Moving out - Budget planning help

[vincent1989]

When I lived alone, I cooked 95% of my meals myself. £80 a month was less than my 'meat' costs. And I didn't exactly earn a massive wage, nor eat a lot, nor eat 'well'.

i suppose as i'm a vegetarian i don't really take in to account the cost of meat, that and i'm more than happy with own brand. As a family our budget a month is about £50 each (bought down by the the lower cost of buying bulk, this includes food for 3 meals a day as well as some extras like fruit/snacks etc). £80 for one shouldn't be too unreasonable

either way i imagine the op has looked at what he eats per month and then workedo ut how much it all costs (least that would be the most sensible way to do it) besides, he has £300 spare per month, if the £80 is just for the basics then he has more than enough for the odd meal out, and extra bits and pieces.

 

[Glaucus]

£80 for food for one is perfectly fine if it just for the food basics and you intend to do a lot of your own cooking.

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Do you remember to add all those ££ at lunch and in the evening. it's surprising how much the small shops cost. It all depends how much and what you eat. My flat mate must spend about £15 a week, tesco value cheese pizzas and cheap ham and cheese sandwhiches. Which is pretty much all he eats. On the other hand I can spend £6 on a bit of meat for one meal.
I often find vegetarian meals costs just as much, by the time you have brought a few of the more expensive vegetables or add in nuts/cheese.

 

[Backslick]

Out of interest who do you get your contents cover with? Looking to get contents cover for our belongings which include 2-3 expensive items.

It's underwritten by AXA but I use a broker. Depending how expensive your items are you could try Zurich Private Clients or Michael Ward.

 

[vincent1989]

Do you remember to add all those ££ at lunch and in the evening. it's surprising how much the small shops cost. It all depends how much and what you eat. My flat mate must spend about £15 a week, tesco value cheese pizzas and cheap ham and cheese sandwhiches. Which is pretty much all he eats. On the other hand I can spend £6 on a bit of meat for one meal.

breakfast; cereal, can be had dirt cheap if you buy own brand (which is just as good as, and usually made by, the big brands), sandwiches for lunch, again, can be very cheap if you make your own. dinner can be made for cheap again, especially if you club in with your mate.

I often find vegetarian meals costs just as much, by the time you have brought a few of the more expensive vegetables or add in nuts/cheese.
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cooking with nuts/cheese is always going to make a meal expensive whether you're veggie or not, my mum can make a fantastic meal for 5 for less than what you spend on your dinner for one.

 

[meghatronic]

cooking with nuts/cheese is always going to make a meal expensive whether you're veggie or not, my mum can make a fantastic meal for 5 for less than what you spend on your dinner for one.

Indian food?

 

[vincent1989]

Indian food?

what's that supposed to mean?

 

[meghatronic]

what's that supposed to mean?

My neighbour can cook about 20 different Indian dishes - to feed a family of 4 - and still have change from a £20. I get the leftovers. Woop.

 

[johnny6]

£80 for food for one is perfectly fine if it just for the food basics and you intend to do a lot of your own cooking.

dunno how people can spend so much on food, must buy it in gold packaging.

edit: see above, £50 per week for one is ridiculous, you must eat very well.

When he quoted £80 for food I assumed he also means toiletries, cleaning products, toilet roll etc. Surely there is no way you can feed and keep yourself/the house clean for £80 a month.

 

[Glaucus]

cooking with nuts/cheese is always going to make a meal expensive whether you're veggie or not, my mum can make a fantastic meal for 5 for less than what you spend on your dinner for one.

You can, it doesn't mean you will, will want to or that you will freeze stuff when you move out.

 

[Backslick]

When he quoted £80 for food I assumed he means toiletries, cleaning products, toilet roll etc. Surely there is no way you can feed and keep yourself/the house clean for £80 a month.

If you're a proper ***** you probably can. But I'd double the estimate to do it comfortably and with some panache.

 

[vincent1989]

My neighbour can cook about 20 different Indian dishes - to feed a family of 4 - and still have change from a £20. I get the leftovers. Woop.

i see, we eat all sorts of foods, indian (curries et al) pasta based foods, vegetable based dinners (steams and roasted etc), pies, vegetable bakes and so on.

 

[vicisthebest]

You don't seem to have factored in much for gas/electric/water - we pay £77 per month for gas and electric, and £25 a month for water.

Though now I look at where you live, I guess your place isn't that big? We pay £450 per month rent but in the Grim North that gets us a 2 bed semi.

Between the 2 of us, we spend about £70 per week on food shopping. But we do eat decent food, our Beanz are Heinz etc. Don't know if I could do £80 a MONTH on food by myself!

EDIT: Sorry, realised your gas/electric/water etc has already been divided by 2. I misunderstood what you said and thought you meant that the figures you'd written down would be divided by 2.

 

[meghatronic]

i see, we eat all sorts of foods, indian (curries et al) pasta based foods, vegetable based dinners (steams and roasted etc), pies, vegetable bakes and so on.

Meat

 

[vincent1989]

When he quoted £80 for food I assumed he also means toiletries, cleaning products, toilet roll etc. Surely there is no way you can feed and keep yourself/the house clean for £80 a month.

i suppose if you look at it that way you're probably right, but a lot of those things dont need to be bought every month, usually they just have a big initialy outlay with the occasional top up. these could easily be coming from his expendable money, toilet paper is cheap though

Meat

haha, yes well i suppose if you like it then it does seem to be rather lacking!

 

[meghatronic]

i suppose if you look at it that way you're probably right, but a lot of those things dont need to be bought every month, usually they just have a big initialy outlay with the occasional top up. these could easily be coming from his expendable money, toilet paper is cheap though

That is a lot of regular things coming out of his contigency money!

 

[vincent1989]

That is a lot of regular things coming out of his contigency money!

well, i use shower gel and shampoo every day but it's only a couple of £ a month, both usually last two, it's hardly a big outlay! i usually have toilettries coming out my ears after christmas anyway, pretty sure many people do

 

[Megahurtz400]

That is a lot of regular things coming out of his contigency money!

£100 quid a month for food and toiletries and stuff.

Lowered personal spending to £250 a month, leaving me with just under £300 spare.

Originally, toiletries and the other things were not accounted for, but are now, but again, majority will be divided between two

 

[johnny6]

If you're a proper ***** you probably can. But I'd double the estimate to do it comfortably and with some panache.

Seriously 80 quid a month? £18.50 a week!!!!!!

Toiletries, toilet roll, cleaning products, bin bags and other such items must cost nearly half that amount a week for anyone. I can't see how anyone can feed themselves for 7 days with semi decent ingredients for 10 quid

 

[Backslick]

No, you'd have to be a serious weirdo to do it but I reckon it could be done.

 

[Ahleckz]

cooking with nuts/cheese is always going to make a meal expensive whether you're veggie or not, my mum can make a fantastic meal for 5 for less than what you spend on your dinner for one.

Can we have some of her recipes?

I'd say you are paying to much for your utilities, but then again I don't pay for water so no idea how much that costs.