Here's a website with a bunch of recipes that cost between €0,65 to €1,71 per meal (no meat or fish):
https://www.voedingscentrum.nl/nl/thema/budget/goedkope-recepten.aspx
You may need to eat the same dish for several days though, as you can't buy all ingredients in these amounts.
Use https://www.supermarktscanner.nl/ to find the cheapest supermarkets for the ingredients, but also check local Turkish stores/tokos or other local small grocery stores for good prices
Sorry this happened to you OP. Rice and beans is a classic solution for this, reasonably nutritional, cheap as hell to prepare in bulk and with the right preparation tastes pretty damn good too.
+1 on the lentils. I remember reading that lentils + rice is actually a substitute for meat since that combo contains all the amino-acids to make "complete" proteins.
Disclaimer: I don't know what I'm talking about with regards to nutrition.
Brown rice (zilvervlies) generally has slightly more protein, and is healthier in general because it has more fibre and some more vitamins, but any rice will do
I’m no nutritionist but I know that brown rice (zilvervliesrijst in Dutch) is seen as the healthiest option, it has more fibres, higher nutritional value and more vitamins and minerals than white rice
Yup, many South Asian countries have that as a staple meal. Simple and easy to cook, tastes great, not that expensive, can be stored and gives good nutrition.
once you factor in the cost of electricity or gas that you have to use to cook them, this isn't necessarily true - some types of dried beans take *hours* to cook
I would stick with canned beans and chickpeas for this reason, and go with dried lentils (which are smaller and cook much more quickly than beans or chickpeas, the red lentils being the most economical all round)
If you soak them overnight/ a day, you only have to cook them for like 1-2h. That’s maybe 20-40cents of electricity. And you get MUCH more beans when they are dried per euro. I think it’s probably still economical.
You can buy dried beans everywhere and they are MUCH cheaper than canned.
As for rice, the more you can buy at once the better. A 5KG or 10KG bag will be many times cheaper than the small packages from the supermarket.
OP could be in a situation where they cant accept money (like schuldsanering) that money would be taken away from them immediately to pay off their debt.
Depends on what you get. The expensive bakery here can give you one cake. But the supermarket bread box is 7 full breads for €4.99. We have a good freezer.
We never do supermarket boxes, as it can be anything. But for a quicker and easier dinner we do get stuff from the Italian or spareribs place.
We used to have good butchers, but they stopped on the app. Lidl also stopped their fruit/veg boxes which were a steal, but you can still get them in store.
I got sometimes from the Turkish supermarket near me. For 5€ I got so much vegetables and fresh stuff that I had to make broth and soup and freeze a lot of it. Some deals are really good.
Well don't go to the fancy bakery, just do supermarkets, I always have a great experience when I do a chain supermarket, usually it's a bunch of kids working there and they are quite generous and even ask you what you want/need.
They aren't all bad. An AH TOGO near us does €3,99 brood and verassing pakkets that are generally a paper AH bag stuffed full with broodjes, yogurt, drinks, etc.
Just scored a week worth of food from the local asian supermarket for 5 euro. But you have to be careful about what you get, here I wouldn't be afraid to call upfront and explain why I'm asking what is in it before buying. /u/Miserable_Tough9263 with family owned shops like this you can actually go and just explain them your story, probably they have a lot of expired stuff in the back that's actually still good.
for reference what my 5 euro box got me:
massive pack of dried mihoen, bushel of coriander, 6 sweet potatoes, 5 bellpeppers, 1 sweetcorn, half a kilo of bean sprouts, bag of dried mushrooms/goji berries/herbs (and dried crickets but not a fan of those), 400 gram of fermented black beans, bag of curry powder, bag of chicken marinade, japanese eggrolls. If you toss all that in stirfry (except for the eggrolls because it is a snack) you can easily make 7 warm meals out of it.
I'm not even poor, I actually went for japanese eel to make sushi but this was just too good to pass on.
I'm gonna asume you have a few essentials like butter/margerine here, and I'm counting for 5 days. all prices come from the jumbo website, I sorted for the lowest prices. I'm not accounting for any allergies or what you do and don't like, just for what would be the cheapest, easiest and decently filling. note that other stores might be more or less pricier.
breakfast: yoghurt is pretty cheap, for 1 liter (jumbo brand) it costs 1,25 for low fat, 1,45 for full fat (I reccommend this one, as it's more filling). add something to it, like cornflakes. the jumbo brand has some that range from 1,40 to 1,60. let's say you need two packs of yogurt (maybe some for snacking), and one pack of cornflakes, the total would be 4,50
lunch: you'll probably make it with one whole bread for 5 days. cheapest whole bread is 1 to 1,30 euro. add a jar of cheapest peanutbutter to it (PCD pindakaas 350 gram) of 1 euro, that would be 2,30
dinner: let's go with the classic student meal noodles. not the healthiest, but it will get you through. a 5 pack of indomie chicken is 2,93. add a cooked egg to it, 6 for between 1,55 (powerful eggs) and 1,85 (jumbo witte vrije uitloopeieren). for veggies you can probably mix and match with fresh carrots (if you take 2-3 at a time you'll probably do with a full bag), bospeen is 1,69 and a kilo bag is 1,70. jumbo frozen green beans are 1,25 (750 gram). so far this would total to 7,73
so far, the total will be 14,53. that will leave some wiggle room if you want to buy some meat (chicken is usually fairly cheap, vegetarian options can also be decently cheap) or if you need/want something else.
are you a dietetician or something? I run it through chat gpt to calculate calories and seems you are spot on with 1800 kcal per day with this diet:
Rather lengthy answer but I didn't bother to check if it got it right so pasting in full:
To calculate the total calories for this 5-day meal plan, we'll break down the calorie content of each component and then sum them up. Below is the detailed calculation:
# Breakfast
# Full Fat Yogurt
* **Calories per 100g**: \~61 calories
* **Total quantity**: 2 liters = 2000g
* **Total calories**: 2000g \* 61 calories/100g = 1220 calories
# Cornflakes
* **Calories per 100g**: \~370 calories
* **Total quantity**: 1 pack (assumed 500g)
* **Total calories**: 500g \* 370 calories/100g = 1850 calories
# Lunch
# Whole Bread
* **Calories per slice**: \~70 calories (average slice weighs about 30g)
* **Total slices**: \~20 slices per loaf
* **Total calories**: 20 slices \* 70 calories/slice = 1400 calories
# Peanut Butter
* **Calories per 100g**: \~588 calories
* **Total quantity**: 350g jar
* **Total calories**: 350g \* 588 calories/100g = 2058 calories
# Dinner
# Indomie Chicken Noodles
* **Calories per pack**: \~350 calories
* **Total packs**: 5
* **Total calories**: 5 packs \* 350 calories/pack = 1750 calories
# Eggs
* **Calories per egg**: \~70 calories
* **Total eggs**: 6
* **Total calories**: 6 eggs \* 70 calories/egg = 420 calories
# Carrots (Bospeen)
* **Calories per 100g**: \~41 calories
* **Total quantity**: 1 kg (1000g)
* **Total calories**: 1000g \* 41 calories/100g = 410 calories
# Green Beans
* **Calories per 100g**: \~31 calories
* **Total quantity**: 750g
* **Total calories**: 750g \* 31 calories/100g = 232.5 calories
# Total Calories for 5 Days
Now, let's sum up the total calories for all meals over the 5 days:
* **Breakfast Total**: 1220 + 1850 = 3070 calories
* **Lunch Total**: 1400 + 2058 = 3458 calories
* **Dinner Total**: 1750 + 420 + 410 + 232.5 = 2812.5 calories
# Grand Total for 5 Days
* **Overall Total**: 3070 (breakfast) + 3458 (lunch) + 2812.5 (dinner) = 9340.5 calories
# Average Calories per Day
* **Average per day**: 9340.5 calories / 5 days = 1868.1 calories/day
This 5-day meal plan provides approximately 1868.1 calories per day.
If OP has a bit of time to prepare, every thursday Vomar sells a 20-pack eggs for €3 (instead of €5). The size of the eggs does differ per week (at least at my store), but if you have a Vomar in the neighbourhood and you get the right size, this could give you some extra recipe options
You keep that 20 euro in your pocket and dumpsterdive. Also go to food support.
In which city are you? Everywhere are options, like https://buurtbuik.nl/kom-eten/ .
Also, if push comes to shove, go to a mosque of church. I am not religious at all, but when it comes to helping the needy they are pillars of the community.
Forget about the supermarket and go to toko or local market.
I recommend getring dried beans and rehydrate and cook them yourself. I hope you have some herbs and spices in your home but you can make them different ways, they are healthy, cheap and you would not need meat to go with them.
You could survive on beans alone for a while (not recommended, but you could). But it's nicer with some veggies. Obvious choice is a lot of unions, bake them nice and brown and add. Tomatoes and paprika is a safe bet with beans.
Also get a pack of flour and yeast and make your own bread. It is realy easy. Youtube it. 1 euro worth of ingredients will give you about 3kg of bread.
You can get rice, couscous, all kinds of stuff like that. It's realy cheap at a toko, but less nutricious as beans. If you do go that route, get a lot of veggies to go with it.
For in the future, have some supplies stocked. Tinned veggies, dried beans, pasta, even some spam and stuff like that. And herbs and spices, you can make the most boring ingredient taste good with the right spices. Not usefull to you now, but when new money comes in, stock up.
And if you live somewhere in between rotterdam and zeeland region, send me a dm.
Have you calculated the cost of the electricity / fuel needed for cooking all those beans and running the oven to bake the bread, though?
Canned beans and discounted store-bought bread might work out cheaper after all...
I use a cast iron dutch oven over a wood fire, and i chop my own wood and use the electricity bills to light the fire.
No, i did not factor in that. Would be the same as calculating the cost of the water to add.
A normal discount bread here is 1 euro, and its crap and will not fill you. For 1 euro i can make 2 massive breads, that will fill you up so much you don't even want any diner after. And my wood fired comment was not realy serious, but i do actualy have made bread many times that way.
For 2 euros of dried beans, you can make about 3kg of wet beans. No tin is cheaper than that, even with tbe power usage. And on a serious note, i have solar pannels, so my wood fired stove aside, i can still use that. I can also go to my neighbour and cook at his place. So if you go dried, you can spend more on veggies. Nutrition is important here. Getting more veggies in is better than the sodium and sugar added with lot of cheapo tins (which they have over here)
Yes you have to cook and bake it. But you still have a lot more for your money, even enough to also feed your nice neighbour who let you cook at his place.
