What’s a reasonable food budget for one person?

[PinkOnWednesday]

Hi, I’m trying to set myself a reasonable food budget for one person as I’m currently spending an extortionate amount on food! What would you say is reasonable?
Thanks x

For a week?

I’d say £60 (if that was to include wine, no takeaways and no ready meals)

£30-40.

You can make more than enough with that and include wine

£50 lower end, £100 top end, depending how much of a priority/treat food is for you.

Obviously could go much lower if necesary, Jack Monroe has some great tips for cooking tasty food cheaply - but I'm a greedy guts and cooking and food is one of my greatest pleasures!

Does that include the huge amount of chocolate one needs to get through this time of year though 🤣

One you can afford, that covers a healthy diet and preferably one that covers food you like and want to eat. A budget for a seasonal eating, tee total vegetarian who is happy to cook from scratch and who has a low income is going to look different to a budget for someone who likes seafood, red meat and exotic fruit and wants to minimise time spent on preparation.

We spend about £75-90 for a family of 3 so I would say £50 would be about right for an individual, but could be as low as 30 if you're on a tight budget. How much do you usually spend?

I'd say 30-40, depending on whether or not you like to eat a lot of meat and veg.

I couldn’t do less than £50.

But the MN chicken will be out in a few posts...

I would say around £30 for one person if you cook from scratch, don't drink and don't eat ready meals

You're going to get more numbers on this post than the National Lottery, OP.

People eat different amounts
Some people only cook from scratch
Some only buy ready made food
Some people do half and half.

And of course prices are often area dependent.

Once you've got a kitchen well stocked with the staples: dried herbs, spices, oils, salt, stock cubes, condiments etc etc, I'd say £40 a week will see you well fed.

£60 would be comfortable I'd think

Depends if it's your food budget or supermarket budget. Food - I could probably do it on about £35 and eat well, but what pushes my supermarket shop up massively is things like laundry liquid, fabric conditioner, shower gel, loo roll etc. If I include those it's about £50 I guess.

@Onedropbeat

Does that include the huge amount of chocolate one needs to get through this time of year though 🤣

That's a good point. I've just spent £6 on two of those big bags of Mini Eggs that'll last about two days...

It really depends. Does it need to include, say, two bottles of wine?

If not I think you can eat frugally for £20 (veggie, pasta, baked potatoes), well for £30 and lavishly for £40. Add £10 for the wine.

Wowser at some of these figures! £100! That is genuinely what I spend in a week for four people, no kids (no meat either but lots of fresh food).

@SweatyBetty20

Depends if it's your food budget or supermarket budget. Food - I could probably do it on about £35 and eat well, but what pushes my supermarket shop up massively is things like laundry liquid, fabric conditioner, shower gel, loo roll etc. If I include those it's about £50 I guess.

Seriously, you spend £15 a week on laundry and loo roll for one person? Two loo rolls is about 50p. A huge box of powder is £10 and does 100+ washes so would last a month at least for one person.

I spend £50 a fortnight to three weeks.

Depends on whether how you eat?
Are you happy with frozen veg?
Do you buy meat from the butcher or supermarkets?
Do you cook from scratch and are you happy to meal plan
D you happen to like cheap foodstuffs like porridge, lentils, meat, potatoes and two veg?

Our Food comes in £20-25 a head. Most of it can scale down if you have a freezer. But I'm happy with frozen veg, use budget ingredients when cooking from scratch, dont buy butchers meat (although I'd like to) and meal plan.

A few years ago when I was on a tight budget I could do it for less than £30 (lots of veg, batch cooking).

Now it's more like £60-£75, but that includes things like expensive bakery bread, cheesemonger cheese, and £15-£20 bottles of wine. There's so little to do at the moment that nice food is my only escape!

Should add, I'm vegetarian, and I meal plan and cook from scratch.

40-50 possible less as I don’t eat a lot. Depends on appetite.

It totally depends, rather than shop to an arbitrary budget it's much more sensible to start with a meal plan, cost it up and see if it's affordable.

If not tweak your meals or your brands.

It's or no relevance to you what I or any other random person thinks is sensible, as you can see from the answers so far, it's pretty useless information.

We are spending £45 per week for the 2 of us not including wine. So £30 should be reasonable?

We aren’t eating fancy food. Steak only once a month. Lots of stir fries, omelettes, fajitas, grilled chicken greek style, gammon and eggs etc.

Salads, soup, and sandwiches for lunches but cooked breakfast everyday.

@SweatyBetty20

Depends if it's your food budget or supermarket budget. Food - I could probably do it on about £35 and eat well, but what pushes my supermarket shop up massively is things like laundry liquid, fabric conditioner, shower gel, loo roll etc. If I include those it's about £50 I guess.

How do you spend so much on your sundries

Can you break that down?

I shop for me and my children and I wouldnt spend that much in 2 months on washing powder etc. What are you buying?

I’m getting a delivery every 2 weeks of about £50. I make mainly vegetarian meals so don’t have to factor in meat and fish which are expensive . I don’t drink either.