What's the lowest monthly grocery bill you have recently managed to live on as a single person?

SolihullSlinger

I'll be switching to shopping for myself soon, our previous monthly shopping bill was £260 per month (around £65 a month for me and my previous partner)
As I plan to save for a deposit for a year, I hope to bring this down to £160 a month (£37 a week) for myself. Maybe cruise the discount yellow label aisle at Tesco around 8 pm a few nights a week and try and cut down on the treats.
What's the lowest weekly/monthly you have got it down to? Any tips on really getting the costs down (meals, certain types of produce)? When is the best time for discount, yellow labels at different supermarkets (Tesco, M&S, Morrisons)?

goldfinches

That seems an extravagantly high amount to me so may I ask some searching questions? Do you have a current inventory of all edibles and what, precisely, is this amount to cover; just food or food and household needs e.g. washing up liquid, loo cleaner etc.? What equipment/skills do you have and how much time are you prepared to devote to this? What resources do you have; garden or window boxes or allotment and are you a forager? What sort of diet are you willing to adopt? I can advise on being a frugal vegetarian and batch slow cooking from scratch but if you don't want to give up seafood and also don't have the time/skill to cook that wouldn't help you.

JingsMyBucket

@SolihullSlinger I suggest you join us over on the Grocery Challenge thread that happens every month: August 2020 Grocery Challenge. The act of tracking it really helps keep your eye on the ball, even if you miss your mark the first month or so. There are lots of great posters there who will give you new ideas and ways to use up food. The Reverse Meal Planning thread is also a good one in terms of trying to understand your resources. 

BTW, £160 to £200 per month doesn't seem that bad to me depending on where you live and what your lifestyle or diet is. 

maman

I always find this difficult to judge as I don't start from a blank page. I think £40 per week for one person seems high as I've managed some weeks to be able to use contactless in Aldi so under £45 for two of us. 😉

 But I have a well stocked freezer and cupboards from YS buys and shopping around /stocking up with good value products in places like Home Bargains and £ shops.
Provided you can afford to pay upfront to do this, shopping week to week or month to month from an empty larder isn't the best value option. 

missychrissy

I normally do a supermarket shop once a month and it costs me around £42 a month. I live on my own and my shop sometimes includes dog food, a mixed bag of crisps for the grandchildren, chocolate buttons (also for grandchildren) and occasionally cleaning products. I might have to pick up the odd item such as eggs in my village store in between times. I also occasionally buy dried red lentils, split peas, marrowfat peas and barley. In lockdown I have been going to the supermarket approx every 2 months. Last time it cost me £82 and a few p. I live quite cheaply. I don’t eat sweets, cakes, biscuits and puddings. I don’t eat much fruit (only when on special offer) but I do eat lots of veg. I have been self sufficient in potatoes since mid June and this year have grown tomatoes, lettuce and cucumbers. I will be growing more veg next year as my youngest son has built me some raised beds. At present they are covered in black plastic to allow the turf we lifted to break down.
I keep my bread in the freezer and use approx one loaf a month £1.05. I grate cheddar cheese and freeze it too and use it for such things as omelettes, sandwiches, cheese sauces. pasta bakes etc.  I estimate I’ve been spending about £10 a week on food during lockdown. Last shop I bought a gammon joint for £4.65 and cooked it in the slow cooker together with an onion and 500g of dried marrowfat peas. I had a meal that day of gammon, potatoes and mushy peas. The following day I froze 8 portions of ham and 6 portions of mushy peas. I had approx 3 portions of gammon and pea soup left in fridge. Each portion of gammon from the freezer will make a meal for 2 eg gammmon and pasta bake, soup together with a portion of mushy peas, omelette and sandwiches. The following day I roasted a chicken £3.85. I had a leg and a wing with veg 2 days running, then froze 8 portions of chicken (mainly breast) and then threw the chicken carcass in slow cooker with a packet of dried soup mix, carrots celery and onions. This made 10 portions of chicken and veg broth, 8 of which I froze. Each portion of frozen chicken will make 2 meals eg curry, stir fry, pasta bake, sandwiches or a chicken dinner. As you can probably see after 2 days I had approx 40 meals frozen. I also bought a tray of minced beef and did a big batch of mince which included carrots, celery and onions, and had potatoes and dumplings. That made 8 portions, 6 of which I froze. Sometimes I batch cook cottage pies, chilli or Bolognese with mince and freeze it. The latter 2 good with a jacket potato. Sometimes I will cook a gammon with yellow split peas and onion instead of marrowfat peas, and have lots of portions of pease pudding that can be eaten with the gammon, used for soup or sandwiches and frozen.
I obviously use up the meat and fresh veg first and get lots into the freezer. Then I can use frozen veg. The only tinned veg I use are tomatoes, baked beans, kidney beans (for chilli) and occasionally butter beans and processed peas. I have a Salter soup maker and regularly make soup eg tomato and ham and lentil. I tend to do soup by colour, red, orange and green. It is an easy way to use up all veg and get at least your 5 a day. I don’t much like cereal, I think it’s the texture I don’t like so for breakfast I often have a portion of soup, or scrambled egg or poached egg on toast.
I hope this helps.

