Daily Mail Live Below the Line Article

AnnieO1234

Just wondered what people's thoughts were on this.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/food/article-3552397/Could-eat-just-1-day-Woman-restricts-food-budget-life-poverty-line-really-like.html

This woman has irritated me a lot with this if I'm honest. Before kids I did the live below the line challenge a few times over the years. She's really not budgeted well at all imho, and certainly I don't feel she should've had the PR breakfast. I'm concerned she did it while pregnant too but hey ho that's her choice. Maybe she tucked into a KFC every night but didn't include that in her budget!


It makes for interesting reading though. I'm not sure that we're ever really aware of poverty here in the UK. I'm ashamed to admit that the weekend before a once a week food bank opened less than 2 minutes from my door, I had thrown away around £300 of goods that had been left to go out of date in my fridge and cupboards.

It's a scary world out there and, for most of us, a few bad decisions or poor health are all it will take for us to face the reality of £ a day existence.

If I had been here I would have taken the chicken and made a tomato based tumble down recipe to be served with pasta and rice, cheap veg stock cubes, some frozen veggies and eggs. Job done. xxx

moneyistooshorttomention

Imo - it literally cannot be done.

It was virtually impossible at the outset - but (several years of inflation down the line) its literally impossible.

It simply cannot be done to even be able to manage enough food to fill the stomach - never mind eat in a way that is healthy and/or interesting.

It is literally impossible.

I do understand that the people following this have good intentions - but food just DOES cost more in our countries and add several years of inflation into the equation and it cannot be done...end of.

I've followed this and tried to pick up ideas over the years. But it honestly is literally impossible now and thats that. Which is obviously the reason that the scheme is now clearly in the process of being quietly dropped.

Add the fact that there are people trying to eat eggs on this sort of inadequate budget - and then one gets into other "how to live with conscience" territory. Reason being - it is absolutely impossible to even try to get any free range eggs on that sort of budget and therefore one comes to the conclusion that the person trying is prepared to "trade off" animal welfare against human welfare and...sorry....no can do. Both must be considered.

nuatha

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Add the fact that there are people trying to eat eggs on this sort of inadequate budget - and then one gets into other "how to live with conscience" territory. Reason being - it is absolutely impossible to even try to get any free range eggs on that sort of budget and therefore one comes to the conclusion that the person trying is prepared to "trade off" animal welfare against human welfare and...sorry....no can do. Both must be considered.

More than half the country doesn't agree with you. They either don't consider it an issue or have made the decision not to consider animal welfare - and that's without getting into the debate about what free range actually means and whether its a welfare standard worth supporting.
53% of eggs consumed in the UK are not free range according to DEFRA figures.

moneyistooshorttomention

Very depressing thought then - ie that I just literally do not want to know 53% of the population then:(:(:eek::(:(

I did try eating battery eggs for a while - because of my own budgetary considerations - but I found that, after a while, I just couldnt live with myself and I had to swop to free-range eggs (as I was starting to feel too "sick" at the thought of those poor chickens suffering for my sake).

I do know it's not easy to find the price differential between normal eggs and battery eggs and still can't really afford it personally......but I couldnt cope with feeling "sick" with myself any longer personally....

Personally - I came to the conclusion of "I can either afford eggs (ie normal - ie free-range)- or I cant" and if I cant then I'm not going to eat them...

Eating eggs isnt mandatory after all. You can either afford them (or just about manage to find the money for them) and you do eat them or you cant....

....and yes I do sympathise with those who cant afford to eat eggs because of this....been there...done that...

Scrimps

I think a lot of that 53% comes from people who opt to buy free range but have battery eggs in premade foods. That is purely assumption, I may be completely wrong.

To me the arricle kind of seemed a non point. May be I'm that out of touch I don't see people trying to consistently feed themselves on £1 a day in this country. Also, 1£ a day for 5 days limits the kind of shopping people do. £30 a month, now that would be interesting, I honestly wonder if it could be done well with bulk buying things etc.

tessie_bear

i read the article and thought id starve on that budget but good on her for having a go...thought the fried egg sarnies looked nice and her soup but didnt fancy much else

selloptape

Ive wanted to try this for a while but wouldn't feel comfortable with my son on a restricted diet as he is growing still. Ok so I could cook him proper dinners whilst I lived below the line but that would be too tough!! Also feel concerned that she followed this while preggers and (could have missed it but...) I didn't see any disclaimer in the article to say she checked with gp before taking on the challenge.

pigpen

tomato soup on your pasta?? gross! No nutritional value.. my pasta sauce has at least 4 veggies in it!

TBF.. animal welfare is not even a passing thought.. I was going to add when I shop, but never.. I don't want to buy free range eggs.. I just want eggs for my yorkshires.. I don't really care where they are from.. as it is I get them with my fruit/veg delivery. Strangely the idea of wearing angora wool from bunnies is abhorrent.. their plight is no different really I guess. I refused to eat the eggs at the inlaws because they were covered in poo and from free range unvaccinated birds.. no ta.. not risking salmonella for anyone!


A couple of the meals came to £8+ which was more than she claimed they cost.. so it wasn't all truthful.

I'd rather go without other stuff and have a healthy, varied diet.. it would be interesting to see long term how much it would effect the vitamin/mineral levels in growing children. Or a breakdown of what the actual nutritional values are in the meals. Cost is irrelevant if you end up with illnesses due to malnutrition.

AnnieO1234

pigpen wrote: »

tomato soup on your pasta?? gross! No nutritional value.. my pasta sauce has at least 4 veggies in it!

TBF.. animal welfare is not even a passing thought.. I was going to add when I shop, but never.. I don't want to buy free range eggs.. I just want eggs for my yorkshires.. I don't really care where they are from.. as it is I get them with my fruit/veg delivery. Strangely the idea of wearing angora wool from bunnies is abhorrent.. their plight is no different really I guess. I refused to eat the eggs at the inlaws because they were covered in poo and from free range unvaccinated birds.. no ta.. not risking salmonella for anyone!


A couple of the meals came to £8+ which was more than she claimed they cost.. so it wasn't all truthful.

I'd rather go without other stuff and have a healthy, varied diet.. it would be interesting to see long term how much it would effect the vitamin/mineral levels in growing children. Or a breakdown of what the actual nutritional values are in the meals. Cost is irrelevant if you end up with illnesses due to malnutrition.

Where are you getting the £8 plus from for two meals? Xxx

nuatha

Scrimps wrote: »

I think a lot of that 53% comes from people who opt to buy free range but have battery eggs in premade foods. That is purely assumption, I may be completely wrong.

Excluding everything but the retail sector turns the figure on its head with 53% being "free range." A lot of what is legally described as free range does not match what a lot of people describe as their concept of free range. (Sorry pet peeve)

Strangely half of the organic egg production goes to manufacturing, so its not just the cheapest eggs that are going into premade foods.

Not being able to use store cupboards or to spread the costs beyond the five day period is the problem as I see it. Longer term keeping to a lower budget is easier due to being able to bulk buy and spread the costs over a longer term as well as having store cupboard ingredients which increase the variety of dishes and improve flavours.

JIL

Bread eggs butter and chicken drumsticks.

Should have gone to aldi.

All cheaper there. Buy the bargains and work around them.

Its a different story when having to do it for real as opposed to being paid to write a story and playing at it.