Cooking for one

monnagran

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.

As everyone says, " it all depends."

Here, we are mostly female, some of us are pretty ancient, (puts hand up), most of us used to a lifetime of catering for ourselves or a family, all of us with our own peculiar dietary requirements or fads.
You, on the other hand are male, young, sporty and, from what I surmise, unused to cooking on a budget.

Now, the first thing you have to do is to build up a stock of items that you will be using. This will include things like condiments, herbs, spices, flour, sugar, stock cubes, oats, cereals, ..............things that will live in your cupboards.
Then you will deal with the perishable, milk, butter, cheese, meat, fruit and veg......things that you will buy as and when you need them and replenish according to what you need.

The first month is going to be expensive so start saving up now. After that you should be able to live on about £25 a week if you are careful, (less if you are obsessive or really strapped for cash) about £35 if you are coasting and £50 if you are celebrating or have friends visiting.

This is only a rough guide. I allow myself £20 and don't always use it all, but I have a lifetime of scrimping and saving behind me and the experience of bringing up two boys on a wing and a prayer.

The only other thing I would say is, "Dont be too adventurous or experimental too soon." If you do you will find that you are buying things for a particular recipe that you will never use again. This will waste your money and clutter up your cupboards and your life.

Good luck.

x

LameWolf

Tiddlywinks wrote: »

I agree - the lookalikes aren't as robust as the Lock n Locks.

I bought some Poundland ones for DIY bits like fuses and stuff but found the flaps snapped off after a while.

I have some Lock n Locks, that I keep flour in, they're just the right size; I also have some little Sistema boxes that I use in the freezer, and they seem very robust.

Tiddlywinks

Yep - LnL is great for flour.

I also love the really small boxes for snacking - portion control and all that .

I get big bags of mixed nuts, jelly beans, chocolate buttons or whatever and then immediately split the bag down into the little boxes. The snacks stay airtight so keep for ages PLUS I take just one box out at a time.

Bigger bags = cheaper overall per kg and lickle boxes = curbing my urge to scoff to the bottom of the bag. A win-win .

caronc

LameWolf wrote: »

I have some Lock n Locks, that I keep flour in, they're just the right size; I also have some little Sistema boxes that I use in the freezer, and they seem very robust.

I've had a Sistema mug for soup for a few years that I use when I'm working. It's had some hard knocks but still going strong

Tiddlywinks

PasturesNew wrote: »

I don't use them for freezing, they're "for best".

Now I've got a mental image of you dusting your carefully arranged plastic boxes with a feather duster and then proudly bringing them out to serve the vicar his custard creams :rotfl:.

caronc

monnagran wrote: »

As everyone says, " it all depends."

Here, we are mostly female, some of us are pretty ancient, (puts hand up), most of us used to a lifetime of catering for ourselves or a family, all of us with our own peculiar dietary requirements or fads.
You, on the other hand are male, young, sporty and, from what I surmise, unused to cooking on a budget.

Now, the first thing you have to do is to build up a stock of items that you will be using. This will include things like condiments, herbs, spices, flour, sugar, stock cubes, oats, cereals, ..............things that will live in your cupboards.
Then you will deal with the perishable, milk, butter, cheese, meat, fruit and veg......things that you will buy as and when you need them and replenish according to what you need.

The first month is going to be expensive so start saving up now. After that you should be able to live on about £25 a week if you are careful, (less if you are obsessive or really strapped for cash) about £35 if you are coasting and £50 if you are celebrating or have friends visiting.

This is only a rough guide. I allow myself £20 and don't always use it all, but I have a lifetime of scrimping and saving behind me and the experience of bringing up two boys on a wing and a prayer.

The only other thing I would say is, "Dont be too adventurous or experimental too soon." If you do you will find that you are buying things for a particular recipe that you will never use again. This will waste your money and clutter up your cupboards and your life.

Good luck.

x

My Dad bought both my lads bags of store cupboard essentials like monnagran has listed as well as some tins and packets when they were leaving home as they both like to cook from scratch and were on tightish budgets. I did similiar for each covering laundry, cleaning and things like loo roll. It was an excellent present well-received by both - he spent about £60 each time as did I so you might want to think of £100-120 to savet as a ball park figure to cover your stock and household items

PasturesNew

Spices etc can be left for years before you get round to using them .... especially for a bloke in his first home. He just needs vinegar and ketchup for chips.

caronc

PasturesNew wrote: »

Spices etc can be left for years before you get round to using them .... especially for a bloke in his first home. He just needs vinegar and ketchup for chips.

Don't know about that both my two are keen cooks (one was a chef before packing it in to study Maths :eek:) and make most things from scratch including lots of curries etc. depends on your cooking habits I suppose:)

Anne_Marie_2

caronc wrote: »

Don't know about that both my two are keen cooks (one was a chef before packing it in to study Maths :eek:) and make most things from scratch including lots of curries etc. depends on your cooking habits I suppose:)

As are my 4 brothers, all keen cooks, one is a professional chef, the others are the main cooks in their households. My mother obviously brought us all up well. Always had a bit of SIL envy, as my hubby couldn't cook to save himself, other than grilling burgers/sausages, and how baked beans could end up a total mush, was beyond me. Mind you, he did the ironing, so that was major brownie points. I'd rather cook any day than do the ironing.

caronc

Anne_Marie wrote: »

As are my 4 brothers, all keen cooks, one is a professional chef, the others are the main cooks in their households. My mother obviously brought us all up well. Always had a bit of SIL envy, as my hubby couldn't cook to save himself, other than grilling burgers/sausages, and how baked beans could end up a total mush, was beyond me. Mind you, he did the ironing, so that was major brownie points. I'd rather cook any day than do the ironing.

I'd rather do the daily pooch "poo patrol" than iron which which certainly shows how much I like ironing:rotfl: