Friday 23 January 2015

Feed 2 People For A Week On £20 Challenge

Simple Suffolk Smallholder has thrown out a virtual challenge of feeding 2 people for a week on just £20.  I wanted to have a go at this but I have found it incredibly difficult.  I usually spend around £30 for the two of us plus £10 for non-food items like washing powder, toilet roll, washing up liquid etc so to cut my food budget by a third has thrown me completely. There is no Aldi or Lidl that I can use so Morrisons is my choice of supermarket.  I made a shopping list as follows:

Protein

Cathedral City Cheddar 350g (on offer)   £ 2.00
Back bacon (pack of 10 slices)                    1.89
Richmond thick sausage (pack of 12-offer) 1.75
100g pack sliced cooked ham (4 slices)       1.00
6 Savers eggs                                                  .89
2 Tins Savers Baked Beans                            .48

Fruit & Veg

12.5kg sack potatoes (on offer)                   2.00
1kg bag onions                                              .69
1.2kg bag carrots                                           .69
Head of Broccoli                                           .49
Savoy Cabbage                                             .69
Pack of 4 Tomatoes                                      .59
Iceberg lettuce                                              .49
Tin Savers Pineapple pieces                        .27
 
General

750g Morrisons Fruit 'n' Fibre cereal         1.69
2 x 4 pints milk (any kind)                         1.78
2 x Savers Loaves (1 medium sliced,
                        1 thick)                               1.18
Pack English butter                                    1.00
Savers custard powder sachet                      .15
                                                                ------------

                              Total Cost               £ 19.72

This leaves just 28p which would buy either one medium loose banana (2 small if you are lucky)  If you are able to save any pennies at all on this list (and I can't really see where unless you buy reduced near-use-by-date bread for toasting) then I would spend it on extra bananas.

This list is desperately missing fruit but it should, at least, allow for some portions of your 5 a day. Where it falters is in buying things on offer so that it would collapse completely if the prices shift back up.  I make no apology for spending 10% of the budget on potatoes because, in my view, they offer great value and are great fillers of hungry tummies especially if one of the two people we are feeding is male ( my teenage son used to eat for England despite being very slim). 

I assume the store cupboard already holds:

Tea
Coffee
Sugar
Salt
Pepper
Vinegar
Gravy powder
Oil (any kind)

Tomorrow  I will post my food plan for the week. 

Thanks so much for popping in x



9 comments:

  1. Thats an interesting list, completely different to mine I think, I look forward to seeing your meal plan

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  2. I never find yellow sticker bargains so getting my head around this is useful. We eat by the seasons so lettuce and tomatoes would be off our list. Value scrap bacon is cheaper and you get a lot.

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    1. I'm afraid I do love salad so would have to include some in my plan. I did consider 'cooking bacon' but the last time I bought some OH didn't like it for his bacon butties and it's still in the freezer now.

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  3. Looking forward to seeing your menus, good luck with the challenge , have a great weekend, x

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  4. I had every intention of taking this on but it has to wait, I am far too excited about my quilting frame to plan a menu and shop fro it from scratch. As it is I live very close to this level of spending by bulk buying and taking advantage of good offers, some weeks I may spend £30 some will be £2.50 for milk and eggs. Ben costs more to feed than I do.

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    1. Yes, I think bulk buying is the key but the challenge is very difficult from a standing start. Great news about the frame, Pam :-)

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  5. I did low spend/ no spend September last year, and the first thing off my list was fruit, it's just too expensive on a very tight budget. The hardest part I find is walking past the real bargains. Not the special offers the supermarkets try and trick you with, but the yellow stickers and the real 50% off. Good luck,

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    Replies
    1. Yes, fruit is so expensive isn't it. We tend to fill up on bananas as snacks or with custard as a dessert so it would be particularly hard.

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It's OK.....

  Angie 💓 xx