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