Yesterday on a Facebook group that I am in we were set a little challenge. The wording was:
So, in the true spirit of this group, assuming empty cupboards, and that means not even flavourings, what would you buy?
Must be full price items and no freebies.
I will start you off with Aldi savoury rice 28p and Aldi spaghetti hoops at 16p. total 44p.
You only have 50p. Not a penny over! Just food for one day for one person.
There were lots of interesting answers, and you know me I just had to have a go.
I did it in the comment section on Facebook, explaining my plans and using Sainsbury's online shopping site to check prices, and then this morning ...
... I just had to go and see if it was actually possible.
My breakfast.
The makings of my dinner and tea.
I washed and peeled the vegetables putting all the peelings, the carrot top and tail and the inner onion skins into a pan which I then covered with water and left to simmer away for twenty minutes.
Once strained, this 'stock' was poured over the now chopped vegetables and brought back to the boil before being allowed to simmer until the potatoes were nice and soft.
I removed enough of the vegetables and stock to make a nice dish of vegetable stew and then whizzed the rest up to make a mug full of soup for my lunch.
Considering this has no salt, pepper or any other flavourings added to it, it made a very tasty soup and I was pleasantly surprised. There was a smidge too much soup to fit into my cup so that was added to the bowl of stew.
It was a good job that it was nice and quiet in Sainsbury's while I went back and forth until I found the vegetables that exactly matched my spending money. I started with the potato as I knew that would be the most filling part of the meals and sadly this meant that the carrot was left with only 3p available for it. But as you can see it all worked out just fine.
Yes I was hungry, an hour after breakfast, and two hours after my dinner, but it shows that when push comes to shove if you only have 50p in your pocket you can find something to eat.
What would YOU buy with 50p to feed yourself for a day with?
Sue xx
I saw that challenge, I belong to the same group. That's a very well thought out and planned day's eating, Sue, well done. I wouldn't want to do it as it would be no good for my dietary considerations, but thankfully and fortunately I don't have to. For anyone who is in that position though, it shows that it can be done.
ReplyDeleteI don't have to either, but it's nice to be challenged and for the results to perhaps help someone else with a few new ideas, or refresh their minds to old ones. :-)
DeleteWell done! I'd probably buy a packet of cheapest biscuits - which wouldn't be quite the right idea at all!
ReplyDeleteFunnily enough on my post someone else suggested that they would buy a packet of Gingernuts with their 50p. Which would actually be great if you could cadge some coffee of a couple of teabags, after all you HAVE to dunk a Gingernut!!
DeleteNot sure if you could even buy a pot noodle for that nowadays.
ReplyDeleteThe cheapest Pot Noodle in Sainsbury's today is £1, you could get two packets of Ramen noodles for 23p each though. :-)
DeleteThis challenge was just made for you! I love the idea of you going to Sainsbury's and weighing the veg to get the right amount - made me smile. I would keep the onion and carrot but switch out the banana and potato and use whatever the 38p would buy in brown or green lentils to make the stew with the carrot and onion, or even use half lentils, half brown rice (which wouldn't be much on 38p) but they do have protein so would maybe keep you fuller longer. Like you I would make a broth to have for one meal and the stew for another. I would skip breakfast and just have an early lunch!
ReplyDeleteIt is just about possible to get a meal for 50p but all 3 meals and you would go hungry it would be like doing a fasting or dettox diet. Well done though on taking up the challenge.
Haha, it really was wasn't it. :-)
DeleteThe cheapest tin of lentils is 61p, and the cheapest dried £1.20, so sadly both out of budget even just bought on their own. There are no loose lentils to buy in any of the shops in our town. A packet of rice from Sainsbury's is 48p, so would leave just 2p and you can't even get a 'penny chew' for 2p these days. :-(
whoops didn't realise you couldn't use a part of something you had and all had to be bought with the 50p - so that limits it down tremendously. Can't think of a whole protein you could buy for 50p. Most supermarkets don't even have the counters where you can have a weighed amount of cheese cut from the block anymore and as far as I know you can't buy a single egg either.
