Can you meal plan for £15?

[Seaside3]

Hello! Recently I saw a lady on fb making food for 1 person, for a week, for £15. Naturally my competitive ass decided to see if I would be able to manage it. Hypothetically, as I actually cook for 4 people. And NO, I'm nkt saying anyone should live like this, but it is some people's reality.

Not gonna lie, it took more planning than necessary, and I'm not convinced by it. Ive tried really hard to buy stuff that will be filling and jtems that will last intonthe followung week to start a little pantry. What would you make? And what would you differently?

i used Tesco for pricing.

1kg oats 85
6 eggs£1
3 x tinned tomatoes £1.29
500g yogurt 55p
1 garlicbulb 60p
6 apples 99p
Uht milk 65p
2 tins beans 56p
Curry powder £1
800g Bread 55p
1 kg Rice 52p
Lentils £2.10
Chickpeas 41p
Carrots 69p
Butter £1.60
1 potato 27p
Stock cubes £1.10
3 onions 33p
Total £14.96

What i woukd make: I don't know the exact amounts I would use, I've been cooking for 4-6 people for 27 years! I'm also guessing fuel use needs to be minimal. I've attempted to keep it as nutrional as possible, but it is hard. And I'm not sure how people cope with tea or coffee?

Breakfast

Porridge with water and milk, add in grated apples. I'd make one big batch and then eat cold as the week went on.

Alternate breakfast/lunch/dinner ideas

Scrambled eggs on toast
Beans on toast
Tomatoes on toast

Dinner

I would make 1 big batch of dahl with an onion, garlic, lentils, half the potato, stock cube and curry powder. Add 1/2 tin of chick peas. Serve with rice and yogurt. An egg could be added for a different flavour.

Lunch
Carrot soup with onions, 1/2 potato, handul of oats, garlic, butter for frying. Make the whole bag into soup, should make about 6 portions?

1/2 tin of chickpeas, yogurt, curry powder as a basic chickpea filling for bread or with rice.

Okay, what would you do?

I think id buy ingredients to make my own bread. That was you can make naans, scones, bread, wraps etc.
oats you can make granola for the breakfast too
Could you do a bag of potatoes in exchange for something? Then you have mash and jackets or chips etc. I think if I was on that budget I’d aim to fill people up more than anything xx

I set off with flour and potatoes and then decided the better option eas to stick with a couple of big one pot meals. I would definitely add potatoes/flour/pasta on the next few shops.
I wanted to make sure there was some flavour - hence the curry powder and stick cubes, some salt, again from the stock cubes and butter. Plus something to fry in, so the butter. If you imagine have nothing at all it's really hard!

Yeah I think id buy a whole chicken, potatoes, carrots, peas, flour, yeast salt and pepper. Could make soups, casserole, broths and bread. It’s harder than you initially think we’re used to having back up ingredients 🤣 shall I see what chat gpt would do?

@Washingforweeks I guess chicken for breakfast is fun...

Sure, see what chat gpt says.

I did think it could be useful for students to have a look at what they might make.

I don't know, that's a very gloopy menu! (Dahl, soup). When I was on my uppers first year after graduating I bought a lot of potatoes and pasta, but some things were probably relatively cheaper than they are now (tinned tuna was a staple). I basically rotated Spanish omelette, baked potato with tuna and cheese, baked potato with beans and cheese, pasta with tinned tomatoes and tuna and cheese, pasta with an unholy combo of condensed mushroom soup, cornflakes, sweetcorn, tuna,,,and cheese.

