Is £45 shopping per week too much for 1 person?

welshbookworm

I spend about £20 a week to feed one adult and do OK.

MysteryMe

I'd say unless they are buying organic or the finest of everything £45 would be what a single person buying a load of ready meals out of Waitrose of M&S would spend. You can eat very healthily for a lot less than £40pw.

Kirri

My spends divided by 41 weeks so far are £33.68 per week for food.

Organic vegetarian who scratch cooks nearly everything, meals, bread, cakes etc. That amount does include veg for pets.. although I have an allotment as well.

tessie_bear

MysteryMe wrote: »

I'd say unless they are buying organic or the finest of everything £45 would be what a single person buying a load of ready meals out of Waitrose of M&S would spend. You can eat very healthily for a lot less than £40pw.

can you ? please share some ideas/menus as im struggling with the family spend at the moment and always keen to hear ideas

thankyou in advance

Roxy07

Fruit and Veg is not cheap.

[Deleted User]

I cook from scratch as I just don't like the taste of ready-meals or take aways.But then I have done so for most of my life.With a good selection of herbs and spices and a menu plan I can live fairly well on £60 per month for food alone .I do extend my meals with either a pudding or a soup starter .I suppose about a third of my outlay is on fresh fruit and veg.Aldi's is a great place for their super six if you have one close by.I do eat meat but its not a big item on my shopping list I can usually buy it either in the reduced section if I think its a bargain or when its on special offer.I don't eat bread anymore and don't miss it.I bake my own cakes or biscuits .breakfast is either cereal or porridge lunch usually HM soup and crackers then I have my dinner in the evening .I do have one meal at least a week at my Dds ,usually on a Sunday.
Its a case of if you can afford it and you are comfortable with spending £45 then its fine .My freezer is crammed full of things and I can go in January when the weather is bad for a good fortnight without worrying about getting out to the shops.I use up all the food I buy and waste nothing.Yesterday I made 3 litres of curried parsnip and apple soup with five left over parsnips and a couple of wrinkly apples rather than bin them a couple of basic stock cubes and I have enough soup for at least five days lunches. If I have any left over veg it either gets made into a curry or soup so nothing is wasted.I used to have a budget of around £50.00 a week and used to shop on automatic pilot :) just chucking bits into the trolley as I went around the SM then I had my lightbulb moment and realised I had far too much in store at home.I made an inventory of what I had and cut right back on buying like that.Now I have a small pad by the kettle and only buy what's essential of things I have run out of and don't go to the shops unless there is at least 10 things on the list.I adapt what I have instead,saves be quite a bit this way

I also only buy food with hard cash from my food purse.Years ago in the 1960s its how we all lived and when the purse was empty then you had to wait until the next payday.So I put £60.00 per month in a separate purse which is used just for food buying and what's left at the end of the month in the purse goes into an account for my next years holiday.Even if its only a couple of quid it does mount up.I enjoy making a pound do the work of two and can conjour up a meal for myself without too much effort.Last Sunday when I went to get my diesel for my car I bought a large pack of stew pack veg reduced to 28p It had four carrots three parsnips, a swede two onions and a couple of leeks.The parsnips made me three litres of HM soup with some wrinkly windfall apples and some curry powder.The carrots were peeled chopped and frozen,also the onions.The leeks will go into a lasagne made later today with a small couple of chicken thighs which I bought reduced for 45p last week.These were frozen straight away when I bought them.
I will use them in a lasagne which once cooked I will portion up into at least four portions.So all I have left will be the swede which I will probably cook and mash with some carrots.Some will be used as a side vegetable dish and some will be portioned up and frozen for later so my 28p bargain will have been extended to several meals. I can usually price my main meal to around 75p including veg depending on what the meat is.
But if you feel happy spending more then thats fine as well as long as you can see it is possible to eat just as well for less.

renegade

Roxy07 wrote: »

Fruit and Veg is not cheap.

It is if you shop at ALDI !

tessie_bear

excellent post as ever jackie o

Ilona

£15 a week from me, single, no meat no fish. A lot of yellow sticker shopping. Cook from scratch.
Ilona

darrensurrey

I spend under that and I buy plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables plus a lot of pre-cooked chicken. If I were to halve the amount of chicken I buy and stick to purely uncooked chicken, I could probably save about £10 a week as well!

FWIW, I last had a ready meal in about 2001.