JingsMyBucket

@SolihullSlinger here’s the September grocery challenge thread https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6183515/september-2020-grocery-challenge#latest

SolihullSlinger

missychrissy said:

The following day I roasted a chicken £3.85. I had a leg and a wing with veg 2 days running, then froze 8 portions of chicken (mainly breast) and then threw the chicken carcass in slow cooker with a packet of dried soup mix, carrots celery and onions. This made 10 portions of chicken and veg broth, 8 of which I froze. Each portion of frozen chicken will make 2 meals eg curry, stir fry, pasta bake, sandwiches or a chicken dinner. As you can probably see after 2 days I had approx 40 meals frozen.

Wow, what a post, absolutely brilliant. I am not much of a cook atm, so forgive my ignorance, so if I cook a whole chicken in the oven have a bit for my tea. Then wait for it to cool and carve it up and pop it in the freezer in 6 or so freezer bags, can I reheat it again in the oven and the microwave and then pop in another meal. How long does it last frozen? Just don't want to give myself food poisoning!

I really like this idea of freezing meals, just need to know how long to cook the stuff I have frozen (this is from someone who has cooked mainly ready meals!)

joedenise

The best way I've found for freezing leftover roast chicken is to slice it and cover in gravy.  You can then reheat in either the microwave or the oven.  If you like curry you could use some of the leftover chicken to make curry and freeze that, again reheating in microwave and just cook some rice to to with it (microwave pouch if you like!).

I try to use meat up within 2-3 months of freezing - been doing this since the 70s and I'm still around!

PipneyJane

SolihullSlinger said:

missychrissy said:

The following day I roasted a chicken £3.85. I had a leg and a wing with veg 2 days running, then froze 8 portions of chicken (mainly breast) and then threw the chicken carcass in slow cooker with a packet of dried soup mix, carrots celery and onions. This made 10 portions of chicken and veg broth, 8 of which I froze. Each portion of frozen chicken will make 2 meals eg curry, stir fry, pasta bake, sandwiches or a chicken dinner. As you can probably see after 2 days I had approx 40 meals frozen.

Wow, what a post, absolutely brilliant. I am not much of a cook atm, so forgive my ignorance, so if I cook a whole chicken in the oven have a bit for my tea. Then wait for it to cool and carve it up and pop it in the freezer in 6 or so freezer bags, can I reheat it again in the oven and the microwave and then pop in another meal. How long does it last frozen? Just don't want to give myself food poisoning!

I really like this idea of freezing meals, just need to know how long to cook the stuff I have frozen (this is from someone who has cooked mainly ready meals!)

It’ll last forever, @SolihullSlinger, so long as it stays frozen but may become a bit tasteless with age.  I’d defrost it in the fridge before zapping for, maybe, 2 minutes to reheat.  Works better if the meat is in a sauce/gravy.   The important thing is to ensure that a) it was fully cooked before frozen, and b) it is heated all the way through. 

If you want to learn to cook from scratch, keep an eye out for recipe books from the 1970’s/early 1980’s that actually included instructions for reheating a dish from frozen. (I think the Australian Women’s Weekly did a freezer cookbook) Otherwise, do what I do, which is freeze sauce-based meals that can either be defrosted in the fridge overnight and zapped for 2-4 minutes when it’s time to eat. I make a lot of bases - fried onions with sliced mushrooms or a homemade tomato sauce - for those nights when I’m late home want to eat quickly.  l’ll zap the frozen block of “base” in the microwave for a minute or two before adding it to a pot containing other ingredients, to make it into a meal,  e.g. a sliced chicken breast together with some Chinese Curry Sauce concentrate. 

HTH

- Pip

missychrissy

SolihullSlinger said:

missychrissy said:

The following day I roasted a chicken £3.85. I had a leg and a wing with veg 2 days running, then froze 8 portions of chicken (mainly breast) and then threw the chicken carcass in slow cooker with a packet of dried soup mix, carrots celery and onions. This made 10 portions of chicken and veg broth, 8 of which I froze. Each portion of frozen chicken will make 2 meals eg curry, stir fry, pasta bake, sandwiches or a chicken dinner. As you can probably see after 2 days I had approx 40 meals frozen.

Wow, what a post, absolutely brilliant. I am not much of a cook atm, so forgive my ignorance, so if I cook a whole chicken in the oven have a bit for my tea. Then wait for it to cool and carve it up and pop it in the freezer in 6 or so freezer bags, can I reheat it again in the oven and the microwave and then pop in another meal. How long does it last frozen? Just don't want to give myself food poisoning!

I really like this idea of freezing meals, just need to know how long to cook the stuff I have frozen (this is from someone who has cooked mainly ready meals!)

I freeze my leftover chicken and gammon in clip lock boxes. I know that each box contains about 4 portions and any leftover chicken and gammon each usually fills 2 boxes. Sometimes I only take out a very small portion, if for example, I am cooking soup.  In that case I put it in my soup maker frozen together with any other ingredients I am using. Other meals I take my meat out of freezer the day before I need to use it.

Rosa_Damascena

As someone who is not a particular foodie and a strict vegetarian, I can get by on £15pw on food alone. 

Not paying attention to my diet long-term actually made me quite unwell, and I really should have known better. I decided to make some changes and feel much better for it. I realistically spend about £25 pw. What adds to this significantly is snacks for guests. I don't cook but I do make sure that people go home well fed.