2 ms·

In 2004, I had a friend who was in the UK on a working holiday visa and didn't want to have a 'normal' job, so he pushed the limits of how cheap he could live.

by kokey 12y ago

In 2004, I had a friend who was in the UK on a working holiday visa and didn't want to have a 'normal' job, so he pushed the limits of how cheap he could live. He got a room in a reasonably good part of Bristol for £220/month and managed to live off 70p per day, shopping mostly at Sainsburys. Apart from the soon-to-expire food specials, there was also loaves of white bread for 20p, 2l lemonade for 19p, and rather cheap tinned food.

IkmoIkmo 12y ago
Yeah I've been doing something close to twice 70p or so for some time... I'm curious what are other people's food budgets? In the morning I have some oatmeal with milk. The oatmeal's about 20p for a pack and I use about 1/5th of the pack. Milk's 50c per liter and I think I use about an 8th or so. I also have a Banana, about 20p. So breakfast is about 30p. Lunch is pretty light, I'll go with a pair of sandwiches with peanut butter, and the 2nd piece of fruit, that'll cost me probably about 40p or so. Water's the drink of choice. 70p so far. (this is all Euros btw). Then in the evening it'll be two dishes for me, the main dish (carbs, vegs, proteine, very roughly seen) and a small salad. For the main dish: carbs which are always the cheapest. 10 grams of rice costs less than a penny, so an average portion is about 10p. Other carbs like pasta or potatoes are pretty similar in cost. Then there's vegetables, can be anything really. Another 100 gram portion of say Broccoli is about 15p, same for alternatives like zucchini or endive. And finally there's protein, like fish or chicken. I tend to go 2 times chicken, 1 times beef, 2 times fish, 2 times vegetarian, in a 7 day week. Aiming more of the latter. This'll set me back about 60c for meats, a little less for fish unless it's salmon. Getting protein from a veg meal is much much cheaper in the form of various beans. My main dinner averages about 65p. In addition there's the salad. Bit of cucumber, tomato, lettuce, carrot. It's about 50p or so all in all. Then add about 20p for the whole dinner in herbs, onion, garlic, olive oil, vinegar etc. And it's about 1.35 for dinner, with 30p breakfast and 40p lunch. So yeah, 2.05 for food in a day. About 1.50 pounds in the UK. Twice what the guy spent, but I consider it a pretty balanced meal, no white loaves or lemonade or tinned anything really. Literally have had a salad for every day of my life for decades now. Never overweight (even during a sedentary lifestyle, working from a home office as a freelancer and not working out at all), yet I eat 3 pretty solid meals, two portions of fruit and two portions of vegetables, enough carbs, not much sugar, decent fats in oils and fish, protein etc. I'd like to add nuts throughout the day, and eat more vegetables rather than bread for the lunch, and go from 3 days meat to 2 days meat at least, but otherwise I'm pretty happy with it. Anyway I grew up on this, could easily spend more and I do spend a lot on other stuff, but I keep my main food on a budget for some reason. It really puts everything into perspective, like a $2 bag of chips I can easily power through during a movie, that's the entire day's food budget equivalent.

by kokey 12y ago

IkmoIkmo 12y ago

Yeah I've been doing something close to twice 70p or so for some time... I'm curious what are other people's food budgets? In the morning I have some oatmeal with milk. The oatmeal's about 20p for a pack and I use about 1/5th of the pack. Milk's 50c per liter and I think I use about an 8th or so. I also have a Banana, about 20p. So breakfast is about 30p. Lunch is pretty light, I'll go with a pair of sandwiches with peanut butter, and the 2nd piece of fruit, that'll cost me probably about 40p or so. Water's the drink of choice. 70p so far. (this is all Euros btw). Then in the evening it'll be two dishes for me, the main dish (carbs, vegs, proteine, very roughly seen) and a small salad. For the main dish: carbs which are always the cheapest. 10 grams of rice costs less than a penny, so an average portion is about 10p. Other carbs like pasta or potatoes are pretty similar in cost. Then there's vegetables, can be anything really. Another 100 gram portion of say Broccoli is about 15p, same for alternatives like zucchini or endive. And finally there's protein, like fish or chicken. I tend to go 2 times chicken, 1 times beef, 2 times fish, 2 times vegetarian, in a 7 day week. Aiming more of the latter. This'll set me back about 60c for meats, a little less for fish unless it's salmon. Getting protein from a veg meal is much much cheaper in the form of various beans. My main dinner averages about 65p. In addition there's the salad. Bit of cucumber, tomato, lettuce, carrot. It's about 50p or so all in all. Then add about 20p for the whole dinner in herbs, onion, garlic, olive oil, vinegar etc. And it's about 1.35 for dinner, with 30p breakfast and 40p lunch. So yeah, 2.05 for food in a day. About 1.50 pounds in the UK. Twice what the guy spent, but I consider it a pretty balanced meal, no white loaves or lemonade or tinned anything really. Literally have had a salad for every day of my life for decades now. Never overweight (even during a sedentary lifestyle, working from a home office as a freelancer and not working out at all), yet I eat 3 pretty solid meals, two portions of fruit and two portions of vegetables, enough carbs, not much sugar, decent fats in oils and fish, protein etc. I'd like to add nuts throughout the day, and eat more vegetables rather than bread for the lunch, and go from 3 days meat to 2 days meat at least, but otherwise I'm pretty happy with it. Anyway I grew up on this, could easily spend more and I do spend a lot on other stuff, but I keep my main food on a budget for some reason. It really puts everything into perspective, like a $2 bag of chips I can easily power through during a movie, that's the entire day's food budget equivalent.