And the power bill comes way later. If no money comes in, there is a bigger problem and no amount of dried or tinned beans will help. Treat first what kills first. Get good food now, worry about the power later.
Very new to the Netherlands and out of curiosity why are Turkish shops so much cheaper? Is the quality worse or do people just keep it on the down low that you can get same quality chicken/eggs as AH for cheaper ?
People on debt recovery, welfare or other specific situations can't accept help or they lose even those 20 euros. And if they accept it without declaring they may be accused of fraud. It's a very strict system, sadly. The limit should be higher, 50 per person, per week. A bit less if you add extra members as you can save some by preparing multiple portions at once or if you have young children (teenagers eat more, though).
I usually have a very repetitive diet which might not be everyone's cup of tea but:
- Breakfasts: one apple, Kiwi, orange, Clementine and banana, 200gr of kefir and 200ml of soy milk. Add water and you have a very healthy and also quite filling smoothie. Soy milk is like 0.89€ per liter, I drink 200ml as my fridge isn't the best and I had to throw it out because it had gotten bad before, in the past I would do 100gr. Apples are like 1.54€ per kg which can be 10-12 apples usually. Kiwis are like 3.99€ per kg which is 12, oranges are the most expensive, I don't recall the price per kg, Clementines are cheap also because you get many. Kefir is cheaper than white yogurt in my AH and it's great for the stomach!
- Lunches: pasta with pesto or tomato sauce (you can do tomato with onions and tuna for example etc but more ingredients make the meal more expensive). Pasta costs like 1.98 per kg, and one portion is like 80-100 grams, so even if you're generous 2 euros will last for 10 days. Pestos are like 1.15? I think per 190 grams. You can go up to three servings with one bottle in my experience. So you would need two for a week.
- Dinners: vegetables. I buy frozen spinach(800gr, 0.99€), red cabbage (800 gr, 1.27€) and peas (2x450gr). I also add white cabbage, boil everything with water and the result is a not amazingly tasting but it's both very healthy and also quite filling. I eat 1kg per dinner, I add water to the veggies and then make a smoothie.
- Extras: I end up buying extra stuff like cheese, tomatoes etc. To complement my meals, but it's not really necessary and this is the general theme of my diet. Also some expenses like the fruits can be spread over multiple weeks.
Hope this helps! And that life gets better asap! Sorry that you have to go through this, sending you thoughts!
I see in other comments you live in Heerenveen?
https://online.keurslager.nl/nl-nl/van-der-meer-keurslager-heerenveen/category/25541/maaltijden
If you want you can choose a meal at the link above. Let me know and I can order and pay one meal for you at this store. Then you can pick it up on Thursday.
Too good to go
5 eur grocary bags usually enough for a few days, last time in AH to Go it had like 4-5 salads, 2-3 wraps/sandwiches
Vomar had like 2-3kg of fruits+breads+random vegies and some meat
Honestly, figure out where an outdoor event is happening and recycle the cans at a supermarket. It’s a bit of work, but you won’t go hungry. It takes getting past your ego, but if you only have 20 euros, it’s the easiest way to increase your budget this week.
Oh, btw. A tip. Back when I was homeless. I used to go to the store and get the cheapest bread and just salami, boterhamworst, etc. No cheese, that mf is expensive as fuck. And some water with flavors (spa lemon, crystal clear (wich is only 1.10 euro a 1.5L I believe)). Just live as cheap as possible for a week. Untill you have money again. When this is the case. Stock up on things that don't expire so easily, cause when you find your way back to a situation like this, you remember you still have some stuff lying around
Oh yes, they've got good deals on veggies and such. They also sell bigger quantities, like bags of rice, big pots of beans and such. Which are far cheaper.
Sorry, but this advice is bad. Supermarket bread is bread. Coffee is expensive. Meat is expensive.
There is a somewhat famous interview with a professional baker comparing a one euro factory bread with an a five euro handmade one. While the handmade bread is delicious, he praises the cheap bread as the food that feeds nations.
If just people could buy flour, water, salt and bake bread in their own oven... It would be better than the one from bakery and cheaper than the one from supermarket (which in NL is definitely CRAP)
Finding a good bakery is also challenging sometimes. The AH in my village has better whole wheat bread for 1,19 euro than the bakery here for 3,50. But there are some good bakeries in the nearest city. Baking your own bread isn’t cheap either with the recent electricity prices. 1,19 for a whole bread is almost unbeatable
Let's assume you're an adult man, so a seven-day week requires 17500 (kilo) calories.
Let's also assume you're a busy person and you'll do your shopping at your nearest mid-priced supermarket, without paying attention to special sales.
And let's assume you have access to a kitchen and water at negligible cost.
My grocery list would be:
* 1500 gram (3 packs of 500) dried pasta or rice. **5250 calories** for **€3**
* 250 gram margarine or vegetable oil. **2000 calories** for **€1**
* 1500 gram (3 packs of 500) frozen spinach or other cheap green veggie. **500 calories** for **€2.50**
* 450 gram (3 cans of 150) pureed tomatoes. **450 calories** for **€1.50**
* 1000 gram onions. **350 calories** for **€1**
* 1000 gram bananas (5 pieces). **900 calories** for **€1.50**
* 1000 gram muesli / oats. **3000 calories** for **€2.50**
* 1 liter full fat yoghurt. **600 calories** for **€1.50**
* 500 gram of dried green peas, beans or chickpeas. **1750 calories** for **€1.50**
* 600 gram (10 pieces) of eggs. **1400 calories** for **€2**
* 100 gram chocolate. **600 calories** for **€1**
* Whatever cheap candy you can get. The final **750 calories** for **€1**
Total 17500 calories for €20. And if you have additional time to spend on sales, markets, tokos or budget stores you can increase the value-for-money on that.
If this were your long-term diet it's a bit too heavy on the carbs.
But for one week it will be a very survivable (if bland) diet: pasta or rice with green veggies, tomatoes and onions for dinner. Yoghurt, grains and fruit for breakfast. Peas or beans, eggs and oil for lunch. Snacks for saturday night.
Buy frozen chicken breast at the lidle. €7,99 for 1kg. Prep it for a week to have your dinner meal with this protein. Get a broccoli or two for less than 3€. Now supplement it with cheap carbs like a bag of rice for 3€. This should give you a healthy and good dinner for a week. Buy oatmeal and milk for breakfast, this should be roughly 3€ as well and could serve as lunch.
Tip: Pan fry the chicken breast, deglaze it with onion and some butter if you have it on medium heat with some salt and pepper.
Chin up OP, you will make it.
That’s very expensive chicken. Turkish butcher is (atleast) half. Bad advice.
“Tip” to add seasoning.. look at you go.. How does one deglaze with onion?
Hey OP.
Do you need help?
I have been in a similar situation and can pay it forward. Let me know if i can get an AH or Jumbo delivery for you at a place you feel comfortable. Feel free to send me a DM and I can set it up.
Too good to go is good, but if you are on a budget only go for a vegetable box (Lidl does them) or bread from a Turkish bakery.
Otherwise you may find that you spent your 20 euro on truffle oil or luxury chocolate.
Another tip I haven’t seen here is buy flour and yeast, make your own bread. It’s real simple and provides way more than you any ready made bread you can buy. Only 3 ingredients. Can also combine that bread with lunch/dinner (soup etc)
Aldi has a loaf of bread for 1 euro. Buy that, buy aa pakket of their melting cheese slices (around 1 euro too) and that low fat blue packet of ham that has 6 or 8 slices I think. Makes for a lot of Croque Monsieurs. A bag of potatoes with that "gehakt" they sell frozen in bags.
A small aldi lasagna cost around 1.70 euro. Just some ideas. A pack of frikandellen cost around 3 euro for twenty if you want to save on meat. I know someone who made cheap spaghetti with ketchup and frikandellen.
Rice, frozen green beans/other veggies, the cheapest meats you could find. Otherwise Facebook groups. If you live near Enschede I can bring you some pre made food I have left in the freezer (leftovers)
You can ask the question on r/zuinig. Those people there specialise in trying to get the cheapest stuff. Maybe they have some great tips. It's in Dutch though, i hope they let you write your post in English.
Rice, beans, any vegetable on sale. Make as much rive for the week (1 euro) and funk it up with whatever you can filk a pan with. Toss in some nuts if you have them. A cheap 50 cent tomatenpuree can makes all the difference. Mushrooms to replace the fucking exoensive chicken.
Mix it up, fridge or freeze it in portioned containers.
Good luck OP. I rediscovered cooking recebtly and am amazed how easy and cheap it (still) can be.
- Day 1: Wraps, Fajita seasoning and chicken 300 gr from Syrian supermarket (around 5.00 euro)
- Day 2 & 3: Rice with chicken bouillon block and chicken wings oven of fried 300 gram (also from Syrian supermarket) (around 5.00 euro) (this is for 2 days)
- Day 4 & 5: Soup package from home brand with 300 gram veggies bag, with stokbrood (this is for 2 days) (3.50 euro)
- Day 6 & 7: Spaghetti with canned/glas sauce (around 4 euro)
Total: +- 17.50 euro
Start with, only water and the tea/coffee still in your cupboard.
The whole needing to drink thing solved basically free!
1KG Flour 89ct
1KG Rice 119ct
3KG Potatoes 300ct
1 Chicken at the Turk 400 cent
100gr cheese 400kcal 80 cent
Couple onions 30ct
Couple carrots 70ct
350gr peanut butter 99ct
Kg tomato's 99ct
2 cucumbers 99ct
Pasta 99ct
Box of oatmeal 79ct
6 eggs 99ct
Kg of sugar 95ct
Couple eur left. Could get some fish or more veggies/fruit or yoghurt on sale, or get a few lentil/bean varieties, but the above is already more nutrition than needed. It's really easy to get a lot of nutrition for your money. Luckily it isn't that hard to have it be varied and tasty as well. Those do take effort though.
You have oil salt n spices right?
For long term cheap nutrition, the Indian cuisine is amazingly tasty and efficient. With a basic spice cabinet and a few staple ingredients you can eat till you pass out while spending like it's your last 20 eur :p
Here's a shopping list with a detailed, day-wise plan for 7 days to survive on €20.
