about £4, a tin of chopped tomatoes will be around 50p and then kidney beans at £1 and an onion at around 20p. That's about £6 and i reckon you'd get around 8 portions without limiting yourself too much. Granted i have all the spices/herbs otherwise, but that and rice is cheap enough.

Eating cheap doesn't have to mean eating rubbish.

But you do have to factor in the other things, 10p per portion of rice and then the cost of the spices brings it up to maybe £7.50 for 8 portions (80p for rice, 70p for chili mix).

So you're at 94p per portion, leaving only 70p for two more meals, and snacks etc.

 

[Martynt74]

Yeah i agree, but with porridge for breakfast it gives some options. Plus i'm sure there are other meals which could be made cheaper than my chilli above to balance things out. Or buy the ingredients at Aldi as opposed to Ocado to reduce costs further.

I wouldn't want to have to cut food costs down that much because there's always times you want something nicer or a bit more special and £100 doesn't really give options for that. Hell, even a decent supermarket pizza is about £5 these days!

EDIT - I'm not meaning a supermarket pizza is something nicer or special, but accept it reads like that

 

[Scam]

But you do have to factor in the other things, 10p per portion of rice and then the cost of the spices brings it up to maybe £7.50 for 8 portions (80p for rice, 70p for chili mix).

Yes. But most recipes on Jack's site take that into account.

I wouldn't want to have to cut food costs down that much because there's always times you want something nicer or a bit more special and £100 doesn't really give options for that.

Agreed. But we don't know his reasons. Perhaps he wants to cut down to £100 on midweek meals so they can splash the cash on a weekend? It's all about balance.

 

[Raikiri]

Yes. But most recipes on Jack's site take that into account.

I hadn't seen that site before, it seems like a great resource but it does rely upon people being able to make and store large amounts of a particular dish to make it viable. Some of the measurements seem a little suspect, too.

For example:

A fistful of fresh mint, 3p (60p/25g, growers selection at Asda)

3p? So a 'fistful' is 1.25g of mint? That's about 4 leaves, then you have to consider what else you would use the mint for? For me, that's 60p, not 3p because there's little chance that I'll be using that ingredient much in other dishes before it goes off.

 

[morbid42]

Im thinking bubba, but with potatoes instead of shrimp

 

[Bear]

The M&S Oakham chickens are British and to a higher welfare standard than your normal supermarket types. I'm not in the business of suggesting people eat cheap/poor welfare meat. Buying whole chickens from M&S is actually quite a good deal. Especially when you compare it to the chicken breasts. Why pay £6 per breast when you can get a whole chicken for that. That was the point I was trying to make. Whole chickens are often cheaper than portions of breast etc.

Plus you can boil the carcass to make a soup

 

[_tucker_]

I wish my shopping was that cheap!
Like stated tho do a meal prep at the start of a week for lunches and some dinners it saves time and money.

 

[D.P.]

At that budget you will have to become vegetarian, and even then minimal cheese. No ready meals, and no breakfast cereals but goo healthy home cooked meals, porridge for breakfast etc. This is ultimately going to be much healthier for you and better for the planet as well as saving money.

 

[jpaul]

not convinced a vegetarian diet is much cheaper ?... eg.

Quinua - 67p - 200g dry - 780 cals

that's cheap - I buy quinoa online at wholefoodsonline Organic Quinoa Grain 1kg Today (30th October) SKU16366 1 £6.99
but meat and fish can be had in the vicinity of same price/Kg
*yes* thats comparing apples and oranges a bit (calorifically/nutritionally) ... but veg is not a panacea solution.


on the other hand - making your own bread with a machine, is much cheaper than supermarket fayre @30/40P a loaf, can make nutritional sordough too.

 

[Felix]

I spend apx £125 a month to feed a family of 4 and we eat well! It's all about savvy shopping and cutting out the junk and booze.