Cooking for one

caronc

SpekySquarehead wrote: »

Forgive me for not reading 23 pages as I'm sure the answer will have came up at some point.

I should be buying my own place later this year, to live alone, and I'm doing the sums early to see what sort of property I can afford. Any ideas on how much a single occupant can spend on food in a typical month?

I went shopping in Lidl on Sunday for myself for the week ahead and I was nearly £40. Admittedly a lot of this was for the freezer and combine that with the fact I was trying a few new recipes.

Welcome - we were discussing this last night so worth maybe checking back a couple of pages. That said the answer seemed to be "how long is a piece of string" and depended on how much you could afford or prepared to spend. Personally I average £2.50 - £3.00 per day on food with drinks on top of that though I could get it down a bit so around £20 per week but it varies sometimes much less sometimes much more. (This doesn't include takeaways or eating out). You might well be higher than that at first until you establish a stores of basics, herbs etc. Although a pain maybe worth keeping a food diary for a month then costing what it would cost to buy. You need to be ruthless and remember that pinches of this and splashes of that will all have an initial cost.

moneyistooshorttomention

I'd agree - ie that it's the initial buying of food that bumps the price up a lot.

I had been living on my own for donkeys years - but had to run down the foodstocks prior to move here - and duly found that I was having to buy a lot of stuff to get stocked back up again in the first place.

One splash of olive oil for instance doesnt cost much - but buying the bottle in the first place is a few quid and so it goes on.

PasturesNew

I knew somebody who would swear that she and her bf only spent £20/week on food ... because she was thinking of her Farmfoods bill. Trouble was, after leaving there they'd pop into M&S for a treat meal and a few extras ... they'd then have 1-2 takeaways a week ... and her bf ate at the works' canteen.

In her mind she was spending £20 ... they were probably closer to £60.

It's easy to have "food purchase blindness" and fool yourself.

If it goes in your mouth it's food or drink! That packet of crisps at the garage when you fill up, the cheeky chocolate bar from the vending machine at the gym, the baguette you grab on Tuesdays from the corner shop, the bottle you always grab on your way over to your parents/friends/whatever house .... all food/drink...

caronc

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

One splash of olive oil for instance doesnt cost much - but buying the bottle in the first place is a few quid and so it goes on.

Absolutely

PasturesNew wrote: »

It's easy to have "food purchase blindness" and fool yourself.

Guilty but getting better I hope

PasturesNew

I also found that you get "growing food habits" and I break the cycle of what I buy.

Years ago, for example, I found myself in a job that had a garage round the corner and for lunch I'd go and get a cheese ploughman's baguette ... a few weeks on I was ALSO grabbing a packet of crisps ... a few weeks on I'd discovered their cheese/onion pasties so would get that too.

Going round supermarkets a lot of people will just grab everything they usually grab, without thinking, then take it home and eat it all. e.g. always grabbing a 6-pack of crisps every time, or always getting biscuits ... never running out of those things. I actively "run out" of things and stop buying them to break any "habit cycles".

I only actively buy crisps 2-3x a year now, usually a 6-pack of a specific flavour/brand at A5da. I've been tempted by the cheaper crisps in my local discount supermarket, but I say to myself "No, you don't need them - you'll only eat them" and I walk on by easily now.

Many people just fill their cupboards with all these snacks/treats without realising they are just buying from habit. Stop buying them; run out. You don't die.

Tiddlywinks

Also, it depends on whether the 'shop' includes your household items as well... washing powder, bleach, cleaning stuff etc.

The initial setting up of your food cupboard - herbs, spices, rice, pulses etc - can be a big investment but then I think that pays dividends in terms of variety in your cooking.

It also depends on your references - freedom / organic / free range / farm assured / soil assciation etc or just plain cheapest 'price per...'.

Personally, I can't ever bring myself to buy cheap meat, eggs or even milk etc (I'm veggie verging on vegan' but buy for OH and visitors) from a conscience perspective - the conditions in intensive farming make me feel sick.

So, in summary I'd say the answer is always 'it depends'. It's all a matter of budget / personality / lifestyle / diet etc.

Tiddlywinks

<creeps in to make a suggestion...>

I posted this on another thread but thought I'd ramble on here too.... There's a set of Lock & Lock boxes on special offer on QVC today.

Linky

They are a set of two big boxes plus lots of smaller boxes which are an ideal size for single portions.

Just saying....

<creeps out again before she gets flogged for encouraging spending>

caronc

Tiddlywinks wrote: »

<creeps in to make a suggestion...>

I posted this on another thread but thought I'd ramble on here too.... There's a set of Lock & Lock boxes on special offer on QVC today.

Linky

They are a set of two big boxes plus lots of smaller boxes which are an ideal size for single portions.

Just saying....

<creeps out again before she gets flogged for encouraging spending>

I looked but resisted (well seen it's just before payday) - I have a bit of a "tupperware" collection in every size known the man but do like the lock and lock stuff

PasturesNew

Tiddlywinks wrote: »

<creeps in to make a suggestion...>

I posted this on another thread but thought I'd ramble on here too.... There's a set of Lock & Lock boxes on special offer on QVC today.

Linky

They are a set of two big boxes plus lots of smaller boxes which are an ideal size for single portions.

Just saying....

<creeps out again before she gets flogged for encouraging spending>

I've probably got more ways to store and cook single portions than most people

I've got some tiny and some small L&L, as well as some lidded mini pudding pots.

When I was young I started collecting a few "bottom drawer" items, then realised later on that cooking dishes etc were "for families" and rarely fitted anything I was cooking.

My fridge is mostly empty, so I use one shelf to keep all these unused L&L boxes. There's always a time at some point when one will come in useful, but they mostly just sit

I've insufficient stuff to justify using what I've got, in the main.

Right now I'm using one of the mini pudding pots to hold about 20 pieces of sweetcorn I picked out of a "mixed veg" bag the other day... saving those to go into a tuna/mayo sandwich filler in the summer.

Tiddlywinks

PasturesNew wrote: »

Right now I'm using one of the mini pudding pots to hold about 20 pieces of sweetcorn I picked out of a "mixed veg" bag the other day... saving those to go into a tuna/mayo sandwich filler in the summer.

:eek::eek::eek:

Now *that's* taking money-saving to a whole new level .

I'm going to adopt a new system: 'the 'PasturesNew Test'.

Before anything gets used / chucked, I'm going to ask 'what would PN do?' :rotfl:.