Is £35 weekly reasonable for a single person's grocery shop?

[AbsentmindedWoman]

Out of interest, as I think prices are continuing to steadily go up. On average I spend £35 - so some weeks less and others more. Includes convenience foods like soups from the chilled section and 'easy' things like prepared trays of veggies as I have chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia.

What range would you say is reasonable for a single person's grocery shop?

Well, what's reasonable depends on your income, doesn't it?

We certainly could cut down our food bill, but we don't need to. I feed two adults, two cats and a dog on around £250 a month. I could feed for less but I still have plenty of spare income after that so I don't feel as though I need to cut down on what I spend.

If I needed to could happily spend less.

I used to spend about that much when I lived alone. Totally fine.

Yes, £35 isn't that much per person.
I spent way more than that pre dc's .

I used to do £15 a week (well, £13, but adjusting for inflation), averaged.

Aldi was in walking distance, and I would generally get their super 6 cheap veg, 3 for £10 meat selection from Tesco (freeze 2x of the portions, always go fo the biggest volume items like 24 meatballs), then big bags of pasta etc.

I'd have a banana and toast for breakfast, bread and cuppa soup for lunch, and then cook a fresh dinner every night. I do admit I'd get takeaway once a week on that - £7, which got me main, starter and naan (I'd cook my own rice), which I split across dinner one day and lunch the next.

I lived alone a long distance from my now husband. My wage was low, and my priority simply wasn't food, and I was ok on a very samey diet.

I can easily spend that in a day for DS, DP and me. I think we spend too much on food!

I spend about that in me, teenage 'hangry' DS and a 6yo. A bit more if you include washing powder, toiletries and so on. I try to buy stuff like rice and pasta in huge sacks which saves quite a bit and try to cook from scratch as much as I can. Aldi is a godsend, I'm dreading their prices rising if Br*t goes ahead.

It really depends where you are too: if you are next to a Lidl rolling the "5kg of fruits and veg for £1.50", it's easier than if you are surrounded by more expensive shops.

I used to spend that when it was just me. I used to budget £150 a month for food and toiletries etc.

So many people on Mumsnet claim to feed heir family of 10 for £20/ week with batch cooking 😂😂😂😂😂 Honestly, spend what you can afford on the things that make you happy. Ignore what everyone else is doing! Personally I value good quality food and enjoy cooking fresh and varied meals each night so I spend a fair bit on food, but that’s my choice and I couldn’t care less what others spend. I probably don’t spend money on other things that they do.

We spend around 50 per week, for 2 adults, 1 4yo, 3 cats. We mostly shop in Aldi and get bits and bobs elsewhere but that covers everything.

It sounds pretty reasonable to me. I spent more like £20 when I was single but this was years ago when stuff was a bit cheaper, and I was in good health so made everything from scratch. You could do it cheaper but you say you buy some ready made stuff to help as you have health issues. Sounds fine to me. If you can afford it then there's no sense in making your life that much harder to save a fiver or tenner. sometimes you have to value your time more than a few pennies.

I could manage on that, pretty easily I think. I don't eat big portions though, & I love rice, lentils etc. Baked potato also a favourite, just with butter or cottage cheese.

Check out the Thrifty Lesley site for meal plans etc on a low budget. There are also various Facebook groups on budget meal planning.

If you can manage it, growing a few herbs, cress etc on your windowsill can work oit cheaper than buying them fresh. I grow cress on damp cotton wool in a cleaned out plastic takeaway container.

Soup is a good option for eking out not quite enough food at the end of the week, or using up slightly old veg. Handy to have a couple of pots of herbs etc in to flavour it with. Suet & flour for dumplings if it's really not going to stretch far enough.

Of course 35 pounds is a reasonable amount.

Some people spend less, some spend more. There's no right or wrong answer, it depends on your personal needs.

I had a friend who batch cooked a veggie stew at the weekend and just ate that with rice every evening. Toast for breakfast and she got a free lunch at work.

It's not how everyone wants to live, but she was happy. As long as you can afford it, live how you like.

These threads are baffling as it all comes down to whether you shop at Harrods or the poundshop, whether you buy all basic own brands or the branded ones.

That sounds very little to me. Hope you get enough to eat and the vitamins. Thinking of you. I have fibro too.x

I would think that was plenty if you could cook from scratch, had good freezer space, and could shop fortnightly and batch cook. But it seems that your CFS/Fibro makes that not possible.

If you want prepared "luxury" foods (pre chopped fresh veg, fresh soups) it might be quite tight.

It depends what your focus is, so it's hard to tell if that amount is reasonable. If you are short of money and want to cut back, then frozen veg and tinned soup will work out much cheaper, but if you can afford it, and want fresh veg and fresh soups, then that's absolutely fine.

