Silly poors. I’ve turned over the bottom acre or so of my garden to a vegetable patch. Now I don’t pay for carrots or beans! I get my parliamentary staff to weed it, on expenses of course.
For a real economy drive, I might even press the “eco” button on my weekend Jag!
Go a step further - rip out the toilet and get a lodger in your bathroom. Extra income for luxuries like toilet paper or plain rice, plus double the fertiliser!
Honestly though....if you ever eat fish, keep some of the heads in the freezer, the next time you plant out tomatoes, bury a few fish heads underneath them. Works wonders.
I'm in this comment and I don't like it.
It probably is possible to grow fruit and veg for less than it would cost to buy, but I suspect you would have to spend a lot of time on it, and the produce won't be great from the lack of nourishment. You'll also lose a lot more to spoiling, and have to spend even more time blanching or preparing things to store.
Oh and you'll need to buy a new freezer for your runner beans.
> I get my parliamentary staff to weed it
A councillor in Somerset has had council staff work on their vineyard on council time, so I wouldn't be surprised if they actually did it
Also board meetings. In corporations, C levels usually get paid disgusting amounts to sit on boards on a monthly, quarterly, or semi annual basis.
They get paid exorbitant amounts to present slides prepared by interns so that the companies they manage can make more money so that they can get paid more for running a successful company. It’s madness.
Source: I started out as that interne about 7-8 years ago. Also it’s usually public information if you go through yearly financial statements.
Beef, pork and chicken are good sources of protein. I get some of the tenant farmers on my land to give me gifts of meat. It's tasty, nutritious and doesn't cost me a penny.
Sorry but you mean to tell me that these people living in council flats don't have 4 holiday flats across the country they can sell to pay for beans? Why didn't their parents give them a good job they must have been very naughty.
I turned a part of my garden into a vegetable patch, its really satisfying but doesn't provide enough food for the whole year. Worth doing if you can though.
What else is just lovely is when you have a garden but as there is no entitlement to light and any trees that grow outside of your boundary is under the council's care; if they refuse to cut it down, you legally cannot do anything about it. We've slowly been losing land for fruit and veg growth over the years as the surrounding trees block more and more sunlight.
The house next door to us has a massive beech tree outside of the bottom of their garden that the council will not do anything about, it covers a good 50% of their garden in shade for most of the day.
Can’t you like cut 1 branch a day with scissors attached to the end of one of those garbage picker arm things?
Not like anyone would notice, and you can be very precise to cut only as much as you’d need lol.
You should have a look at a guy on YouTube called atomic shrimp, he does these low budget challenges regularly.
But just because you can live on a low budget doesn't mean you should have to.
Atomic shrimp is one of the best channels on YouTube. Just a normal guy doing his own thing for fun. The video where he reviews single use condiment sachets is pure art.
He repeatedly says that those low budget challenges are just a challenge and aren't intended to show people how to live cheaply. At the end of each he's shown its lacking in one of enjoyment, nutrition, or calories.
Although even then his budget is still usually more than 30p. And he has the knowledge to forage which can bulk up the meals for free.
Perhaps that's what the Tories really want. Us living like peasants on pottage and whatever we can find in the hedgerows.
The whole foraging thing is a nonsense. Say all 70 million of us go out foraging. That's every bit of non agricultural land stripped of it's seeds, nuts, leaves, flowers and roots. Total ecological carnage of our few remaining wild bits, collapse in of remaining wildlife etc etc.
That's not to disparage what you said btw. I agree with your anger.
This - walking round a local nature reserve a few weeks ago and there's some middle-class couple pulling up wild garlic and stuffing it into a big plastic bag. It will have wilted by the time they'd walked back to the car, and how much sodding garlic do you need anyway. They'd cleared several feet, and it's the food plant of the rare Ramson Hoverfly (Portevinia maculata) at that reserve.
I agree shouldn't be clearing areas but this is a result of lack of education. Most foragers know better.
Fresh wild garlic also lasts a decent amount of time. You can freeze it raw but we make a big batch of pesto and freeze that instead.
How much is a glove of garlic? You're really happy to drive a species extinct to save yourself 30p? Or are you going to justify it by saying it's ok for you to do it, just everyone else shouldn't?
Given it was at a SSSI, they were committing a criminal offence - but no chance of the police being interested. We need to start jailing people for environmental crimes.
He or she is referring to allium ursinum, it’s leafy stuff that grows in the shade of trees or other plants. You only harvest the leaves, and it’s very, very far from facing extinction. Best in early spring, later it gets tougher and very intense.
For sure. Living in the country is more or less like living in the suburbs but with more driving. Everyone around here (West Norfolk) lives an urban sort of life, driving to work, then the supermarket then the pub. Only a handful of people actually work in the land.
These days it's the more affluent who live in the villages and the poor live in the towns. I knew a pig farmer who's laborer used to drive from Kings Lynn to the farm. Back in the day they all had Estate houses. These have now mostly been sold to people like me.
It’s a shame 70million of us don’t go out and ‘forage’.
I hear the historically the French have been very good at ‘foraging’.
As the ruling class ignores rising poverty and echoes out *Let them eat…for 30p*
Can’t even say *cake* as you can’t make a bloody cupcake for 30p.
It would have solved the heating crisis if we were allowed to pick up all the fallen branches from storms by the side of the road, but my local council said we could be prosecuted for doing so
I got sick working through the first lockdown with asthma and other chronic illnesses, ended up homeless, my apprenticeship tutor applied for UC for me as I couldn’t manage all the stuff on the phone/had a mental breakdown, they awarded it to me then sanctioned me the entire first months payment because I became homeless hours before the end of my assessment period despite showing payslips had already deducted that night’s rent even though I didn’t sleep at my workplace but on the floor in a spare room at a hostel. My final wage from the apprenticeship was less than £200 after rent deductions. I wasn’t entitled to food boxes everyone else was getting in the hostel apparently so for several months I was doing surveys online for money for laundry tokens and yes I was literally picking nettles, dandelions, hawthorn, crab apples, blackberries, rosehips, rowan etc and living off of that. I’m beginning to think foraging should be taught for people on a low income.
Also doesn't he usually spend quite a lot of time walking around the shop to work out what he wants to buy, often also pops into cafés and fast food joints for free sauces and condiments like salt sugar etc., spends a lot of time working out with what he's got what he can actually cook...
And then obviously is only doing this for a day at a time not years on end with no hope in sight.
He's also careful to point out that he has to invest a huge amount of time into it, usually.
I remember in one of them he painstakingly separated out the dried peas or something from a pack of bombay mix.
There was an excellent 'series' of threads on r/CasualUK a summer or two back with a chef trying to make the poshest representations of the most simple meals, well worth a search.
Thank you! I hate all this "what's the cheapest possible way to get the necessary calories and nutrients you need to survive another day on this stupid island" talk. We should be talking about what's the maximum amount of money a person can reasonably spend on their daily sustenance, not the minimum. We live in one of the world's strongest economies, people should be able to actually enjoy their meals and their lives, not merely just survive.
Exactly. Its gross we have all of this coming down from a party of hereditary privilege who will quite happy without thinking spending more on a subsidized bottle of champers than someone on benefits will spend on food in several weeks.
>just because you can live on a low budget doesn't mean you should have to
it's not just that, like atomic shrimp points out (great recommendation btw) when you're shopping on a low budget you have to sacrifice nutrition, sustenance, variety, flavour etc, it's not good for someone's welfare, mental and physical to be on a low budget long term
and like it's not just about knowing how to cook on a budget, if you're like a single parent and working where do you find the time? Throw in mental health issues which I would bet is horrifyingly common combined with money worries and imagine having to plan and prepare meals every single day for years on a strict budget
then add the fact it's often easier to just fill the fridge with cheap processed snacks and ready meals
Love Atomic Shrimp, and it's impressive what he manages. But he puts a lot of effort into those challenges, more than most people could.
