Average Monthly Food Cost

Hi my daughter will be studying in London this fall. We're trying to determine an appropriate monthly food budget in GBP. She will be able to cook in her dormitory and I would appreciate any ideas on a reasonable amount of money. Thanks!

My vote: £200/month + £200 going out money.

Thank you!

she needs to be clever with her shopping, using supermarkets not convenience shops and using their value ranges.

there are supermarkets right throughout London, even in the centre.

Teach her how to cook (if she doesn't know how), she'll save a phenomenal amount of money even if she can do the basics. Investing in some lessons from mom + the odd student cook book (search Amazon) would be a big help. If she's a veggie, she could trim that £200 a bit, say 20-25% or so perhaps.

Dear rest of UK posters; please vote with your costings...

£200 per month sounds a bit steep for a student, but depends on what they eat, you could easily eat at home for £20 week. But it depends if you are on a budget, obviously for eating out a couple of times a week add to that.

As well as supermarkets, you will find cheaper meats at for example brixton market, chinese shops are much cheaper for things like noodles, soy sauces ect.

If you are a really careful shopper, then I would have thought £200 was more than adequate, even allowing for London prices. There have been programmes on UK tv about whole families trying to live on £50 per week, though clearly the quality of food is low at this sort of rate. All supermarkets have their "value" ranges and £50 per week / £200 per month should be OK.

As for Fwoggie's suggestion about £200 per month going out money, well I'm now speculating on the sort of student he must have been!

#6 I was allowing not just for nights out, but for sightseeing, day trips to Oxford/Brighton/Cambridge etc, possibly a weekend in Paris, that sorta thing. If you dial back for nights out only, you could probably chop it in half.

I was a bit of a party animal to be fair.

I don't live in London but I do cook only for myself and on buying food for cooking alone I spend only about £60-70 a month. I shop in Aldi's which is great for cheap (but tasty!) food and the cheapest fruit and veg compared to other supermarkets. I eat well and don't just live on pasta / baked beans / toast etc.

On top of this, I do eat out probably 5-6 a month, so that adds up, and I won't compare those prices to London eating out prices. However, I think that it would be perfectly within reach for someone to live for far less than £200 for their food shopping alone. Maybe a bit more than £60-70 a month in London, but definitely lower than £200 if the shopper is savvy and doesn't waste food either. A lot of money spent on food is wasted because we don't eat it in time and it goes off. Freezing portions of meals / bread etc all helps save money.

Correct me if I'm wrong??

I live in London, and spend about £260 a month for 2 of us. We are vegetarians, and don't have wildly expensive tastes, but we buy what we want. We don't live in central London, so have access to large supermarkets - the central London versions (Sainsburys local, Tesco express) tend to be more expensive. £200 for one person seems a lot to me.

That include takeaways + takehome booze guys? :)

Many moons ago, iwas divorced after 30 good years and my gf gave me a book called "How to Boil an Egg" which I took to Venezuela where I worked for 12 months (not highly paid).

I now live with gf and I still use it in my dotage and is still available on Amazon (that was about 7500 moons incidentally). One can eat very well indeed on 10USD, 6GBP per day, buying fresh veg and avoiding pre-prepared food. Not really enough to eat out occasionally altho fish'n'chips can be had for about 4 quid.

ps Author: J Arkless.

The average amount of food must be £200 to £250 but after that i also mention that it depends on the person too.

I work in central London and do buy lunch out a bit, plus going out quite a bit. However I give myself a daily budget of £20 which is for all food, going out and shopping such as shampoo, buying friends birthday presents, books etc. (basically everything after my bill are paid). Last year (before a promotion) it was £14 a day and that was certainly doable if I spent less on lunch and went out a bit less.

Would this budget include travel? (mine doesn't).

Personally I wouldn't go below £14 a day which is £420 a month but to cover everything I've listed above. I think this fits in with £200-£250 a month for food.

Having said all that if you only want to pay for basic food, and get her to get a job for the rest (which is what my parents did) then £250 should be fine.

G

£150 a month is what I spend and I live in London. If someone eats out then the sky is the limit. What does she know about cooking and nutrition?

@14 at school she cooks a lot of frozen vegetables, pasta, frozen meatballs (she doesn't cook meat) and jarred sauce. She buys brie, baguettes, carrots, turkey (lunch meat), hummus, etc.

Well if she's not that much into meat, it's probably more like £160-180 a month then. Depends where she sources from. If she finds (and uses) the local markets, that'll keep her costs lower than Tescos, Waitrose or M&S would.

A key feature in eating cheaply is discovering what time local supermarkets reduce prices of food with use by / sell by dates on that day. Often in evenings (or approaching closing time of usually 5pm on Sundays), but sometimes in mornings. For example, around 2pm today (Sunday) I bought a 200g tub of Asda own brand humous for 30p, reduced from 95p.

I am a student in London, I've been here for 3 years now and live off £50 per week. That includes my food, alcohol, clothes, toiletries, books everything. It's hard but can be done. I am also a vegetarian which brings the costs down ALOT.