Living Below the Line

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terricherry2
terricherry2 Posts: 222 Member
in Food and Nutrition
So I'm doing a challenge called Live Below the Line this week. I did it last year as well and am trying a different approach to experiment a little. You spend £1 a day on food and drink for five days. Last year I bought as much bulk as I could for my budget. I felt horrible, bloated, sick, but never hungry. I ate all processed and tinned foods as they were the cheapest. 18 pence for a packet of instant noodles versus £1 for some salad seemed like a no brainer when budget was a major concern.

This year I've taken a more balanced approach and have bought cheap whole foods, like rice, beans, eggs etc. I even managed to get a few plums in season. After putting in my meals for the day, today has come out at around 1300 calories which is much less than normal for me but I've maxed out my budget.

It'll be interesting to see if I feel better doing this, or just end up hungry all week. Is anyone else doing it and wants to compare notes?

P.s. Not just a social experiment, I am raising money for charity but not sure if I'm allowed to say which or put the link to my page on here.
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Replies

  • lisafrancis888
    lisafrancis888 Posts: 119 Member
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    Good luck. It will be interesting to see what you think at the end of the week.
  • RodaRose
    RodaRose Posts: 9,562 Member
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    In the U.S. it is $1.50 per day for five days.
    If I were shopping, I would buy lentils and peanut butter.
  • ruthie3110
    ruthie3110 Posts: 160 Member
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    I did this a couple of years ago and ended up living on rice and tinned vegetables. I had a microwave lasagne as a treat (most expensive meal of the week) at the end!
    If I was going to do it again, I'd do it pretty similar but with fresher whole foods instead.
    My advice? Don't start on a Monday (unless you have a local market open on a sunday). Get yourself down to a market at the end of the day and stock up all the cheap leftover stock at the end of the day. I once got a carrier bag full of grapes for £1! I had to give loads away because there was no way I could eat that many.
    Although re-reading your post it seems like you're already underway in which case ignore me and others can use my advice instead!

    I really enjoyed it and raised over £100 (including gift aid), good luck!
  • nekoface
    nekoface Posts: 149 Member
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    I've done this before. The local market near me sells large bowls of fruit/veg for £1 so it's worth checking yours out. You can often get giant bags of things like onions, etc. for under £1. If you go at the end of the day you can get stuff a lot cheaper too - I once got a giant bag of limes for 15p and made lime drizzle cake. It's much easier to do if you have the money to buy bulk amounts of flour, grains and pulses at the start. The only difficult thing to eat on this is meat but there's lots of things you can cook with eggs.
  • gothchiq
    gothchiq Posts: 4,590 Member
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    let's see. I would be buying a lot of dried beans.
  • LKArgh
    LKArgh Posts: 5,179 Member
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    gothchiq wrote: »
    let's see. I would be buying a lot of dried beans.

    ^This. Bean, lentils etc.
  • nekoface
    nekoface Posts: 149 Member
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    Actually I'll do this with you as much as I can. Full disclosure: I have a decently stocked larder and a mason jar of leftover roast beef in my fridge right now. But I'll join you with my weekly shop (tomorrow).
  • terricherry2
    terricherry2 Posts: 222 Member
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    1qsdeoky5ow5.png

    This is my shopping for the week. Don't think I did too badly. Veggie egg fried rice for lunch today.
  • brucerc311
    brucerc311 Posts: 11 Member
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    looks good to me! oatmeal, eggs, rice, carrots, milk are always in stock at my house. I've never calculated the daily cost of the food I consume, but I have switched to not buying coffee or lunch while at the office and have saved a bundle.
  • brucerc311
    brucerc311 Posts: 11 Member
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    also sweet potato (yam)
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
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    terricherry2 wrote: »
    1qsdeoky5ow5.png

    This is my shopping for the week. Don't think I did too badly. Veggie egg fried rice for lunch today.

    Oh wow. There's no way I could get all that for $7.5! Seriously, I have no idea how I would do it for so little. Even eggs are like $1.5 for a dozen. I guess I'd end up with eggs, two bags of dried beans/lentils, then I have no idea...
  • ThisOrderedLife
    ThisOrderedLife Posts: 24 Member
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    I am really temped to try this with my husband... have a feeling I would start by making a big pot of chili... my biggest issues would come from the lack of meat :(
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
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    ThisOrderedLife wrote: »
    I am really temped to try this with my husband... have a feeling I would start by making a big pot of chili... my biggest issues would come from the lack of meat :(

    Mine? Caffeine withdrawal of Hell. Honestly, I wouldn't even consider doing it because there's no way I'm going through that willingly.
  • leahmstoffel
    leahmstoffel Posts: 18 Member
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    I'm doing this for the first time this year. It looks like you were able to get about twice the amount of food as I was. I live in NYC so everything is pretty expensive here. I also didn't buy anything in bulk. I literally spent a straight $7.50 (that's the amount we get in the US) at the grocery store. My meal plan for the week only has me at about 1200 calories a day, which I guess is okay but under what I usually eat. My biggest concern is also the caffeine withdrawal. I drink a not so great amount of diet soda so we'll see how that goes. Good luck!
  • ruthie3110
    ruthie3110 Posts: 160 Member
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    Francl27 wrote: »
    ThisOrderedLife wrote: »
    I am really temped to try this with my husband... have a feeling I would start by making a big pot of chili... my biggest issues would come from the lack of meat :(

    Mine? Caffeine withdrawal of Hell. Honestly, I wouldn't even consider doing it because there's no way I'm going through that willingly.

