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

A typical menu:

Porridge, soy milk, banana
Homemade carrot and lentil soup
Vegetable chilli made in slow cooker

Apples, pears, tangerines

Tea and soya milk
Sparkling water with lime

I don't really agree @Hazelnutlatteplease
The last few months, we've just been dh and I (so, obviously 2, not one), but that's dropped fairly suddenly from 5 adults.

Yes, I can buy a smaller pack of mince or chicken or a larger one and I make a family size chilli or whatever and either freeze 1/2 or put in the fridge for the next day, but I find things like eggs seem to sit there forever..... bread.... a bag of potatoes..... or a bag of onions. Yes, I know you can buy smaller loaf, but as said above, a 400g loaf isn't 1/2 the price of an 800g loaf. Per egg, I can buy 15 much cheaper than 6. I can't believe how long it takes us to get through washing powder now. Toilet rolls are cheaper in 18 packs than in 4.
Yes, some things you can still buy in bigger packs (if you have the cash upfront and if you have room to store) but bread goes off quickly, and potatoes, onions and eggs will last longer but still have a limited life.

Op 40 a week on food is not excessive, as the saying goes you can pay the farmer or the doctor...

20 a week is doable, but I think it would be tough to get enough fruit and veg for that.

Perhaps aim to get down to 35 by batch cooking etc, then you can aim for 30 if you want.

£20 is possible but it will be pretty joyless. If I have a skint week I can feed all 3 of us for less than £20 although I have a well stocked spice cupboard and things like tuna, tinned tomatoes, sweetcorn etc that I buy on offer in bulk however realistically though I'd spend £20 on wine and a weekend treat for myself.

£30-40.
I think I'd still eat well with that as I don't eat much meat or drink every week.

@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

I'd eat well on £20 a week, we spend double that for myself and my teen.

I think I spend around £50. I buy what I want but am vegetarian. Fruit (berries) is the most expensive item. The rest of it is mainly vegetables, ice cream and chocolate at the moment (I have a stockpile of nuts and pulses).

@nordica

As someone pointed out above, it generally costs more to shop for one person. Smaller packs of stuff tend to be proportionally more expensive (i.e. a smaller loaf of bread is not half the price of a larger one).

I just keep bread in the freezer. Except for dinners, my teen and I mostly eat different food anyway. It wouldn't cost me any more if I was shopping for myself.

Don’t economise on food unless you have to, IMO. There’s little else to enjoy at the moment.

We're spending about £300 a week on a family of 4 but that does include dog food, wine, cooked lunches for 5 plus evening meals for 4, also cleaning products (I only like using Method), dishwasher tabs etc. If we had to cut back though I'm sure we could get it done to £200 - so £50 for one would a realistic figure, I think. Eg we love lentils, sweet potatoes in curries etc, which are cheap and filling.

I reckon £40, cat and I, last week expensive, £37 in aldi £6 flowers, £6 cat food, and stuff for my unemployed friend £6.50.
Total £65 for the week, lots to carry over tho with top ups .
This week, bread and veg
lots of fruit, veg, veggie meals, cleaning stuff bulk 5ltr bottles as and when ( bio d health food shop), roughly every 6 months.

Also look at other ways to save money to free up more for the treaty end of food. Best price for gas and electricity, that sort of thing. If you live alone, your water will probably be less on a meter unless you're in a very low rateable value property (this seems to be a random number - our water rates doubled from our first house to our second even though the house value was about the same - it turns out the first house was unusually low rates because it was a back to back with only a tiny amount of outside space and didn't have an indoor bathroom when it was built, which was still reflected in the rateable value).

You can eat and drink well for £20 pw for one person but it takes work and it helps if you can average this over time by buying bigger packs or multibuy offers - eg tinned tomatoes, beans etc are often much cheaper in multipacks than single cans, but you need to buy 4 in one go, which needs space and a bigger outlay, but if you can do it for the things that are commonly on offer, the savings over time can be significant.

Look at the reduced counter.

Use cheaper shops, especially for toiletries and cleaning products - these can be much cheaper in Wilko, Home Bargains etc than the more expensive supermarkets.

Make use of your freezer if you have one, as you can split family packs into individual portions and batch cook.

Watch what you waste - make this as low as possible. Also think about how much you use. Some people on here talk about using what seems to me like alarmingly high amounts of toilet paper and cleaning products. The woman who spent £30 a month on kitchen roll was a particular highlight. People regularly talk about using a whole shower gel per person per week, that sort of thing. To me this seems mad.

Look for cheaper alternatives - frozen fish and berries instead of fresh, normal brocolli instead of purple sprouting, for example.

There's no need to spend £10 on a bottle of wine or £5 on a bar of chocolate for it to be a treat, how ludicrous. There's lots of lovely stuff at a fraction of that price, especially in the likes of Aldi or Lidl.