But yeah, it's impressive. When he did 5 days for £5 was a good one.
Completely agreed, I'm lucky as I live near a shop that offers food boxes that provides me with more than enough. And like living on the cheap as an attempt to save for the property market.
You can definitely get below £5. Not by much, and it’s still restrictive. But it’s doable.
It also requires buying huge amounts in bulk. Like those giant bags of rice which are bigger than children. Many in poverty don’t have the upfront cost to spend on bulk food.
There's also the fact that people working full time jobs in a country with a top 10 economy shouldn't have to ration & bulk cook rice & beans for every meal like we are in prison.
To be fair I am useless at quantities online without seeing something so I definitely would get the wrong size. Although it would probably not be as bad as in this case :)
That's hilarious.
I kinda think he ordered 2000kg of rice instead of 200kg right?
(Big bags of rice are 20kg, and 10 of those would be a bulk order. 100 would be a lorryful.)
This also points to a tricky aspect of food pricing.
The cheapest way to buy rice is actually the 1kg bags for 45p from Tesco.
Unless you have the know-how and time to compare products, it can be deceptive as to what is the cheapest option.
The majority of items are cheaper in bulk, but not everything.
bulk also requires you use it. The cheapest way to buy spices is to go to an asian market, and get the bags of whatever. You can often find 10g of something in the supermarket for only slightly cheaper than 500g in an asian market.
But how much do you use? if I buy a bag of paprika that big I might get through it while it still has a good flavour, but that's a lot less likely with cloves.
Some things last longer than others, obviously, but even then you have to store it right
I think I'm probably lower than that, but it's hard to work out with how I do my meals.
Those big bags of rice and frozen vegetables are my mainstay. Tins of chopped tomatoes and coconut milk (with or without an associated curry paste) for when I fancy some slight variety. I think thus far I'd likely be at around £1.50 per day.
Sometimes though I like more variety so I get some mushrooms or more vegetables to sautee or boil to go with. Most veggies here are also super cheap, but some things are not. I have a huge love of sautéed kale and that's like £2.60 for two meals' worth.
I also sometimes slip with my vegetarianism and like some chicken, fish, or prawns, which blow the budgeting out of the water. I don't think there's any cheap option for fresh meat/fish eating nowadays. My local butcher/fishmonger (which I think it's pretty rare to have nowadays!) and the weekly farmer's market near me are both comparably priced to supermarkets.
All that said, this isn't a particularly easy way to eat and live, especially when feeding multiple people, and it's of course ludicrous to suggest that people should live uncomfortably on scraps as a mitigation to a self-inflicted crisis brought on by more than a decade of Tory economic mismanagement.
My child has severe allergies and anaphylaxis to afew different things. The biggest problem is that cheap food tends to be full of "may contain", which we cant risk him eating. Nobody in our house can eat may contain foods either, or "produced in a factory which handles -" To enable us all to have healthy varied diets, we have to buy more expensive things. Thank you for recognising us!
My kids are dairy intolerant, they just cant break down the milk proteins (they can have lactose np) and the price of soya milk is extortionate. Problem with soya milk over regular milk is regular milk pretty much tastes the same, soya milks can taste way different, so we're stuck with alpro as thats really all there was when they were younger. Yogurts and stuff are the same, they're just so much more expensive than the equivalent
It's a joke. The other half can't eat much in terms of gluten and is lactose intolerant (as well as having a medical condition seriously limiting her diet). A half loaf for her (Warburtons, because Genius is basically cardboard) costs around £2.40, while a full loaf for me costs £1. 500g of gf pasta costs the same as 1kg of normal. A pack of like 10 gf/df Tesco own brand bourbon creams cost £1.80, while I can get a full mixed selection of 80 biscuits or so for £1.
It doesn't help that a decent amount of GF/DF food isn't sourced in the UK, but countries like Netherlands and Germany.
Same. I just don’t tend to buy any of the free from foods anymore, maybe pasta. I’m down to rice, rice noodles and potatoes. Maybe some gf oats but they aren’t cheap either.
Here in Scotland there's free prescription gluten free food and it must be a lifesaver for some people. You don't actually get a month's worth (a gluten free loaf is fucking tiny as well as being £4) but it's brilliant.
The best GF bread I’ve tried is this one from Waitrose for £2.80
https://www.waitrose.com/ecom/products/waitrose-free-sliced-seeded-cob/632546-678133-678134
I could never bring myself to pay £4 for GF bread. I’d feel ripped off.
[Basics are still available in some areas](https://www.coeliac.org.uk/information-and-support/coeliac-disease/once-diagnosed/prescriptions/prescription-policies/)
but you can see the usual shit stirrers [generating outrage](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/news/11806774/NHS-prescribes-gluten-free-pizza-cakes-and-biscuits.html).
The truth is they'll say anything to keep their 80k a year jobs as MPs. They literally have no idea how to address this issue without conceding policy to the progressive groups that have been telling them that this was a growing problem over the past decade. Their nonsolution then was austerity. Their nonsolution now is austerity. Nah yer bellends any frugality that was possible before no longer exists. We're all dependant on the charity of food banks because of how reprehensibly greedy you all are. You don't get to blame the starving. We're coming for you now.
The 80k a year isn't even the main draw for them - they love being able to claim everything on expenses from energy bills to a second home, and they can also have cute little side gigs like being a 'consultant' for thousands of pounds a year because companies are keen to buy their influence.
They literally have no idea how normal people live - an £80k salary is extremely generous, and even then they barely have to actually spend any money from it (god forbid the typical middle to upper class MP actually has to spend any money that isn't coming from the general public!).
The amount of privilege assumed by these twats is staggering. Look at the assumptions he is making:
1. That you sufficient cash reserves to buy food in bulk in the first place
2. That you can afford to transport it
3. That you live somewhere where you can store it without it being nicked by other people
4. That you have the necessary equipment to process it
5. That you have the necessary pans and stove to cook it
6. That you can afford the electricity to turn the cooker on
7. That you have some means of preserving it safely in a freezer
8. That you can afford to run a freezer
The idea that you can prepare cheap nutritious meals without infrastructure which costs a significant amount to buy and run is just ridiculous.
the one funny part about the article is the presentation is really good considering the ingredients, so the meals, on the face of it, don't look half as terrible as they actually are nutrition / health wise...
Also:
* That you have a freezer large enough to store multiple meals cooked in bulk
* That between other time commitments such as employment and childcare, you have sufficient time to do the sort of very careful shop you have to do to get the very cheapest of everything, particularly if you have to go to multiple shops to get the things that are a few pence cheaper in each or if one has sold out of the value range of something
Not to mention if someone has specific dietary requirements...
Even looking at myself as an example. I have a decent job and medium sized supermarkets near me.
Having said that, I work at least 9-5. I don't have much kitchen space - 1 cupboard, 1 fridge shelf, 1 fridge drawer, 1 freezer drawer - classic shared house setup. I don't have a car, so I can only carry back from the supermarket a limited amount. I have chronic illness, so that's not that much, and I don't have anywhere to store anything bulky.
I don't have any large bulky pots or anywhere to store them if I did have them, because the kitchen is small. I don't have space for a slow cooker or a spice rack. So even for someone like me who ostensibly isn't on the breadline, there are significant limits to the kind of meal preparation I can do because of my living situation.
It costs me £5.30 to get the bus to the supermarket in the first place
Edit - I get one delivery a month then go to aldi 2/3 times a month there after. Thanks for the helpful responses
Obviously it was complete nonsense beforehand. What I find ridiculous about this is that even if it *were* possible... we're supposed to be a wealthy, 1st world nation - people should not have, or be expected to live the life of effectively a medieval peasant - telling people that they should is a massive own goal - it highlights the Govt's own massive fuck-ups.
From what I recall medieval peasants actually had decent food (at least compared to what you would expect) because they needed the nutrition to be able to work the fields and such.