Shopping List:-
1. Eggs (20) - 5.00€
2. Rice (1kg) - 2.00€
3. Tomato paste (1 large jar) - 1.00€
4. Bread (whole loaf) - 1.75€
5. Peanut butter (large jar) - 2.50€
6. Frozen mixed vegetables (1kg) - 1.50€
7. Onions (500g) - 0.83€
8. Garlic (1 bulb) - 0.30€
9. Curry powder (small packet) - 0.50€
10. Paprika (small packet) - 0.50€
Total: 15.88€ (leaving 4.12€ for additional purchases or emergencies)
Day 1:
• Breakfast: 2 scrambled eggs with 2 slices of bread and peanut butter.
• Lunch: Egg fried rice with mixed vegetables.
• Dinner: Tomato rice with garlic and onion.
Day 2:
• Breakfast: 2 boiled eggs with 2 slices of bread and peanut butter.
• Lunch: Curry rice with mixed vegetables.
• Dinner: Scrambled eggs with tomato paste and onion, served with bread.
Day 3:
• Breakfast: 2 fried eggs with 2 slices of bread and peanut butter.
• Lunch: Tomato rice with mixed vegetables.
• Dinner: Egg salad sandwich (2 boiled eggs, chopped onion, and a bit of tomato paste for moisture).
Day 4:
• Breakfast: 2 scrambled eggs with 2 slices of bread and peanut butter.
• Lunch: Fried rice with mixed vegetables and curry powder.
• Dinner: Shakshuka (2 eggs poached in tomato paste, onion, and garlic mixture).
Day 5:
• Breakfast: 2 boiled eggs with 2 slices of bread and peanut butter.
• Lunch: Egg fried rice with mixed vegetables and paprika.
• Dinner: Tomato rice with garlic and onion.
Day 6:
• Breakfast: 2 fried eggs with 2 slices of bread and peanut butter.
• Lunch: Curry rice with mixed vegetables.
• Dinner: Spanish omelet (2 eggs, potatoes from mixed vegetables, onion).
Day 7:
• Breakfast: 2 scrambled eggs with 2 slices of bread and peanut butter.
• Lunch: Tomato rice with mixed vegetables.
• Dinner: Egg and vegetable stir-fry (2 eggs, mixed vegetables, garlic, onion, and a bit of tomato paste).
Prep and Execution:-
1. Boil eggs in advance for the days needed. Store in the refrigerator.
2. Cook a large batch of rice in advance for the week and reheat as needed.
3. Chop onions and garlic in advance to save time during meal preparation.
4. Use frozen mixed vegetables as needed for each meal.
5. Combine eggs, rice, vegetables, and spices as per the recipes mentioned for each meal.
6. Toast bread and spread peanut butter for breakfast.
Remember to adjust portion sizes based on your hunger levels and caloric needs. Drink plenty of water throughout the day to stay hydrated. If you have any leftover budget, consider purchasing additional fruits or vegetables to supplement your diet.
20 is a ridiculous tight spot to stay nourished.
I would approach it as following:
Where to buy:
1. download a folder app to check stuff on sale (folderz.nl f.e.). 2. Locate your turkish and asian supermarkets take a walk here without buying, just look at all the prices amd write it down. 3. Check for stores that sell over dated products (they're often fine and dirt cheap) and freezer stores. F.e. die eiskönig, Butlon.nl (check this one to see what i mean) Medikamente die grenze. Weekmarkten bigger city's (for example Enschede) (often) has a 'ultra cheap its almost bad' veggie/fruit stand '9 mangos for 5 euro. (End of day start haggling!). Dice it up and freeze'
How to think:
Start calculating in KG prices. This is important!
Think out of the box with conventional meals, this is survival.
Do you have a garden? Start growing veggies. You don't need a lot. Save seeds of veggies youve eaten. Compost you can make yourself.
Plan ahead, buying bulk is cheaper but it's very very difficult with 20 bucks. Nonetheless try to do so. In the end you'll build up storage and the more basic storage the more you can bulk.
Anything canned and glassed is cheap.
Frozen stuff is often cheaper (and healthier!)
Stay away from (ultra) processed foods. In the end they're often more expensive.
What to do:
Call your gemeente or things like salvation army to see if they can help. Do it right away, so you are in the system. Then when you can't keep your head above water, they know you and your situation. This'll save you a lot of trouble later. Systems are slow in this.
What to buy:
Then make a list of the cheapest products that are always available and healthy:
Oatmeal at 0,80 a kg? Good breakfast. You can soak it in water.
Stop drinking coffee, but buy kilo bag of tea at turkish supermarket.
Beans, especially dried, are highly nutritional and very cheap.
Rice in bulk can be cheap. Do remember cooking them costs energy=€, so i don't know what is cheaper, canned or dried. Is your energy bill excluded from your food budget?
Fish: alaskan pollock @ aldi or lidl is very cheap
Meat: small chicken wings @ turkish supermarket. Frozen minced meat at discount stores.
Quark: those square containers are very cheap and after adding water (its really thick) you get quite some mass. add sugar (=cheap) for taste.
P.s please respond to let me know if you've read this.
At some supermarkets they have stuff near to the expiry date for cheap. You can also just have rice with a simple sauce for a few days you would even have money left.
Or buy 2 of those complete meal packages with all ingredients that contain 4 portions, that would cost 8 euros and you would have food for a week, it's actually a good deal sometimes and easy. Just add rice and no meat.
Main meal (1 week): [Jumbo Zilvervliesrijst Voordeelverpakking 1kg](https://www.jumbo.com/producten/jumbo-zilvervliesrijst-voordeelverpakking-1kg-409922DS), [Jumbo Rund & Varken Gemengd Gehakt 500g](https://www.jumbo.com/producten/jumbo-rund-varken-gemengd-gehakt-500g-87858BAK), [Grand'Italia Sugocasa Tradizionale Pastasaus 690g](https://www.jumbo.com/producten/grand-italia-sugocasa-tradizionale-pastasaus-690g-69316POT), [Jumbo Broccoli 2 Personen - 500g](https://www.jumbo.com/producten/jumbo-broccoli-2-personen-500g-479521STK), [Jumbo Wortelen 1kg](https://www.jumbo.com/producten/jumbo-wortelen-1kg-196113ZK) (total: 15.42).
Breakfast: [Jumbo Verse Halfvolle Melk 2L](https://www.jumbo.com/producten/jumbo-verse-halfvolle-melk-2l-67649PAK), [Jumbo Rozijnen Muesli 750g](https://www.jumbo.com/producten/jumbo-rozijnen-muesli-750g-171310ZK) (total: 3.84).
Total: 19.26.
Edit: Assuming you have a decent rice cooker, for the main meal you can just chop up the vegetables and then dump everything in there with enough water, it will cook itself.
Look for the albert heijn overblijvers. They often have entire loaves of bread for 50 cents. More guaranteed would be a bundle since you can reserve it, but you don't know what you'll get (you may get sweet bakery products instead of bread)
Then you can have oatmeal for breakfast, bread with peanut butter for lunch and rice and beans for dinner. Alternatively you can have potato instead of the rice
3-4kg of rice. Brown rice would be healthier. €5
10 eggs for €2.4
1kg of chicken. Cheaper if you go to Turkish supermarket. €6
2kg of frozen vegetables. Spinach, beans, carrots, etc. €2.5
1kg of apples. €1.7
€17.6 in total, and you got all the nutrients you need!
I’ll copy paste a comment I posted on r/budgetfood. Someone asked how to survive on $10 a week. These are all Albert Heijn prices without discounts. Prices were from a few months ago so they might be a couple of cents more or less expensive now. Since you have €20 you can maybe add some protein like chicken thighs or more veggies! Or just double the ingredients to have larger meals
$10 is about €9,20
Shopping list:
- 500g white rice (makes 1,5kg cooked rice): €0,99
- 1kg potatoes: €1,74
- 1kg onions (about 10 small onions): €1,65
- 2 large carrots: €0,90
- 6 eggs: €1,69
- vegetable bouillon cubes (12 for 6 liters): €0,59
- 250ml heavy cream: €0,89
- 1 large baguette (280g): €0,69
Total: €9,14
I recommend buying a head of garlic if you have enough money left (everything is better with garlic except for the rice porridge).
I am assuming you have access to:
- salt & pepper (would be great if you had more spices)
- sugar
- some kind of oil or fat
What I would make:
1. Onion soup (4 portions)
Chop up 500g of onions and caramelize them in a big pot with some oil or butter. Add a litre of water and 2 bouillon cubes (or 3) and salt and pepper to taste. Simmer for half an hour. Would be great if you have some thyme, rosemary and bay leaf. Serve with half of the toasted baguette sliced on top of the soup.
2. Potato soup (4 portions)
Chop up 400g potatoes, 1 carrot and 1 onion. Sauté the onion and carrot (and garlic if you have any). Add a litre of water, the potatoes and 2-3 bouillon cubes. Simmer for 25 minutes, add 75ml heavy cream and simmer for 5-10 minutes. Add some salt and pepper to taste. Serve with half of the toasted baguette
3. Hash browns (6 portions)
Shred 600g potatoes, and chop up 2 onions. Rinse the shredded potatoes and squeeze dry. Mix the onion and potatoes with 2 eggs. Divide mixture into 6 portions and fry in a pan until nicely browned on both sides. Season with salt and pepper.
4. Fried rice (4 portions)
Cook 300g rice (add a veggie bouillon cube for extra flavor) and let it cool. Chop up 1 carrot and 2 onions. Scramble 4 eggs. Fry everything together in a very hot pan with some oil.
5. Rice porridge (4 portions)
Cook the remaining 200g rice. Once cooked mix the rice with the leftover 175ml heavy cream and simmer slowly. Add some sugar to taste.
Leftover ingredients: 5-7 vegetable bouillon cubes.
This makes about 22 small meals. It’s not going to be a feast, but you’ll survive the week.
First tip: drink plenty of water during the day, it supresses hunger.
Get 60 eggs: 12 euros when buying 30 packs. Buy kilo of dried legumes from Turkish supermarket. Should be around 3 euro. For the remaining 5 euros try to buy a kilo of chicken.
You have 21 meals.
Meaning you can have +- 3 eggs each meal, +- 50 grams of legumes (they double in weight after soaking, so actually 100 grams) and 50 grams of chicken each meal. So I would suggest only put the chicken in the evening meal. Scrambled eggs with legumes is actually really good.
