How do I figure out how much to spend on groceries?

cantbelieveit23

I thought this was an interesting question, and you didn't explain why the amount you spend is really important.  I thought it must be because you want to prepare a budget and have concerns about your spending.  How much do you currently spend?  As a guide, we (2 of us) eat well (no real restrictions on cost of ingredients), reasonably healthily, very rarely buy ready meals.  I often batch cook (2 or 3 meals) and freeze.  Our grocery bills total £300-350 monthly (not including coffee and alcohol which we buy separately).  How does that match yours?  Shopping for one is comparatively a little more expensive than for two, of course.
Do you have afreezer?  If so: buy a pack of meat, divide and freeze.  Buy reduced items and freeze if you can't eat that day.  Batch cook.  A whole chicken could easily make 4 or even 6 different meals (cheaper than buying jointed packs), 500g good mince = 3 meals.  Use Aldi/Lidl where you can but don't become obsessed by doing so.  Be flexible when you shop: buy the week's special offer fruit and vegetables, as well as the 3 for £10 meat deals, for example.  If you cook from scratch, you will probably find you can eat less meat, more veg and save money too.  Don't have too many rules, relax and enjoy what you cook and eat.

plaguedbyfoibles

sausage_time said:

Agreed, how much are you spending currently (per week/month).  How much of that is frozen?  Pre-packaged meals?  Meat products?  Alcohol? Can you see any scope for reducing?  

That's the problem, I don't really spend anything on groceries, I have my own house but family buys my groceries for me. I want to start learning how to do this consistently on my own. I also don't know whether I'm buying quality food or not, find it difficult to know which meals are healthy to make, not sure how to build a balanced diet on my own, etc.

plaguedbyfoibles

Emmia said:

plaguedbyfoibles said:

How many meals can I get out of 1kg potatoes, say?

Is that potatoes as a main (i e. baked) or as an accompaniment?

Where do you shop, Aldi/Lidl or Waitrose?

Do you buy branded products e.g. Kellogg's cereal or supermarket own brand? Do you buy from standard, basic or luxury supermarket ranges? Heinz baked beans or Tesco value?

Coffee, whole bean, ground, pods, or instant?

What are your portion sizes like? For example I weigh my breakfast cereal, so I get 19 servings from the box, if I just shoved in what I fancy I'd (probably) get fewer servings from the box.

I mostly use Aldi. Never use Waitrose. Haven't used Lidl in some time.

I buy supermarket own brand, like Aldi brand Weetabix.

There's an Asda near me, but that's still exorbitant IMO compared to Aldi. Someone told me that's because Aldi has lesser variants of the same product type, so there's less shrinkage and that's why they don't charge as much. Probably also able to get better deals from the private label manufacturers too since they're not a premium brand supermarket.

As for coffee, that's instant.

I'm snacking too much at the moment, unfortunately.

I shop mostly with parents, even though I live on my own, trying to take more responsibility for that on a more regular / consistent basis.

Portion sizes wise, I try to take as little as possible, so only two Weetabix in my bowl for e.g., mixed in with bran flakes.

plaguedbyfoibles

cantbelieveit23 said:

I thought this was an interesting question, and you didn't explain why the amount you spend is really important.  I thought it must be because you want to prepare a budget and have concerns about your spending.  How much do you currently spend?  As a guide, we (2 of us) eat well (no real restrictions on cost of ingredients), reasonably healthily, very rarely buy ready meals.  I often batch cook (2 or 3 meals) and freeze.  Our grocery bills total £300-350 monthly (not including coffee and alcohol which we buy separately).  How does that match yours?  Shopping for one is comparatively a little more expensive than for two, of course.
Do you have afreezer?  If so: buy a pack of meat, divide and freeze.  Buy reduced items and freeze if you can't eat that day.  Batch cook.  A whole chicken could easily make 4 or even 6 different meals (cheaper than buying jointed packs), 500g good mince = 3 meals.  Use Aldi/Lidl where you can but don't become obsessed by doing so.  Be flexible when you shop: buy the week's special offer fruit and vegetables, as well as the 3 for £10 meat deals, for example.  If you cook from scratch, you will probably find you can eat less meat, more veg and save money too.  Don't have too many rules, relax and enjoy what you cook and eat.

I can't really cook, and mostly have parents buy and cook my meals for me (even though living on my own, found independent living a struggle initially and still do), trying to improve this by taking responsibility.

I'm trying to follow https://ukpersonal.finance/flowchart/ and I guess https://ukpersonal.finance/budgeting/ in particular, so I know how to better budget for my groceries and get better at budgeting in general. Have been advised to take out a subscription for You Need A Budget (YNAB).

Maybe it's easier to subtract mortgage and grocery shopping costs from my net income for the month, then divide what remains by 30 days so I have a strict daily spending limit.

As I said, don't really cook at the moment but looking to remedy this in future, very bad at time management and scheduling things across days, so batch cooking might be a struggle for me initially.

