To spend £30 a month on ALL food and drink?

[Jumell]

I’m single and live alone. I want to set myself a good budget and admit I’ve overspent /been wasteful in the past.

As a single adult female living alone - is £30 per month on food doable do you think ? Includes eating out etc

Come on then, tell us what you're going to spend your £30 a month on.

But anything at greggs cost more than £1, which is your daily budget...

Can you list exactly what your planning to buy for £30 a month? Doesn't seem doable.

OP, why not plan out a week's menus that cost £7 in total?

Including small sums for coffee/tea, milk and sugar at home, if you take them. I assume cold drinks will be just tap water.

£1 a day?! You can barely get a loaf of bread for £1 these days 🤣

But if one pizza slice is £2.40, as a PP said, that's 2.5 days of your food budget gone. For one slice of pizza. What will you eat for the rest of those days?

No. You will likely end up very malnourished, hungry and unwell.

I could probably do it if I had to, but only because I have very well stocked cupboards and a freezer full of food already, so I'd only be buying milk and a bit of fruit and veg. And I'd still struggle to keep it under £7 a week.

What specifically are you planning to eat, OP?

If you only eat lentils and drink water you might manage.

greggs is outside your price range.

My eldest adult child did a £5( I think) a week challenge about 10 years ago for a charity thing and it was extremely hard - it was basically pasta, tins of tomatoes, water only to drink, reduced loaves of bread, porridge made with water and no fresh fruit.
If you have loads of back up stuff in the cupboards a single person might manage £10-15 a week but only very short term. Once the cupboard, fridge and freezer stuff was gone it wouldn’t be possible to eat on £1 a day.

If you are trying to budget, it needs to be realistic, otherwise you’re just setting yourself up for failure. Why don’t you start with something more reasonable but still low, such as £50 a week or whatever makes sense to you. You can always adjust it down later.

A lots of people have looked into this

You need to spend between 40 and 50 a week just on food excluding any eating out if you want to be eating healthy and long term sustainable

However thinking OP is a wind up

I suppose if you did a home-made bulk cook of lentil and vegetable soup for every meal, plus some baked potatoes for variety, plus porridge for breakfast, it would be doable, just. Plus some apples or fruit.

Ok - I’ve cheated slightly ! I do use Nectar bonus points. - so I’ve used £5 worth so far so make that technically £35 /month

Also had free birthday doughnut from Greggs and small box of chocs as gift

I've seen people do this as a challenge too (although I think it's in bad taste). You could maybe try it for a month but it would be a terrible idea for much longer than that.

I doubt you'd be able to manage that, even if you lived off basic own brand porridge and pasta for the month. To get a balanced diet and some decent form of nutrition, not a chance.

Maybe you could get close to it if you qualify for food banks, and were able to time shopping trips to get the cheapest yellow sticker deals.

Not a wind up but I get what you’re saying it’s important to eat healthy - we can also make the most of Supermarkets starting to reduce prices in evenings

I guess if you ate porridge for breakfast made from the big cheap bags of oats, loaf of bread with jam or soft cheese for sandwiches for lunch, big bag of apples for snacks and bulk make pasta with homemade tomato sauce for dinners you may be able to do it but it won’t be vary varied. Drinks would be water and tea.

Well, to have arrived at this figure you must have done some maths, so show us what you’re planning to buy and eat in a week and we’ll tell you if we agree.

I’d say it will make you unhealthy. It would be possible but not in a way that makes you feel good.

Yes, definitely doable (assuming you're planning an extended sleepover at the end of the month courtesy of the NHS)

I feel like you could probably do it for one month, not including eating out.

But it would be a lot of porridge made with water, plain toast, and jacket potatoes with just butter.

I don't think it's sustainable.

Maybe if you lived off porridge for breakfast and rice and beans for your lunches and dinners…but you’d be lacking in vital nutrients by the end of the month and I don’t think I could manage without at least some variety. Do you think you could?

Presume this is a windup, but....

One pot noodle per day and a multivitamin would keep you in budget. No Greg's pizza slice allowed though.

How old are you op? Sounds like you've never had to shop, cook and budget for yourself, you can't afford anything from Greggs on £1 per day.
I would advise you look on money savings expert, there's loads of budget sheets and tips for reducing your food shop.