[Closed] 2000 calories, in 3 meals, for £5 per day?

porridge oats for breakfast.
some combination of pasta, rice, tuna, tinned tomatoes, garlic, onions, spinach for lunch and dinner.

Lots of pasta

Would be crap though

Yes easy.
Lentils are your friend here and big bags of flour from an Asian supermarket or the World foods isle. Big bags of oats are cheap.

About ten tins of corned beef?

Could mould them into bonbon sized balls and eat them throughout the day.

Damn! Why didn't I think of this before?

Lots of pasta would put you way of 2000 calories. Unless you had 2000 calories worth I guess 😀

Tin of beans for breakfast.

Tin of beans for lunch.

Tin of tuna and mushy peas for dinner.

And probably lots of wind.

Yep, R'n'L- rice and lentils all the way

Porridge for breakfast (<80p), Cheese (also to be used later for pasta) sandwich for lunch (<£1) and pasta for dinner (Pasta, olives, chicken, tomatoes (~£2.20). 2 Pints of milk for drinks/porridge (0.60p) leaving just enough (over a week) for salt/pepper/herbs, etc.

Back to basics, plenty of vegetables, potatoes, oats, pasta, rice, bread, milk, eggs.
Cook up massove joints of meat and use that for other meals etc. Find packaging factories, locally to myself we have a moy park and recently bought 5kg of cooked chicken breast for a fiver...

If you're just cooking for yourself make 2 portions for your evening meal and reheat the spare portion for lunch the next day.

go vegan buy beer with the change 😉
2 kg of lentils is £3 5kg of rice is £5 Some mixed veg and some onions some spices

Carrot cake - about £3 gets you about 5 big cakes probably 2000 calories in that as well
Pancakes cost pence to make and are lovely - add fruit if you have it
Pasties - home made - again flour is dirt cheap and calorie dense I make potato based curry ones

I have to say I definetly dont spend £5 per day on food

Jack monroes food blog will do you - she is vegan now but was not at the start

Add plenty of vegetable oil to everything. Gives you about 2000 calories for 25p.

Jambourgie, you haven't bought corned beef for a while eh?

Porridge for breakfast (<80p)

Oh rice pudding as well is dirt cheap to make and calorie dense

I'm sure I probably do this most days, but I've never counted a calorie in my life.

It's perfectly doable and will be easier if you stick with fresh produce and homemade meals.

Breakfast - think porridge, scrambled eggs, yogurt & fruit (big bag of frozen fruit), smoothies
Lunch - think homemade lentil soup, choice of protein and salad
Dinner - think stir fry for quick meals, casseroles, stews and anything you fancy that can be bulk cooked and portioned.

On that sort of budget and low calories (for a big guy) then if you focus on getting in your required amount of protein into your menu for the day, just bulk the rest of your calories out with as much inexpensive vegetables as you can. Carrots, onions, spring greens and courgettes are all good. Potatoes, sweet potatoes, brown rice are all good to add for carbs. I would stay away from pasta, too much calories for not enough fill IMHO.

One of my favourite meals is just a chicken breast sliced on the angle into three pieces placed on top of a load of sliced chunky veg such as carrots, courgettes and sweet potatoes with some olive oil drizzled over, some black pepper and herbs and roasted in the oven. Doesn't costs much, well under 500 calories and most importantly for a big guy is actually quite filling.

You can make a big pot of lentil & vegetable soup - one very large onion, three or four sticks of celery, four or five large carrots, two courgettes (or swap for something else), 350g red lentils, can of chopped tomatoes and make up to 4.5 litres with stock. I do this on a Sunday, portion into seven plastic tubs, three in fridge and four in freezer and that is my lunch sorted for seven days for pennies.

If you need help tracking your intake and what calories are in what foods I can recommend Nutracheck.co.uk - it was an eyeopener for me and it helped me drop about 8 stone a few years ago.

90g bag of Mr Porky scratchings.

One for brekky, another for lunch and two for dinner. £4.40 2216 cals.
That leaves 60p worth of White lightning to get some carbs in.

Jacket Potatoes with various fillings will easily make up the calories.

Brekkie .- Porridge with Granola , Bananas, apple, golden syrup, hot chocolate powder.

Hang on . either I am being thick, or I have not read the question properly. Are you trying to diet to keep below 2000cal as a dietry aid? Or trying to keep your food spend below a certain £££ per week? Protein intake is tricky to do very cheaply
Decent weight meals without thousands of calories then its veg all the way.

Look at Kcl per 100gm of foodstuffs as a quick and simple aid . Anything less than 100kcl per 100grams is great at filling you up without fattening you up.

£5 a day - £35 a week?
I do that pretty much every week.
Shop cheap (that doesnt mean nasty shite).
Heron Foods stores are well cheap if you have one near to you - think Farm Foods but cheaper.
Dont bother with supermarkets as you'll be tempted to buy more stuff you dont really need. B+M have some good deals, Poundstretcher are good for timmed stuff (or is it Poundland?)

for a fiver a day.

