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?.

A freezer might help in that you can make things like casserole or lasagna and freeze a second portion

But surely you don’t have to buy food every day. Most foods, stay fine in the fridge for a good few days, usually a week.
You can buy fresh ready made soups/ quiche/ salad/ fruit on a Monday and usually fine the next few days at least. Eat things that last longer like apples towards the end of the week, and berries first.

Thank you everyone, looks like I was probably over thinking re the double socket 🙄, know someone who had a house fire and I think it’s made me a bit cautious - in my mind it would overload the socket and house destroying fire would happen shortly after lol! 😖

Freezer will be ordered on payday and I’m going to sit down and actually meal plan!

Our washing machine is on it's own fuse in the fuse box with a higher rated fuse. The freezer would be sharing the circuit to the fuse box and would have an unnecessarily high rating but I don't think that would matter, should blow the fuse in the plug if anything goes wrong. Putting a freezer next to something that gets hot means it may have to work harder and use more power to keep cold.

I think you know how to solve this, OP.
You're getting a freezer and cutting right down on the takeaways.

Once you've got the freezer you can start cooking things like casseroles, so you can make double the quantity and freeze one portion for another time.

I always take anything from the supermarket which is for the freezer, out of its packaging and into a freezer bag. You save a lot of space like this. Don't forget to label stuff though - I find that things in freezer bags all look the same once they've frozen, and it's hard to figure out what's what.

Good luck!

You could probably sign up to Gousto or something and get enough meals for the week and spend far less... We get the ones that serve 4 and eat half one night and half another. You could do the same with the ones that serve 2.

Getting a freezer is a really good idea.

Meal planning is great, but sometimes I don't have the energy to prepare what I have scheduled, so some Insta meals of some sort (meat, jar/packet sauce, pasta/rice, some frozen/tinned veg on the side, stops me from ordering a take away.

Don't be sniffy about frozen foods as they can be a brilliant time saver. And quite frankly something like frozen crumbed calamari cooked in an air fryer is bloody brilliant and I would never make it from scratch myself.

One thing I find helpful is pre-preparing my meat. So batch cut up a bulk amount of chicken (maybe 1 or 2 kg?). Cut some up in strips for stir fry, in cubes for a chicken curry etc, put in a ziploc bag, write in it with a permanent marker (because it all looks the same when frozen). Some with beef and mince and anything else you fancy. By stacking flat you can fit lots into a freezer and it also defrosts quickly.

Take a frozen bag out of the freezer in the evening and put it in the fridge and it will be defrosted in time to cook for dinner the next day. Worst case scenario it doesn't take long to defrost in the microwave.

Then for lazy days you can do an "Insta meal" with the meat, some jar sauce and some spaghetti/rice/jacket potato.

Buy some IceCube trays and use it to freeze unused tomato paste, pasta sauce any other sauces, fresh herbs in water etc. because the single serve sachets amounts cost a fortune. When frozen pop in a labelled freezer bag. My frozen lemon juice and lemon zest has been fabulous to have on hand and small amounts of tomato paste or purée is always useful yo add flavour to a recipe. Even a small amount of pasta sauce to pesto from the freezer is great to add to some ravioli.

take baby steps... first try cooking 4 portions of a meal, store in the fridge for lunch the next day. getting a freezer is great but its a bit ambitious to plan suddenly meal prepping everything frozen...it takes a lot of effort and planning. cut down takeaways to twice a month if you can. easy quick win. we spend about 75 - 90 a week for 2 of us and we dont use the freezer all that much

@AliceMcK stop using the adapter asap! They have no fuse so can easily start a fire! They can easily become overloaded and not trip your electric, starting a fire. Have just checked with my DP who’s an electrician. They all have heating elements causing them to be the worst appliances to cause a fire because they draw so much current!

OP You can put you freezer and washer on the same socket that’s not an issue. Just don’t use adapters or extension leads

I have a freezer but live alone, and my spend is £240pm if it helps

Freezers are good as you just have to cook a meal, but make double and freeze a portion.

But I would say meal planning will be your best friend.

And screw anyone saying no takeaways, they have their use. I ordered pizza hut last night as I was shattered from a busy day at work and we do love pizza.

However, it's often cheaper to order direct from the restaurant than via uber, just eats etc as they charge a surcharge.

It’s easily done.

Cut it down gradually.

A freezer would be useful, although depending what you eat more fridge space could be better. So before you buy think about that.

Double check the appliance energy needs - but I think it’s going to be fine in two side by side plugs, but possibly not both in the extension less of one plug.

Have you heard of the ‘TooGoodToGo’ App? Occasional use might fill your ‘takeaway’ habit and add a bit of surprise.

I live alone and spend about 50 to 60 a week plus 20 or so on eating out. That includes cat food and litter. I don't eat meat so that reduces it but I don't think I scrimp on that budget. If I had to I could get it lower.

I live on my own too. I use Gousto (the meal kit service). It's definitely not the cheapest possible way to shop - but compared to what I was spending before, I think it's great value. It can be hard to meal plan and cook in bulk for one, without a freezer especially. I found myself ordering takeaways out of both convenience and boredom.

Gousto works out for me at £4-something a meal. I get 3 recipes a week, each sized for two. In total, £136 a month. (If you get 4 or 5 recipes a week the cost per portion gets even smaller.) I make a recipe for dinner, eat one portion then, and the other portion becomes my packed lunch the next day. It's incredibly varied and tasty and pretty healthy. You can easily skip a week too if you're away/out a lot etc.

