Eating Well on $60 a Week

Eating Well on $60 a Week

When I moved to Melbourne from Osaka, the first thing I noticed was that the food I wanted to eat was expensive at the supermarket and cheap at the right places — if you knew where to look. The second thing I noticed was that most of my international student friends were spending $100–$150 a week on food and not eating particularly well.

I've been feeding myself on $55–$65 per week for two years, and I genuinely eat food I enjoy. Here's how.

The three-store strategy

I shop at three places, and only three places.

ALDI gets my bulk staples: pasta, rice, lentils, frozen vegetables, butter, milk, eggs, bread, olive oil, canned tomatoes, and cleaning products. ALDI's own-brand versions of all of these are genuinely good quality and consistently 20–40% cheaper than Coles or Woolworths. I go once a week and spend about $25–$30 here.

My local Asian grocery store (in Melbourne's Richmond/Abbotsford area, I use the store on Victoria Street) gets my fresh produce, tofu, noodles, sauces, and specialty ingredients. A bag of Asian greens costs $1.50 here versus $4 at Coles. Tofu is $2 versus $4. Garlic, ginger, spring onions, fresh chilli — all a fraction of the price. I spend $15–$20 here.

Woolworths or Coles gets items on special that I check in the app before I go. I never shop at either without checking the weekly specials first. The apps show you half-price items — I buy things I use regularly when they're on sale (tinned fish, cheese, chicken, specific condiments) and stock up. I spend $10–$15 here.

The five meals I rotate

I cook five main meals and rotate them. This sounds boring and it's not, because the variations within each keep it interesting.

Fried rice — the great use-everything meal. Leftover rice, whatever vegetables need using, an egg or two, soy sauce, sesame oil. Takes 10 minutes, costs $1–$2 per serve, can be made a hundred different ways.

Pasta with whatever sauce — pasta itself costs 50 cents a serve. Sauce options: canned tomatoes with garlic and herbs ($0.80), aglio e olio with olive oil and garlic ($0.50), or puttanesca if you have olives and capers. Canned sardines in pasta sauce is genuinely delicious and costs almost nothing.

Stir-fried vegetables with tofu and noodles — this is my Japanese-ish comfort meal. Egg noodles, firm tofu fried until golden, bok choy or Chinese broccoli, garlic, oyster sauce, a little sesame oil. Under $3 per serve.

Lentil soup or dahl — dried lentils are one of the cheapest and most nutritious foods available. With onion, garlic, cumin, coriander, turmeric, and canned tomatoes, you get a soup that lasts 3–4 days in the fridge and tastes better each day. Total cost: approximately $4 for four serves.

Egg-based meals — eggs are the budget protein. Scrambled eggs, omelettes, shakshuka (eggs poached in spiced tomato sauce), tamagoyaki if I'm feeling nostalgic. A dozen eggs costs $4–$5 and provides 12 servings of protein.

What I don't do

I don't buy lunch on campus. I bring mine in a container — usually leftovers from dinner the night before. I don't buy coffee from cafés (I have an AeroPress and good beans — the equipment paid for itself in two weeks). I don't do Uber Eats except on occasions I've planned and budgeted for.

The mindset shift

Cooking at home is not a sacrifice, it's a skill. The students who say 'I don't have time to cook' usually spend 20 minutes on the food delivery app deciding what to order. Fried rice takes 12 minutes if you have leftover rice. Pasta takes 15 minutes. Lentil soup takes 25 minutes of mostly unattended simmering.

Invest the time once a week in a bigger cooking session — make a big pot of soup or a large batch of rice — and your week becomes much easier. I do this on Sunday afternoons and it sorts out most of my weekday lunches.