£30 would be miserable
I don't find it miserable. Tomato, red pepper and lentil soup with fresh made flatbread, yoghurt and fruit for pud. Cauliflower and spinach soup with rice. Yoghurt cake for pud. Chicken casserole; frittata with salad and baguette; tuna fishcakes and veg, dhal and chapattis. Tea, coffee, cleaning stuff all from Aldi. My bill is around £25-30 PW.

@BackforGood

15 pack Eggs generally have a fortnight shelf life. If you have 2 every other day, which I would happily do, they would run out before they are officially out of date. (And eggs last longer than that) Hard boiled eggs will last a couple of days in the fridge which gives you at least 16 days to eat 7 portions of eggs. You can then make up quiche,egg muffins etc and freeze them in individual portion sizes if youd rather eat egg less often.

Potatoes you can parboil and freeze in individual portions. Defrost the night before (or in the microwave) and finish them off boiling them as mash, roasting them, or if you have an air fryer in the air fryer. Usually you get 4-5 decent sized baking potatoes in pack, I'd bake those and freeze them baked, which will do quite a few lunches too.

Between chicken, potatoes, eggs and wraps you have the bulk cost of at least a fortnight's lunches for easily less than £7. And you can pick and choose cos no waste. Add in a bulk load of soup and/or dhal to the freezer (week two) you have even more choice.

I wouldn't necessarily get bread personally. But someone like DS wouldn't eat egg so hes more likely to get cheap protein from dhal, marmite, cheese or peanut butter which mean he would eat far more bread.

The main savings really come from frozen veg and recognising that it is possible to make yummy main meals out of basic/value/saver ingredients.

I’m obviously living the fast living high life when spending £5 a week on anything that’s not part of a main meal. I’m sorry but buying a twirl for £1 to last the week will just not cut it. I’m not saying it can’t be done if you really are on the breadline but what a depressing life.

Well if you think a twirl costs a pound, you need to find some cheaper shops.

Meanwhile, the rest of us will be getting a nice bottle of fizz from Aldi for £5/6 and some good chocolate for £1.50 for 5 small bars, and maybe some other treats while we're at it.

I'm embarrassed to say I spend between 50 and 100 every week, just on myself. And I'm aware I waste money on things like sushi and coconut water and luxury ice cream... but I dont drink, or have kids, or have a car so hey ho

That's fine if you can afford it and it does sound like you know you're making expensive choices.

What's not fine would be to get into debt and keeping spending like that, or to complain you 'never had anything nice' or 'couldn't afford to save' or if you told other people who spent less than you that they must be eating rubbish and living a miserable life.

@springfern I was easily spending that (and more) too prior to Covid (am cooking from scratch more now as less time-pressured). Why not, if it gives us pleasure and we can afford it?

Paying £1 for a single twirl when you can get a multipack of 4 for that. Bonkers!!! You must be having a laugh

Paying for luxuries like coconut water, when you can afford it and it brings you joy makes total sense.

But you can eat well and relatively cheap. And it really isnt joyless. If I had more money I, with a few exceptions, wouldn't actually eat different foods day to day. I'd still want my brie and bacon rissotto spaghetti bol etc. Because they are all yum. I'd just upgrade the quality of the ingredients and be eating high welfare locally farmed steak and lamb once a week.

For me the less I spend on food the more there is for holidays, days out etc. But that's what brings me joy.

Depends if you drink, need free from and what kind of food preferences you have but £50 should be plenty for 3 meals a day, 7 days a week imo. If your tastes are more simple eg beans on toast would be an appealing dinner then even less

I used to eat well (and buy enough washing up liquid, washing powder etc) for £45 pw when I shopped just for me.

I think I spend about £50 per week too. I don't drink but do enjoy a couple of bars of Tony Chocolonely - scrummy and ethical but def not the cheapest - and also coconut water, a couple of cartons a week.

This thread is great, am inspired to try and eat more veggie stuff - soups, chillis etc and see if that brings the cost down and also helps me to shed a few pounds!

Another fave is Moroccan soup. You add chickpeas and can make it quite spicy. I make a big saucepan of soup and eat it for lunch over three days. My freezer tends to be full of frozen vegetables so I don't batch freeze. I buy flatbread, have never made it but am looking into it now. But I have that alongside my soup. I also eat a lot of sweet potato which is very nutritious, I cut them into wedges and roast them. Tofu with fresh spinach and jalapenos is another fave. You can have it alongside brown rice.

I buy frozen garlic and put a weekly supply for cooking into a tub in the fridge. Another favourite is roasted chickpeas.

Honestly, it really depends how you eat. Lots of wine, high end quality things like fresh salmon and shopping at M&S? Could be £100 per week.

Shopping cheaply, no alcohol, cooking from scratch and NOT eating 3 meals a day? I can do it on £20 per week....that's food only, cleaning products etc. is on top of that.