£1 per day advice

Ms_W

we are going to do the £1 per day for food in 2019 any advice please
4 people =£28 per week
questions so far...…
…..meal plan weekly or monthly
…...for costing do you do price per every meal or serving.
…...for costing do you use shelf price or ys/offer price etc.
…...or do you just write list that has bag of oats(even if you only use 2/3rds) so long as it only goes to £28
…...to include some meat if possible , do you buy a chicken and it for 3 nights in same week, or say have 4 thighs ,6 sausage and 1/2lb cooking bacon (maybe that all wouldn't fit in costing )
any advice appreciated ,thanks

[Deleted User]

I can do it for myself just about, but unless you are really good I think it might be a bit of a struggle for four people at £1.00 per day although sadly there are folk in this world who live on a very low income. saying that Jack Monroe managed on £10.00 a week for her and her little boy when she was broke, perhaps google her recipes as she has a website to get some ideas

VfM4meplse

It might be interesting to do this for a fortnight, or month at a stretch but I can't see how this can be sustainable beyond that.

I'm no foodie but unless you want to eat supermarket-value cereal three times a day I'd suggest you stretch your budget after that time. If you have the money, spend it on food and cut back on luxuries.

Ilona

I could do this for myself but I wouldn't because it would be so boring to log every penny spent, and to work out exactly how much each meal cost breaking down the different components.

I am assuming you cost every meal. Work out how many portions of porridge you would get out of a bag, divide price of bag by the number of portions, giving cost per portion. Then add on cost of anything else you put on your porridge, fruit, banana, honey, milk, or whatever. What a faff.

For costing use price paid, including yellow stickers.

This is a blog of someone who did it for 28 days, just the two of them. Have a read.
https://ayearofchallengingmyself.blogspot.com/

I can't see four people sticking it out for a year, be prepared for some of them to leave home. :rotfl:

ilona

mumtoomany

Difficult to do. I spend around £240 per month on food and household, toilet rolls, soap, nappies etc. This is for 5 adults and 2 small people. However we grow some of our own fruit and veg, keep chickens, geese, sheep and pigs. I'll be interested to see how you go on.

Some of what we do:

Buy potatoes, carrots, onions a sack at a time. Potatoes and onions will keep in a cool dark place, carrots in the bottom of the fridge for a month. Eat more vegetables than fruit, much cheaper, similar nutritional value.

Throw nothing away, freeze all your leftovers and use for another meal.

Eat much less meat.

Buy yellow sticker food if you can, but only if you will use it, and you cannot get it or make it cheaper.

Forage whatever you can.

I will be following this thread with interest, good luck! M2m.

Ms_W

thank you for your replies I will think some more and read those websites

trailingspouse

OH and I did this a few years ago as part of a charity fundraiser (so £1 each over 5 days = £10 - not as full-on as you're doing!)

I planned it very carefully, checking out prices for a couple of weeks before we did it.
It made sense to me that whatever we bought we should also finish within the time frame (as the unused amount would represent a waste of money, effectively).

I actually think it will be easier for you to do it for more people - the larger quantities are usually cheaper per 100g than smaller quantities. The important thing is that everyone is on board with the idea - you won't be able to afford to pander to people's individual tastes.

buildersdaughter

I too think this a stretch for a lengthy period of time, and one of the problems is a tendency to fill up on unhealthy food. If you can afford fuel then you can be more creative, but most I have known who manage on a tiny income can't afford to cook much either.
I think, trialingspouse, that what you say about quantities is true, but the likes & dislikes can creates stresses, especially if 'treats' are thin on the ground.
But the kind of batch cooking that makes best use of fuel is best done for several - even for 4, you can do one other meal and freeze it.
A freezer, even a tiny one, is very helpful, especially in gathering the bits for HM stock, and making use of reduced items.
Stick to seasonal on fruit & veg
HM soups using things like carrots & onions
Pulses are great in this weather - we have a favourite of pease pudding topped with fried onions.
Mushy peas & mashed potato mean you can manage with one sausage per person (unless teenagers or doing a lot of physical work)
Bacon off cuts give you flavour for next to nothing, and can mix into or top almost anything!
Porridge (I use dried milk) is the cheapest breakfast, and I mix in dried fruit or frozen blackberries.
And use the oats for flapjack - a very useful treat (I add dried fruit & choc chips to mine)

Get a mix of planning (so you don't impulse buy) with some flexibility (to make use of offers)

But my biggest tip is to budget for occasional treats - that helps you keep sensible!

buildersdaughter

Just adding:
I kept everyone happy on a strict budget by having them write on the fridge requests for the following week (good way of keeping kids' behaviour up to scratch as well!). It is true that my requests were perforce 'healthy' - but as Keeper of Provisions I could sneak in what I liked anyway!
Absolute favourite was cowboy pie (mix sausage meat & baked beans & top with mash)

mumtoomany

It will make a difference how old the other two are, I'm assuming that two of you are adults. If the others two are toddlers then this will be easier. If however you have two hollow-legged teens and if some or all of you work in manual work, this will be more difficult.

A good website to look at is https://web.archive.org/web/20130821115504/http://cheap-family-recipes.org.uk/faqs.html It was devised by someone who used to be on here, and tested by many of us. The prices may be a little out of date, but a good starting point.

Also try looking on facebook, there are a few groups on living on a small income.
M2m.

Honey_Bear

If your family eats bread, get hold of a secondhand Panasonic breadmaker. It makes far nicer bread than anything you'll be able to afford on that budget, and it's about a third of the cost of supermarket stuff. Even the budget supermarkets strong flour is streets ahead of the prepackaged stuff. Good luck with the challenge.