Thrifty mum who feeds family of five for just £40 a week
She doesn’t even let her husband buy £3 meal deal
A MOTHER has won thousands of followers online after offering tips on how to feed a family of five – plus a dog – for less than £40 a week.
More than 22,000 people have signed up to Danielle Ross’s Facebook page Healthy Family Meals on a Budget after she revealed how a typical £150 weekly bill can be slashed by more than two-thirds.
Her straightforward advice for saving thousands each year includes banning her husband from buying £3-a-time meal deals – instead she makes packed lunches from scratch.
Tasty recipes on her page use ownbrand products and she avoids twofor- one deals and other offers that usually involve the more expensive high-end brands.
Another tip is having ‘fakeaways’ – home-made takeaway-style food such as koftas made from lamb mince,
‘I’m just a budget queen’
chopped onion and spices and served with pittas and homemade tzatziki.
Mrs Ross, 30, a health spa worker from Colchester, essex, said: ‘I have no idea how I gained the followers.
‘At the end of November I had just 250. Now I have 22,000. It’s just exploded and got bigger and bigger.
‘I have people on my Facebook page from all over the world. Now there are so many people on there [that] other people give advice to each other.’
Mouthwatering meals she prepares for her husband David, 35, and their three young boys include homemade chicken nuggets with jacket potatoes and salad or lasagne with garlic bread.
Vegetables are blended to bulk up sauces, with lentils a favourite addition to her homemade tomato sauce.
Sandwiches are usually on the menu for lunch. But Mrs Ross only buys one loaf of bread each week, and when it’s gone everyone gets leftover pasta in their lunchboxes as it’s much cheaper. The saving on Mr Ross’s lunches alone by avoiding meal deals is nearly £800 a year – all of which is going towards buying a new house.
Other frugal secrets she swears by include writing a shopping list and sticking to it rigidly to avoid impulse purchases, and writing a weekly meal plan.
She also advocates cooking your own food – it’s far cheaper than prepared sauces and meals. Most of the family’s shopping is done at budget supermarkets such as Aldi and Lidl, but when Facebook fans suggested it wasn’t possible in middle-market chains, Mrs Ross was determined to prove them wrong.
‘I went to Asda and spent just £38 for a family of five and a dog. That’s three meals a day,’ she said.
The budget even includes £1 for each of the children to spend on what they want as a treat – and so they learn the value of money.
eight-year-old Ollie – who is the fussy eater of the family – likes to buy a big chocolate bar while five-year-old twins Sam and Max prefer sweets.
The children also help her cook as it makes them more open to trying new things.
Food for their two-year-old dog, Chester, costs just £25 a month thanks to a magazine subscription which gives a discount on the brand Mrs Ross buys.
even family days out come under her scrutiny – with voucher deals for attractions religiously tracked down.
She says her frugal habit started with her mother, Karla, 49.
‘At my local shop they used to sell 2p cans of beans but it was limited to five cans per person. So my mum would get people in the queue to buy them for her,’ she said.
‘Saving has always been with me. I’m just a budget queen.’