The Plan
Things didn't go exactly to plan, as when I got to Sainsbury's there was no porridge oats available, except for some very expensive ones. Thinking on the spot, I decided that a cheap loaf and a pot of jam would make for at least a week's worth of breakfasts. There was no cheap bread or jam either!!
Is this a sign of things to come I wonder, all the cheapest things slowly vanishing, or is it just that they are now the first things to be snapped up when they are available?
I headed off to Aldi, which happily is on my way home from Sainsbury's, where there seemed to be a bit more stock available.
The Actual Shopping
The couple of things from Aldi are on the left, and the rest are from Sainsbury's where it is still possible to buy loose vegetables. Looking at it I think that's quite a decent amount of food for less than £2. 😀
The Receipts
Items Purchased
500g SR Flour - 45p
2 Onions - 19p
3 Carrots - 14p
1 Potato - 33p
454g Strawberry Jam - 39p
Bread - 22 slices - 47p
Day One Shopping = Total Cost £1.97
Meals
Breakfast - 2 slices of toast and jam
The makings of lunch and tea.
Lunch - Soup
1 potato
2 carrots
1 onion
Cook with stock, salt and pepper. Lift out one slotted spoons worth of vegetables and then whizz up smooth with stick blender.
Served with croutons made from one of the crusts of the bread, toasted.
A large slotted spoons worth of the vegetables were removed from the pan to use for the pasty.
Tea - Vegetable Pasty
Make pastry with 100g flour and 50g oil. Fill with vegetables reserved from lunchtime.
I'll be honest and say that my pastry didn't work out as well as it usually does. It's been a while since I've made pastry with oil so it could just have been that, I first started occasionally making it this way after reading one of Thrifty Lesley's posts many moons ago, and have only used this recipe when I have had no hard fat available.
Anyway I made enough for my tea and managed to eat most of it.
Leftovers carried forward:
19 slices of Bread
434g Jam
400g SR Flour
1 Onion
1 Carrot
3p
Sue xx
Not bad for day 1! Might it be worth getting in some pulses for protein?
ReplyDeletePs I prefer marigold stock powder too.
DeleteI never worry about protein, it's in all foods except fats and sugars.
DeleteYes I prefer a bouillon powder to stock cubes, the Marigold one is one of the best isn't it. 🙂
DeleteYou can't go wrong with soup. Filling and delicious. X
ReplyDeleteI know, I'm so glad that it's soup season again. It makes for nice easy and nutritious lunches.
DeleteI checked the online conversion; 1 British pound is equal to 1.32 US dollars. So, two pounds would be equal to $2.64.
ReplyDeleteThe cheapest loaf of bread at the store I usually shop at costs $1.79 (store brand, 20 oz. loaf, probably around 20 slices). The cheapest jam was $3.99 (store brand, 18 oz.; the 1 lb. jars were brand name stuff and more expensive).
They don't have a 1 lb. bag of flour, but, the 2 lb. bag is $2.19.
Loose carrots are $1.19/lb. or approx. $0.19 each (per their website), onions are $0.99/lb. or about $0.50 each, potatoes are $0.99/lb. and one would be about $0.79 (I guess they are big potatoes).
Bananas are $0.69/lb. or about $0.29 each. I guess if I were to do a similar challenge on $2 a day, I'd buy a banana for breakfast, a carrot for lunch, and a baked potato for dinner!
It would be a lean food day for you if you did this challenge on $2.64 then. 🙁
DeleteI find this sort of challenge fascinating and it is testimony to your home making skills that you do so well. Pulses are essential when managing on so little money and I know that they’ll be on their way soon
ReplyDeleteI do challenges occasionally to keep me on my toes, to get myself out of food ruts, make me look more closely at food prices and obviously it does help save me money, which is always appreciated. I don't know if I'll be getting any pulses as they all seem to come in largish bags and most are at or over my daily budget. ☹️
DeleteVery handy being able to buy loose veg and small flour. I looked at Asda and the only 500g flour was Mcdougals costing more than a 1.5kg. Sainsburys is certainly more useful for a single person.
