Weekly food budget for singleton

[Iwannabeamartian]

Hi all. So it looks like me and my partner are going to be separating very soon. I’m in the process of trying to work finances out.

to cut a very long story short, at the moment I’m on a low income (this is likely to improve in the next couple of years). I’m also in the final 2 years of an open uni degree.

we share a joint mortgage on a small terraced house across the road from my mum. We are lucky that our mortgage is very low (£245 per month with approx £30k remaining)

I must say, in STBXP defence, he is being very fair about everything. There is no bad blood. We’ve just come to the end of being able to live as ‘housemates’.

in an ideal world I would like to stay in this house because of the family ties (he isn’t from this area and has no family so isn’t too fussed). Also I would never be able to find somewhere to live at the same rent as the mortgage and couldn’t really afford more. He could, quite comfortably. As I say he’s being very fair, has no intentions of trying to force any sales etc (he genuinely has no need too) so we are looking at ways to see if I could continue to stay here. He’s even offered to continue covering the cost of the mortgage for the next couple of years whilst I finish the degree and hopefully improve the work situation.

I should add we are not married and only share furry children!!

anyway….that was really long winded!! What I’m wondering (whilst trying to work out finances and budgets etc) is…what do you think is the minimum weekly (or monthly to allow for bulk buying etc) budget you would need for shopping (food/basic toiletries/cleaning products etc) if you are/were a single person?

(don’t drink or smoke, shop at Aldi, and am the least girly person you can imagine so no real make up needs if fancy toiletries etc….bog standard will do fine!!) should also say as mum is across the road she will feed me now and again (or whenever I appear there 😂)

that was long….sorry!

I don't think anyone can tell you this, can you work out how much of your current food bill you actually eat? It depends how much meat you eat, whether you cook from scratch, whether you drink and what quantities of food you eat.

On a different note, I would be VERY wary of expecting your ex to pay the mortgage for years to come. Once he meets someone else, he will very likely end that agreement and will want you to sell. I'd be looking into ways of buying him out.

I live on my own and average £180 a month. I eat meat or fish every day and have a fair few 'treats', but buy very little alcohol. It's very expensive to shop for one, so I buy full-sized packs and freeze what I've cooked (this means I've got a constant supply of ready meals I made earlier!)

It's lovely to hear of a mutually considerate separation. I share PP's concern about taking his mortgage payments for granted.

I live on my own. I spend between 40 and 50 pounds every fortnight on an online Asda shop. I spend about 10 - 15 on an occasional top up shop. I might have a takeaway once a month and that doesn't include milk, which I have delivered, or cat food and litter (also delivered).

Fair comment….i wasn’t really looking for anyone to tell me what I would need as such, I guess I was more asking if anyone had any experience of their own really.

i will obviously try and figure out what I eat my way through (that sounds weird) over the coming weeks but i guess i was just looking for ball park figures really from other peoples experience.

i definitely would need to be more strict in terms of doing a ‘monthly shop’ instead of just buying as we go along at the minute, and nipping to the corner shop etc. I’m quite happy to batch cook…in fact I’ve been doing that recently with the new air fryer which has made life easier. I don’t drink. And only work in the afternoons so don’t need to be taking meals to work/buying lunches whilst out.

in terms of him paying the mortgage….i fully understand what you are saying, but unfortunately i dont have much other option at the minute than to take him at his word. (There are other reasons too, which I don’t want to go into, which make me believe that he is genuine in that respect…but I will be looking to do what I can to try and limit the need for this)

appreciate your replying though…it’s a strange new world that’s coming. We’ve been together 18 years now since I was 20, moving out of my parents house for the first time into a rented house together and then buying this one.

Ive never had to function in my own before 🙈

Oh now this is encouraging to hear, and would fit in perfectly with my (admittedly very sketchy) budgeting.

as I said my mum will also help me out food wise and vice versa. She lives alone now after we lost my dad, so always has me round for Sunday lunch etc.

to be honest j think we would probably end up splitting some shopping up between us as like @Garlicked said shopping for single portions seems to be more expensive

Can you move in with your mum or vice versa? And rent out your house and share the rent with ex? It could be a good way of saving money (for both you and your mum) whilst keeping the house in you and your ex partners names.

I wasn't trying to be unkind by suggesting he won't pay, but I'm almost certain that once he meets someone else, and men tend to do this quickly in my experience, he'll stop wanting to pay this and you'll find yourself very quickly having the change your lifestyle up to be able to move out. Would selling give you much equity?

Can you rent out a room in your house and that should cover the full mortgage surely?

I possibly could yeah.

i do fully understand everybody’s concerns, and im not being dismissive of them honestly, but i am fairly certain that he will be good to his word at least whilst i finish the degree (as k said there are some very good reasons why i do think this would be the case, but dont really want to delve into them too much….i know that sounds really cryptic im sorry!)

i think we need to have a month or two of solely shopping for ourselves and only using what we have bought really to give me a rough idea (obviously a little difficult with some things we already have ie cleaning products etc)

on the flip side, the fuel bills will be considerably lower as he loves to sit in a million degree heat where as I am very much the snuggle under a blanket type person. He also works from home in a very tech heavy position so we are constantly charging devices etc. there would also be a single person council tax reduction.

I don't live alone but when DH works away for a couple of months (no kids yet!) it comes to about £150 a month just for me.
I only buy frozen vegetables. No fruit except for bananas and mostly make stir fries/legume based dishes etc.

With DH home the total bill triples because he likes chops, joints etc . Meat is expensive and it mounts up quick!

I live alone and budget £240pm to include loo roll, cleaning stuff, bin bags etc
Includes lunches as I WFH and no top up shops, I go to Aldi once a week
It's not an eating salmon and caviar daily budget but I can buy some nice stuff!

Doesn't include washing powder as I buy that in bulk and same with toiletries (I keep an eye on Amazon for deals, my deo is £5 in the shops or £20 for 6 on Amazon)

Actually I do split some things with my friend and her husband. I give her half of a couple of offer items from my Asda order and she splits some fruit and veg items with me from her shopping.