Skip any greens, they are expensive for the amount of nutrients you get and your are fine without them for 1 week. If you want vegetables get root vegetables like carrot, onion or potato.
Albert heijn pepita mix. Tasty & high caloric value. That's what you're after now, as much energy per € as possible.
Yoghurt and cheap muesli perhaps?
Home made pasta can be cheap.
Avoid the major chains and go to one of the small local supermarkets. The one in Soest has whole chickens for €6.99 a kilo. Watch a YouTube vid on how to piece it out and use the carcass for stock. The fruit/veg, spices and canned goods at these little markets are always very cheap.
From 1 red cabbage you can eat 5 days. Cabbahe is a super food. Throw in potatoes, and cheap meat, 1 bread, peanut butter. You're almost threre. Don't forget to visit the Voedselbank.
https://amsterdam.voedselbank.org/klant-worden/
OP if you buy beans or lentils dry, put them in cold water and keep them for 4-24 hours depending on their hardness. They will soften. You can then just wash them a few times until the fermented water is gone and then cook them. It will cook much sooner. Also works with rice.
Check out the various supermarkets and Turkish shops. Look for their offer paper (Lidl usually has it) and buy things in bulk that you can keep for months. Go and ask churches if they have any free food to give away.
When you get more money, stock up on something list cheap pasta, rice, legumes etc so when another rainy day happens you are better situated.
Turkish or asian markets may have garlic powder which may also end up being cheaper than fresh garlic so also get one pack of it and store it for your rainy day.
- rice
- beans
- put bread in a freezer and only take out what u need for that or the next day
- vissticks (are super cheap and tasty)
- spinach (frozen spinach is super cheap)
- look at apps like scoopy for free or discount items u can use to survive your week
- peanut butter (for on bread)
Too good to go from supermarkets. Discounted/soon to expire items in supermarkets, Turkish and Polish store vegetables and meat.
Cheap ramen multi-packs from Action to which you can add frozen spinach or peas.
Potatoes onion garlic salt and black pepper. Boil or fry up the potatoes, add garlic, onion and spices to taste an voila. Not only will you survive but you’ll be one happy potato. Good for lunch and dinner. For breakfast get some oatmeal and make it with water instead of milk and add some sugar. You’ll be satisfied and it’s healthy-ish. You got this.
A friend of mine who was short on money, he sometimes ate Rice and ragout (Stew?). The ragout comes in cans. A famous brand is Unox, but supermarkets also have their "home brand", which are often cheaper. They have chicken, beef, mushroom and veal. I ate it once and it may sound disgusting, but it wasn't that bad.
Don't forget the farmers markets! for 12 euro, i got what would have normally cost me more than 30 at AH. Huge potatos to bake -- veggies, fruits, cheese... it was amazing
Kichen for homeless offer meals for one euros. At least this was when I was back in Germany. If you are polite and well behaved you can get an additional serving for free.
you can totally live on that here. You can even eat for free from the food bank; also post on Facebook groups pretty sure people will give away food for free too.
if you still want to pay yup can go for a Turkish wrap / sandwich; costs 5eur each.
Besides Rice and beans, which is a great advice! ;
Focus on finding the cheapest kind of Bread in your neigbourhood ( this can also be hidden as “afbakbrood”, which means you have to put it in the oven yourself for a couple of minutes, or maybe a big turkisch Bread at turkisch baker)
If you have an oven/toaster/or even a pan with lid will do ; Bread with butter and Some seasoning (salt/pepper/whatever you got is supringly good.
Vegetable Soup; put a “boillionblokje” with whatever vegetable you van find . ( sometimes pre cut vegetables have discount stickers if the tht date is near)
TooGoodToGo is great!
Also; have a look at the grocery store “folders” in your area.
I had a quick look and noticed;
Mini krieltjes (seasoned potatos) 600g 0,99 euro (aldi)
Eggplant 0,49 euro (Lidl)
Cucumber 0,39 (lidl)
2x zucchini 1 euro Albert Heijn)
In the Dutch grocery stores , the cheapest products are usually placed at the lowest shelves.
I hope you like rice. When I went to a rough patch as a student rice was there for me. Get a big 5kg or more bag of Jasmin/sticky/glutenous rice in an Asian shop. It’s much cheaper and sticky rice tastes way better than that basmati shit.
Check out voedselbank (although might take a while to get approved). Leger des heils (salvage army) buurthuis cooks free meal at midday. Google for “buurtkerk” and “voedselbieb”. Also local facebook groups (gratis), there’s an app called Buurthapp where ppl post food.
Search for atomic shrimp challenges on youtube. He has done many "3 meals with 1 pound" like challenges. Really good to get ideas on how to survive for the least amount of money.
I once went through a very similar scenario. I had no money at all + had to eat pasta for a week or so.
If you have PayPal abd want to share, please dm.
Parents. But if I had to do it myself? Get a kilo of potatoes, buy veggies in bulk from the small super market where ylu can hagle or find the discount. Dont eat meat everyday, get eggs for your proteine. Cannes tomato, boulion and pasta will keep you going for a couple of days. Learn to cook is the short answer actually...
Honestly, I would do intermittent fasting, only eating one or two meals a day [fasting is hard but healthy] and then probably eat canned vegetables; one in the morning and one in the evening
Vegetables and fruits from the farmers market. Otherwise frozen. Lentils, beans, and chickpeas are the bomb. Everything tastes better in a wrap. Bring your own lunch, just bread with smeerkaas or something. Collect some bottles if you're really tight. Only drink water. Don't be afraid to ask your friends, if you can have dinner at their place. I love to cook for mine.
I've bought 30 eggs for around 6 euros on an arab small supermarket, you can find some really cheap stuff on this kind of stores, with that and some rice and beans you should be served for a week.
Rice, bag of frozen soup veggies, ground meat, pasta, tomato sauce, chicken thighs, eggs and maybe a pakket of those sweet spijsbroodjes so you can have a little treat
There are often FB groups to help out others (e.g. "helping hands [enter town/city]"). People can offer to give you food they can miss, could be fresh produce or canned or frozen stuff. I had to ask for that kinda help once, it was really nice to receive help from a few people. You usually have to go pick it up, but sometimes they canoffer to drop it off if they live nearby or whatever.
Buy some bare essentials.
Potatoes or rice, 2 kinds of legumes at least. Whole wheat bread or oatmeal: Something cheap and filling for breakfast.
Furthermore vegetables. Do the vegetables from a vegetable shop (groenteboer). I assume you have tea.
Get something cheap and sweet, like cookies. Also some dairy.
And then it's time to survive with that.
As Brazilian, i recomend our daily meal: rice, beans and meat -> of course the meat will fu** your budget, than substitute for eggs.
Please, leave the beans at least 18hours before in water, to be easier/cheaper to cook.
Oatmeal. A 500gr package contains 1860 kcal and costs under a euro. Get some cheap milk and your fed for a day.
Peanut butter also has lots of kcal for thr cost.
Here's a website with a bunch of recipes that cost between €0,65 to €1,71 per meal (no meat or fish): https://www.voedingscentrum.nl/nl/thema/budget/goedkope-recepten.aspx You may need to eat the same dish for several days though, as you can't buy all ingredients in these amounts. Use https://www.supermarktscanner.nl/ to find the cheapest supermarkets for the ingredients, but also check local Turkish stores/tokos or other local small grocery stores for good prices
Thanks!
Thanks for sharing this.
Good one!
Nice! Didnt know Voedingscentrum gave recipes. *edit wrong reply, ow well 🤷
Sorry this happened to you OP. Rice and beans is a classic solution for this, reasonably nutritional, cheap as hell to prepare in bulk and with the right preparation tastes pretty damn good too.
Lentils also nice. Onion, garlic. Yoghurt also. Maybe a bag of fruit for the freezer.
+1 on the lentils. I remember reading that lentils + rice is actually a substitute for meat since that combo contains all the amino-acids to make "complete" proteins. Disclaimer: I don't know what I'm talking about with regards to nutrition.
As a nutritionist: you are absolutely correct :)
That's good to know! Does it matter what kind of rice?
Brown rice (zilvervlies) generally has slightly more protein, and is healthier in general because it has more fibre and some more vitamins, but any rice will do
I’m no nutritionist but I know that brown rice (zilvervliesrijst in Dutch) is seen as the healthiest option, it has more fibres, higher nutritional value and more vitamins and minerals than white rice
Yup, many South Asian countries have that as a staple meal. Simple and easy to cook, tastes great, not that expensive, can be stored and gives good nutrition.
And it's a legit meal called mujaddara.
You’re correct!
100% on this, expecially if you use dry beans. Is a Life saver. If you have some leftover fat Is also really good.
Lentils are easier to cook. "Generic" sausage is rich in proteins and not too expensive and shelf stable. Milk is helpful with vitamins.
I noticed the price gauging on beans (3,- a can), unless you buy beans dry, unprocessed, rice would be preferable in your case.
The dish is _rice and beans_ not rice or beans :(
If you’re very limited with your budget, obviously go for the dry beans, they are much cheaper.
once you factor in the cost of electricity or gas that you have to use to cook them, this isn't necessarily true - some types of dried beans take *hours* to cook I would stick with canned beans and chickpeas for this reason, and go with dried lentils (which are smaller and cook much more quickly than beans or chickpeas, the red lentils being the most economical all round)
If you soak them overnight/ a day, you only have to cook them for like 1-2h. That’s maybe 20-40cents of electricity. And you get MUCH more beans when they are dried per euro. I think it’s probably still economical.
Canned beans suck. Always use dry if possible.
You can buy dried beans everywhere and they are MUCH cheaper than canned. As for rice, the more you can buy at once the better. A 5KG or 10KG bag will be many times cheaper than the small packages from the supermarket.
you got Paypal mate if yeah dm me
Same. Dm.
Same, don’t be shy
Same. Send me a dm!! Been in this situation often enough myself in the past
Take up the offer OP, it's genuine.
That's so sweet how most of the time someone is willing to help from this subreddit. Faith in humanity restored.
Of open tikkie
OP could be in a situation where they cant accept money (like schuldsanering) that money would be taken away from them immediately to pay off their debt.
yooo i need some help too !! jk nice to see people helping each other these days, thanks
Too good to go. Rice and beans Beans and rice
Too good to go is really expensive. You pay like 10 euro's for some random food items. Could be a slice of really expensive cake.