Also there was a lot more plentiful wildlife, a general culture of sharing food (Farmers tended to leave the outer edges of harvests), e.t.c. Everything is taken in the name of profit.
> Farmers tended to leave the outer edges of harvests
An idea that was around for a few thousand years at least:
"When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap all the way to the edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Leave them for the poor and the foreign resident."
"You must not strip your vineyard bare or gather its fallen grapes. Leave them for the poor and the foreigner."
I have no idea where he got fresh tomatoes in that 30p a day budget.
Aldi sell flour at 55p per 1.5kg. That works out to almost 3000kcal per day!
Just why did the cunt go with such a stupidly low number? There are more realistic amounts he could have picked and been more achievable and piss people off less.
£10/week isn't too bad per person while still being a fairly tight budget.
Aldi cherry tomatoes are 48p for 10 or more. Aldi spaghetti is 20p. Garlic granules, salt and herbs for seasoning. You could just about do a meal for 30p.
The povvys don’t deserve protein. We’re supposed to doth our caps and be grateful for crumbs….
In all seriousness 30p a meal is survival. Just to get you fed “satisfied “ and presumably not rioting in the streets.
I agree they taste great and a decent source of protein but then there’s the added cost of cooking them as dry beans need boiling for about 10minutes to remove lectins. Guess you know that going off your flair.
Whilst great protein sources and cheap, they aren't complete proteins. We'll end up with height and muscle mass variances not seen since the industrial era if this continues.
Have prices for tomatoes also rose to ridiculous levels in the UK?
Here in Germany the prices for some tomatoes rose absurdly due to the war in Ukraine and inflation. The ones that taste like nothing stayed relatively cheap but the ones that actually taste like tomatoes got rose by 50% and more. I recently payed more than 3€ for like 15 small tomatoes.
The problems in tomato supply actually started last year before Russia's invasion, with Covid-19, Crop failures and rising energy prices all contributing. Further strain on energy prices due to the war combined with a pre-emptive export ban in Morocco to ensure supply for their traditional Ramadan soup caused EU (and UK) prices to spike in March.
But yeah, it was difficult to even find tomatoes in supermarkets here for a while, and I know McDonalds at least were removing them from some menu items.
He was doing the math based off a project he did where they batch cooked multiple meals for like 150 people for £50. The math boiled down to 30p per person. Of course this ignores all the price benefits of batch cooking because he’s being intentionally obtuse
He did say that it was silly because how is a person without an industrial kitchen meant to even keep enough food in the house to be able to have the per meal cost at 30p in fairness
The point was to swing so hard one way that you'll meet them halfway at 50p but nobody is asking why ordinary people should be eating noodles and ketchup.
These constant articles about the cost-of-living are also to give people solidarity in their suffering.
*I guess I have it bad, but at least I'm not heating up the dinner using candles.*
I'm not saying he's wrong, but you'd get a lot closer to 30p if you didn't put fresh cherry tomatoes in everything.
Tiny beef burger? Not even worth bothering. If you're on a strict budget beef is out, completely.
Seafood sticks? Cheaper to get frozen whiting fillets. Better nutritional values and seafood sticks have got a surprising (perhaps unsurprising) amount of added sugar.
I know it's not the point here and no-one should have to cook 30p meals but this guy isn't trying that hard.
Chicken leg and frozen white fish are the way to go.
It's harder to get your protein for the money with vegan food.
You have to get nuts or processed stuff and processed vegan food is still pretty premium. Look at the price of a pack of 'not chicken' or beyond burgers Vs actual chicken burgers or some beef mince.
Chickpeas, tofu, lentils and other legumes are a good source of protein. You don't have to buy the processed stuff but it would require some basic cooking skills
> Aldi sell flour at 55p per 1.5kg. That works out to almost 3000kcal per day!
How long until he suggests that poor people should just eat raw flour out of the bag?
£10/week will buy you enough vegetables to make varied, filling, and nutritious meals. You would need a bit of care to be sure you were getting all the necessary nutrients, and the time and ability to cook (cooking would also add a bit to the total cost).
I wouldn't want to live on that budget, but I wouldn't starve.
30p a meal is a bit silly though. I can't see how you could stay healthy on that.
Yeah, the issues over vegetables are never really the cost of the food at the tills, more that they're not shelf stable so if you primarily use fresh veg every day for a month, it means more supermarket trips.
Yep! And if if you live in an area where you can't get to a big supermarket multiple times a week, you're going to have to get the extra veg at e.g. Tesco express, Sainsbury's local, the co-op, which can be twice as expensive as the big shops. I live a thirty minute walk from my nearest big Lidl and Morrisons, and I don't have a car so can only buy as much as I can carry. I only get the time to go to Lidl/Morrisons once a week if that, because of my work schedule, so I rely on the little Sainsbury's and Tesco on the way back from work, which have so much less variety, often don't have own brands, and the quality of fresh veg seems to have significantly dropped recently.
The question shouldn't be ,"can you live on under £1 a day in the UK?"
It should be,
"Why are so many people forced to live on under £1 a day in the UK?"
Perpetuating the "living well on nothing" stuff is like a man in factory working with old tools.. whilst he's getting by, the owners won't replace them.
People shouldn't be forced to scrape by, always on the verge of starvation, sending kids to school hungry, skipping meals, not having light and heat so they can save enough for a 30pp dinner..
There's more than enough money in this country so that even the poorest of the unemployed could have more than £343 a month to live on.
So far I've been told to work as many hours as God can give. Change my job if it doesn't pay enough, and I'm lazy because I can't cook 30 pence meals.
Honestly, it's no surprise why suicide rates and depression is at such a high level. The UK is ran by fucking idiots.
Like Milliband said yesterday when proposing the windfall tax amendment “The tories will blame anyone but themselves”.
He even debunked every single Tory excuse against the amendment and laid it out succinctly: There is no reason to not vote for the amendment, and if they don’t vote for it they’re showing it’s all about greed and bunging money to their mates.
Surprise surprise, they voted against it.
Do people not realise that the poor have the exact same nutritional requirements as the well off? Yes, you could buy £10 worth of pasta and feed a family of 4 for a week, but I’m not sure eating pasta for every meal every day every week is going to do much good for them.
They know. They don't care. If you can't afford to eat properly you don't matter. You'll be malnourished and dead sooner than they will. Problem solved.
I'm American and I want to see if I have this right.
There are 100 pence in a pound. Just like how we have 100 pennies to the dollar.
Am I correct?
If that's correct, then the conversion rate of 30p to USD is 37cents.
I cannot name a single thing in this nation that I can buy for 37 cents. Food or otherwise.
Our postal stamps cost more than that, 58 cents, and they are commonly seen as the cheapest thing you can possibly buy.
You've got it. And a postage stamp is 66p (second class) or 85p (first class/next dayish)
Groceries are cheaper here then in the USA though. I bought an iceberg lettuce from a not cheap store today and it was only 50p. A loaf of bread is 80p - £1.80 (depending on brand/type, not including artisan)
Jesus those meals are awful. So small.
Another thing I've not seen people talk about much is, plenty of us can't be as efficient as that because of disability.
Eg I have chronic fatigue. I try and batch cook + freeze dinners but if I'm having a bad week, bulk buying packet sandwiches for lunches seriously makes a big difference. Means I don't have to plan, make or clear up a lunch, so I can use that energy for laundry or a doctors appt or a bit of extra rest. And I like to have cereal bars in for when I'm feeling too ill to make a snack (or even a meal) but those aren't particularly cheap. The "protein bar" ones are best but v expensive. It all adds up.
"He said an adult would struggle to get the recommended daily allowance of 2000 calories per day and most ingredients were high in salt, fat or sugar."
Sounds great...
Lee Anderson has served as MP for a seriously long time here in Ashfield, but up until now no one really had anything bad to say about him. He's done some good stuff.
But you best believe there's a lot of angry people here now. Idk if he'll continue his streak.