Are you poor now Ton?

About ten tins of corned beef?

Even Aldi's CB is over £1.80 a tin.

Porridge.

Fruits for 11am snack

Tin of something on toast (beans, ravioli, tomatoes) for lunch or a cheese sandwich.

Jacket potato with half a tin of tuna and some salad for tea.

Buy veg and fruit in bulk. Should be about on budget and pretty nutritious.

Pasties - home made - again flour is dirt cheap and calorie dense I make potato based curry ones

[b]CITE[/b]

I mean, recipe please Junkyard 😉

Not a popular shout as its probably not the healthiest choice, but good old fashioned bread works pretty well.
£1 loaf gets you a couple of days sandwiches when freshest and a couple of days toast for breakfast.

Day 1/2 porridge, sandwiches, mash/pasta/rice + meat&veg
Day 3/4 toast, tuna+couscous, mash/pasta/rice + meat&veg
repeat mixing up evening meal as you see fit

Loadsa ideas on the BBC food website, using the 300-500 calorie meals section I can do a 1600 calorie day fairly easily.

After using it for a couple of weeks I was surprised to find that I hadn't had a pasta based meal which is normally a staple in my meals...lots of tomatoes, onions, peppers seem to be the base of many recipes.

Choosing the ones that can be frozen or reheated will help with the £5 a day, they also have a section with all the meals on a budget.

For a slightly wildcard answer that is likely to be unpopular [url= https://huel.com/pages/nutritional-information-and-ingredients ]Huel[/url].

2 packs of Tescos flapjack is about 3000 calories for £1.60. Easy.

£25 to £35 per week is more than enough with all the necessary protein.

😛

[img] [/img]

2 1/2 bottles should do it
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/calories/buckfast-large-bottle-19271019

Tripe is pretty cheap

5 kg rice will last a while. 🙂

[img] [/img]

I like food, I wouldn’t impose any of those restrictions.

Batch cooking it's a doddle.
I experimented once seeing how cheaply I could live. £6,000 per annum covered it.
That's shopping the evening before the supermarket gets restocked to get the best bargains (mince at 23p per 500g pack for example) and various other tactics.
I was eating massive portions of chili, rice and pitta for less than 50p a go.
Doable, but not that much fun.

Easy peasy.

Two packs of 5 Jam donuts from tesco.

225 cal per donut, and only 65p for five. £1.30 a day job done

I experimented once seeing how cheaply I could live. £6,000 per annum covered it.

😯

If your idea of cheap is £16.43 a day then I don’t think you’re qualified to answer the OP!

If your idea of cheap is £16.43 a day then I don’t think you’re qualified to answer the OP!

Presumably that's for everything, not just food.

We spend less than £140 a week for groceries for for of us, so £5 per day per person is easy.

The food bank that my wife runs looks for less than £15 per week per person for food spending to be eligible. For those people, the cost of turning the electric back on at the mains for running the microwave is more of an issue.

Surprised no one has mentioned baking your own bread yet - this being STW and all that.

Works out a 70p / loaf using Waitrose organic flour or abut 50p / loaf using Supermarket flour. Tastes better than cheap supermarket bread too.

Bone in chicken thighs from Aldi are 1.79 for a kilo - we roast these in the oven on top of onions - cracking value and the kids demolish them. Mix up with salad and jacket spuds

Surprised no one has mentioned baking your own bread yet - this being STW and all that.

Works out a 70p / loaf using Waitrose organic flour or abut 50p / loaf using Supermarket flour. Tastes better than cheap supermarket bread too.

How much to heat up the oven, and to heat water for washing up?

[url= https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toast_sandwich ]Toast sandwich[/url] at 7.5p per 'meal'?

got it down to,

1 x bowl porridge

1 x cheese + pickle sandwich

1 x chicken and bean casserole or jacket potato and filling

leave enough for some fruit and a jar of coffee.

cheers

What about day 2?

ton - Member

got it down to,

1 x bowl porridge

1 x cheese + pickle sandwich

1 x chicken and bean casserole or jacket potato and filling

leave enough for some fruit and a jar of coffee.

Why?

Friends of mine did a £1/day food thing for a month. Batch cooking was a big thing, getting supermarket bargains too. Some surprising finds - like pre-packed oven chips being cheaper than potatoes.

How much cheesey pasta for a fiver? 5 boxes, that's how much. Nom nom nom...

Can it be done, of course

Might it get boring unless you do some proper planning, hell yes

I'd prefer to enjoy the food, rather than see it as sustenance. Carbs are cheap too (potatoes, rice, bread, pasta)

How much cheesey pasta for a fiver? 5 boxes, that's how much. Nom nom nom...

😆

Easily done, 2 of us eat on £70 per week without tying hard, with thought I could get that to under £50 easily enough. Batch cooking and Aldi being the keys for us.