your not so far off!! This is what chat said xx

1kg porridge oats

£1.25

2 pints milk

£1.20

1kg bananas

£1.20

Loaf of bread

£0.75

6 eggs

£1.50

1kg rice

£1.25

500g pasta

£0.75

1kg frozen mixed vegetables

£1.30

1kg potatoes

£0.85

500g dried red lentils

£1.50

2 × chopped tomatoes

£0.90

Baked beans

£0.45

Curry powder

£0.70

Stock cubes

£0.65

1kg onions

£0.95

TOTAL

≈ £15.20

We’d need to shave 20p depending on actual shop prices — probably a cheaper/smaller bag of bananas or onions. 😂
🍌 Breakfast — every day
Porridge + banana
Oats + milk/water + half/whole banana depending on what we’ve got.
Not exciting, but cheap, filling and nutritionally pretty decent.
🥪 Lunches
I’d rotate between egg sandwiches, beans on toast and leftovers.
So something like:
Mon: Egg sandwich + banana
Tue: Beans on toast
Wed: Leftover lentil curry
Thu: Egg sandwich
Fri: Leftover tomato/lentil pasta
Sat: Beans on toast
Sun: Leftovers / egg on toast
🍲 Teas
This is where I’d make the £15 actually work.
Monday & Tuesday — Lentil curry and rice
Onion + red lentils + chopped tomatoes + curry powder + stock + frozen veg. Make a massive pan.
Wednesday — Tomato & lentil pasta
Onion + chopped tomatoes + lentils + frozen veg + stock, over pasta.
Thursday — Egg fried rice-ish 😂
Cooked rice + egg + onion + loads of frozen veg. We haven’t got soy sauce, so stock/curry powder can give it some flavour.
Friday — Loaded baked potato
Big potato + baked beans.
Saturday — Vegetable & lentil curry with potatoes
Potato + onion + lentils + frozen veg + curry powder + stock.
Sunday — USE EVERYTHING tea 😂
Remaining potatoes/veg/onion/eggs/rice/lentils all get turned into a hash, curry, soup or rice bowl depending on what’s left

If you eat porridge with water and rice/dal every day, that’s insanely cheap. Add veg for the evening, some bread…not sure where it would be nutritionally but it’s certainly doable for a while. Tea and coffee? Some people never drink them and stick to water.

There used to be a challenge for people to eat like a refugee for a week or month, they would be told what to buy and be given recipes to help, then the point was to donate what you didn’t spend to the refugee charity.

Plus, people generally have bigger portions than they need to, which makes a difference.

@WeatherbyGeorgeDupris that last one sounds awful!

I know it's gloopy, I was thinking the toast options and apples.would give some bite!

@Washingforweeks that does sound similar to where I started, but I just couldn't get it to work online on tesco. Plus bananas. Yuck.

I think the first week is the hardest, after that you start to stock up a little in different ingredients.

I think for a one week challenge I would do something similar. Oats or eggs or toasts for breakfast. Lots of soups for lunches and dinners. Carbs are very filling and very cheap. frozen veg maybe.

In reality it's obviously much more complicated than just meal planning. I have been through times with very low income and the mental energy it takes to count pennies and worry about bills and try to cut costs everywhere is massive. Food is also the easiest thing to cut back on when you're hit with an unexpected expense or you need to cover a higher bill. So you can never really expect to have £15 for every week.

True. If you're struggling it is rare that you have a set amount each week. That then means using up left overs from the previous week and before you know it, you're bavk to having nothing again

I'm a pretty frugal cook as itis, but now I am thinking that 1 week a month I should cut our budget right down to see if it helps free up a little extra money As a safety net.

Once my protein loving gym kid goes to uni I'm going to assess our budget again.

This has been sort of done before - Jack Monroe is good & Feed your Family for £20 a week. I follow both & have their cookbooks.

Some of the ingredients listed are cheaper in Farmfoods / Home Bargains eg: Lentils & Butter (plus you can get money-off coupons too). We spend £40 a week on food for two people, but if it was just me I'd happily do it cheaper.

I'd get seasonal veg, Bananas, Flour & do massive batch cooks

Yeah, I'm not a fan of monroe I'm afraid.

Fantasy planning (on my behalf) a £15 menu is totally different from real life i know. In real life it's exhausting to have to think about every penny and track down the cheapest deals etc.

I was just surprised that it's far more difficult than I thought, like you I spend around £20 per person, but there are 4 of us, so it's very different. It's also hard to work any kind if fruit and veg in, seasonal or not, when the £15 only really covers the basics.

Theres no way u would do it unless you had to. Would be miserable.

Well yes, no one would chose such a tiny budget. And yes, it would be miserable. But I'm curious to know what people would wat if they had to. How would they make it more interesting and/or nutrional if they had a very limited budget.

Dal I love though I make coconut dal (120g red lentils, onion, turmeric, ginger, garlic, 50g creamed coconut, veggie stock cube, serves 4 with brown rice, and eg a quick pickle cucumber, carrot and radish side adds nutrition. Apportioned for what you use ingredients wise it’s under £1 a portion. But I buy everything in big bags

@hahabahbag I usually do a coconut one too, but I couldn't get it in this budget!
Infact we had aomw last night and leftovers for me today too. Apparently my husband and son are having a chippy tea, so that's £15 gone in one meal.

The way I do it is to get really good quality stuff / variety but on really good offers / reduced / using coupons, vouchers & loyalty schemes etc. It takes time, but I'm fortunate to have time plus I enjoy it.

I know there are mixed opinions on Jack Monroe, but I go back to their first cook book (and website recipes) a lot as they are cheap, nutritious, flavoursome and can be easily adapted to what you have to hand or is on offer.

