What is the least budget you have managed on for food?

I can't remember. But I do recall giving my dogs cereal for their dinner as I had run out of dog food.

Late 70s,two adults and two tots on a research grant that had to be reapplied for every three months which meant a lot of work and anguish as the three months came up.
I can't remember how much the grant was but I know my Delia Smith Frugal food cookery book fell to pieces. One recipe stands out, a baked onion stuffed with leftover rice and a piece of sausage.
My mother came to visit and brought a large sack of potatoes and one of Rice, My father brought the veg from his garden to help out.
We did a big monthly shop and except for milk that had to last.
A friend in the same circumstances told me about making rice with a tin of soup. I did have a freezer that was bought for us. s

Well £5 didn't seem much at the time. We were living in Scotland and the coal had to come out of that.

Porridge oats .

Rice.

Bread.

Wholemeal flour.

Cabbage.

Onions.

Tins of pilchards in tomato sauce.

Red lentils.

Cooking oil.

Tins of tomatoes.

Salt.

Sugar.

It was in Cyprus, so can’t remember exactly, but we were utterly skint and virtually lived on various vegetable soups (veg from the market were at least cheap), bread, and some pretty awful processed cheese - IIRC it was Australian and called Penguin. Any ‘proper’ cheese and virtually all meat were simply unaffordable.

I still make a lot of veg soups in winter - we still like them - and they’re still cheap if you use only local seasonal veg and bulk them out with e.g. red lentils/pearl barley/both.

In 1969 when DH was a student and our DS was a baby, not counting any costs for him, we managed on 2/6d a day. I remember meals of sausages, corned beef hash, scotch eggs and spam fritters!

15 years ago, I had to feed myself and adult daughter on between £15 & £20 fortnightly. It involved shopping in the reduced section and a lot of the Tesco basic range. Fortunately, I don't eat breakfast, so it was mostly just 2 meals a day.

A couple of loaves a tube of primula and a block of cheese would last us a week when we started our business in 1976 IF we had a good week we'd buy some bacon and a box of Mr Kiplings apple pies.
The man in the local shop used to offer us credit but we were too proud and too stubborn to take it...besides we had no idea if we would ever be able to pay him back .My MIL fed us every Sunday .
My lifelong friend joked about having to go back to that with the cost of living crisis ....no way .We didn't work our socks off for 40 odd years to live on toasted cheese again !

Tizliz, I think food, as an element of living costs, has been very cheap - for a very long time. Rent and travel costs seemed quite minor expenses, too, back then in the 1970s. Meanwhile, generally, our living standards and expectations have risen.

Hetty58

£5 in 1970 is £73.57?

www.inflationtool.com/british-pound/1970-to-present-value?amount=5&year2=2022&frequency=yearly

We eat much better for £75 now than we did for £5 in 1971, must have improved my cooking skills. We ate a lot of offal then which we rarely do now. Do a lot of batch cooking now, in 1971 didn’t have a freezer.

Not a family budget but in the 60s you were only allowed to take £50 out of the country for your holiday. I managed for 6 weeks including travel and accomodation.

Franbern

Do not find potatoes, cabbage, onion, bread (assume the cheapest white type), marrowbeans, marge, tea and a few eggs sounds very healthy to me.

No fruit or fresh veg or salad, only milk in tea providing calcium, iron just from those souffles - Not sure how long that would be very oursihing. YUes, coul manage for a week or two, but that would be all.

I used to manage quite happily on about a fiver a day- (just me) providing me with three good meals- porridge for brekkie, eggs, baked beans, or sardines on toast at lunch time, and then salad with chicken or a piece of fish and a yoghurt for evening meal. Sadly, that was pre-pandemic. I used to boast that my two slices of good bread toasted, with two poached eggs and half a tin of low sugar, etc baked beans cost me under 50p. Not any longer though!!!!

I dread to think how difficult it must be for families now.

Aren't onions and cabbage fresh veg? More nutritious than salad I believe.

My housekeeping budget in 1973 was £12 a week. It wasn’t a fortune but managed just fine.

£5 in 1970 is £73.57?

www.inflationtool.com/british-pound/1970-to-present-value?amount=5&year2=2022&frequency=yearly

Do not find potatoes, cabbage, onion, bread (assume the cheapest white type), marrowbeans, marge, tea and a few eggs sounds very healthy to me.

No fruit or fresh veg or salad, only milk in tea providing calcium, iron just from those souffles - Not sure how long that would be very oursihing. YUes, coul manage for a week or two, but that would be all.

I used to manage quite happily on about a fiver a day- (just me) providing me with three good meals- porridge for brekkie, eggs, baked beans, or sardines on toast at lunch time, and then salad with chicken or a piece of fish and a yoghurt for evening meal. Sadly, that was pre-pandemic. I used to boast that my two slices of good bread toasted, with two poached eggs and half a tin of low sugar, etc baked beans cost me under 50p. Not any longer though!!!!

I dread to think how difficult it must be for families now.

Fifty years ago five pounds a week on food was fair enough. Not a problem. Do think people do not realise how food prices have changed over the years and how in the last twelve months the incredible prices mainly on stap

I can only remember having a cook book ‘ One hundred meals for a shilling’. That was in the mid 60s. DH, me and baby. So I suspect I managed on not much. Perhaps £3-5 a week for everything. ?

When I was first married I managed on £5 a week for food.
I used to write all our outgoings and incomings down in a book which I still have. That is 50 years ago. We didn't have a fridge, washing machine or hoover and our flat was heated by a coal fire which also heated the water.

Franbern

If it really was 'quite a few years ago', then it is more likely to equate to at least double or more now.

From then ten quid did you actually eat in any way healthy, or did your limited and cheap dietcause you both health issues?

Try to work out two meals a day for two adults on £3.50p a day with no supplement at all. Assume that money did not need to also cover cooking costs.

I worked out how to eat healthy by getting a large sack of potatoes, onions and sardines and white cabbage. Also dried marrowfat peas that were soaked and eggs could make a tasty soufflé! Bread, margarine and tea with milk kept us going. A friend brought us a large jar of Nescafé - what luxury that was!

If it really was 'quite a few years ago', then it is more likely to equate to at least double or more now.

From then ten quid did you actually eat in any way healthy, or did your limited and cheap dietcause you both health issues?

Try to work out two meals a day for two adults on £3.50p a day with no supplement at all. Assume that money did not need to also cover cooking costs.