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 I’d be very hangry by mid week!! I don’t do dairy or wheat pasta so right away the alternatives are a lot more expensive and my body is used to a lot of fruit and veg and can’t handle lentils!

I guess rice or potatoes would work? With ratatouille/beans/salad? Breakfast would be harder if you don't do wheat or dairy. What do you eat for breakfast now?

We eat lots of fruit and veg too, having priced it up it does show how hard it can be to have balanced diet on a low income.

I do get what you mean. I wonder whether you could shop fortnightly or monthly with it?

I was thinking earlier that for the first couple of weeks it might be a bit same-y but then you could add in or cycle through different options... value frozen peas (or green beans etc) or tins of mushy peas (good amount of protein in peas too). I do like sainsburys for price matching aldi & then their further offers on top make it a better deal. They recently had fish on 3 for 2, so 3 packs of Basa fillets for £3.60, that's £1.20 a pack and could go far.One week buy coffee, another tea etc

But I get that when it's real it's not quite so fun. We were once in that position with very little income & high outgoings / travel costs. I would take annual leave to save petrol money. I was making everything from scratch.... pittas, falafel, hummous - it was hard work after a day at work :(

This thread reminds me of the week I was sponsored to live of £7 for charity. It was miserable but I did it. I had cheap bread for toast for breakfast which I had to freeze half the loaf to stop it going off. A bag of 6 apples, 2 jacket potatoes, a tin of budget baked beans, a small pack of cheap wafer thin ham and I had to have toasties or a jacket potato every single night as my main meal with fruit for lunch. If I had to do it again I'd buy some vegetables and make some filling soup like leek and potato for more filling lunches. I'd have to sacrifice my apples for the leeks

I got foster son who went to uni last year one and he's used it a lot. I buy spices in large bags so when he runs out of something he just brings that jar home and fills it up. I think his friends use it too but I don't care. If you buy herbs and spices on 2 kg bags like I do I share with you gest ds who cooks a lot and foster son and they still last for about a year or more. They work out about 1/9th of if you buy them in small pots. Herbs and spices keep well so won't go off.

I can do a small amount of beans! I eat soya yogurt and almond milk, I’m ok with wheat just not pasta!
could be a very potatoey sort of week!

@canuckup

What's a JP?

@ Seaside3

Fair enough re bread

I think the key is to actually plan it across weeks to steadily increase variety and what’s in stock, so for instance over week 1 and 2, using Aldi prices:

Breakfast (tbh I’d mostly skip it and end up with these as extra snacks)
yoghurt and banana = £0.55 + £0.78

Lunch:
loaf of bread + spread cheese + butter = £0.55 + £0.89 + £1.25

Dinner:
4 x pasta (1 bag = 4 meals), Pesto jar, Frozen mixed veg, cheese = £0.69 (2 for £1.15 on pasta) + £0.89 + £0.99 + £2.49 (big expense but grate it with a thin grater and it will last a lot longer)
3 x soup (use butter instead of oil for cooking) - Lentils, onions (for soup and Daal next week) + stock cubes = £0.99 + £0.80 + £0.69

Tea + UHT = £1.00 (in Iceland not Aldi) + £0.69
Snacks = peanuts + six pack of crisps = £0.59 +£0.85

week 1 total = £14.69

WEEK 2:

Breakfast:
yoghurt and banana + apples + 4 bananas (lose pick to keep to budget) = £0.55 + £0.99 + £0.64

Lunch:
loaf of bread + jam = £0.55 + £0.49

Dinner:
3 x curry and rice (chick peas, Potatoes, Tinned tomatoes x 2, Tinned coconut milk, curry powder). Curry ingredients wouldn’t include onions as last week’s would last. = £0.41 + £1.65 + £0.86 + £0.75 +£0.89
Rice = £0.52
Oil = £1.25 (at Iceland)
2 x Daal + rice (only need lentils as have curry powder and onions still, would have rice from the curry purchase too) = £0.99
2 x Baked beans and jacket potatoes (use potatoes from the bag bought for curry + use end of cheese from last week) = £0.54

Snacks/extras:
UHT milk x 2 = £1.10
Cereal = £0.85
Spaghetti = £0.28 (could have a spaghetti and pesto meal instead of one of the curries if I wanted)
Crisps + peanuts = 0.55 + £0.85

total = £14.71

P.s. in reality I would probably use apps such as toogoodtogo and the whoops/discount food.

