How would you fuel yourself for 100 miles on £2.00 a day?

rodgers73

This may sound like a bit of a daft idea but I'm working on a plan for a ride that involves riding around 1200 miles on a very strictly limited budget (that's the challenge). I'm not 100% sure yet but the remaining funds to cover my food will most likely be around £2.00 a day.

If you had that budget and access to the sort of food you can buy in most Western European supermarkets, what would you buy for maximum calories?

Any ideas?

Anonymous

I would spend the £24 on a fake gun and a balaclava!

meanredspider

Cheap bulk porridge oats would definitely be on my list. Extending from this, I'd imagine homemade flapjack must be pretty calorific. They're always going on about sugar being cheap, butter isn't expensive (milk prices are stupidly low) and you don't need much golden syrup.

rodgers73

Carbonator wrote:

I would spend the £24 on a fake gun and a balaclava!

A strategy with a limited lifespan. Well, a little more limited than mine

rodgers73

meanredspider wrote:

Cheap bulk porridge oats would definitely be on my list. Extending from this, I'd imagine homemade flapjack must be pretty calorific. They're always going on about sugar being cheap, butter isn't expensive (milk prices are stupidly low) and you don't need much golden syrup.

Thought about a porridge made with water and livened up with cheap nutella

jameses

Budget pasta from any of the main supermarkets is about 30p for a half kilo bag. Sauce can be bought cheaply, and home made even cheaper.

daxplusplus

Tesco used to do a cheap malt loaf - approx 45p - I would consider 2 of those for 100 miles at a slow pace. Spend the rest on home made flap jacks, drink and some jelly babies.

daxplusplus

Oops - didn't see the bit about Western supermarkets .. guess that rules out Tescos.

rodgers73

Brown loaf at £1.00 gives me around 1600 calories

LegendLust

rodgers73 wrote:

Brown loaf at £1.00 gives me around 1600 calories

So that only leaves you £1 for protein and vegetables for nutrients?

jezzasnr

Dates! On their own, or blitzed in a food processor with oats & cold pressed.

daxplusplus

Mackerel in oil - can be cheap and full of protein.

rodgers73

Had also thought of eggs (hard boiled) as a good source

jibberjim

LegendLust wrote:

rodgers73 wrote:

Brown loaf at £1.00 gives me around 1600 calories

So that only leaves you £1 for protein and vegetables for nutrients?

You know bread is an okay source of protein, it's why it's one of the staple foods. "nutrients" are also pretty irrelevant it's a very short term trip, he's not going to get rickets or scurvy from a 12 day ride eating nothing but bread.

An 800g loaf of wholegrain bread will give maybe 2000 calories and maybe 80g of protein, that's more than enough of protein, add a block of butter and there'll be enough calories and essential nutrients to comfortably make the trip, even have enough money left over for a carton of OJ to keep that scurvy at bay.

Potatoes would ne another option rather than grains, as you wouldn't need that OJ to ward of the scurvy, but much less practical than bread although the protein is complete. Mix in some butter again...

The European peasant diet was pretty much just bread, porridge and ale - all of it from grains - until the potato arrived when that took over everywhere it grew well as it was more productive.

team47b

Try to get 50 - 70 % Calories from carbohydrates and at least 600 grams per day of carbohydrates in the 2 to 3 days prior to setting off.

Calculate your calories burnt per hour/day requirement and make sure you are getting this 70% from carbs.

Cheapest carbs are pasta, potatoes, rice

Cheap protein: beans or if you eat meat then I suggest road kill

KonkyWonky

Tesco do an own brand jar (340g) of peanut butter for 62p. Ideal for a sandwich, mixed into oats or eat it on it's own. There is around 2300 calories in the jar.

ex-pat scot

Porridge, homemade flapjack, cheap brand maltloaf. As the others have said.

ugo.santalucia

Have a look at the list of diseases you can get by malnourishing... it's entertaining...

