Since the first edition was released, I have sat at market stalls and responded to comments online that a $30 per week, per person budget is impossible. No way could someone feed themselves for such a small amount. This figure was based on a household of 3 adults or two adults and two children at $90 per week. Every step of the way, the first edition showed how.

The intention was to share the most nutritionally dense, cost-effective foods to cover your most important vitamins and minerals. It is based on sound economic principles and government food composition data from Australia and the U.S.A.

In July 2024 a round table discussion with the publisher, publicist and I, resulted in a new book cover and an increase in the weekly budget from $30 per week to $50. Ironically, the main reason for this was the reluctance of Australians to believe a $30 per person budget was possible and by then it was only just possible.

The reliance on basic foods such as flour and pulses, sheltered those following these pla

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Sharing a kayak with my alter-ego.

I am not fit. Once we were acquaintances back when I panted like a steam train through half marathons and beginner triathlons. That was nine years and 30 kilograms ago. Recently, my husband embarked on his own weight loss and fitness campaign. Sometimes I come along for the ride. I mean literally, as in the case of last weekend when we shared a kayak on a group tour out

Note that this is a blog preview, the full blog is available on Medium.com

All of us have superpowers. No two are alike. This is why diversity makes us stronger than the sum of ourselves.

But have you ever considered that strength in diversity can also exist at the personal level? My superpower is that I have multiple personalities, each equipped to deal with a particular set of circumstances. I am either a team of superheroes or one fragmented, deluded, individual. It depends on how you look

My rise to number one on Amazon in my category, (or so I thought!)

Coffee mug in one hand, I sit down and log into my Amazon KDP account. Through the window, there's a peach fuzz horizon with long shadows on the lawn. A Pretty Face wallaby is nibbling at the grass around the fire pit. She is as shy as she is pretty. I watch her unseen, holding my breath. She looks upwards, our eyes connect, and she's gone with a flick of her tail. Taking a large sip of my morning brew, I look down at the KDP sale

I found myself in 2023 on a year-long quest. Rather than being armed with a sword and shield, I was armed with the most basic form of economics.

My quest was to find the lowest price to meet dietary guidelines in Australia. This wasn't supposed to be a critique of the guidelines themselves but before long I stopped in my tracks. There was no way around it. For average incomes, the Australian dietary guidelines were as unworkable as asking someone to fly using a cape. So I pivoted to two other

The eggs in my local supermarket have tripled in price in a year. Even the caged eggs have a price tag that should come with a ransom note. Avian flu in the southern states of Australia has seen tens of thousands of commercial chickens slaughtered. For the remaining nervous suppliers, it is now a seller's market. So, a couple of months ago I scratched some figures on the back of an envelope and told my husband, "I've done the sums. We'll get a return on our investment with nine chickens."

"Nine?" he asked,

Channel Seven and Sky News reported this week that Australian food prices have soared above world averages. While it doesn't seem possible for prices to go any higher, we also have reports coming in regarding chocolate. As expensive as chocolate already is, you can expect a further price spike on cocoa in the months to come. The reason should send a shiver down the spine of chocoholics everywhere. And if this doesn't scare you, it is coming for the coffee bean too.

According to the Channel Seven a

After a horror week in the media, Woolworths has announced it is slashing prices on more than 400 items immediately. Will this bring down the prices for How Low Can You Go?

On the 19th February Four Corners, an investigative journalism program on the ABC, aired an episode called Super Power, looking at the power Coles and Woolworths have over pricing for both what they pay suppliers and what they charge customers. The overall argument was that Australia, unlike similar countries, has two major sup

I get the feeling this past month that farmers and politicians are sharpening their axes, ready to put Woolworths, and then Coles, on the chopping block and break them up into lots of smaller, less powerful companies. Even if there is a strong political will to do so, is it possible? And if possible, is it likely?

The first question is easy to answer. Right now, Australian law does not have the power to break up companies. More importantly, the Albanese government doesn't want legislation that woul

The most recent ABS data indicates food prices have gone up 4.8% over the twelve-month period to September. Is this the case with the most basic food essentials within the shopping lists for How Low Can You Go?

Let's compare the two major supermarkets' prices from June 2023 to what they are today:

I think we're all familiar with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) which is the most common tool used to measure the cost of living. Only we shouldn't look at CPI at all if we want the real picture of what is happening for average households.

Why?

Because it doesn't factor in interest on loans such as mortgage interest.

With CPI conveniently leaving out these costs, Jim Chalmers on the 8th January was able to argue that:

"real wages are growing for the first time in years"

I'm not saying don't trust J

It's Summer and most Australians are not requiring large amounts of pulses anymore. Fortunately, chickpeas and lentils are still available in one-kilogram bags, thanks to their continued use by vegans and vegetarians. The rest are now available only in their 375g bags at most major supermarkets, if available at all.

So what to do when one kilogram of beans starts to cost almost as much as meat?

If you live near a major city, you should have access to Asian grocery stores (especially Indian and T

A new word 'Technofeudalism' is all the chatter in economic think tanks this week. Before we can talk about what it means, we probably need to understand what Capitalism is (and what it isn't).

"If I asked you to describe Capitalism in one word, could you?"

That one word is growth.

Scrolling through pages of internet definitions, I am disheartened to see that free enterprise and capitalism are often described as the same thing. Economists will tell you that free enterprise has been aroun

For two months now I have been held hostage by a question that will not let me go. It is as insistent as a baby crying in the small hours of the night. I want to turn over, bury my head in the pillow and drown it out. I spend my days jotting down notes and the pre-dawn hours wrestling with solutions. It surprises me that there are no clear answers already available anywhere I look. Yet as the cost of living becomes the number one topic in the public domain it is the one question that desperately needs an answer...

The question I am trying too answer is How low can you go on the food budget without compromising your health?

Like every helicopter mum, hovering over her clutch, from the moment they were born I developed a keen interest in nutrition when my children were little. And like every cancer patient I know, these days I am always reading up on what foods might improve my chances because there is not much we cancer patients have control over. This is one thing we can do to improve our