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?

I don't think spending money on food is frivolous, as long as you can afford it. People spend money on all sorts of unnecessary things if you look at them that way: hair dresser, nail, clothes more expensive than Primark, mobile phone contract, holidays, take-way, candles and go knows what.
At least food is something your body need, and decent food keep you healthy - of all the area to scrimp on, that wouldn't be my first choice. Spend what you want and can afford.

I find I shop fortnightly for myself and dd, eat mostly non meat meals and including washing powder, shampoo etc it’s between £30-40 per week

@Grumpelstilskin Wow!!!! £35 per day, that's crazy. I'm not a foodie at all though, could happily live on beans on toast for the rest of my life. Do you do all the cooking or do you take it in turn?

£40-60 for me and the cat. Depending whether I need cat food/loo rolls/cleaning stuff etc

My son spends about that per week, so yes, I think that’s reasonable.

I don't think spending money on food is frivolous, as long as you can afford it.

I agree. Studies have shown that what we eat has a huge impact on our health.

£35 sounds perfectly reasonable to me, if it is just for food. We spend around £80 per week (plus or minus £20) on two adults and a toddler - but that includes pretty much everything we buy - all food, toiletries, cleaning stuff, nappies etc plus household bits (e.g. new broom, cards / presents for children's birthdays, new socks for DS whose feet never seem to stop growing). We shop at a huge Sainsbury's so buy pretty much everything there. Probably spend another £5 or so per week on top-ups of milk / bread etc. We could definitely spend less (and have done so in the past), but at the moment we don't need or want to - food (and heating!) is the only thing I really splurge on.

I tried batch cooking. Yes I saved money and time. But it was so boring eating the same meals over and over again. My children hardly ate their repeated dinners, they asked for toast! I think whatever you can afford to spend is reasonable. Some people on limited budgets batch cook, use beans and lentils instead if meat and others use lots of pasta & rice. I prefer a different dinner, every day. If you're happy then that's fine.

I think i must be shopping all wrong I need the ‘shop well for less’ show to help me , we are a family of four and I can’t seem to do it for less than £100 per week with a top up shop on top. I think £35 is cheap if it’s to include 7 breakfasts 7 lunches and 7 evening meals plus drinks and cleaning products.

That definitely isn't possible in London.

It's many years since I lived in London so things may have changed, but food was one thing that wasn't dearer in London, in fact I'd say it was cheaper.
The most expensive areas for food are rural, eg the more remote parts of the Highlands.

@AbsentmindedWoman I would even bump yours to £50 to accommodate your fibro energy levels and stocking up on easy food in the freezer. Think frozen chopped veg, chicken breasts, etc or even jarred sauces. If there are any good yellow sticker deals at stores in your area, I’d capitalize on those too.

@Margot33 did you rotate the food or just eat the same thing 4 days in a row? Portion out the food before freezing so you’ll have enough for 1 family meal and maybe 2 lunch servings the next day. If a recipe makes 10 servings, split it into containers that’ll hold 5 servings each. Eat a container’s worth one day and the next 2 weeks later. It’ll feel new by then. And do that with each batch cooked meal. You’ll have a bunch of good freezer dinners and they won’t necessarily feel repetitive because you’ve spaced them out.

Batch cooking is one of those things that weirdly make people unbearably smug. The amount of photos I see on social media of people preparing their batches of food with some big status about batch cooking 🙄 Yeah batch cooking is fine if it suits you but you don't need to preach it to everyone. I can't stand eating the same meal over and over again and I hate eating food that's been reheated in the microwave. I think £35 is fine for one person.

I live in the south and shop predominantly in Sainsbury's. Do a 'big' shop once a week, and then maybe the odd trip to Aldi/Lidl near my work to get extras or the Tesco on the corner - I'd say I spend about £35 a week. More if I buy booze. I don't eat meat, which makes it cheaper, but spend a decent amount on fresh green veg, and meat replacements, like quorn etc. I do try and get these when they're on offer. I buy lentils, pasta, rice etc in bulk and use these a lot. Like someone else said though, food gives me joy, and it's a luxury. Could I make it cheaper, yes, definitely. I could buy cabbage instead of kale or frozen avocado instead of fresh, but eh, I can afford it and I enjoy it.

I do a weekly "big shop" which is roughly £65 p.w for myself and two DC. That includes enough for 3 meals per day (we make packed lunches for us all), toiletries, toilet rolls, cat food etc. My children are literally like a plague of locusts so come the weekend, I generally need to do a re-stock. Looking at this thread has made me realise that I seem to spend a lot more on average than others, and I can't see why I wouldn't say we ate excessively. I do like fresh meat & veg, and don't often cook from frozen so perhaps that's my stumbling block...

