Hello! My name is Lottie and I am a first-year student here at the University of Bristol. I was given a challenge in support of the Food Waste Action Week campaign, to spend only £15 on all my food for 5 days!
I must admit that I am not usually the kind of person who budgets. I normally go to the supermarket without a list and buy whatever I like the look of, often gravitating towards the bakery section or the pre-prepared food like grated cheese packets or overpriced smoothies. Therefore, I knew that this task would be a real challenge for me.
As well as this, I am a vegetarian, so I still had the objective to eat a balanced diet and make sure that I was receiving all the nutrients which I need.
Shopping for food
The night before the big shop, I created a list of everything that I intended to buy. I normally claim that I do not have enough time to plan my meals, imagining it to be a long, laborious task with little benefit to my life. However, after writing a shopping list and planning my meals for the next 5 days, I soon realised that this in fact saved my time.
When shopping, I was always conscious of my budget. Rather than buying pre-cut vegetables in packets, I was buying raw carrots, onions and courgettes which proved to be a lot cheaper. I also had to erase some items off my shopping list, such as lotus biscuits, because my priority was to buy ingredients for nutritious and filling meals.
My total was thankfully £14.96 so I was just under budget. If only lotus biscuits were 4p!
Breakfast
For breakfast, I simply ate bananas. I am not a huge ‘breakfast person’ so I luckily did not feel the need to buy cereals or toast!
Lunch
On Day 1 of my challenge, I cooked what I like to call a ‘pizza wrap’. Essentially, it is a pizza, but the base is a wrap! It is ridiculously easy to make, and I chose spring onion as my topping.
I decided to branch out on Day 2 and have a jacket potato for lunch. The secret to an amazing jacket potato is to microwave it for 6 minutes first and then pop it in the oven. Trust me – it makes a world of difference! On top of my jacket potato, I used cheese, fried courgette, and chilli flakes.
On Day 3 I tried out a new recipe which I had found on BBC Good Foods: vegetarian enchiladas.
Although, due to my budget, I could not follow the recipe exactly (I could not top them with low- fat yoghurt), I was still incredibly happy with the outcome. As a result, I kept some in the fridge and had them for lunch on Day 5 too!
Finally, for lunch on Day 4, I created some omelettes with cheese and spring onion. I know it does not sound particularly appetising but as far as omelettes go, it did not taste too awful!
Dinner
On Day 1, I cooked one of my favourite dinners to make, which is a Kidney Bean Curry. This consists of frying onion and then adding chilli flakes, followed by chopped tomatoes and kidney beans. The best thing about this meal is that you can make lots of portions and then refrigerate them for another day. Therefore, I ate this meal on Day 3 and Day 5 as well! I always add cheese and eat it with either rice or a wrap.
Day 2 was nice and easy because I made a quick stir fry. I fried carrots, courgette and onion and combined them with rice, chilli flakes and soy sauce.
The meal on Day 4 was rather similar to stir fry but this time, I added egg to make egg fried rice. I had also used up all of my carrots by this point so had to use solely courgette and spring onion. As you can probably tell, this meal was a combination of the ingredients which I had not used up yet!
Snacks
I love a good snack so during this challenge, I had to be inventive with the ingredients I had. If I ever got hungry between meals, I had a cheese wrap, spicy egg fried rice or ‘banana ice cream’ (frozen mashed up banana). These snacks were actually healthier than what I normally go for!
Did I face any challenges?
Although I successfully completed this challenge, it is true that I did struggle in some areas.
I found that my meals were lacking variation. The only fresh vegetables that I bought were onions, courgettes, and carrots so I found that I had to incorporate them into most of my meals so that they were nutritious. This soon became repetitive.
I am also going to put my hands up and say that I am not a good chef … at all. The omelette that I ate on Day 4 for lunch was actually my second attempt. The first time I tried to make it, it was somehow raw and burnt at the same time. I did not feel good about this mistake because it completely went against what Food Waste Action Week stood for!
Another challenge for me was being in the university environment. On campus, I was so tempted to buy a snack in between classes, and I also missed the social aspect of going out for meals with friends.
Conclusion
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this budgeting task, despite the challenges which I faced. I believe that from now on, I will always look for cheaper alternatives when shopping and I will also make sure to write a list in advance!
I think it would be hard for me to only spend £15 every week on food but after this experience, I will make sure to cut down on any unnecessary purchases (including lotus biscuits!).
Written by Lottie Aikens, Student Champion