It’s an interesting challenge! When my DS isn’t with me, I try to stick to £15 a week for food but I do use my Nectar points in Sainsbury’s once a month. Yesterday I had £7.50 off and I bought:

2 packs houmous
olives
artichokes (reduced)
cheddar cheese
grapes
pack of 2 salmon fillets (reduced)
cans of drinks
2 fizzy water
1 red pepper
5 bananas
3 carrots
— came to £10.20 after nectar points

in Asda:
celery — reduced to 28p
courgettes — reduced to 32p
cucumber — reduced to 26p
spinach — reduced to 48p
cannellini beans
tinned tomatoes — extra bargain reduced to 10p
mince — reduced to £1.48
— so less than £5

Waitrose I got my free coffee with a few extra sachets of sugar, some other cheese, eggs (these have vouchers, eggs are cheapest here) and claimed my free peanut butter

I hate the extreme frugality but it helps me spend a bit more on my DS’s food and activities when he’s with me!

I don’t eat breakfast but meals have made or will make:
scrambled eggs, minestrone, chilli con carne, meatball kofte with salad, ploughman’s (but no ham)

Ttying to stick to low carb so no bread, pasta or rice — but I do have them in the cupboard from previous shops. I have picked from my garden more courgettes, raspberries, loads & loads of blackberries, tons of apples which I stewed, the odd tomato.

@SilkorSatin that sounds like a successful shop. I do like a yellow sticker, but i live in a small town where the shops are more expensive to start with than the big ones. So the yellow stickers often only bring the prices with the online big shop.
To go to several shops I would need a 20 minute car journey and then to drive around them all, or a 20 minute busy journey followed by several miles of walking.
Really makes you think that being poor, especially in more rural areas, is expensive.

I think I’d do something similar to a regular cheap food I do anyway - a massive vat of chicken pasta ‘soup’ (it’s more of a stew consistency with all the veg and pasta). I can’t overestimate just how much it makes, bulked out with potato and a whole cabbage.

£13.67 total

extra large chicken 4.60
1kg macaroni pasta 1.19
2x tins chopped toms 86p
mixed dried herbs 1.10
Savoy cabbage 77p
2 large potatoes 54p
2 onions 22p
1kg bag frozen mixed veg 99p

12 eggs 2.85
loaf brown bread 55p

Roast the chicken, strip it, boil up loads of stock
make soup/stew with all the ingredients except bread and eggs

Menu:
2 eggs and toast for breakfast each day
big bowl chicken pasta ‘soup’ for main meal

Provisos being I only eat twice a day anyway. Have to freeze half the batch / a few portions of chicken pasta stew as it won’t last the full week otherwise. VERY boring eating the same thing all week every day.

Only enough eggs for 6 days so left with plain ends of the bread for breakfast one day… though I do have just over a pound left! I could find something… another tin toms herbed on toast? Or tin sardines or something? Would be nice to have some oil/cheese/butter but can’t afford that. It’s nutritious enough though. I’d probably do this for 6 days and go to my parents for Sunday dinner!

I have porridge for breakfast most days except in summer and it’s cheap and filling.

never tried it with grated apple in though. I usually put raisins in.

in my student days I used to buy packs of cheap veg - onion, carrot, cabbage etc and then just do stir fry most evenings with rice and four different sauces. Did get quite samey but healthy, quick and cheap.

Oh gosh, just looked up sultanas and they are expensive!

Oh duh, baked beans. Tin for 28p. Also can’t believe it’s not butter 1.40. That improves the breakfasts immeasurably! Now £15.35 total… I guess lose one potato and one onion, or both potatoes. Now £14.97! And would have herbs and butter left for the next week.

@roshi42 you could make a roast dinner for the firstly day with the potatoes, chicken and veg. You could also have chicken sandwiches as you don't need tonnes of chicken in a soup. At least that would break up the monotony a bit.

@Octavia64 dried fruit is expensive! You don't need a lot though to give the porridge a sweet hit. I had porridge with home made nectarine and fruit jam this morning. Definitely not budget friendly.

Grating an apple in gives it some sweetness and bulks it out a little.

My top porridge tips are - toast the oats in the pan first, and if you are doing a mix of milk and water, add the milk first. That way your oats absorb the milk and dont taste watery.

This was basically my budget when I was at uni

An average week was

Breakfast coffee and a fag. Never been a breakfast fan and have since ditched the cigarettes.

Pasta arrabbiata for lunch. I'd make the sauce in one go and cook the pasta fresh. It is very different to the recipie I use now but I still cook it when I'm alone. It is good, fills my stomach and makes me think of the 90s

Sunday lunch for four days in a row essentially.
Then I'd cook chicken soup from the leftovers or chicken fried rice.

Most weeks would be similar for lunch
But i would do a veggie chilli or stew instead for dinner some weeks.