Weekly food budget for a single person

defiantdancer

hello there, I got into severe financial difficulties in recent years due to being made redundant & having to start over again on a much lower wage. I am very aware that I am very lucky to have my health & a home. I just want to avoid getting into financial difficulties again so here looking at MABS & budgeting.ie. Would anybody be willing to share what they roughly spend on a weekly food budget? Also, any budgeting/healthy eating/cooking recommendations, I would be REALLY grateful.

Viscount Aggro

You can do what I've done... E20 per week. Get a meal plan together, cook in bulk. I've 30 meals in the fridge freezer at all times. Substitute meat with other proteins, such as eggs. I see this a lot.. people buying 12 packs of eggs, 10 kg bags of rice, buy spices in the Asia market store.

Forget about takeaway food..that's for losers.

defiantdancer

thank you @Viscount Aggro .all really good tips. I have a small freezer. I will look into getting a mini chest freezer. I rarely do takeaways!

Viscount Aggro

Send me a PM... I can sort you out with finances. I am a FIRE early retireee.

Esse85

Use a slow cooker for cheaper cuts of meat. It's really tasty too.

LambshankRedemption

Cooking in bulk and freezing is the way to go.

Also, freeze your bread. I get ziplock sandwich bags, and put two slices in each one. To defrost, just put in the toaster. Comes out good as new, but it means no more wasted bread.

Also, vegetables are much cheaper than meat. Bulk your dishes out with veg and you can use less meat. Always in my cupboard always are tinned tomatoes. Instead of buying bolognaise sauces dolmio 3.50 per jar, tesco own brand 85 cent per jar, a tin of chopped tomatoes is 39 cent, and with just a couple of cheap additions, you have your bolognaise.

defiantdancer

@LambshankRedemption thank you! Great user name😄

munsterfan2

For breakfast, a bowl of porridge with a few frozen berries for taste. Bag of porridge & frozen veg about €4. Should last close to a month.

Slightly Kwackers

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058356948/weekly-food-budget-for-a-single-person

Get to know some gardeners. I cook and freeze my produce, but have so much left as the summer progresses I either sell it off at less than the Lidl/ Aldi asking price or give it away.

Some of the produce I find excellent if a bit of creativity is used such as courgettes and cucumbers. They often end up being pulped for poultry food at the end of summer.

If you don't mind the cooking aroma, courgettes in an air fryer are a "portable heat source" and will add to the heating on cold days reducing the fuel bill by a small amount.

Slightly Kwackers

I find a slow cooker brilliant for making yoghurt.

I bought a small controller to manipulate the temperature and ferment milk in 3l batches.

The Yoghurt becomes a dessert, breakfast meal and salad dressing with the appropriate additions.

The whey is absolutely perfect for soda bread and from 3l of milk I can knock out three loaves using 700gm flour and around 7g of bread soda plus 10g of salt.

Whey can be used for sourdough too if the nutrients are wanted, the flavour is not really significantly different to that using plain water though.

zell12

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122292914#Comment_122292914

😮 Does one have a mustache?

defiantdancer

@Slightly Kwackers I am in awe of this!

defiantdancer

@Slightly Kwackers this is really good advice-thank you. I do live in a city apartment but there is a community garden close by so I will check it out. I will start with trying to grow some herbs-bought a basil plant yesterday-I just have to keep it alive now😄

Slightly Kwackers

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122293279#Comment_122293279

Thanks!

I suppose it sounds green and is in a lot of ways efficient, but the truth is I never bought much of the type of produce I produce myself before I started.

It's now a case of what's in the fridge or what's growing that determines my diet.

Taken in isolation, I don't think anything would be cost effective, but as a plan!

Most of my food shopping is oranges, cheese, banana's milk and a very small amount of bacon & black pudding.

I stopped buying meat when my tomatoes and courgettes came to an end, but will start doing my frozen meaty, pasta packages again as things ripen.

I am hoping to add a drake or two to my diet, I hate the task, but I sharpened the axe yesterday and the Ducks are far too stressed with all the attention :-(

Now if anyone in Kerry wants Drakes, totally free, nice pets or indeed very tasty if you can bear to kill them, I would prefer to give them away than eat them. They have been around far too long though and the poor ducks are trying to hide from all the attention.

pgj2015

Hi op

would you do paid online surveys? if interested let me know and I will pm you the best ones to do.

pauly58

We found Indian vegetarian food cheap & tasty ; lots of lentils. Veg is a lot cheaper than meat if you're watching the pennies.

Slightly Kwackers

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122293285#Comment_122293285

Best of luck!

I have a few varieties on the go, it's funny but some herbs I never have trouble with. Dill and coriander are like weeds, I can throw seeds on the ground and up they pop.

Basil I have on the go, a few types. They are showing promise all but my lemon basil which failed last year and for some reason isn't doing well now either.

Sorry to hear you have to buy the plants. I do myself with some items, but it's more satisfying to grow from seed and there is a great deal of satisfaction knowing that the cost of your produce is zero. When growing from seed, you nearly always have vast quantities of plants to spare which can go down well with other growers

As far as saving on food goes, it seems like a good reason to start a small amateur co-operative. I was looking into a pressure cooker to cook and store tomatoes, but the units hitting the required temperature are a tad expensive. If there were a few in the area interested it might be an investment, but as canned tomatoes are not that expensive, unless there is a benefit in flavour I guess it isn't worth pursuing.

