Survival Shopping in Oz with OL, on $35 budget for 2wks with coffee, bacon, icecream!

[OmegaLogos]

Explanation: I was surfing youtube when I recieved a suggested video to watch ...

1 Day, 1 Pound, 3 Meals - Limited Budget Food Challenge




So I watched it and it was pretty good IMO and it reminded me of a 10yr old ATS thread I authored called ...

Survival Shopping in Oz with OmegaLogos on $28 budget for 2wks with coffee, bacon and icecreams!!!

Well it has been 10yrs and I got something wrong in that thread [about how far the coffee goes] so its time for an update.

Firstly I looked up what 1 British pound Stirling is worth in Australian currency [AUD]...

And asking google showed it was worth about $1.93 or about $2 AUD.

Next I asked google what the inflation rate was since 2010 and here is that table ...

Value of 2010 Australian Dollars today

Value of Dollar over time (by year)
Period Value
2010 28
2011 28.77
2012 29.63
2013 30.29
2014 31.12
2015 31.65
2016 32.19
2017 32.66
2018 33.29
2019 33.88
2020 34.5
Today 34.51

Or about $35 meaning about $2.50 per day in a 14day period [2weeks]. Or a 25% increase over 10 years.

So I then went to Woolworths online and looked up all the items I wrote about and their prices and did the maths and here is what that that data set revealed ...

https://www.woolworths.com.au/

coffee [freeze dried] x 100g                $4 or 200g [instant granulated] $3.70* [20 cups of coffee as 1 teaspoon is 5g ... double that to 40 for 200g jar]
sugar x 1kgwhite                               $1 or 2kg $1.79* [400 teaspoons worth... I need 80 for my 20 cups or 400grams...leaving 1600grams for toffee.]
milk [uht] 2 x 1lt $1each                    $2 [20 x 100mL for coffee] The reason for uht milk was so can go the time frame and doesnt need a refrigerator.]
stock cubes [vegetable]                     $1
french onion soup packet                   $0.45
1x raw brown onion large                   $0.45
2x5pack noodles[beef&chicken]$1each $2
1x500g cheese block                          $5.50 500g $3.70 24x cheese slices*
1x185g tin tuna in oil                         $1.30* 425g $3
1x200g chicken flavored biscuits          $1.40
1x500g pasta spaghetti                       $0.65
1x35g cheese sauce                            $1* premade $2 165g
1x425g tinned potatoes whole              $1.60
1x250g bacon rashes [3 full rashes]      $3.50
1x10pk 860ml ice cream chocolate        $3

Subtotals                                            $‭28.85‬          $27.55**

1x loaf white bread [sandwich]             $1.60 [all loafs are same price for wholemeal/multigrain/toast]
1x jar Vegemite 235g [special 20%off]  $3.70
1x butterx250g [special 50%off]           $1.50* or 500gmargerine $1.40 1kg $1.60 or 250g salted butter $2.60
1x carrot large                                    $0.40
1x Woolworths plastic bag                    $0.15

Totals                                                 $36.20          $34.90**

*: Note that items listed with a * are the prefered cheaper item for same or greater weight.
**: Note  this subtotal and total result are from all *items being bought and used.

Note that we break budget in both cases ... it costs 85c more to buy the same stuff as in 2010 and with all the extra wanted stuff we break budget by $1.20c.

However if we stick to the cheapest stuff * then we come under budget for both cases [sub $28 and $35]

Here is my cooking guide ...

This shopping list was designed to suit my tastes but I am sure it can be modified to suit others needs etc especially if one is inside Australia.


Budget: $28.00 for food ONLY!

TimeFrame: 14 days [a typical 2wk pension/unemployment welfare payment plan in Australia ... ]

2$ a day.

Now I need to show how that all breaks down to cover my food usage over the 2wk period.

Ok here goes...

10 packets of noodles and pack of massel stock cubes = 10 individual meals of noodles ... chicken or your choice of stock cube [fish or veggy etc] I choose beef. ]

That is 1 garanteed fill your belly meal every day after work for the 10 working days in a fortnight period.

10 chocolate coated Ice creams... 1 per working day for desert!

