Ms Fung's pasta lunch was also cheap at just $3.12 per serve. Photo / YouTube
Ms Fung's pasta lunch was also cheap at just $3.12 per serve. Photo / YouTube
Buying groceries can easily add up but one Sydney woman has shared how she manages to create a week's worth of meals for less than $70 AUD.
YouTuber Janice Fung filmed herself as she went grocery shopping for the week at Woolworths — revealing how she managed to keep her bill low by eating the same three meals all week, as well as buying pricier pantry staples when they were on special.
Fung spent just $69.71 ($72.24 NZD) on her weekly shop which included enough ingredients for her to make breakfast, lunch and dinner every day, as well as picking up some other items.
As well as the ingredients for her meals, Fung managed to score six cans of tuna on special for $4 ($4.19 NZD) as well as toilet paper that was half price for $3.75 ($3.93 NZD).
Once she got her groceries home, Fung explained what she used to make each of her meals — and the bargain price they worked out at.
Making her coffee at home cost just $1 per day. Photo / YouTube
For breakfast she made oatmeal, purchased for $6 ($6.28 NZD) a box, with frozen mixed fruits that were $4 ($4.19 NZD) a bag, mixing in pumpkin and chia seeds she already had in her pantry.
Based on the serving size Fung estimated each breakfast cost her just $1.25 ($1.31 NZD) — or around a tenth of what you would expect to pay at a cafe.
Alongside her breakfast, Fung always had a coffee. Rather than buying it, she made it from Nespresso pods she already had and a one-litre bottle of soy milk she bought for $2.45 ($2.57 NZD) — costing just $1 ($1.05 NZD) per coffee.
For lunch, Fung had pasta that she made with $7.80 ($8.17 NZD) worth of spaghetti, $6 ($6.28 NZD) worth of pasta sauce, $9 ($9.42 NZD) beef mince, $2.40 ($2.40) worth of tomatoes and one onion for just over 50 cents.
In total it cost around $3.12 ($3.27 NZD) for each lunch meal and Fung would cook half the pasta portion at the beginning of the week, making the remainder of her meals halfway through the week to keep it fresh and tasty.
"What I typically do is I split the beef mince into half," she explained, "I cook it in two batches."
When it came to dinner Fung would make one of two meals with what she had bought — either a chicken congee, a traditional Chinese rice dish that "just warms your soul", or a chicken stir-fry.
This week she opted for a chicken stir-fry, using rice from her pantry and soy sauce to marinade the $14.08 ($14.74 NZD) worth of chicken thighs she bought.
Fung said she would typically make chicken stir-fry with whatever veggies she had in her fridge – which in this case happened to be red capsicum, with each serving working out at $4.04 ($4.23 NZD).
"Taking all that into account on a typical day my breakfast, my coffee, lunch and dinner costs around $9.40, ($9.84 NZD)" she said. "If I were to times that by seven that would be around $65 ($68.05 NZD) dollars, give or take."