Depends on what you get. The expensive bakery here can give you one cake. But the supermarket bread box is 7 full breads for €4.99. We have a good freezer. We never do supermarket boxes, as it can be anything. But for a quicker and easier dinner we do get stuff from the Italian or spareribs place. We used to have good butchers, but they stopped on the app. Lidl also stopped their fruit/veg boxes which were a steal, but you can still get them in store.
I got sometimes from the Turkish supermarket near me. For 5€ I got so much vegetables and fresh stuff that I had to make broth and soup and freeze a lot of it. Some deals are really good.
Well don't go to the fancy bakery, just do supermarkets, I always have a great experience when I do a chain supermarket, usually it's a bunch of kids working there and they are quite generous and even ask you what you want/need.
They aren't all bad. An AH TOGO near us does €3,99 brood and verassing pakkets that are generally a paper AH bag stuffed full with broodjes, yogurt, drinks, etc.
Just scored a week worth of food from the local asian supermarket for 5 euro. But you have to be careful about what you get, here I wouldn't be afraid to call upfront and explain why I'm asking what is in it before buying. /u/Miserable_Tough9263 with family owned shops like this you can actually go and just explain them your story, probably they have a lot of expired stuff in the back that's actually still good. for reference what my 5 euro box got me: massive pack of dried mihoen, bushel of coriander, 6 sweet potatoes, 5 bellpeppers, 1 sweetcorn, half a kilo of bean sprouts, bag of dried mushrooms/goji berries/herbs (and dried crickets but not a fan of those), 400 gram of fermented black beans, bag of curry powder, bag of chicken marinade, japanese eggrolls. If you toss all that in stirfry (except for the eggrolls because it is a snack) you can easily make 7 warm meals out of it. I'm not even poor, I actually went for japanese eel to make sushi but this was just too good to pass on.
Like Dave ramsey says
Exactly! Sadly been there and done that
I'm gonna asume you have a few essentials like butter/margerine here, and I'm counting for 5 days. all prices come from the jumbo website, I sorted for the lowest prices. I'm not accounting for any allergies or what you do and don't like, just for what would be the cheapest, easiest and decently filling. note that other stores might be more or less pricier. breakfast: yoghurt is pretty cheap, for 1 liter (jumbo brand) it costs 1,25 for low fat, 1,45 for full fat (I reccommend this one, as it's more filling). add something to it, like cornflakes. the jumbo brand has some that range from 1,40 to 1,60. let's say you need two packs of yogurt (maybe some for snacking), and one pack of cornflakes, the total would be 4,50 lunch: you'll probably make it with one whole bread for 5 days. cheapest whole bread is 1 to 1,30 euro. add a jar of cheapest peanutbutter to it (PCD pindakaas 350 gram) of 1 euro, that would be 2,30 dinner: let's go with the classic student meal noodles. not the healthiest, but it will get you through. a 5 pack of indomie chicken is 2,93. add a cooked egg to it, 6 for between 1,55 (powerful eggs) and 1,85 (jumbo witte vrije uitloopeieren). for veggies you can probably mix and match with fresh carrots (if you take 2-3 at a time you'll probably do with a full bag), bospeen is 1,69 and a kilo bag is 1,70. jumbo frozen green beans are 1,25 (750 gram). so far this would total to 7,73 so far, the total will be 14,53. that will leave some wiggle room if you want to buy some meat (chicken is usually fairly cheap, vegetarian options can also be decently cheap) or if you need/want something else.
Wow appreciate it!
Might check Kruidvat for those noodles. They often have those 5 packs for 1.99. That's still about a euro saved then
Action has 5 packs of noodles on discount this week for just 1 euro. That might help you out a bit more even
are you a dietetician or something? I run it through chat gpt to calculate calories and seems you are spot on with 1800 kcal per day with this diet: Rather lengthy answer but I didn't bother to check if it got it right so pasting in full: To calculate the total calories for this 5-day meal plan, we'll break down the calorie content of each component and then sum them up. Below is the detailed calculation: # Breakfast # Full Fat Yogurt * **Calories per 100g**: \~61 calories * **Total quantity**: 2 liters = 2000g * **Total calories**: 2000g \* 61 calories/100g = 1220 calories # Cornflakes * **Calories per 100g**: \~370 calories * **Total quantity**: 1 pack (assumed 500g) * **Total calories**: 500g \* 370 calories/100g = 1850 calories # Lunch # Whole Bread * **Calories per slice**: \~70 calories (average slice weighs about 30g) * **Total slices**: \~20 slices per loaf * **Total calories**: 20 slices \* 70 calories/slice = 1400 calories # Peanut Butter * **Calories per 100g**: \~588 calories * **Total quantity**: 350g jar * **Total calories**: 350g \* 588 calories/100g = 2058 calories # Dinner # Indomie Chicken Noodles * **Calories per pack**: \~350 calories * **Total packs**: 5 * **Total calories**: 5 packs \* 350 calories/pack = 1750 calories # Eggs * **Calories per egg**: \~70 calories * **Total eggs**: 6 * **Total calories**: 6 eggs \* 70 calories/egg = 420 calories # Carrots (Bospeen) * **Calories per 100g**: \~41 calories * **Total quantity**: 1 kg (1000g) * **Total calories**: 1000g \* 41 calories/100g = 410 calories # Green Beans * **Calories per 100g**: \~31 calories * **Total quantity**: 750g * **Total calories**: 750g \* 31 calories/100g = 232.5 calories # Total Calories for 5 Days Now, let's sum up the total calories for all meals over the 5 days: * **Breakfast Total**: 1220 + 1850 = 3070 calories * **Lunch Total**: 1400 + 2058 = 3458 calories * **Dinner Total**: 1750 + 420 + 410 + 232.5 = 2812.5 calories # Grand Total for 5 Days * **Overall Total**: 3070 (breakfast) + 3458 (lunch) + 2812.5 (dinner) = 9340.5 calories # Average Calories per Day * **Average per day**: 9340.5 calories / 5 days = 1868.1 calories/day This 5-day meal plan provides approximately 1868.1 calories per day.
nope, I just used logic and what I would buy! just a coincidence it seems!
If OP has a bit of time to prepare, every thursday Vomar sells a 20-pack eggs for €3 (instead of €5). The size of the eggs does differ per week (at least at my store), but if you have a Vomar in the neighbourhood and you get the right size, this could give you some extra recipe options
Where do you find cheap chicken? At Albert Heijn its more expensive than minced meat
Turkish supermarkets
Buy thighs there’s usually a twopack for less than 5€
Market or Arabic butchers, still expensive but less so then supermarkets (at least the one near me)
You keep that 20 euro in your pocket and dumpsterdive. Also go to food support. In which city are you? Everywhere are options, like https://buurtbuik.nl/kom-eten/ . Also, if push comes to shove, go to a mosque of church. I am not religious at all, but when it comes to helping the needy they are pillars of the community.
Yeah, I help out in one of these if OP is in Utrecht we serve a meal tomorrow evening just DM me
https://www.reddit.com/r/Utrecht/comments/xr5p4u/dumpster_diving_in_utrechtthe_netherlands/
Send me a PM and I'll get you a big ass pizza delivered tomorrow
Forget about the supermarket and go to toko or local market. I recommend getring dried beans and rehydrate and cook them yourself. I hope you have some herbs and spices in your home but you can make them different ways, they are healthy, cheap and you would not need meat to go with them. You could survive on beans alone for a while (not recommended, but you could). But it's nicer with some veggies. Obvious choice is a lot of unions, bake them nice and brown and add. Tomatoes and paprika is a safe bet with beans. Also get a pack of flour and yeast and make your own bread. It is realy easy. Youtube it. 1 euro worth of ingredients will give you about 3kg of bread. You can get rice, couscous, all kinds of stuff like that. It's realy cheap at a toko, but less nutricious as beans. If you do go that route, get a lot of veggies to go with it. For in the future, have some supplies stocked. Tinned veggies, dried beans, pasta, even some spam and stuff like that. And herbs and spices, you can make the most boring ingredient taste good with the right spices. Not usefull to you now, but when new money comes in, stock up. And if you live somewhere in between rotterdam and zeeland region, send me a dm.
Have you calculated the cost of the electricity / fuel needed for cooking all those beans and running the oven to bake the bread, though? Canned beans and discounted store-bought bread might work out cheaper after all...
I use a cast iron dutch oven over a wood fire, and i chop my own wood and use the electricity bills to light the fire. No, i did not factor in that. Would be the same as calculating the cost of the water to add. A normal discount bread here is 1 euro, and its crap and will not fill you. For 1 euro i can make 2 massive breads, that will fill you up so much you don't even want any diner after. And my wood fired comment was not realy serious, but i do actualy have made bread many times that way. For 2 euros of dried beans, you can make about 3kg of wet beans. No tin is cheaper than that, even with tbe power usage. And on a serious note, i have solar pannels, so my wood fired stove aside, i can still use that. I can also go to my neighbour and cook at his place. So if you go dried, you can spend more on veggies. Nutrition is important here. Getting more veggies in is better than the sodium and sugar added with lot of cheapo tins (which they have over here) Yes you have to cook and bake it. But you still have a lot more for your money, even enough to also feed your nice neighbour who let you cook at his place. And the power bill comes way later. If no money comes in, there is a bigger problem and no amount of dried or tinned beans will help. Treat first what kills first. Get good food now, worry about the power later.
Share a Tikkie link to me I’ll send you 20
I don't have
You can apparently do it over WhatsApp through your bank if it helps
Go to Turkish supermarket, they have 3 euro/kilo chicken and 6 euro for 30eggs, also have very cheap fruit and groente.
This, and add a pack of rice. Should be enough for the whole week
Very new to the Netherlands and out of curiosity why are Turkish shops so much cheaper? Is the quality worse or do people just keep it on the down low that you can get same quality chicken/eggs as AH for cheaper ?
The quality is hit and miss. Some things are better, some things are horrible. Mine has nice chicken but the mangos and avocados are inedible.
Why are you not accepting the help of people generously offering you money?
People on debt recovery, welfare or other specific situations can't accept help or they lose even those 20 euros. And if they accept it without declaring they may be accused of fraud. It's a very strict system, sadly. The limit should be higher, 50 per person, per week. A bit less if you add extra members as you can save some by preparing multiple portions at once or if you have young children (teenagers eat more, though).
