Living below the line

allie_rat
allie_rat Posts: 49 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I'm thinking about doing the live below the line challenge (https://www.livebelowtheline.com/uk?lang=en). Thought I'd see if anyone else is doing it, or has done it before. Also, if anyone has good ideas of what I could buy for £5 to last 5 days. Best I can come up with is a loaf of brown bread, jar of smartprice jam, 5 onions, 5 carrots, 5 packs of noodles, pack of 6 smart price cereal bars, a tin of tomatoes and a tin of spaghetti, seems like it might be a bit carb heavy though.

Replies

  • mrfrodogetdown
    mrfrodogetdown Posts: 54 Member
    I checked out the Canada one, and we get $1.75/day, or 8.75/week. I would get...
    Loaf of bread $1
    Pack of ground beef $2
    Carton of eggs $2
    Spaghetti sauce $1
    Pack of noodles $1
    An onion, a carrot, a tomato and a pepper. Would come to around $1.75.

    I'd cook the meat in 'sloppy joe' style- with the sauce, and a bit of the veg. Have it over noodles or bread. That would look after dinners. For lunch I'd do egg on toast with a bit of the veg cooked in.

    Very boring. I may try this, but I cook for my SO as well... So I guess we'd start with double the amount... But he eats out for lunch so it wouldn't be a true indication of how difficult it is.

    I've just thought, I'd probably do it differently... I'd go to bulk barn (bulk food store where you scoop up how much you want), and get pasta, oats for oatmeal, a bit of cereal (i like it dry), etc. instead.
  • Rage_Phish
    Rage_Phish Posts: 1,507 Member
    Bag or Rice
    Bag of dried beans
    Spend the rest on beer
  • BerryH
    BerryH Posts: 4,698 Member
    If you live near an Asian supermarket, buy a huge bag of rice. Get some dried beans for protein. Go to the market as the vegetable stall is packing up for the day and ask what you can get for whatever money you have left.

    Or a £3.50 whole chicken marked down at the end of the day.
  • tomg33
    tomg33 Posts: 305 Member
    I think rice and beans are your best bet. Good luck... I would probably go postal if I tried this.
  • mrfrodogetdown
    mrfrodogetdown Posts: 54 Member
    The more I look into this the more I think I'll try it.
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    I'm thinking about doing the live below the line challenge (https://www.livebelowtheline.com/uk?lang=en). Thought I'd see if anyone else is doing it, or has done it before. Also, if anyone has good ideas of what I could buy for £5 to last 5 days. Best I can come up with is a loaf of brown bread, jar of smartprice jam, 5 onions, 5 carrots, 5 packs of noodles, pack of 6 smart price cereal bars, a tin of tomatoes and a tin of spaghetti, seems like it might be a bit carb heavy though.

    5 carrots? you get more than 5 in a value bag of carrots!

    get own brand everything, and get some chicken peices and eggs on that list for protein. a bag of morrisons 1kg 'savers' rice is 75p
  • allie_rat
    allie_rat Posts: 49 Member
    5 carrots? you get more than 5 in a value bag of carrots!

    get own brand everything, and get some chicken peices and eggs on that list for protein. a bag of morrisons 1kg 'savers' rice is 75p

    Was planning on buying them loose, gives me more money left for other things than buying a whole bag would :)
    I'm not a huge fan of rice, though I guess it might make sense to replace the noodles with rice.
  • allie_rat
    allie_rat Posts: 49 Member
    I think rice and beans are your best bet. Good luck... I would probably go postal if I tried this.

    Beans would be a good idea. It's only 5 days, I'm sure I could manage without going crazy and it's worth it for a good cause.
  • nas061
    nas061 Posts: 256 Member
    The website does have some suggested meal plans and shopping lists as a pdf

    https://www.livebelowtheline.com/system/resources/BAhbBlsHOgZmSSItMjAxMi8wMy8wMi8xMC8xMC8xMi84MzcvUmVjaXBlX0d1aWRlLnBkZgY6BkVU/Recipe Guide.pdf
  • allie_rat
    allie_rat Posts: 49 Member
    If you live near an Asian supermarket, buy a huge bag of rice. Get some dried beans for protein. Go to the market as the vegetable stall is packing up for the day and ask what you can get for whatever money you have left.

