£5 for five days

snowleopard61

Hi, I hadn't seen your posts until now

Had a quick look at the link but it seems as if you have to sign up before you find out more about it. Is the idea that you live on £1 a day and pay the difference between that and your usual expenses to your chosen charity? I think there was an article in a recent Prima magazine about the challenge.

Does it work like the Kath Kelly £1 a day?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7622792.stm
- i.e. is it literally £1 a day rather than £5 for five days? I often thought this was the most difficult thing about her self-imposed project, i.e. that while she could put any leftover money towards the next day, she couldn't put the week's money in a pot and make a whole week's food in advance.

I wouldn't mind doing it, but in my case I'm not sure the charity would get much out of it in the end!:o

HappyMJ

snowleopard61 wrote: »

Hi, I hadn't seen your posts until now

Had a quick look at the link but it seems as if you have to sign up before you find out more about it. Is the idea that you live on £1 a day and pay the rest to your chosen charity? I think there was an article in a recent Prima magazine about the challenge.

Does it work like the Kath Kelly £1 a day?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7622792.stm
- i.e. is it literally £1 a day rather than £5 for five days?

It's £5 for 5 days Monday to Friday....and only on food and drink. All other bills are excluded. You can muliply the figure by the number of people in the household. 2 adults and 2 children can spend £20 on the Sunday before on food/drink shopping that will last from Monday to Friday. You can't eat or drink anything else over the 5 days apart from a few store cupboard spices. Cleaning and personal hygiene products are excluded.

I often thought this was the most difficult thing about her self-imposed project, i.e. that while she could put any leftover money towards the next day, she couldn't put the week's money in a pot and make a whole week's food in advance.

I wouldn't mind doing it, but in my case I'm not sure the charity would get much out of it in the end!:o

You would donate the difference between what you would normally spend and £5. It isn't that hard.

LE3

yes, the idea is that charity gets the difference, but part of me just wants to do it for the challenge too!

The biggest problem that I'm having so far with trying to plan for it is the size of packets that you can buy - I may end up having to do 10 days on £10 instead just to match the size of packets you can buy in the shops!

Pink.

Hi LE3.

I've added your posts to the existing thread on this topic.

Pink

snowleopard61

HappyMJ wrote: »

You would donate the difference between what you would normally spend and £5. It isn't that hard.

Sorry, what I actually meant was that there wouldn't be very much difference between that and what I do normally spend! - especially given that they are talking about food only. But it's still probably worth doing.

Boodle

Hi everyone I will be doing the challenge again this year. Last year I followed this thread here so should be plenty of ideas revising 2011's thread.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3171378

Last year I halved the allowance for the children (they are still little) but this year I will keep it the same as for the adults.

I agree it is easy to do this for only 5 days (not even a full week!) and managed to get a relatively balanced diet last time for us, but to sustain that over an indefinite period must be near on impossible (hence the rise in sending people to food banks lately, but that's another gripe...)

Anyway, I'm looking forward to seeing everyone's plans and meal ideas.

System

I couldn't live off a fiver for 5 days. I'd die.

I dont keep a well stocked cupboard and the cupboards are literally bare the day before my groceries come and theres no way i could feed the 3 of us for 5 days. I'd die too.:(

Boodle

Judi wrote: »

I dont keep a well stocked cupboard and the cupboards are literally bare the day before my groceries come and theres no way i could feed the 3 of us for 5 days. I'd die too.:(

Hi Judi x Last year, the challenge included buying things from scratch, assuming a bare cupboard (or at least I did it that way, tho I think i remember I might have cheated with things that were leftover, will be more strict this time ). There were some great ideas with menu plans and shopping lists on last year's thread if you fancy a browse and having a go. I'm not sure I could keep it up indefinitely tho

System

Boodle wrote: »

Hi Judi x Last year, the challenge included buying things from scratch, assuming a bare cupboard (or at least I did it that way, tho I think i remember I might have cheated with things that were leftover, will be more strict this time ). There were some great ideas with menu plans and shopping lists on last year's thread if you fancy a browse and having a go. I'm not sure I could keep it up indefinitely tho

No you cant tempt me. Saying that if i lived alone i'd probably be stricter with myself.

My diet has changed over the last 2 years.... No snacking, the odd treat and nothing to eat after my evening meal. I'm pretty rigid about that as its helping keep my weight down but ive more than once thought about only drinking water. Its got to be better for me than 4 litres of cola a week, and the odd drink of tea and coffee. I always eat cereal for breakfast which would take care of my calcium intake from the milk but ive yet to put my thoughts into practise. Drinking only water would cut costs somewhat... so would going vegetarian and ive thought about that too.

LE3

thanks for the link to last year's thread ... some ideas there ...
my biggest problem are my food allergies - I have a couple of ideas which I'll share later when I've got a better idea of costs that I can't find online!