I don’t find the idea of frozen chilli I made a month ago appetising either. I waste more food by batch cooking.

I spend far too much at the moment so I can't comment on the amount but given your health issues you might find it easier to shop online with the minimum amount of £40.

Depending on the shop you could get presents - wine, chocolates whatever to take it over and skip any weeks you just need a bit. Delivery passes are quite cheap, if it's tesco you can use points vouchers to pay for it.

I think it's more expensive to cook for one person unless you're big on freezing stuff. £35 sounds pretty reasonable, probably cheap tbh. It's all relevant though if you can afford £100 per week crack on.

For just me and DH ... around £70 a week.. Kids left home several years ago, but we do keep some veggie and vegan stuff in for them for their visits 2 or 3 times a month... (I don't eat red meat, so enjoy veggie food too.)

Our £70 a week on shopping includes detergents, toiletries, smelly candles, etc, cat food (for 2 cats,) as well as food/general consumables (milk, coffee, bread etc,) and a bottle of wine for the weekend.

How people do it for £20 a week for a family just baffles me. Maybe it's because I am a lazy bum who isn't arsed with cooking from scratch and batch cooking all the time.

Big deal. We don't smoke, we rarely go out for meals - maybe 4 or 5 times a year, we go the pub once a month (and spend £15 tops,) we don't have a gym membership, (or anything similar,) I don't spend £22 every 3 weeks on false nails, or £20 a time on a fake tan, I rarely buy beauty products or make up, I spend £20 a time at the hairdressers every 3 months, and I rarely buy new clothes. Also, we have a 10 y.o. car that was paid for 7 years ago.

I know plenty of people who spend lots of money on gym memberships, new nails every month, fake tans, new clothes every other week, tennis and badminton club memberships (and similar,) who smoke, who have a new car that costs them £200 a month just for the repayments (not including the insurance and tax and petrol!) and who spend £50 a month on their phone contract. Yet they smugly announce they only spend £17 a week on food for a family of 3 or 4, (and 3 'hangry' animals.)

I am sure a few people will come on here soon claiming they spend on NOTHING that I have mentioned. Not sure I will believe them though.

Always find it bizarre that people post threads like this though. As if £35 is a lot for a weekly shop. It's like 'AIBU to feed my children fruit and veg, and generally healthy stuff?' And I don't understand why people need to seek validation from random strangers on the internet. Just buy what you need, when you need it/want it, and to hell with what anyone else thinks!

Cafeculture
about cheaper food in London. Maybe it was my area with more expensive food. In a neighbouring place there were a lot of cheaper shops like Costcutter and Iceland. What I find odd about rural areas is not so much the higher prices, but lack of variety, and I can't get it, wtf, it's all growing right there! When I moved to the countryside from London, I did find food prices (and everything else) much cheaper but it might have been coincidence. Like you said, some parts of the country are more difficult.

I think I spent about £40 a week as a student nearly 20 years ago so dread to think what that would be in today’s money...

That the family can live on 40quid for food for a week is a revelation to me. Maybe it is British thing - to be more modest about food and its taste, comparing to much poorer counties like Italy or Portugal where food is cheap but very nice? I can't get my head around the £40 for weekly food shopping but the same family, say, paying 50 for their mobile phones! or being fleeced alive by energy companies with 100quid monthly direct debit! Call me a stupid arrogant foreigner if you want, but now I understand the oft repeated statistic that "every 3rd child in UK lives in poverty". Because tinned soup, toast for dinner, all this food frugality, IS poverty, yet it is an economically advanced country and all these "record number of people in employment" aren't just earning enough to eat well. Because they are paid crap salaries for their 16+ hour shifts. And if you don't eat well enough you get fat and ill. And now thanks to those who voted to leave EU, these £35 will only last you a couple of days.

There's plenty of other things I'd cut back on before I start scrimping on decent food.

@JingsMahBucket that sounds like a good idea. Yes I did defrost a large container each time, that did two days worth of dinner at a time! I may try it again one day with smaller containers. Thanks for sharing that useful tip.

I spend about 100 euro a week on shopping.I used to spend more,but i write a list of dinners we are having for the week and i only buy whats on the list.

I only shop in Lidl and Aldi now.I wouldnt be bothered to batch cook,i would find it very boring to eat the same meals over and over again.