    Or a £3.50 whole chicken marked down at the end of the day.

    I'm veggie, so the chicken idea would be out for me. I'm wary of buying stuff discounted or at the end of the day at a market, I think I might be better off buying everything in bulk at the start so I can portion accordingly for the days and not have to worry about anything going bad.
  • allie_rat
    allie_rat Posts: 49 Member
    The website does have some suggested meal plans and shopping lists as a pdf

    https://www.livebelowtheline.com/system/resources/BAhbBlsHOgZmSSItMjAxMi8wMy8wMi8xMC8xMC8xMi84MzcvUmVjaXBlX0d1aWRlLnBkZgY6BkVU/Recipe Guide.pdf

    I know, I did look at that. It's still nice to hear other people's opinions though :)
  • Mjhnbgff
    Mjhnbgff Posts: 112
    I looked up the U.S. and we only get...$1.50/day? I grew up poor so I have no interest in this project.

    At the Asian market, you can buy a carton of 2 dozen packs of ramen noodles for $12-15. The "high-end" Korean ramen tends to be more expensive, but you can also feed at least 2 people with a pack of Korean ramen noodles. You can really stretch out a pack of ramen noodles into a filling meal if you add in whatever vegetables you have and an egg. That's a very Asian way of eating ramen, by the way. Also eggs.

    You don't have to get ground beef, but you can really stretch out meat if it's ground. My mom would buy a pack of chicken drumsticks or thighs (cheaper than breast), debone the meat and mince it fine, cook it with vegetables. In a lot of Asian cultures, they can really stretch out a main dish by making it salty and saucey. That way, you get a little meat and veg but you have lots of sauce to flavor the rice. Although not nutritious, white rice is cheap and filling.

    So, to recap: rice, noodles, ramen, ground meat and eggs. I would skip the cereal bars. Instead of spending money for spaghetti sauce, I would just go simple and make spaghetti with garlic and olive oil (and parsley if you can afford the extra $1) and breadcrumbs or something like that. Good luck!
  • JeanDescole
    JeanDescole Posts: 152
    I'm thinking about doing the live below the line challenge (https://www.livebelowtheline.com/uk?lang=en). Thought I'd see if anyone else is doing it, or has done it before. Also, if anyone has good ideas of what I could buy for £5 to last 5 days. Best I can come up with is a loaf of brown bread, jar of smartprice jam, 5 onions, 5 carrots, 5 packs of noodles, pack of 6 smart price cereal bars, a tin of tomatoes and a tin of spaghetti, seems like it might be a bit carb heavy though.

    Change the cereal bars to protein bars, and replace 2 packs of the noodles with fruits of your choice.
    Also I usually go through the week on one or two onions, if that, so I'd buy one and as many packs of cooked meat as possible.
    This may or may not still fit in £5...
  • allie_rat
    allie_rat Posts: 49 Member
    I checked out the Canada one, and we get $1.75/day, or 8.75/week. I would get...
    Loaf of bread $1
    Pack of ground beef $2
    Carton of eggs $2
    Spaghetti sauce $1
    Pack of noodles $1
    An onion, a carrot, a tomato and a pepper. Would come to around $1.75.

    I'd cook the meat in 'sloppy joe' style- with the sauce, and a bit of the veg. Have it over noodles or bread. That would look after dinners. For lunch I'd do egg on toast with a bit of the veg cooked in.

    Very boring. I may try this, but I cook for my SO as well... So I guess we'd start with double the amount... But he eats out for lunch so it wouldn't be a true indication of how difficult it is.

    I've just thought, I'd probably do it differently... I'd go to bulk barn (bulk food store where you scoop up how much you want), and get pasta, oats for oatmeal, a bit of cereal (i like it dry), etc. instead.

