$30 Food-for-a-Week challenge

[Laxation]

One of my mates was broke and had to live off $30 for a weeks worth of food.
So we decided to make a challenge out of it, and now starting friday that's what I'm doing.
The rules are pretty basic. You can only eat what you can buy for $30. Some general household shit is ok in small quantities; I'm going to use some herbs from our backyard and also salt, margarine and cooking oil from the kitchen.
You can't eat anything you can get free from work (I work in a chicken shop, my mate works in a pizza shop - we could both eat for free if we tried!)

I bought all this stuff:
- 5kg potatoes ($6)
- 1kg pasta (1.15)
- 1kg beef mince (6)
- 1.2kg tinned tomatoes (2.07)
- 1kg frozen vegies (1.59)
- 4 onions (1.20)
- 1 garlic (.50)
- 750g peaches (1.10)
- 750g porridge (.99)
- 500g soup mix - the dried bean stuff (1.60)
- Packet chicken stock (.69)
- 3L milk (2.89)
- loaf bread (1.09)
- raspberry jam (1.40)

Still have $1.50 left I'm gonna save for what I forgot halfway through the week...

My idea is to make a shitload of pasta and potato and onion soup for dinners and lunches.
Porridge with stewed peaches for breakfast.
Jam sandwhiches for snacks, and I can also cut up potatoes to make chips.

If you guys did this, what would you buy and make? Does anyone else want to take up the challenge?

Honourable mentions:
- 1kg carrots (1)
- 1kg frozen peas (2)
- chicken pieces ($2-3/kg)
- rice (fuck all)
- baked beans
- 12 eggs (2.09)
- 2min noodles

[[Q]]

i would say from personal experience that the potatoes & pasta are good calls. ive purchased a sack about 5 kilos for $1 USD. pasta is really cheap as well.

this girl i know from college now has her own food blogging site and a couple years ago she did something like this (probably not for the same reason) and it was an interesting read. i'll see if i can dig it up somewhere

EDIT: she did $50/wk and lasted about 4 weeks. http://www.marianthefoodie.com/2009/08/page/2/

[Laxation]

Cheers for that, I'll give it a read.

I saw she wasn't counting booze in her budget though, if I was doing that I'd just spend $150 on beer and live off that!

Also on day 1 she spent $7 on lunch and $4 on a fucking water. god dam...

[[Q]]

yeah that's pretty standard for a meal. americans are retarded in the fact that we pay $2-$4 for water that we could get absolutely free or really cheap out of the faucet. it was at a baseball game though, so i guess it makes sense. businesses can price gouge in amusement parks & stadiums and places like that because the people have no other option.

[shadowgrin]

broke and had to live off $30 for a weeks worth of food.
You can only eat what you can buy for $30.

We people in third world countries have no difficulty in accomplishing that challenge. With less amount even!

[The X]

broke and had to live off $30 for a weeks worth of food.
You can only eat what you can buy for $30.

We people in third world countries have no difficulty in accomplishing that challenge. With less amount even!

Okay shadow, your challenge is to live off $3 for a week of food

[shadowgrin]

That's too much.
I can live off $3 for a day of food and it's not like I would be eating noodles all day. I would still have rice and significant portions of meat (one third or fourth of chicken breast or one slice of pork chop) in all three meals eaten at 5 hour intervals. Drinks would be just water from those refilling stations which cost about $1 dollar that would last for about 2-3 weeks, forgot how many gallons it contains.

[Lean]

When I worked as a teacher several months ago, I had to use up $1 -- for the entire day without eating.

[shadowgrin]

I lol at how this thrift challenge thread is about to turn by us pinoys into "how poor are you" thread.

[deihatein]

I lol at how this thrift challenge thread is about to turn by us pinoys into "how poor are you" thread.

Maye it's "how cheap are we pinoy" thread

[Lean]

Just goes on to show how good a country the Philippines is.

Anyway, budget to food isn't really my stuff. I usually end up with zero by the end of the week, but I still try to limit the budget (transportation and food) to $20 per week.

[Fresh8]

broke and had to live off $30 for a weeks worth of food.
You can only eat what you can buy for $30.

We people in third world countries have no difficulty in accomplishing that challenge. With less amount even!

Okay shadow, your challenge is to live off $3 for a week of food

Food is hella cheap in Asia. If you live off a Western wage, then you are very very well off in the East.

[Laxation]

We people in third world countries have no difficulty in accomplishing that challenge. With less amount even!

How much would it cost you to buy what I did? Even in America you could probably get away with 10-20 bucks for the same amount of food..

[Oznogrd]

Groceries are fucking expensive where I'm at. Unless you catch it on sale or whatever, a loaf of bread can be a couple bucks by itself. I'd say the amount of food you bought would be 40-50 bucks without bargain shopping.

[shadowgrin]

How much would it cost you to buy what I did? Even in America you could probably get away with 10-20 bucks for the same amount of food..

I have no detailed idea of how much it would cost here for the ones that you bought since I only buy the bare items that can get me by.
For sure, your list gives you a lot of variety that would make your meals enjoyable every time, unlike me.

Food is hella cheap in Asia. If you live off a Western wage, then you are very very well off in the East.

That's right Sit, IF. I don't live off a Western wage. Safe bet is that Lean doesn't too.

[Lean]

Well yes. Much less when I was a teacher. That supposed job in the foreign university I applied onto last May would have been so much better.