A bold claim but your bank account will thank you at the end of the month!

It is no secret that the cost of living in Malaysia is really high right now, especially with food price inflation. Budget 2024 has announced that more subsidies will gradually be reduced and the Malaysian government has announced that chicken prices would be floated, meaning they wouldn’t be capped at RM9.40 per kg anymore.

While times are getting tough, it’s time to tighten our belts in a sustainable way, not just a temporary effort. That means reducing our spending while still attaining nutritional goals and having some degree of indulgence in food variety. There’s only so much water you can drink to keep hunger down. In this article, we explore lifestyle changes that can be made to enable 1 person to live on a RM300 food budget a month while living in a city in Malaysia.

#1. Eating Out: Find Your Local Roadside Stalls

Let’s begin with “outside” food choices, because not everyone has the luxury of time to shop and cook at home.

Say no to hipster cafes, coffee places where baristas write your name on a paper cup, and air conditioned restaurants. Instead, take a drive or stroll around your neighbourhood to find the roadside stalls and small kiosks. This is where you can find tasty local delights such as nasi lemak bungkus, nasi lemak cedok, fried noodles, and kuih.

A regular serving of nasi lemak probably costs about RM2.50 to RM3.00 per pack. If you feel like you need some extra protein on some days, don’t hesitate to add chicken or maybe some sambal sotong which may bring the meal to a range of RM6 to RM7. However, you can’t do this every day as the costs will pile up.

Furthermore, noodles and fried rice will also cost about RM2.00 to RM3.00 per pack from these stalls. Make sure you vary the amount and type of food in your diet every day.

Budget counter: RM3.00 to RM7.00 per meal (RM90 to RM210 per month, assuming this option is taken once a day)

#2. Eating Out: Mixed Rice Stalls Are Your New Best Friends

If you find yourself eating out, make sure to go to the nearest mixed rice stalls. They are generally cheaper and provide a more varied nutrition with the combination of protein, fibre, vitamins and carbohydrates. Depending on where you are in Malaysia, a mixed rice with one vegetable and one meat will typically cost around RM6 to RM9 per meal.

Mixed rice stalls also offer an extra benefit because the prices are determined by a person. This means that you could gain some small discounts by influencing the human factor. Consider a few ways such as being a frequent and regular customer, being an easy customer, and being polite. If you are patronizing a mixed rice stall where you dish out your own items, aim to arrange your food in compact and neat groupings. This helps the person eyeballing your meal to more easily tally the total price too.

Budget counter: RM6 to RM9 per meal (mixed rice) (RM180 to RM270 per month)

#3. At Home: Tofu and Chicken Are Good Value for Money for Protein

Affordability when it comes to food tends to favor an unbalanced diet heavy in carbs, especially when eating out. At home, you can load up on affordable vegetables for fiber and vitamins. How about protein?

Tofu is great for vegetarians out there and is affordable too. One pack of smooth tofu will cost about RM1.10 to RM1.50, and you probably only need one per meal to feel full.

If you are getting sick of tofu, chicken is a good choice too. Prices per kg of chicken have risen to RM10.50 per kilogram (RM9.40 per kg previously) but remains the most affordable protein around in Malaysia.

Let’s do some calculations. The Harvard Medical School recommends that you need about 0.8g of protein for every kilogram of your body weight. Because of a lack of data on Malaysian average weight, we will be using outdated data from here and increasing the average weight to 65 kilograms. Hence, Malaysians would need 52 grams of protein per day.

However, not all the chicken is protein. According to this article, you will get an average of 29 grams of protein per 100 grams of chicken. Hence, you will need to consume about 200 grams of chicken every day or about 100 grams per meal for lunch and dinner. But we typically consume a bit more protein for the day, so let’s round this up to 150 grams per meal.

Budget counter: RM1.56 (chicken) to RM1.10 (tofu) per meal (RM46.80 to RM33 per month)

#4. At Home: Buy Discounted Vegetables and Fruits

In the previous point, we mentioned how greens are an affordable source of fiber and vitamins. Did you know you can get them at an even cheaper cost?

If you are living in a city, do drop by supermarkets that have a discount shelf for fresh produce. If you are blessed with the advantage of living near markets, drop by either very early before other customers are around or very late when the vendors are about to clean up to leave to get good prices. Why? Because the deals can be phenomenal sometimes. Supermarkets and greengrocers know that customers want pretty produce so they set aside ugly produce with marked down prices.

Most of them are still good and will probably last for the next few days. Hence, it is important learn how to identify when fresh produce is going bad, which isn’t difficult to learn at all.

Vegetables such as mushrooms, carrots, and cucumber are normally put here and here are approximate costs:

  1. Mushroom: RM5.50 per pack for 500 grams (after discount: RM1.75 per pack) – RM0.11 per 10 grams
  2. Carrots: RM3.70 per pack for 500 grams (after discount: RM1.85 per pack) – RM0.07 per 10 grams
  3. Cucumber: RM4.50 per pack for 350 grams (after discount: RM2.25 per pack) – RM0.13 per gram

This Healthline article recommends that we should eat about 231 grams of vegetables per day. If we take the average of RM0.10 per 10 grams, this means we will spend about RM2.37 per day on vegetables or RM1.19 per meal (lunch and dinner) at the minimum. But like the chicken example on top, we will take 1.5 times the 231 grams of vegetables, which translates to 355 grams of vegetables and RM1.78 per meal.

Budget counter: RM1.78 per meal (RM53.40 per month)

#5. Bonus: A Classic Breakfast Recipe You Can Have for Any Meal

Sometimes life throws us curveballs. If you find yourself unable to eat out and don’t have the immediate resources to make larger meals, this is a quick and easy bonus meal idea for you.

Eggs and toast at home. A Malaysian classic.

A jumbo-sized loaf of Gardenia bread (600g) costs RM4.30 and if you take 2 to 3 slices for every breakfast, it will probably last you a week. This will come up to about RM0.61 per day on bread.

Meanwhile, an egg costs about RM0.52 per piece, where you could consume at least 2 eggs per breakfast. Hence, you will probably spend about RM1.04 for eggs for every breakfast meal.

If we add them all up together, you will spend on average about RM1.65 for this meal. A very frugal option indeed and very simple to make, perfect for days when resources are low.

Budget counter: RM1.65 per meal (RM49.50 per month, assuming this option is taken once a day)

Conclusion

We are not professional nutritionists and this is not advice on what you should eat. But here are the examples of meals and their corresponding costs for the month.

  1. Breakfast: RM50 to RM90 per month (eggs and toast or roadside stalls)
  2. Lunch: RM180 per month (mixed rice)
  3. Dinner: RM100 (chicken and vegetables)

In this example, you will spend a range of RM240 to RM370 per month, where on average, you will spend just about RM300 per month on food cost. Prices vary depending on where you are located and the choices you make but with these tips you can indeed maintain a RM300 per month food budget for yourself.

 

Let us know in the comments below how you are spending on food this month!

 

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