    I cook for the kids, so looks like I'd be cooking separately for them and me for the 5 days, which I don't imagine would be easy! Could your SO take something for lunch instead of eating out?
  • allie_rat
    allie_rat Posts: 49 Member
    Change the cereal bars to protein bars, and replace 2 packs of the noodles with fruits of your choice.
    Also I usually go through the week on one or two onions, if that, so I'd buy one and as many packs of cooked meat as possible.
    This may or may not still fit in £5...
    There's no way that'd fit into £5, the protein bars alone would take up the whole allowance! :)
  • bbg67
    bbg67 Posts: 4
    This just makes me very aware of how bad inflation is on food prices in the US. I live in the midwest and our most inexpensive food location is Aldis (within 30 miles of my home).

    Even at this store, there is NO way we could make 5 days of meals (above the 1200 calorie minimum) on under $7.50.

    I just went shopping yesturday. The cheapest loaf of bread (16 slices) was 1.25. 7 apples were 2.50. A bag of rice (makes 10 cups) was 1.75. Eggs were 1.25 for 12.

    That's 6.75 for around 4200 calories for the week. Divided by 7 days equals less than 600 calories a day.

    I could have picked up Ramen noodles at 400 calores per 20 cents - that might be the best option, price wise, but is absolutely terrible on your blood pressure and health (sodium is through the roof).

    It could also be said that this is good proof as to why low income people tend to eat worse - the heavily processed, high sodium foods are less expensive than produce, lean meats, and whole grains recommended for a healthy, whole diet.
  • Vailara
    Vailara Posts: 2,466 Member
    I thought about doing this, but prices have gone up so much in the last few years that I couldn't face it! It would have been dead easy a few years ago when tins of beans were 6p, bread 17p, noodles 5p, etc. (it wasn't that long ago, honestly!). If I was doing it, I suppose I'd look out for cheap pulses as they can go quite far, so things like dried lentils and beans. You can still sometimes get tinned kidney beans quite cheaply. However, they're not very nice without some sort of flavouring/condiments (I don't know if you're allowed to use salt, pepper, etc. without including the whole packet in the budget). I'd also buy some cheap eggs (usually only buy free range) e.g. Tesco value at £1.34 for 15. Tesco do 50 value frozen sausage rolls for 88p (probably unpleasant and unhealthy but at least you wouldn't need to buy seasoning). Instant noodles are still quite cheap, but I think that spaghetti works out cheaper and you can use it instead of noodles (e.g. break it up to use in soups, cook it and stirfry it with something like cabbage, etc.).

    To be honest, I'd probably forget about cooking and buy cheap sliced bread (47p) and live off toast with eggs (£1.34) or peanut butter (62p)! The rest would go mainly on milk and teabags, I'm afraid!
  • MaraDiaz
    MaraDiaz Posts: 4,604 Member
    I'd have to pretty much live on eggs. No thanks, I run out of grocery money and have to eat eggs more often than I want to as it is!
  • allie_rat
    allie_rat Posts: 49 Member
    I'd have to pretty much live on eggs. No thanks, I run out of grocery money and have to eat eggs more often than I want to as it is!
    It's surprised me that so many people mentioned eggs when they had never really crossed my mind! It's not really supposed to be pleasant anyway ( don't know if you read the link but it's for charity) :)
  • allie_rat
    allie_rat Posts: 49 Member
    I thought about doing this, but prices have gone up so much in the last few years that I couldn't face it! It would have been dead easy a few years ago when tins of beans were 6p, bread 17p, noodles 5p, etc. (it wasn't that long ago, honestly!). If I was doing it, I suppose I'd look out for cheap pulses as they can go quite far, so things like dried lentils and beans. You can still sometimes get tinned kidney beans quite cheaply. However, they're not very nice without some sort of flavouring/condiments (I don't know if you're allowed to use salt, pepper, etc. without including the whole packet in the budget). I'd also buy some cheap eggs (usually only buy free range) e.g. Tesco value at £1.34 for 15. Tesco do 50 value frozen sausage rolls for 88p (probably unpleasant and unhealthy but at least you wouldn't need to buy seasoning). Instant noodles are still quite cheap, but I think that spaghetti works out cheaper and you can use it instead of noodles (e.g. break it up to use in soups, cook it and stirfry it with something like cabbage, etc.).

