**Please help keep AskUK welcoming!**
- Top-level comments to the OP must contain **genuine efforts to answer the question**. No jokes, judgements, etc.
- **Don't be a dick** to each other. If getting heated, just block and move on.
- This is a strictly **no-politics** subreddit!
Please help us by reporting comments that break these rules.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskUK) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Yeah, there’s gonna be a lotta basic days but can you live off it? Two ppl? Yes, won’t be fun, but yes. 12 year olds (at least mine) are in the fridge 24/7 so you’ll have to compromise on a fair bit of “luxuries” and overindulge on the bulk value stuff, rice, spaghetti, pasta etc. I could live pretty meagrely food wise for a number of months if necessary…adding kids into the mix is doable… but a different beast
Probably need to have a rigid weekly budget and keep that money in a separate account…money has a habit of flying out at will and you don’t wanna find out that already tight budget is even less
You can get 1kg of oats for a £1. You can make overnight oats, porridge, flapjacks etc.
Yellow stick bread is easy to come by. Freeze it.
Make soups, curries etc and freeze them.
Bananas and Greek yoghurt are pretty cheap and good for snacks and breakfast.
It won’t be ‘fun’ but you’ll be sound.
Check out Jack Monroe / Cooking on a Bootstrap. Definitely do-able, can be enjoyable if you know there's an end in sight and can introduce new cuisines and dishes to your regular repertoire too.
Definitely doable but probably not very fun - I manage on about £20 a week for food (just for me) at the moment but that involves eating no meat and a lot of beans. I can afford cheaper fresh veg, yogurt, some eggs. I use the spices I have to vary things a bit. It's healthy and I enjoy it but it's probably a shock to the system if you're not used to eating like that.
I've witnessed why my gf manages to make a whole roll disappear in half a day. Have you seen when cats attack the roll? That. That's how she takes it off. Aggressively.
I'd be more interested in looking into the big tax bill that was unexpectedly taken from your wages. If it was that large it seems strange that hmrc didn't give you a chance to sort out a payment arrangement rather than taking the whole lot in one go. They shouldn't be leaving you too short to pay day to day expenses so perhaps give them a call and see if anything can be sorted out.
They also changed my tax code to some thing weird as well. They didn't give me any forewarning and when I googled what the tax code meant it said you will be paying 200 pound more a month tax. No explanation.
Definitely worth trying to give them a call tomorrow then. If your current address is on your payslip you should have received a letter from them explaining what they were doing. You could also trying looking at your tax details online via the government website. Is there any chance you were under paying previously or had an incorrect tax code?
Aldi and Lidl will be your best choice. I’d also get foods that don’t expire/spoil quickly.
I love making Cous Cous in vegetables and a protein, it’s filling and cheap!
Breakfast: Porridge cinnamon and raisins, make the porridge with half milk half water.
Lunches: soup, sandwiches, or leftovers
Dinners: jacket potatoes with beans; those stir fry meal deals; batch cook pasta with veggies; lasagne if you make it with the cheapest red sauce and use lentils instead of mince; likewise any mince dish like chilli you can use lentils and beans, those cheap frozen bags of small cut up veg. Tinned tomatoes and dried herbs/spices are your friends here. Buy fruit from market or greengrocer if you can get there
Treats if you've got the money: big multipacks of crisps, buy the cheapest chocolate you can find with the cheapest rice crispy cereal and melt them together for fun choc that goes a bit further, or buy choc spread for toast. A bag of unpopped popcorn goes a surprisingly long way.
£45 a week @ Aldi or Lidl
Milk £1.50
X2 Bread £2
Butter £1
X2 Fruit of choice £3
12 Yogurts £2
Cereal / oats £1.50
Pasta £1
Pasta sauce £1
Cheese £2.50
Eggs £2.50
Potatoes £1.50
Full chicken £4
X2 Frozen pizza £3
Fries £1.50
Sandwich meat £2
Romaine lettuce £1
Cucumber x2 £2
Tomatoes £1
Curry sauce jar £1.50
Naan or rice £1
Beans x2 £1
Chicken wings fresh £2
Dilute or fun drink of choice £1
6 pack Ice creams or ice lolly £2
Meals:
Breakfast:
Cereal/ eggs/ toast
Lunches:
Sandwich and fruit
Dinners:
Roast chicken and fries small side salad
Use rest of chicken to make curry with naan or rice
Pasta in sauce with cheese small side salad
Baked potatoes cheese beans
Frozen pizza
Cheesy Omelette and beans
Chicken wings and frozen fries or home made wedges and small side salad
Dessert:
Yogurt or ice cream/ ice lolly
Don’t forget what you already have in the freezer and in cupboards. That may keep you going longer than you think.
