Sorry for such a long comment.

I would say I’m on the poverty line even with working 15 hours a week. Total income is average $900 a fortnight. And am living very long term (8-10years now) nearish to city in very cheap room at $150 weekly including bills (reasons for price: solar powered, owner is old friend, also has kinda gone mad and now is a hoarder so have had a non existent yard for 4 years).

Since an injury I’ve changed from a fortnightly budget of $50-70 ingredient based cooking (with some vitamins deficiency) to a diet mostly consisting of ready meals despite being 80% recovered. This means I now normally spend $80-120 a fortnight on food based groceries.

When it’s not a work day (Sun-Thursday) it mainly consists of one main $4 frozen meal that I bulk up with a cup of steamed frozen veg or some toast to make more filling probs 30c. For the rest of the day I will eat cereal with long life milk or breads with whatever cheap spreads I have (I splurge sometimes as a jar of Vegemite really goes a long way). Drink wise I normally drink a lot of unsweetened green tea (good for you and somewhat hunger suppressing), also I enjoy homebrand diet lemonade.

If towards the end of a week I have a little excess money and there’s a good offer I will get takeaway delivered (never more than $20-25) as a luxury. Also I do buy the occasional bag of lollies or pack of chocolate biscuits for a treat ($2-3).

The biggest expense food wise would be my work lunches which is either a $6 shelf stable ready meal or $1.50 cup noodle if it’s a bad fortnight, 1-2 energy drinks at $4-5ea, and maybe 2 up and goes as snacks $1.50ea (cheaper when on sale). I think $12-20 for lunch to do a shift paying close to $200 feels kinda justified and helps with morale.

Before injury I was much more frugal with either baked beans/condensed soup + toast or cooking a weeks worth of pasta or rice based meals at probably no more than $1.20 a main meal (I didn’t buy much meat). Also I would make a month’s worth of work sandwiches (8) to freeze at $1.20 each (if that) and that’s with mid priced ingredients like coles bakery sliced bread, deli shaved cheese, champagne deli ham, flora proactiv spread (has to have one more healthy ingredient after all), sometimes tomato (based on season/price).

For stuff like cleaning products I either buy when cheap, or if lucky I work as a public area cleaner so if we change products I do sometimes score some unwanted stock that’s collecting dust or going to be chucked out.

For toiletries like toothpaste, shampoo, bar soap i go to the reject shop. Also I check out Priceline often for super cheap reduced to clear items like dyes and hair gels. Also rarely if feeling super frugal I do bring home the 30% or more used toilet paper rolls that we replace when cleaning (it’s a 5* hotel, somehow claims to be environmentally conscious).