Piece of piss according to 30P Lee. I don't suppose he's ever tried it, when he has access to the Westmeinster subsidised restaurants.

@SwirlingAroundSleep it definitely would gwt easier after week one.

Thanks for taking the time to.actually plan and show what you would do, you have demonstrated how tight it is.

@Somersetbaker not defending 30p Lee, but i suspect most of us haven't been in that position, luckily.

I watch Atomic Shrimp and WearyWolfAdventures on YouTube, they both do limited budget challenges.

They make various rules for them selves which change with the challenge.

Atomic Shrimp often forages for food but also 'urban forges' which means getting the packets of sauce / vinegar / salt /pepper from cafes.

I've just tried this and by the middle of the week I was on plain pasta.

Adults could practice intermittent fasting and give up breakfast. (We do, for health reasons). Autophagy is very good for you.

OK here is my attempt from Sainsbury's.

Bread
£0.55
Tinned baked beans
£0.30
Grated cheese
£1.20
Cooking bacon
£1.00
Eggs (10)
£1.95
Spaghetti
£0.28
Passata
£0.45
Salad Bowl (1.75g)
£1.45
Tuna chunks in sunflower oil
£0.65
Baking potatoes (4)
£0.79
Cream cheese
£0.89
Red onions 1 kg approx 10
£0.95
Greek style Yoghurt (500g)
£0.95
Baby white mushrooms (200g)
£1.20
Tinned sweetcorn
£0.50
Tinned mixed veg (300g)
£0.65
Vegetable soup in a cup (5)
£1.00

£14.76

Breakfast is going to be something on toast, cheese, beans (1/2 a tin of beans) possibly egg and the tomatoes from the salad pot.

Baked potato with ½ salad (not including the tomatoes) but I will bake all 4 potatoes

Fishcakes made with the tuna and potato and cooked in the tin oil

Pasta with tinned meatballs

Omelette (with bacon and cheese cooked in bacon fat)

Yorkshire pudding with ½ tin mixed veg

Eggs on toast

Breakfast muffin with ½ salad

Gnocchi with mushroom and cream cheese sauce

Pasta with ½ passata

Bubble - the left over potato cooked in the oven

Stuffed onions stuffing made from bacon, mushrooms

Boiled egg with toast soldiers

Sweetcorn in passata with flatbreads made with the yoghurt and flour.

I think it is bit short on veg, and no fruit so the vegi cup a soup will be my starter for dinner for 5 evenings.

I don’t have any spare cash this week so have £12 and am spending it on the DC but have unlimited veg and spuds have some stuff left in freezer thankfully. I bought porridge, large bag of apples, passata, large block of cheese, quorn slices, bread and mushrooms (we don’t grow those).
Breakfast for DH is eggs from the ducks if they lay or cereal if there’s any left. DDs get toast and porridge. I skip breakfast.

Lunch Dd 1 has quorn slices, mushroom and veg and rice. Dd2 has omelettes/homemade veg soup/potatoes and veg as does DH. I have an apple and sometimes an ice lolly.

Dinner is something from freezer like bacon or mince and spuds and veg for DH and dd2 or fish and veg traybake until those run out then they are veggie too. Dd 1 and I are on veggie stir fry or pasta bakes. For me I also do a general throw a pile of random veg and a couple of cooked quorn nuggets together in the wok with some bouillon and seasonings it’s cheap and filling.

So you only eat an apple and some vegetable stirfry all day? No soup or salad for lunch at least?

I have plenty of water and coffee during the day and if there’s extra ice lollies. It’s more important to keep DDs fed. I have plenty of veg I’m grand.

So does Atomic Shrimp only cook on a limited budget when they're otherwise filling up in a café or do they just walk in and help themselves to the condiments?