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?

I think it's utterly ridiculous to say you can cook a meal for 30p.

Also does the 30p include the energy used to cook the meal?

And if he was talking about when he was a child, times was different then.

When I was a child we had an allotment growing our own fruit and veg. My mum would make jams and chutneys which she'd swap them with friends and family for other things, like my auntie would make pies or bread.

I think it shows just how out of touch they really are.

It takes 30p worth of energy to think up the bloomin meal

Then there's the other issues. Trekking in the rain to get the kids to school, because you can't afford the bus fare. The shame, because you can't afford the shoes, or the books, or the trips. Dealing with the legal issues with an abusive ex.

Dealing with DWP (is that it), trying desperately to jump through the hoops, despite your mental or physical issues, and logistical issues when it comes to getting to the office, once again, unable to pay the bus fare.

That can really take up the physical time and the mental room to be creative on 30 fucking goddamned p to feed your family.

Very easily done if you buy special offer vegetables and have a cupboard full of other ingredients that cost a bloody fortune. It’s the same as cooking shows who claim it costs xyz but don’t price in the soy sauce or curry powder etc as they believe they are staples of every household.

I remember a programme on tv where various politicians went to live with someone on benefits. It was on years ago.
They all found it difficult and were very pleased to get back to their nice homes and swimming pools.
Maybe someone should get this Lee Anderson to do the same? Put his 30p a day where his mouth is? If it's that easy , he should find it a breeze really.

It's true that everyone who needs it should be given basic cookery lessons, Its a vital skill!! But why the moaning that kids aren't being taught 'at school'? Why not teach kids cooking at home? It's the best way to learn and is a great bonding experience however humble the meal!!
Whoever mentioned 'enlivening tomatoes' has made my night tho 😂 It's visual!!

Seems we all agree, you can make a meal for 30p per head but whether or not those meals would be nutrionally balanced and sustainable over a period of time is another question completely. We should definitely be addressing why people are expected to survive on 30p per head. Some fantastic meal suggestions out there though and how to cook ingredients using low energy!

Water.

Possibly with ice

George Orwell knew all about this nearly a century ago. www.george-orwell.org/The_Road_to_Wigan_Pier/5.html

^Would it not be better if they spent more money on wholesome things like
oranges and wholemeal bread or if they even, like the writer of the letter
to the New Statesman, saved on fuel and ate their carrots raw? Yes, it
would, but the point is that no ordinary human being is ever going to do
such a thing. The ordinary human being would sooner starve than live on
brown bread and raw carrots. And the peculiar evil is this, that the less
money you have, the less inclined you feel to spend it on wholesome food. A
millionaire may enjoy breakfasting off orange juice and Ryvita biscuits; an
unemployed man doesn't. Here the tendency of which I spoke at the end of
the last chapter comes into play. When you are unemployed, which is to say
when you are underfed, harassed, bored, and miserable, you don't want to
eat dull wholesome food. You want something a little bit 'tasty'. There is
always some cheaply pleasant thing to tempt you. Let's have three pennorth
of chips! Run out and buy us a twopenny ice-cream! Put the kettle on and
we'll all have a nice cup of tea! That is how your mind works when you are
at the P.A.C. level. White bread-and-marg and sugared tea don't nourish you
to any extent, but they are nicer (at least most people think so) than
brown bread-and-dripping and cold water. Unemployment is an endless misery
that has got to be constantly palliated, and especially with tea, the
English-man's opium. A cup of tea or even an aspirin is much better as a
temporary stimulant than a crust of brown bread.^

Terry Pratchett knew all about it too.

“The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money. Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy night by the feel of the cobbles. But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that'd still be keeping his feet dry in ten years' time, while the poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet. This was the Captain Samuel Vimes 'Boots' theory of socioeconomic unfairness.”

His mad defenders/fans have weirdly piled in on Jack Monroe on this. She is fighting back brilliantly. As for a 30p meal, it’s just not possible without a cupboard of staples to add to cheap ingredients. A stamp now costs 88p. How the freaking heck can you make a meal for less from scratch?

Even if you can do it. Is that what we would aspire to for our children in the uk? That their parents learn to budget meals for them at 30p pd ffs. I pay my taxes for a better standard of aspiration than this.

When I was a child we had an allotment growing our own fruit and veg. My mum would make jams and chutneys which she'd swap them with friends and family for other things, like my auntie would make pies or bread.

Times haven't changed. I make Jams and chutneys as we have fruit trees. I grow veg (I'm 41, work full time, not retired). Seeds cost pence. I swap seeds/ seedlings/ plants and veg with other people in my village. I have duck eggs off one neighbour.

There is little reason that a lot more people couldn't grow veg or bake bread.

We need to move to council properties being low rise tower blocks centered around an allotment, playground and green for kids. We need lots more community growing projects.

Tesco’s cheapest tin of tomatoes is 28p, I just searched it. So you’ve got 2p left for your onion, pasta, beans and peppers. Good luck!

She’s got 92p left - it’s a dish for 4.

I’d love to ask that twat where he does his shopping. I’m a decent cook, can get by shopping at Aldi and cheaper supermarkets but 30p per person (on a regular basis and not for an odd meal when stuck) is just untenable. And he’s not counting the energy to heat/cook said meal.

I think he’d do better to apologise rather than doubling down with this ‘out of context’ shit. People are starving, food banks can’t cope with demand. It’s not their fault, they need more money not fucking cooking lessons.

It's true that everyone who needs it should be given basic cookery lessons, Its a vital skill!!

Very true. But, broadly speaking, the worst cooks I know are the ones with bigger food budgets because they can afford packets, jars, ready made whatever,hello hello fresh boxes etc. and those on* *the smallest budgets because they can't afford anything over and above the most basic ingredients.
Not all, but largely ime.

Those with a middling budget are usually good cooks because they have to cook from scratch but can afford the herbs/spices etc needed to make decent food.

Living in a North Indian village for two years we cooked lentils, legumes, with potatoes or carrots, onions and rice. Nice spices. Make a large batch of the curry and it works out about 30p pp. And is nutritious. Rice can be cooked in 15 minutes.

www.itv.com/news/london/2022-05-09/safety-warning-after-man-burns-timber-in-living-room-to-save-on-energy-costs

www.london-fire.gov.uk/news/2022-news/may/new-malden-blaze-prompts-warning-from-london-fire-brigade-as-energy-bills-rise/?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=Orlo&utm_content=Heaters

My carer and I watch a lot of cookery shows.

He remarked that all the contestants on Masterchef (UK version) had relatively well paid jobs, or were retired from them eg Lawyer, retired headmaster, HR manager, company owner.

If you are poor you eat what you have, you cannot risk experimenting.

I did 3 years of what was then domestic science, and it put me off cooking. I learned to chop an onion properly and make things with mince. Nothing exciting though, shepherds pie, mincemeat and onion pie, mincemeat and onion on a pastry base with potato piped round the edge.

There was nothing vegetarian, nothing with spices, no pasta or rice (other than rice pudding).

Oh and I did learn what order to wash up in, which was useful for the 6 months in my life I didn't have a dishwasher.

I think cooking needs a slot in the 'enrichment' part of the timetable. And schools should be supplying the food, but they are underfunded.

Maybe a supermarket should sponsor a cookery club in schools.

Absolutely

If you are poor you eat what you have, you cannot risk experimenting.

This is such a good point.