Cooking at home in Singapore is challenging.

Even more so, if you’re on a tight budget.

For this particular article, I was assigned the task of preparing three meals for just S$15.

For the challenge, I would be shopping for ingredients within Giant’s Lower Prices That Last, where prices of over 750 essential products are slashed significantly.

I quickly tabulated my family’s regular grocery expenditure for the week (comprising my parents, my sister and I).

It hit about S$200-S$220, so about S$31 a day.

It seemed almost impossible.

Here’s how it went.

The recipes

I wanted something easy to cook yet nutritious, so I eventually decided on Sausage and Potato Hash for breakfast, ABC soup and Fishball Noodles for lunch, and Prawn Aglio Olio for dinner.

I found the recipes online and slightly tweaked them to accommodate the ingredients I had.

These were the ingredients I settled on:

• Doux Chicken Franks with Cheese (S$2.10 for 400g; was S$2.70)
• China Holland Potatoes (S$0.90 for 800g; was S$1.15)
• LG Yellow Noodles (S$1 for 420g; was S$1.55)
• Swanson Clear Chicken Broth (S$1 for 250ml; was S$1.35)
• Malaysia Sweet Corn (S$0.50 each; was S$0.95)
• Australia Carrot (S$1.50 per kg; was S$1.90)
• Kenko Fishball Small 12 pieces (S$1 for 200g; was S$2)
• Papa Alfredo Spaghetti (S$1.90 for 500g; was S$2.20)
• China White Garlic (S$2 for 500g; was S$2.45)
• Vannamei Prawns (S$1 for 100g; was S$1.89)

Some ingredients could be used for more than one meal. I’d heard from a wise person (a.k.a my mum), that a good way to save money is to portion ingredients — especially those that come in big packs, like potatoes and carrots — for multiple meals.

Shopping at Giant

Purchasing my groceries was a pretty straightforward affair at the Giant in Suntec City.

I liked that I didn’t have to hunt high and low for the discounted items.

I simply had to look out for the “Lower Prices That Last” labels at the relevant grocery sections.

Many other items that were not listed in the online catalogue were also carrying the LPTL label, which was a welcome surprise.

In the end, I managed (happily) to fill my basket with (nearly) S$15 worth of groceries.

The main event

My family and I would typically have rice paired with stir-fried meat and vegetables, and soup for lunch and dinner.

Breakfast is normally a much lazier affair, with grab-and-go fare like bread or granola.

So while having all three meals home-cooked was not necessarily something out of the ordinary, suffice to say, the recipes were still something new.

Luckily, I didn’t burn down the house; the food didn’t end up chao ta either.

Here are some snapshots of the entire meal prep extravaganza:

Breakfast – Sausage and Potato Hash

Verdict for breakfast (1 bite 5 words): Key is making potatoes soft.

Lunch – Fishball Noodles with ABC Soup

The soup was relatively sweet and flavourful even without adding much chicken broth.

ABC soup is my favourite, simply because you can just dump in carrots, corn, and potatoes, then do your own thing while leaving it to simmer.

To enhance the flavour of the fishball noodles, I seasoned the dish with tomato ketchup, sesame oil, soy sauce and oyster sauce.

Verdict (1 bite 5 words): Yums. Next time more meat.

Dinner - Prawn Aglio Olio

For dinner, it was all out with prawn aglio olio.

I like to think the 300g of prawns (13 in all) made up for the absence of meat during lunch.

Chilli flakes were also added to spice things up.

Verdict (1 bite 5 words): Prawn shiok chilli flake good.

Savings over a long period of time

While this exercise was all in the name of fun and family bonding, it also brought home the value of saving on everyday essentials.

By my calculations, if my family can spend an average of S$15, even S$20+ a day on groceries, that would amount to at least S$300 in savings a month.

In the long term, that adds up to a significant amount.

If you’re looking to save some money for other heavyweight expenses, all it takes is a little extra effort in planning for daily meals, to save on the cost of groceries.

Under the LPTL campaign, there are many more essential household items like Kirei Kirei Anti-Bacterial Hand Soap (S$1.50; was S$2.35), Nescafe Coffee (S$5; was S$5.50), and Breeze Laundry Powder Detergent (S$7.65; was S$10.25) available.

Lower Prices That Last (LPTL) campaign

As Singaporeans adjust to a new normal, practicing economic frugality is more important than ever.

It’s been more than six months since the launch of LPTL, where prices are kept low across more than 600 essential items, but Giant also recently announced the extension of the campaign to the end of 2021 with an additional 100 products.

All together, Giant has invested S$21 million in price reductions across over 750 everyday essentials, in order to commit to delivering “everyday low prices that last” for the long term.

Giant says that it is doing this because of the increasing financial strain experienced by many families, due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

With LPTL, Giant hopes to play its part in supporting Singapore during this challenging time.

Just look out for the LPTL logo at any of your nearest Giant supermarkets, for major savings and major benefits.

This sponsored article for Giant made the writer reconsider the value of bargain hunting and saving on everyday essentials.

All images by Lean Jinghui