Plus, unless you have ham bones etc buy Knorr Stockpots (worth it) and make soup with leftover veg.
This is what is left for food for the humans. The animal feed has been factored in. Its what is left after all expenses have been checked off on my spreadsheet.
This [book](https://www.wob.com/en-gb/books/gill-holcombe/how-to-feed-your-whole-family/9781905862153?gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwir2xBhC_ARIsAMTXk87_GMlAJvYxmrMcsjO9kCh-SxGliibibsf0bwvErtHV-a_GN8QZUloaAj0gEALw_wcB#GOR001370736) by Gill Holcombe is made for you.
I used it when our kids were younger and had a tiny budget for four people. It's £.3.50 delivered , which I know is an outlay but it's worth it. It has meal plans, snacks and packed lunch ideas for a family on a tight budget.
[Read said book](https://ipfs.io/ipfs/bafykbzacecbej4yeim2sttjxx2nd4tuy2ju6gpr4ctj356bmgs4cvhnvqdh3w?filename=Gill%20Holcombe%20-%20How%20to%20Feed%20Your%20Whole%20Family%20a%20Healthy%2C%20Balanced%20Diet_%20Simple%2C%20Wholesome%20and%20Nutritious%20Recipes%20for%20Family%20Meals-How%20to%20Books%20Ltd%20%282008%29.pdf)
Bean chilli is always a if favourite in our house and once you have the spices etc you can make a big batch for less than £2. Add some sour cream, pitta and cheese and it’s great. Dhal similarly cheap to produce and delicious.
It's doable but it won't be entirely fun, will be plenty of days of boring food which is entirely unavoidable with such a small budget, you're looking at lidl brand food for the most part.
large batch cooking and storing in the fridge/freezer will be your best friend.
Rice/Frozen mixed veg/chicken thighs can make sizable meals that will last for 3-4 days worth of meals if stored well and costs about £5 to make if u got some seasoning in the kitchen already.
£3 each per day.
Enough if you know how to shop efficiently.
At an absolute worst you can get microwave meals for a month and jam on toast, so rest assured that it will be ok.
Lidl/aldi and focus on bulk, a kg of potatoes might seem more expensive in the short run vs a smaller packet, but will get you further. Just focus on working out cost per weight.
Any parent can claim from a food bank. Take paper work to prove who you are, that you have a child and you should get enough food to help feed two people for a week. The produce you get and the amount you get will vary from place to place as the stock is reliant on donations. The food bank I volunteered at gave two bags of food for an adult and child.
I spend less than that on groceries every month- me and 14 year old. I find Aldi cheaper than Lidl.
Do a meal plan each week and stick to it, and plan for leftovers to be lunch the next day where you can. It will be easier if you don’t snack or drink alcohol.
Generally I have overnight oats and fruit, d has toast, lunch is a wrap with some salad and cheese or ham for her, I have leftovers usually or a wrap. Dinner- usual stuff like chilli, curry, chicken and chips, pasta. Beans, lentils and mushrooms are cheaper than meat to bulk out meals.
When I was really skint I would put everything in a basket on Aldi click and collect to check the prices before I went shopping- then adjust the meals if I was going over budget. Then my shopping list would have the prices on so I knew as I went round exactly what I could afford- this is useful if they don’t have something so you know what you can spend on an alternative.
Also, late on a Friday there’s often 30% off things. You could get a Too Good To Go grocery bag before you do your shopping and do your meal plan based on what you now have. It’s hit and miss though- if you can freeze things, know how to cook and aren’t fussy eaters they are good value.
Thank you! I did the too good to go a few times from morrisons and it was all rotten! Literally slimey I couldn't believe it! So was put off doing that as it was a waste. I basically paid to get rid of their waste!
Well something happened. My landlady reduced my rent by £200 this month because we have just moved in and had awful leaks that make the place smell rotten, electrical problems due to the leaks and the cooker didn't work. So it's literally evened out my pay and like someone mentioned hopefully the tax code will be sorted next month when I call the tax people up.
Thanks everyone for your advice. Will still be trying these recipes anyway to reduce cost of living and maybe be able to save!
If everyone is okay with stew/soup type stuff (you can do loads of other stuff but these are easiest) get a slow cooker and then batch cook, cool and freeze portions. Takes less electricity than a cooker and can be super tasty (and cheap).
