To spend £30 a month on ALL food and drink?

I think it would be possible if you really really had to but it would have to be very basic food with no meat and not much fruit/veg.

The 1890s maybe.

Next time on OP manages the impossible:

I can hold my breath for 10mins!

(if I start 2mins in, have a couple of breaths in-between and quit after 5mins)

Of course it’s not possible if you’re including Greggs/don’t want to starve yourself. I’ve lived like this at times when I was younger (and food cheaper), out of necessity. I would have a couple cheap packets of noodle a day at 25p for example, or would have beans on toast for a few days/jacket potato. But very few veg.

You've been asked multiple times what you actually ate in your 2 week (plus added extras) on £30. Is there a reason why you haven't replied?

Which implies you spent money on a food shop on either the 11th/12th November (unless you were living solely on air for 12 days) so had probably at least a weeks worth of food (at the very least) to get eat and have then spent another £30 since that date. So significantly over £30 a month! How much did you spend on food from the 1st-12th November? Add that to the £30 and you have your total for last month.

Also, spending £30 on food and eating only that £30 food you bought are two completely different things. If you’re still eating bits and bobs that you have existing in your cupboard, freezer and fridge then then you’re well over.

Anyone here could technically “spend” as little as £5 on food a month if they have a fully stocked cupboard and freezer allowing them to make meals from food they already own in their house. Spending an amount on food a month and consuming food with a total £value a month (if you’re including food you already have in the house not included in that last spend) are two completely different things.

“I’ve only spent £30 on food since Nov 12th!” Is utterly irrelevant unless you tell us a) what you spent from 1st-12th and b) what you are each day from the 12th-30th. I bet the total is nowhere even close to £30.

Is it possible- yes- 19p baked beans, 23p white bread etc. is it advisable- no it would be almost exclusively poor quality upf food and not a good diet at all

Only if you steal stuff.

Try that OP.

I used to spend about £10/15 a week on food when I was astudent nurse but this was 30+ years ago and I ate an awful lot of pasta

This

How could you ‘eat out’ unless you are eating out of bins?

It would cost £30 to eat out once. What are you talking about?

This is utterly meaningless unless you also adhere to ALL the official nutritional guidelines on minimum calorie, protein, fat, fruit, veg, etc requirements.

You also need a starting inventory of ALL the food supplies you already have to hand, including basic storecupboard ingredients. Lots of people could cobble together 'interesting' meals for many weeks by excavating the darker corners of their cupboards and freezers.

You also need to note your current weight and BMI, and track it going forward. An overweight person could potentially skimp on calories for quite some time, but a healthyweight or already underweight person might quickly harm their health.

Honestly? You sound like a stooge for the Labour govt/DWP, seeking to justify yet another cut to benefits which already don't cover adequate nutrition.

This post got me thinking. We're proper country bumpkins, grow loads of our own fruit and veg, with a nice stocked up produce freezer, and make our own bread, jam, sauces etc and are always big fans of the reduced aisle, as well as fortunate to live in the country where we can pick apples, pears, blackberries growing wild.

We also live mostly vegetarian and make our own oat milk.

I think, if pushed, we could probably just about do this. But we have a LOT of opportunity for free food (i.e. What we forage/grow) and wouldn't particularly enjoy the repetition of pasta/jacket/pizza and toast / porridge that this diet would enforce.

I’m trying to work out what type of person has literally nothing in their cupboards except some instant coffee and some teabags. No tins of anything, no pasta/rice, no garlic, salt or pepper, spices etc? Just tea and coffee.
Other than people living in poverty I can’t understand this at all.

those greggs pizza slices are terrible too, they literally taste the same as any supermarket oven pizza

As it is just an interesting trial, why not have a go at seeing what you can buy, cadge, somehow get for a mere £7, and then see what kind of meals you can make that will get you through a week? It would be easier if you could look at £31 for the month, and that way buy bigger packs of things like pasta, rice, some tinned stuff. You want products with good use by dates, and a freezer to make up batches. Reduced price goods will be your friend as well. Ditch your Greggs treat to start with, see how the month goes, and if you are lucky you might be able to afford. Bakery’s often really reduce goods at the end of the day, so there might be some treats here as well. Trying to build up a stock of staples such as flour, sugar, will allow you to bake things for yourself with eggs, milk added. The fuel to cook and freeze certain stuff I take it won’t be included in your £1 a day, because this is a huge factor in terms of living on a strict budget.

Oh good, poverty porn.

Yea that was my thought, especially given the first post nature.

OP when you’ve finished cosplaying poverty writing your article maybe you could see if you have the discipline to set and stick to a realistic budget that allows you to eat healthily and even perhaps get involved in some campaigning / awareness / community support around actual poverty? That would probably help you to grow as a person more so than whatever this is.

I live alone and there is no way £30 would cover me for a week let alone a month. I meal plan, bulk cook and freeze, lots of homemade soup, curries, bolognaise sauce, stews (meat and veg). I do have breakfast,lunch and an evening meal and maybe a snack or two. Prior to the cost of living crisis, £30 was fine while I stick to the same sort of shopping and cooking I have noticed that the cost has risen astronomically. I reckon that some weeks I spend about £40-£45 and then perhaps about £25 the next week as I will be using shopping from the previous week or my store cupboard.

In 19 days you’ve spent £35 so how are you going to make £30 stretch to 30-31days?

Sorry but I don't thinks that's doable or reasonable, I would worry about you not having proper nutrition to say healthy.
My vegetarian daughter spent that a week at uni if she was careful but I that was a couple of years ago food prices have risen since

Yes, if you buy your groceries at a food club. That's what I do

But a pizza slice is £2.75 and your budgeting £1 a day (even less in months with 31 days). So if you buy a slice that’s your budget gone for 3 days?

You’re deluding yourself not disciplining ffs!
As @Overthebow says: So you’ve really spent about £40 including the treats for 19 days. That’s around £60 a month so almost double your challenge budget and a lot more doable. Try actually doing £30 for a month
I can only imagine that you’re going to end up malnourished, constipated and unwell. I just hope that you don’t end up with long term health problems.

I read an article about ten years ago buy a man who claimed to live on a £1 a day for a month I think ,he failed to.mention he had his own chickens ,that gave him daily eggs ,a rather substantial veg patch and a very well stocked store cupboard before he wrote his article 🙄