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

Main meal bread and soup easy to make fit!! me personally well.. not being a soup fan, I wouldn't be wasting my main meal on soup!😖🤣🤣🤣 But theres some real savings there if you are happy with soup and bread as your main meal of the day a couple of days a week!!!

Also most low cal soups are low on protein. Eg this leek and potato soup it's also quite a small portion sizes, their headline 120kcal is less than 200ml of liquid, so the equivalent of less than half a tin and only 6g of protein. Even if you had double (to hit 12g of protein for 240kcal which is still quite low if you're exercising reasonably) you still be only be eating the equivalent of less than a tin of soup and no room for bread for under 300kcal. It's still a small bowl!! Most people when they eat soup eat a bigger bowl than that

It's just an opinion but better to stick an egg in your soup than a slice of bread. Most people already eat all the carbohydrates they need.

Some of these amounts are ridiculous! £60 for one person. £25 is reasonable once you have a stock cupboard built up with oil, spices, flour etc.

“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”

I’d be starving and miserable if I ate like this.

Supermarkets love me and MN food shopping threads hate me.

I know I spend more than most but eating is my main joy in life. (Nothing to do with lockdown)

I went to Morrison’s yesterday, spent £51 and I know we’ll have to go shopping again tomorrow.

I can’t remember everything but I bought:
2 bottles Prosecco £12
2 bottles cider £4
Baguette 85p
La roule cheese £1.75
2 x cheddar cheese £4
Ritz crackers £1.60
2 for £3 packs of cookies
Cucumber 49p
Bag carrots £1
2 pizzas £4.75
2 dips £3
Doritos £1
Bananas £1?
Apples £2?
Oranges £2
More ‘naice’ cheese £2
Whole meal bread 50p?
White bread 45p
2 packs bagels £2.60
3 for £5 nuts

Shoot me.

I’m with you @Sarahandduck18

I like fresh king prawns, cuts of venison, mussels and decent roast joints.

Love a veg drawer full of colourful vegetables abd a frugi bowl full of fruit and a cupboard full of nice granolas for breakfast abd posh biscuits for afternoon snacks.

It’s all I get to enjoy now as we can’t go out to dine

*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”

I’d be starving and miserable if I ate like this*

I'd be miserable if I ate like your list, apart from the prosecco. I mean, I like cheese, a lot, but it looks like you basically have cheese sandwiches, fruit, salad and snacks and little else. How dull.

The soups, dhals, fishcakes, casseroles and fritattas sound far more appetising. Just proves how we're all different.

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
This sounds delicious!

If I was single and had enough money, I'd only shop in M&S! Even if it was extortionate 😂

I spend about £40 a week including wine- extra if I want a takeaway, but that's not a weekly thing.

I don't eat very much meat, though.

@MyDcAreMarvel how is it ridiculous to spend £60 a week on food for one person? That’s less than £10 per day. When I buy steaks for a Friday night, they’re between £10-£15 each. That’s one part of one meal.
Just failing to see the issue with someone spending £60 a week to feed themselves!

Just failing to see the issue with someone spending £60 a week to feed themselves

Because it doesn't have to cost that much and not everyone has that amount of money available for food. It's well above average of what people in general spend. A lot of people spending that amount on food would need to cut back elsewhere to accommodate it. So they either wouldn't have enough money for bills and other essentials, or it would be taking all their treat money and they'd not be able to afford other nice things.

Surely you must know that most people aren't spending £10-15 on just the protein component of one meal on a regular basis?

But it's not 'ridiculous'. Spending £60 is absolutely fine if you can afford it. Suggesting it was the minimum one adult could spend would be ridiculous, because clearly you can spend a lot less, but spending it if you can comfortably do so is fine.

Where are you buying steaks that cost £10-15?

The thing that always comes out on these threads is that for some people food is fuel, so cheapest to meet basic nutritional requirements is all that matters; for others it’s a source of pleasure that gets priority in spending.

Some people say they ‘don’t have’ money for more expensive food but besides people on UC it is usually more accurate to say they choose to spend that money elsewhere.

On many money threads in here it become apparent that ‘essential’ expenditure is different for all of us!

