Day 20: Live below the poverty line – £1 a day

• Breakfast: cornflakes (30p) + value yoghurt 
• Lunch: burns night – haggis (£1) potatoes (15p) parsnips (4p) swede, leeks carrots (15p)
• Dinner: leftover sweet n sour noodles
• ‘Treat’: reduced doughnuts x 1

It’s Burns night tonight and being half Scottish it’s always been something of a tradition to have haggis, neeps and tatties. I want to see if it’ll be possible to make this on my budget.

I’ve still got the 4p parsnips leftover so I’m all good on the neep front, some shelf foraging in Asda last night allowed me to score a mixed bag of swede, carrots and leeks for 15p and a tin of haggis for £1. No tatties in the reduced section, so I make do with a tin of new potatoes for 15p.

I’m joined in my kitchen by Kate from ITV Meridian who are covering the challenge on their show tonight at 6.35pm. Kate wants to get some shots of me peeling the neeps but when the cameras are on even this simple task feels alien! My hands slip and slide over the wet parsnips and I’m able to chip off scraps of skin but nothing substantial! Let’s hope Kate is kind in the editing… 

I’m also privileged to have David McAuley, chief exec of The Trussell Trust over to my home this morning. David is working hard at the moment to raise awareness of food poverty in this country and some of his statistics are quite frightening. I’m donating the money I save on food this month to the Trussell Trust, if you would also like to donate you can do so here.

It’s been a really interesting morning and once the cameras have gone I am able to finish my Burns supper…

The supper has come in at £1.34 and it’s made enough for my dinner over the next few nights. 

Fair fa’ your honest, sonsie face,
Great chieftain o the puddin’-race!
Aboon them a’ ye tak your place! 

– Robbie Burns

A wee dram would set the lot off a treat but sadly it’s not in the budget! Still it doesnae look half bad…