Very bad at finding grocery deals too!

I am someone who is very much rules-based, so if I know I can't eat a reduced item on the day, then yes, I should freeze.

Emmia

plaguedbyfoibles said:

Emmia said:

plaguedbyfoibles said:

How many meals can I get out of 1kg potatoes, say?

Is that potatoes as a main (i e. baked) or as an accompaniment?

Where do you shop, Aldi/Lidl or Waitrose?

Do you buy branded products e.g. Kellogg's cereal or supermarket own brand? Do you buy from standard, basic or luxury supermarket ranges? Heinz baked beans or Tesco value?

Coffee, whole bean, ground, pods, or instant?

What are your portion sizes like? For example I weigh my breakfast cereal, so I get 19 servings from the box, if I just shoved in what I fancy I'd (probably) get fewer servings from the box.

I mostly use Aldi. Never use Waitrose. Haven't used Lidl in some time.

I buy supermarket own brand, like Aldi brand Weetabix.

There's an Asda near me, but that's still exorbitant IMO compared to Aldi. Someone told me that's because Aldi has lesser variants of the same product type, so there's less shrinkage and that's why they don't charge as much. Probably also able to get better deals from the private label manufacturers too since they're not a premium brand supermarket.

As for coffee, that's instant.

I'm snacking too much at the moment, unfortunately.

I shop mostly with parents, even though I live on my own, trying to take more responsibility for that on a more regular / consistent basis.

Portion sizes wise, I try to take as little as possible, so only two Weetabix in my bowl for e.g., mixed in with bran flakes.

So for breakfast I'd only have the two Weetabix - that's a portion. The Bran flakes would be "extra"

Currently eating All bran or the M&S equivalent (which is good value) - a portion of that is 40g. If I self pour without weighing I'd probably end up with 60g or more.

PennysIntoPounds

Good for you for wanting to learn and have more responsibility. Depending on what hours and the level of uncertainty/interaction you're comfortable with, the olio app is good for getting staples like bread for free, if it's active in your area.
Or going shopping later in the day or evening will give you more yellow stickered reduced prices opportunities.
But I like your idea of seeing how much you spend a month and working out your remaining budget from that. If the remaining budget seems too low to manage on, then you can look back on what you've bought and see where price or volume cuts could be made, if you keep a record of your receipts.
Good luck with your journey 🙂

plaguedbyfoibles

cantbelieveit23 said:

I thought this was an interesting question, and you didn't explain why the amount you spend is really important.  I thought it must be because you want to prepare a budget and have concerns about your spending.  How much do you currently spend?  As a guide, we (2 of us) eat well (no real restrictions on cost of ingredients), reasonably healthily, very rarely buy ready meals.  I often batch cook (2 or 3 meals) and freeze.  Our grocery bills total £300-350 monthly (not including coffee and alcohol which we buy separately).  How does that match yours?  Shopping for one is comparatively a little more expensive than for two, of course.
Do you have afreezer?  If so: buy a pack of meat, divide and freeze.  Buy reduced items and freeze if you can't eat that day.  Batch cook.  A whole chicken could easily make 4 or even 6 different meals (cheaper than buying jointed packs), 500g good mince = 3 meals.  Use Aldi/Lidl where you can but don't become obsessed by doing so.  Be flexible when you shop: buy the week's special offer fruit and vegetables, as well as the 3 for £10 meat deals, for example.  If you cook from scratch, you will probably find you can eat less meat, more veg and save money too.  Don't have too many rules, relax and enjoy what you cook and eat.

As a brief additional follow up question, how do I learn how much of a particular ingredient to apportion to X meal? So like you say, 500g good mince can be apportioned into 3 meals. Are there any general rules of thumb that I can use to calculate how many meals I can make from X weight of X ingredient?

kimwp

For a rules based diet, look up how many calories you should be eating for your weight and activity - compare this with how many calories you are eating now (and whether you are gaining/losing weight) to calibrate this.

Aim for 2-3 portions of veg with your lunch and dinner and 2-3 portions of fruit each day. You could also try for the 30 plants a week.

Look up the fibre amount you should be eating and the NHS guidance of what to eat for the different vitamins.

Cooking at its basic level is chopping things up, mixing them and stirring at intervals - is this manageable? 

nakie999

Step one: stop buying five bags of chips and one sad cucumber. Step two: realize the sad cucumber is now soup. Congrats, you’re budgeting.

RipleyG

plaguedbyfoibles said:

I can't really cook, and mostly have parents buy and cook my meals for me (even though living on my own, found independent living a struggle initially and still do), trying to improve this by taking responsibility.

That's great, you should be really proud of yourself, and it will definitely be a good project to take on. 

As you mention the spectrum, you might find this article an interesting read. It's an evolving area of knowledge. https://foodforthebrain.org/autism/

Good luck!