Feed a family of 4 for less than £9/week: The Shopping List
Shopping list – based on Sainsburys, prices correct at time of publication. Other major supermarkets have similar products available at comparable prices.
TOTAL: £35.42 or £8.86 per person
Meat/Dairy/Protein: £13.80
1kg boneless pork shoulder joint, £3
670g cooking bacon, £1.15
500g frozen white fish, £1.70
1 tin of sardines, 40p
6 mixed weight free range eggs, £1
400g dried skimmed milk powder (makes 8 pints of milk), £1.05
3 tins Basics baked beans, 75p
3 tins Basics kidney beans, 90p
500g Basics low fat natural yoghurt, 50p
Salmon paste 45p
625g Basics cheddar, £2.90
Fruit and Veg: £12.30
Basics apples, 80p for 5
Basics pears, 80p for 4
500g Basics sultanas, 85p
1kg loose Basics Fairtrade bananas, 68p (approx 8 small to medium, choose carefully!)
1.5kg Basics carrots, 75p
1kg frozen peas and 1kg frozen spinach, £2.50
1.5kg Basics onions, 90p
4 x 400g cartons of Basics chopped tomatoes, £1.40
2 bulbs Basics garlic, 35p
400g Basics mushrooms, 97p
400g frozen berry mix, £1.50
Carbs; £2.35
1kg Basics rice, 45p
2 x 500g Basics pasta, 70p
1kg porridge oats, £1.20
4 tins of Basics potatoes, 80p or 1kg Basics salad potatoes, 70p
Storecupboard – £6.97 – please check what you have before you go shopping! This initial outlay assumes there is absolutely nothing in the cupboard. With this week’s menu you will have some quantities of most of these items left, meaning subsequent shops will be much cheaper.
Basics peanut butter, 62p
Bicarbonate of soda, 85p
Basics dark chocolate, 35p
Basics chicken stock cubes, 30p
Basics mixed dried herbs, 40p
1kg fairtrade sugar, 80p
Bottled lemon juice, 50p
Basics strawberry jam, 30p
1.5kg Basics self raising flour, 45p
Dried chilli flakes, £1
Ground cumin, £1
40 basics teabags, 40p
To find out what to do with it all, follow the links! (I put it all up separately to make it easier to read rather than one looooong stream of text and lots of pictures that take forever to load…)
Follow me on Twitter @DrJackMonroe and on Instagram @MxJackMonroe
Jack Monroe. November 2015.
Categories: Blog, NEWS, Recipes & Food
COOKING ON A BOOTSTRAP 
Imagine going to Lidl or Aldi instead O.O
You are amazing, omg thank you!
#StretchingThatStudentFinance
Jack you are so flipping good! Looking forward to giving your recipies a try, as ever! Thank you!
Hi Jack, As ever your tips are a life saver. My child tax credit was cut in August – so four months of surviving on the already low £30 a week food budget for me and my 16 year old daughter reduced further. Last year as a self employed health worker I earned less than £5 000. My money was stopped because my mum unusually gave me a cheque – to pay for shoes, clothes, books for my daughter for when she started 6 form in Sept 2015.
I have been alone since I was 15 weeks pregnant – after my daughter’s father attacked me. We have lived in poverty all this time – despite me working – and I was desperate to provide my daughter with a winter coat ect so reluctantly accepted my mum’s money – a pensioner herself – and promised to pay it back. We were punished straight away – tax credits stopped. As the £2500.00 cheque my mother gave me was more than what the child tax credit gives me for the whole year. I knew we would suffer for the whole year as a result – but what could I do – my daughter had nothing – no shoes – no jeans? The money was used up very quickly – bills paid easily for a change – being able to by a bag for my daughter’s college books ect. Now she has had her second bad cold – due to the poor diet – since when she started in Sept. She loves the study and grittily has not missed a day.
No one else apart from you seems to be aware that mothers and children in Britain are slowly being starved by this government policies. Result – is I have feed my daughter, but classically sacrificed myself as a mother – missing 5 meals per mouth – but that’s adding up now – and people are starting to comment about my weight loss at work – I am referred to soup kitchens – or food banks when I explain my situation. I just don’t think people are aware of the crisis looming.
We think all you are struggling with on the personal front is admirable – for my daughter you are a positive role model that stands against the simplistic gender roles projected every were in the media.
Keep going – you are the candle burning in all the darkness.
[name redacted by Jack] x
Sorry to be picky, Jack, when you have done such a splendid job but I can’t see any mention of oil in your list and that will add another £1.20 for a litre of Basics sunflower oil. There is oil on one of your written lists but it seems not to have made it to your printed list. The rest is astonishing and I’m looking forward to trying out some of the recipes. Thank you.
Sainsburys has got boneless pork shoulder 1.8kg for £3 this week!
Forgive me for being obtuse, but where are the links to recipes?
Tap the navigation box Toffeeapple.
Holy cow. In Canada those prices aren’t in existence… since 1920 anyway.
Hi Jack!
Anyway you could do a repeat of this now that you’ve gone vegan?
Would be such a help!