To ask what your food budget is for 1 week if living alone?

[PoisedMentor]

Trying to do £40 a week and it's tough, but I want to save money, pay my debt and also living alone is expensive.

Just interested to hear what others' budgets are.

£60pw Sainsbury's delivery including dog food and any toiletries or household stuff, but not including coffee beans, oat milk or toilet paper (all on delivery subscriptions) plus one £10ish top up.

I meal plan and don't eat meat (although the dog does).

To avoid food waste I have got used to eating leftovers, or adapting the same ingredients into two different meals. Eg last night I had pasta with a garlicky kale sauce. Tonight I'm having roast veg with the same sauce.

£50-60 every 2 weeks and no more than £10 in between, mostly on bread and fruit

I do a massive shop every three or four months, which usually totals around £250, then batch cook a load of meals out of it and fill the freezer. I only had a half fridge/freezer so I invested in a bigger freezer specifically to store batch cooked portions. I make batches of different curries, spag bol, chilli, chicken dishes, cannelloni, fajitas, soups, casseroles, stews, risottos, pasta bakes etc. I throw as much veg as I can into each batch, then I top up each week with fresh vegetables, fruit and milk/bread etc, probably around £10-20 per week. I don’t really drink anymore, rarely eat sweets/cakes/biscuits (savoury is my preference), only drink water and one coffee in the morning so I rarely buy booze, fizzy drinks, sweet stuff, which helps.
I probably spend more on cat food than human food. They get proper food, not the cheap junk from supermarkets.

About £25 pw, also includes toiletries, I don’t eat much meat, it’s all I can afford.

Yep, I could do delivery - but when I do a dedicated 'big shop' at a supermarket I take a list and I'm pretty focused then.

It's more when I pop in somewhere just to grab something small or a couple of top-up things... then I just keep spotting things to pop in the basket, and the weird thing is it's almost exactly £20 worth every time.

It's almost like my brain has an idea of how much should be in a basket by the time I hit the checkout and going through with less feels like a wasted trip? Really bizarre, I know....

My husband is often away Monday to Friday, and it's about £40 for me too. I'm good at batch cooking a chilli and eating it every single night (because I love it!), which keeps costs down.

I was brought up in a household where meals were generally cooked in sufficient quantities to last two days. I recall being astonished when a university boyfriend mentioned that he didn’t like leftovers as in my experience home cooked food - rice, casserole, whatever - was always even nicer on the second day. I’m inclined to cook larger amounts, so there’s almost always cooked food in the fridge or freezer. (Except at the height of summer when I scarcely cook at all.)

And it’s a point of honour (bred into me from childhood) to know how to make use of food so almost nothing is wasted. (The year I bought a box of pumpkins from Riverford was a low point. Several were still lingering in March and I just could not look at them any more.)

I have 50/50 custody of my kids, over the summer hols they've had chunks of time with their Dad and on those weeks I've spent under 30 quid, plus about another tenner on lunch at work. It helps me balance the books big time!

About £25 but I’m on Mounjaro so I don’t eat much. £50 unmedicated.

Love the cucumber reference! I lose things in the fridge (low down, difficult to see into) all the time.

For the people who says about batch cooking and don't want the same thing therefore got waste, did you know there's an app called supercook. You put in everything food wise you got, fresh, freezer etc, and then you choose breakfast/dinner/dessert, then it gives you lots of different menus based on the food already there. Recipes too

Thanks everyone, I can see there's a huge range here. Definitely some good suggestions, im finding it hard to eat well for very cheaply, end up with £1 ready meals which I know isn't great.

I spend around £50 fortnightly on an Asda delivery and around £10 weekly on fruit and veg top ups. That doesn't include milk, which is delivered, or supplies for the cats.

£40 for one person a week is absolutely spot on.

Make things up like curries and stews that can be frozen and used in other weeks. Basically lots of veg and cheaper cuts of meat if you aren’t vegetarian with a tin of coconut milk and curry powder. This can be done in the slow cooker or on the hob.

Make sure you’re not buying the singular microwave rice packets as these are more expensive.

one loaf of bread for the week (keep it in the freezer if needed and take out slices as and when) for sandwiches, toast, meals like scrambled eggs or beans on toast.

A batch cooked veggie chilli is super easy and cheap. Chopped carrot, onion, celery and pepper fried off with spices and then add in 2/3 tons of mixed beans in tomato sauce. This can be eaten with rice, jacket potatoes/wedges, in wraps with cheese.

Batch cooking is your answer and also bulking up with veggies.

Make yourself a big bolognese but instead of using more mince (or Quorn) Chuck in some frozen peas, carrots etc or a lentils or a bag of spinach.

Have one or two portions for that week and then freeze the rest to use another week.

Curries, stews, bolognese, chilli, soups are all great things to cook in big batches.

