How much for a weeks food?

mojoman

I know you good people on this site will be able to help me.My friend has recently been widowed and unfortunately has rather less money than when her husband was alive.She doesn't want to give up her various interests and pastimes so is thinking of ways to save money.obviously she still has to pay council tax,gas,electricity,insurance etc.She's hoping savings can be made on food.How much do you all spend on food every week? She doesn't eat much meat ,so that seems to me to be a good start.Could you let us know what you think?

Misslayed

Has she applied for single person discount on her council tax?

melanzana

How long is a piece of string really? It depends on lots of things, whether she likes good food, is prepared to elbow in for the yellow stickers, is in a position to bulk buy and freeze in portions, does she have people over for grub, and so on. But sadly since her husband has passed on, surely her food bill will decrease anyway.

I personally couldn't say what our food bill is as we just buy what we need, when we need it, we are grateful to be in this position, but we don't waste much ever. We use Aldi a LOT! Trick is to buy exactly what you really like, make a kind of a meal plan and off you go. No point in buying reduced items if you're not that keen on the product!

Something to keep in mind, if friend is in a position to do so, and is up for it and has the space, getting a similarly aged female lodger might help enormously. If she gets the right person that is, and I know it can be difficult sharing your home with a stranger. Just a suggestion.

Others will perhaps be able to help you out a bit more.

Farway

As stated, bit piece of string, but maybe pop into Cooking For One board, a very eclectic bunch of us there and very varied meals

Mojisola

mojoman wrote: »

I know you good people on this site will be able to help me.My friend has recently been widowed and unfortunately has rather less money than when her husband was alive.She doesn't want to give up her various interests and pastimes so is thinking of ways to save money.obviously she still has to pay council tax,gas,electricity,insurance etc.She's hoping savings can be made on food.How much do you all spend on food every week? She doesn't eat much meat ,so that seems to me to be a good start.Could you let us know what you think?

Is she getting the best deals on the utilities and insurance? That can be an easy way to save money.

dan958

https://budgetbytes.com
https://www.reddit.com/r/EatCheapAndHealthy/
https://www.reddit.com/r/MealPrepSunday/

Some good resources there. Also, remind your friend that foodbanks are there if needed. Can easily get by on £30 a week food though.

Try and find out how much your friend is currently paying for food, what sort of meals they are making etc - we can then make changes as needed.

There are certain food items that are cheap. Lentils, rice, pasta, beans (kidney, red, brown etc), chickpeas.

maman

I'd agree that £30 is doable. It does help though if she can start with a bit of a buffer to buy in bargains when she sees them. That can be YS goods or offers on tins. Where she shops is important too. I'm a big Aldi fan but a lot of the 'bargain' stores like Home Bargains or Farmfoods or the £shops are worth looking in for offers.

As she's recently been widowed she'll be finding it hard to cook smaller portions. I'd suggest she freezes meals for home made ready meals. I often eat leftovers for lunch too.

trailingspouse

My husband walked away from the marriage back in February, so I guess from a practical point of view our situations are similar.



As far as food is concerned, I determined that I would spend no more than £30 a week on food. In actual fact, my current average is £16.74 a week (that includes supermarket weekly shop, top-up shops, and very occasional coffees/lunches out/takeaways). I shop at Aldi, I don't buy alcohol - I'm working my way through the stock we already had - and I'm evangelical about rubber chicken.


There will be other 'natural' savings - less water usage, less electric and so on, but I found that my gas usage is pretty much the same. The gas is only for heat and hot water, and it costs the same to heat a house whether there's one person in the house or 10 - in fact, it's likely to be higher as I find I feel colder in the house on my own.

SweetPotatoPie

I shop for me and my teenage daughter. Mine is 90.00 a week. ��

Li0nhead

I would say it all depends on what they want to spend and how much they are willing to cook/prepare/plan.


I would say planning well someone without any special dietary needs could do it for £25-£30 a head per week.



Also a lot in the shopping budget depends on how much someone drinks. If someone spends £25 budgeting well, it can be blown out of the water by throwing a couple of bottles of wine in at say £5 each.

caronc

I'd look at it the opposite way and suggest after bills are paid and money put aside for interests etc. what does that leave her with and does she think it is enough for her to eat a nutrionally balanced diet based on her cooking/eating/shopping preferences. If yes then how much her budget is becomes less important if no then something has to give. That could be giving up a hobby or focussing on cheaper (but still nutrional) meal options. I love cooking and eating and spend £30 a week on food & household stuff and do eat really well without YS purchases but I know I could trim that by a third if I had to and still eat a good though (to me) less interesting diet.