Day five

There's one thing I've not mentioned yet - and that is the side effect of kidney beans every day. I am not the best of housemates this week.

I can't believe I've done it, this was by far the hardest day. I am so close to the finish line, and yet still a long way from it. I can't get too complacent, but each time I've eaten something it has been the last of that item. I've used the last of the flour to make flatbread, I've had the last egg, I've eaten all the lemon curd, and I've only got one bowl of chilli left. I do have lots of leftover oil and porridge. It won't go to waste, but I'll be eating my porridge with milk after today.

The greatest thing, and the thing that has kept me going all week, is seeing the donations. I've been absolutely amazed by how much money people have donated and it shows that £1 can make change.

Today I went shopping for my usual existence above the line. I felt like I'd won the lottery, I strolled along the shelves choosing my breakfast for tomorrow and I didn't have to look at the prices marked next to the food. Before I went shopping I'd been chatting with a friend about whether this week would have changed my attitude to shopping, I thought that perhaps for the first few weeks I might remember my lesson from this week and then I'd lapse into my usual shopping habits. That will more than likely be the case, but while I shop with newly opened eyes there is a lot to discover about what we buy and what we take for granted from our food. I wonder if we ever really appreciate what we have?

I know every day this week I've said that that day was the hardest day, but honestly, today was by far the hardest. I have no energy and I am very tired. I went shopping in Urmston this morning, as I walked home I noticed there was a change in my walking style. I didn't walk with purpose heading home, instead I was listless, I had a purpose but no speed to my walk. I knew I'd get there, so there was no need to tire myself out.

Tomorrow I am looking forward to a decent cup of tea and not having to make bread for every meal.

For completeness...my meals today have been:

Breakfast = porridge with water and lemon curd
Dinner = fried egg and tapenade on flatbread with flatbread and lemon curd for a cheeky dessert.
Tea = chilli and flatbread.

I'll leave you with this picture which has been doing the rounds on Facebook for the past couple of weeks. It says it all.

Day four

Today I really felt it, the combination of walking everywhere and a reduction in food has really started to affect my ability function.
I really found it difficult to get started this morning, I just couldn't wake up. The black tea I'm allowing myself just wouldn't do it for me so I poured myself another mug. I had my porridge and lemon curd for breakfast and finally woke up before it was time for the school run.
Making three lots of sandwiches that I wouldn't eat didn't help either. Cream cheese smells very good when you're not having dairy.
At dinner I had a fried egg again with tapenade smeared on flatbread. It was nice, but the lack of choice in my daily routine is also affecting my mental state. After all, variety is the spice of life.
In the afternoon some friends came round, we take it in turns to bake cakes and drink tea in each other's houses. It was my turn this week. I baked a cake and made tea and sipped on tap water and ate flatbread with lemon curd.
I knew before the start of this challenge that I would be baking a cake today, so my shopping purchases reflected that slightly. I had hoped that I would be able to accommodate a 22p cake mix into my budget, but I couldn't! I still baked the cakes, and as it is Christian Aid week, I made my friends consume my budget cake.

I used:
Sainsbury's Basics 22p cake mix.
1 egg from my shopping
Lemon curd from my shopping
Butter from the fridge
Icing sugar from the cupboard.

Apparently the cake tasted nice, but even though I used some of my 'rations' I didn't feel as though I could join in as there was so much not from there.

Lemon curd on flatbread is quite nice after a while.

Tea was, once again, chilli and flatbread. I have just enough left for Day Five.

After school we went to another children's party. Chocolate fingers, cake, panninis, rice. It all smelled and looked wonderful. And, for me? Just a tap water please!

Day three

Today was hard. Yesterday I couldn't face my porridge with water so chose not to have it, but today I was so hungry I didn't have any choice but to eat it.

Tuesdays are always difficult days at this house anyway, they're busy and ever so slightly crazy. So facing Tuesday on Day three with two days of not much food behind me, and no prospect of a strong cup of tea to fortify me, was testing. And then, to top it off, we had some work done on the house in the afternoon.

