anyone taking up the live below the line challenge?

7_week_wonder

raphanius wrote: »

First draft shopping list and menu


Theres no money for wholefoods, diet products, fairtrade, organic or higher welfare foods.

I was gob-smacked to find out that Sainsbury's value Tea-bags (same price as Tescos) are fairtrade!

I'm impressed you managed to fit in some puddings and tea and coffee. They were the first things that had to go on when I did my menu

quintwins

it won't let me quote (mse isn't loading right for me) but i just wanted to add tesco bread flour is £1.24 at the mo asda is around 68p tho

raphanius

in reality if i was on such a tight budget all the time i would be hunting down the best prices in netto and lidl as well as the main supermarkets and perhaps using my local fruit and veg market if i was in town. its just easier to use my supermarket at the moment.

rachbc

My menu so far

breakfast - porridge, with half milk and water and brown sugar
lunch - hm roll with cream cheese, hm pnb or salami,bacon and split pea soup for me (with a yogurt, some raisins and carrot sticks for the kids)

Dinners - pizza, pasta and bacon, pasta bolognese, sausage, mash and veg, fried rice with chicken

Snacks - oaty biscuits, raisins, milk for dd

Shopping list

tea bags 81p
milk 2x 4 pint £2
oats 75p
butter 98p
bread flour 50p
yeast 28p
sr flour 57p
pasta 67p
rice 54p
1 pk bacon 99p
200g mince beef £1
2 chicken thighs £1
3x tins toms 93p
1 pk salami 99p
1 pk cream cheese 59p
1 pk peanuts 37p
Raisins 64p
Split peas 54p
Mozarella 47p
Demerara 49p
Sausages 99p
salt 23p
2x 6pk kids yogs £1.19

£17.52

All prices are based on adsa/ aldi or supplies of things i have in already (sugar and bread flour)
With any left I will go to the market/ aldi and get as much fresh fruit and veg as I can - either aldi super 6 or whatever is cheap - will need onions (x4), carrots (1kg) , spuds (500g), and at least 10 pieces of fruit...happy to be flexible depending on what is around.

Have decided that I wll allow dd to have the free fruit she gets at preschool at snack time. If she gets sweets that other kids give out for birthdays etc she can save til the end of the week!

pink_numbers

OK here is our first draft (OH and myself, so £10) These are all from ASDA.

Onions 1kg - £0.50
Savoy Cabbage - £0.76
Carrots 2kg - £0.76
Smartprice UHT milk 1L x2 = £1.04
Smartpirce beef mince 400g - £0.96
Tomato puree 145g x 2 = £0.50
Oxo beef cube 6 - £0.54
Smartprice porrige oats 1kg - £0.75
Fussili pasta 1 kg - £0.90
Pearl barley 500g - £0.38
Dried kidney beans 500g - £0.98
Everday coffee dark 227g - £1.37

Total = £9.44

the left over 56p would count for salt, spices and HM jam that we'd use (we checked the rules and it said this is ok as long as we can account for the cost... HM jam was so cheap since foraged fruits!)

First, I would make a tomato mince mix using some onions, 1 tin of tomato puree, the beef mince, all bulked out with oats and grated carrots. This would then be split into:
Bolognaise
Chilli (with some kidney beans) to serve with pasta
Soup base




Breakfast - porridge with milk & HM jam

lunch:
pearl barley salad (pearl barley, kidney beans, grated carrots)
Clear veg soup made with an oxo cube, vegs, pearl bearly (probably do us for two days)
Soup pasta - basically the soup above, but with some pasta too!

Dinner:
Bolognase with pasta
Chilli with pasta
Pearl barley risotto
tomato veg soup with some of the tom mince mix, pearl barley and kidney beans & some puree (do us for 2 days)

rachbc

Ooh just remembered I have frozen blackberries and bilberries from foraging last year -thats a couple of pud/ fruit portions each to add in - thinking a 'crisp' with buttery, oating topping or a cobler...or just stewed on porridge

Justamum

rachbc wrote: »

Yep, just signed up. FVD - its £1 per person per day to include all food and drink for that day including the full cost of all items for each meal - so no shopping from your cupboards or freezer and if you buy a pack of pasta you count the cost of the whole thing not just what you eat - so basically everything you eat in that 5 days for £5 but no individual day to exceed £1.

So does that mean that if you buy a bag of pasta but don't eat the whole thing in one day, you still count the cost of the whole thing, put the rest in your cupboard and then aren't allowed to use the rest of it during the challenge?

GlowGirl

7_week_wonder wrote: »

I was gob-smacked to find out that Sainsbury's value Tea-bags (same price as Tescos) are fairtrade!

I'm impressed you managed to fit in some puddings and tea and coffee. They were the first things that had to go on when I did my menu

Most of Sainsburys hot drinks - i.e the basics range - are fairtrade! :T

The hot chocolate is lovely

baad2dabone

Justamum wrote: »

So does that mean that if you buy a bag of pasta but don't eat the whole thing in one day, you still count the cost of the whole thing, put the rest in your cupboard and then aren't allowed to use the rest of it during the challenge?

The rules say:

"The full cost of all the items you consume must be included in your budget. This means budgeting for whole packets of food items such as rice, pasta, noodles and eggs etc."

You can keep using them, but whatever food you buy for the 5 days has then got to last the 5 days (if that makes sense) - check out the Rules page at livebelowtheline.org.uk/how-to-participate/rules/ for all the do's and don'ts.

Xevius

Do you think it's cheating to buy the shopping in 2 lots....first time getting a few whoopsies (eg meat), rush home to do your meal plan based on those, then do a second trip to get the staples?