anyone taking up the live below the line challenge?

raphanius

Yesterday, we started off with the cornflakes in oatmilk

i've never heard of oatmilk. wht is it?

Boodle

Hi guys It seems I am not allowed to multi-quote more than three people...?

raphanius There is also an organic version available + a flavoured one. We prefer it to rice milk and we try not to have too much soya. It has a nice creaminess, without the oaty/flouriness we find the SoGood brand has.

jackieglasgow As long as you bring your extra £7 for the week you are welcome :rotfl:

kittikins, ceridwen and frugalista I have been posting my recipes in full here - I didn't want to bore everyone with all the intricate details by posting all the ins-and-outs and blocking up the thread

Also, ceridwen thank you for your comment on the menu especially as I know you avoid white sugar and processed foods as much as possible yourself. I certainly had to make more compromises than I thought I would have to.

Doom and Gloom The basics tea is decent enough (although I realise everyone's tastes are different.) Sainsbury's basics tea is fair trade and we usually actually buy it from there as we have Sainsbury's nearby. But Tesco and Asda are also fine. One of the brands is weaker than the others and I can't quite remember which - Asda I think, but memory could be failing me.

For breakfast, it was cornflakes for everyone again, except me (I had two oaty biscuits with a cuppa instead... shhh....) For lunch we had the remaining lentil and peanut loaf toasted til slightly crisp with colcannon.
ETA: Dinner was a sort of kidney bean "chilli". Not keen much on the value curry powder and so if making the "chilli" again with the same ingredients, I would just leave the spice out altogether. We had the "chilli" with flatbreads which were made with flour and cooled veg stock.

Doom_and_Gloom

Thank you about your veiws on the basic tea Boodle . Will probably mean one tea per bag instead of 2 or 3 like I usually do, lol.

Way off topic - Boodle you do know the oatly chocolate milk isn't vegan right? Just thought I would say as I believe you are vegan.

Boodle

Doom_and_Gloom wrote: »

Thank you about your veiws on the basic tea Boodle . Will probably mean one tea per bag instead of 2 or 3 like I usually do, lol.

Way off topic - Boodle you do know the oatly chocolate milk isn't vegan right? Just thought I would say as I believe you are vegan.

I didn't know that so thank you Luckily, when we have bought choc milk for the girls we have gone for the soya choc milk as DD likes the packaging - scary how young they are when the marketing begins to start working but at least it was to our advantage in this case :cool:

medsdemon

I'd love to have a go at this challenge but I'm not sure how feasible it is since DH is on a GF wheat free diet. It rules out alot of the cheap food ie porridge, cheap bread, flour, stock cubes etc but i might have a shot at a meal plan and see how I get on.


Oh and on the subject of cheap tea we always buy the Sainsbury's basic anyway and it is so much better than the Asda/Tesco equivalent. We find it no different than PG or tetley.

Kittikins

Boodle - thank you so much for the link to your blog, I'm trying to take the plunge to go vegan, after being a mixture of veggie/pescetarian for 30 years, and so yummy frugal vegan recipes are very welcome in the Kittikins household. I don't think I'll have much luck with DD, as she loves her milk/cheese but I can but subtly try....

dibblersan

medsdemon wrote: »

I'd love to have a go at this challenge but I'm not sure how feasible it is since DH is on a GF wheat free diet. It rules out alot of the cheap food ie porridge, cheap bread, flour, stock cubes etc but i might have a shot at a meal plan and see how I get on.


Oh and on the subject of cheap tea we always buy the Sainsbury's basic anyway and it is so much better than the Asda/Tesco equivalent. We find it no different than PG or tetley.

If he's gluten free due to crones or similar then (in this country) he might be able to get an amount gluten free (bread pasta and the like) off the nhs.

Given the live below the line varies from county to country as to cost of items and avalibility, you could either live below the line as someone in the uk and keep the nhs subs, or you could just sub out the cost of the item - I'm not sure what he has instead but he have 100g of (?) and you count it as 100g bread in the budget?

Boodle

Thought I'd give a catch-up on what we had yesterday: started with cornflakes and oatmilk (no prunes left, sadly.) Lunch was peanut butter sandwiches with carrot sticks and satsuma segments. I am actually surprised at how quickly we are getting through the carrots so am trying to be frugal with them; we usually have other veggies to share their burden I guess. The cabbage is still fab though as I couldn't find the Market Value Cabbage but found Tesco's "Greens" on special offer for 48p - the pack has two generously leafed vegetables in there and they don't really loose much volume in cooking like a lot of greens do. We made some jam tarts which we had mid-afternoon; the pastry filled us up so we had dinner a bit later (pasta with chick peas and greens.) Because of the later dinner, the girls weren't interested in a supper (it would have probably have been porridge) and just had their cups of oat milk.

Hope everyone's planning and prep is going well x

Kittikins
It has taken eldest over a year to start enjoying alternative milks (she prefers Oatly unless it is flavoured, in which case she likes soya ones). It is the same for me with cheese actually. I think it just takes a while for tastebuds to readjust from being used to the unique taste of animal produce, but now although I remember it tasting nice I once drank a cup of tea someone had put dairy milk in and it tasted rank!
With children, it also depends on their age and nature I think, and how people around you react. If visiting family, for instance, are going to make a big deal of you giving her a different milk instead of the "usual" dairy then it will draw her attention to it iykwim? With my little one, the problem came when instead of just filling her cup up with the alternative milk, playschool made a big deal of pointing out how it was vegetarian milk and that it was magic and special lalala to "get" her to drink it and not feel different - doh I love that when DD now refers to her cheese and sausages or whatever, she refers to them as "vegetable cheese and sausages" rather than "vegetarian" as if it is a lesser version of what someone else is having. Amazing how much they pick up from other people's behaviour Good luck with your move into veganism x

Kittikins

Thanks Boodle - I'm a bit sneaky at times and mix soya milk with cow's/goat's milk in the carton and until the mix is too strong for her, she doesn't mind it. My OH who doesn't live with us is dairy/gluten free and so she's getting used to more non-dairy food in the house and enjoys it, but I think it'll be a slow process for us to move over and as OH is a real meat-eater, I can see that I may end up doing lots of cooking!

I'll get some Oatly and put it in a jug so she doesn't know it's not cow's milk and see how that goes down; I like it and the coconut milk a lot so fingers crossed. I had similar issues at DD's nursery when she was there, she was the only vegetarian in the whole nursery and occasionally made to feel like a pariah about it. I had to have strong words when I went in early one day and she was wearing an armband to show that she was different!!

Anyway, I love your blog and am getting lots of hints and tips off it, well done to everyone doing the challenge. I'm starting a storecupboard challenge as I am scarily skint and in danger of getting into debt, so apart from fresh fruit/veg/milk, I mustn't spend a bean in May......well, here's hoping!!

barbarawright

Interesting article in today's Guardian about someone taking up a challenge to eat on a £1 a day (he seems to have to buy new food rather than using up what's in the cupboard)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/apr/28/food-and-drink-poverty?INTCMP=SRCH