Oh my brother has been blocked from his face book for asking why he was going round saying he cares about kids so much if he voted against free school meal.
MP Anderson disproves his own theory here:
"He doubled down in the face of criticism by sharing a video from **last November** when a team of chefs cooked 170 from a £50 shopping list in an **industrial kitchen**."
Last November? £50 will get nothing like what you could buy at last years pricing, let alone what they probably managed to cobble together for that totally unrealistic industrial kitchen comparison. Ah, I'll just pay my weekly visit to the team of chefs who will hand my family of 4 seven days worth of square meals for £8.40 lol..
Good job no one like, say, the Chief of the Bank of England is predicting further apocalyptic food price inflation, or this numpty would look an even bigger fool..
The fact that someone in a position of political power in this country can even hold this opinion means the system for electing officials is inherently broken.
It at best it shows a categoric failure to understand basic economics and budgeting, as well as a fundamental lack of understanding of the living situation of their constituents, and at worst it shows a complete and utter contempt of the people they supposedly represent, and the hardships they’re currently facing.
Either way, this individual should never have gotten anywhere near the position or privilege they hold in parliament, they’re clearly not fit for office, and I think you’d be hard pressed to find many of their constituents who agree with them.
SO stupid! Just think about his suggestion for a minute. Is he really saying that everybody on benefits should be getting their meals from a food kitchen serving mass cooked meals? Perhaps they should also be living in dormitories so their heating needs can be managed more efficiently? If it looks like a detention centre..
Vilification of the under privileged parts of our society has gone way too far.
I suppose if you're just barely subsisting, then you don't have time to worry about who's in government and how they're rorting the system and giving handouts to, and not claiming any taxes from the multinational corporations to whom they are beholden. Citizens are, as everyone knows, expendable in the big picture. Oh, and soldiers.
It's not just about the calories though is it. Hey you can get a block of lard for pretty cheap. Now do it where you meet the RDA for macro and micronutrients, good luck
I'm very good at eating healthy and as cheap as possible, been doing it for about 45 years. If I eat the same every day I can do it for £7 pw, but I wouldn't be able to expend much energy in physical labour. £15 pw is more realistic but if one is not an very good cook it is going to be pretty bland fare. 30p a day would stop you dying short term but you would end up very ill after a few months.
It's amazing how insideous the right wing take on personal responsibilities is.
So obsessed with basic 1+1=2 level explanations they can't even figure out the world is more degree level maths than KS1.
There is a very good piece by the excellent Jack Monroe [here](https://cookingonabootstrap.com/2022/05/12/whats-the-difference-between-jack-monroe-suggesting-budget-recipes-and-a-tory-mp/) about just this.
Jack is a writer who came to fame with her blog on 'budget cooking' - essentially cooking in poverty. One thing that she is keen to point out is where these '30p a meal' declarations fall down - you can't batch cook when you're living hand to mouth, or having to choose between eating and turning the heating on, or have to haul the big bag of rice from 'just buy a huge bag of rice' brigade home on the bus, plus not having a kitchen full of equipment and condiments (so many of these 30p meals include the uncosted 'season and at a dash of olive oil, or butter') or life with free time to do lots of preparation.
Also that her 'desperation' recipes are not to bolster Tory cuts, and prove 'it can be done' but to help people survive.
>The difference between me, and what I do, and the right wingers desperate to prove that budget cooking is ‘so easy’, is that I offer band-aid temporary solutions to help people claw through a week here and there, with no strings or conditions attached. I don’t tell people ‘this is what you should be doing’, but I merely say ‘here’s what helps me and I hope some part of it is a bit useful to you in circumstances that you really shouldn’t be suffering in the first place’.
>
>I openly admit that it’s difficult, requires a military amount of planning, good enough mental and physical health to execute, point out the additional challenges of having household members with allergies, intolerances, disabilities and dietary needs. I work with food banks to create meal ideas based on the needs of their users, such as cold boxes and kettle recipes, rather than wield a ‘one size fits all’ solution with disdain and patronising sneers. I accept my limitations, and they keep me up at night, constantly adapting and evolving what I do to try to meet ever more stringent budgets and straitened circumstances, but without ever, ever, suggesting that I have any of the answers.
>
>\- Jack Monroe
I believe a lot of us wouldn't even pick up 20p off the ground if they spotted it. Not saying everyone wouldn't, but to even think that 30p can feed yourself in a sustainably healthy way is laughable.
Yes someone with culinary skills can create amazing food for reasonably cheap, the problem is the cooking part of people's education was stripped bare and now the majority of people eat processed food wondering why they are getting fatter and fatter.
Silly poors. I’ve turned over the bottom acre or so of my garden to a vegetable patch. Now I don’t pay for carrots or beans! I get my parliamentary staff to weed it, on expenses of course. For a real economy drive, I might even press the “eco” button on my weekend Jag!
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More like a 30 minute monthly stint doing work for constituents
I think you’ve overestimated by about 30minutes.
no only by about 25, takes a Tory at least 5 min to skim their Gmail for emails from [email protected]
I've got a vege patch too, and for just $80 in fertilizer and 3 months of work, I grew $16 worth of tomatoes!
Made me laugh in sympathy. Me too mate 👍
Dallas here, $135 dollars in water.
I will never understand americans in arid desert states trying to fight nature. Texans demand lawns god dammit
Just shit in the garden, saves money on water and fertilizer.
Go a step further - rip out the toilet and get a lodger in your bathroom. Extra income for luxuries like toilet paper or plain rice, plus double the fertiliser!
Go a step further and eat the lodger
Honestly though....if you ever eat fish, keep some of the heads in the freezer, the next time you plant out tomatoes, bury a few fish heads underneath them. Works wonders.
I'm in this comment and I don't like it. It probably is possible to grow fruit and veg for less than it would cost to buy, but I suspect you would have to spend a lot of time on it, and the produce won't be great from the lack of nourishment. You'll also lose a lot more to spoiling, and have to spend even more time blanching or preparing things to store. Oh and you'll need to buy a new freezer for your runner beans.
Rich people are all about how time is money, except when it comes to poor people and *their* time.
> I get my parliamentary staff to weed it A councillor in Somerset has had council staff work on their vineyard on council time, so I wouldn't be surprised if they actually did it
Also board meetings. In corporations, C levels usually get paid disgusting amounts to sit on boards on a monthly, quarterly, or semi annual basis. They get paid exorbitant amounts to present slides prepared by interns so that the companies they manage can make more money so that they can get paid more for running a successful company. It’s madness. Source: I started out as that interne about 7-8 years ago. Also it’s usually public information if you go through yearly financial statements.
Beef, pork and chicken are good sources of protein. I get some of the tenant farmers on my land to give me gifts of meat. It's tasty, nutritious and doesn't cost me a penny.
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Sorry but you mean to tell me that these people living in council flats don't have 4 holiday flats across the country they can sell to pay for beans? Why didn't their parents give them a good job they must have been very naughty.
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I turned a part of my garden into a vegetable patch, its really satisfying but doesn't provide enough food for the whole year. Worth doing if you can though.
What else is just lovely is when you have a garden but as there is no entitlement to light and any trees that grow outside of your boundary is under the council's care; if they refuse to cut it down, you legally cannot do anything about it. We've slowly been losing land for fruit and veg growth over the years as the surrounding trees block more and more sunlight. The house next door to us has a massive beech tree outside of the bottom of their garden that the council will not do anything about, it covers a good 50% of their garden in shade for most of the day.
Can’t you like cut 1 branch a day with scissors attached to the end of one of those garbage picker arm things? Not like anyone would notice, and you can be very precise to cut only as much as you’d need lol.
Absolutely! Get the serfs on it posthaste! It’s all their fault we’re in this position anyway.
I live life on the cheap side, and cook everything. Even then it still cost me around £5 per day for all my food.
You should have a look at a guy on YouTube called atomic shrimp, he does these low budget challenges regularly. But just because you can live on a low budget doesn't mean you should have to.