It's more than I have ever budgeted per person, but there's economies of scale in shopping for a family, plus I am healthy and well and don't buy luxury prepared items. But that's like comparing oranges and apples, as my situation is very different to yours.

Cloudyyy
Personally I value good quality food and enjoy cooking fresh and varied meals each night so I spend a fair bit on food... I probably don’t spend money on other things that they do

I think I'm the same. Without wanting to be offensive I've been wondering what one can buy for 35quid and what kind of food to make out of it. I cook every day a new meal (but used to make enough of if for 2-3 days when I worked, as I was rather tired for cooking every evening), and we always have chicken, fish, lamb, some mince plus cheese, fresh vegetables, booze - on top of the usual stuff like tea/coffee, bread etc, and it's definitely more than 35 per head per week for the two of us. We don't buy instant coffee, ready made cakes or meals, milk chocolate, sauces in a jar (like Bolognese; I'd probably bum myself making it from scratch), yohurts, fruit juices from concentrate. I always thought it was cheaper to make your own food, and that was the main reason I always cooked, but no way I'd be able live on 35 in London! People must be doing some miracles with their shopping then ...

Thanks, all!

I had assumed that Femidon's post was a wisecrack

I tend to wait until things I like in Tesco or M&S are on offer, and stock up which works fine. Tesco do a fresh chilli soup I really like, it's a 'meal soup' as very substantial and the closest thing to my own chilli bean soup I used to make (though mine is better!) and while I usually will buy a few when they're on offer at £1 sometimes I do go mad and spend the £1.60 or whatever.

So there's a bit of room to cut back on the spend but at the moment I don't have to so it's not concern - but if prices do keep going up, I don't want my weekly spend to keep increasing fast.

Oh God I love these threads. If its within what you can afford and it satisfies you in terms of eating what you want / like, using brands you like then its reasonable.

I'd say there's 1.5 people in my household as DP and I don't live together but he's here quite a bit. I spend about £50 a week at the supermarket. I buy alcohol, I eat plenty of meat and fish, and I like lots of variety in my fresh fruit and veg. Yes I could spend less, but I don't need to. So shrug

That includes cleaning stuff but most toiletry items come from elsewhere (ie Boots or similar) I dread to think how much I spend there as my skin appears allergic to everything that isn't expensive.

we spend approx £100 a week. thats 2 adults, 2 DC and a dog

I used to do it on £15-20 when I was a student (6 or 7 years ago)
Toast or cereal for breakfast
Scrambled eggs or beans on toast for lunch at home a few days a week and a few days a week I'd have lunch in either the uni canteen or a school dinner on placement
A variation of veggie pasta bakes, oven pizzas, beige foods, those covent garden soups, or jacket potatoes for dinner - wasn't really interested in cooking anything complicated for my self.
I did buy fruit and snacks too.
Usually eat out or visit my parents or DH(then DP) at the weekend.

If you like spicy soups, I'd recommend this one from Tesco.

Really nice and filling, and at 75p a can less than half of that fresh chilli soup. Might be worth a try!

www.mysupermarket.co.uk/asda-compare-prices/Tinned_Soup/Tesco_Tuscan_Bean_Soup_400g.html?TrackingCode=AQQBAAI.6L8Mcvf-6k2Qg0zOWdyc0w

When I was a student 25 years ago a suggested budget for food was £12 per week, and that didn't include washing tablets, cat food, toiletries, batteries, cleaning products, toilet rolls and so on, so with inflation and those kind of things added in I'd say that £35 was probably average now.

When it was just DH and I before kids 12 or so years ago we spent £60-£65 per week for the two of us including general toiletries such as cheapish deodorant, shower gel etc (not including luxuries like makeup or more expensive brands of toiletries etc).

Also - if I lived alone I would probably spend less than £35 on food as I don't eat too much plus I'm veggie which works out a lot cheaper, but DH and the DCs eat like horses and they like meat which is really expensive.

I'm assuming that op has a decent supply of things in already such as herbs/spices/sauces etc.

I couldn't do it for £35 alone but i do have a shopping obsession and tend to buy lots and feed all kinds of waifs and strays ( kids friends/neighbours etc ) and some weeks are better than others.

I'm another one who is mystified that people can spend only £40 per week on a family of 4! We spend easily 4 times that amount and still have to buy bits in the week.
I do 15 packed lunches a week, 2 of us are vegetarian, two are meat eaters, one of the meat eaters is on slimming world and snacks on meat like there's no tomorrow.
We have a Chinese every Friday night and that's not included in any food budget.
Don't tend to eat out much but always have full cupboards and pantry so if I had to dramatically reduce my spend then I would have a good start already.