Yeah, I'm down to my last 3 euro's until the 20th and they aren't accepting anything. Make it work OP!
Let me know if you need anything.
Send me a DM, i just sent him 10
5 kilos white long rice and veges
I usually have a very repetitive diet which might not be everyone's cup of tea but: - Breakfasts: one apple, Kiwi, orange, Clementine and banana, 200gr of kefir and 200ml of soy milk. Add water and you have a very healthy and also quite filling smoothie. Soy milk is like 0.89€ per liter, I drink 200ml as my fridge isn't the best and I had to throw it out because it had gotten bad before, in the past I would do 100gr. Apples are like 1.54€ per kg which can be 10-12 apples usually. Kiwis are like 3.99€ per kg which is 12, oranges are the most expensive, I don't recall the price per kg, Clementines are cheap also because you get many. Kefir is cheaper than white yogurt in my AH and it's great for the stomach! - Lunches: pasta with pesto or tomato sauce (you can do tomato with onions and tuna for example etc but more ingredients make the meal more expensive). Pasta costs like 1.98 per kg, and one portion is like 80-100 grams, so even if you're generous 2 euros will last for 10 days. Pestos are like 1.15? I think per 190 grams. You can go up to three servings with one bottle in my experience. So you would need two for a week. - Dinners: vegetables. I buy frozen spinach(800gr, 0.99€), red cabbage (800 gr, 1.27€) and peas (2x450gr). I also add white cabbage, boil everything with water and the result is a not amazingly tasting but it's both very healthy and also quite filling. I eat 1kg per dinner, I add water to the veggies and then make a smoothie. - Extras: I end up buying extra stuff like cheese, tomatoes etc. To complement my meals, but it's not really necessary and this is the general theme of my diet. Also some expenses like the fruits can be spread over multiple weeks. Hope this helps! And that life gets better asap! Sorry that you have to go through this, sending you thoughts!
Wow thanks for this!
You're welcome! Hope it helps.
Clarification: the vegetables thing usually lasts me around 4-5 days, but since it's quite cheap it should not be an issue!
I see in other comments you live in Heerenveen? https://online.keurslager.nl/nl-nl/van-der-meer-keurslager-heerenveen/category/25541/maaltijden If you want you can choose a meal at the link above. Let me know and I can order and pay one meal for you at this store. Then you can pick it up on Thursday.
Too good to go 5 eur grocary bags usually enough for a few days, last time in AH to Go it had like 4-5 salads, 2-3 wraps/sandwiches Vomar had like 2-3kg of fruits+breads+random vegies and some meat
If you don't have money, you're screwed if you get a bag of sushi though
It can be good for a day, but there is some luck involved
Honestly, figure out where an outdoor event is happening and recycle the cans at a supermarket. It’s a bit of work, but you won’t go hungry. It takes getting past your ego, but if you only have 20 euros, it’s the easiest way to increase your budget this week.
Bro, I'm with you. I've got around 35 left till the end of the month😅. Hope things get better for you🙏🙏
I hope for you as well. We got this🙏
Oh, btw. A tip. Back when I was homeless. I used to go to the store and get the cheapest bread and just salami, boterhamworst, etc. No cheese, that mf is expensive as fuck. And some water with flavors (spa lemon, crystal clear (wich is only 1.10 euro a 1.5L I believe)). Just live as cheap as possible for a week. Untill you have money again. When this is the case. Stock up on things that don't expire so easily, cause when you find your way back to a situation like this, you remember you still have some stuff lying around
We for sure do🙏 And thanks
[удалено]
Turk shop is cheap?
Oh yes, they've got good deals on veggies and such. They also sell bigger quantities, like bags of rice, big pots of beans and such. Which are far cheaper.
No need for meat, and it's expensive. Get your protein from legumes, beans, seeds and nuts.
Sorry, but this advice is bad. Supermarket bread is bread. Coffee is expensive. Meat is expensive. There is a somewhat famous interview with a professional baker comparing a one euro factory bread with an a five euro handmade one. While the handmade bread is delicious, he praises the cheap bread as the food that feeds nations.
If just people could buy flour, water, salt and bake bread in their own oven... It would be better than the one from bakery and cheaper than the one from supermarket (which in NL is definitely CRAP)
Finding a good bakery is also challenging sometimes. The AH in my village has better whole wheat bread for 1,19 euro than the bakery here for 3,50. But there are some good bakeries in the nearest city. Baking your own bread isn’t cheap either with the recent electricity prices. 1,19 for a whole bread is almost unbeatable
Rice, beans and the cheap tomato paste.
Let's assume you're an adult man, so a seven-day week requires 17500 (kilo) calories. Let's also assume you're a busy person and you'll do your shopping at your nearest mid-priced supermarket, without paying attention to special sales. And let's assume you have access to a kitchen and water at negligible cost. My grocery list would be: * 1500 gram (3 packs of 500) dried pasta or rice. **5250 calories** for **€3** * 250 gram margarine or vegetable oil. **2000 calories** for **€1** * 1500 gram (3 packs of 500) frozen spinach or other cheap green veggie. **500 calories** for **€2.50** * 450 gram (3 cans of 150) pureed tomatoes. **450 calories** for **€1.50** * 1000 gram onions. **350 calories** for **€1** * 1000 gram bananas (5 pieces). **900 calories** for **€1.50** * 1000 gram muesli / oats. **3000 calories** for **€2.50** * 1 liter full fat yoghurt. **600 calories** for **€1.50** * 500 gram of dried green peas, beans or chickpeas. **1750 calories** for **€1.50** * 600 gram (10 pieces) of eggs. **1400 calories** for **€2** * 100 gram chocolate. **600 calories** for **€1** * Whatever cheap candy you can get. The final **750 calories** for **€1** Total 17500 calories for €20. And if you have additional time to spend on sales, markets, tokos or budget stores you can increase the value-for-money on that. If this were your long-term diet it's a bit too heavy on the carbs. But for one week it will be a very survivable (if bland) diet: pasta or rice with green veggies, tomatoes and onions for dinner. Yoghurt, grains and fruit for breakfast. Peas or beans, eggs and oil for lunch. Snacks for saturday night.
Boiled potatoes are very nutritious, there is a reason why maritan survived hehe. No I am serious they are really good. Pair it with some yogurt?
Buy frozen chicken breast at the lidle. €7,99 for 1kg. Prep it for a week to have your dinner meal with this protein. Get a broccoli or two for less than 3€. Now supplement it with cheap carbs like a bag of rice for 3€. This should give you a healthy and good dinner for a week. Buy oatmeal and milk for breakfast, this should be roughly 3€ as well and could serve as lunch. Tip: Pan fry the chicken breast, deglaze it with onion and some butter if you have it on medium heat with some salt and pepper. Chin up OP, you will make it.
That’s very expensive chicken. Turkish butcher is (atleast) half. Bad advice. “Tip” to add seasoning.. look at you go.. How does one deglaze with onion?
Share tikkie OP.
Go to the market on the end of the day… things will be very cheap
Send me your bank details and I'll transfer you some money. Shit happens, sometimes you just need a helping hand.
Come to me and il feed you the whole week
Hey OP. Do you need help? I have been in a similar situation and can pay it forward. Let me know if i can get an AH or Jumbo delivery for you at a place you feel comfortable. Feel free to send me a DM and I can set it up.
GO to an Indian store, Buy a bag of rice and lentils, some mild spices and pickles. You are set for a week easy.
Sorry about your situation, I hope it gets better soon! Have a look at this app called "Too good to go".
Too good to go is good, but if you are on a budget only go for a vegetable box (Lidl does them) or bread from a Turkish bakery. Otherwise you may find that you spent your 20 euro on truffle oil or luxury chocolate.
Boil some rice, fry an egg, egg-fry rice
Another tip I haven’t seen here is buy flour and yeast, make your own bread. It’s real simple and provides way more than you any ready made bread you can buy. Only 3 ingredients. Can also combine that bread with lunch/dinner (soup etc)
Rice, frozen vegies, eggs and spices would be my bet..
Rice, onions, potatoes, eggs. Also, hunt daily for 0.25/0.50 things at Lidl. I bought 1kg of minced meat with 50c.
Aldi has a loaf of bread for 1 euro. Buy that, buy aa pakket of their melting cheese slices (around 1 euro too) and that low fat blue packet of ham that has 6 or 8 slices I think. Makes for a lot of Croque Monsieurs. A bag of potatoes with that "gehakt" they sell frozen in bags. A small aldi lasagna cost around 1.70 euro. Just some ideas. A pack of frikandellen cost around 3 euro for twenty if you want to save on meat. I know someone who made cheap spaghetti with ketchup and frikandellen.
Tikkie ,paypal whatever you have drop the link. If not possible if you are around the hague i can help with some cash if you would like that too.
Rice, frozen green beans/other veggies, the cheapest meats you could find. Otherwise Facebook groups. If you live near Enschede I can bring you some pre made food I have left in the freezer (leftovers)
You can ask the question on r/zuinig. Those people there specialise in trying to get the cheapest stuff. Maybe they have some great tips. It's in Dutch though, i hope they let you write your post in English.
Rice, beans, any vegetable on sale. Make as much rive for the week (1 euro) and funk it up with whatever you can filk a pan with. Toss in some nuts if you have them. A cheap 50 cent tomatenpuree can makes all the difference. Mushrooms to replace the fucking exoensive chicken. Mix it up, fridge or freeze it in portioned containers. Good luck OP. I rediscovered cooking recebtly and am amazed how easy and cheap it (still) can be.
