Food/Household Budgeting Advice for One Person

room512

Frozen veg is good too as you can just cook what you need.

suki1964

Lordy I remember when I started work in sainsburys in 79 we packed
Chops in ones and twos, mince in 4oz packets and joints just two
Strings wide to cater to the singles and elderly.

How times have changed ( not always for the better either )

If you have a butcher, use them. They don't care how little you are buying. I often go to mine and ask for a chop or a few slices of liver or a couple of sausages or a chicken portion ( more so when cooking for one )

I got into the habit of carp food for a long time. I turned that around by making soup. At least with soup I got veg in me. Soup and sardines and eggs. Then I started with a meat dish with real veg lol

What I did was to forget about the traditional meat and veg meals and just put together meals with what I had and that itself took a lot of thinking.

So let's say I wanted lettuce and tomatoes to go in my sandwich. Then I'd buy rocket cos that's scrummy used on pasta, pizza and just about anything. Same as the toms, whack them in a pasta dish instead of chucking away cos you are sick of them

These are the rules I live by today. Every ingredient has to be multi use. Last night I had three pork chops and a tin of pineapple to feed 3. I made a kind of Chinese dish using week old scallions, a pepper, an onion, dried mushrooms,half a cabbage and a leek. The cabbage, leek and scallions had been in the fridge at least a week The rest of the pepppers will be used this week somewhere


If you have a freezer, that's your friend. Pound shop sells tin foil dishes which are ideal for saving a portion and freezing for another day. There's no need to eat the same meal day in and out

Linda32

Just wanted to add that most things freeze. If you have fresh veg going soft you can cut up and freeze them. Then you only need to use one portion at a time.

debtnav

Hi there

Wishing you all the best with your savings. Although I shop for 2, some pack sizes are still too big. We're not big bread eaters so I tend to freeze half a loaf on the day I buy it. I also bulk mince meals out by adding an extra tin of tomatoes. Spag bol and chilli are great to batch cook and freeze then you have lovely ready meals waiting for you when you are short of time. What about offal? Very cheap and nutritious but not everyone's cup of tea. Good luck!

Ilona

I always wonder what toiletries and cleaning products people buy on a regular basis, for it to be included in a weekly shop. I only use shampoo, soap, and toothpaste, and they last ages because I use it very sparingly. A 35p bottle of shampoo will give me about 40 washes, that's hardly going to break the bank. I sometimes buy a cheap moisturizer but it lasts ages, at least six months or more.

It is not necessary to buy all the different cleaning products, they only invent new ones to entice shoppers to spend more. I have a bottle of bleach 39p for the toilets, lasts three months, and a bottle of wash up liquid can't remember how much it was but I buy the cheapest, it lasts ages with just a tiny squirt, don't need loads of suds.

My weekly shop for my food is £12 - £15, no meat or fish, cat food is about £5 -£7 a week. I can't understand why people allow food to go off in their homes. I eat tons of veg, and I will eat carrots every day if I need to. No bendy carrots here. I check the contents of the fridge at every meal time, and eat things before they start going off.

I don't make a shopping list and I don't meal plan. I buy what's cheap from all the shops, search for yellow stickers and reductions everywhere, and base my meals around what I can find. Works for me.

Ilona

fiddlesticks

Ilona wrote: »

It is not necessary to buy all the different cleaning products, they only invent new ones to entice shoppers to spend more. I have a bottle of bleach 39p for the toilets,

I don;t do bleach anymore- always end up splashing it on my clothes. I'm a clumsy oaf

I can't understand why people allow food to go off in their homes.

I'm a seefood eater, if I can see it I'll eat it but if its in a sensible place like the veg rack or the fridge I forget its there until its too late. Especially as my fridge is not eyelevel (no space in kitchen) and most days I can't bend down far enough to see into it fully.

People keep saying that healthy eating and cooking from scratch is cheaper but I've never made it work for me. like I say 89p for a stickered ready meal in Lidl.... I can't make dinner cheaper than that.

lemonizer

£120 or even £80 PM sounds like hard work but the reality is after a few weeks you'll be into your new system and you'll probably find you actually spend much less than your budget.

