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Well the $25 a week challenge has morphed into a $50 per person a fortnight challenge.
I have had quite a few comments saying that people would prefer a fortnightly shopping list as that is how Centrelink is paid.
I do think this will be slightly easier as we can now take advantage of some bulk buying. Hopefully we can start building a bit of a pantry stockpile. Once again, for this first week, I have started from scratch.. Any carry over food items will be noted in next fortnight's budget.
I am looking forward to this next couple of weeks. I hope you will like what I have come up with.
The shopping list and menu plans are in the Resources section on the right hand side of your page.
Wow what a week... Than you so much for all your comments and encouragement.
This week saw a lot more variety and some red meat. Looking deeper into the supermarkets, I can see it is difficult to incorporate red meat into a stand alone $25 per week budget :(
I know I am particularly blessed to live in an area where we have lots of quality bulk butchers around us. Consequently we eat lots of red meat at a budget price... we are most definitely carnivores here :)
For those of you following who may be near the Sunshine Coast, we actually travel down to Morayfield once every 3 months or so to Meat City and stock our freezer.
We are due to go possibly next weekend, so I will do a post showing what we buy.
I have had some questions that I will answer..
I can't buy the items at my supermarket for the prices you list. How can I stick to $25?
I have priced all items from Woolworths Currimundi on the Sunshine Coast in Qld.
I realise that some items will be priced differently in other areas. In many cases you may be able to get items (especially fresh items) even cheaper that I have done from Woolworths.
Even if your area is more expensive, the shopping list should still be a budget shop. Don't be to concerned if my $25 basket costs you even $30. These plans are not meant to be followed religiously. If you get the basics from my plans and can now afford add some ice-cream, chocolate and luxury items,,GREAT!!!!
You have not listed snacks or drinks, what are you having?
I am a tea drinker and have 5 or 6 cups of tea with milk but no sugar everyday.
This amount of tea means I go through a full 2 litres of milk every week. I also drink 2 liters of water most days. I have an old 2L cordial bottle on my desk at work and do try to get through it each day.
I am not normally a snacker, but I have bought the 57c packet of wafer biscuits each week and have had one or two with a cup of tea after dinner. There are 14 in the pack and I can recommend them as a really nice little snack.
Are you really having that many eggs?
Eggs have been my "go to" breakfast since I was a child. I really don't like cereal and find if I do not have a protein breakfast, I will feel headachy and hungry by 10:00 or so.
I do often have baked beans as well and will often make a pot of beans and add chopped onion and bacon to the beans. Eggs to me are breakfast though and I don't usually have them as a quick dinner like a lot of people do. Generally the only time eggs show up outside of breakfast is in a burger or maybe a ceaser salad.
You don't have any fruit.
I am not normally a fruit eater. I do not have much of a sweet tooth. We do eat a lot of vegetables and rarely have dessert. I was quite surprised to see the prices of fruit while shopping and realise that fruit is a luxury item for many :(
So what is next??
I have devised 3 more stand alone $25 per week menus that will be in the resources section on the right hand side of this blog.
I may do some more stand alone menus in time, but now I will concentrate on fortnightly menus at under $50. Why? It has mentioned by many that Centrelink pays fortnightly so it makes sense to have a fortnightly shopping list. This will allow for a stockpile of ingredients to begin as well.
These $50 menus will be in 6-8 week blocks which should allow for ingredients to be used up.
I think this style of shopping is closer to real life, while still aiming for my goal of proving that you CAN feed yourself on just $25 per week.
So, please, keep following me and we will see how we go :)
Well what a week. !!
I proved to myself that it IS actually possible to feed yourself on just $25.00 per week.
I must admit though that I need a bit more variety in meal choices than pasta every day.
I have not starved, in fact I have food left over. I have 9 teabags left , a full bag of pasta, 1/2 bag of mixed vege and 2 slices of cheese. Now that is not necessarily a good thing. It probably means I had too much pasta and not enough vege for each meal.
Each of the meals was 1 cup of each. The Kj count must be ok though as I have not lost any significant weight so I am happy that this week's meal plan is reasonably healthy and most definitely filling.
Being on such a tight budget is definitely a challenge and you do have to be creative. For the second week I have tried to incorporate some fresh vegetables and some red meat, even if it is only mince. the other challenge is to bring in some spice & herb flavours. By investigating the sachets in the spice aisle of the supermarket, I have come up with some interesting ideas to use in coming weeks menus.
I have been asked to do a number of variations on this $25 per week theme. More than a few people have suggested a 2 week plan of under $50, as centrelink pensions and benefits are paid fortnightly.
I have made a decision to expand this to include a number of stand alone $25.00 menus for one, which I will price out for 2 people as well. I will also be creating some under $50 a fortnight stand alone menus, also priced out for 2.
These stand alone menus plans are meant to be just that..Stand Alone.. They do not require any pantry items or bulk pricing. Just the amount of money allotted.
These menu plans might be useful for people starting from scratch, or even when on holiday and staying in a self contained apartment.
As well as these stand alone menus, I will create some 10-12 week "blocks". These plans will include some bulk buying, where ingredients will be carried over for use in a following menu.
Thank you to all those who have given me feedback this week. I look forward to where this journey will take me next :)
I am enjoying this challenge.
Here is my shopping list and menu plan for Week 2. There is a bit more variety this week.
I hope you will follow along with me again next week. Stay tuned for the update after I shop when I will update the list with the actual amount spent.
A post popped up on LifeHacker this week regarding a journo who had pondered the question back in 2010 if he could feed himself for the price of a cup of coffee per day.
The figure he came up with was $25.00 for the week. (Read the original 2010 article here.)
He revisited this idea as to whether or not he could still do it in 2015. (read the follow up here. his conclusion was he could not buy his original basket of food for the $25.00.
That got me thinking.....
Is it possible to feed myself on just $25.00 per week? At first thought.. I thought not. My husband and I tend to not buy much food from the supermarket as the prices are much higher than the green grocer and bulk butcher we use. The staples that we do buy from Woolworths tend to be Home Brand or "Select" brand anyway so the idea of using these cheaper items does not phase me.
After reading the original meal plan, I decided to tweak it see how I got on.
This blog will follow my journey for one month of $25.00 meal plans.
Firstly...The Rules
- As per the original article, I will stick to the closest supermarket to our home, making the assumption that someone spending just $25.00 for food would not have a car. Our local Woolworths centre does not have a green grocers in it, so I will have to buy F&V from Woolies as well. Our centre does have a butcher, bread shop and a chicken shop, so I may use them as an option.
- No bulk pricing (read the original article as to why)
- Existing supplies.... I am going to be a little elastic here. I am going to make a firm menu plan with a detailed shopping list that will be priced out. BUT I am not going to buy food that I already have in the house. It would be silly on my part to "double buy" goods that I already have. I will photograph everything I buy and use.
- I am aiming for a kJ count of 7238 per day which is the figure that Calorie King came up with for a woman of my age, weight and lifestyle. I will average this out over the week, meaning my total food consumption needs to be around 50666 kJ.
So, please follow me along on this and add your comments and suggestions.