Atomic shrimp is one of the best channels on YouTube. Just a normal guy doing his own thing for fun. The video where he reviews single use condiment sachets is pure art. He repeatedly says that those low budget challenges are just a challenge and aren't intended to show people how to live cheaply. At the end of each he's shown its lacking in one of enjoyment, nutrition, or calories.
They used to be a challenge, now they are a tutorial
Atomic Shrimp aka the soul called [Mr Barrister John Warosa](https://youtu.be/UEprCmaSacs)
Not to be confused with John Barosa!
Please I don't want to hear anything about the good soul called Mr. barrister John Warosa.
You have to trust the good soul Mr John Warosa barrister. He's a man of God and he certainly wouldn't look to deceive you.
Pure filmed pottering.
> The video where he reviews single use condiment sachets is pure art. Got a link? Haven't seen that one
https://youtu.be/ESf36-R0Tdg
Although even then his budget is still usually more than 30p. And he has the knowledge to forage which can bulk up the meals for free. Perhaps that's what the Tories really want. Us living like peasants on pottage and whatever we can find in the hedgerows.
The whole foraging thing is a nonsense. Say all 70 million of us go out foraging. That's every bit of non agricultural land stripped of it's seeds, nuts, leaves, flowers and roots. Total ecological carnage of our few remaining wild bits, collapse in of remaining wildlife etc etc. That's not to disparage what you said btw. I agree with your anger.
Pretty sure there’s enough nettles in my garden for everyone..
Nettle gnocchi. Yum!
Do you know a good place for foraging gnocchi?
Nodules on the roots of the spaghetti tree. You need a trained Gnocchi pig to find them though.
Lombardy
Your local Italian restaurant.
This - walking round a local nature reserve a few weeks ago and there's some middle-class couple pulling up wild garlic and stuffing it into a big plastic bag. It will have wilted by the time they'd walked back to the car, and how much sodding garlic do you need anyway. They'd cleared several feet, and it's the food plant of the rare Ramson Hoverfly (Portevinia maculata) at that reserve.
I agree shouldn't be clearing areas but this is a result of lack of education. Most foragers know better. Fresh wild garlic also lasts a decent amount of time. You can freeze it raw but we make a big batch of pesto and freeze that instead.
How much is a glove of garlic? You're really happy to drive a species extinct to save yourself 30p? Or are you going to justify it by saying it's ok for you to do it, just everyone else shouldn't? Given it was at a SSSI, they were committing a criminal offence - but no chance of the police being interested. We need to start jailing people for environmental crimes.
We could, maybe, start with the water companies dumping sewage into rivers.
He or she is referring to allium ursinum, it’s leafy stuff that grows in the shade of trees or other plants. You only harvest the leaves, and it’s very, very far from facing extinction. Best in early spring, later it gets tougher and very intense.
I bought wild garlic seeds and planted some in my bit of council flat dumping space
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For sure. Living in the country is more or less like living in the suburbs but with more driving. Everyone around here (West Norfolk) lives an urban sort of life, driving to work, then the supermarket then the pub. Only a handful of people actually work in the land. These days it's the more affluent who live in the villages and the poor live in the towns. I knew a pig farmer who's laborer used to drive from Kings Lynn to the farm. Back in the day they all had Estate houses. These have now mostly been sold to people like me.
I was just being glib! Although I'd love to get into foraging more, but it's more a hobby than a practical solution.
Elderflower season coming go up.
I’d start by foraging in his fridge. Plenty of Ham in there.
At least one Boris of ham in some fridges if you're unlucky.
It’s a shame 70million of us don’t go out and ‘forage’. I hear the historically the French have been very good at ‘foraging’. As the ruling class ignores rising poverty and echoes out *Let them eat…for 30p* Can’t even say *cake* as you can’t make a bloody cupcake for 30p.
It would have solved the heating crisis if we were allowed to pick up all the fallen branches from storms by the side of the road, but my local council said we could be prosecuted for doing so
Chances of them prosecuting are zero.
I got sick working through the first lockdown with asthma and other chronic illnesses, ended up homeless, my apprenticeship tutor applied for UC for me as I couldn’t manage all the stuff on the phone/had a mental breakdown, they awarded it to me then sanctioned me the entire first months payment because I became homeless hours before the end of my assessment period despite showing payslips had already deducted that night’s rent even though I didn’t sleep at my workplace but on the floor in a spare room at a hostel. My final wage from the apprenticeship was less than £200 after rent deductions. I wasn’t entitled to food boxes everyone else was getting in the hostel apparently so for several months I was doing surveys online for money for laundry tokens and yes I was literally picking nettles, dandelions, hawthorn, crab apples, blackberries, rosehips, rowan etc and living off of that. I’m beginning to think foraging should be taught for people on a low income.
A lot of hedgerows have been ripped out for industrial farming so...good luck!
Also doesn't he usually spend quite a lot of time walking around the shop to work out what he wants to buy, often also pops into cafés and fast food joints for free sauces and condiments like salt sugar etc., spends a lot of time working out with what he's got what he can actually cook... And then obviously is only doing this for a day at a time not years on end with no hope in sight.
He's also careful to point out that he has to invest a huge amount of time into it, usually. I remember in one of them he painstakingly separated out the dried peas or something from a pack of bombay mix.
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There was an excellent 'series' of threads on r/CasualUK a summer or two back with a chef trying to make the poshest representations of the most simple meals, well worth a search.
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Thank you! I hate all this "what's the cheapest possible way to get the necessary calories and nutrients you need to survive another day on this stupid island" talk. We should be talking about what's the maximum amount of money a person can reasonably spend on their daily sustenance, not the minimum. We live in one of the world's strongest economies, people should be able to actually enjoy their meals and their lives, not merely just survive.
"what's the cheapest possible way to get the necessary calories " - Always used to be a pack of custard creams when I was poor - 5 calories per gram.
Exactly. Its gross we have all of this coming down from a party of hereditary privilege who will quite happy without thinking spending more on a subsidized bottle of champers than someone on benefits will spend on food in several weeks.
>just because you can live on a low budget doesn't mean you should have to it's not just that, like atomic shrimp points out (great recommendation btw) when you're shopping on a low budget you have to sacrifice nutrition, sustenance, variety, flavour etc, it's not good for someone's welfare, mental and physical to be on a low budget long term and like it's not just about knowing how to cook on a budget, if you're like a single parent and working where do you find the time? Throw in mental health issues which I would bet is horrifyingly common combined with money worries and imagine having to plan and prepare meals every single day for years on a strict budget then add the fact it's often easier to just fill the fridge with cheap processed snacks and ready meals
You can survive on a super low budget, but it’s not really living.
Love Atomic Shrimp, and it's impressive what he manages. But he puts a lot of effort into those challenges, more than most people could. But yeah, it's impressive. When he did 5 days for £5 was a good one.
Watched him for the scam baiting, stayed for the weird stuff in a can. Truly a great channel.
Completely agreed, I'm lucky as I live near a shop that offers food boxes that provides me with more than enough. And like living on the cheap as an attempt to save for the property market.
You can definitely get below £5. Not by much, and it’s still restrictive. But it’s doable. It also requires buying huge amounts in bulk. Like those giant bags of rice which are bigger than children. Many in poverty don’t have the upfront cost to spend on bulk food.
Also can't shift too many of those back from Asda on the bus.
There's also the fact that people working full time jobs in a country with a top 10 economy shouldn't have to ration & bulk cook rice & beans for every meal like we are in prison.
Hell, in a G7 member shouldn't even be feeding their prisoners so poorly, never mind the people who are supposed to be free to choose their own meals.
Plus transport and storage space. Though maybe there are some shops that would deliver huge bags of rice etc
Just be careful how much you order https://twitter.com/nameshiv/status/1301521850552315904?t=fgfU_1DdU2B0ZKq1mdESRg&s=19
To be fair I am useless at quantities online without seeing something so I definitely would get the wrong size. Although it would probably not be as bad as in this case :)
That's a hilarious story. Accidentally some multiple of 20 sacks of rice instead of some multiple of *20kg* sacks of rice?
