Can You Feed Your Family for £50? The Result...

Last week I was challenged to feed my family of 4 for £50 for the week. I accepted the challenge but instead of going to a low cost supermarket like Lidl or Aldi I attempted to try the challenge using my usual Tesco home delivery service. For me food shopping is a chore I hate so having it delivered to my door (in fact right into my kitchen) is brilliant, plus i am able to keep track of how much I am spending rather than chucking it all in the basket and hoping for the best at the till.

So how did I do...

Well it is possible. But only just. I was able to feed my kids breakfast, make Little I's lunchboxes and feed us all an evening meal for £50 but that was as far as it went. I'd dread to think what would have happened if we'd tried this in half-term when both the kids were home 24/7.

I smashed 6 eggs so I knew I was in trouble from the get go. We'd run out of after school snacks by Wednesday and dinners over the weekend were slim pickings. In fact we had a friend over to stay Saturday night so I had to pop out and get some extra food as what we had wouldn't stretch to another portion, it was that tight. The best meal of the week was probably the Chinese chicken curry which made loads with the cheaper chicken thighs so I could freeze half for later in the week.

If I'd gone to Lidi or Aldi I'd probably have saved myself enough money to buy more snacks. But what is has done is make me realise just how many snacks the kids are eating. And often once I said we've run out they didn't pester me for anymore. So chances are they are just bore not actually hungry!

I am actually quite strict with the shopping already and spend on average £80 on food a week plus £20 on the other stuff like washing powder, shower gel and toilet rolls. So we max out at £400 a month. I take my hat off to families who manage to do it for less on a regular basis.

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