She makes supper for R22, and Mzansi is saving every video

Western Cape food creator Olivia Viglatzis (@olive_foodie) is back with another budget supper: chicken, mashed potato and fried cabbage with carrots, which she says came to R22.08 a plate. She posted it on 28 October and it passed 80,000 views within a day.

It's the latest in her "struggle meals" series, where she shops at Shoprite and works out the cost per portion rather than the till total. Her most watched one, rice with a tomato and an egg for under R10, has more than 800,000 views. Daily Maverick reports that she has over 100,000 followers on TikTok and 150,000 on Facebook, that her wife Veronica Bezuidenhout helps film and edit, and that the couple also cook charity meals for pensioners and job seekers in Cape Town.

Her captions also carry a reminder for anyone tempted to mock the food: "Before making a nasty comment please remember this might be someone's only meal for the day."

What the comments are saying

@ludwesong:

"Me saving these videos for January 😭😭😭😭" (305 likes)

@shebyshay:

"so its cheaper to buy chicken separately" (31 likes)

@richardrosato1:

"ek love jou videos. Reminds me of when of when I was back in SA! love the budget meals. i remember living on tinned sardiens when I was living in my car." (13 likes)

@iyana5539:

"Seriously shopright should start paying you for this content" (12 likes)

@avdigh12345:

"imagine that healthy yummy plate is under R30.. 🙏 for sharing 🥰" (11 likes)

@pre68584:

"Your food really looks good & it's affordable to make, as people are really struggling to eat in this tough economy" (10 likes)

@hlabeesto:

"I used to buy 6 tins of fish and 6 cans of corned beef, 1kg spaghetti and 1kg macaroni, 5packs of noodles, 5 loaves of bread, peanut butter, jam, Oros and wild island, tomato sauce, mayonnaise, 12 eggs, 6 cans of baked beans, instant coffee, 2.5kg sugar, and a packet of apples and morvite, to survive the whole month while in uni.😭😭😭 your content is nostalgic! May someone learn to survive on this!🥰" (4 likes)

@popo7038:

"I sent my daughter ur page link so that she can save at red thanks mommy" (3 likes)

Video and image: @olive_foodie on TikTok.