ReplyDeleteTo be honest I had never noticed the small bags of flour in our Sainsbury's before, it's a very small branch, so I slightly doubted that I would be able to get it. But there it was, very handy but as Nelliegrace says lower down in the comments, you do pay more per 100g for a smaller pack.
DeleteI think it’s the time of year all the cheaper versions disappear so they have more room to stock Christmas Junk sorry to mention those words. You still did really well though.Love your challenges xx Kath
ReplyDeleteI hadn't thought of that, you could be right. I've already noticed tins of Heroes, Roses and Quality Street in the supermarkets. You are forgiven for mentioning the 'C' word. 😄
DeleteAn interesting start. It highlights a few of the problems with food poverty, there is not much choice, not much protein, and you cannot afford to buy the larger packs which are more economical. Just think what you would have chosen with £14 for the week. 1pint of fresh milk is 85p, 2 pints, £1.20, and 4 pints cost £1.45, better value if you have a fridge to keep it fresh. UHT milk is 69p a litre. Milk, especially National Dried Milk, was one of the cheapest and most efficient ways the Ministry of Food could ensure that all of the people, especially children, got a daily ration of protein.
ReplyDeleteI like your WW2 Woolton Pie.
It is much easier and cheaper to buy larger packs of most things isn't it. I only noticed the outlandish discrepancy in milk prices a few weeks ago when my Mum wanted a single pint. As you say it was 85p for one pint and £1.45 for four!! Thank goodness I don't buy milk for myself.
DeleteMy pasty is very similar to a Woolton Pie isn't it. 😀
Wow you're very committed to shopping frugally, we buy what we like especially yogurts, although we don't go mad!
ReplyDeleteIt's just a challenge!! I used to do them regularly. There's absolutely nothing wrong with challenging yourself every now and then, and I learn such a lot each time I do one. 🙂
DeleteA good start to your challenge and it always makes us readers think 😍
ReplyDeleteAlison in Wales x
It definitely makes us all think. 😄
DeleteI love your challenges.
ReplyDeleteMaybe everyone goes for the cheaper stuff as soon as it appears on the shelves and therefore it was all sold pot?
I'm glad you got what you wanted elsewhere anyway. xx
I hope that is the case and not just that there's less of it to begin with.
DeleteStore brand or generic products have pretty much disappeared since 2020. I haven't seen store brand Jello in years.
ReplyDeleteI guess the supermarket's own brand 'loss leaders' were just giving them too much of a loss. 🙁
DeleteIt's amazing what you were able to purchase for one pound ninety seven pence 👏 Like Bless, I worked out what it would cost here😿 Tasty meals and I especially loved your pie❤️
ReplyDeleteIt worked out well didn't it. Thank goodness Aldi had some of their very cheap bread though, our branch only seems to have a single tray of that each day, half of the loaves white and half brown. Without that I don't know what I would have done, as the next cheapest one would have been 75p, well over budget.
DeleteWith the luxury of a breadmaker, a £1.05 bag of Asda wholemeal flour provides our good, UPF free bread for almost a month. The ingredients for a 400g loaf, flour 28p, yeast 6p, cold pressed rapeseed oil 17p, total 51p. Best of all is that DH makes the bread.
DeleteHomemade bread really is the best isn't it, I used to make a lot of ours. Unfortunately, I can't at the moment and neither could Alan. Maybe in the future. 🙂
DeleteIt is a luxury. It reminds me of Nella Last’s wartime diary, the shifts she went to to feed the family well on her meagre income and rations. I think you are covering the essentials well. My first thought would have been porridge too, potatoes and bread, and soup. It grieves me to see shopping trolleys filled with snacks, a lot of the budget wasted, and nothing to satisfy hunger. I got our week’s ration of 4 oz of cooking bacon and cheese out of the freezer. There is £2 of our meat ration left until Sunday. They are plenty for flavour when the bread and vegetables have given you energy and protective Vitamins.
DeleteNellie Last's wartime diary is brilliant isn't it. 🙂
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