Eating plans for a £1 a day

Having watched my mother feed our family, we never went hungry, during the years of food rationing shows me how much can come from so little
I still make these recipes (you get used to leg pulling ) and clean plates says it all.

Blondiescot Thank you for sharing the link to Jack Munroe’s shocking article. It should be required reading for every MP and decision maker.

No such thing as free dog bones anymore ??
Yes, there are - we get free bones for our (raw fed) Labrador all the time.

As I mentioned on another thread, making stock from bones or chicken carcase requires a long simmering using gas or electricity.
I'm not sure how much it would cost to do it in a slow cooker.

Callistemon21

As I mentioned on another thread, making stock from bones or chicken carcase requires a long simmering using gas or electricity.
I'm not sure how much it would cost to do it in a slow cooker.

Yes, I always make stock from chicken carcasses, but do often wonder how much more it costs in fuel, than buying stock cubes. It’s that much nicer, though.

Callistemon21: 'Porridge made with water doesn't have much nutrition in it' - I disagree (and always use water) as there's:

Manganese, Phosphorus, Copper, Vitamin B1, Iron, Selenium, Magnesium and Zinc. You'll absorb more of the iron if you leave out the milk.

They're trace elements, rather than nutrition - zero calories.

Hetty58

Callistemon21: 'Porridge made with water doesn't have much nutrition in it' - I disagree (and always use water) as there's:

Manganese, Phosphorus, Copper, Vitamin B1, Iron, Selenium, Magnesium and Zinc. You'll absorb more of the iron if you leave out the milk.

I definitely didn't say that Hetty58! DH eats porridge every day.

If something is in italics it means it is a quote

it means it is a quote

Riverwalk

They're trace elements, rather than nutrition - zero calories.

But also required as part of healthy nutrition.

Witzend

Callistemon21

As I mentioned on another thread, making stock from bones or chicken carcase requires a long simmering using gas or electricity.
I'm not sure how much it would cost to do it in a slow cooker.

Yes, I always make stock from chicken carcasses, but do often wonder how much more it costs in fuel, than buying stock cubes. It’s that much nicer, though.

Nicer because better.

£14 for 14 days would be a better starting point. Or even 28 days. It's something I've often thought I would do but I've never got round to it.
I saw a roundtwit in a shop once. I should have got it.

I do use stock cubes occasionally but when I was boiling bones regularly, the cooker doing that was the only heating in the tiny old freezing tenement. That's why I started baking cakes at the same time. It meant at least one room was tolerably warm or, perhaps I should say, not intolerably cold.

I haven’t done too badly today. Just for myself, one slice of toast (Tesco’s own brand sliced white bread with Lurpak spread - cheaper ones available) for breakfast, mug of Cuppa Soup for lunch (£1.05 pack of 5) and slice of bread and spread. Fresh fish and chips tonight, homemade, but could have had some of the Iceland fish fingers mentioned upthread. Very little nutrition in breakfast and lunch but the soup was tasty. I spent the morning gardening and doing some housework and don’t feel hungry. It wouldn’t do for a young person obviously.

Sorry callistemon - now I've put my glasses on - it was growstuff. I think I could easily eat for £1 a day as I'm vegan and grow a lot of fruit and veg - and tend to cook from scratch. My shopping is mainly ingredients, bought in bulk online - not factory-made supermarket meals or little packets of anything.

I had fruit with porridge first thing. The rice salad I'm having for lunch has sweetcorn, peas, cashews, onions and smoked tofu in it - very nice and plenty for tomorrow. Later, I'll have defrosted vegetable soup and bannock, vegan marzipan fruit cake - and lots of tea! I do eat an awful lot but I'm slim. fit and happy.

I think you would need to cut out an awful lot from that food in order to stay in budget, although I'm no expert on vegan eating.

Costing what one eats in a day is really interesting. I've just done my usual lunch and it comes to around 62p. It includes cream cheese, ham, celery, dried cranberries, lettuce and salad cream. I have it with a mug of tea so there's the teabag and some milk on top.

I don't think I could eat for £1 a day without some drastic changes that I'd only make if absolutely necessary. I'm going to work out the rest of my food day costs though just out of interest.

Presumably vegans have to include the cost of the supplements they need to take for essential vitamins that only occur in animal products?

It is very hard.
A little drop of milk has come from a,bigger quantity, a scraping of spread from some sort of tub or block.

For breakfast I had a buttered crumpet and half a tin of sild with rocket so I'm already over budget

We shouldn't be having to make broth out of bones (free or not) that are kept for dogs, we have never been in the Eastern bloc so why a push for us to model that? We should all be earning enough money to have warm, safe shelter and enough food to feed our families. There is no excuse for how people are treated in and out of employment in our very rich country.

Honestly, not for £1 a day AND reasonably balanced, tasty and varied. If you go the 'beans 100 ways' route, then you're having to supplement micronutrients with pills - so no gain there. BUT you could get close to £1 with very savvy buying and not minding too much about the quality of fish or chicken. Oats (porridge, flapjacks etc can be v cheap and filling) and rice are your friends. Whole milk too!

Veggie soup made from a (cheap) bag of frozen mixed veg and a handful of lentils and some stock and herbs or spices of choice. Feeds 2 for 2 days.

The costs of cooking are not including.

I’m not sure a pound a day is possible in the long term but making enough for 2-3 days is more cost effective .

Turn up at someone else’s home at lunchtimes, if you have no morals!

Riverwalk today I made a bolonaise type mix....it does two meals. I put a handful of quorn in it. It is made with the quorn, a red onion, third of a courgette, handful of frozen peppers, a few mushrooms, half a tin of tomatoes, Italian herbs, garlic and the all important squirt of ketchup.
I haven't used jars of pasta sauce for a long time. This mix is really tasty and can be used on pasta or a jacket potato. Today was half of a potato cooked in airfryer. My breakfast was a mashed banana with five teaspoons of Tesco dairy free yogurt. A pot lasts a week. I put a few cereal flakes on it for crunch. None of this costs much...I have just looked at my last grocery shop receipt.

fluttERBY123

£14 for 14 days would be a better starting point. Or even 28 days. It's something I've often thought I would do but I've never got round to it.
I saw a roundtwit in a shop once. I should have got it.

I have one in the kitchen , fluttERBY123 and look at it every day.

They don't work ?

Growing up in the 50s my neighbours had hutches with rabbits inside each one and a chicken coop. Agreed very cruel but there was rationing and meat was so expensive in those days.

But maybe if you are lucky enough, today, to have room for a hen coop for the eggs.

Growing up we did not eat meat every day, not through choice.

We shouldn't be having to make broth out of bones (free or not) that are kept for dogs

But it is very good for us, we should make it for that reason not just because it's cheap.
I freeze it in portions because even a small amount makes soup etc more nutritious and tasty.

For lunch I had a poached egg on a slice of buttered toast followed by the remains of a large pot of fruit yogurt which was out of date (I hope it was ok, it smelt fine).