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?

We spend about £75 a week there are four of us

I spend £200 on three people (dog food mail order though some biscuits or treats sometimes). It's a crazy amount and i need to halve it!

I spend £90 a week on 2 adults and 4 kids (3 teen boys to who eating is a hobby) and we eat well.
£35 easily managable

I spend £140 ish, for me, dp, ddog and 2 dcats. Includes all the usual stuff, loo roll, kitchen paper, cleaning products, bin bags etc

I spend about £45-£50 a week on me and one DS, no pets. So yeah I'd say about right.

We eat well for that money as well. We have meat or fish every day and plenty of fresh fruit and veg. DS still on free school meals though so that reduces cost.

It sounds reasonable to me.

I do one big food shop every month at aldi and usually spend about £80. And then do top up shops weekly at Morrison's of fruit, veg, bread and milk and spend about £30 a week in there. That's for me DH and our 1yo. That includes nappies wipes the odd bottle of wine, all toiletries and cleaning stuff

spend about £80 on myself and 1 teenage eating machine with gluten allergies (makes a lot of things dearer) and an 8 year old and a cat. So 35 for one person sounds more than plenty.

why do you ask?

Why do you ask?

We spend around 240 a month but that includes everything food, toiletries, laundry and cleaning products for 2 adults 13 yo & food amd treats for 4 dogs Shopping at lidl and just topping up on bread and milk twice a week in asda because it's so close I should get it down really. Christ!

Batch cooking. You're doing it wrong if you're eating it on consecutive days. You're meant to portion it up into meal size portions, eat one meal, and freeze the rest. If you do this with several different meals, and intersperse with quick, simple meals like stir fry or jacket potato, then you won't get bored of eating the same thing day in, day out.

@MadameDD I'm a chicken keeper. When you get chickens, don't only get 2, get 3. That way, if one dies (and they can die easily, sour crop being a common cause) the other isn't lonely. One extra girl won't make any difference to looking after them, or the amount of space needed.

I batch cook and eat on consecutive days but only cook for 3, sometimes 4 days so we don't get bored at all. I cook food we enjoy, then when it's gone we have something different.

To be honest, I'd probably only spend half of that if it was just me. I 'm not particularly into food or cooking really, I'd rather eat beans on toast or a sandwich than a proper dinner. Plus I get a lot of stuff on yellow stickers, which helps.
It's up to you though, if you like eating different things and can afford it, then why wouldn't you spend that amount of money?

I think £35 per week is good, especially because you need to buy ready chopped veg because of your CFS and fibromyalgia. I spend more than that, nearer £50 so am impressed.

Obviously costs very throughout the country. One thing I do find about London is that there are many more independent shops in more ethnically diverse neighbourhoods where fruit and vegetables are cheaper than supermarkets.

Interested to see post from Bloodydisgrace

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?

That’s my impression. Housing costs are generally higher here and often it seems that food is the one area people can economise.

I shop every 2 - 3 weeks rather than every week so I can get deals. Then top up with more fruit and maybe more veg in between.

There s just me and 2 kids.

On the 2 - 3 weekly basis I can spend about £80 - £120.

Motoko - thanks for the heads up re chickens - 3 it is - my aunt had 4 for about 10-15 years so can give advice re breeds and the neighbour to the back and side of me keeps them.

My one slight worry is cats - including mine! But I worked with someone a few years ago who kept chickens and had a cat and he said the cat knew (with a look from him, the owner) not to touch the chickens!

The girls will let a cat know not to mess with them! We fed a stray cat who preferred to live outside, and she would often share the garden with the girls. It was her who didn't like them getting too close, so if they did, she'd move away. She never showed any interest in attacking them.

Chickens are lovely creatures, each with their own personality, and they can be very funny to watch. We loved sitting in the garden on a summer's evening, just chilling out, watching them pottering around.

We started with 3 in the garden, but at one point, because we had use of some fields attached to the property, we had 36 chickens, and 3 ducks! It was addictive!

I've had friends who had a chicken that the DS's liked to cuddle, and my aunt said her chickens had different personalities but when she moved she was quite happy to rehome them, ha ha! They lived with her German Shepherd dogs though too and were fine.

She also had ducks but they were the wild ones that nested on her pond and so she got a duck house for them too.

We spend about £55- 75 pw for two people. It varies as some weeks we don’t buy alcohol and some weeks we cook entirely from scratch, then other times we get more convenience foods and household things.

I think your £35 is pretty good. If I was on my own and didn’t want to cook some weeks (or couldn’t for health reasons) I expect I might go into M&S and just buy a week’s worth of their very nice ready meals, they do some good deals for multiple meals. Top it up with reduced side dishes as and when and some basics like eggs and I’d be happy.

£35 sounds OK, I spend around £100 a week, 3 of us (inc a teenager) but I am happy to spend on food, we like eating , includes alcohol and lots of treats, but we can afford it, could cut down if I wanted to but buying frozen pizza and burgers from Aldi doesn't appeal.

I much refer to 'economise' in other areas, ie: I only buy clothes from charity shops (a sort of 'principle' now ), get free hair cuts as a 'model' etc - and of course I apprecate that I have the choice on how to spend the household money.

Sounds reasonable to me. I spend about £60 a week for two adults and three children (and a cat) in Aldi. Inevitably always need to top up on milk and bread through the week too.

but buying frozen pizza and burgers from Aldi doesn't appeal.

Their pizzas are amazing tbf.

out - I've had their fresh posh pizzas, very nice, but never tried the frozen ones. .

Yes, we buy the Aldi sourdough pizzas, which are about £3.50, and the comparable ones in Sainsbury's (the "luxury" ones) are nearly £6, and not as nice. The buffalo mozzarella on the Aldi ones is lovely and creamy.

Oh yeah, I'm talking about fresh rather than frozen, but they freeze fine. I only have half a pizza (and usually end up not eating all that, due to my lack of appetite), so husband cuts it in half before cooking, and puts the other half in the freezer.