challenge alice Day 25: Live below the poverty line – £1 a day
- Breakfast: porridge + office milk
- Lunch: remaining crumpets + value cheese paste
- Dinner: Starter – stuffed Romano peppers (20p) Main – vegetable curry (20p for veg and 31p for chopped tomatoes) and rice (40p for a bag)
Busy day at the coal face today and the porridge fuels me through the morning. However the ‘less cheesy’ cheese paste regrettably hasn’t matured with age from yesterday’s debut…
I’m off to do a quick interview with BBC Radio 4 as the challenge is featuring this evening on ‘The World Tonight’. It’s great that the issue of food poverty is getting the air time.
I leave the studio at 7.30pm- just in time for reduction prime time. I make tracks towards the green mecca for bargain hunters that is the Asda whoopsie aisle! The little yellow “whoops!” stickers guide me in like runway lights and I’ve landed a jumbo deal in the form of stuffed Romano peppers for 20 pence.
I’m literally salivating over the packet in the aisle and move on hastily before a small puddle forms and I hear “this is a staff announcement, spillage in aisle two, that’s spillage in aisle two” over the tannoy…
I wangle two packets of vegetable curry mix for 10p a pop and marry these up with a tin of chopped tomatoes and bag of rice. I really dislike rice but it seems a logical and cheap accompaniment. The reality is on this budget you sometimes have to eat items you don’t much like.
Back at the ranch and time to get this little party started!
The kitchen is alive with activity – pots and pans are bubbling away and it looks like I’ve got enough food here to feed a small family for dinner.
Feeling thoroughly spoilt with a starter and main I tuck into my stuffed peppers. Packed with goats cheese, spinach and sun dried tomato – they’re a welcome luxury. Proper cheese oh how I’ve missed ye…
I make an assault on the delicious vegetable curry (comprising onion, cauliflower, beans, potatoes, coriander and spices) and rice. However it’s not long before I’m feeling full, I think my stomach has definitely shrunk during the course of this challenge. Like the peppers, I’m stuffed.
A two course meal for £1.11 and I’ve stacks of it left for tomorrow’s dinner. Reductions and bulk buying seems like the optimum strategy. More anon!
I’m donating the cost of my month’s food to the Trussell Trust and Save the Children and if you would like to make a donation (perhaps a pound) then you can do so here.
challenge alice 
Alice! Have been reading about your exploits from Brussels and wanted to say well done.
Also wanted to say that you don’t seem to have bought any pulses during your challenge – do you not like them? They’re a cheap source of protein- you could probably get a pack of lentils for less than a quid, or beans for a stew for a similar price, and that would make several meals.
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