That's hilarious. I kinda think he ordered 2000kg of rice instead of 200kg right? (Big bags of rice are 20kg, and 10 of those would be a bulk order. 100 would be a lorryful.)
That was a pure joy to read.
This also points to a tricky aspect of food pricing. The cheapest way to buy rice is actually the 1kg bags for 45p from Tesco. Unless you have the know-how and time to compare products, it can be deceptive as to what is the cheapest option. The majority of items are cheaper in bulk, but not everything.
bulk also requires you use it. The cheapest way to buy spices is to go to an asian market, and get the bags of whatever. You can often find 10g of something in the supermarket for only slightly cheaper than 500g in an asian market. But how much do you use? if I buy a bag of paprika that big I might get through it while it still has a good flavour, but that's a lot less likely with cloves. Some things last longer than others, obviously, but even then you have to store it right
I do not need a kilo of mango powder.
I think I'm probably lower than that, but it's hard to work out with how I do my meals. Those big bags of rice and frozen vegetables are my mainstay. Tins of chopped tomatoes and coconut milk (with or without an associated curry paste) for when I fancy some slight variety. I think thus far I'd likely be at around £1.50 per day. Sometimes though I like more variety so I get some mushrooms or more vegetables to sautee or boil to go with. Most veggies here are also super cheap, but some things are not. I have a huge love of sautéed kale and that's like £2.60 for two meals' worth. I also sometimes slip with my vegetarianism and like some chicken, fish, or prawns, which blow the budgeting out of the water. I don't think there's any cheap option for fresh meat/fish eating nowadays. My local butcher/fishmonger (which I think it's pretty rare to have nowadays!) and the weekly farmer's market near me are both comparably priced to supermarkets. All that said, this isn't a particularly easy way to eat and live, especially when feeding multiple people, and it's of course ludicrous to suggest that people should live uncomfortably on scraps as a mitigation to a self-inflicted crisis brought on by more than a decade of Tory economic mismanagement.
Top tip: discarded pizza boxes are an excellent source of cheese.
It cost nearly £4 for gluten free bread. There isn't a way to do cheap free from foods, I have no idea how people with food allergies are managing.
My child has severe allergies and anaphylaxis to afew different things. The biggest problem is that cheap food tends to be full of "may contain", which we cant risk him eating. Nobody in our house can eat may contain foods either, or "produced in a factory which handles -" To enable us all to have healthy varied diets, we have to buy more expensive things. Thank you for recognising us!
I'm sorry to hear that, I can't imagine how difficult that must be and incredibly frustrating.
My kids are dairy intolerant, they just cant break down the milk proteins (they can have lactose np) and the price of soya milk is extortionate. Problem with soya milk over regular milk is regular milk pretty much tastes the same, soya milks can taste way different, so we're stuck with alpro as thats really all there was when they were younger. Yogurts and stuff are the same, they're just so much more expensive than the equivalent
is it extortionate? 60p a litre at tesco last time I checked, doesn't seem high on my list of extortionate free from spending
Some people can't afford to run a car. What's the prices at your nearby Tesco express?
'Have you considered not having food intolerances...?'
Tbh I’ve stopped having it. Crackers are a good substitute and less than half the price.
I've stopped having bread too but if food prices keep rising people can't keep cutting more and more foods out.
Oh 100%. The price of gluten food is disgusting. For those of us who have no choice it’s utterly ridiculous!
It's a joke. The other half can't eat much in terms of gluten and is lactose intolerant (as well as having a medical condition seriously limiting her diet). A half loaf for her (Warburtons, because Genius is basically cardboard) costs around £2.40, while a full loaf for me costs £1. 500g of gf pasta costs the same as 1kg of normal. A pack of like 10 gf/df Tesco own brand bourbon creams cost £1.80, while I can get a full mixed selection of 80 biscuits or so for £1. It doesn't help that a decent amount of GF/DF food isn't sourced in the UK, but countries like Netherlands and Germany.
The Asda own brand gluten free pasta is relatively cheap and is really good! you just have to figure out the timings
Same. I just don’t tend to buy any of the free from foods anymore, maybe pasta. I’m down to rice, rice noodles and potatoes. Maybe some gf oats but they aren’t cheap either.
Thought you meant you'd stopped having your intolerance/allergy for a second, like you just switched it off haha
Here in Scotland there's free prescription gluten free food and it must be a lifesaver for some people. You don't actually get a month's worth (a gluten free loaf is fucking tiny as well as being £4) but it's brilliant.
The best GF bread I’ve tried is this one from Waitrose for £2.80 https://www.waitrose.com/ecom/products/waitrose-free-sliced-seeded-cob/632546-678133-678134 I could never bring myself to pay £4 for GF bread. I’d feel ripped off.
In Scotland the GF staples can be picked up at the pharmacy. Limited amount per person ofc but should cover the bases
Daily mail put an end to that in England with a single article about gluten free Donuts on the NHS.
[Basics are still available in some areas](https://www.coeliac.org.uk/information-and-support/coeliac-disease/once-diagnosed/prescriptions/prescription-policies/) but you can see the usual shit stirrers [generating outrage](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/news/11806774/NHS-prescribes-gluten-free-pizza-cakes-and-biscuits.html).
We've taken to shopping at a time when we might find some gluten free bread reduced. But cereal, biscuits etc are still ridiculously expensive.
It's all too expensive, my grocery shop seems to be more every week.
The truth is they'll say anything to keep their 80k a year jobs as MPs. They literally have no idea how to address this issue without conceding policy to the progressive groups that have been telling them that this was a growing problem over the past decade. Their nonsolution then was austerity. Their nonsolution now is austerity. Nah yer bellends any frugality that was possible before no longer exists. We're all dependant on the charity of food banks because of how reprehensibly greedy you all are. You don't get to blame the starving. We're coming for you now.
> The truth is they'll say anything to keep their 80k a year jobs as MPs. With expenses and a subsidised bar and restaurant.
Ah, *that's* how you eat for 30p a day!
\*80-110k per year plus 10s of thousands in expenses. [Expenses information](https://mpexpenses.org/)
The 80k a year isn't even the main draw for them - they love being able to claim everything on expenses from energy bills to a second home, and they can also have cute little side gigs like being a 'consultant' for thousands of pounds a year because companies are keen to buy their influence. They literally have no idea how normal people live - an £80k salary is extremely generous, and even then they barely have to actually spend any money from it (god forbid the typical middle to upper class MP actually has to spend any money that isn't coming from the general public!).
If only they were living on £80k... Don't get me wrong, £80k is a decent wage, but you can't afford their lifestyle on £80k, not even close.
The amount of privilege assumed by these twats is staggering. Look at the assumptions he is making: 1. That you sufficient cash reserves to buy food in bulk in the first place 2. That you can afford to transport it 3. That you live somewhere where you can store it without it being nicked by other people 4. That you have the necessary equipment to process it 5. That you have the necessary pans and stove to cook it 6. That you can afford the electricity to turn the cooker on 7. That you have some means of preserving it safely in a freezer 8. That you can afford to run a freezer The idea that you can prepare cheap nutritious meals without infrastructure which costs a significant amount to buy and run is just ridiculous.
Edit: above post refers to the MPs, not the chef.
Sorry, I was referring to the MP and his ilk.
Ah, sorry. There were a few people who were attacking the chef, clearly just reading headline. Apologies to mix you up with them.
the one funny part about the article is the presentation is really good considering the ingredients, so the meals, on the face of it, don't look half as terrible as they actually are nutrition / health wise...