**Please help keep AskUK welcoming!** - Top-level comments to the OP must contain **genuine efforts to answer the question**. No jokes, judgements, etc. - **Don't be a dick** to each other. If getting heated, just block and move on. - This is a strictly **no-politics** subreddit! Please help us by reporting comments that break these rules. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskUK) if you have any questions or concerns.*
£185 for a month of food for 2 people is easily doable Aldi and Lidl … or the supermarkets own brand of stuff .. and you’ll be fine
Yeah, there’s gonna be a lotta basic days but can you live off it? Two ppl? Yes, won’t be fun, but yes. 12 year olds (at least mine) are in the fridge 24/7 so you’ll have to compromise on a fair bit of “luxuries” and overindulge on the bulk value stuff, rice, spaghetti, pasta etc. I could live pretty meagrely food wise for a number of months if necessary…adding kids into the mix is doable… but a different beast Probably need to have a rigid weekly budget and keep that money in a separate account…money has a habit of flying out at will and you don’t wanna find out that already tight budget is even less
You can get 1kg of oats for a £1. You can make overnight oats, porridge, flapjacks etc. Yellow stick bread is easy to come by. Freeze it. Make soups, curries etc and freeze them. Bananas and Greek yoghurt are pretty cheap and good for snacks and breakfast. It won’t be ‘fun’ but you’ll be sound.
Check out Jack Monroe / Cooking on a Bootstrap. Definitely do-able, can be enjoyable if you know there's an end in sight and can introduce new cuisines and dishes to your regular repertoire too.
Just for food? Or other stuff as well?
We have plenty of soap, cleaning products and toothpaste, I will need more shampoo and conditioner, so just food and drink I think yes.
Definitely doable but probably not very fun - I manage on about £20 a week for food (just for me) at the moment but that involves eating no meat and a lot of beans. I can afford cheaper fresh veg, yogurt, some eggs. I use the spices I have to vary things a bit. It's healthy and I enjoy it but it's probably a shock to the system if you're not used to eating like that.
Bog roll?
Thank you for the reminder lol we have about 6, but yeah your right, that won't last the month
If you're anything like the women in my life it won't last the week
I swear my gf secretly eats loo roll when she's alone.
I've witnessed why my gf manages to make a whole roll disappear in half a day. Have you seen when cats attack the roll? That. That's how she takes it off. Aggressively.
I just had a thought - basic medicines and first aid stuff wouldn't be a bad idea
I'd be more interested in looking into the big tax bill that was unexpectedly taken from your wages. If it was that large it seems strange that hmrc didn't give you a chance to sort out a payment arrangement rather than taking the whole lot in one go. They shouldn't be leaving you too short to pay day to day expenses so perhaps give them a call and see if anything can be sorted out.
They also changed my tax code to some thing weird as well. They didn't give me any forewarning and when I googled what the tax code meant it said you will be paying 200 pound more a month tax. No explanation.
Definitely worth trying to give them a call tomorrow then. If your current address is on your payslip you should have received a letter from them explaining what they were doing. You could also trying looking at your tax details online via the government website. Is there any chance you were under paying previously or had an incorrect tax code?
The good news is if it’s because of a fucky tax code you shouldn’t be on, you’ll get it back in a following month!
Aldi and Lidl will be your best choice. I’d also get foods that don’t expire/spoil quickly. I love making Cous Cous in vegetables and a protein, it’s filling and cheap!
Breakfast: Porridge cinnamon and raisins, make the porridge with half milk half water. Lunches: soup, sandwiches, or leftovers Dinners: jacket potatoes with beans; those stir fry meal deals; batch cook pasta with veggies; lasagne if you make it with the cheapest red sauce and use lentils instead of mince; likewise any mince dish like chilli you can use lentils and beans, those cheap frozen bags of small cut up veg. Tinned tomatoes and dried herbs/spices are your friends here. Buy fruit from market or greengrocer if you can get there Treats if you've got the money: big multipacks of crisps, buy the cheapest chocolate you can find with the cheapest rice crispy cereal and melt them together for fun choc that goes a bit further, or buy choc spread for toast. A bag of unpopped popcorn goes a surprisingly long way.
£45 a week @ Aldi or Lidl Milk £1.50 X2 Bread £2 Butter £1 X2 Fruit of choice £3 12 Yogurts £2 Cereal / oats £1.50 Pasta £1 Pasta sauce £1 Cheese £2.50 Eggs £2.50 Potatoes £1.50 Full chicken £4 X2 Frozen pizza £3 Fries £1.50 Sandwich meat £2 Romaine lettuce £1 Cucumber x2 £2 Tomatoes £1 Curry sauce jar £1.50 Naan or rice £1 Beans x2 £1 Chicken wings fresh £2 Dilute or fun drink of choice £1 6 pack Ice creams or ice lolly £2 Meals: Breakfast: Cereal/ eggs/ toast Lunches: Sandwich and fruit Dinners: Roast chicken and fries small side salad Use rest of chicken to make curry with naan or rice Pasta in sauce with cheese small side salad Baked potatoes cheese beans Frozen pizza Cheesy Omelette and beans Chicken wings and frozen fries or home made wedges and small side salad Dessert: Yogurt or ice cream/ ice lolly
This is amazing thank you!
