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?

£35 is well doable from Aldi. I would spend less than that when shopping for just myself and that included about 3 bottles of wine.

for me and DH and DD it's approx. £120 per week plus a cat. Could be less some weeks. In London area.

I'm going to be on maternity leave in a few months though and not sure what I'll do re work - my contract has been ended to end at start of May so will probably think re that - unsure re childcare etc if worth going back to work or not.

I know it may not be possible in your case but we grew some things last year - potatoes, courgettes, lettuce/rocket, tomatoes and plan to do some more. Also looking into getting 2 chickens for eggs - my aunt had them and neighbours at back of house have some.

When I was really scaling things down, I did use Costco, Poundland etc - especially for toiletries.

RollaColla84 - toiletries for me are generally from Boots too - points - but tried Superdrug once or twice and much cheaper. I've also changed from e.g. Clinique to Olay/Garnier moisturiser in past few years and supermarket skincare - Sainsburys own range is really good - I also buy for DD and DH Tescos Extracts Sea Minerals shower gel £1.70 for a litre - I buy my own nicer one! Their own brand Keronics Serum is only £1 too! Sali Hughes of Guardian swears by Boots own brand styling mousse too.

Zoflorabore - agreed - not often now - but sometimes me or DH do a 'top up shop' - for stuff that Sainsburys either hasn't got in stock or prefer fresher.

I honestly don't know how people can shop for £45 a week and feed 3/4 people. My shop is at least £60 for 2 adults and an 8 month old, dog food on top of that. We're vegetarian so there's no meat in there.

I think £35 is a reasonable amount to spend on food. A few years ago I used to spend £30 per week including toiletries and cleaning product. I only lived in a small flat and had a fridge with a freezer box so had to buy small potions of everything (which is more expensive) otherwise I would have had very repetitive meals

Yes that's a reasonable amount

Reasonable is whatever you can afford!

I certainly spent more than that as a single person per week and now with a dh and 3 dc my shopping Bill is massive, but imo it’s reasonable as we buy good quality food and we can afford it.

Thing is in theses threads you always get the old “oh I feed 20 people for a month on that” or “just batch cook” like it will save you a million. The just become a competition for feeding your family on as little as possible

DS1 only spends £15 a week on food when at university. He doesn't eat meat though (because of the cost) and eats us out of house and home during the holidays! I think £35 a week seems reasonable, although you could probably get away with less.

We spend around £150/week on food, toiletries, household stuff, cat food and alcohol (in moderation!) for a family of 4.

We dont shop in waitrose. I always assumed we were in the middle end but sounds like we spend more than others. We do eat a lot of fruit, veg and expensive meat (not a fan of mince more than once a week tops).

Posted too soon....
But don’t eat organic or buy premium brand..

Yes, I do have a good stock cupboard and spices etc. I also don't eat much meat.

Separate budget for skincare, and I tend to buy a bottle of wine a week but not including that in the £35.

I would say it’s about right, I spend around £70 a week on 3 of us plus a dog and cat so £35 for one person should be plenty.

we spend around £200pw for a family of 4 including 2 hungry teen/preteen boys.

That is for everything though including wine and we never eat out etc

Oh and we are not in the UK so food is more expensive here.

All in including household things and toiletries I probably spend 70-100 and there is only my dd and I. I've been through it with I fine tooth comb I'd love to save money on it but I don't buy luxury's. No biscuits, crisps, sweets and so on. Every time I do a shop I go through it before paying and see what I could leave out and we throw away very little. I just think prices keep rising. It's disgusting that you can buy a burger and chips at McDonald's for the price of a punnet of grapes.

Blimey. I feel very frivolous reading about everyone's frugal life style. We cook everything from scratch but are a family of foodies and probably spend over £35 a day on groceries. But that is for two adults, 2 DC and 4 large dogs.

It is hard if you are single everything costs more. I bought two medium potatoes last week 49p big bag of about 15 was 1.50. But I knew I wouldn’t use them before go off.

Ditto small loaf is 89 large is 1, I prob spend £45 just to replace lot fruit and veg and salad that dosnt last the week and is more expensive because goes before can use it all or buying smaller amounts costs more.

It's interesting to see different people's average weekly shop costs, thank you.

I think £35 is pretty good.

I spend £60 per week on groceries for just me and toddler DD, but that includes all cleaning products and toiletries as well.

I could definitely do a cheaper shop but I have certain things I won't budge on like buying free range eggs and meat, milk where the farmers are paid fairly etc.

Op it's just me (and 3 dogs). Yesterday I went to Lidl and, not counting dog food and toiletries, I bought for just under £35 :

6 eggs
bacon
6 sausages
6 large chicken thighs
packet of ham off cuts
2 scotch eggs
4 mini pork pies
cheese
10 cod fish fingers
4 angus beef burgers
medium frozen pizza
sliced loaf
olive spread
bag of mixed nuts
punnet of grapes
punnet of strawberries
extra thick cream
crackers
frozen onion
frozen peppers
frozen oven chips
frozen cherries
1 kg onions
1.5 kgs carrots
4 baking potatoes
6 almond "magnums"
2 chocoate with hazelnut brs
1 white chocolate bar
6 pack lentil curls
1 tin rice pudding

Bit lacking in green veg so I will get a cabbage and some courgettes in the week. I already have pasta, rice, porridge and lentils and herbs and spices in my store cupboard. I am expecting this haul to last 2 weeks based on breakfast, evening meal and a snack meal a day. I find it quite hard to spend a lot of money in Lidl

Batch cooking lets you have health varied meals.
I love to cook but the earliest I get home from work is 7pm so for me it's from the freezer,meals that came be cooked on 30min or crap .
On my days off I just cook more than one meals worth and freeze the rest for other days.
£35 seems reasonableWe probably spend about £70 for adult,1 every hungry teen and2 cats.This does include toiletries,cleaning stuff though.We are lucky though,we do have a freezer and don't have to buy preprepared food.

I'm single and spend about £20 a week on food shopping. Although I also treat myself to a deli lunch twice a week after work meetings (about £6 pw) and a take away/meal out a with friends over the weekend (about £15 pw)
I treat food as one of lifes luxuries as I don't smoke or drink.

We spend £100 for 5 of us. But that is everything, Sunday roast, all toiletries, washing powder etc. I think we need to rethink what we spend.

We spend about £45 a week on two of us, however bigger pack sizes make it easier. When you live alone a bag of carrots for 30p is not such great value if you have to eat them every day! I'd say £35 is about right for one person and enough to get some varied meals in.

We get a Tesco shop each week which is normally between £50-£70 for the two of us depending on what I have in the freezer. This weeks it the high end but I have spent £10 on 2 steaks for the weekend. Then I do a visit to Iceland for chicken pieces, irn-bru and broughies so spend about another £20-£40 depending on what other random crap I chuck in.

So £35 sounds really quite reasonable OP.

Yes I think it’s about right. I could do that but might spend more some weeks if I was stocking up.