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

goldfinches

As a discerning foodie and lacto-ovo-vegetarian who currently has only 6 types of lentils in her store cupboard, , I concur with @Rosa_Damascena on budgetary amounts.
One thing that hasn't been specifically mentioned is that I find that batch cooking and then eating up all those meals before preparing another batch of a different meal is very money saving. It can be a little repetitive, obviously, but provided you vary the dish you are batch cooking you still have an interesting diet it's just that your variations occur in a different way. It keeps me out of the shops, so I don't see something and buy it on impulse, and properly planned makes better use of seasonal, cheaper ingredients e.g. this week I'm eating ys salads with ys bread and tahini/pekmez or hardboiled eggs; next planned dish includes cauliflower and swede/carrots/parsnips and will probably be a curry of some sort.
I think I'm suggesting that you consider having a cooking session where you batch cook 2 dishes of 6 portions each which then gives you dinner for that evening and the next 5 plus lunch for the following 6 days and you then choose two different dishes and shop for those so that you are ready to prepare them when you have finished up what is in your fridge. 
Anyway, that's enough to be going on with, let us know how you get on or what you think of the suggestions so far.

MoneySeeker1

Personally - I don't keep strict track - but I would say I probably spend between £35-£40 per week. That's with being vegetarian, buying very few "ready meal" type things (definitely usually cook from scratch), get a reasonable amount of fruit and vegetables from my garden, try to use up leftovers.

The things that some people would miss out (but I don't) is:
- The only coffee I like is "real" coffee
-  Everything possible is organic (my health is too important to me to save money on that)
- I like to try new foods when I come across them (because food is a "reliable pleasure"). This has become vastly more so since the date in March we were told we would be forced into Lockdown for "three weeks" and it's becoming more so all the time (now we're at 22 weeks and counting currently). So, right now, I'm spending more than normal because my "social life" has been taken from me at the moment. Right now - I'm probably spending about £15-£20 extra per week on "Food and drink to compensate for Lockdown" on top of my normal amount.

EDIT; So if you were vegetarian, for instance, and not bothered about organic and not having to spend some money to compensate for being "in prison" then I'd say you could probably do it for around £30 per week (even if no garden).

hairypitz

I shop mainly in Lidl, a little bit in Aldi and top up with the odd visit to a Chinese supermarket or Asda/Tesco.
I look at Aldi's super 6 and Lidl's weekend offers and try to take advantage of anything cheaper when planning meals. I shop once or twice per week, usually in the evening and pick up any useful yellow stickers on meat or bread products. All our cooking is from scratch and we do lots with mince and chicken of all persuasions - thighs, breasts, drumsticks. For the two of us it's common to batch cook a large lasagne or moussaka for 2-3 nights.Or  spag bol and chili con carne fleshed out with veggies/beans. Freeze what you don't eat on night one for those times you've been to the gym after work and just want something quick to reheat. 
We'll make a curry with meat and plenty of veg to last 3 nights, a veg side dish like dhal  or chickpeas, salad, rice, maybe nan bread and have quite a decadent dinner for not much, again freezing the left overs. 
When meat is reduced we either plan around it (so a half price chicken makes a lovely roast and a stir fry the next day) or freeze it. 
If you go for what's in season, what's good value, what's on offer/reduced and what you can get in the freezer, minimize the treats/snacks and cook mostly from scratch you'll eat well for not too much. 

PasturesNew

I set my budget at £10/week and I only spend more if I am knowingly acknowledging that I am going outside of my budget and if I feel it's justified.  It doesn't happen often.  

I don't need to keep it so low, I just begrudge spending more and I have a zero waste policy and often challenging cooking/storage choices.  A zero waste policy limits variety and number of ingredients, which makes things cheaper overall and focusses the mind on what you're buying and when you'll be eating it all.

The other week I splashed out.... there was a £3.50 curry at Tesc0, which'd been reduced to £1.92 and I'd not had a big treat for weeks, so picked it up.... my usual "curry" at Tesc0 would cost <70p.  It was nice enough, but not better than the 70p I'd usually have spent.  Spending more doesn't get you more/better, it often just means you're paying for a glossy label and more salt, more fat, more sugar.  Often, the budget/no label own brands are "healthier" than premium ranges as they're low in fat/salt/sugar, so they're not bad for you just because they're cheaper. 