Your community garden sounds fascinating. I wish you the best of success. I think the planet needs people that can take food from soil to plate without plastics being involved :-)

hamburgham

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122293255#Comment_122293255

How do you make the yoghurt in the slow cooker?

Bredabe

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058356948/weekly-food-budget-for-a-single-person

Odd as this may seem, scout charity shops/book shops for old cookbooks ( pref ones that use ib's/oz's) to avoid having to buy new measures. These will have a lot of thrifty savoury dishes which you can use or find inspiration from. Buy meat from a butcher as you can regulate how much you pay and most will be happy to show you cheap cuts that will do will in the slow cooker or help fill an oven.

defiantdancer

@Bredabe this is great advice-thank you- didn’t do home economics in school & my mum is passed away now so I can’t ask her-I will do that. I also like the butcher tip-I will work up my courage & go in & ask!

defiantdancer

@Slightly Kwackers your post about the drakes made me laugh out loud-it took my mind off my money worries😄

Bredabe

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122293813#Comment_122293813

I don't like meat, so when Im in, I tell them upfront that I don't know and most love to tell me this and that cut etc. If you get a traditional butcher, they may also pass on some family recipes or tips. Ime, most butchers at the right time of day are just looking for someone to have a bit of craic with and share their knowledge. Tbf, prob the same with greengrocers.

Also, have a look for filling station-type shops, here you can buy a wide range of items by weight and things like oils/detergent in your own containers.

HeidiHeidi

If you're in an urban area, shop in the biggest supermarket you can find - the smaller the shop, the higher the prices usually.

And sell your data to them - sign up for loyalty cards everywhere. If you shop clever using them, I'd say you could nearly halve your bill by only buying what's on offer (I have a huge Tesco near me, and some of their clubcard prices are outrageously low compared to the full prices - or maybe it's the other way around! And I don't have a Dunnes card, but I think they've gone down the same road) Pay close attention to per-unit prices and buy bulk offers when they're available (eg tins)

osarusan

As people have said, buy in bulk, cook in bulk, and freeze stuff.

I think soups are a good way to save money while eating healthily. As a basic example, half a kilo of carrots, 3 or 4 onions, 150grams of lentils. Fry it all for a while, add water and a stock cube, let it simmer for another while, and then blitz it into a smooth soup. Add a dash of milk and a little butter spread to give it some silkiness if you like.

That'll give you 5 or 6 servings for next to no money, and will mean you have some in the fridge and will avoid impulse buying food as you've nothing at home. That recipe is endlessly flexible too.

Add some brown bread, and a fried/scrambled egg on top and you have a very cheap but healthy meal.

HeidiHeidi

Scour the internet for recipes. BBC foods, Neven Maguire, Delia Smith are all go-to's for me - everything is available online these days, and you can shop for cheaper or bargain versions of their ingredients.

And I would often look at what's in my fridge, and just google "what can I make with X, Y, Z" and it's amazing what recipes will come up that you'd never have thought of. I hate wasting food and I'm not the most efficient shopper, so this keeps me happy, and expanding my cooking repertoire at the same time.

And I agree with the above poster - soup, soup, soup all day long. Cheap veg that's past its best for actually serving is perfect for soup - an onion, and a stick or two of celery (chop and freeze the rest in batches for the next time) add loads of flavour, and if you include a chopped up spud or two, it adds substance so it feels more like a meal.

HeidiHeidi

And lastly, plant seeds. You mentioned above that you bought a basil plant - in my experience they're very hard to keep alive, I don't know how they're propogated/grown but I've never managed to keep one going more than a few weeks. But a few well-drained pots on your balcony, and buy a few packets of seeds for a euro or two (Lidl and Aldi often have them, or a garden centre or hardware even), and you can keep yourself going with herbs and lettuces all summer long.

defiantdancer

@osarusan thank you! I will definitely add lentils to the shopping list😄I take it I don’t need a fancy soup maker just a large pot?

defiantdancer

@HeidiHeidi thank you! Some great tips😊

osarusan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122293939#Comment_122293939

A large pot and something to blend it with (if you want to blend it).

You can turn anything into a soup - great for avoiding throwing away food that's been in the fridge for a few days.

Another thing I'd say is that any time you are using the oven for anything, add in a tray of veg - potatoes, carrots, onions, peppers, broccoli, whatever. You can turn all of that into a very nice roast vegetable soup as well.

My mother always said 'you should never have just one thing in the oven'.

HeidiHeidi

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122293939#Comment_122293939

A stick blender will blitz soup for you no bother, if you want it smooth (which I always do) - nothing wrong with chopping everything very finely and eating it unblended, though!

lisasimpson

Lidl app is good too. Some of their stores let you build up points which u can redeem for certain goods, soap, yogurts, cheese etc. Handy if your located next one that allows it.

Slow cookers are great. Pop a chicken in and your sorted for a few days