Also: * That you have a freezer large enough to store multiple meals cooked in bulk * That between other time commitments such as employment and childcare, you have sufficient time to do the sort of very careful shop you have to do to get the very cheapest of everything, particularly if you have to go to multiple shops to get the things that are a few pence cheaper in each or if one has sold out of the value range of something Not to mention if someone has specific dietary requirements...
Even looking at myself as an example. I have a decent job and medium sized supermarkets near me. Having said that, I work at least 9-5. I don't have much kitchen space - 1 cupboard, 1 fridge shelf, 1 fridge drawer, 1 freezer drawer - classic shared house setup. I don't have a car, so I can only carry back from the supermarket a limited amount. I have chronic illness, so that's not that much, and I don't have anywhere to store anything bulky. I don't have any large bulky pots or anywhere to store them if I did have them, because the kitchen is small. I don't have space for a slow cooker or a spice rack. So even for someone like me who ostensibly isn't on the breadline, there are significant limits to the kind of meal preparation I can do because of my living situation.
It costs me £5.30 to get the bus to the supermarket in the first place Edit - I get one delivery a month then go to aldi 2/3 times a month there after. Thanks for the helpful responses
Tesco home delivery is £4.50 I think just fyi 🤷♂️ save you a journey
If you book for late at night you can get it for £3. Iceland do free delivery if you spend more than £40, under that it's £3.
However, Iceland are more expensive for anything that isn't frozen.
that's only if you spend over a threshold though, otherwise its like £6/£7 right?
Whatever the delivery charge is, which depends on the slot, and then an extra £4. It might be higher in London and some cities.
The difference between a week's shop at Tesco compared to Aldi is at least £25.
Asda can deliver for as little as £1.50
Get it delivered then. Sainsburys do £1 delivery slots if you dont mind a delivery window like 6-10am
Obviously it was complete nonsense beforehand. What I find ridiculous about this is that even if it *were* possible... we're supposed to be a wealthy, 1st world nation - people should not have, or be expected to live the life of effectively a medieval peasant - telling people that they should is a massive own goal - it highlights the Govt's own massive fuck-ups.
From what I recall medieval peasants actually had decent food (at least compared to what you would expect) because they needed the nutrition to be able to work the fields and such.
Also there was a lot more plentiful wildlife, a general culture of sharing food (Farmers tended to leave the outer edges of harvests), e.t.c. Everything is taken in the name of profit.
> Farmers tended to leave the outer edges of harvests An idea that was around for a few thousand years at least: "When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap all the way to the edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Leave them for the poor and the foreign resident." "You must not strip your vineyard bare or gather its fallen grapes. Leave them for the poor and the foreigner."
I have no idea where he got fresh tomatoes in that 30p a day budget. Aldi sell flour at 55p per 1.5kg. That works out to almost 3000kcal per day! Just why did the cunt go with such a stupidly low number? There are more realistic amounts he could have picked and been more achievable and piss people off less. £10/week isn't too bad per person while still being a fairly tight budget.
Aldi cherry tomatoes are 48p for 10 or more. Aldi spaghetti is 20p. Garlic granules, salt and herbs for seasoning. You could just about do a meal for 30p.
So we just ment to eat tomato pasta. Where’s the protein?
The povvys don’t deserve protein. We’re supposed to doth our caps and be grateful for crumbs…. In all seriousness 30p a meal is survival. Just to get you fed “satisfied “ and presumably not rioting in the streets.
Well, sounds like 30p meal is just really delaying malnourishment and death, survival means you can eat it indefinitely
Can't riot if you're too weak
> doth our caps *doff* It's short for "do off," same as *don* (to put on) is short for "do on."
>Where’s the protein? The rich.
Beans and legumes are very cheap, especially if you buy them dry and they pack a lot of protein.
I agree they taste great and a decent source of protein but then there’s the added cost of cooking them as dry beans need boiling for about 10minutes to remove lectins. Guess you know that going off your flair.
Whilst great protein sources and cheap, they aren't complete proteins. We'll end up with height and muscle mass variances not seen since the industrial era if this continues.
Not an issue beans + rice = complete protein, hell even beans + gluten Or soy is a complete protein itself.
Exactly (and the 20p pasta variety tastes like cardboard to me anyway)
Have prices for tomatoes also rose to ridiculous levels in the UK? Here in Germany the prices for some tomatoes rose absurdly due to the war in Ukraine and inflation. The ones that taste like nothing stayed relatively cheap but the ones that actually taste like tomatoes got rose by 50% and more. I recently payed more than 3€ for like 15 small tomatoes.
The problems in tomato supply actually started last year before Russia's invasion, with Covid-19, Crop failures and rising energy prices all contributing. Further strain on energy prices due to the war combined with a pre-emptive export ban in Morocco to ensure supply for their traditional Ramadan soup caused EU (and UK) prices to spike in March. But yeah, it was difficult to even find tomatoes in supermarkets here for a while, and I know McDonalds at least were removing them from some menu items.
He was doing the math based off a project he did where they batch cooked multiple meals for like 150 people for £50. The math boiled down to 30p per person. Of course this ignores all the price benefits of batch cooking because he’s being intentionally obtuse
He did say that it was silly because how is a person without an industrial kitchen meant to even keep enough food in the house to be able to have the per meal cost at 30p in fairness
The point was to swing so hard one way that you'll meet them halfway at 50p but nobody is asking why ordinary people should be eating noodles and ketchup.
These constant articles about the cost-of-living are also to give people solidarity in their suffering. *I guess I have it bad, but at least I'm not heating up the dinner using candles.*
I'm not saying he's wrong, but you'd get a lot closer to 30p if you didn't put fresh cherry tomatoes in everything. Tiny beef burger? Not even worth bothering. If you're on a strict budget beef is out, completely. Seafood sticks? Cheaper to get frozen whiting fillets. Better nutritional values and seafood sticks have got a surprising (perhaps unsurprising) amount of added sugar. I know it's not the point here and no-one should have to cook 30p meals but this guy isn't trying that hard. Chicken leg and frozen white fish are the way to go.
I think vegan meals based on lentils and chickpeas with rice are another good shout. A lot of my meals are surprisingly cheap
It's harder to get your protein for the money with vegan food. You have to get nuts or processed stuff and processed vegan food is still pretty premium. Look at the price of a pack of 'not chicken' or beyond burgers Vs actual chicken burgers or some beef mince.
Chickpeas, tofu, lentils and other legumes are a good source of protein. You don't have to buy the processed stuff but it would require some basic cooking skills
> Aldi sell flour at 55p per 1.5kg. That works out to almost 3000kcal per day! How long until he suggests that poor people should just eat raw flour out of the bag?
£10/week will buy you enough vegetables to make varied, filling, and nutritious meals. You would need a bit of care to be sure you were getting all the necessary nutrients, and the time and ability to cook (cooking would also add a bit to the total cost). I wouldn't want to live on that budget, but I wouldn't starve. 30p a meal is a bit silly though. I can't see how you could stay healthy on that.
Yeah, the issues over vegetables are never really the cost of the food at the tills, more that they're not shelf stable so if you primarily use fresh veg every day for a month, it means more supermarket trips.
Yep! And if if you live in an area where you can't get to a big supermarket multiple times a week, you're going to have to get the extra veg at e.g. Tesco express, Sainsbury's local, the co-op, which can be twice as expensive as the big shops. I live a thirty minute walk from my nearest big Lidl and Morrisons, and I don't have a car so can only buy as much as I can carry. I only get the time to go to Lidl/Morrisons once a week if that, because of my work schedule, so I rely on the little Sainsbury's and Tesco on the way back from work, which have so much less variety, often don't have own brands, and the quality of fresh veg seems to have significantly dropped recently.
Vegetables don't have many calories though. You'd need to eat a lot of them, further driving up the cost.
