Those of you who know me well, will have realised that blogging the other week about the trend that has recently popped up, mainly on YouTube this time, of asking the question 'Is it possible to eat for £1 a day in 2026?' the way so many of us in blogland did it quite a few years back ... would set me off on a mission to see if it was actually possible.
So I decided to do it last week.
My food buying has gotten very erratic recently, what with buying enough food for both me and Alan to eat together at dinner and teatime while he is so busy renovating our bungalow, so I thought that taking a break to concentrate on something like this while still making Alan good but simple meals of his choosing would be a way around things.
I made plans, checked the pricing out online on both the Aldi and Sainsbury's websites and then I visited them both armed with just £7, to see if I could actually manage it with what was available in our small branches. I had to do a mixture of both supermarkets as Aldi sell very few things loose, whereas in Sainsbury's I could weigh out produce to fit exactly into my budget. I did get the baking potatoes from Aldi as there they are priced individually and I could choose the largest ones possible at just 24p each.
The Aldi shopping and my receipt are above.
This is what I managed to pick up from Sainsbury's.
The receipt.
Here is my basic menu plan, the prices of the food and my workings out for the calories, protein and '5 a day' information. I thought that 1282 calories, 50g of protein and 4 of my '5 a day' per day were all quite reasonable for what was going to be just one week of eating.
I wrote out the ingredients list for my very basic recipes, soup, stew, dahl, carrot soup ...
... pizza sauce, lentil soup and slaw.
I decided that I would allow myself the use of minimal amounts of oil for cooking, and anything I needed from my stash of saved sachets ... and of course to keep my sanity intact over the course of the week, and to try and keep myself as human as possible there was always going to be instant coffee allowed.
Then there was only one thing for it ... time to get stuck in and actually eat the food that I had purchased over the next seven days.
I'll be back next time with a round up of the food that I ate and the leftovers ... yes, unbelievably there were leftovers!!
Sue xx
I look forward to seeing how you get on. It's quite a challenge doing this with today's prices but if anyone can do it you can.
ReplyDeleteIt was fun to do a weeks worth of challenge again. But I think it has been a one off.
DeleteThe baking potatoes are very reasonably priced aren’t they?
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to seeing your next post on this 😀
Alison in Devon x
They are really good value as long as you can snaffle the largest ones (it's the same with the individually priced bananas). Buying four potatoes in a pack in either supermarket would have been 79p but they were so small and I needed options.
DeleteI really admire you, but I also think you're crazy! I look forward to seeing the results - you always do these things brilliantly.
ReplyDeleteNot being able to buy just one or two of something at Aldi is their one disadvantage I think. When it's cheaper to buy more of something and throw away things that go off than to buy less you know the world has gone mad.
ReplyDeleteWell done for giving it a go in 2026 - I didn't even try 10 years ago!
While I do admire you I couldn't do it, we probably spend £7 on fish for one meal!
ReplyDelete