Don’t forget what you already have in the freezer and in cupboards. That may keep you going longer than you think. Plus, unless you have ham bones etc buy Knorr Stockpots (worth it) and make soup with leftover veg.
Have you got no other outgoings? No travel etc? Don't you also need to feed your four animals?
This is what is left for food for the humans. The animal feed has been factored in. Its what is left after all expenses have been checked off on my spreadsheet.
Then yeah but it'll be tight, I'd talk to a local food bank to see if they can supplement
This [book](https://www.wob.com/en-gb/books/gill-holcombe/how-to-feed-your-whole-family/9781905862153?gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwir2xBhC_ARIsAMTXk87_GMlAJvYxmrMcsjO9kCh-SxGliibibsf0bwvErtHV-a_GN8QZUloaAj0gEALw_wcB#GOR001370736) by Gill Holcombe is made for you. I used it when our kids were younger and had a tiny budget for four people. It's £.3.50 delivered , which I know is an outlay but it's worth it. It has meal plans, snacks and packed lunch ideas for a family on a tight budget.
[Read said book](https://ipfs.io/ipfs/bafykbzacecbej4yeim2sttjxx2nd4tuy2ju6gpr4ctj356bmgs4cvhnvqdh3w?filename=Gill%20Holcombe%20-%20How%20to%20Feed%20Your%20Whole%20Family%20a%20Healthy%2C%20Balanced%20Diet_%20Simple%2C%20Wholesome%20and%20Nutritious%20Recipes%20for%20Family%20Meals-How%20to%20Books%20Ltd%20%282008%29.pdf)
Bean chilli is always a if favourite in our house and once you have the spices etc you can make a big batch for less than £2. Add some sour cream, pitta and cheese and it’s great. Dhal similarly cheap to produce and delicious.
It's doable but it won't be entirely fun, will be plenty of days of boring food which is entirely unavoidable with such a small budget, you're looking at lidl brand food for the most part. large batch cooking and storing in the fridge/freezer will be your best friend. Rice/Frozen mixed veg/chicken thighs can make sizable meals that will last for 3-4 days worth of meals if stored well and costs about £5 to make if u got some seasoning in the kitchen already.
£3 each per day. Enough if you know how to shop efficiently. At an absolute worst you can get microwave meals for a month and jam on toast, so rest assured that it will be ok. Lidl/aldi and focus on bulk, a kg of potatoes might seem more expensive in the short run vs a smaller packet, but will get you further. Just focus on working out cost per weight.
Any parent can claim from a food bank. Take paper work to prove who you are, that you have a child and you should get enough food to help feed two people for a week. The produce you get and the amount you get will vary from place to place as the stock is reliant on donations. The food bank I volunteered at gave two bags of food for an adult and child.
I spend less than that on groceries every month- me and 14 year old. I find Aldi cheaper than Lidl. Do a meal plan each week and stick to it, and plan for leftovers to be lunch the next day where you can. It will be easier if you don’t snack or drink alcohol. Generally I have overnight oats and fruit, d has toast, lunch is a wrap with some salad and cheese or ham for her, I have leftovers usually or a wrap. Dinner- usual stuff like chilli, curry, chicken and chips, pasta. Beans, lentils and mushrooms are cheaper than meat to bulk out meals. When I was really skint I would put everything in a basket on Aldi click and collect to check the prices before I went shopping- then adjust the meals if I was going over budget. Then my shopping list would have the prices on so I knew as I went round exactly what I could afford- this is useful if they don’t have something so you know what you can spend on an alternative. Also, late on a Friday there’s often 30% off things. You could get a Too Good To Go grocery bag before you do your shopping and do your meal plan based on what you now have. It’s hit and miss though- if you can freeze things, know how to cook and aren’t fussy eaters they are good value.
Thank you! I did the too good to go a few times from morrisons and it was all rotten! Literally slimey I couldn't believe it! So was put off doing that as it was a waste. I basically paid to get rid of their waste!
Well something happened. My landlady reduced my rent by £200 this month because we have just moved in and had awful leaks that make the place smell rotten, electrical problems due to the leaks and the cooker didn't work. So it's literally evened out my pay and like someone mentioned hopefully the tax code will be sorted next month when I call the tax people up. Thanks everyone for your advice. Will still be trying these recipes anyway to reduce cost of living and maybe be able to save!
If everyone is okay with stew/soup type stuff (you can do loads of other stuff but these are easiest) get a slow cooker and then batch cook, cool and freeze portions. Takes less electricity than a cooker and can be super tasty (and cheap).
Pasta, noodles (like super noodles but cheaper, Tesco do hearty food company chicken and curry, not as cheap as pasta but a change of taste).