Updated shopping list August 2018 – £40.76 = £1.27pp per day
I decided to plan the meals ahead and shop online so I could keep an eye on the price. The shop I chose was Morrisons as they have a good saver range. I didn’t include cat food or washing powder in the challenge but added these to get the price up so I could have it delivered.
This meal plan isn’t done to patronise anyone, I tried it and it does involve lots of cooking from scratch, but I guess that was part of the challenge. It’s easier and more fun if you all help together.
Of course for this price you can’t eat organic or free range, but in the UK luckily we don’t have battery chickens. To make this work you will have to joint up 2 of the chickens, by cutting off the breasts, wings and legs, which in turn have to be chopped in half for the drumstick and thighs. You can look this up online if unsure how. It’s also best to make your chicken stock or soup on the first day so you can used the chicken meat in other recipes.
Also some of the ingredients are from my garden, the fresh herbs (mint, parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme and Bay leaves), apples, strawberries and tomatoes. These can all be picked up quite cheaply from car boots or you can take cuttings from friends and relatives.
I used milk for my morning porridge from work and we luckily have a fruit basket delivered too, so I was able to add a bit more variety to my porridge.
I also used a few cupboard ingredients that should be in most larders and will last for ages. They are just to help with flavouring. Here is a list of those:
Salt, Pepper, sugar, Oxo cubes, ketchup, gravy granules, dried mixed herbs, soy sauce, Peppercorns, coriander seeds, Cumin seeds, Cayenne pepper, Paprika, Garam Masala, Turmeric, Chinese 5 spice, Tomato paste. Balsamic Vinegar, Jif lemon juice and vanilla extract. Also Tea and Coffee were not included.
Some kitchen gadgets I used included a cheap bread maker from Aldi for £19.99 and cheap stick blender from Argos for £6.89. You can probably do without the bread maker, but the blender is very useful.
We made bread 4 times with the strong flour and doughballs once before it ran out. Along with the chapatis and the sliced bread it was enough for sandwiches and toast when needed.
The prices for the food are what it cost me on 27th September 2015, so they could change, but other offers always seem to be available. Other supermarkets and local markets could be cheaper still.
Eat Not Spend 
Thanks for this, I write for theresvalue.co.uk and have recently completed Thrifty Lesley’s meal plans. We blogged about our experience on the first 4 weeks. It was great in some ways, but not healthwise, due to the reliance on white flour and sugar. Your plan looks healthier…
By the way, we might have battery hens in Europe, they probably laid those 18 eggs… When the law change came in, several countries were not ready to implement the new rules, and I am not sure if all of them have done so… So for the really cheap eggs that are free range you’re looking at a £1 minimum price for half a dozen.
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Hi thanks for your lovely message. I take your point about the battery chickens. Which is why I normally buy free range and organic meat and dairy. I chose Morrison because when I looked online their 18 eggs are from hens in enriched cages? (Not great, but better than battery) and even their 3 for £10 chickens are from the UK and are assured food standard. (Red tractor I think). Please feel free to correct me if I’m wrong. Again thanks for your support. I’m new to all this!
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What are enriched cages?! I’ve not heard of them. Really airdate your meal plan. Would you be interested in jointly creating an ethical and healthy set of frugal meal plans with me? Perhaps we could attempt a £1.25 or £1.50 per person per day basis, which is still very cheap by most people’s standards.
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Enriched cages are bigger than battery and the chickens look like that can walk around a bit more. They are still stacked and normally I still wouldn’t buy eggs from this way. So yes I’m happy to try to work out some menus while I do my next challenge. I’m going to hopefully do a vegetarian £1 challenge in the next couple of weeks, as I’ve managed to talk the family around, and have worked out a shopping list. Maybe I can include some free range if possible.
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potatoes are now £5 😦
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I know I saw that the other day. A lot of the prices seem to go up and down quite a lot so hopefully they’ll be cheaper again soon. We didn’t use all of them anyway for the challenge so buying £2 of cheap potatoes should be enough to do the £1 challenge week.
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