Realistic food/budgets single person

[Semple]

Also just a heads up when i bought a load of cleaning stuff for uni. You can pick it up by the pound at stores like Aldi/Lidl or even Poundland in fact. You don't need fancy bleach like Harpic just shops own branded stuff.

 

[Mr-White]

£250-300 Food
£80 Take-aways
£100 Lunches

£430-480 in food a month

What's the £95 maintenance cover ?

What's your monthly income ?

MW

 

[Guest2]

Damn, thats a large budget. Mine goes something like this

£325 rent
£00 council tax (included in rent)
£00 Maintainance
£20 Gas (included in rent)
£00 Electric (included in rent)
£00 Water (included in rent)
£100-150 Food shopping
£48 petrol (bus)
£15 Mobile Phone
£22 Broadband/TV/Home Phone (split 3 ways)
£00 Take-aways* (included in food bill)
£100 Lunches

~£650

Definately too much on food, almost £500!
£40 on water a month, do you have 3 baths a day?

 

[Amp34]

You can knock this down massively; £100 on all food is more than doable, including weekend takeaways. £5 a day on lunches??? 4 take aways a week??? If budget is a concern, you need to be more realistic.

£100 is doable but I wouldn't want to live off it at the moment. That's £20-25 a week and unless you live off cheap ready meals/frozen foods and rice then you're really going to struggle. I'd suggest a reasonable budget would be £130-150 for the basics and a couple of treats.

Also £5 for a takeaway? Where do you live (or how much do you eat!)? £10 minimum for a takeaway.

 

[Mark A]

Looks like you forgot TV license or is that inc in the 45pm?

 

[Judgeneo]

Also £5 for a takeaway? Where do you live (or how much do you eat!)? £10 minimum for a takeaway.

My takeaway from the local chippy set me back £3.30 last night as I detailed above, a decent chinese will cost around a fiver if I don't get it delivered, only thing that I can't find cheap is a good indian or pizza. When it comes to pizza its often cheaper and faster to walk up the road, buy a frozen one and stick it in the oven

 

[Mr Jack]

See, I saw £250-300 a month on food and thought "yeah, that's reasonable" and then I saw you were counting another £180 for other kinds of food!

£95 council tax seems high, I'd have thought a flat would be band A + a single persons discount should make it about £70. My Gas + electric is £68/month, and my water is £28/month so your numbers seem high.

But why are you making numbers up? Record everything you spend and see what it comes to, and on what. Then go from there. You can certainly cut back on stuff

If that's a realistic budget then there's plenty of room to cut back. You could reduce your mobile phone costs, eat less takeout, take a packed lunch, etc. Driving more conservatively could save on petrol, maybe you could arrange a carshare, and so on and so forth.

 

[Pulsedriver]

Im not sure where I said £80 a week on take-aways I meant £80 a month, but that was way-over what is likely. (not 4 takeaways a week, 4 a month).

Really appreciate all your comments guys, bear in mind I will be a first time buyer, so whilst I probably appear stupid (I promise im not! ) it's because I don't really know a budget so I am only speculating going on what other people say (although often couples so I know I should trim off some of what they suggest as bills).

Petrol wise, well, the work journey is the during the week, trips home add another 40-50 miles a week, and perhaps weekend drives, not every time, but I have friends who are about 60 miles (120 return) away so maybe every other weekend drive over to them.

Edit - Hadn't included tv license!

My phone tariff is simplicity, so I could probably just knock that down as I don't use all the minutes/texts.

 

[Hayley-K]

Hey all,


£450 mortgage & insurance
£95 council tax
£95 Maintainance
£40 Gas
£40 Electric
£40 Water
£250-300 Food
£350 petrol
£40 Mobile Phone
£45 Broadband/TV/Home Phone
£80 Take-aways*
£100 Lunch

I have recently just bought a flat, the utilities are about right but that is an insane amount on food. I spend around £35 a week and that includes buying stuff to make lunch everyday. As for broadband you can get it much cheaper than £45, O2 did me a really good deal [halt price fo 6 months] due to being an existing customer.

The first few months were tight with all the extra bits and pieces needed when you first move in but now its settled down and I would say I'm spending no more than £800 a month. I have even paid car tax this month and still been able to have a life!

