£1 A Day For Food and Drink For 2 For A Year!

Legacy_user

Hi everyone,

My names Scott, I'm 25 and new to this website. I have come across it dozens of times when researching things and thought it time to join.

After it taking me a good 20 minutes I worked out how to add a new thread Yay go me....

So me and my Partner (Philip) Went to a seminar about poverty and know that 1.4 BILLION people out of our 7 Billion people on Earth live on around £1 a day or less for food and drink.

There was a big fuss about people doing this for charity for 5 days and we thought that 5 days is nothing and decided we wanted to try this for a year.

There are many reasons for doing this;
Saving money
Awareness
Discipline

You need to do something for a longer time than 5 days for something to become a habit and over the course of a year I think we could easily work out a way of doing this and not being hungry at all.

Neither of us drink alcohol or coffee so there's some huge savings already and we grow a few veges at home but most of those will begin producing in Spring.

We also have Pigeon Peas growing and French Beans.

Unfortunately our fruit trees will not be ready for another 18 months to 3 years. These will include
Lemons
Damsons
Peach
Nectarine
Fig (indoor)
Orange (indoor)
Apple
Kiwi (indoor)

However come summer I should have several watermelons producing and come autumn 2013 we will have pumpkins... perhaps some earlier for soups.

Also come next year we will be able to forage for a range of different foods for free. We did this this year too and it was such fun to do. We can gather all sorts throughout the year such as
Bisort
Blackberries (still got some this year sin the freezer they are yummy and plentiful!)
Wild Cheery
Comfrey
Dandelion
Elder flower YUM
Elderberries
Gooseberry
Hawthorn berries and leaves
Raspberries
Rosehips
Sweet Cecily

and then there's fungus and mushrooms through autumn and winter... which we have already indulged in.

The challenge will be interesting but I think we will give it a mighty good shot!

I would really appreciate some advice and tips from you guys too. I will certainly be back with updates as to how we are coming along.

Cheers,
Scott Thompson

The_ICT_Engineer

Living on around £1 a day or less for food and drink?. It could be done quite easily, it just depends on where you are in the world. And what the buying power of a pound is in that area of the world.

redfox

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System

That's fine. Where too though?

Many thanks,
Scott Thompson

System

Found it now thanks.

cbrown372

So where do you live that you have lemon, nectarine trees growing?

Certainly not where I live

vanoonoo

Good luck I think it's going to be very difficult but I will follow with interest and hopefully get some tips on how to manage - are you both veggies? stay healthy!

elsien

Are you allowed to go freegan as part of the deal?
Or dine at friends several times a week?

If not, then my vote's a no.

System

We can eat at friends and family if offered to join them yes. Also I am in Manchester United Kingdom but our fruit trees grow under shelter at the moment and only get uncovered in Spring.

rachbc

My family and I (oh and kids then aged 4 and 13) did this for a week, it was stressful and boring but we didn't go hungry. The issues will be psychological rather than economic or dietary. Lots of our socialising involves food so there is no way I'd do it for longer than a month.

Are you doing a daily/ weekly/ monthly/ annual budget? Will you start with a store cupboard or with literally nothing?

craigywv

i would source out my local asian shop buy a large bag of rice same with lentils also flour sugar and dried fruit and honey, then i would use say 80 quid of it on meat ie... mince bag it up and freeze it in portions that would suit you both, i dont know if you are veggies so just going with fact that you are i would spend 20 quid on seeds for summer, lettuce,radishes scallion etc, loads more but i cant remember,you will have ingredients for bread /scones with fruit,pancakes the list is endless, work out say 30 quid for eggs you will need them for baking buns ,cakes omelettes, also go to supermarket late at night you will always pick up cheap bread, yellow sticker reduced products can be meat ,fish, veg just adapt your meals to whatever there is there and the best advice i can give you is to meal plan. its great you are growing your own fruit etc i too do this and save a fortune esp on spuds so versatile baked, chipped, roasted. hope you manage doing this i would be very interested if you go ahead and do it that you would write in every week on your progress good luck