I showed above that there was 20 cups of coffee or about 1.5 cups a day! [miss out only on last coffee on 2nd Sunday night dinner]

Now 4 days of weekends meals [lunch instead of dinner]...

45 grams of tuna with 50 grams of snack biscuits and 125 grams of cheese [6 slices] per each meal.

= 185 grams tin of tuna 200 grams of snack biscuits and 500 grams tasty cheese block or slices.

So whats that leave ... Oh yes...

French onion soup bulked out with 1 whole onion! 1Ltr = 2 medium meals

Pasta with cheese sauce! about 625grams worth! = 2 small meals

Bacon and tinned potato's! [ 3 full rashes [cut in half] and about 4 small tinned spuds per full rasher] = 6 meals

Toffee... 1600grams. [homemade OK] 32 x 50gram chunks

Now this isn't a shtf survival shopping list OK. This is what I would buy if forced onto that small budget!

I spend more than $28/$35 a fortnight on food OK!

I shop OFTEN and I even used to take my gran shopping and I saved her heaps of $$$ and stress [and my parents as well].

But don't tell me there isn't variety or coffee... Thats SCAMMING and TOTALLY WRONG!

Damn You Aussie Journo's and Damn the scam of 1 week test...because at that level u cannot afford jack squat!

If only they had realized that going an extra week longer...would be so beneficial to EVERYTHING!

They were gutless IMO!


Especially when most get paid fortnightly and shop once per fortnight like me and my gran do! [both pensioners]

I am The Australian Urban Grocery Shopping Warrior!

Imagine what could be bought If I had decided to work this out over a month! Even More variety Thats what!


I appreciate the issue being brought to light but thats no reason to go and distort the truth!

P.S. I'm Poor Pensioner ... NOT Stupid! What??? Did they think the two things meant the same thing!


What have my fellow members to say on this issue!

Were those Journalists fibbing or were they just naive???

And with the extra $7 in items bringing total up to $35 ...

10 x 2 slices of bread + 25g Vegemite sandwiches with butter spread. 10 extra meals.
1x carrot large gets shredded and added to pasta with cheese sauce. [no extra meal but bulks 1 meal out]

So Woolworths has kept prices down consistently over the past ten years with only a 3% increase in prices over that time frame.

Now for comparison a cheap packet of 20 cigs cost about $28 now a days in Australia at Woolworths.

The above does NOT take into consideration things like toilet paper and toothpaste etc, [toiletries and cosmetics, especially feminine hygene products] nor does it take into consideration and extra costs of living such as communications [mobile phone /internet connectivity], mobility [petrol, vehicle maintenance , public transport etc] , clothing, rent/mortgage, energy and water bills etc.

It ONLY covers food and food that I am willing to eat. You Mileage May Vary Ok!


Here is a website that covers these issues better than I can ...

Eating on $2 can look like this

Eat on $2 a day for two or five days, raise funds and empower young people to help end poverty.

The rules are simple: 
1. This May, feed yourself on $2 a day for two or five days
2. Ask your friends, family and co-workers to donate to your profile
3. Be part of a community where thousands of Australians are taking action
to help young people within our region have their voices heard. 

Not sure you want to take the two or five day challenge? No stress!
Host a Dine Below the Line dinner party and feed your guests on $2 a head.
Dine Below the Line retains the creative cooking challenge of Live Below the Line, but makes
it more accessible and easier to involve your friends and family!

Why $2?

Imagine what it would be like going about your everyday life with just $2 to spend on everything.
That's food, accommodation, transport, medicine - $2 for every single cost. That's the reality for people who live below the extreme poverty line. $AU2 is the Australian equivalent of the extreme poverty line, adjusted to reflect the real cost of items in Australia.

Personal Disclosure:  As I have shown above it is not hard to live comfortably on a harsh and tight budget in today's western world.

In future posts to this thread I hope to show what can be done for $2 a day for both 2 days [$4] and 5 days [$10] and what recipes can be made for $2 per head.

And also for $2.50 per day and per head as well [takes into account inflation etc.]

Please share your food lists [according to your tastes and dietary requirements/restrictions], prices [for your local area] and recipe advice as laid out above.


Thank you for reading this far. Well done!
Cheers