Day Five - the final day

Knowing it was the last day filled me with great enthusiasm for the day, which is a good job because I hadn't saved a lot of food for the last day.

I decided to have chilli for dinner, and save the final two eggs to make an omelette at teatime.

As you can see, not much chilli left for the last day!

It worked out ok, and if I had been starving I had quite a bit of porridge left so I wouldn't have keeled over. Thankfully I didn't starve.

My husband and children on the other hand decided that as it was Friday, a chippy tea was in order! There's nothing like support from your family.

Now my five days are up, what have I learned?

Well, it is possible to exist for five days living on £1 day, but it's not enjoyable, there is no choice, and you are constantly hungry.
But in too many ways, that is just a simple eye opening exercise. I didn't need to use my £1 a day to pay for anything other than food. When I had a headache on day 2, I took two paracetamol - and I didn't budget for them! When I was tired and achy after a day of gardening today (day 5) I had a long hot bath.

During the shopping exercise, I noticed so much about our own habits. We quite often pay more money for less. For instance, skimmed milk is more expensive that full fat, I suppose there is a higher processing cost involved in removing the fat, but it seems that we have got our economics a bit skewed. In reality, fresh fruit and veg were definitely off my agenda, as was fresh milk.

I had planned to go shopping on day five for my breakfast, but I couldn't be bothered, there seemed to be something inherently wrong with buying food that I had deprived myself of. As I wake up on my first day off the challenge, I'm going to have a mug of tea, and a bowl of porridge, made with milk and topped with banana.

Thank you for reading this far, and for staying with me, and most of all - thank you for sponsoring me!

Day four - and feeling positive

Ok...not that positive. I don't think I've got enough chilli to see me through to the end, so I envisage my Friday night being an early to bed night.

But I'm not there yet, but I am counting my eggs and I've got two left, and that means just one day to go.

I am hugely relieved that the challenge is nearly over, because I want a cup of tea, because I want some milk, because I want to eat, and quite frankly now the sun is out, I'd quite like a beer too!

But I've not eaten all my eggs yet, so I know I've still got one day left.

On Tuesday, I declared quite confidently that I probably wouldn't do this challenge again next year. My memory of last year was coloured by my own euphoria in succeeding. But now I've made it to Thursday, and looking back on the week, I wouldn't rule out doing the challenge again next year.

The challenge teaches you a lot. The limited shopping budget makes you focus on what is really important to your daily life, and I'm not just talking about food. I feel I've been a better mum this week for doing it. I've been hungry and tired, but I've appreciated the joys my children bring me all the more. I've not been wrapped up in making 'meals' or housework (although, to be fair, I'm rarely overly concerned about that). We have all eaten together (some of us better than others), but I have had enjoyed the little things about those shared experiences more.

Tomorrow, I'll go shopping for the bank holiday weekend. We plan to have picnics, and we're entering birthday season in this house. I may even sneak a little breakfast in for me for Saturday morning - and some extra special teabags...

Day three - powered by lemon curd

I was a bit disorganised at breakfast today, I would like to say it is because I haven't had a lot to eat, but unfortunately I'm just not good in the morning.

Anyway, the upshot was that by the time I ate my porridge it had gone cold. It was a little bit like eating porridge flavoured jelly. And, surprisingly, it was more edible that way - either that or I'm no longer bothered by the lack of banana.

At dinnertime (or lunch, if you're that way inclined) I got a real boost. One of the reasons I like buying 6 eggs is that it's a bit like a mini advent calendar. It is counting down my progress to the last day. So, when I took out my egg to poach, I was left with just three eggs, and I know one is spare. That means I'm more than half way through the challenge, which after the problems the second day presented me with, I am very pleased about.

After dinner, I then got a motivational email from Stephen at Live Below the Line, cheering me on and underlining the fact that the challenge is more than half way through. Also, this week has raised more than £500,000 which is absolutely incredible. And my sponsors have helped get that money.

I don't do sentimentality, but I'm pretty impressed!

I have snacked constantly throughout the day on flatbread and lemon curd, and I'm beginning to worry if I'll have enough lemon curd to last me to Friday. But then, I've still got that egg...I cracked open the olives today, which were 'rellenados' (I love that word, it's Spanish for stuffed) and I have made a tapenade. Today's poached egg flatbread had a generous topping of tapenade. I don't like olives as a general rule, but when you're hungry and craving a taste, they are immense.