I cheered myself up in the afternoon by looking in my egg box (that is quite sad I know). I bought six eggs at the beginning of the week, and I've had one a day so I have three left. The eggs are my own countdown.

Today I had porridge for breakfast with water.

At lunchtime, I was definitely ready for food and I was glad I'd bought those olives at the beginning and, more importantly, saved them for when I needed a boost. I made myself a tapenade of sorts and spread it on my flatbread topped off with a fried egg. I'm very glad I made the decision to fry my eggs and not poach them, I need the extra calories.

Tea was a bowl of chilli with flatbread. There's not much chilli left now and the edges were a little bit overdone in the slow cooker on low, so I don't think I can use the slow cooker for the rest of the week. I've got two nights left, I hope I have enough chilli to last me. The good news is that because the chilli has been slowly stewing for three days it tasted absolutely gorgeous, the best it has tasted all week. The kidney beans were edible too!

This is the first day I've not had any bread left over to start the next day, tapenade too good, or hunger biting?

Day two

Day two started off ok, but I couldn't face my porridge at breakfast, so I had some left over flatbread spread with lemon curd. At lunch I had a fried (naughty) egg and flatbread. I was going to have a poached egg again, but then I realised I'm not on a diet so I don't need to watch my calorie intake and I did spend £1.39 on oil. The fried egg was gorgeous and I was very happy. For reasons unrelated to this challenge I am without a car this week. So I am travelling by foot, the furthest I go to is school, which is about 0.5mile. Not very far, but in today's western lifestyle walking is something that is very rarely done. In a day I do this trip, there and back, three times. And it did take its toll on me a bit yesterday. I listened to myself moan about it, but then when I thought about it, I realised what a petty moan it is. I am walking a short distance so my children can access a free education. When I get home I have hot and cold running water, I am not walking to a well to get clean water. I am only buying food on £1 a day, I don't have to worry about keeping warm, I switch my slow cooker on in the morning and my tea is ready for me. The electricity that powers my slow cooker is uninterrupted and direct to my kitchen. Having said that, I was definitely ready for my tea and had two bowls of chilli. I hope I have enough for the rest of the week now!

Day one

******Shopping list update******

I 'bought' a tin of tomatoes from my kitchen cupboard. These were from Tesco and when I checked online they cost a whopping 31p.  That's more than half my left over money...I remember when I was a student a tin of tomatoes cost less than 10p, but I won't get on that nostalgic soap box. I do wish however, that I had remembered to buy them from Quality Save, because they were about 25p there and that would make such a difference.

I also 'bought' two teaspoons of spices from the cupboard as well, I wept when I calculated it at 15p. I know spices are expensive, but one jar seems to last ages. But living in this heightened state of awareness of how much everything costs, I was shocked at how much that translated and affected my shopping budget.

***************************

Day one was ok. I survived and it wasn't that bad. I had a lie in to 7am (believe me, round here anything after 6am is a lie in). Then I went to the 8am service and the first thing that passed my lips on Sunday was the Communion wafer, closely followed by the Communion wine.

When I got home our house smelled lovely. Everyone was enjoying hot buttered toast and marmalade, after a first breakfast of cereal and porridge with milk. There was also a lot of washing up to be done.
I made my porridge with water, flavoured with lemon curd and instantly regretted the lemon curd purchase. I wish I'd got jam, but it was 6p more expensive. The lemon curd was very sweet, and I struggled with the contrast of cardboard tasting porridge and sickly sweet lemon.

I spent much of the morning cooking and baking.

I made some flat bread with the flour and oil and water,

They aren't my hands, my little girl helped me make it, she thought kneading was great fun. I dry fried the bread in a frying pan, which made it soft and tortilla-like.

For lunch I had an egg poached in a saucepan, and wrapped in some flat bread. It missed the brown sauce I would usually put on it.

I also made a chilli (hence the spices) which I put in the slow cooker and I'll eat for tea for the rest of the week.

The chilli is something I would ordinarily make, although not with pearl barley and kidney beans! I have also made it more liquidy than I would normally. It tasted ok, but I didn't have any tomato puree or stock cubes in my budget, and I noticed they were missing. Still, 15p on spices and I should be able to manage it.