    To be honest, I'd probably forget about cooking and buy cheap sliced bread (47p) and live off toast with eggs (£1.34) or peanut butter (62p)! The rest would go mainly on milk and teabags, I'm afraid!
    It is shocking how much prices have gone up. My shopping comes to an outstanding amount compared to what it was 5 years ago and I'm sure the one small toddler extra doesn't amount for all the extra expense!
    Sausages are out as I'm veggie, but that is probably what I'd have bought if I wasn't. Spaghetti does work out cheaper, but my reasoning for noodles was that they already have seasoning :) I'm now trying to decide if more food or less flavour is better.
  • emmello
    emmello Posts: 2 Member
    I've registered for this too. I was thinking of rice, trying to buy cheap veggies at the end of the day and making bread and soup. Porridge oats would be good too and frozen berries are quite often on sale. The problem is that you have to buy in bulk to get things cheaper but I'm assuming that you can just calculate the amount you have used in the five days. It's a tough one though.
  • Vailara
    Vailara Posts: 2,466 Member
    I thought about doing this, but prices have gone up so much in the last few years that I couldn't face it! It would have been dead easy a few years ago when tins of beans were 6p, bread 17p, noodles 5p, etc. (it wasn't that long ago, honestly!). If I was doing it, I suppose I'd look out for cheap pulses as they can go quite far, so things like dried lentils and beans. You can still sometimes get tinned kidney beans quite cheaply. However, they're not very nice without some sort of flavouring/condiments (I don't know if you're allowed to use salt, pepper, etc. without including the whole packet in the budget). I'd also buy some cheap eggs (usually only buy free range) e.g. Tesco value at £1.34 for 15. Tesco do 50 value frozen sausage rolls for 88p (probably unpleasant and unhealthy but at least you wouldn't need to buy seasoning). Instant noodles are still quite cheap, but I think that spaghetti works out cheaper and you can use it instead of noodles (e.g. break it up to use in soups, cook it and stirfry it with something like cabbage, etc.).

    To be honest, I'd probably forget about cooking and buy cheap sliced bread (47p) and live off toast with eggs (£1.34) or peanut butter (62p)! The rest would go mainly on milk and teabags, I'm afraid!
    It is shocking how much prices have gone up. My shopping comes to an outstanding amount compared to what it was 5 years ago and I'm sure the one small toddler extra doesn't amount for all the extra expense!
    Sausages are out as I'm veggie, but that is probably what I'd have bought if I wasn't. Spaghetti does work out cheaper, but my reasoning for noodles was that they already have seasoning :) I'm now trying to decide if more food or less flavour is better.

    Good point about the seasoning in the noodles - would be handy for soups, etc. I just thought of salted peanuts as well. The value ones are quite cheap, they're ready salted (so some seasoning at least!) and you could use them in cooking (e.g. spaghetti/onion/peanut stirfry).

    Food is so expensive now, isn't it? When I've been through lean periods in the past I bought a lot of cheap oats (for porridge and flapjacks) and tinned sardines, but those aren't cheap any more!

    Edit: I checked the site and you're allowed to use salt, pepper, herbs and spices by working out the cost per gram. That makes a big difference! But other things have to count as the whole packet/tin.
  • paramedicsarah
    paramedicsarah Posts: 49
    I'm taking part a little later in the month. I do shifts as a paramedic do needed to do it when I'm not working.y plan is to keep it pretty boring & plain - I spent 3 months in Borneo doing voluntary work & ate a lot of rice! They're my chosen charity. So it'll be porridge for brekkie, rice for lunch & probably something with noodles for dinner. Straight spaghetti comes quite cheap too. The recipe book online is very helpful - marrowfat peas as a soup = 15p! Never been one for beans but going to give them a go. I'm not planning eggs as my principle on free range would be compromised by buying the really cheap ones. I'm going to buy a bag of value flour (45p for 1.5kg) & make chapatis from the recipe book for snacks. The only meat I'm planning us going to be value sausages at 8p each - meatballs for the spaghetti?! Giving up tea (as ambulance staff this is probably the biggest challenge!) so won't need milk either.

    Good luck folks!!

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