 

[Jokester]

This is about what I'm paying at the moment for my flat to give you some other ideas:-

£5 contents insurance
£100 council tax (includes water in Scotland)
£55 Maintainance fees (factoring fees + boiler protection)
£40 Gas + electric
£50 Broadband/phone line/mobile
£13 TV License
£200 food

 

[iraiguana]

As others have mentioned food budget way too high.

£50 a week is plenty to cover all food and lunch meals. Only times you may go over this is for purchasing wine etc which can easily add £10 on top, but is not a problem.

Takeaways should not cost £20 each if you are expecting 1 a week. I would cut these down as they are unhealthy usually and just wasting your money. Work harder on planning your meals and you will save money and eat better with less time wasted faffing in the kitchen.

TV licence and free view. I would drop sky and if you can just get virgin internet. Yes its not perfect, but its cheap and fast.

Your aim is to find a comfortable living budget with some room for savings for unexpected things. After a couple of years you will be earning more and able to splash out on the extras.

 

[Amp34]

My takeaway from the local chippy set me back £3.30 last night as I detailed above, a decent chinese will cost around a fiver if I don't get it delivered, only thing that I can't find cheap is a good indian or pizza. When it comes to pizza its often cheaper and faster to walk up the road, buy a frozen one and stick it in the oven

Guess it depends where you live then! In the south a chinese will cost you around £8 minimum (basic rice and a meat dish) and a chippy will charge around £2-3 for chips then up to £5 for a pie or fish...

 

[FabienO]

£325 Rent
£100 food
£50 Gas, Electricity, Water.
£75 Council Tax
£30 Broadband
£7.50 Mobile
£80 Travel

No snack budget, just buy when I want. I don't live by a budget either. I simply watch what I spend. Even if I have excess money left. As long as those above are paid, it's all gravy.

 

[Killerkebab]

I don't know if £50/week is plenty for food. Do you guys not treat yourselves to a nice steak every now and then?

 

[[FnG]magnolia]

What's the point of massively exagerating how much you expect to spend on things OP? You may as well have no budget whatsoever, for all the good it will do you.

 

[Gackt]

Guess it depends where you live then! In the south a chinese will cost you around £8 minimum (basic rice and a meat dish) and a chippy will charge around £2-3 for chips then up to £5 for a pie or fish...

£1 for a portion of chips here, and it's enough for one person, or two if you're having it with something else. ;/

I don't know if £50/week is plenty for food. Do you guys not treat yourselves to a nice steak every now and then?

That must be some expensive steak!

 

[Tribune]

As said above m8, your food bills seem way off.

 

[Guest2]

A £125 food shop for a week (almost £18 a night) would easily be able to get you steak, fish, chicken, lobster etc

You might aswell just eat out every night on that £18

But then you also have £80 takeaway allowance too. So £20 a night on food.

Just get yourself out for a 3 course meal every night!

 

[Freefaller]

Hey all,

So I am pretty much about to buy a flat, and was calculating a budget, some around me have said I am over-budgeting, others unsure.

I have worked it out as this;

£450 mortgage & insurance I presume you've hunted around for the best deals etc?
£95 council tax
£95 Maintainance always sensible to budget for repairs, or is this just the building's service charges?
£40 Gas
£40 Electric I pay a combined £45 for both Elec and Gas... so review your usage maybe?
£40 Water Seems about right - maybe a meter might save you money?
£250-300 Food I love my food, but even when I was at my biggest (in terms of gym/weighlifting) I was only spending around £300 a month. Now I spend about £50 a week with clever shopping - and that covers, lunch, dinner, breakfast, snacks, weekend, products and other household items. Still eating very healthily and hitting a decent quantity too
£350 petrol That's entirely up on how much you use the car and how carefully you drive - not much you can do about that if you're having to commute over 42miles a day
£40 Mobile Phone Seems high again... why not go PAYG route?
£45 Broadband/TV/Home Phone Seems like a lot - I'm with O2 and get BB for £9.50 a month. I just use freeview - if you can't afford it, do you really need Sky etc...?
£80 Take-aways* Just don't do it - £80 a month could go somewhere else!
£100 Lunches Doesn't need to be that high - make your own food at home, or cook batches or over cook at dinner and have left overs for lunch - saves a lot of money. If you're on a tight budget, making small vats of chilli/mince/chicken/stews etc... and freezing them is a good cheap way of making lunch and food last a long time. You can knock that £100 straight away if you shop smart for your weekly food shopping

Added some of my thoughts...

 

[Strife212]

Food costs too high