DeleteGosh well done. It's not easy to actually go and buy small portions of anything to make up - like rice or lentils or I would do Dhal or egg-fried rice and eat for each meal!
ReplyDeleteNo, sadly we have no weigh your own shops in our town, so it was out of the question for me. Seemingly the only place you can buy single eggs is in Morrisons at 25p each, and we don't have a Morrisons.
Deletevery sad when our Zero shop closed just after lockdown restrictions. I could have gone there with 50p and got several different things!
DeleteI used to have one on the little street my shop was on in Ulverston. It was brilliant for getting small amounts of things, especially expensive spices that I wanted to try out. I could have made a VERY good soup with ingredients from there. Unfortunately it has closed down now, as have so many.
DeleteWow! You are amazing. Thank you for sharing! Your dinner looks so good!
ReplyDeleteHaha, thank you. It took a bit of thinking about for sure. :-)
DeleteThere’s very little in a shop here in the US that I could buy for 50 p or the $ equivalent......food is cheaper in the auK than here...
ReplyDeleteIt definintely is, as I keep being told every time I do any sort of challenge!
DeleteUK
ReplyDeleteI guessed that's what you meant. :-)
Delete50n p equals 62.5 cents here and might buy one potato at current prices. You might get a can of beans or some soup.
ReplyDeleteIt's not easy is it. :-(
DeleteThe only beans available in Sainsbury's yesterday were 45p for a can, all the cheap brands seem to have vanished.
Branded soup (e.g. Heinz) now costs about £1.70 a can. Ridiculous. I'm sure a doubling of the price was not actually necessary - it's all pure greed.
DeleteYes, canned soups, especially branded ones are now so expensive for what you get aren't they. They say they are two portions, but Alan has a full can at a time. Most of the cost is now through the canning process due to the fuel price increases.
DeleteSeriously impressed by this - although you were understandably hungry, what you did eat was imaginative and healthy. I might have fallen into the pack of cheap biscuits camp!
ReplyDeleteAlison in Wales x
It was quite healthy and at least I sort of got three meals, but as soon as I read that someone had bought ginger biscuits I was very tempted to go down the easier route! ;-)
Delete50p doesn't buy much does it. I think I would factor in a tin of baked beans because they can be filling but there wouldn't be much money left for other things. I would like a breakfast banana too but would struggle with no hot drinks at all. Not even a morning cuppa. With milk at 95p a pint it would be a non starter. You have inspired me to check this out tomorrow at Sainsburys which is the only local supermarket where you can buy one of this or that. No single eggs though....
ReplyDeleteYour 50p worth looks very good 👍
There were absolutely no smart price beans available in our town on the day I did this challenge, the shelves were only full of the supermarkets own labels and brands. The cheapest baked beans I could get would have been 45p. Seemingly single eggs are 25p in Morrisons, half the budget for an egg would have been out of the question really.
DeleteYou did well with your 50 pence. As already said, food prices seem to be more expensive here than in the UK. I weighed out and priced what I bought and I can eat for .64 US cents.
ReplyDeleteIt helps that I can buy things in bulk. Breakfast is 1 banana .16, 1.5 oz of steel-cut oats .10
My soup was like yours, 1 potato .12, 1 onion .08, 1 carrot .08, 2 Tablespoons lentils .10
Breakfast is .26 and soup is .38
I could make it .05 cheaper by using brown rice instead of the potato, coming closer to the pence equivalent.
I actually made a similar soup earlier in the week, but with less onion, another potato and carrot, some celery and (gasp) seasonings. :)
Thanks for challenging us to think outside the can/package. ~ skye
If I could have priced it out per the amount I used of things from packs that would have been a completely different menu, but our challenge was to only be able to buy full price, whole items from the shop on that day. So no costing part of a pack of rice for example or 2 tablespoons of lentils. It really got us all thinking, it's a completely different way of looking at things isn't it.