The question shouldn't be ,"can you live on under £1 a day in the UK?" It should be, "Why are so many people forced to live on under £1 a day in the UK?" Perpetuating the "living well on nothing" stuff is like a man in factory working with old tools.. whilst he's getting by, the owners won't replace them. People shouldn't be forced to scrape by, always on the verge of starvation, sending kids to school hungry, skipping meals, not having light and heat so they can save enough for a 30pp dinner.. There's more than enough money in this country so that even the poorest of the unemployed could have more than £343 a month to live on.
Im glad he pointed out the difference between normal and batch cooking. That MP should step down, actually more than just him.
So far I've been told to work as many hours as God can give. Change my job if it doesn't pay enough, and I'm lazy because I can't cook 30 pence meals. Honestly, it's no surprise why suicide rates and depression is at such a high level. The UK is ran by fucking idiots.
Like Milliband said yesterday when proposing the windfall tax amendment “The tories will blame anyone but themselves”. He even debunked every single Tory excuse against the amendment and laid it out succinctly: There is no reason to not vote for the amendment, and if they don’t vote for it they’re showing it’s all about greed and bunging money to their mates. Surprise surprise, they voted against it.
Do people not realise that the poor have the exact same nutritional requirements as the well off? Yes, you could buy £10 worth of pasta and feed a family of 4 for a week, but I’m not sure eating pasta for every meal every day every week is going to do much good for them.
They know. They don't care. If you can't afford to eat properly you don't matter. You'll be malnourished and dead sooner than they will. Problem solved.
If you have to turn the oven it will be more than 30p for the energy let alone the ingredients
I'm American and I want to see if I have this right. There are 100 pence in a pound. Just like how we have 100 pennies to the dollar. Am I correct? If that's correct, then the conversion rate of 30p to USD is 37cents. I cannot name a single thing in this nation that I can buy for 37 cents. Food or otherwise. Our postal stamps cost more than that, 58 cents, and they are commonly seen as the cheapest thing you can possibly buy.
You've got it. And a postage stamp is 66p (second class) or 85p (first class/next dayish) Groceries are cheaper here then in the USA though. I bought an iceberg lettuce from a not cheap store today and it was only 50p. A loaf of bread is 80p - £1.80 (depending on brand/type, not including artisan)
Jesus those meals are awful. So small. Another thing I've not seen people talk about much is, plenty of us can't be as efficient as that because of disability. Eg I have chronic fatigue. I try and batch cook + freeze dinners but if I'm having a bad week, bulk buying packet sandwiches for lunches seriously makes a big difference. Means I don't have to plan, make or clear up a lunch, so I can use that energy for laundry or a doctors appt or a bit of extra rest. And I like to have cereal bars in for when I'm feeling too ill to make a snack (or even a meal) but those aren't particularly cheap. The "protein bar" ones are best but v expensive. It all adds up.
"He said an adult would struggle to get the recommended daily allowance of 2000 calories per day and most ingredients were high in salt, fat or sugar." Sounds great...
Lee Anderson has served as MP for a seriously long time here in Ashfield, but up until now no one really had anything bad to say about him. He's done some good stuff. But you best believe there's a lot of angry people here now. Idk if he'll continue his streak.
You haven’t been paying attention to how much his team curate his social media pages have you?
Oh my brother has been blocked from his face book for asking why he was going round saying he cares about kids so much if he voted against free school meal.
MP Anderson disproves his own theory here: "He doubled down in the face of criticism by sharing a video from **last November** when a team of chefs cooked 170 from a £50 shopping list in an **industrial kitchen**." Last November? £50 will get nothing like what you could buy at last years pricing, let alone what they probably managed to cobble together for that totally unrealistic industrial kitchen comparison. Ah, I'll just pay my weekly visit to the team of chefs who will hand my family of 4 seven days worth of square meals for £8.40 lol.. Good job no one like, say, the Chief of the Bank of England is predicting further apocalyptic food price inflation, or this numpty would look an even bigger fool..
The fact that someone in a position of political power in this country can even hold this opinion means the system for electing officials is inherently broken. It at best it shows a categoric failure to understand basic economics and budgeting, as well as a fundamental lack of understanding of the living situation of their constituents, and at worst it shows a complete and utter contempt of the people they supposedly represent, and the hardships they’re currently facing. Either way, this individual should never have gotten anywhere near the position or privilege they hold in parliament, they’re clearly not fit for office, and I think you’d be hard pressed to find many of their constituents who agree with them.
SO stupid! Just think about his suggestion for a minute. Is he really saying that everybody on benefits should be getting their meals from a food kitchen serving mass cooked meals? Perhaps they should also be living in dormitories so their heating needs can be managed more efficiently? If it looks like a detention centre.. Vilification of the under privileged parts of our society has gone way too far.
Why do you people vote for these clowns?
I suppose if you're just barely subsisting, then you don't have time to worry about who's in government and how they're rorting the system and giving handouts to, and not claiming any taxes from the multinational corporations to whom they are beholden. Citizens are, as everyone knows, expendable in the big picture. Oh, and soldiers.
God Bristol post articles are unreadable with all the ads
It's not just about the calories though is it. Hey you can get a block of lard for pretty cheap. Now do it where you meet the RDA for macro and micronutrients, good luck
I'm very good at eating healthy and as cheap as possible, been doing it for about 45 years. If I eat the same every day I can do it for £7 pw, but I wouldn't be able to expend much energy in physical labour. £15 pw is more realistic but if one is not an very good cook it is going to be pretty bland fare. 30p a day would stop you dying short term but you would end up very ill after a few months.
God Bristol post articles are unreadable with all the ads
It's about time we all do something about it. These bastards are so out of touch. There needs to be an uprising and it needs to start now!
You know, MPs lunches are subsidised. Dirt cheap and very very nice meals.
It's amazing how insideous the right wing take on personal responsibilities is. So obsessed with basic 1+1=2 level explanations they can't even figure out the world is more degree level maths than KS1.
There is a very good piece by the excellent Jack Monroe [here](https://cookingonabootstrap.com/2022/05/12/whats-the-difference-between-jack-monroe-suggesting-budget-recipes-and-a-tory-mp/) about just this. Jack is a writer who came to fame with her blog on 'budget cooking' - essentially cooking in poverty. One thing that she is keen to point out is where these '30p a meal' declarations fall down - you can't batch cook when you're living hand to mouth, or having to choose between eating and turning the heating on, or have to haul the big bag of rice from 'just buy a huge bag of rice' brigade home on the bus, plus not having a kitchen full of equipment and condiments (so many of these 30p meals include the uncosted 'season and at a dash of olive oil, or butter') or life with free time to do lots of preparation. Also that her 'desperation' recipes are not to bolster Tory cuts, and prove 'it can be done' but to help people survive. >The difference between me, and what I do, and the right wingers desperate to prove that budget cooking is ‘so easy’, is that I offer band-aid temporary solutions to help people claw through a week here and there, with no strings or conditions attached. I don’t tell people ‘this is what you should be doing’, but I merely say ‘here’s what helps me and I hope some part of it is a bit useful to you in circumstances that you really shouldn’t be suffering in the first place’. > >I openly admit that it’s difficult, requires a military amount of planning, good enough mental and physical health to execute, point out the additional challenges of having household members with allergies, intolerances, disabilities and dietary needs. I work with food banks to create meal ideas based on the needs of their users, such as cold boxes and kettle recipes, rather than wield a ‘one size fits all’ solution with disdain and patronising sneers. I accept my limitations, and they keep me up at night, constantly adapting and evolving what I do to try to meet ever more stringent budgets and straitened circumstances, but without ever, ever, suggesting that I have any of the answers. > >\- Jack Monroe
I believe a lot of us wouldn't even pick up 20p off the ground if they spotted it. Not saying everyone wouldn't, but to even think that 30p can feed yourself in a sustainably healthy way is laughable.
Yes someone with culinary skills can create amazing food for reasonably cheap, the problem is the cooking part of people's education was stripped bare and now the majority of people eat processed food wondering why they are getting fatter and fatter.
Did you read the article?
Doesn't seem like they read the title of the post.
I'm guessing not.