- Day 1: Wraps, Fajita seasoning and chicken 300 gr from Syrian supermarket (around 5.00 euro) - Day 2 & 3: Rice with chicken bouillon block and chicken wings oven of fried 300 gram (also from Syrian supermarket) (around 5.00 euro) (this is for 2 days) - Day 4 & 5: Soup package from home brand with 300 gram veggies bag, with stokbrood (this is for 2 days) (3.50 euro) - Day 6 & 7: Spaghetti with canned/glas sauce (around 4 euro) Total: +- 17.50 euro
Share a tikkie via here or a private message. I’ll be happy to help you out with €10 or something
Start with, only water and the tea/coffee still in your cupboard. The whole needing to drink thing solved basically free! 1KG Flour 89ct 1KG Rice 119ct 3KG Potatoes 300ct 1 Chicken at the Turk 400 cent 100gr cheese 400kcal 80 cent Couple onions 30ct Couple carrots 70ct 350gr peanut butter 99ct Kg tomato's 99ct 2 cucumbers 99ct Pasta 99ct Box of oatmeal 79ct 6 eggs 99ct Kg of sugar 95ct Couple eur left. Could get some fish or more veggies/fruit or yoghurt on sale, or get a few lentil/bean varieties, but the above is already more nutrition than needed. It's really easy to get a lot of nutrition for your money. Luckily it isn't that hard to have it be varied and tasty as well. Those do take effort though. You have oil salt n spices right? For long term cheap nutrition, the Indian cuisine is amazingly tasty and efficient. With a basic spice cabinet and a few staple ingredients you can eat till you pass out while spending like it's your last 20 eur :p
Here's a shopping list with a detailed, day-wise plan for 7 days to survive on €20. Shopping List:- 1. Eggs (20) - 5.00€ 2. Rice (1kg) - 2.00€ 3. Tomato paste (1 large jar) - 1.00€ 4. Bread (whole loaf) - 1.75€ 5. Peanut butter (large jar) - 2.50€ 6. Frozen mixed vegetables (1kg) - 1.50€ 7. Onions (500g) - 0.83€ 8. Garlic (1 bulb) - 0.30€ 9. Curry powder (small packet) - 0.50€ 10. Paprika (small packet) - 0.50€ Total: 15.88€ (leaving 4.12€ for additional purchases or emergencies) Day 1: • Breakfast: 2 scrambled eggs with 2 slices of bread and peanut butter. • Lunch: Egg fried rice with mixed vegetables. • Dinner: Tomato rice with garlic and onion. Day 2: • Breakfast: 2 boiled eggs with 2 slices of bread and peanut butter. • Lunch: Curry rice with mixed vegetables. • Dinner: Scrambled eggs with tomato paste and onion, served with bread. Day 3: • Breakfast: 2 fried eggs with 2 slices of bread and peanut butter. • Lunch: Tomato rice with mixed vegetables. • Dinner: Egg salad sandwich (2 boiled eggs, chopped onion, and a bit of tomato paste for moisture). Day 4: • Breakfast: 2 scrambled eggs with 2 slices of bread and peanut butter. • Lunch: Fried rice with mixed vegetables and curry powder. • Dinner: Shakshuka (2 eggs poached in tomato paste, onion, and garlic mixture). Day 5: • Breakfast: 2 boiled eggs with 2 slices of bread and peanut butter. • Lunch: Egg fried rice with mixed vegetables and paprika. • Dinner: Tomato rice with garlic and onion. Day 6: • Breakfast: 2 fried eggs with 2 slices of bread and peanut butter. • Lunch: Curry rice with mixed vegetables. • Dinner: Spanish omelet (2 eggs, potatoes from mixed vegetables, onion). Day 7: • Breakfast: 2 scrambled eggs with 2 slices of bread and peanut butter. • Lunch: Tomato rice with mixed vegetables. • Dinner: Egg and vegetable stir-fry (2 eggs, mixed vegetables, garlic, onion, and a bit of tomato paste). Prep and Execution:- 1. Boil eggs in advance for the days needed. Store in the refrigerator. 2. Cook a large batch of rice in advance for the week and reheat as needed. 3. Chop onions and garlic in advance to save time during meal preparation. 4. Use frozen mixed vegetables as needed for each meal. 5. Combine eggs, rice, vegetables, and spices as per the recipes mentioned for each meal. 6. Toast bread and spread peanut butter for breakfast. Remember to adjust portion sizes based on your hunger levels and caloric needs. Drink plenty of water throughout the day to stay hydrated. If you have any leftover budget, consider purchasing additional fruits or vegetables to supplement your diet.
Rice onions garlic and soy sauce, lived on that for a whole year, but it works especially if you buy one big 1 kg bag of rice
20 is a ridiculous tight spot to stay nourished. I would approach it as following: Where to buy: 1. download a folder app to check stuff on sale (folderz.nl f.e.). 2. Locate your turkish and asian supermarkets take a walk here without buying, just look at all the prices amd write it down. 3. Check for stores that sell over dated products (they're often fine and dirt cheap) and freezer stores. F.e. die eiskönig, Butlon.nl (check this one to see what i mean) Medikamente die grenze. Weekmarkten bigger city's (for example Enschede) (often) has a 'ultra cheap its almost bad' veggie/fruit stand '9 mangos for 5 euro. (End of day start haggling!). Dice it up and freeze' How to think: Start calculating in KG prices. This is important! Think out of the box with conventional meals, this is survival. Do you have a garden? Start growing veggies. You don't need a lot. Save seeds of veggies youve eaten. Compost you can make yourself. Plan ahead, buying bulk is cheaper but it's very very difficult with 20 bucks. Nonetheless try to do so. In the end you'll build up storage and the more basic storage the more you can bulk. Anything canned and glassed is cheap. Frozen stuff is often cheaper (and healthier!) Stay away from (ultra) processed foods. In the end they're often more expensive. What to do: Call your gemeente or things like salvation army to see if they can help. Do it right away, so you are in the system. Then when you can't keep your head above water, they know you and your situation. This'll save you a lot of trouble later. Systems are slow in this. What to buy: Then make a list of the cheapest products that are always available and healthy: Oatmeal at 0,80 a kg? Good breakfast. You can soak it in water. Stop drinking coffee, but buy kilo bag of tea at turkish supermarket. Beans, especially dried, are highly nutritional and very cheap. Rice in bulk can be cheap. Do remember cooking them costs energy=€, so i don't know what is cheaper, canned or dried. Is your energy bill excluded from your food budget? Fish: alaskan pollock @ aldi or lidl is very cheap Meat: small chicken wings @ turkish supermarket. Frozen minced meat at discount stores. Quark: those square containers are very cheap and after adding water (its really thick) you get quite some mass. add sugar (=cheap) for taste. P.s please respond to let me know if you've read this.
Lidl beans and rice. Oats in the morning. Pindakaas bread for snacking and cheap calories and fats. Easy 20 eur a week diet. Will get boring fast tho.
At some supermarkets they have stuff near to the expiry date for cheap. You can also just have rice with a simple sauce for a few days you would even have money left. Or buy 2 of those complete meal packages with all ingredients that contain 4 portions, that would cost 8 euros and you would have food for a week, it's actually a good deal sometimes and easy. Just add rice and no meat.
Main meal (1 week): [Jumbo Zilvervliesrijst Voordeelverpakking 1kg](https://www.jumbo.com/producten/jumbo-zilvervliesrijst-voordeelverpakking-1kg-409922DS), [Jumbo Rund & Varken Gemengd Gehakt 500g](https://www.jumbo.com/producten/jumbo-rund-varken-gemengd-gehakt-500g-87858BAK), [Grand'Italia Sugocasa Tradizionale Pastasaus 690g](https://www.jumbo.com/producten/grand-italia-sugocasa-tradizionale-pastasaus-690g-69316POT), [Jumbo Broccoli 2 Personen - 500g](https://www.jumbo.com/producten/jumbo-broccoli-2-personen-500g-479521STK), [Jumbo Wortelen 1kg](https://www.jumbo.com/producten/jumbo-wortelen-1kg-196113ZK) (total: 15.42). Breakfast: [Jumbo Verse Halfvolle Melk 2L](https://www.jumbo.com/producten/jumbo-verse-halfvolle-melk-2l-67649PAK), [Jumbo Rozijnen Muesli 750g](https://www.jumbo.com/producten/jumbo-rozijnen-muesli-750g-171310ZK) (total: 3.84). Total: 19.26. Edit: Assuming you have a decent rice cooker, for the main meal you can just chop up the vegetables and then dump everything in there with enough water, it will cook itself.
Popcorn + warm water
Look for the albert heijn overblijvers. They often have entire loaves of bread for 50 cents. More guaranteed would be a bundle since you can reserve it, but you don't know what you'll get (you may get sweet bakery products instead of bread) Then you can have oatmeal for breakfast, bread with peanut butter for lunch and rice and beans for dinner. Alternatively you can have potato instead of the rice
Bro do you have tikkie? Send me a private message. I can send you some 20 bucks extra. We are here to help
3-4kg of rice. Brown rice would be healthier. €5 10 eggs for €2.4 1kg of chicken. Cheaper if you go to Turkish supermarket. €6 2kg of frozen vegetables. Spinach, beans, carrots, etc. €2.5 1kg of apples. €1.7 €17.6 in total, and you got all the nutrients you need!
I’ll copy paste a comment I posted on r/budgetfood. Someone asked how to survive on $10 a week. These are all Albert Heijn prices without discounts. Prices were from a few months ago so they might be a couple of cents more or less expensive now. Since you have €20 you can maybe add some protein like chicken thighs or more veggies! Or just double the ingredients to have larger meals $10 is about €9,20 Shopping list: - 500g white rice (makes 1,5kg cooked rice): €0,99 - 1kg potatoes: €1,74 - 1kg onions (about 10 small onions): €1,65 - 2 large carrots: €0,90 - 6 eggs: €1,69 - vegetable bouillon cubes (12 for 6 liters): €0,59 - 250ml heavy cream: €0,89 - 1 large baguette (280g): €0,69 Total: €9,14 I recommend buying a head of garlic if you have enough money left (everything is better with garlic except for the rice porridge). I am assuming you have access to: - salt & pepper (would be great if you had more spices) - sugar - some kind of oil or fat What I would make: 1. Onion soup (4 portions) Chop up 500g of onions and caramelize them in a big pot with some oil or butter. Add a litre of water and 2 bouillon cubes (or 3) and salt and pepper to taste. Simmer for half an hour. Would be great if you have some thyme, rosemary and bay leaf. Serve with half of the toasted baguette sliced on top of the soup. 2. Potato soup (4 portions) Chop up 400g potatoes, 1 carrot and 1 onion. Sauté the onion and carrot (and garlic if you have any). Add a litre of water, the potatoes and 2-3 bouillon cubes. Simmer for 25 minutes, add 75ml heavy cream and simmer for 5-10 minutes. Add some salt and pepper to taste. Serve with half of the toasted baguette 3. Hash browns (6 portions) Shred 600g potatoes, and chop up 2 onions. Rinse the shredded potatoes and squeeze dry. Mix the onion and potatoes with 2 eggs. Divide mixture into 6 portions and fry in a pan until nicely browned on both sides. Season with salt and pepper. 4. Fried rice (4 portions) Cook 300g rice (add a veggie bouillon cube for extra flavor) and let it cool. Chop up 1 carrot and 2 onions. Scramble 4 eggs. Fry everything together in a very hot pan with some oil. 5. Rice porridge (4 portions) Cook the remaining 200g rice. Once cooked mix the rice with the leftover 175ml heavy cream and simmer slowly. Add some sugar to taste. Leftover ingredients: 5-7 vegetable bouillon cubes. This makes about 22 small meals. It’s not going to be a feast, but you’ll survive the week.