Quite easy with [url= https://huel.com/products/huel ]HUEL[/url]

Sizes - Vanilla

100g = 402 calories
14,000 calories. ?28 meals at 500 cals each, this comes in 2 x 1.74kg pouches. Cost per meal is £1.60
28,000 calories. ?56 meals at 500 cals each, this comes in 4 x 1.74kg pouches. Cost per meal is £1.54
56,000 calories. ?112 meals at 500 cals each, this comes in 8 x 1.74kg pouches. Cost per meal is £1.47

Huel = Gruel

newrobdob - Member

If your idea of cheap is £16.43 a day then I don’t think you’re qualified to answer the OP!

That's all living expenses, including Cambridgeshire rent.

I'm tempted by Huel not as a regular thing but as a really cba meal or got in really late from a ride type meal. Anyone tried it?

I'm tempted by Huel not as a regular thing but as a really cba meal or got in really late from a ride type meal.

likewise!

Not tried it though...

paulx - Member

Surprised no one has mentioned baking your own bread yet - this being STW and all that.

Works out a 70p / loaf using Waitrose organic flour or abut 50p / loaf using Supermarket flour. Tastes better than cheap supermarket bread too.

You can buy a whole loaf for 9-10p. Half in the freezer for toast, other half will keep.

One thing to look out for in supermarkets is when there is an offer for multiple purchases.
When these are reduced for quick sale, the "buy 2, save £1" is often still live so it is quite possible to literally get paid to take food away.

chvck - Member

I'm tempted by Huel

I'm tempted by hard drugs and hot women.
One of us is doing this wrong. 🙂

I'm tempted by Huel not as a regular thing but as a really cba meal or got in really late from a ride type meal.

How does it compare to beans on toast, on cost, nutrition and ease of making?

[quote=miketually ]I'm tempted by Huel not as a regular thing but as a really cba meal or got in really late from a ride type meal.
How does it compare to [s]beans on toast[/s][b]cheesey pasta!!![/b], on cost, nutrition and ease of making?

My breakfast sounds a bit like Huel,

Oats 100g
Sunflower seeds
Pumpkin seeds
Linseed
Sesame seeds
Quinoa flakes
Hemp seeds
Cocoa powder
Coffee
Ginger
Kale
Water

All blended up. I usually make 5 to 10 at a time and freeze it. I still haven't convinced anyone else to try it but I love it.

My breakfast sounds a bit like [s]Huel[/s]Hell,

FTFY

What newrobdob says. That sounds like a lot of effort to make something I’d rather be punched in the face than consume

I still haven't convinced anyone else to try it but I love it.

Hue is vegan but **** that I draw the line somewhere - would like to try it for bikepacking actually but not enough I will stump up £45 to see what it is like and you dont seem to be abe to get smaller amounts

Out of interest, how did you come up with the recipe? Did you make up a batch and think ‘you know what this needs? Linseed!’

Or did you just throw all that in a blender and hope for the (Relative term) best?

linseed has omega 3 in it so that is why that was added

Veg curry with home made chapatis.
Veg stir fry with noodles.
Veg chilli
Veg with pasta

Porridge for breakie as said made with water not milk...

I just made it up with what I had in. I forgot to say it also has a few raisins in it which does make quite a difference. The seed content sometimes differs slightly depending on what Infinity Foods have got in when I go in. The next batch will have buckwheat flakes instead of quinoa as they had some in last time I went in so i thought I'd give them a try. I'm not sure what it costs to make but 1KG of oats is a lot less than a pound in Lidl and that makes 10. I reckon I spend around £20-£25 on seeds and bits once every 2 months and the other bits are pretty cheap.

How does it compare to beans on toast, on cost, nutrition and ease of making?

Well, if you have a day's worth of Huel it aims to fulfil all of your nutrition needs for the day. The bigger issue for me is that beans on toast aren't an option unless I make the beans myself. I'm yet to see a tin of baked beans that aren't really high in salt and I try to keep salt consumption low. This is the issue that I get with most options like that - they're high in saturated fats and/or salt.

Jack monroes food blog will do you - she is vegan now but was not at the start

Best advice in the thread. She picks up on small details, for instance the cheapest way to buy haricot beans is to buy baked beans and rinse off the sauce.

How much to heat up the oven, and to heat water for washing up?

Bread makers run cheap and barely need a rinse - bit of poking to get the bits out of the stirrer thingy.
Love ours - you can make the bread exactly to your taste with less sugar and ingredients that keep well - living rurally its a god send. It's the one appliance that hasn't ended up in the 'ice cream maker cupboard'.

A lot of people have looked into doing £1 a day - prices have probably risen a bit since this blog was written, but calorie wise it shouldn't be a problem.

[url= http://supplementsos.com/blog/eat-healthily-for-1-pound-per-day-version-0-2/ ]http://supplementsos.com/blog/eat-healthily-for-1-pound-per-day-version-0-2/[/url]

The guy even considers problems like spoilage if you buy big value packs of fresh fruit/veg.

No need to thank me, I just dig out old blogs I remember reading.