Tomorrow, I need to ration the lemon curd a bit, but I'm feeling much more positive today. The hunger pains have subsided, although I'm vaguely absent minded, and typing is more complicated all of a sudden.

My inspiration for today...

Day two

I'm a bit late (well, more than a bit) with day two's post!
I woke up yesterday thinking I was dying. I had a bit of a late night on Monday with going to the theatre, and woke up at 3am with a hollow feeling (hunger) and a banging headache.
Clearly, going cold turkey on caffeine is not a good move.

I didn't take any pictures today, getting through the day was trouble enough, and I was struggling to find many positives to share - except that it is for a good cause.

So, if you've not already seen this video from the IF campaign, can I ask you to spare two and a half minutes of your life.

Today's menu was exactly the same as yesterday's menu.

It was a very long day, with an early and not spectacularly great start, it finished with good night's sleep.

Day one

The first day has been ok - and Mondays are busy days in this house with after school activities.

I have made a chilli with the kidney beans, pearl barley, peas, and lentils which I have put in the slow cooker. I am hoping it will last me the week. But one tin of beans, and one tin of tomatoes does not make for a large portions.

The kidney beans, onion, oil and 6g of spices.

 The soaked pearl barley, peas, split peas and lentils.

And all mixed together in the slow cooker.

For breakfast I had porridge made with water. Foregoing my usual milk, banana and maple syrup toppings was quite tough, but I think I can make it through the five days with just water.

I chose to make my own bread again this year, because I can keep my hunger pangs at bay if I snack on a little flatbread and lemon curd throughout the day.

I also use the flatbread to hold my poached egg at lunch, and to dip into my tea time chilli.

The main difficulty today was that I was at the theatre this evening, working! And, doing theatre reviews on press night also comes with a free glass of wine, or orange juice. What a lush! And, what a trauma. The wine was free, nobody expected me to offer up my spare 2p in exchange for the drink. But LBTL rules strictly state that only water is free, all other drinks must be budgeted for, and I cannot accept any gifts of food or drink during the five days.

So, while my companion sipped a nice chilled glass of white wine,


I swigged from my daughter's water bottle!

The shopping list - 2013 style

We had an exceptionally busy weekend, with some celebrations on Saturday so it meant that the shopping had to wait until Sunday.

I had been contemplating starting the challenge a day early (Sunday) because I thought that psychologically that would be easier, but the busy-ness of the weekend meant that I didn't actually go shopping until Sunday.

When I signed up to this year's challenge, I thought that it might be easier this year than last, because we have quite a few shops in Urmston town centre now. Not least Aldi, which everyone knows is generally cheaper than most high street supermarkets.

I had also been a little bit excited by this news article in the Guardian. But buying gin was out of the question with just £5 for five days - award winning or not.

I suppose my participation last year, and the introduction of new and cheaper shops meant that I was a little bit complacent about my shopping this year. I thought it might be easier, and didn't do the same amount of food research before buying my food than I did last year.

It is a very artificial scenario - just five days - but nobody would choose to live on £1 a day for any extended period of time. There is no room for luxury with £1 a day. And, people who do live below the poverty line, don't enjoy the luxury choice in deciding where to buy their shopping from. The additional shops in Urmston have just added to my own riches. I have greater choice and freedom to decide where to spend my £5.

I decided to go for the same shopping list as last year, what I hadn't really considered - even though I've noticed over the rest of the year in my own shopping habits - is the rising cost of food. I only had £5 to spend last year, and I had just £5 to spend this year. But I bought a lot less.

From Quality Save I bought:

Olive oil - £1.69
Porridge - 49p
Olives - 29p
Tin tomatoes - 29p


Aldi

Plain flour - 45p
Eggs - £1

Sainsbury's

Lemon curd - 22p (this is the cheapest lemon curd I've seen)
1 onion - 10p
Tin red kidney beans - 21p

From my store cupboard I bought

100g soup and broth mix - 11p (500g is 55p in Quality Save, but I thought it was a waste of food to buy a new bag for this challenge when I had an open one in the cupboard at home)

6g mild chilli powder - 12p. (I checked the price of the one I had in my cupboard on Mysupermarket and I calculated the price. It's Tesco Mild Chilli Powder, 95p for 50g)

Total spend: £4.98

One month to go before Live Below the Line 2013

I have signed up again for Live Below the Line.

Check back to see how I'm getting on as I get ready for the challenge this year.

Below is my blog from last year's challenge, I will be revisiting it myself, to see how I did it last time!