I could eat very cheaply if I lived on my own

[Atobe]

Could you?!

It’s only me and a teenager at home now but I seem to spend half my life shopping for more and more food as they are fussy, we like different things and they eat a lot of milk and cereal so we are always running out.

I think how easy it could be to just feed myself. I would eat very simply and if I didn’t have much food in I would be quite happy with beans on toast or a ham salad sandwich and a cup of tea. I would cook occasionally eg a cottage pie and it would last me for three days!

I don’t eat out much these days so I would save a lot of money all round too!

My monthly food bill is about £100, including some things I really like from M&S.
I’m vegetarian, don’t drink and due to allergies and another health issue my diet is a bit boring, but all healthy stuff.
I get my “big shop” of about £45 delivered and then top up shops are usually £20. Only extra is toilet paper on subscription, a box lasts about 8 months.

I have one allergy and one beige eater in this house. Two, and sometimes three, separate meals every single night.

I have quite expensive taste but I go a whole week:

• yoghurt and berries
• tomatoes
• a selection of M&S antipasti

Definitely! I was just thinking that today. I'd be happy with scrambled eggs or a nice salad for dinner, DH needs it to be meat heavy and will happily eat two or 3 or more portions. If I cook double so we can have the same the next night, he just eats the rest as a snack, a 4 person portion. He is stick thin.

DH and kids all snack constantly. The kids are only little and love their fruit, but genuinely they eat more than me

But that doesn’t mean nutrition isn’t important for adults too.

I’m in perimenopause, I lift weights 3 times a week plus Zumba & yoga classes. It would be daft to do that without also prioritising a healthy diet - which is why I’m at people who say they’d live on toasties & chocolate. For a weekend, maybe.

I’d just eat lentil dal and roti, or a boiled egg and toast most days and a packet of biscuits would last me 2 weeks. My main expenditure would be coffee! I recon could do it for £20 a week, easily.

I'm the same. Ds can't cope without meat. I manage to get one fish meal and one veggie meal in him per week but he likes sausages, burgers, chicken, duck.

When he's on a trip, I eat far more veg, salad, olives, white fish, mushrooms.

One of the problems is that I try so hard to provide a balanced diet that I shop a lot and we waste a lot (eg fruit which I will eat but dc doesn’t and they don’t like leftovers but I am quite happy to eat the same thing for several days!)

I would just like to simplify it all!

To be fair, a pint of milk doesn't really go that far if you have a kid who likes cereal and likes a glass of milk.

Definitely agree. I have 3 teens but it's the 17 year old who eats incredible amounts of food! I keep thinking about how much money I'll save when he goes off to uni next year but then remember just how much him going to uni will cost me. My house will be tidier though and the amount of cooking I have to do will go down significantly.

I used to batch cook chicken and rice with vegetables for 5 nights when I lived alone. Weekends I had treat meals. Luckily I don't mind eating the same thing nearly every night. I took my own lunch to work. It was a very cheap way to live.

LOL at £20 a week. I live alone btw.

I eat the same things every week. So I don't have to think about food at all and I have no food waste.

It also means that I don't put on weight because I eat the same amount each week.

I also eat really simple meals which are all cooked from scratch.

I much prefer cooking for two, although that's for an appreciative recipient.

When I cooked for just myself I ate a much more boring, repetitive diet. It was cheaper but I could never cook some stuff because it would go off before I could finish it. I really love cooking but it's depressing to cook a gourmet three course meal for one.

I hear you op! My dc have gone to uni and although they enjoy home cooked food during the holidays, I was hoping that dh would be happy with lighter fare during term time. Not a bit of it! He still wants his regular meat and potatoes, whereas I would be happy with lentil soup or cheese, grapes and a few crackers, or a thrown together salad.

Edited to say: Having just read your post Doitrightnow, that’s a totally different perspective which I appreciate, and I now feel guilty for grumbling. 😀

As someone with one that's flown to he nest leaving me alone I can confirm.

There are a couple of caveats though.

Firstly I find the cupboard runs down. No point in buying herbs/sauces/ random ingredients if you aren't doing big cook ups. Things like garlic bulbs and cream go off before they get used some weeks so you stop buying them

Also you free to buy the food you want. I like steak,,crab and posh olives. Which is more per meal.than milk and cereal.

My friend at work lives alone and told me how little she spends on food per week, I was agog! It is ridiculous once children are in the mix.

Yup. On an average day I have a couple of black coffees and a Diet Coke, a bowl of homemade soup, and maybe a ham wrap or fried egg on toast, something like that.

Cereals are ultra-processed rubbish. They can have porridge instead. Uses much less milk and you can part-substitute water.

I spend £240pm for just me but that's including stuff like washing up liquid, bin bags, lightbulbs, batteries, general house stuff and cleaning products
I like to cook and because I've always lived alone it's important to me that it's a balanced diet and not just stuff on toast for 20 years!

Totally agree. And I often fast for days anyway.

cool

I have thought about doing this. We do a mixture eg: monday night is mince night ( so spag bol or chilli), soup one night ( often minestrone but sometimes leek and potato or some sort of root veg), then usually a pasta thing ( if monday was chilli) or a curry ( if monday was spag bol). We often have a stir fry or rissoto and one night I let them fend for themselves.