Honestly, @PoisedMentorthe smaller the quantities you buy, the more expensive it will be in the long run. I would try to buy food that can be preserved in the largest quantities sensible - things like rice, pulses, flour - and build up a reliable larder at home. Make your own ‘ready meals’ and freeze them if you don’t always want to be cooking.

I buy wholefoods from

https://hodmedods.co.uk/?srsltid=AfmBOoq5lNoR1kbAnRFJ7oAaSrYgoCa3zw0mcYrS27teB-dkf_GaVeTq

and it’s a fair bit cheaper if you buy larger amounts. The recipes are helpful too if you’re not familiar with a product or just want extra ideas.

You can obviously buy in bulk elsewhere, but whatever the source it’s tremendously satisfying to know you have enough basic ingredients to last you a couple of months.

(I’m probably decades older than you but I don’t think I’ve bought more than half a dozen supermarket ready meals (pizza excepted) this century. I just don’t feel they’re good value, in terms of satisfying eating or health.)

Does bread not lose its taste if it's frozen?

It’s fine for toast, I wouldn’t eat it just defrosted. Others may disagree!

I spend 120 for 3 of us (two teen boys!) and I don't scrimp - we have plenty of snacks and meat, and I get a bottle of wine most weeks.

So for just me, 50 quid should cover it TBH - and I'd probably be able to jump up to 2 bottles of wine.

I do make most stuff myself though (with two hungry boys I'd be forever at the shops if I didn't make most of the snacks) - what's taking you over? Convenience foods? Meat? Booze?

What sort of meals/food do you like? If you let us know people could suggest easy meals that aren’t too expensive.

You can't just divide your expenditure to budget for living alone. Your post shows a lack of understanding of that. The OP asked for contributions from people living alone and budgeting for that.

Hard agree (apart from frozen bread for anything but toast). We just bought a bread maker to deal with my eldest's seemingly insatiable need for more sandwiches without me having to be down the shops every day.

I often have a couple of spare meals out of whatever I cook for dinner (curry, bolognese, shepherds pie or whatever) that go in little single meal pots in the freezer so the kids or I can grab one for lunch. I do the same with rice or potatoes - cook up more than I need and freeze the rest in portions

For us, a week's dinners look something like Burgers, pasta (of some sort), wraps (frozen breaded chicken + fresh veggies), Curry, Steak, Pizza (home-made because my kids are fussy, frozen if I can get away with it because we're all tired), some kind of roast. The curry and pasta normally has extra portions, the roast might do depending on what it is/what the sides are. Breakfasts are cereals/eggs/waffles, lunches are sandwiches (school lunch) or something defrosted, and snacks are crackers/pate/tuna/fruit etc.

You might well find that batch cooked homemade ready meals keep you full for longer than the £1 ones, not to mention being a lot more interesting!

I bought a couple of recipe books & I make, portion & freeze something from one of them whenever I have time on a weekend. It means I’ve got a better repertoire when I’m cooking for friends too.

I’ve just spent £83 for a family of 4 (2 adults, 1 teen, 1 primary age child) for food shopping for 5 ish days (dinner Sunday through lunch on Friday). That’s at Tesco.

We all eat home every meal, so that’s breakfast, lunch and dinner plus snacks and then teen does a competitive sport, so she takes an extra meal (packed lunch to eat late afternoon) on those days. We will need to top up a bit in the week on fruit or something I probably forgot, so total for week will probably be closer to £120 ish.

You absolutely can eat for about £40 a week for 1 person. You need to eat simple meals like porridge or toast with a boiled egg for breakfast. And make big meals from scratch that will stretch several days and/or can be frozen. I made Cajun red beans and rice this week. It lasted us as a family of 4 2 full dinners. But you could easily eat it for 2 dinners and 1 extra lunch and then freeze the other portions (not the rice). The extra veg I didn’t use up (celery, parsley) is going in a soup for lunch today that will do use another 2 days.

Chicken legs and chicken wings are very affordable and you can buy and then portion out and freeze for another week.

I freeze stuff just in tie top or zip freezer bags, no need for anything special. Stop with the ready meals. They aren’t good value for money and they don’t fill you up. You’d be much better off spending £5 on basic ingredients and making 8 portions of something.

I didn't - and I have lived alone, I do know what food I need to feed myself - 120 feeds 3 (basically) adults. Divided by 3 would have been 40, I said 50, because there's very little I buy that actually doesn't split down into 3. Even cleaning products/shampoo etc. Yes, I'd always have to clean the kitchen, but not as much, and I would only have to clean one bathroom, do one person's washing etc.

Do you have any examples of anything that costs significantly more for 1 person than 3? I buy a 400g pack of mince right now, but I'd just buy that 400g pack and freeze some if it was just me for example.