Basically, if you want to eat cheap it usually means some form of planning and cooking from fresh. A good rule to help if you are time poor is that cooking for 4 takes only slightly longer than cooking for 1. So if you make a lasagne, one for tonight, three for the freezer. Want some roasted veg? Chop 4x as much, blanche them and use 1/4 for tea and the rest go in the freezer.

We have a fixed £50 PW target for all food, toiletires, nappies for a year old and 3 cats. TBH, this is a bit high and we could probably reduce it to £30 PW but with a massive increase in prep time.

A few tips:

Pulses 'rule' and bulk out / improve almost anything. (we even make our own baked beans!) Dried are cheaper than cheap itself!
Most veg is cheap. Carrots, pots, broccoli, etc. Buy the offer.
Cheaper cuts of meat taste better than expensive ones but take longer to cook. A slow cooker is your friend.
Fruit is cheap unless you go exotic. Why have 4 perfectly similar apples when you can hae 12 in a bag for the same price.
There is more to life than pasta. Try bulgar wheat, cous cous, pearl barley.

It's homemade pizza for tea tonight. ~15 mins prep, 10 mins cooking. Cost ~£1.50 for the three of us.

[Deleted User]

I use lots of Y/S veg to make soup, veggie curry or lasagne's or even a veggie chilli all of which can be portioned up individually and frozen the same as a 'ready-meal' Iam not a total veggie as I also enjoy meat as well,but in moderation as too much red meat isn't that good for you. a couple of chicken thighs wrapped in a rasher or two of streaky bacon then wrapped in foil and cooked is a nice 'meaty ' meal that won't break the bank. I have no waste in my house either as what isn't going to be eaten is frozen or made into a meal and portioned up for the freezer..I have cooked from scratch for most of my life at least the past 60 odd years anyway and for me its not only money saving its a darn sight nicer than processed junk food in a cardboard box.But different strokes for different folks .My monthly budget for myself is £60.00 and I am quite happy with that. I don't eat bread at all and so I only buy butter to cook shortbread with.
I make my own cakes and biscuits and prefer them to 'shop' bought ones. Especially when if you look at the supermarket ones they are all full of preservatives .Tesco's were selling some Christmas mince pies at the beginning of October with a use by date of 31 December How long since they were made !!! I can make my own scones and fruit cakes that taste just as nice, if not nicer than something stuffed full of chemicals .

I too don't need to spend a great deal on cleaning stuff. Aldi's liquid washing non-bio stuff does and excellent job on my clothes, I use half the amount stated and throw in a handful of washing soda (60p a bag ) and top the 'conditionin drawer up with white vinegar. washing is line dried and clean and fresh without a problem.Aldis shampoo is fine and their shower gel at 39 does the same job as anything else. My only luxury is possibly my ground coffee, but my eldest DD often treats me to a pack as we are the only two in the family who enjoy fresh coffee.I suppose about a third of my budget goes on fresh fruit and veg and I like to get what's in season, and Aldi's super six is amazing value.

This month I have been shopping once and have only spent so far just under £18 in groceries and that is on things I had run out of. I shall be going agin by the end of this week and again it will be for mainly veg and a couple of odds and ends that are on my shopping list.

I do menu plan every Sunday morning so I make sure things in the fridge are used up before I buy anything else. My household budget is run the same way as I would run a business and wasting cash to me is just plain daft. Today with food becoming more and more expensive why throw good money down the drain.I would rather spend it on something nice instead and my treats usually involve my grandchildren .

I could afford to spend more if I needed to, but prefer to keep to a set budget and anything left over goes into my family holiday fund at the end of the month

JackieO

P.S. just read your post lemonizer ,spot on:j:j:j:T

alja

I now live on my own for the first time and I originally budgeted around £25 a week to spend on food. I have no idea what I'm currently really spending on food (hoping to keep a true eye on it soon!). But I'm looking to cut down as much as possible here anyways too due to increased spending around the Christmas period.
Instead of buying more and more meals this week, I'm making sure I'm using up what I already have. So I pulled some bits out of the cupboard and have put them in a cardboard box to ensure I concentrate on using those up before buying. (Going to do the same with toiletries!)
The main way I try to cut costs is by trying the value range products first, if I'm happy with those I'll stick to them, if not I'll try the next step up etc. I find I'm very satisfied with many value range products!

Seasidegal58

Plenty of food for thought (forgive the pun!). But thank you again everyone for posting with such great advice. :T