Single person grocery costs

[Hollyrose164]

Hi
Trying to look at my budget and wondering how much others spend on groceries per month if you live alone. Including cleaning products and food. I've set myself a budget for the month but would like to know what other people spend so I can see if I'm being too generous or unrealistic with what I've put aside.
Not including spend on pets as I've listed that separately on my budget
Thanks

@Hollyrose164

Tonight I made in my little rice cooker smoked tofu, rice, lots of veg & seasonings.
It makes two portions so that will be lunch tomorrow.
Spaghetti Bolognese
Green lentil Thai curry & rice
Once a week eggs& hm chips
Salmon, new pots, broccoli &
Courgettes
One evening maybe sausage & mash
Sag paneer & rice, raita
Mainly cooked from scratch.
There's an American girl on YouTube, Clare/Claire Risper who has lots of recipes for one in the rice cooker. It was a revelation to me. Good luck 🍀 🤞

Ps. Bread maker is very old now and was half price on Amazon years ago. A Panasonic 39.99.
I eat a pretty varied diet. I'm not vegetarian but eat mostly chicken. A rice cooker meal takes about 25-30 minutes. I also use a slow cooker. I am something of a gadget queen!

I’m quite shocked at those spending £120+ a week for one person, we spend about that for two adults and 2 DCs and we don’t try to budget.

Can’t contribute to the single grocery spend tally, but my breadmaker was £20 on marketplace barely used. I found the manual online and use the recipes in that

I spend
around £110-£130 and I eat very well. No convenience foods, nothing frozen. I batch cook and keep my freezer stocked with meals I’ve made myself i.e sweet potato, chickpea and spinach curry, harrisa meatballs with cauliflower rice, baked seabass and med veg, chicken casserole. I eat lots of fruit & veg, greek yoghurt. Very little bread.

Bread mixes are £1.00 at Tesco, so not very expensive and much nicer than ready made.

£40 a week for two adults?! I can’t even fathom how that is possible. I would spend £10+ week for two just on fruit and veg !

Not a single person budget, but we currently manage on £55-£60 per week, including a top up of bread and milk for a family of four (6 year old and toddler). This is out of necessity rather than preference, but a vegetarian diet with lots of rice, pasta, lentils, etc can be fairly cheap without being overly repetitive.

I allow £240pm for all my food (take lunch to work)
doesn’t include toilet rolls, alcohol, cat food or most toiletries

My tips are to know the average price of everything you buy so you don’t overpay
surf washing powder is £15 for a huge box on Amazon, think it’s 130 washes
buy stuff on offer and store it

Not a singleton so can't comment on budget but i would say that your kitchen setup will mean some things will work better for you than others. For example if you have a good sized freezer than you can batch cook to give yourself variety. have you a slowcooker, airfryer and other kitchen equipment?

I think its actually hard to shop for a single person as so much is packaged for family sizes and the price to buy individually isn't mush less. So it does become importance that you menu plan and manage your food stocks to use up what you have. This is easier if you have a good sized freezer as you can put meal in there.

Also learn what meals you can make with the items in your cupboards. Most of us have loads of things gathering dust in the cupboard. So incorporating one cupboard meal a week or fortnight into your menu plan could be a good idea.

I shop for me and 2 DC. I think your budget is great, it could be less but if doesn't have to ne, it's nice to be able to add in some variety. To reduce waste, meal planning is key really. I would batch cook, for example I make a chicken curry that requires cream or creme fraiche, we have it one night then freeze enough for us all to eat again another time. Then I'll make a pasta dish using the rest of the cream/creme fraiche and chicken. Again, there will be enough to freeze. The following week I'll buy mince and make spag bol, freeze some, then make something else with the rest of the mince (cottage pie, burritos or something)

20-40 a week, depending on how much is in the cupboards and freezer. I rarely buy meat and alcohol.

Looking at the prices of ready meals etc nowadays I am very grateful that I learned to cook when I was a student. If I was trying to feed myself on prepared food I think I'd struggle financially.