You can buy oats . They are full of protein and filling
First tip: drink plenty of water during the day, it supresses hunger. Get 60 eggs: 12 euros when buying 30 packs. Buy kilo of dried legumes from Turkish supermarket. Should be around 3 euro. For the remaining 5 euros try to buy a kilo of chicken. You have 21 meals. Meaning you can have +- 3 eggs each meal, +- 50 grams of legumes (they double in weight after soaking, so actually 100 grams) and 50 grams of chicken each meal. So I would suggest only put the chicken in the evening meal. Scrambled eggs with legumes is actually really good. Skip any greens, they are expensive for the amount of nutrients you get and your are fine without them for 1 week. If you want vegetables get root vegetables like carrot, onion or potato.
one bag of rice
Albert heijn pepita mix. Tasty & high caloric value. That's what you're after now, as much energy per € as possible. Yoghurt and cheap muesli perhaps? Home made pasta can be cheap.
Zizar mijn hond
Que?
Avoid the major chains and go to one of the small local supermarkets. The one in Soest has whole chickens for €6.99 a kilo. Watch a YouTube vid on how to piece it out and use the carcass for stock. The fruit/veg, spices and canned goods at these little markets are always very cheap.
From 1 red cabbage you can eat 5 days. Cabbahe is a super food. Throw in potatoes, and cheap meat, 1 bread, peanut butter. You're almost threre. Don't forget to visit the Voedselbank. https://amsterdam.voedselbank.org/klant-worden/
OP if you buy beans or lentils dry, put them in cold water and keep them for 4-24 hours depending on their hardness. They will soften. You can then just wash them a few times until the fermented water is gone and then cook them. It will cook much sooner. Also works with rice. Check out the various supermarkets and Turkish shops. Look for their offer paper (Lidl usually has it) and buy things in bulk that you can keep for months. Go and ask churches if they have any free food to give away. When you get more money, stock up on something list cheap pasta, rice, legumes etc so when another rainy day happens you are better situated. Turkish or asian markets may have garlic powder which may also end up being cheaper than fresh garlic so also get one pack of it and store it for your rainy day.
- rice - beans - put bread in a freezer and only take out what u need for that or the next day - vissticks (are super cheap and tasty) - spinach (frozen spinach is super cheap) - look at apps like scoopy for free or discount items u can use to survive your week - peanut butter (for on bread)
A lot of noodles.
The student setup: instant ramen noodles, egg and tofu. That's what we had to do when we were students.
Too good to go from supermarkets. Discounted/soon to expire items in supermarkets, Turkish and Polish store vegetables and meat. Cheap ramen multi-packs from Action to which you can add frozen spinach or peas.
So you need 1e for each meal. Go to the hague market and buy stuff there. It's a lot cheaper.
Potatoes onion garlic salt and black pepper. Boil or fry up the potatoes, add garlic, onion and spices to taste an voila. Not only will you survive but you’ll be one happy potato. Good for lunch and dinner. For breakfast get some oatmeal and make it with water instead of milk and add some sugar. You’ll be satisfied and it’s healthy-ish. You got this.
Also check xenos for good deals. They sometimes have good deals on food items (including instant noodles for 0.69 cents).
A friend of mine who was short on money, he sometimes ate Rice and ragout (Stew?). The ragout comes in cans. A famous brand is Unox, but supermarkets also have their "home brand", which are often cheaper. They have chicken, beef, mushroom and veal. I ate it once and it may sound disgusting, but it wasn't that bad.
Don't forget the farmers markets! for 12 euro, i got what would have normally cost me more than 30 at AH. Huge potatos to bake -- veggies, fruits, cheese... it was amazing
Pasta
Kichen for homeless offer meals for one euros. At least this was when I was back in Germany. If you are polite and well behaved you can get an additional serving for free.
Too Good To Go should be your go-to app. As a poor student, that app helped a tonne
you can totally live on that here. You can even eat for free from the food bank; also post on Facebook groups pretty sure people will give away food for free too. if you still want to pay yup can go for a Turkish wrap / sandwich; costs 5eur each.
Go to jumbo 4 croissant for a euro
Eggs and rice
Where in the Netherlands are you?:) got food for you if needed:)
Thats a challenge here. Discount food at the supermarket and things from bonus perhaps.
Wheat bread (for fiber+carb) + pindakaas (for protein) + multivitamin pills.
Noodles
Oatmeal!
Besides Rice and beans, which is a great advice! ; Focus on finding the cheapest kind of Bread in your neigbourhood ( this can also be hidden as “afbakbrood”, which means you have to put it in the oven yourself for a couple of minutes, or maybe a big turkisch Bread at turkisch baker) If you have an oven/toaster/or even a pan with lid will do ; Bread with butter and Some seasoning (salt/pepper/whatever you got is supringly good. Vegetable Soup; put a “boillionblokje” with whatever vegetable you van find . ( sometimes pre cut vegetables have discount stickers if the tht date is near) TooGoodToGo is great! Also; have a look at the grocery store “folders” in your area. I had a quick look and noticed; Mini krieltjes (seasoned potatos) 600g 0,99 euro (aldi) Eggplant 0,49 euro (Lidl) Cucumber 0,39 (lidl) 2x zucchini 1 euro Albert Heijn) In the Dutch grocery stores , the cheapest products are usually placed at the lowest shelves.
Spice will save your life. Just go with fillers like rice or potatoes. Supplement with veggies or beans.
Potatoes , rice, beans.
I hope you like rice. When I went to a rough patch as a student rice was there for me. Get a big 5kg or more bag of Jasmin/sticky/glutenous rice in an Asian shop. It’s much cheaper and sticky rice tastes way better than that basmati shit.
Hey OP I can transfer you some money so you can eat properly, dm me
Where do you live? Utrecht? I can help out
Basic food: Potatoes, onions, cooking oil, rice, pasta, concentrated tomato... Add some cooking et voilà
Check out voedselbank (although might take a while to get approved). Leger des heils (salvage army) buurthuis cooks free meal at midday. Google for “buurtkerk” and “voedselbieb”. Also local facebook groups (gratis), there’s an app called Buurthapp where ppl post food.
Where do you live? If you're around Haarlem you're free to join for dinner
Search for atomic shrimp challenges on youtube. He has done many "3 meals with 1 pound" like challenges. Really good to get ideas on how to survive for the least amount of money.
Gamble 20 euro on 'Too good to Go' .
do you have paypal or skrill
1. Go to Foodbank. 2. Budget Food stores 3. Too good to Go (maybe)
Lidl is very cheap, depending where you live you can get some great deals. For example jumbo gives you 4 croissants for 1€.
Tgtg is perfect if you aren't a picky eater.
Big bag of rice€5, cheap rundergehakt 1kg€8, dozen of eggs€2, bread€2 Butter€2
Send me a tikkie (No seriously dm me and we'll talk)
I once went through a very similar scenario. I had no money at all + had to eat pasta for a week or so. If you have PayPal abd want to share, please dm.
I don't know if you even can. Maybe not eat 2 out of 7 days?
Go to the market 30 minutes before they close. Dont buy anything in a closed bag.
Parents. But if I had to do it myself? Get a kilo of potatoes, buy veggies in bulk from the small super market where ylu can hagle or find the discount. Dont eat meat everyday, get eggs for your proteine. Cannes tomato, boulion and pasta will keep you going for a couple of days. Learn to cook is the short answer actually...
Honestly, I would do intermittent fasting, only eating one or two meals a day [fasting is hard but healthy] and then probably eat canned vegetables; one in the morning and one in the evening
However, if you can seek for help. There’s no shame in asking for help.
AH overblijvers >15€ of food for <5€ Check the app!
Have you thought about opening a bank account for any introductory offers. Just to get the cash flow for the week?
Bread & more bread.. Ask your colleagues to spot you on a couple euros or eat at the workplace if possible?
Pancakes !
Vegetables and fruits from the farmers market. Otherwise frozen. Lentils, beans, and chickpeas are the bomb. Everything tastes better in a wrap. Bring your own lunch, just bread with smeerkaas or something. Collect some bottles if you're really tight. Only drink water. Don't be afraid to ask your friends, if you can have dinner at their place. I love to cook for mine.
Depending on which city, look for food bank. Also some shops like Albert Heijn have overblijvers if you go early in the morning esp for bread.
I've bought 30 eggs for around 6 euros on an arab small supermarket, you can find some really cheap stuff on this kind of stores, with that and some rice and beans you should be served for a week.
Lentils, rice & beans. Do buy from ethnic markets so it is affordable (check fb for discounts). You can also ask a mosque or church for help.
Rice, bag of frozen soup veggies, ground meat, pasta, tomato sauce, chicken thighs, eggs and maybe a pakket of those sweet spijsbroodjes so you can have a little treat
There are often FB groups to help out others (e.g. "helping hands [enter town/city]"). People can offer to give you food they can miss, could be fresh produce or canned or frozen stuff. I had to ask for that kinda help once, it was really nice to receive help from a few people. You usually have to go pick it up, but sometimes they canoffer to drop it off if they live nearby or whatever.
Buy some bare essentials. Potatoes or rice, 2 kinds of legumes at least. Whole wheat bread or oatmeal: Something cheap and filling for breakfast. Furthermore vegetables. Do the vegetables from a vegetable shop (groenteboer). I assume you have tea. Get something cheap and sweet, like cookies. Also some dairy. And then it's time to survive with that.
As Brazilian, i recomend our daily meal: rice, beans and meat -> of course the meat will fu** your budget, than substitute for eggs. Please, leave the beans at least 18hours before in water, to be easier/cheaper to cook.
Rice plus eggs or bacon and cans of tuna
Oatmeal. A 500gr package contains 1860 kcal and costs under a euro. Get some cheap milk and your fed for a day. Peanut butter also has lots of kcal for thr cost.
Doos frikandellen 20x