I suspect people will leap in here saying how there are much much cheaper ways to cook - and there definitely are. But it's not always about comparison to the cheapest possible option, but to whatever you're doing at the moment, and what you'll actually stick to/enjoy/works with your lifestyle. Since I signed up, I eat more healthily and with more variety, almost never want to get takeaways, don't buy lunch out at work any more, etc etc. I also waste absolutely nothing as you get sent exactly what you need and no more. It's saved me loads and I don't have to give meal planning or grocery shopping a second thought beyond picking some meals off the app each week!

PS: I promise I don't work for them and am not on commission.

Also worth one week writing down everything you are getting - we had an "how much on coffee!" Experience

And frozen veg is much cheaper than fresh most times especially when cooking for one as can reduce waste

firstly practically everything apart from fish will keep 3-4 days in the fridge. So even without a freezer shopping twice a week should be enough.
I don't know but you maybe be buying too much so it goes off before you use it. No point in buying a kilogram of carrots. is your fridge set low enough
Somethings keep a few weeks in fridge all cheese except cream cheese, butter, eggs, onions carrots , milk and yogurt generally last a week, meat 3 days fish 1-2 days. Salad 3 days ( open the bags immediately you get home and add a small square of kitchen roll prevents them going slimy) do not wash fruit or veg until about to use
it is never so economical cooking for 1 as 4 you might be able to feed 4 for a week on £120 but you can't feed 1 on £30 easily as you can't get same deals on single portions.
I think you need to keep receipts and then circle what is food / meaks and what is snacks / alcohol and what is laundry toiletries or any non food item like a pack of tights magazine etc
how much do you need to scale back? do you actually need to get it down to £40-50 a week would £70 be enough. do you need a separate budget for takeaways / eating out whether it's pizza, fish and chips or coffees or lunches . if you buy a coffee at £3.50 and lunch at £5 meal deal every day so a reasonable economic one not a huge coffee with muffin ( mon-fri 21 days a month) and a £15 take away a week that is £238 before you buy a thing from the supermarket
how often do you entertain are you cooking for 2 fairly often or once in a blue moon.

Having a freezer is life changing, glad to see you’ve decided to get one.

I had a chest freezer when I was feeding 4, batch cooked and only shopped once a week. Now I have a large supermarket five minutes away and still live the freezer lifestyle for 2 with just a 3-drawer.

Some money and time saving ideas:

Freeze bread on the day you buy it and defrost as much as necessary.

Buy special offers and yellow stickers. Pork especially freezes no problem.

Buy family packs and freeze the rest. No more singles’ premium. Same for leftover wine in cubes.

Frozen veg is much cheaper and less trouble to store and cook. I always have peas, sweet corn, spinach, aubergines, green beans, soup mix and assorted chips and potato products on hand. My kids used to turn their noses up at homemade mash as the frozen one was more buttery.

Cook double and freeze one.

Buy ready meals instead of takeaway. Iceland has some good quality as well as cheap&nasty. I do enjoy a 90-second dinner occasionally!
Or get something you fancy but don’t know if you want to invest money for all the extra ingredients. I’ve never made a Thai curry but would buy a frozen one just to see.

And, last of all, mini desserts! Pull out a mini Magnum for in front of the TV instead of buying an expensive full size at the shop and having to eat it on the way home…

Bear in mind you can batch cook food and keep it in the fridge for a few days

No need to freeze it

I do think some of that total has been food which has been wasted, I’ve had a look at what food I currently have in the fridge and there are things unopened but now have exceeded use by dates so I’m literally throwing money away and feel ashamed of myself. Today has been a real eye opener!.

The cost of eating out and takeaways has ky rocketed.

I saw a local place advertising Sunday roast and pudding for £22.50, a head. Apparently a bargain?!

I made beef in red wine with savoy cabbage, carrots and mash with apple and blackberry crumble and custard for pudding for 5 today, with enough leftovers for another 2 meals, for £15.

Stop the takeaways and ready made food and shop smart as pp have said.

you don't have to have a freezer, but it would help with variation on meals

I though will sometimes bulk make a slow cooker recipe and then we will eat it for 3 night on the trot, maybe boring - buts it so little work and effort. I literally just put the slow cooker food in the fridge and then we reheat it for the following 2 nights running.

Meal planning and possibly adding in a couple of non meat dinners/store cupboard food meals for the end of the week would help

We spend £650 for two people and a cat, just for groceries not including eating out. It depends what you want to eat tbh. I’m not really prepared to eat crap food, I work hard and I like nice food 😄 it would be the last thing I cut back on if we were economising.

I live alone and budget around £140 per month for food.
I don't have a freezer and tbh it's been fine. It's one less thing to keep track of.
I've been honing my weekly food list for months now. I used to look at apples in the shop and think "I really should eat more apples" but then I'd take them home and they'd go off because I never fancied them. Same for yoghurt, crackers, novelty cheeses etc. Now I just don't buy anything that isn't on my list. I'm saving a fortune plus saving tons of food waste.

When dd was at uni and I was on my own I spent about £25 per week. That was five years ago so I'd say you could half your spending.

When I was single and living on my own I lived on jacket potatoes. A pack if 4 costs 65p. Rarely got take aways as they were a treat, certainly not Just Eat/Uber eats, I’ve got legs I’ll get it myself. That’s where you’re going wrong.