Sainsburys £50 for a weekly shop?

Sainsburys are doing a big new campaign – showing you how to feed a family of 4 for £50 a week. Well I am quite a fan of Sainsburys and still contend that it is the cheapest place for me to buy the food we eat (because its basics range is really good) but since Sainsburys has a good reputation with the slightly more upmarket shopper, and as I am currently already sending £50 a week without their meal plans – I reckon I can go further and half it. Well... since our income may be dropping to 1/3 of what we live on now... I need to at least half it...and then maybe try to push it further! So meals for a month for £100 is stage 1 of the plan!

So, working out how much things cost is a bit more laborious than I first expected... but counting cherry tomatoes and division sums with my receipts in hand is the way forward I guess!

Yesterday I made a load of mushroom soup and a big vat of bean chilli... and then I got calculating and got all the tupperwear out and portioned it and stashed a load of it in the freezer. I now have a 1 day plan that comes to a grand total of £3.58 for 4 people.

Breakfast: Wheetabix (Sainsburys 48 pack is 6p a wheetabix) x2 each + milk (10p ish each??)

88p for 4

Lunch: Mushroom soup (600g value mushrooms £1.70, 3 value onions (30p) 2 cloves garlic 10p-ish, water (free), spoon of boulion (10p), butter, bit of milk)

2 slices bread

86p per meal for 4

Dinner: Basmati rice (4kg bag from Tesco £6.35 and 3 cups per family meal EQUALS 88p per meal... oooh thats quite a lot more than pasta did you know!

Bean chilli (olive oil, 2 onions, 2 cloves garlic, 1 red chilli 25p, 8 tins plum tomatoes £3.92, 1 jar pasata 98p, 1 spoon boulion, mixed herbs, - blend it with mixer – 2 cartons kidney beans, 2 cartons canalini beans, 2 cartons chick peas £3 for 6 cartons) Makes enough for 10 whole meals – thats 40 servings!

£1.84 per meal for 4

Grand total of £3.58

So... theres no snack allocation here...or puddings... or drinks. I will certainly need a tea bag allowance and to add in the price of a few apples and biscuits but generally we all drink water. We fill up a bottle in the morning (2l each for Joel and I and 1.5 for the children) and each try to get through that each day.

£3.58 would come to £25.06 in a week if we had that every single day...which is on target...but of course is far too much mushroom soup and bean chilli in your life... but the good news is that pasta is cheaper and interestingly organic porridge is actually cheaper than wheetabix – so there are still savings to be had on the meal plan journey!

Credit card journey has also moved forward. £-8201.93 – thats a nice chunk of my wages and expenses I've comitted to paying across! – and I'm trying to work out how much more we can free up from the rest of this month.