Blog post
Day one of the challenge - could you feed yourself for £1 a day ?
Well, it's day one and the biggest shock of all to me has been the planning and buying involved. Normally I know what food I need each week. I know what we will eat most nights and what food I can get that can be frozen should plans change. And I know enough by habit to know what I can buy without wasting anything.
But this weekend was difficult!! You'd think if you had less money it would take less time but working out just how much I could spend to ensure I had enough to eat over 5 days, and not going over £1 a day was hard......much harder than I thought. I am pretty loyal to my supermarket too - but I simply couldn't afford the full week's food from there unless I opted for swede soup for 5 days and that really would be pushing it (my husband did this for a week at university - never to be repeated!!). Searching for the lowest priced product took much longer and involved trekking around different shops and markets. Try it - it really is an eye opener.
My salvation is the fact I grow quite a lot of veg at home and so just have to take into account cost of production (minus my time) - for example my packet of leek seed cost me £1. I got over 100 leeks from that this winter and I garden without chemicals so each leek cost me just 1p.
So what did I buy?
| 1 sliced loaf | £0.47 |
| tom sauce | £0.21 |
| 4 jacket pots | £0.70 |
| 3 tins beans | £0.81 |
| 1 pack lentils | £0.83 |
| 3 onions (home grown) | £0.10 |
| 4 Leeks (home grown) | £0.04 |
| tin sweetcorn | £0.37 |
| 4 carrots (home grown) | £0.04 |
| 5 apples | £0.78 |
| 1 pack pasta | £0.15 |
| Mayonnaise | £0.48 |
| perennial herbs from gardens | £0.00 |
| week | = £4.98 |
Today I have had dry toast with a bit of tom sauce on top for breakfast (that's another thing - I had forgotten all about oil and butter - none of that for me in my budget!!) and a small jacket potato with beans for lunch. Actually not bad so far!
But am really missing my cups of tea and coffee - such simple things but the cost really adds up - and it's only half way through day one. At least a week of just water should be good for my health!
Tonight is pasta with a lentil sauce - I have some thyme in the garden which was there when we moved in so a couple of leaves should help that one along.
This really has opened my eyes and it's only day one. I am sure by day three I shall be really struggling with the lack of variety and options but I am really glad I'm doing this.
Simple things you take for granted make a huge difference.
For those of you on a budget this month why not take a look at our new two week meal planner - it's more than my current budget but great value helping you to enjoy tasty food without waste
For anyone inspired to try this challenge for themselves in May go to https://www.livebelowtheline.com/uk
And do come back tomorrow to see how it's all going...you never know I may even share my lentil sauce recipe with you!!!!!
Emma
Herbed mayonnaise is good on bread or toast.
Herb tea is good--mint and lemon balm are favorites, but others are good too.
Wow, your garden did well! I planted leeks a year ago and they are still like wisps of grass, the onions and shallots I started from sets (not seeds) and they barely got bigger (most are still in the ground hopefully they will grow this year). I planted 3 full packets of carrot seeds and got 4 that were barely a mouthfull. On the other hand, my potatoes did pretty well although none were really big enough for eating as jackets, and I had loads of french and runner beans.
I'm definitely going to try this soup! Leek and lenitls are two of my favourite foods! :)And it's so good to know that you are still blogging: I had a momentary panic yesterday when I thought I'd never be able to read your wonderful posts again.Regards,~S.
Ooh...yes please the lentil sauce recipe it EXACTLY what I need, pretty please!!
It is the little things like oil and butter that you miss isn't it. Last year I managed to get milk and some cheapo coffee with my money but it seriously impacted on the money left for food.
I did REALLY enjoy the cups of coffee though, so I'll be doing that again this year.
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