Student Budget - Food

rhoda · 21 March 2013 at 12:03PM

Hi all

My daughter is starting university in London this coming October. I am working on a budget for her and so that I can work out how much money I need to save for my contribution towards her costs. I am not sure how much money to include for her monthly food bill as it is a long time since I shopped/cooked for one person.

Is anyone able to offer any advice on a typical monthly food bill for a student? I am not including any lunches bought from cafes or meals out - I expect her to take packed lunches like she does currently for work; she agrees. Any lunches out or evening meals comes from her socialising budget. However, that aside I want to come up with a realistic figure.

[FONT=&quot][threadbanner]box[/threadbanner][/FONT]

Lokolo · 21 March 2013 at 12:09PM

£25-30 a week at most really.

flea72 · 21 March 2013 at 8:15PM

My DD has £50/m for food. If she wants takeaways and meals out, the she has to self fund those herself, as they are luxuries. Her and her friends have got good at finding cheap places to eat, or taking advantage of offers if they do want a nite out

V_Chic_Chick · 21 March 2013 at 10:39PM

I spend £20-25pw. I eat well, but I don't eat meat.

Fire_Fox · 21 March 2013 at 11:09PM

rhoda wrote: »

Hi all

My daughter is starting university in London this coming October. I am working on a budget for her and so that I can work out how much money I need to save for my contribution towards her costs. I am not sure how much money to include for her monthly food bill as it is a long time since I shopped/cooked for one person.

Is anyone able to offer any advice on a typical monthly food bill for a student? I am not including any lunches bought from cafes or meals out - I expect her to take packed lunches like she does currently for work; she agrees. Any lunches out or evening meals comes from her socialising budget. However, that aside I want to come up with a realistic figure.

The average student was spending £100 a month or so a couple of years ago, but that probably included some eating out. It does depend somewhat on the facilities, if you have a freezer it's much easier to eat cheaply, if there is only a communal refrigerator you can't buy in bulk and things get stolen.

Maybe it would be helpful for your daughter to do her own detailed budget, and her own sample meals plans and costings? Tesco and Asda have all their prices online so it's easy to do in comfort. Budgeting for yourself is a really important part of becoming an adult.

Derivative · 22 March 2013 at 12:23AM

Assuming she has a fridge, oven, microwave but no freezer:

£15/week is enough for a reasonable bare-bones diet.
£25/week will buy a few treats/more exciting food.

V_Chic_Chick · 22 March 2013 at 1:25AM

Encourage the use of ethnic supermarkets - everything usually is either (a) cheaper, or (b) more interesting, or (c) both. Aldi and Lidl are also good, but I have some friends who hold very strange beliefs about them and will only shop in Sainsburys. Bonkers. It's all about learning to shop inventively.

Dunroamin · 22 March 2013 at 1:26AM

The last time this was discussed there was a wide variation on what people thought and it go t quite acrimonious.

LottieLou · 22 March 2013 at 1:26AM

I used to spend £50p/m when I was a student (a couple of years ago) . It wasn't a bare bones diet, i just bought most of my proper meal ingredients in bulk and froze some, i got most of my fresh food from mini local markets, aldi and lidl. And for treats etc went to lidl or bought value products. (I treated myself every so often to a posh bag of big branded crisps). It was only in my 2nd year that I learnt how to be so good with my food budget though.

devildog · 22 March 2013 at 10:13AM

rhoda wrote: »

Hi all

My daughter is starting university in London this coming October. I am working on a budget for her and so that I can work out how much money I need to save for my contribution towards her costs. I am not sure how much money to include for her monthly food bill as it is a long time since I shopped/cooked for one person.

Is anyone able to offer any advice on a typical monthly food bill for a student? I am not including any lunches bought from cafes or meals out - I expect her to take packed lunches like she does currently for work; she agrees. Any lunches out or evening meals comes from her socialising budget. However, that aside I want to come up with a realistic figure.

I would say between £25-£40 per week. Two of mine have £40 for this but both have specific(but different) dietary needs!

sjmon · 22 March 2013 at 5:13PM

During my undergraduate, I did the first few months on a tenner a week. It was quite unpleasant. I eventually ended up spending £20-25.

Unless your daughter is the kind of girl who will actively try to save money by visiting markets, ethnic supermarkets, reduction days on Sundays/Wednesdays etc... then £25-30 seems more likely.

It gets cheaper buying in bulk with a partner or friend, but not always possible. When we don't have much money, my partner and I won't eat meat either so that saves A LOT of money.

Student Budget - Food

Comments

Categories

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free