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?.

£80-£100 pw for 3 adults and a dog here. Shop once a week at Aldi. Sometime get extra milk or salad in the week for packed lunches. Takeaway once a month at most.
Definitely use more tins and dried herbs and dried goods like pasta and rice. I have no issue with the electrics. A double socket is designed to have two appliances plugged in.

Cheap meals using long lasting ingredients:
Spaghetti with homemade pasta sauce: dried spaghetti, tin of toms, onion, garlic ( both last ages) and dried verbs.

chickpea curry- onion , tin chickpeas, tin coconut milk, spices, garlic etc

Baked potatoes with tin tuna and mayo plus tin of sweetcorn

Omelette with tin of beans or salad

Obviously add any meat or fish to these dishes if you have it but not necessary.

Cous cous made with stock cube and kettle. Add whatever you ah e in fridge.

Lentil bolognaise- use tinned or dry lentils.

So many cheap and easy ideas without using a freezer. Leftovers can be used for packed lunch.

I don't think that you need to go from being carelessly extravagant to not picking over every penny spent necessarily. The freezer has costs for a start. Meal planning and budgeting is obviously needed but you can easily eg have a take away one night , keep some for lunch the next day and have a poached egg on toast in the evening. As long as you squeeze in some fruit and veg along the way you are covered . Usually meat free meals are cheap so pasta and tomato sauce one night, left overs for lunch and a salad in the evening. Planning is by far the best way to keep an eye on food spending.

You need a freezer that's a ridiculous amount to spend on 1 person a month, I spend less then that on a family of 4 which includes 2 snack monsters!

I managed 80-120 incl beers and other bits when I was by myself (depended on whether cleaning product/shampoo/hair mask run out etc). I eat lots of fresh and homecooked. The freezer will make massive difference.
Asda has plastic reusable containers which are perfect portion size and easy to store
https://groceries.asda.com/product/storage-containers/george-home-takeaway-food-storers/1000324962437

I made my own ready meals for busy days. Bliss.

I understand the freezer will be a high current item and so is your washing machine and you want to avoid overloading your power supply so your best option is to seek advice from an electrician to be safe OP.

My kitchen was designed in a way that the high current items are labelled seperatly such as washing machine cooker and freezer.

Get advice from an expert to avoid overloading your power supply which could overload your power supply and to avoid dantes' inferno.

You can't live on jacket potatoes forever though!
People say stuff like this but I've been living alone for 20 years and I don't want to eat like a student for all that time. I just cook what I want, and freeze stuff and manage it at £60pw

@2023shady I lived on my own for 6 years, of course not only on jacket potatoes but they were an easy staple meal for one person. 4 jackets a week with various fillings that can be adapted for other meals during the week. Certainly not over £500 a month.

@Irridescantshimmmer Yes that was my concern. I know double sockets are intended for two items to be plugged in but both freezers and washing machines are quite power hungry and I didn’t want to exceed what it could cope with, upon googling some say it’s fine, some say no.

My small freezer is just full of ice cream and useless stuff. You can easily survive without one by cooking once eating twice and shopping twice a week with a strict list. Treat yourself once a week and eat vegetarian twice to offset that.

You don't even need a freezer, you can get an Ocado or Waitrose delivery at £40 spend, two of those a week would be ample.

I never get takeaways but I do spend quite a bit on decent quality fresh food for two of us, usually £100 a week, maybe £125 tops.

Must admit have never understood why takeaways are the "easy option". In the time it takes to decide what I want, order, sit twiddling my thumbs fretting about delivery and trying not to snack I can rustle something up. Have long had the rule that if it takes more than 20 minutes to get it on the plate I can't be bothered. How much faster is a take-away.
And don't get me started on those instant take-aways from supermarkets - a right old fag. And I can boil my own rice thanks.

@FordAnglia I'm guessing you haven't used Deliveroo lately, they even have a little picture of a delivery person cycling or driving to you on the map to show you how many minutes you will have to wait, in real-time. It's fab!

ok, from thinking about ordering something to tucking into it, how long does it take?

She said she did not have a freezer or an ice box hence nothing can be frozen

@FordAnglia it tells you beforehand, before you order a time range, so it might be 25-40 min. I sometimes choose the place which is quickest rather than my fave if I'm impatient. It isn't quicker than 20 minutes usually though.

Even without a freezer you can meal plan without wasting food - make a list of the meals you enjoy/can cook easily/quickly and try and plan for the week so you don't end up throwing things away....

E.g. Monday I fancy chicken and chorizo paella...buy some chicken thighs, peppers, chorizo...make the paella, eat leftovers for lunch. Use leftover ingredients to make chicken and chorizo sauce for pasta, or a tray bake...and so on.

quite - and all that fag sitting on the web and peering out the door/waiting for the delivery. Cooking stuff is simple, fast and cheap if you don't use the oven. Many take-aways are of course little different from processed/manufactured food - you have little idea what's actually in the stuff.
To the OP, buy that freezer now, even if more short-term debt - you will claw the debt back sharpish - and your guts will very probably thank you.

I would absolutely get the double socket checked before using for a washing machine and freezer. We have an older house and the double socket our washer dryer plugs into has been checked a few times for various reasons and can’t be used as a double socket while the washer is running as the total amps would be too high . Hopefully yours would be fine , but it’s not a definite yes as some posters seem to suggest.

I live alone and spend around £60 to £70 per week on food and normally shop once a week with a shopping list. This includes an allowance for one takeaway a week as a treat.
I don't eat ready meals and cook nearly everything from scratch.
I have a fridge/freezer which enables me to buy larger packs of meat that I can split up and freeze for use when I need it.
I've been doing this for about 10 years which has helped to pay off debt and pay off my mortgage early.
I think a small freezer is a worthwhile investment OP 😁

That’s about what I spend for 3 adults a month. We are lots of veg, small amount of fruit and meat or fish every day but a smallish portion. If you get a freezer buy stuff on offer and freeze that what I do so my freezer is full of meat and fish and a little veg. I also buy giant bags of rice and pasta. I make flatbreads in my air fryer. Almost never any waste here. When I was single I ate pasta with a lot of veg and some cheese and had a period of enforced vegetarianism, it did put me off lentils.

Even with a couple of takeaways a week it seems an awful lot for 1 person to spend! I probably spend that on 3 of us. Are you buying a lot of expensive meats and ready meals?

Think about the health aspect as well as budget-that might persuade you to cook at home.

Can I ask the OP where they live?

You could do soups, sandwhiches, curries, omelettes, pasta, baked potato, stew, roasts, fish and chips, it depends what you want to eat.
what do you usually buy from a takeaway you could try to make it at home.
get a freezer for batch cooking
get more tinned/frozen veg than fresh