I have 14p left! 

Day one wasn't too bad, even with a children's birthday party thrown in and lots of fresh fruit, sandwiches, and crisps being offered round. I went to bed just after 9pm so that I didn't feel the need to reach for a biscuit.

Day two dawns ahead, I think today will be more difficult as it is a normal weekday and I have a routine, and part of that routine involves cups of tea and biscuits!!

The incident with the CCTV camera

When I went to do my shopping I also did some other non food purchases as well. There are five of us in this house and I am the one doing the challenge, I couldn't ask my children to take part as well, but for some reason that doesn't stop them from eating my food, I have already discovered (it's day one now).

Well, I was at the checkout and I had £10, I was spending £3 on food for the challenge and I also wanted to buy some essential items when living with small children (nappies, juice etc.) I wanted to pay for the two purchases separately, so as not to confuse receipts and to make sure I kept to my budget.

The first transaction passed without incident, but when I came to pay for the second section of shopping, (the nappies, and more essential in very many ways) I had no money. I checked my pockets, my purse, my shopping, the conveyor belt at the checkout, the floor, and I came to the conclusion that I hadn't got my change from the first bit of shopping.

The checkout operator was sure he had given me the change, I hadn't moved and I had no money. For several painful minutes, I searched, I questioned, and I waited. The store manager checked the CCTV camera and it became clear that I hadn't been given any change. All was well with the world, I got the change, I paid for my goods and I moved on.

I was lucky.

As my good friend Kate put it to me: "I get a sense that anxiety about being able to pay will be something ongoing for those who live on less than a dollar a day. You were fortunate to only experience it during your challenge."

The Shopping List

Well, I did it. There was a lot of adding up and subtracting and incident with a CCTV camera that I'd rather not repeat, but I have done my shopping.
I am rather pleased (in advance of the week starting) even though I wandered off list with a 29p impulse purchase at one stage that I'm pretty sure will be worth it, but I had to make some economies elsewhere.
I started the day with five pound coins...

And I went to Quality Save and Sainsbury's and bought a reasonable amount - how this will translate to a week's worth of food, I do not know.

Nestled in the middle of the picture is my 29p impulse purchase. A bag of olives...I have plans for those!


So, here's what I bought from Sainsbury's

Lemon curd         - 22p

Mixed herbs        - 14p

Kidney Beans      - 18p

Eggs                    - 85p

1 onion                - 9p
Flour                   - 52p


And, here's what I bought from Quality Save...

Soup & broth mix - 55p for 500g (100g = 11p)

Olive oil                - £1.39

Olives                   - 29p

Porridge oats         - 49p

The eagle eyed among you will have spotted the box of Lancashire tea. I got a box of 80 for 99p from Quality Save, that works out at 1.24p a bag. I will allow myself 10 bags (two bags a day), which is 12p.

So, my total for the week is £4.40. This leaves me 60p, which I will use to buy some tinned tomatoes (I forgot today) and I also intend to use to buy some seasoning from our store cupboard. I couldn't justify buying a new jar of spices when we had some open jars in the house. As well as showing the limitations of shopping with £1, this campaign has also highlighted, for me, the amount of waste there is. So I'll calculate how much a teaspoon will be from a new jar and use appropriately.

Obsessing...just a little

I am beginning to obsess a little bit about what lies ahead next week. I've been mooching around the shops in Urmston looking for the bargains.

I've got a strategy of sorts, I'm going to start in Quality Save, head to Bernard Murray for my eggs (he's the cheapest for eggs as far as I can see) and then off to Sainsbury's - without looking at Costa, and trying not to smell the chip smell from Charlie's Chips - for the rest of my shopping.

I have the basic idea of a meal plan for the week, but I'm beginning to get a bit worried as it gets closer. I spent this afternoon doing an online shop, trying to get the basket just right, and I went 26p over. And that was BEFORE tea.

On the tea front, I've decided I will have to purchase individual tea bags from a pre-bought box of tea and ration them out during the week. I will be channelling my Irish roots and putting a pot on the stove. By then end of the week I will be able to spoon the tea out of the pot it will be that thick and that well stewed.