DeleteI REALLY missed having seasonings to play with.
It's heartbreaking that there's people who have to do this all the time, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteI think I'd buy some 23p noodles, forage for rhubarb and onions in the garden and stalk the 20p shelf in Lidl. xxx
It really is, you sort of expect things to improve over the years don't you, sadly they never seem to. Oh I wish my rhubarb was big enough to eat, at the moment I have a three inch stem and a five inch stem ... I'll need to wait a while for a crumble!!
DeleteWhilst I'm sure you had good intentions doing this "challenge", for some people it is real life and not fun at all, and in some situations literally involves heating or eating. Yes you can buy some food for 50p, but the real question isn't whether you CAN do it, it's would you want to do it? Yes you've fed yourself for one day, but you admit yourself you were still hungry, so imagine if someone had to do that every single day? And you certainly wouldn't get all the nutrients you need to be healthy in the long term.
ReplyDeleteThe Facebook group that I am part of is there to help people who are actually living this real life. Those of us who have been there in the past and have now come through those bleak days are in the group to help with methods of coping for those going through this now. Using our experience, our ideas and our tips to try to help the people that come on to ask questions when their backs are up against the wall.
DeleteI do not have to imagine doing this every single day, I have been exactly there in the past during my first marriage, with two young children to feed. And no you don't get all the nutrients you need to keep you at full health, but you make sure your children go to bed with satisfied tummies and you drink a LOT of black coffee and watered down soup.
This is the last time your Anonymous comments will come through, as I have asked over and over for people to add their names if they want to comments as Anonymous.
I honestly don't know it is possible here.
ReplyDeleteIt's super tough in many places now, and sadly only getting worse.
DeleteI don't think it is possible here in Canada, but now I need to check it out..... You did awesome.
ReplyDeleteGod bless.
I doubt it very much, you have some of the highest prices in the world at the moment.
DeleteI think I would go the rice and lentil route.....and add lots of nutritious weedy green leaves foraged for free from the empty lot behind my house
ReplyDeleteIt's not possible to buy a full bag of rice or lentils with 50p. You would be okay if you had a 'weigh your own type shop', although your shopping would be miniscule. We weren't allowed to forage. :-)
DeleteWith only 50p (NZ$1) there'd be little choice but to go to one of the Food Banks, or to one of the charities that distribute leftover restaurant food - one is set up in the front carpark of our Inner city church called Free Store - they do a wonderful service. Food in NZ is very expensive at present - flooding and complete wipeouts of some of the most productive of NZ farmland, coupled with difficulty getting staff has created a nightmare situation.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately for this challenge we weren't allowed to use food banks, olio or any reduced priced items. There are some marvellous organisations helping people aren't there, sadly it is one sector that is growing and being used more and more, although it shouldn't have to be. :-(
DeleteI think you did an amazing job. I think we all realise that we could not live healthily for a prolonged time on 50p per day but it IS good to challenge yourself and see the many different ways you could do this if the situation required it. I will be trying a few ideas myself to see how I would cope. Thankyou for bringing this to light.
ReplyDeleteI think it's a good thing to join in with, or set yourself a challenge like this, if nothing else it reinforces just how lucky we are and shows us what we can do to help those that are not so fortunate at the moment. I don't think there's any healthy way to live on 50p a day.
DeleteYou did well, I probably would do something similar but most of all it made me think, sat here in the warm with an aged dog on my feet, gosh I am so lucky, I might have had the most awful week where I have been fighting the world and worrying about my son but I can afford to eat and heat ( we only put it on once a day for an hour ) but that is our choice and we are privileged to have a choice x
ReplyDeleteThat's exactly why I continue to do this sort of challenge, it makes me thankful for all that I have worked for and achieved over the years, and relieved I came through the dark years. I bet our lovely old dogs are costing us more than 50p a day in food and gravy bones aren't they!!
DeleteUnfortunately it also seems to bring those super-critical people out of the woodwork, which makes me very sad. It's weird that they are always Anonymous!! ;-)