I budget £100 a month plus £15 for a takeaway.

Some weeks I spend £15 some weeks it can be £30 depending on if I fancy something a bit special etc.

I used to spend around £100 sometimes a little more, that did include cat food and all cleaning products, basic toiletries (shower gel, shampoo etc) but cooked from scratch ate organic higher welfare meat and fish etc. I've also lived in a student budget only buying yellow sticker items, value tomatoes, giant bags of pasta etc. You really just need to decide what you can comfortably afford.

Sorry £100 a week

@TheChosenTwo you can make nutritious, tasty meals for much less than £60 a week. £10-£15 on a steak at home unless a special occasion is not how most people live. Our family income is £100k plus and we wouldn’t dream of spending that much on one meal.
Obviously economies of scale come into play ( although that can be partly mitigated by batch cooking) but we spend approx £120 a week for our family of 9. I cook from scratch and we eat well. We are spending a bit more on treats for the children because of Covid eg a take away once a month approx £35 for McDonald’s or pizza and the odd bag of popcorn/ice cream. The £120 is only food, all cleaning products, toilet roll etc are purchased from Costco.

@Hazelnutlatteplease

Also most low cal soups are low on protein. Eg this leek and potato soup it's also quite a small portion sizes, their headline 120kcal is less than 200ml of liquid, so the equivalent of less than half a tin and only 6g of protein. Even if you had double (to hit 12g of protein for 240kcal which is still quite low if you're exercising reasonably) you still be only be eating the equivalent of less than a tin of soup and no room for bread for under 300kcal. It's still a small bowl!! Most people when they eat soup eat a bigger bowl than that

It's just an opinion but better to stick an egg in your soup than a slice of bread. Most people already eat all the carbohydrates they need.

Lentils and beans add protein. I'm not sure who mentioned low cal soup.

I'm mostly vegan and add protein to every meal through soy, beans or lentils. Lentils will thicken a soup and make it more filling, carrot and lentil soup is made with olive oil, jalapenos, carrots, lentils and tomatoes. I make vegetable chilli with lentils, kidney beans (or mixed beans), tomatoes, chillies, broccoli, cauliflower carrots and sweetcorn. I sometimes have a side of guacamole (avocado, garlic, chilli, paprika). For breakfast, rolled oats, with nuts and seeds, soy milk and banana. I snack on fruit: pineapple, mango, oranges, clementines, berries, apples, pears. I'm not underweight.

@Sarahandduck18 steaks are from the butchers.
@MyDcAreMarvel yes I totally agree that you can spend less on nutritious food.
We have steaks on a Friday night, a family of 5 but only 4 steaks as one of our dc doesn’t eat much meat so she has something else. Our food shop is around £250 per week, i prioritise locally sourced food and high quality meat because we eat a lot of it.
Food is an important family focus for us, every meal we eat is an event! You can eat well for less, you can eat well for more, it depends on lots of things as to what you spend, I’m just making the point that £60 for one person isn’t ‘ridiculous’ just because you wouldn’t spend it. You are choosing to spend less on your shopping, that’s not ‘ridiculous’, it’s just your choice.

I just spent around £60 at Tesco that will be for about a week with additional store cupboard and freezer stuff. I got: cabbage, sugar snap peas, mange tout, cauliflower, sprouts, mushrooms, fennel, avocado, tomatoes, aubergines, courgettes, beetroot, olives, lemons, jalapeños, black beans, chickpeas, cannelloni beans, ginger, tarragon, melon, figs, raspberries, plums, mango, pineapple, chocolate, Haagen Dazs, crisps, waffle fries, sourdough bread, kefir, sugar free squash.

My DH loves kettle crisps a bag of 5 bags is about £2 last week they were on offer at 2 for £2.50 he got 4 so that £5 on crisps which is £250 a year, I know he would choose crisps every week over £250 towards a weeks holiday. Other people would make the opposite choice, for me I like decent coffee and dark chocolate that easily comes to £5 a week too, iwould sacrifice £10 bottle of wine a week fora holiday but decent coffee everyday is not a sacrifice I would make for a holiday but if I had to do it to keep a roof over my head I would