anyone taking up the live below the line challenge?

imataloss

One of the reporters from our local newspaper has been doing the challenge this week. He is struggling slightly. Maybe he should have come on here before he started:

http://www.birminghammail.net/news/top-stories/2011/04/11/mail-reporter-lives-on-1-a-day-diet-for-a-week-97319-28498977/

This is from his first day experiences you can find days 2-4 on the website.

Biggles

baad2dabone wrote: »

They're not giving them religion.

The Sally Army don't go anywhere without spreading whatever they think is The Word.

PasturesNew

It's much easier for 2 to live on £10 for the 5 days, or 4 to live on £20, because of the opportunities for bulk buying, compared to 1 living on £5.

PasturesNew

With my £5 I'd buy 2.5kg of spuds (£1), 4 cans of Asda beans (£1), loaf of bread (£1), bag of value grated cheese (£1) and a dozen eggs (£1)

That gives me combinations of:
Jacket spud with cheese
Jacket spud with beans
Egg, chips, beans
Egg, chips
Omelette
Cheese Omelette
Cheese/Potato Pie and beans
Cheese/Potato cakes fried, with an egg or beans
Toast
Beans on toast
Cheese on toast
Toasted cheese sandwich
Cheese sandwich
Scrambled egg on toast

.... and loads more

415SanFran

That reporter could have done a lot better had he bought cheaper brands.

Derivative

Not sure if anyone mentioned tinned tuna as a good source of protein either, 40p for a tin. Probably not advisable to eat tuna 5 days though due to mercury content.

I do about £15-£20 for 7 days and that includes chicken, cake, and other luxury stuff.

I can only see £1/day being hard if you're not allowed to say, buy everything on day 1. Would be a bit silly spending 88p on pasta and then eating nothing but pasta all day.

Doom_and_Gloom

That is not easy. For one person that is £5 for 5 days.
1kg rice = 60p
500g yellow split peas = 49p
Tinned tomatoes x2 = 62p
1L soya milk = 59p
Onions x3 = 36p
1kg carrots = 50p
500g oats = 62p
500g saltanas = 64p
800g wholemeal bread = 47p
= £4.89

Breakfast - porridge (made with water), with saltanas and a 200ml glass of soya milk.

Lunch/Dinner - Yellow split pea soup with bread/rice.

Snacks - plain rice, plain toast or saltanas

Drink a lot of water :rotfl:.

Can't really get a varied or very healthy diet with £5 and no store cupboard.

ceridwen

PasturesNew wrote: »

With my £5 I'd buy 2.5kg of spuds (£1), 4 cans of Asda beans (£1), loaf of bread (£1), bag of value grated cheese (£1) and a dozen eggs (£1)

That gives me combinations of:
Jacket spud with cheese
Jacket spud with beans
Egg, chips, beans
Egg, chips
Omelette
Cheese Omelette
Cheese/Potato Pie and beans
Cheese/Potato cakes fried, with an egg or beans
Toast
Beans on toast
Cheese on toast
Toasted cheese sandwich
Cheese sandwich
Scrambled egg on toast

.... and loads more

You made a good point that food is dearer for a singlie (ie no economies of scale).

Two things that struck me here are:
- you could make your own bread for less than £1 (I suspect thats what mine costs per loaf and its a "top end" product - so certainly "basic" bread could be made cheaper than that).

- nothing to put on the bread (eg butter).

So - have you - or anyone else either - got any ideas as to cheap (but healthy! - ie no cheapie breadspreads) things to use on toast instead of butter. Would peeps try making homemade peanut butter from Value peanuts - or what else could peeps use (as butter would be deemed too expensive)?

Softstuff

ceridwen wrote: »

So - have you - or anyone else either - got any ideas as to cheap (but healthy! - ie no cheapie breadspreads) things to use on toast instead of butter. Would peeps try making homemade peanut butter from Value peanuts - or what else could peeps use (as butter would be deemed too expensive)?

With a sandwich or anything on toast, I don't use anything at all on the bread. Never found I needed it. Just to have on toast on its own we have value strawberry jam. I found when I read the ingredients here that the fruit content, though low, was comparable to even the much dearer versions, and it's a bit of a sweet treat.

level200

easy. i'll just do what everyone else does who lives below the poverty line, in this order:

1) fags
2) Booze
3) Drugs
4) £1 left for food each week