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?

20p pack of spaghetti is what I use, its now 22p. I certainly carnt get 20 portions of spaghetti out that pack, it's 4 at the most.

It's been a while since I lived in the UK but you couldn't make a meal for 4 people for 30p per head when I lived there! In fact, I live in a country which is assumed to be expensive and even when doing currency conversion, it's actually cheaper and we have a better (and higher) standard of living. Yes, things may look more expensive at first glance but we earn 3 times what we did in the UK and petrol is cheaper, gas and electric are cheaper, cars are about the same, insurance is cheaper, shopping is cheaper. And we all moan about how prices have risen but then I think of people in the UK as I still have a lot of family there and I'm glad I'm not there. Especially if MP's are saying crap like this!

Diabetes, malnutrition no enjoyment in food. Very few of us live lifestyles where we can eat high bland carbs and low protein. Say for lunch the other day I had half pot of hummus, some tomatoes, cucumber, sliced chicken and one wholemeal pitta bread. I don't see a problem with balancing it out with beans on decent toast the next day. No way would that average 30p a meal. But if you just had beans on toast it just not good as never hitting different nutrients. Just eating cheap pasta in a teaspoon of olive oil is not that filling you body will work through it quickly.

Except to actually go to the shops to get that food costs money, and it costs money to store and cook food.
Well... yes. Living in general costs money.

IIRC it was 30p a day. You'd have scurvy in a few months on that.

I read an article in ‘The Big Issue’, probably 25 years ago, when the Income Support for a single person was set so that you had £10 a week for food. They asked three people to give it a go, and none of them could do it. Even though they were allowed to cheat by only costing the amount of a product they used, eg 1p of oil, rather than buying a whole new bottle. And they didn’t have to worry about the cost of cooking, equipment etc. All of them could cook.

One man cheated.

One woman (who was vegetarian) managed to make nutritious food - pulses/beans and veg in various combinations - but it wasn’t calorific enough.

One man (who had experience of living on benefits) managed to get enough calories by eating cheap sausages, bread, baked beans etc., but wasn’t getting the necessary nutrients.

I’m sure some people would benefit from help with budgeting and recipe ideas, but that isn’t a substitute for more income.

Bonkers isn't it
Add to that not to eat ultra processed food, not too much red meat, 5-10 portions of fruit and veg. No chance
Corned beef used to be cheap, so did tuna but it's not any more. I eat well on £50pw including all loo rolls, cleaning stuff etc but I'm on my own

Yes, that's the point.

It's all very well saying "oh, you can eat for 30p" but that doesn't take into account the costs of getting that food and heating it, or the decision about whether you want to eat tomorrow or put the heating on.

Living on the breadline fucking sucks, and twatty MPs saying "oh, you just need to learn how to cook" whilst pulling an 80k salary and having all their expenses covered can just fucking fuck off to fuck.

I recently saw a Youtube video of eating 3 meals (ie, one day's food) for a 1.00.
Actually, I did not get to the end.
However, he was remarkable in what he actually bought for 1.00 (GBP).
Though the thought of going into any supermarket near me and buying 1 tomato or 1 mushroom is not something to recommend it.
He did NOT use anything in his store cupboard, but cheated in picking up some freebie sauce/mayonaise sachets in macDonals or similar (ie one that were left on someone's tray).
My overall view is that this was very time consuming in shopping and the 'thinking' and/or preparation of the said meals.
In fact, I think I will go back and watch the rest of the video to see what he cooks.

I’m sure some people would benefit from help with budgeting and recipe ideas, but that isn’t a substitute for more income.
£6.30 is 52 minutes worth of work on a national minimum wage post-tax, or 2% of your 40hrs weekly income. There are many issues with inequality in the UK, but food is dirt cheap relative to income / welfare.

Halls of residence? It's a good job the allegation about 50+ sex assaulters/sex pests was not confirmed or the other 550 MPs, or at least the proportion that are women or vulnerable might be somewhat concerned.

eggs are twenty six pence each - so not sure where ou can get a slice of bread for 4p from, ditto the cheese and mushrooms on toast - mushrooms are more expensive than you think

Well more concerned than they might be sharing a workplace now.

You can cook for cheaper if you have time, energy, ability to shop around, can look for reduced stuff, can afford gas and electric and are able to cook and have the equipment too. Oh and a freezer

But if you cut any of those benefits above out, it starts getting harder and harder. Take away the benefit of time and you probably also cut out reduced stuff, shopping around and lose some of your energy too

Well, I suppose of people walked to the shops and back, collecting wood on the way there and back, they could cut the cost of using a car, and by utilising the wood to start a fire in the back garden to cook over, they're saving money on gas/electric. If they live near a river, even better as they then get to wash their dishes for free, thus saving money on water costs!

🤔 Thinking about it, it could be possible but it would take a lot of time and effort and I'm not sure how practical it would be. Not to mention the environmental impact of burning wood all the time.....

But rent and gas and electric isn't now is it? So you're reducing the amount you have available to spend on food

Please give your 7 day meal plan for this amount of food. I am sure a lot of people would be interested in it. That's 3 meals. Breakfast, lunch and dinner out of the ingredients listed.

I think his point was that it's no good having a food bank that gives away fresh food, if the recipients don't know how to cook it economically. I would also agree that a lot of people have no idea how to budget or cook from scratch.

He did invite journos and MPs to visit his foodbank instead of poo-pooing it. Maybe we should do the same.

Didn't the 30p involve compost and seeds and good-old planning ahead a few seasons with branches from trees planted by far-sighted previous generations to cook on a traditional open fire? Those Labour scallywags are so unimaginative. Surely everyone has a large part of the garden behind the Summerhouse to grow their own like in the war. Dig for Victory. Or if they live in Belgravia then growing at the family seat and getting the staff to deliver it in the Brake?

This would be okay occasionally but isn't high enough in protein (rice has a small amount of protein in it) to be eaten regularly.

Please give your 7 day meal plan for this amount of food. I am sure a lot of people would be interested in it. That's 3 meals. Breakfast, lunch and dinner out of the ingredients listed.

Uncle Roger explains egg fried rice much better than I do, and I suspect everyone knows how to boil pasta and make a primitive pasta-tomato-sausage-veg dish.

I don't want to give any credence to the utter bollocks this MP was spouting but like me I'm guessing some have come onto this thread looking for cheap recipes to reduce their food spend. Not sure if anybody has mentioned already, egg fried rice with frozen veg. Initial purchase of soy sauce will set you back a couple of quid, but it is quite a hearty/ nutritious meal with carb, protein and veg. All you need is cooking oil, bag of frozen onions, bag of rice, bag of frozen veg and soy sauce. When we have had to cut back expenditure, a few of these a week has helped significantly reduce our weekly shopping bill.

£6.30 is 52 minutes worth of work on a national minimum wage post-tax, or 2% of your 40hrs weekly income.

and tax goes towards subsidising MPs canteen in parliament (MPs who earn £80000 per year) www.thelondoneconomic.com/politics/inside-the-members-dining-room-where-a-30-meal-costs-mps-just-12-75-216257/

fullfact.org/online/parliament-food-subsidised/

Lentil dhal, chickpea curry, instant noodles & frozen veg, jacket potato & beans, pasta & pesto (or other jar sauce).

I was very poor for a long time and these were some of my staples. It helps I don’t eat meat.

Oh apparently somebody has already said it:D