£0 for 28 days!!! Any advice???

sulkisu

Eating crappy (no offence) food for a few weeks won't hurt you or the baby, and is probably a lot safer than some suggestions. When I was pregnant, my babies developed on white bread, plain pasta and cream crackers (severe morning sickness which lasted most of my pregnancy).


Although my financial situation has changed considerably over the years, I still remember the no money/no food days. I also had no one to ask, no close family anyway and there was no way that I would have asked neighbours, colleagues or friends or asked for credit in a shop. I managed to sell a pile of old books to a local shop, for a pittance but it helped.

Ever since then I collect a jar of coins, maintain a stock cupboard of basic food items and toiletries, and collect loyalty points which I save for a rainy day. Too late for you now, but once you are on your feet, it's something for you to consider doing so that this doesn't happen again - especially with a baby. Also keep an eye out for loose change on the pavements etc. - and don't be too embarrassed to pick it up. It all adds up.

CapricornLass

Love food Hate Waste might give you some inspiration too. (I'm afraid you will have to google it, as I can't post the link) You can search by the ingredients you have in.

Can also recommend Jack Monro's site too - look for 'agirlnamedjack'

rising_from_the_ashes

Well...... congrats on taking steps to get your debt sorted and I'm so sorry it's left you in this pickle

Have I managed a month on £0.00 - nope, but on not a lot (and I really do mean very, very little)

Keep at the FB thing, I've listed loads the past few days - have sold 2 things at £5 each so far & have interest in another at £8 and they're my high value items I also have many others at £2 or £3 .... not a lot but I'm not using the stuff so it might as well go


I'd use up what you have and hopefully by then you'll have sold the odd thing on FB to add to your Mr T vouchers

I have gone a month living on basic rice / pasta etc (but wasn't pregnant at the time) - I would try to get some veg in even if it's tinned or frozen

I had a quick look at Mr T (don't shop there much now) and a few things from their Value range that should give you a few base ingredients relatively cheaply:

Rice (1kg) - 40p
Pasta (500g) - 25p
Eggs (15) - £1.25
Mixed veg (1.3kg frozen) - £1.00
Tins of veg (eg potatoes, carrots, peas etc) - 15p to 21p

If you do a stock take / inventory from your freezer / cupboards and pop a thread on the Old Style board I can guarantee you'll get loads of suggestions / recipes from others - they're a very frugal & knowledgeable (and nice!) bunch over there

Let us know how it goes & best of luck

rising_from_the_ashes

Talking about slightly odd dinners ...... I've been having a clear out of my cupboards over the past few days

Ashamed to say I've had to bin a lot of very out of date stuff (mainly down to having been on a very restricted diet for a long time & not being able to eat it) - and I've also found quite a bit of stuff that's out of date but still what I consider edible (packet rice 2 or 3 months OOD etc)

So ... tonight's dinner is ...... OOD packet savoury curry rice with mushrooms & cocktail sausages (need used & nothing else to do with them!) with scrambled egg mixed in!

hollycupcake

Hope you're managing ok, OP.

I know that you have already said you've nothing to sell on ebay, but have you got a few items knocking around that don't appear to have much value? You could put them all together and create a "Car boot" lot for ebay. People will buy all sorts of rubbish! I once did this and threw in stuff like empty perfume bottles, hardly-used pencils (we have millions of the things), books, a couple of t-shirts, belts and old handbags that have seen better days but aren't too bad, cosmetic bags that had been free on front of magazines etc, some sample sachets of moisturiser. You might not get a massive amount, but every penny counts! As long as you're up front about the condition everything is in.

Also, in my darkest moments, I've been known to scrabble around down the sides of sofas, the bottom of handbags and coat pockets for bits of change. Some supermarkets have a machine wear you throw your change in and get a voucher to pay with (which is much more pleasant than buying £1.13 worth of shopping with 1ps).

Good luck.

retepetsir

It's worth eating well when you are pregnant. Please try and borrow £10 from someone to buy some fresh fruit like apples, bananas, etc.

So much so I'd donate £10 for you to do so!

[Deleted User]

hollycupcake wrote: »

Some supermarkets have a machine wear you throw your change in and get a voucher to pay with (which is much more pleasant than buying £1.13 worth of shopping with 1ps).

I wouldn't recommend that, if you are counting the pennies, as the OP is currently doing.

Those machines take a percentage of your money, as a charge for counting it.

Much better to get some coin bags from the bank, sort the change yourself, pay it into your account, then draw it out the following day.

belleandthebudget

On the change front - I usually use the self-service machines at supermarkets and then it doesn't matter if you're dropping in 1p after 1p. I actually do that to lighten my purse rather than break a note!

Good luck OP, you sound really positive and I'm glad to hear about the discovered vouchers. All the best to you!

[Deleted User]

How is it going OP?

midnight_child

Firstly, best of luck with this challenge.

I had a not too different situation a few years back, so I have some idea of what you are going through. Yes it is certainly possible, though it's not an especially fun experience.

Basic staples of rice/pasta are essential, and you can just add a few bits to create a meal. If you have some stock cubes and some veg/chicken you can do rissotto. A small amount of milk and some tomato puree or tomato soup can create a sauce to make a pasta bake and perfect if you have a tin of tuna.

You will be very suprised what you can survive on when necessity demands it. I remember that for about a week my evening meals were just rice with some smart price frozen mince, and a small amount of tomato sauce to make it palateable. During this period I also walked 4 miles for an interview as I didnt have the 60p bus fare - Luckily I got the job!!

For just a short while you dont need fine dining, just something to fill your stomach and provide calories, basic vitamins would be ideal if you can get them but you wont get severe deficiency in a month. The human body has an amazing ability to adjust to changes in environment, or we would have become extinct long ago. I cant see any harm coming to you or your baby as a result of this.

Also, not sure why its not been mentioned yet but there is such a thing as a free lunch!!
I read of a journalist who spent a week eating for free by attending seminars, events sounding out political views etc. Im sure there will be something you could sign up for, where you could grab a free meal. It may give a bit more variety to your meals which believe me in a few weeks will be most welcome.

You could also try to do some market research. When I was little my mum did surveys where they sent the items and came back the next week for feedback - we often had random boxes of stuff in plain boxes labelled A-D in our cupboards.

My only other advice would be to post regular updates on here, as you may find it helps to get you through the time more quickly.