Mastercheap started as a very simple idea back in 2010: imagine I had an absolutely empty pantry and just $25. Could I feed myself for a week?
I ended up writing a very popular series of Mastercheap articles for Lifehacker (I’m still asked about it more than a decade later). I repeated the experiment with Mastercheap Raw in 2012: the same rules, but I had to make everything from scratch. I checked in 2015 to see if the concept was still viable with rising prices. And in 2023 I’m revisiting the idea again at Finder.
Online publishing being what it is, many of those articles have disappeared. So here’s a full list, linking to archive.org when the original piece has been removed.
Mastercheap (2010)
- Mastercheap: Eating for $25 a week
- Mastercheap: The $25 shopping list
- Mastercheap: Would Aldi make a difference?
- Mastercheap: Why house brands matter so much
- Mastercheap FAQ
- Mastercheap Day 1: Measuring up to the task
- Mastercheap Day 2: Keeping up the energy
- Mastercheap Day 3: Resisting temptation
- Mastercheap Day 4: Psychology and plating
- Mastercheap Day 5: Keeping it simple
- Mastercheap Day 6: Eyes on the pie
- Mastercheap Day 7: Finishing on a high
- Mastercheap: The big lessons learned
- Mastercheap: Rural reality check on prices
- Mastercheap would be even cheaper in the UK
Mastercheap Raw (2012)
- Mastercheap Raw: Cooking for a week on a total budget of just $25
- Mastercheap Raw: The $25 shopping list
- Mastercheap Raw Day 1: Prep, pasta, punish
- Mastercheap Raw Day 2: Stewed, mashed, grilled
- Mastercheap Raw Day 3: Colleagues and condiments
- Mastercheap Raw Day 4: Flavours, savers
- Mastercheap Raw Day 5: The carb crisis
- Mastercheap Raw Day 6: The power of table spread
- Mastercheap Raw Day 7: Saying no is hard
- Mastercheap Raw: The big lessons learned
Mastercheap (2015)
Mastercheap Revisited (2023)
- Watch this space!
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