How have I spent this much on food?!!

[Sparkle900429]

Decided this morning to take control of my finances, first stop review what I have spent on food.

I am single woman living alone, I only have a small under counter fridge, no icebox, no freezer.

I buy food several times a week for the above reason and sometimes can’t be bothered so will order on just eat/Uber eats.

September I spent £532.93 and august I spent £544.06. How have I allowed myself to do this! I have credit card debt I should be paying off!

There is a gap next to the washing machine where a freezer could go but is it safe to do this? (It’s a double socket if that makes any difference) is the freezer my biggest issue?.

what would be a suitable budget for a single person for food?.

Well, first of all split out how much you spent on delivery from UberEats etc. How much of the £500+ was that? I’d say that’s your biggest issue, but a freezer might help if you think a frozen pizza or a ready meal now and again would replace a takeout.

Why are you worried about the freezer being next to the washing machine? If the gap is big enough and there’s a socket then it’s fine.

If you have space you’d save a lot of money by buying a freezer, there’s no issue with it being beside a washing machine…and stop getting takeaways

My under counter freezer is next to my dishwasher so I don't think that's a issue.

I agree with breaking down the food bill. Set say £15-20 a week limit on eating from take away. If your takeaway is more than £20 then you have to pool it into next week's until you have enough to spend.

As for budget, I wouldn’t start from ‘what’s the ideal goal amount’, I’d start from OK, I spend £125 per week on food at the moment. Can I spend £95 a week? (£75 shopping, £20 takeaway). Then after 2 weeks reduce it a bit more - can I spend £70 on shopping, £15 takeaway. Put whatever you save directly
to your debts. Keep going until you get to a level where you feel you don’t want to economise any more. As the debts go down you’ll be motivated.

Lack of planning. I imagine you’re just making multiple trips per week to the supermarket and buying impulsively. Do you throw a lot of food away.
Maybe draw up a menu. Put together a shopping list for the week and buy those foods in one food shop.

I’m also single and easily spend that much too, despite decent size fridge and freezer. My reason is that I buy a lot of healthy fresh stuff, but can also waste money on Just Eat etc. The latter is the biggest waste, and usually happens because I have been too disorganised and don’t have things in the house. I do better when I batch cook (and freeze) and have a good amount of basics in the cupboards (bread, soup, etc.). A freezer is definitely a good idea, though I don’t know anything about electrical safety!

As pp says you need to sort out how much is takeaway and how much is supermarket spends.

Take the time to meal plan. There's plenty of things you can have that don't require a fridge or freezer. Quick meals omelettes, frittata, scrambled eggs, homemade falafel. Plenty of soups with veggies. If you get a freezer take the time to get containers that fit properly and take one portion then you don't have to have the same food two days in a row. Then batch cooking is your friend. One for today or in the fridge for tomorrow and one in the freezer for when you would normally get a takeaway.

It's time consuming early on to get in the swing of it with working out what you eat, what you like to eat, recipes that don't need a freezer. You can always post on here for recipes to help you.

Get the freezer it will be fine.

Just eat and Uber eats are far more expensive than going to a shop. We very occasionally use Deliveroo for groceries and they charge approx 20% above the in store price for every item and then there is a the delivery charge on top of that. A under counter fridge should be more than sufficient if it’s only you at home, you just need to be more organised.

shock horror probe, take-aways are an expensive form of eating.
Hold the front page - and several inside.

I thought potentially having a washing machine and undercounter freezer both plugged into a double socket may be dangerous? Not sure if I’ve just imagined that being a safety issue!

@FordAnglia Yes I am aware takeaways are expensive and I used the word sometimes. Every thread I see there is someone who will always be rude, the majority is due to buying everything fresh as nothing can be frozen so no batch cooking etc. I added about takeaways as I was trying to say everything that is included in food spending for a month.

We have a similar set up at home. As long as you are talking about two plugs, it’s not an issue.

I dint think we are very strict re food and allow £50 per person per week so that would be £200 per month fir you.

Freezer, batch cooking and some sort if menu is the way to go.

We spend half of that for two people. You can still batch cook without a freezer, we just eat things like bolognese or curry for three nights.

Can you clarify what you mean about ‘nothing can be frozen’?

YY we do that for lunches.

This will fully depend on you power supply (don’t know technical terminology) and if it will blow a fuse, usually it wouldn’t though. We have our boiler, under counter fridge & under counter freezer all plugged into a double socket with an extra adapter plugged in. However if we have multiple appliances going throughout the house at the same time a fuse will go.

You definitely need to work out what you’ve spent on takeaways and how much they cost.

We don’t spend as much as you for a family of 5.

You don’t necessarily need a freezer, I lived years without one when I was younger, I only really started using one after having kids.

Maybe start on what you buy, there are plenty of easy ready meals that can be put in a small fridge, check dates and make sure you have long dates so on the nights you don’t want to shop you know you have a nice ready meal at home waiting so you don’t have to get a takeaway. Take food out of boxes if you can to make more room in the fridge.

I wouldn’t try doing a full overall as you might get fed up quickly and go back to your old ways. Limit yourself to 1 or 2 less takeaways a week, get use to that then reduce some more.

You can try an old budgeting trick of only taking cash to the shops so you can’t spend more than you have on you, this reduces the amount of extras you buy. I know it’s hard to do in an ever increasing cashless society, but worth a try.

Get a freezer

check with an electrician, but our appliances are all in double sockets. Just be more organised, I’m sure you can do a weekly online shop and store that in a small fridge or just keep fruit and veg on the side.

sorry, was just somwhat flabbergasted by your food spend and habits.
I would get a freezer - as a single person I reckon you should then easily be able to get your spend below £100, even substantially below. Of course, it depends where you shop, what you want to eat. Choices.

Clarity comes from reading. Op doesn't have a freezer or freezer compartment in her fridge. It's right there in the opening post. So she can't freeze anything or buy anything that needs to be kept frozen.

yep as you say of course a freezer will run off a normal socket. Many "fridges" have a freezer section and run off a normal socket.

If budget is an issue for a freezer, they are almost always coming up on freecycle.

Having a freezer would save you a fortune as you can then get yellow stickered food or from Olio and freeze it.

if you are used to having takeaways cos knackered and get in at last min or don't want to cook from scratch at home, I'd build in say one takeaway every two weeks, rather than completely cut them out, unfortunately I find takeaways a lovely treat (as a mum who hates cooking) and going without them isn't for me, but I also see it's a waste of money in another way (although for me, its not a waste, cos it's a night off cooking and cleaning the kitchen).

So, look at how much of that is UberEats and takeways- and decide how much you want to spend on that, and then allocate that money somehow (do banks still do those little pots inside bank accounts, mine doesn't). Just make that your takeaway fund, have one 'treat' one and one 'basic' one a month (e.g. fish and chips once, Chinese once).

I find this much more realistic than saying 'I'll never eat takeaway again' but then I get in, it's pouring with rain, I've had an exhausting day and a headache and I just think oh god, let's eat takeaway to solve the problem.

I realise everyone else on mumsnet will come tell me I should have a lovingly prepared from scratch homemade pizza in the freezer for this moment, but they don't taste the same, they just don't.

This advice only works if you are trying to save money but not truly on your uppers- obviously if you are in massive debt/can't pay rent, then that would still be too much on takeaways.

Teenage DS at Uni can manage to eat for £30/week. He does rely on freezer storage which he doesn't pay for (in halls).

I live PT on my own, am probably managing for about £45/week. I don't need a freezer to achieve that, but it helps prevent waste when i shift back to multi-person household.

We both cook daily, rarely throw food out, we don't batch cook.