Hayley's Live Below the Line Challenge : Day 7

Day 7 - Monday 7th January 2013

Monday's Menu
Breakfast: 50g Porridge Oats, Plum and Small pot of yoghurt.
Lunch: No lunch today - wanted to save the cup a soup to go with dinner
Dinner: Veggie Scrambled egg with rice soup (1 Egg, 3 tbsp of Veggies, 1 small onion, sachet of cup a soup.

Tasty, but better eaten with eyes closed!

Today I decided to not have lunch. I was getting a little fed up of plain or stock covered rice so wanted to add a different flavour to my dinner. Having forgoten to buy spices last week, cup a soup was the best I could do in terms of flavour. Using this I made rice soup to accompany some veggie scrambled eggs. I am aware the outcome resemble varying forms of vomit, but I have to say it was by far my most satisfying meal yet!

I have spent today thinking about the food I was going to buy for week 2. I have done very well rationing the food I bought last week and so have been able to carry across quite a few things for the upcoming week. I still have some onions, half a bag of rice, half a bag of porridge, 3/4 of a bag of frozen vegetables, 70 tea bags and half a bottle of squash. When planning the shop I wanted to make sure that I thoroughly thought about the mixture of meals I could make. Buying products that could be used in a variety of ways and would incorporate my week 1 left overs. I have realised that on a small budget, planning is key, and so I spent a lot of time browsing the web costing foods and planning rough recipes.

Tesco's Shop

I had £6 to spend to cover 7 days (remember the tea slip up on day one which cost me £1 a week for the next two weeks). I went to Tesco's to get the majority of my shop. The everyday range is another friend I have made this week. Everything is so cheap, its amazing! The best thing I found was a jar of of curry sauce for 23p!!! I'm holding my breath though, it may be disgusting. Sometimes these things are cheap for a reason. Take week 1's instant custard (7p), I was expecting a delicious dessert, but found my self eating something that resembled radioactive waste.

I am hoping that this weeks purchases will allow me to create a few more interesting meals. Adding a bit of variety will definitely help me to keep motivated.

I made the decision to avoid fresh fruit and go with frozen. Firstly you get more for your pound and secondly as there is a variety of fruits in the pack I purchased. This meant I would hopefully be getting a few more vitamins. I want to make sure I am having a portion of fruit each day. The most cost effective way to do this with fresh fruit, was buying a punnet of one type of fruit. Not only is it boring having the same piece of fruit every day, but also the fruit doesn't always last that well. In the case of the plums I bought this week by Saturday they have become quite sour and mushy, gross. So therefore it seemed wise to go with frozen, which definitely was the luxury of the week.

Week 2's Purchases

I have been doing a lot of research into how others have managed the live below the line. I noticed that a lot of people had purchased store cupboard products from their own cupboard, these had obviously been bought prior to the start of the challenge. Purchasing in this way meant one could buy a small amount of a product rather than buying the whole packet which would not be used.
In many developing countries people would visit markets and buy the exact amount of such products that they need so, I didn't feel this was cheating.

There was a couple of basics I really missed last week such as spices, sugar (a must for watery porridge) and oil (I have been frying with water). I therefore looked at the prices of a whole pack/bottle of these products and worked out how much they each were by gram or litre. If I could afford them they were added to the shop.

Today's shopping trip has challenged me. Is shopping below the line the same as living below the line? I think I have been fairly thrifty and found some good bargains. I will again be missing some of the vital food groups this week, but I will be having fair amount of variety. There is so much choice available to us in the UK and the rest of the western world. Our supermarket shelves have multiple brands or varieties of any food, and there are always discounts or offers available. It is therefore relatively easy, if you try hard enough, to have some variety in your diet even on a microscopic budget.

Food should be enjoyed, and being able to experiment with different recipes and try different flavours is part of that enjoyment. The majority of people living in developing countries don't have the luxury of being able to buy lots of different ingredients. They don't have big supermarkets or two for one deals. Even if they wanted to have variety, they probably couldn't afford it. Of course there are people living below the line in developed countries who do have the luxury of supermarkets, and so the above may not apply, but variety is not a luxury available to all worldwide.

This challenge has taught me how thrift can get you a long way, and planning your meals can get you even further. I have definitely shopped below the line today, but am I going to truly live below the line this week? Yes, on average, I will have only spent a pound a day on food, but I do have a fair amount of variety for my meals. I will be able to experiment with recipes and my daily meal will consist of more than rice and vegetables. Don't get me wrong this week will still be a challenge on many other levels, hunger, avoiding food in social situations etc. However, each day I become more aware that this challenge will never bring close to understanding the reality of life for that 1.4 billion living below the extreme poverty line.

I want to say a big thank you to every one who has supported me over the past week. I especially want to thank those who have sponsored. I am quarter of the way to my target, wouldn't it be great if I could reach it before the end of January! Please sponsor me today by clicking on the link below.

http://www.justgiving.com/hayley-Jane-Faulkner

Thank you.

x

As a side note, I found the below photos. They are examples of extreme cases, but I felt the showed the significant difference between those who have and those who don't.