Good Learning Co.
SavannahYear 8
← Citizenship
CitizenshipLife skills: running your own money30 min★★★ difficulty

Feeding yourself on a real budget

Food is the biggest cost most people can actually change. This lesson plans a week's meals, prices them per portion, and compares the same dinner cooked, chilled and delivered.

Lesson overview

What you'll learn in this lesson

Use compound units such as speed, unit pricing and density to solve problems

Key learning points

  • • One dinner, priced properly
  • • Comparing by unit price, not by price
  • • The week that beats the week
  • • Waste is the hidden cost

This lesson at a glance

  • 30 minutes
  • 18 parts to scroll through
  • 4 quick checks
  • Marked quiz at the end
  • Gentle pace: short sittings with pauses

Words to know

compoundpricingdensityproblemsdinner

Scroll down — the lesson carries on below

Part 1 of 18 · Discover6%
1

Watch & discover

Part 1 of 18

Watch first

Feeding yourself on a real budget

An English teaching video on this topic from Transition Abilities. Watch it, then scroll down for the lesson.

In a nutshell

Use compound units such as speed, unit pricing and density to solve problems

2

What you already know

Part 2 of 18

Before we start

What you already know

You can work out price per 100 g and divide a total between portions.

3

Key words

Part 3 of 18

Key words

Words you'll need today

Unit price
Price per 100 g, per litre or per portion, used to compare fairly.
Cost per portion
Total ingredient cost divided by the number of servings.
Batch cooking
Cooking several portions at once to cut cost and time.
Food waste
Food bought and thrown away — money spent on nothing.
Meal plan
Deciding the week's meals before shopping, so the list matches them.
4

Learning cycle

Part 4 of 18

Learning cycle 1 of 2

Pricing a real week

A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.

5

Explore the idea

Part 5 of 18

Learn

One dinner, priced properly

A chilli for four: 500 g mince £3.50, tin of tomatoes 55p, tin of kidney beans 50p, onion 20p, rice 400 g 60p, spices 20p. Total £5.55, so £1.39 a portion. The same dish as a supermarket ready meal is about £3.50 a portion, and delivered it is nearer £9. The ingredients are almost identical; what changes is who does the work.

6

Explore the idea

Part 6 of 18

Learn

Comparing by unit price, not by price

Rice at £1.20 for 500 g is 24p per 100 g. A 2 kg bag at £3.60 is 18p per 100 g — 25% cheaper per gram. But the bigger bag only wins if you actually eat it: 2 kg thrown away half-used costs more than the small bag. Unit price decides value; how much you will really use decides whether the value is real.

7

Quick check

Part 7 of 18

Quick check

Ingredients cost £5.55 for four portions. Cost per portion is:

8

Reset break

Part 8 of 18

Pause

That's sitting 1 of 2 done

Stretch, get a drink, look out of the window. There is no timer and nothing is counting down — your place is saved, so you can come back in five minutes or tomorrow.

Stop here for now
9

Quick check

Part 9 of 18

Quick check

Which rice is better value: £1.20 for 500 g or £3.60 for 2 kg?

10

Learning cycle

Part 10 of 18

Learning cycle 2 of 2

Cooked, chilled or delivered

A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.

11

Explore the idea

Part 11 of 18

Learn

The week that beats the week

Unplanned shopping means buying food for meals you never cook. A meal plan works backwards: seven dinners, the ingredients each needs, one list, nothing else. Five cooked meals at about £1.40 a portion and two cheap standbys gives roughly £11 of dinners a week per person, against £24.50 for seven ready meals — over £700 a year for exactly the same food.

12

Explore the idea

Part 12 of 18

Learn

Waste is the hidden cost

UK households throw away a large share of the food they buy, and the money goes with it. Three habits fix most of it: shop from the plan, cook in batches and freeze portions, and use up what is open before opening more. £6 a week of waste is £312 a year — very close to the emergency fund from the last lesson.

13

Quick check

Part 13 of 18

Quick check

Seven ready meals at £3.50 instead of £1.40 home-cooked costs extra per week:

14

Quick check

Part 14 of 18

Quick check

£6 of food waste a week costs a year:

15

Common mix-ups

Part 15 of 18

Common mix-ups

Things people often get wrong

  • Assuming the bigger pack is always better value without checking price per 100 g.
  • Comparing a ready meal's price with a recipe's total instead of its cost per portion.
  • Forgetting that food thrown away was still paid for.
16

Challenge round

Part 16 of 18

Game · Sort it

Which of these are true?

Drag each card into the right column. Tap a card first if dragging is fiddly.

True

Not true

17

Mastery quiz

Part 17 of 18

Marked quiz

End of lesson quiz: Feeding yourself on a real budget

3 questions, marked with the reasoning shown. No timer.

  1. 1. Unit price is useful because it:

  2. 2. Batch cooking saves money mainly by:

  3. 3. A meal plan reduces spending because:

18

Lesson round-up

Part 18 of 18

Lesson round-up

Ready when you are

Quiz score

Not sat

Games

Not played

Points this lesson

0

Best run

0 in a row

Luna: 0 out of 4 on the practice checks. Only if you feel up to it — one more?

Ask Luna

Do the work

Your written work for this lesson

This is the part you'd do in your book at school. Pick the pieces below, write here or on paper, and photograph anything you draw or work out.

Case study

Should the town centre have a curfew for under-16s?

After a rise in reported vandalism, Harbrook council proposed that under-16s should not be in the town centre after 9 pm without an adult. Police recorded 62 incidents last year, most between 9 pm and midnight. Shopkeepers signed a petition supporting the plan.

A youth council objected. They pointed out that most young people in town at night were going home from sports clubs or work, that the plan punishes a whole group for the acts of a few, and that the library and the bus interchange are in the town centre. They asked instead for a late bus and a youth space.

The council voted to trial the curfew for six months and to publish the crime figures at the end.

Written for Good Learning Co.

Reading questions

  1. Give the strongest point on each side of the argument, using a fact from the case.
  2. Whose rights and whose responsibilities are involved here? Explain both.
  3. Write your own view on the curfew with reasons and one example.

  • Reading and response

    Reading

    Read the case in the lesson again and write what you think should happen, and why it is fair. Use one fact from the case as evidence.

    2 paragraphs (PEE)

  • Extended writing

    Writing

    Write your answer to the lesson's big question in full: the strongest point on each side, then your own view with reasons and an example.

    250–350 words

  • Reading log

    Reading

    Find one news story this week that links to this lesson. Note the headline, where you read it, and how it connects.

    1 story, 4–5 sentences

  • Two sides of the argument

    Writing

    Write the strongest point for, the strongest point against, and then your own view with a reason.

    3 paragraphs

  • Poster or leaflet plan

    Diagram

    Plan a leaflet that explains this right or responsibility to someone your age, then photograph it.

    1 planned page

Saved as you type.

Part 1 of 18 · Watch & discover

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