To ask minimum monthly food spend single person living alone

[ItsNotJaneFonda]

Afternoon mumsnetters. I know mumsnet has an intelligent and pragmatic demographic. Just trying to sort my monthly budgets out.
The lockdown has made me sharply change my spending habits.

What do you think is the minimum amount a single adult female with an office job and no physically strenuous hobbies can spare to spend on food a month.?

I would say £50 a week would be a luxury food bill for one

I did it for £10 a week plus one treat meal - £5 on one meal a week. So approx £60 a month. It was tough. A lot of rice, a lot of porridge, a lot of soup and a lot of eating them same thing for 3/4 days.

I spend about £50 a month for me and my dog including toiletries and laundry stuff.

My student DD budgets £35pw and eats well on that. She does batch cook and freeze.

It depends. Do you really want 'the minimum' and the style and quality of food that entails? Or do you want the minimum for a decent choice of food, good quality ingredients and treats, etc?

The two could be quite different. You could probably live on a tenner a week. Whether you'd want to is something else entirely.

I would budget £30-40 a week if you want plenty of fresh fruit and veg and maybe a sneaky bottle of wine. If you shopped at Aldi and batch cooked that’d get you quite a bit I should think.

I reckon 25 would be doable. Especially if you were batch cooking.

I used to be able to do it on about £30-40 about 4 years ago. So £50 sounds realistic. I’ve always done a bit of batch cooking but ate reasonably well and what I wanted not just to survive!

Surely it depends on income.

I've managed on £20 a week in the past but that was because I had to as that was all my spare cash after bills. I wouldn't want to do that if I didn't have to as it wasn't healthy or sustainable.

When I was single I spent about £300 a month but that included eating out a lot. If I ate at hone every day I guess £100 would be comfortable.

£100 a month is fine for one person if you batch cook and freeze.

To eat well, I'd say £30. That allows you to have a wide variety of fruit and veg which can often be the most expensive part of food shopping, as well as some lean protein. It might be lower if you are veggie. For that, you can have 3 meals a day, including taking a packed lunch to work if you need.

I spend £40 a week - single, veggie. Includes cleaning products but not booze. I eat 7-8 portions of fruit and veg a day, cook from scratch, avoid food waste, buy dried chickpeas etc and bake my own bread. I do have some physically strenuous hobbies though and I don’t stint on food so I reckon it’s doable cheaper!

I spend between £45 - £60 a month in Aldi and that includes all my house snacks and food for my lunch at work.

pre lockdown 2 of us got by on 60 quid a week easily.

i am a cooker from scratcher though.

Maybe £80 but that would be very tight? I think £100-150 a month would give you a bit more variation and may be more sustainable.

I think it helps massively that I meal plan. I know some people think it's boring but I love waking up and just knowing what's for dinner instead of trying to throw something together when I'm starving and don't know what I have in.

I’d say £35 pw but more with alcohol and household stuff.

I spend about £50 a month for me and my dog including toiletries and laundry stuff.

£12.50 per week? Really? What on earth are you eating?

Bet it's a MN chicken. Do you a fortnight, that would.

Thank you so much for all your responses.

In answer to your questions - yes I literally mean the minimum amount you can spend without risking malnutrition!! I'm not saying I'd necessarily stick to that but I feel I do need to be a bit more practical in relation to how I manage my finances - for example - I don't even use the freezer - so 'batch cook and freeze?' wouldn't have a clue!! I need to be more practical in every way in how I manage finances generally and manage household stuff generally.

fairydustandpixies - I'm REALLY impressed with how well you budget!!

I think I spend about £70 and actually that is eating fairly well, but a lot of batch cooking, home made meals, not really any ready made meals, and I don't tend to eat large portions. Um, yes, if I was to add in alcohol that would almost double unfortunately, but again, fairly nice wine etc.

I used to spend £15 a week when I was single to include toiletries. Didn't eat breakfast, a sandwich for lunch and then a dinner cooked from scratch

I spend about £40 a week but not budgeting, cook from scratch.
Now is not the time to tie yourself to a low budget, prices are rising and will continue to shoot up tor a while.