A potato, a thin slice of sausage — and that's it? What you can buy for lunch or dinner for one ruble to have a snack
What to eat when you only have one ruble left until payday? It seems that there aren't many options available in stores for the price of a metro token. Will sellers look askance in response to a request to cut a slice of sausage? Will the scales refuse to weigh a single candy? What does a ruble look like as Olivier salad on a plate, Onliner.by investigated .
However, even instant noodles from well-known brands exceed the price limit: they are in the range of 1.3—2 rubles. In the refrigerators, large syrniki (cottage cheese pancakes) sold by weight catch the eye — one piece looks like an effective weapon against hunger. But the scales betrayingly show 1.5 rubles on the label.
The goal for today is to find at least three options in the store that you can eat if you only have one ruble in your pocket. By design, the food is for dinner, which means it should be at least a little filling — to at least dull a hungry stomach.
Everything starts in the dumpling section of one of Minsk's large supermarkets. Ready-made factory packages are not an option; a larger budget is needed there — at least 5 rubles. Frozen pork dumplings of their own production are sold on promotion. The winning 0.99 rubles are displayed by the scales after a few more weighings.
In the dairy and bread sections, it's clear that the 'bottle of kefir + half a loaf' dinner is cancelled for today: it requires at least 3 rubles in the wallet. Having dinner with a briquette of cottage cheese won't work either: they are all more expensive than one ruble.
Nevertheless, there are a few options. Firstly, a 100-gram bun, the price of which is exactly 1 ruble. A surprisingly precise hit on the experimental budget. Looking ahead, let's say: we won't be able to hit the one-ruble mark so accurately again. The bun looks voluminous, rich, and sprinkled with powdered sugar. As a bonus, it's also warm, and it's lunchtime on a weekday.
Secondly, there's another bun weighing 50 grams for 45 kopecks. A sachet of powdered milk for 46 kopecks will make a pair with it. Its packaging is similar to instant coffee, containing 25 grams of product. Specifically, this one is made in Rogachev. However, any options for regular milk already fall outside the set budget, even children's milk.
By the way, speaking of children's products. Kefir with such an inscription also ends up in the basket.
Pricing logic suggests taking cheaper, while practical logic suggests more expensive: the product weight is greater, the price per milliliter turns out to be lower.
The kefir's companion must fit within 27 kopecks — the task feels challenging. Peanuts in caramel — it's managed to be measured on the second attempt — 22 kopecks. That's 16 grams, by the way.
Instant pasta priced up to 1 ruble is also found — vermicelli for 71 kopecks. «For the change, candies — by the kilogram price. But three 'Korovka' candies — turn out to be too expensive. One? It weighs 16 grams and costs 17 kopecks.
Next — the culinary section. It seems that some hearty multi-component salad could fit the role of a ruble dinner, so we approach the seller with a request to weigh it for one ruble. "This will be little, about this much," — warns the woman, drawing a line on the salad bowl with a spatula.
But it fits the budget quite precisely: 58 grams, 93 kopecks.
Then boiled buckwheat — here the phrase «Please give me for one ruble» doesn't surprise the seller at all — a portion quickly appears in the bag that could occupy most of a regular plate. Here, 142 grams for 98 kopecks.
On the neighboring counter are fried pastries (pirozhki) — the cheapest ones are those with fruit filling.
The seller, it seems, eagerly searches for a smaller pastry — and hits the bullseye: 99 kopecks, exactly 100 grams of product.
The next find is in the supermarket cafe — sliced toast bread, portioned sour cream, and sugar are sold there — they will become a sandwich with a taste of childhood. Two slices of bread — 72 kopecks. The addition to the set is in the fruit section.
Mandarins are more expensive than apples per kilogram, but there are small and light ones: 21 kopecks.
Next is buying a slice of sausage.
The seller says she can't guess the exact weight of the sausage, but even at a glance, her experienced eye determines the dimensions of a piece that will leave room for a side dish within one ruble. With one sausage, it's quite easy overall. 72 and 40 kopecks respectively.
Cabbage and beets don't make the cut: each vegetable is quite large and heavy. So, for the slice of sausage — a few potato tubers, and for the frankfurter — a potato, a carrot, and an onion.
In this section, the vegetables are also weighed by the seller — naturally, it's not possible to perfectly measure everything to one ruble on the first try. The onion, by the way, cost 7 kopecks. A carrot for 14 kopecks, and two potato tubers — for 33 and 41 kopecks.
The entire purchase cost 11.45 rubles, not including the bag (which, by the way, took up even more than half of the one-ruble budget).
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