Typical budget for a single person/student?

Thorndrop

First, sorry if I'm not posting this in the right place. Feel free to move it if necessary.

I've recently moved out from my family home and have really got no clue about what sort of budget is typical, since I've never had to buy everything for myself before. I'm just trying to be as cheap as possible. So for any of you who are living as single people, what would you consider a reasonable budget (ideally per week, but if you budget for a month, that's fine too) and how should it break down?

Some things that might have an effect on my budget are

• I cycle to most places on a daily basis.
• I'm veggie (no expensive meat to buy).
• I like to cook.
• I have no reservations about buying 'value' products.
• I very rarely drink alcohol, and when I do, it's not much. I don't like to be drunk. Also follows that I very rarely go out to bars/clubs.
• I am a student and do occasionally have to buy textbooks if I can't get a copy from the library.

Thanks in advance for any advice or comments.

lushlifesaver

I don't know how much help this might be but as an undergraduate I spent about £60 a month on alcohol, personal items, cleaning supplies, food (meat once a month [3 for £10/4 for £12 or a selection from the butcher] as well as fresh veg each week from the market) and most of my travel (50p buses in Sheffield for students and if i went hoem it was only £2.45 one way or £3.50 return). If I spent more one week I spent less the next etc obviously. So that's £15 a week which sounds low and I entertained others too (2-4 for dinner 2/3 time a month).
I shopped fortnightly and made use of my freezer space by bulk cooking a freezing (saved time during busy weeks too).

valk_scot

How much do you have to spend, that's the question? I'd be thinking £100 per month would be a good ball park sum to start your thinking and then work down from that till both you and the budget feel comfy. That's for food, cleaning/laundry and toiletries etc. I don't think you should be lumping textbooks, clothes, entertainment, rent, utilities and fares in with a food budget tbh because it gets clumsy and you'll lose focus as to what you spend. Better to run them seperately.

Pink.

Hi Thorndrop,

Welcome!

As everyone's needs/wants/tastes/financial situations are different it's hard to put a figure on what is a reasonable amount to spend on groceries, but this thread should give you an idea of what others spend on their grocery shopping: Grocery Shopping budget threads There are some budgets in there by other single people that may give you an idea of what they spend. I'll add your thread to that one later.

In the meantime these links have good advice and may help:

Martin's article on Supermarket Shopping

Food Shopping & Groceries board where grocery offers are posted regularly.

Discount Codes 'n Vouchers board has vouchers and codes that should help with online shopping.

Student Money Saving board

Storecupboard Essentials

Single Money Saver living on my own


Meal planning is a good way of managing your grocery spending. It takes a bit of getting used to but once you do it's a great way to save money by making sure you don't buy unnecessary things. Perhaps try it for one week to see how you get on by making a list of what you have at home and trying to build your meals around that. To get some help with mealplanning have a look in The Complete Menu Plans Collection.

Sorry to bombard you with links, but hopefully they will help.

Pink

Avocado

To my mind this is the wrong way of going about it. I'd start from the other end. What do you spend on food now? Keep the cost of food mentally separate from your other expenses as food is the single most important thing you buy, you will die without it. What a lot of young people (myself included) start out doing is saying my mobile phone bill is £xx my bus fares are £x and so on, then find they have left themselves £3 a week to eat! Food is priority number one, so find out what eating does actually cost you, perhaps even post the receipt from your last weekly shop (translated into proper english so we can read of course) and we can think about if it can reasonably be pared back. There does come a point when you have to stop trying to squeeze the food budget. This point is either when it's not providing for your nutritional needs (beans on toast every day for example) or if you dislike it so much you wont eat it (personally I hate value brand cornflakes, although the tin sweetcorn is ok).

Thorndrop

valk_scot wrote: »

How much do you have to spend, that's the question? I'd be thinking £100 per month would be a good ball park sum to start your thinking and then work down from that till both you and the budget feel comfy. That's for food, cleaning/laundry and toiletries etc. I don't think you should be lumping textbooks, clothes, entertainment, rent, utilities and fares in with a food budget tbh because it gets clumsy and you'll lose focus as to what you spend. Better to run them seperately.

I don't want to allow myself to think 'I have this much so it's ok to spend it all'. I want to live below my means as much as possible.

Pink-winged wrote: »

Hi Thorndrop,

Welcome!

...
Sorry to bombard you with links, but hopefully they will help.

Pink

Thanks!

Aarons_mummy

Personally I think you need to work everything out. Have one account for bills, one for savings and one for spends. Or you can do it with 3 jars or whatever you prefer. The point is you need to work out how much you are spending on the bills before sorting a food budget. Once you have worked out the bills you could say ok I have £150 left, I'll put £50 in savings and start with £100 for all food and toiletry shopping to start off with. You can then aim to get lower and lower until you are happy, shop around for the best offers.

Also once you have built up a spice/herb and store cupboard it will make it much easier to know for sure.

If it helps I am 22 and have a 3 year old son and I currently spend in the region of £80 per month. Roughly £20 per week for all items including toiletries and home cleaning products. I started off higher and worked my way down.

Spend a lot of time reading this board, take on tips and hints, build up a store cupboard and enjoy the challenge, it's the best way to go about lowering your spending.

valk_scot

Thorndrop wrote: »

I don't want to allow myself to think 'I have this much so it's ok to spend it all'. I want to live below my means as much as possible.


Thanks!

Well, the thing to do there is to decide how much you want to save each month and then transfer it to your savings account as soon as your grant/wages/income hits your current account. Then you don't miss it as much because it's never there really. And no, you don't just divide the rest up into the various budget pots and then spend the lot. You can have a smaller saving fund, as in tip all your coppers or 10ps into a jar and save up for something bigger, like a trip out somewhere or craft supplies.