The cycling challenge is good, the rest is a bit foolhardy to be honest.

meanredspider

Based upon the centuries I've done, it's something like 4000+kCals per century. The question is whether you can buy 4000 sustainable calories for £2

That's an option of
1kg of sugar (about £1)
More than 1kg of pasta (70p)
1kg of cheddar (£4.80)
2 litres of OJ (£1.40)
1.1kg of maple syrup
1kg of porridge (about £1.20)
1.5kg of white bread (75p)
8 litres of semi-skimmed milk
About 600g of butter (90p per 250g)
About 1.1kg of white rice (about £1.20)

ugo.santalucia

meanredspider wrote:

Based upon the centuries I've done, it's something like 4000+kCals per century. The question is whether you can buy 4000 sustainable calories for £2

That's
1kg of sugar
More than 1kg of pasta
1kg of cheddar
2 litres of OJ
1.1kg of maple syrup
1kg of porridge
1.5kg of white bread
8 litres of semi-skimmed milk

His best chance of making it without getting sick or constipated is to eat canned beans and oats, with the odd apple thrown in (or any fresh fruit/veg which is cheap and in season) and milk. You can probably get those at 2 pounds/day if you bulk buy at Aldi

ravey1981

make a stew/curry with rice, tinned tomatoes, tinned beans (not the baked variety), herbs and/or spices to taste. Serve with bread.

meanredspider

Based on that lot, I think I'd be having porridge for breakfast, flapjack during the ride, and pasta for dinner and maybe toast too. You could probably buy the carbs required for around £12 leaving another £12 for butter, tinned toms, a bit of OJ, peanut butter, and maybe some cheap fruit and veg.

meanredspider

As a rule of thumb, you need about 1kg of basic carbs (sugar, oats, rice) for 4000kcals and they will cost you around £1

ugo.santalucia

meanredspider wrote:

Based on that lot, I think I'd be having porridge for breakfast, flapjack during the ride, and pasta for dinner and maybe toast too. You could probably buy the carbs required for around £12 leaving another £12 for butter, tinned toms, a bit of OJ, peanut butter, and maybe some cheap fruit and veg.

You don't count... you are split between Scotland and Holland, quite possibly the two worst countries on the planet for food...

meanredspider

ugo.santalucia wrote:

meanredspider wrote:

Based on that lot, I think I'd be having porridge for breakfast, flapjack during the ride, and pasta for dinner and maybe toast too. You could probably buy the carbs required for around £12 leaving another £12 for butter, tinned toms, a bit of OJ, peanut butter, and maybe some cheap fruit and veg.

You don't count... you are split between Scotland and Holland, quite possibly the two worst countries on the planet for food...

Fair cop!!!

At least I enjoy travelling practically anywhere

ugo.santalucia

meanredspider wrote:

ugo.santalucia wrote:

meanredspider wrote:

Based on that lot, I think I'd be having porridge for breakfast, flapjack during the ride, and pasta for dinner and maybe toast too. You could probably buy the carbs required for around £12 leaving another £12 for butter, tinned toms, a bit of OJ, peanut butter, and maybe some cheap fruit and veg.

You don't count... you are split between Scotland and Holland, quite possibly the two worst countries on the planet for food...

Fair cop!!!

At least I enjoy travelling practically anywhere

I lived in Holland for two years and I still dread the thought of shopping for food at Albert Hein...

ravey1981

Im going to assume he is camping on this trip given the meagre budget, how is he going to make flapjack? Don't you need an oven for that. I wouldn't fancy carrying 12 days supply of flapjack around with me. Make some kind of rice/pasta in the morning and whack it in a tub to eat cold en route. With some sugar laced water as an energy drink.

meanredspider

ugo.santalucia wrote:

I lived in Holland for two years and I still dread the thought of shopping for food at Albert Hein...

Tell me about it! My nearest store is AH. Fortunately there's a Marqt on my way home - good food there.

meanredspider

ravey1981 wrote:

Im going to assume he is camping on this trip given the meagre budget, how is he going to make flapjack? Don't you need an oven for that. I wouldn't fancy carrying 12 days supply of flapjack around with me. Make some kind of rice/pasta in the morning and whack it in a tub to eat cold en route. With some sugar laced water as an energy drink.

I think if you're camping and can't take advantage of bulk shopping and bulk cooking, you're going to be challenged. You'd lose the will to live eating 1kg (uncooked weight) of pasta or rice in a day.

meanredspider

Actually, I've made a schoolboy error and omitted the 2000kcals you need as base calories. So nearer 6000kcals per day.

jibberjim

meanredspider wrote:

ugo.santalucia wrote:

I lived in Holland for two years and I still dread the thought of shopping for food at Albert Hein...

Tell me about it! My nearest store is AH. Fortunately there's a Marqt on my way home - good food there.

AH sausage rolls are great.