Is £40 a week for a single person for food, too much?

[Virinreiber]

I started living alone as of December 2021, and have been on my own since, I wasn't taught much of anything about budgeting, but I always endeavoured to stay under £40 a week. I did previously do £20 a week but I found this to be limiting in terms of what I could manage to get given inflation at the moment, and I also gravitated towards takeout when I got hangry or rather depressed, which of course just ended up more expensive.

My orders vary, but what I tend to always buy is as follows:

Chicken/beef for curries and chilli stews in bulk, including the tomatoes/beans for those

Bread for sandwiches/toast

cheese

milk

oats, as and when I run out for breakfast

honey (see above)

spices as and when I need them

lentils (for soup or to make into daahl for curry)

rice for curry/chilli

carrots/potatoes

And then I'd probably say my biggest expense is sweets/snacks, spent about £11.10 on sweets because I have a terrible sweet tooth, and then a further £2 on scotch eggs as a small snack for lunches if I so want one or just feel like I can't cook etc.

I should probably explain, another reason why I like to get my order to £40 is I use ASDA (no car, so can't drive anywhere), is because any delivery under £40 adds £3 automatically, and I don't like wasting money needlessly.

Do I need a kick in the teeth, is this unreasonable? I'm relatively new to budgeting and kind of aloof, wasn't really taught well if at all growing up what to look for/how to plan meals ahead of time which I find very difficult.

Thanks for any advice all.

Well, there’s no absolute rule- it depends on your income. But £40 sounds fine to me. Living alone always works out more expensive.

Spending over a quarter of your good budget on sweets probably not great but you know that 😆

Hi op I live alone and budget £40 a week from Asda too. If I really needed to, I could probably cut down but I think that's a reasonable amount

£40 a week seems reasonable and just a little under what is suggested by various cost of living calculations

£40 a week doesn’t sound extravagant. Bit of course it depends on how much you ca afford. If you need to get it down you could but if you can happily afford it then no problem.

Hi OP, I buy food just for me and half a cat - and probably spend a bit less than you - but if I order a delivery, I always include the heavier or bulky items like cat litter (ok irrelevant), washing powder and capsules, toilet rolls, tins with long shelf life, shampoo etc. So you can add household items to your order. If money isn't too tight then it doesn't sound a huge amount.

We often used to just do an online shop every 10 days, rather than weekly. Made it easier to save and get free delivery.

If you can afford it it's fine, if you feel you have to compromise in other areas there are cuts you can make. But there's no escaping the fact food is really expensive at the moment. With the £40 minimum order do you have a subscription so you have to do that every week or just as and when. If the latter then you could look at adapting to stretch to 10 days or 2 weeks between shops, so you aren't just adding things to get to the £40

It’s fine if you can afford it, doesn’t sound a huge amount to spend. £11 on sweets a week is a lot though, especially in Asda when asda sweets are so cheap!

Sounds like a minuscule amount to me, but I suppose it depends what you can afford and how you want to eat.

Aldi will probably be a bit cheaper but its not excessive and the things on your list you wouldnt be buying every week anyway.

Proteins are expensive.

If you want to make it cheaper you could replace the sweets with home baking. Whether £40 is too much depends on if you can afford it though. Does that include all your toiletries, lol rolls, washing liquid etc?

Sounds fine, does it also include any household stuff (washing up liquid, loo rolls etc) because if so, that’s pretty good going.

Top half or bottom half?

£40 isn’t a lot really especially with how
much things are now.

Do you have a freezer? Frozen veg and mince can often be cheaper.
I used to do a monthly online shop around £60 then top up £10-15 a week with fruit and bread(perishables really)

40 a week is not excessive at all. If you could afford if there wouldn’t be anything wrong with spending a bit more.

you could do with more fruit and veg and leas sweets though (sorry to sound like your mum!

Clearly the back half, see the cat litter 😄

@maddiemookins16mum alternating top and bottom, as in food/litter, with DD25. However she is finally moving out in a couple of weeks so it'll be me and both ends of the cat! 😀

It sounds like you’re budgeting well to me.

A year ago I was spending less than that, now it's about £50 (includes household basics).

If you want to make your money stretch a bit could you just go 8 days between ASDA deliveries rather than 7. This would mean a saving of £40 every 8 weeks or so - or £5 a week. Maybe reduce the sweet stuff by £2/3 a shop and add some "bulk" (veggies/lentils/beans/chickpeas) you could add to some of your meals so you can stretch them out a bit portion wise?

Well, I think it could be done healthily for less, but if you can afford it, and like what you buy, then £40 seems quite reasonable.

If you do want to cut the cost down, I'd suggest a fortnightly or monthly meal plan and batch cook meals, as there's economy in scale. You could then stretch each "weekly" shop out a couple of days by using a couple of dishes from the freezer. (It's also nice and easy to have a freezer meal, and stops the temptation to get a takeaway on a day you can't be bothered to cook).

Sounds ok to me.

I’m on my own and spend about £60 a week although that usually includes a couple of bottles of wine(maybe £15) and household stuff.

I now only very occasionally get a takeaway and that would be an extra £10-£15 on top.

I try to aim for roughly £5 a day for actual food, bit less midweek when I don’t mind the odd beans & toast meal for dinner and more at weekends when I feel like a bit of a treat.

I live alone and it varies a lot
Morrisons sent me a voucher for money off over £70 so I spent that, and bought loads of cupboard/freezer stuff
Generally I'm between £30-60 depending whether it's just a quick top up of fresh or a big shop needing other stuff

My tips are
Go 8 days between shops
Aldi works out cheaper for me
Buy in bulk if it's cheaper
Wilko/b&m/home bargains often have good cleaning offers and b&m for snacks
Do one shop and no top ups as then you're tempted to buy other stuff!

I live on my own and am finding it increasingly difficult to get my food shopping for less than £50 a week. Everything is so expensive now and I’d rather cut back in other areas to afford it.

If you can afford it it’s fine! We eat at work 3-4 days per week, but we spend around £60 a week for two plus some of the 5 cats food. Would be more like £80 per week if either one of us ate all week for dinners at home. But we aren’t about to pass up free cooked meals at work!