A post popped up on LifeHacker this week regarding a journo who had pondered the question back in 2010 if he could feed himself for the price of a cup of coffee per day.
The figure he came up with was $25.00 for the week. (Read the original 2010 article here.)
He revisited this idea as to whether or not he could still do it in 2015. (read the follow up here. his conclusion was he could not buy his original basket of food for the $25.00.
That got me thinking…..
Is it possible to feed myself on just $25.00 per week? At first thought.. I thought not. My husband and I tend to not buy much food from the supermarket as the prices are much higher than the green grocer and bulk butcher we use. The staples that we do buy from Woolworths tend to be Home Brand or “Select” brand anyway so the idea of using these cheaper items does not phase me.
After reading the original meal plan, I decided to tweak it see how I got on.
This blog will follow my journey for one month of $25.00 meal plans.
Firstly…The Rules
- As per the original article, I will stick to the closest supermarket to our home, making the assumption that someone spending just $25.00 for food would not have a car. Our local Woolworths centre does not have a green grocers in it, so I will have to buy F&V from Woolies as well. Our centre does have a butcher, bread shop and a chicken shop, so I may use them as an option.
- No bulk pricing (read the original article as to why)
- Existing supplies…. I am going to be a little elastic here. I am going to make a firm menu plan with a detailed shopping list that will be priced out. BUT I am not going to buy food that I already have in the house. It would be silly on my part to “double buy” goods that I already have. I will photograph everything I buy and use.
- I am aiming for a kJ count of 7238 per day which is the figure that Calorie King came up with for a woman of my age, weight and lifestyle. I will average this out over the week, meaning my total food consumption needs to be around 50666 kJ.