    Tesco value coffee! Good enough for a caffeine fix and only 50p a jar!
    I had minimal meat when I first did this, the only stuff I did have was horrible tinned meatballs etc
    If I did it again it would be easier now because I don't eat meat anymore. I would really miss my almond milk though!
  • nekoface
    nekoface Posts: 149 Member
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    @ruthie3110 : I like the Oatly chocolate milk and I get it in bulk when it's on offer - 3 for £3. I really love the Ecomel almond milk though, and that's pretty expensive.

    Here's what I got from the local market today: LyCOjo0.jpg

    carrots: £1
    tomatoes: £1
    mangetout: £1
    satsumas: 50p.

    I kinda feel like I'm cheating a bit because I have staples like onions, garlic, rice, flour lentils, etc. etc. and even roast beef in the fridge. Today I'm making beef curry with the veg and left-over roast beef and some curry paste we already have. Having it with rice. For the satsumas, I'm peeling and halving them and sprinkling some caster sugar over it. It's not clear from the picture but there are loads of satsumas in that bag. We'll probably eat the curry again tomorrow.

    I gather food waste (fruit & veg not in great condition) from this same market fortnightly and we cook dinner at a homeless shelter. We normally make a curry with the veg we gather and some lentils/chickpeas. Since we're on a tight budget and often lack coconut milk/tins of tomatoes, etc. so what we do for curries is to take some of the vegetables after it's cooked and puree them to make a kind of sauce so it's nice and thick and not watery.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
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    nekoface wrote: »
    @ruthie3110 : I like the Oatly chocolate milk and I get it in bulk when it's on offer - 3 for £3. I really love the Ecomel almond milk though, and that's pretty expensive.

    Here's what I got from the local market today: LyCOjo0.jpg

    carrots: £1
    tomatoes: £1
    mangetout: £1
    satsumas: 50p.

    I kinda feel like I'm cheating a bit because I have staples like onions, garlic, rice, flour lentils, etc. etc. and even roast beef in the fridge. Today I'm making beef curry with the veg and left-over roast beef and some curry paste we already have. Having it with rice. For the satsumas, I'm peeling and halving them and sprinkling some caster sugar over it. It's not clear from the picture but there are loads of satsumas in that bag. We'll probably eat the curry again tomorrow.

    I gather food waste (fruit & veg not in great condition) from this same market fortnightly and we cook dinner at a homeless shelter. We normally make a curry with the veg we gather and some lentils/chickpeas. Since we're on a tight budget and often lack coconut milk/tins of tomatoes, etc. so what we do for curries is to take some of the vegetables after it's cooked and puree them to make a kind of sauce so it's nice and thick and not watery.

    Well you're not supposed to eat what you already have in the house... that's the whole point!

    But yeah there's no way I'd get so much produce for so cheap. Tomatoes are $2 a pound when they are on sale, peppers up to $3, carrots typically $1 for 5 small.
  • nekoface
    nekoface Posts: 149 Member
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    @Franci27 That's helluva expensive.

    I gotta eat the beef before it goes off or it'll be a waste of food, but I'll factor it in and the rice too - a kilogram of rice is 45p at tescos. A bag of flour is 45p.

    If I factor in the beef...I spent £4.12 on a 750g joint of beef last week. I guess I'll be using half of it for the two of us...that's like £1 just for a portion of beef. So I've failed today. It's not really doable with meat.
  • Slacker16
    Slacker16 Posts: 1,184 Member
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    leahmstoffel wrote: »
    I'm doing this for the first time this year. It looks like you were able to get about twice the amount of food as I was. I live in NYC so everything is pretty expensive here. I also didn't buy anything in bulk. I literally spent a straight $7.50 (that's the amount we get in the US) at the grocery store. My meal plan for the week only has me at about 1200 calories a day, which I guess is okay but under what I usually eat. My biggest concern is also the caffeine withdrawal. I drink a not so great amount of diet soda so we'll see how that goes. Good luck!
    I have no idea how you could do this in NY and still get ~2000 calories a day.

    Let me think, if I had 1.5$/day (not counting for one week), I'd get one of the 20lb bags of rice, the largest bag of split peas or lentils I could find, generic vegetable oil and a ton of eggs, then pretty much live on fried rice.

    Probably eat a plate in the morning before living for work and fast until I get home, no way to do lunch...
  • leahmstoffel
    leahmstoffel Posts: 18 Member
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    Slacker16 wrote: »
    leahmstoffel wrote: »
    I'm doing this for the first time this year. It looks like you were able to get about twice the amount of food as I was. I live in NYC so everything is pretty expensive here. I also didn't buy anything in bulk. I literally spent a straight $7.50 (that's the amount we get in the US) at the grocery store. My meal plan for the week only has me at about 1200 calories a day, which I guess is okay but under what I usually eat. My biggest concern is also the caffeine withdrawal. I drink a not so great amount of diet soda so we'll see how that goes. Good luck!
    I have no idea how you could do this in NY and still get ~2000 calories a day.

    Let me think, if I had 1.5$/day (not counting for one week), I'd get one of the 20lb bags of rice, the largest bag of split peas or lentils I could find, generic vegetable oil and a ton of eggs, then pretty much live on fried rice.

    Probably eat a plate in the morning before living for work and fast until I get home, no way to do lunch...

    I'm definitely not getting 2000 cals which I know isn't good. What I ended up buying was: 2 apples, small bag of rice, 1 can of pork and beans, 1 bag of frozen corn, and 5 packs of ramen. I'm honestly not sure I'll make it the whole week as much as I would love to. But I guess that's kind of the point, right? Showing that it's nearly impossible to eat this way and survive... I'm sure it will be a tough week to say the least but it's nothing compared to how some people actually live their lives everyday all over the world.

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