Feed your family for £55 a week

by Neil Faulkner on 06 January 2012  |  20 comments
Tweet

Can you buy groceries for four people for such a small amount of money? We put it to the test.

The topic of affordable food is once again in the headlines.

ASDA has just reintroduced its 50p food offer for one week on essentials such as soup, orange juice, bread and minced beef, and the Government has launched a promotion of cut-price healthy items at several supermarkets, which shadow health minister Diane Abbott saw through straight away, labelling it as a “glorified advertisement for big business”.

But I want to take another look at a promotion launched by Sainsbury's early last year. The supermarket suggested we could feed a family of two adults and two children for £50 a week, which takes us back to prices more typical 15-20 years ago.

Let's be fair and add on a bit for inflation for the past year, so we'll say £55. The question is, can it be done? I took a look at Sainsbury's' prices through MySupermarket.co.uk.

Each person's diet is different, so in all likelihood this basket won't match your tastes. Indeed, it is so basic it won't match anyone's tastes; there is far too little meat and fish for me, for example. However, I tried to get a mix of nutrients and flavours for the cheapest possible price that would sustain a family, albeit perhaps a skinny one.

At the end of the article is the list of food items and their prices, but here's the food plan I got out of it:

Breakfast

Muesli/milk

Bread/honey/jam/spreadable cheese

Tea

Lunch

Bread/cheese/tomatoes/lettuce

Dinner

Spaghetti/tomato sauce

Potato/eggs/curd cheese/carrots

Mushrooms/pasta/cream

Beef mince/rice/peas

Kipper/potatoes/peas

Sausages/potatoes/broccoli/carrots

Beef mince/peppers/rice

Snacks

Yoghurt

Fruit

Monkey nuts

Biscuits

You might save additional money by baking your own bread or going to the supermarket late in the day to get reduced prices. However, looking at what I've managed to scrape together for £54.92, I don't think we should suggest that any family except the most struggling should contemplate such a diet.

The ability to vary or add to this diet while sticking to the budget is extremely limited. To drink you've got tea and tap water. For fruit you've got apples, not avocado. For snacks you've got monkey nuts, not almonds and biscuits, not cakes. You've got no kids' favourites like Dairylea or less plastic-tasting cheeses like brie or goat's cheese. You have sausages, not lamb, and two dinners containing minced beef.

You also have small portions and can't dream of going wild with the milk. You don't even have real cream.

In addition, we have no herbs, sugar or any of the other ingredients that you'll need to buy from time to time.

This shopping basket demonstrates what's possible

I approached this with my usual cynicism and it appears to be justified, and yet I've been surprised how close we can get to our £55 target.

Although our basket is extremely basic, it probably wouldn't require vast amounts more money to add enough variety, quantity and taste. At the very least, this probably demonstrates how much we splurge when we're let loose among aisles and aisles of well-positioned and deliciously packaged foods.

I think the most practical point we can get out of this exercise is that we should all write shopping lists to contain impulse spending.

Items in shopping basket

Here's the full shopping list that the family would have to try to live off. If you think you could fill a more mouth-watering trolley for £55, instead of the basket of blandness I've created, I'd be interested to read your comments below this article.

More: compare savings accounts through lovemoney.com | New current account paying £100 cashback | The best paid jobs