SeanMaria

As @missychrissy, @goldfinches and @Rosa_Damascena have said, a good batch cooking, menu planning and freezing strategy is key to saving. If you are not used to cooking then now is a good time to take a recipe or two and perfect it. I manage comfortably on £40 per month without regular alcohol, soft drinks and junk food purchases. I shop between Lidl and Tesco.
The best tips I can share with you are:
*Use resealable freezer bags and roll up cooked dishes like stew, chilli; use hand tied bags for smaller items.
*Plastic takeaway style containers from Poundland are cheap and reusable. I like to freeze soup in portions and you can transport it frozen to work and microwave. My flatmate realised she could take it through airport security to have for lunch at work.
*If you are not building up a base stock of things, you can easily manage on £10 per week buying only what you need with fresh fruit and vegetables i.e 1kg carrots for 50p can do for soup, stir fry, grated to make cake, add to bulk out meat dishes, add to salads and slaw or juice a few depending on your tastes and diet.
*Batch cook and portion freeze some different things and rotate to suit your menu.
*Using frozen vegetables can save money, wastage and time. I'm particularly fond of frozen broccoli for this reason.
*Know where you are happy to cut costs and where you'll pay extra for quality/taste. I cut my ground coffee bill by drinking a budget instant I like on weekday mornings and have gone from £11.60 a month to £4.48. That's a reasonable bottle of wine in any supermarket. Likewise I've swapped from Graham's spreadable £2.39 @ Lidl to their own brand Danpak which has more oil content but good butter content for £1.79.
*Shop the deals online and know what to buy where that's convenient for you. I picked up Irish block butter 227g in Farm Foods for 99p, their budget farm eggs are half the price of supermarket budget eggs yet I still buy my eggs from the supermarket for convenience.
*Know when to shop for yellow sticker items at your local supermarkets
*Check your use buy dates and know how long products will last and how to store them. I recently bought Red Leicester cheese 400g blocks for 89p a pop with a December date on them.
*Check out the website Cooking on a Bootstrap which will give you recipe ideas, costs and an idea of quantities. There are also loads of cooking on a budget challenges on YouTube.
*Organic seasonal veg boxes may be a saving for you. There are also other organic/farm produce deliveries available. Again it's a budget and diet choice.
A bit long but hope it's helpful.

VeganLois

I was a Solihull gal for years.  Spread your net shopping wise!  Think of the target demographic In the immediate area and investigate other options.  I am a single vegan and eat well on around £50 p/m.  Your freezer is your best friend.  I found a bargain haul of vegan marg the other day in a Home Bargains so bought several and froze them.  HB is a great shop.....good variety, often organic items although short dated on occasions.  Nobody has ever died of slightly out of date pasta to my knowledge 😊.  At this time of year, you could stock up on blackberries.  Great for smoothies, pies, the odd coulis or two.....and all free.  My freezer is stuffed to the hilt.  Also, where I live, people kindly leave glut veggies from their gardens and allotments outside their houses for free.   Courgettes galore this year 😀.

I cruise different supermarkets each month which varies things up plus some do yellow sticker much earlier in the day.   I’ve had some hefty discounts early doors particularly in Morrisons.  Luck of the draw I have found.  

missychrissy

I have seen people on these forums criticising those of us that can feed themselves on £10 per week. It can be done. It takes a little forethought, a freezer, a cooking from scratch attitude and a determination not to waste a thing. 

I don’t have a sweet tooth so sweets, cakes biscuits etc are not on my shopping list. I do buy a bottle of diet lemonade and Diet Coke each month from Aldi at 17p per bottle. I use lots of dried pulses, cheap and nutritious. I add 2 tablespoons of red lentils whenever I cook mince to bulk it out and add an extra layer of nutrition. Tomorrow I’m doing a curry using home grown potatoes, red lentils, yellow split peas, cauliflower (frozen), onions and garlic. 

I have 4 sons, all with families, who visit me. I usually do a roast dinner when they come, with all the trimmings, but any meat bones leftover go into the slow cooker with pulses and veg to make several portions of meat and veg broth and any left over meat is sliced into one person sized portions for the freezer.

I eat well. I like a proper dinner and eat 3 good meals a day. 

My treat is homemade wine. I can make 5 galls using cartons of juice for well under £10. I recently made 5 galls of elderflower that cost under £5. I’m hoping to make some elderberry and blackberry soon. This comes out of my entertainment budget and costs me no more than £10 per month.
I have exceptions. Christmas costs me more than £10 for the week. I do like prawns and smoked salmon and pigs in blankets.

marycanary

I can't match or come anywhere near some of the amounts achieved by others in this thread. I usually spend between £100 and £125 per month. This includes toiletries, cleaning materials and feeding other members of the family on an ad-hoc basis. Although I cook the majority of things from scratch I could probably get the budget lower if I spent more time and effort but I work full time and don't have a partner to share the chores with like the garden, DIY and car maintenance. So when I have done all that I can't be bothered to give much thought and energy to keep my grocery bill down.  I have a milkman, which is expensive but I can't stand the plastic waste supermarket milk generates so to me it worth the extra cost. I also like to buy food which isn't really essential like olives, good quality cooked meat and chocolate bar biscuits.

Overall I'm happy with my grocery spending

Wraithlady

I have survived on £5 a week - admittedly, in the mid-80's at university, just before my grant came through (those were the days!) It wasn't a lot of fun, nor was it for very long.
The thing with budgets is, it's not a 'one size fits all'. Those who can manage on £10 a week, good for them - assuming they're happy with this. Those who pay £100 a week - exactly the same. Choose a budget which suits you and your circumstances and, if you need to reduce it, don't do it suddenly.

moominvalley

I'm a vegetarian student and I typically spend about £20 a week on food - admittedly I spend too much on (relatively healthy) snacks so I could probably cut this down to £15 if I cut them out!
Some tips to add to the ones others have already contributed:

• Buy your bread reduced and freeze it - just use what you need when you need it
• Freeze leftover pasta/bolognese sauce for use later. I saw this tip on a jar of pasta sauce from the Coop and I've never had any tummy trouble from doing this! 
• If you have a smartphone, use the Olio app to find food going away for free in your local area. It's an app where people can give away food that would otherwise be wasted. Recently I've picked up pasta sauce, two bags of pasta, and lasagna sheets. This might be less suitable if you have mobility problems as it involves going to others' houses to pick up the food.