what can you buy for £1/$1?

On the radio yesterday:
A conversation about how someone had won £1 for their baking entry in a local show. Great hilarity about  how to spend such a princely sum.  But it got me thinking and asking the question what can you buy for £1 and how far could I make that money go?   It inspired me to re-focus and look more closely at the food budget.

Another, very good question is what costs nothing at all?  We inevitably begin to think of things that cost nothing or can be bartered, swapped, made, exchanged etc whilst considering how far £1/$1 (or one of whatever is your unit of currency is) can go.  In other words, thinking this way gets us into a resourceful state of mind.  That resourceful state may also lead us away from the shops and back to our own cupboards/closets/garage, to rake through what is already there that could be used, adapted or made into something else.  Shopping in your own cupboards is free and can provide free entertainment too. So the real question is not 'what can I buy?' but 'what do I need?'

  £1 is not of course the same value as $1 or a Euro etc but  it works to think in units of 1, so work with whatever your own unit of currency is.  So off I went to the shops to see.  Was that a mistake?  Possibly, there are many other places to buy or find things that are less obvious, such as batering, swapping, the person down the road who sells eggs or veg from the garden gate, jumble sales, auction sites, buy and sell Facebook groups, local summer fetes, Christmas fairs, car boot sales and so on.  And my £1 would have bought more in many of them.

The trip to the shops resulted in a purchase of two bags of pears (60p) and some lemons.  Total price 90p, so still 10p left to spend.  

Last time it was brocccoli, which with the potatoes growing in the garden made a pot of soup for 60p.  enough for three and the same again for the freezer.  People used to adapt their daily diet to what was available.  What if I did that based on what is best value?

40p for 2 heads of broccoli.   Potatoes from the garden & some stock saved from a chicken.

That thinking just led to the discovery that roasted peppers freeze well and are great with a cooked breakfast.  that lemons sliced up and put in the freezer (5p/4c for 6 lemons) are great in drinks or as a garnish and work just the same when making hummus. So breakfast is potatoes from the garden, hummus instead of eggs, bargain peppers from the freezer and some left over baked beans.  Absolutely, unexpectedly delicious. 

A really cheap, yummy meal with a bit of thought and using what was available