To ask what you can actually cook for 30p/meal?

[Porcupineintherough]

Following on from the comments by MP Lee Anderson I was wondering what I could actually make for 30p/head. I'm a pretty good thrifty cook but all I could come up with were:

beans on toast (budget brands)
tinned tomatoes on toast (budget brands)
tinned mushrooms on toast (budget brands)
egg on toast
cheese on toast (ditto)
some kind of veggie stew/sauces w red lentils (if cooking for more than one) to eat w pasta
stir fry noodles w a few shreds of veg
bowl of basics cereal

I'm not counting things like baked potatoes where the ingredients are cheap but the energy costs to cook them are high.

So what am I missing? What skills and recipes are this food bank teaching? Wild foraging? Poaching? Shop-lifting 101?

From what i read, this MP is part of a group teaching people how to cook cheaply.

I don't think either that you have to have 'lived the life' to advise others.

One mistake people are making here with their 30p a head meals is assuming that there is literally nothing in the store cupboards at all. I know some will come along and say yes, that's right, but most families do have something to use as a basis or seasonings for meals without buying everything from scratch every single week.

And the idea of meal for £1.20 is not the only meal of the day.
To make this whole thing more realistic, it ought to focus on the budget per week because some things are cheaper bought in bigger packs/ weights.

Pulses are incredibly cheap and healthy. You can make a chickpea and spinach curry , with rice, for next to nothing. This is assuming you have some basic ingredients in the store cupboard .

You'd have rice with it of course but don't let that stop you from being deliberately obtuse.

What, with the remaining 2p?

This is assuming you have some basic ingredients in the store cupboard .

what are you counting as basics?

Again, I wasn't trying to prove Lee Anderson's point, or argue whatsoever that you can make meals for 30p. I was just trying to make helpful suggestions for cheap meals as requested by the OP.

And we are pointing out the flaws in your cheap meals-for the portions you’ve specified, they won’t be suitable main meals unless you’re dieting.

Or, are we assuming that people going to food banks have a well stocked cupboard full of basics which they are just ignoring?

maybe some spices, which last for years, like curry powder/ paste, milk, rice, flour and cornflour. Things that cost very little and have a long shelf life. An outlay of £10 could stock someone up with lots of things like this.

Oh yes. @MNHQ can we ask him on? I think we'd all love to see this.

Anyone watched the TV series Alone on History channel? We might soon be able to get food ideas or inspiration from there.. 😂
I think I’ll watch it again from the beginning Season 1 (it’s really good actually).

m.imdb.com/title/tt4803766/

They are not "my cheap meals" but something I linked to which I read briefly and thought might be helpful, knowing that Jack Monroe writes extensively on the subject. If you have complaints I suggest you take it up with her, I'm sure she'd love to hear it.

updated prices (and only a trip to sainsburys). Mushrooms and peppers are more expensive than they were.

Serves 4 at 42p each
1 tbsp (13g) Dunns River Caribbean seasoning, 13p (100g for £1 Sainbury’s )
200g mushrooms, 63p (95p/300g, Sainsburys Basics)
a handful of frozen peppers, or 1 fresh one of any colour, 48p (one fresh pepper in Sainsburys)
400g kidney beans, 30p (30p/400g, Summer pride in Sainbury’s)
2 tbsp tomato ketchup, 1p (44p/460g, Sainsburys Basics)
100g frozen spinach, 15p (£1.50/1kg, Sainsburys)
a pinch or two of cayenne pepper or chilli flakes, <1p (80p/100g, Natco or KTC brand)

maybe some spices, which last for years, like curry powder/ paste, milk, rice, flour and cornflour. Things that cost very little and have a long shelf life. An outlay of £10 could stock someone up with lots of things like this

See, I imagine this is how people imagine that recipes can be whipped up for pennies but these things only last forever if you never use them and if you use them regularly they need replenishing and adding to the cost of a recipe. There's no magic store cupboard tree.

I like a challenge, so I've costed out a meal plan for a week, for a family of four (let's hope they're small children not hungry teenagers), which averages out at 27p per person per portion and comes in at £25.26 for the shopping for the week.

On the plus side - it is nutritionally adequate, albeit short on fruit and fresh veg. It would keep them alive. It's got plenty of carbs, fat and protein. There are enough, if not plentiful, veg. If I had to, I'd eat it, and if I had to, I'd feed it to my children (who would not be grateful for it).

On the minus side:

• it doesn't cater to any treats, snacks, food allergies or aversions
• short on fruit and fresh veg, as above
• higher sugar than is ideal, because value brands are higher sugar (glucose fructose syrup in your baked beans, anyone?)
• doesn't include price of energy to cook the food
• doesn't include price of driving to the supermarket or having it delivered
• assumes access to a fridge, hob, freezer and oven (and ideally a microwave)
• doesn't include toiletries, cleaning products, nappies etc (although in fairness to the MP, she says through gritted teeth, he wasn't including those)
• doesn't acknowledge that food poverty can affect those who work longest hours - if someone is doing two minimum wage jobs she's not going to have the energy to cook lentil bolognaise which the children will moan about anyway
• assumes there will be salt / pepper / a bit of mixed herbs or similar available, otherwise that's an extra cost
• it is really boring.

You can try living without government at all, if you don't want to contribute to it. Plenty of places in the world that offer that kind of experience. Sadly, all not with a very high life expectancy, and without 23p pasta in the supermarket.

And one of the teens would be nourished at least.

It's all very well with the government blithely bleating on about making a meal for 30p, but eating the same foods aren't healthy, even if the could be considered that as one meal on that occasion. The reason some diseases are no longer an issue is because we have access to a varied diet if our budget allows. Do they not realise that in not helping people now they are actually going to cost themselves more in the long run?

Mind you, since when have they looked beyond firefighting to the end of the week/getting a cheeky backhander. I'm not sure they are even capable of coming up with any long term solution that is also a preventative measure, only dealing with chaos in the short term, and badly too.

Using frozen peppers it’s 20p for 100g. Still coming in a more than 30p a portion though.

Rice is another 45p/kilo. So 9p for 4.

I also think people are failing to note that cooking from scratch takes time. Time you don’t have if you get home from work at 5.30 and your kids need to eat, bathe and be in bed for 7.

it also means as you’re chopping and peeling away you’re not spending time with them after not seeing them all day.

plus extra washing up etc

36p a portion without rice. 38p a portion with rice.

it also means as you’re chopping and peeling away you’re not spending time with them after not seeing them all day

Surely the answer to that is to involve them with the cooking? (Obviously in an age appropriate way) And that way they learn to cook as well, so win-win.

The rice is only an extra 200 calories. 320 calories is not a lot.

Not really the point of this thread though is it? We are supposed to be a rich nation and we are supposed to be governed well so that we progress as a nation. Doesn't seem like that. It feels we are going backwards.

Perhaps we all should stop moaning and get ourselves some of this:

Why doesn't the cunt take leftovers from last night's dinner then, like everyone else.

Everyone that doesn't have to make a 30p meal, that is. Doubt anyone is getting leftovers out of that.

I understand you point, but a scenario where someone is given exactly £6.30 for the week is more of a very hypothetical thought exercise. Usually people have some kind of more long-term view, where they are paid monthly / 4-weekly.

People who are budgeting meals at the level of pennies like this don’t tend to have the resources to soak this stuff up whether paid monthly or not.

£27.30 is not a lot on a monthly basis. And £1 for salt or oil can make a difference.