I'm already starting to look at food differently, and realising just how much food we waste during a day. I can guarantee you that next week, I won't be wasting food, I might even have to resort to eating pulses, and I don't do things with middles. Not even baked beans, sweetcorn or Revels. It's the unknown dry chewy bit lurking on the inside that I don't trust, but I might need to get over it for a week, or go hungry.

Making the most of NOT living below the line

This has certainly been a weekend of indulgence and one that is out of the ordinary. A bank holiday weekend and my eldest's 6th birthday has meant a lot of eating. There has been lots of cake, chocolate, sandwiches, crisps - in short a lot of frivolous food, all washed down with a mug of tea.

I've calculated, that in this household we probably spend about £5 a day on food. I'm not just talking about the set three meals, there are all the other bits that get me through the day. I own a biscuit barrel after all, and then there's the odd bit of fruit I nibble on, and the occasional slice of toast when I'm that little bit extra peckish.

It's easy to use platitudes and say that we take what we have for granted, but as I try to work out my shopping list for next week's challenge and figure out where I'm going to go shopping, and what I'm going to buy, I realise that I eat a lot more than I think I do on a daily basis. 

When I signed up for this challenge, I didn't think it would be easy, but I thought it would be less difficult, I'm not that naive, but I did think - rather smugly - that I'm quite a frugal person at the best of times, so I'll manage. However, I'm now beginning to come to terms with the fact that my idea of frugality certainly doesn't extend to my eating arrangements.

And, after such a wonderful family weekend, filled with laughter, presents, cake, food, and more food I realise that I actually take a lot of pleasure out of eating. It's a social experience, I enjoy sitting down with my family, talking and...eating.

So, with just seven days to go until I exist on a fifth of my current budget, I'm going to make the most of living above the line and finish off the birthday cake!

The Rules!

Of course, there are rules...just to keep me on track and to stop me wavering, but as usual I signed up without reading them first.
This makes it a whole lot harder.

• For five days I can spend no more than £1 a day on food and drink.
• This means I have a total of £5 with which to buy all ingredients for my meals.
• The full cost of all the items I consume must be included in my budget. This means budgeting for whole packets of food items such as rice, pasta, noodles and eggs etc.
• For items such as salt, pepper, herbs and spices, simply work out the cost of each item per gram and budget shopping proportionally. Separate items before the challenge so there’s no need to be digging around in cupboards.
• I can’t grab a cheeky snack from the cupboard unless I include the cost of buying the item new in my budget.
• I can use food sourced from my garden as long as I can account for the price of production! (I think dandelions are free to produce, but I'm not sure I want to eat them).
• No combination of meals on any given day can exceed the £1 spending limit. This is a challenge to eat creatively and to be enjoyed – I mustn't at any point deprive myself of three meals a day.
• I cannot accept ‘donated’ food from family or friends, but monetary donations towards my fundraising goals are acceptable, and encouraged!
• I am allowed to drink tap water.
• Thankfully, I don't smoke, but I'm seriously worried about my tea habit.

Erm...

In a fit of post breakfast enthusiasm, I decided it was time I should stop reading about other people who have 'lived below the line' and do it myself.

Fortified by fresh milk and cereal I signed up to live on £1 a day for five days during Christian Aid Week (13-19 May).

I will be spending the next week and a half studying my dietary needs and translating them to £1 a day...I will have to do my shopping at shops I can walk to, it seems a bit of a cheat to drive to the nearest cheap retailer. So, it's Sainsbury's Basics, Co-op and Urmston market only.

As a vegetarian, I won't have the expense of meat to buy, but fresh milk, cheese, quorn and tofu will be luxury items I will have to forgo. This will be tough for me, no cheese! That's going to be really hard. I'm also wondering about cups of tea...I am someone who needs two cups before I can raise a smile in the morning, I am going to have to find a way of working tea into my budget, or come up with a workable substitute.

I do hope you will check back to see how I'm getting on, if you want to donate, please follow this link www.livebelowtheline.com/me/jennibeaumont and help me raise £100.