The tips I share here at Southern Savers are relevant to anyone who is trying to save money—but sometimes if you’re in a certain context, it may not be as easy to apply all the principles. Recently I have been helping a friend who is living alone for the first time and facing buying groceries for only her and cooking for just one person. While it might seem like saving money would be simple, sometimes buying and cooking for one person is harder than cooking for four or six! If you are trying to stick to a budget, then you will have to be very intentional because you don’t want food to go bad and have to be thrown out, but you also want to be able to take advantage of sales when items are at rock bottom prices. These ways to save money on groceries when you’re single will hopefully help anyone who finds themselves in a situation similar to my friend!

How to Save Money on Groceries When You’re Single

Meal plan with repeat meals

If you’re looking for meal planning advice online, you might find templates with 7 breakfast, lunches, and dinners each week. This probably feels overwhelming! I recommend planning 2 breakfasts, 2 lunches, and 3 dinners for each week. You can rotate between the breakfasts and lunches, and then you can cook double portions for dinner. If you want to cook even larger portions, you can freeze additional portions for another week.

Look for recipes with simple ingredients

Buying a ton of different pantry items that you’ll only use a teaspoon of every few months is not worth it. Stick to things that can be used a lot of different ways: herb pastes, balsamic vinegar, fish sauce, maple syrup, high quality extra virgin olive oil, spice blends, capers, and sun dried tomatoes are some of my favorites.

Use ChatGPT if you get stuck

I’ve already written one post with 3 ways to use ChatGPT to meal plan. If none of those prompts work for you, try this one:

Make me a meal plan with two breakfasts, 2 lunches and 3 dinners that can feed one person. I’d like to make enough from these recipes to last the whole week. These are my nutritional goals: [insert any foods or components you want to focus on or avoid, such as “dairy-free” or “high-protein”].

You can even ask ChatGPT to make it into a printable grid!

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