#BelowTheLine Day 2 - Could of done with...

Hia! How are you doing? You can let me know in the comments below or by Twitter if you like. I'm doing alright. I walked 5 miles today in practice for Three Peaks (text BEAR91 £1.00 to 70070 to give a quid!) and I did some yoga on what I feel was a practically empty stomach!! Especially after lunch.

For breakfast today I had the same as yesterday and will be doing for the whole week because it's so cheap and I am getting one of my 5 a day in. It was very lovely once again and I didn't need any more than I had.

Lunch though felt disappointing. I had two slices of Tesco bread, one fifth of a pack of value cream cheese and four relatively thin slices of cucumber. That was it! And after a session of Wii fit and yoga on a half portion of porridge and a banana, I was RAVENOUS. It was nice don't get me wrong!! But I really wanted a big cereal bar or something.

After I did my Three Peaks mini walk which took just over an hour and a half of fast paced walking, I was looking at the twigs in the road wondering if it would be nutritionally worth it. I got home about 3.30pm and didn't stop looking at the clock until it was 5.30pm and acceptable tea time.

Tea was surprisingly large!!! But soooooo dryyyyyyyyyyyyyy. I used just under 200g of carrots and 100g of frozen peas, 2 value sausages and one third of a packet of tesco own instant mash. It so badly desperately needed gravy and salt but unfortunately I had not budgeted for such luxuries.

I cannot complain though. Someone put it into perspective for me today - 22,000 children will die TODAY due to poverty. I'm not dying.. and I'm not really that hungry. I am programmed to just want more. Twenty two thousand kids. 

Breakfast = 16p

25g porridge with 150ml water - 2p

35g of jam - 2p

1 banana - 12p

Lunch = 31p

2 slices bread - 12p

1/5th of a tub of cream cheese - 10p

4 slices of cucumber - 9p

Dinner = 41p

1/3 of a packet of mash - 13p

2 Sausages - 14p

50g peas - 5p

200g Carrot - 9p

Treat = 8p

2 custard creams - 2p

Cup of tea - 1p

Value chocolate mousse - 5p

DAYS TOTAL SPEND 96P

#BelowTheLine Day 1: Not so bad!

25g of porridge = 2p

35g of jam = 2p

Good evening! Just as the soaps come on and I am about to have my daily allowance of one cup of tea with a biscuit, I thought I'd drop in as promised and let you know how the day went.

It started off really well. I had half the portion size the packet said I should have of porridge with water, mixed fruit jam and a banana. I was really surprised that I didn't feel I needed more than that. It was tasty, it was nice and warm when it was chilly outside. And for a total of 16p I was feeling pretty darn smug!

1 banana = 12p

Ham, lettuce + mayo = 35p

But as nice as it was, I was really hungry an hour and a half later.. even after having a pint of water too!

I remained brave until lunch time when I launched into my ham, lettuce and mayonnaise butty. It was mega scrum but it felt like it was lacking a slice of 

cheese and a packet of salt and vinegar crisps. And a chocolate bar!.. this is an eye opener in how fat I am lol

Lunch filled me up for approximately 5 minutes. Then the long slog to tea time began. I was absolutely ravenous!!!!! And I made the whole thing so much harder on myself by cooking blueberry muffins to freeze, purely because I forgot to cook them the weekend before and the ingredients were going off. GOD they smelt so good!!! 

100g pasta = 4p

Can of meatballs = 40p

I drank another 2 pints of water, did some Wii yoga before it was finally time to cook... dum dum duuurrr.... a can of value meatball and spaghetti pasta. Without a doubt the absolute blandest meal I have ever had!! The tomato sauce the meatballs came in was VILE and I wish I hadn't poured any on. BUT it was filling to the point I actually left some. But not satisfying. I don't know what it is I want or need because I have had three meals. It simply must be because I am used to more. 

The day is done though and just in time for a cup of tea and a biscuit. Below is what I used and what I spent.

Breakfast = 16p

25g porridge with 150ml water - 2p

35g of jam - 2p

1 banana - 12p

Lunch = 35p
3 slices of ham - 18p
2 slices of bread - 12p
4 leafs of lettuce 4p
2 dollops of mayo - 1p

Dinner = 44p
1 tin of meat balls - 40p
100g of spaghetti - 4p

Supper = 5p

2 digestive biscuits = 4p

1 cup of milkless and sugarless tea = 1p

DAYS TOTAL SPEND £1.00

#BelowTheLine Food Shop Done!

Alright!! The shopping has been done. And here is a picture of most of what I got. The other bits like the sausages and the chicken pie I completely forgot to put in the picture and by the time I remembered I had put it all away. So not getting it all back out for a pie lol.

I did a practice shop on Tesco online so I knew I was going to be able to get it all done and on budget.

Below is how I plan to do it and how much the actual shop cost, and how much it will cost per serving.

Shopping List

• 3pk chicken and veg pies - 84p
• Value lettuce - 57p
• 10 slices value ham - 61p
• 4pk chocolate mousse - 20p
• 2 x mini pepperoni pizzas + garlic bread - 50p (it was buy 3 for 2 and I got 46p back)
• 8 x sausages - 56p
• 1L long life skimmed milk - £1.06
• 5 x bananas - 61p
• 200g Cream cheese - 49p
• 1/2 Cucumber portion - 45p
• 500g dry spaghetti - 19p
• Meatballs in tomato sauce - 40p
• 26 x digestive biscuits - 30p
• Chicken soup - 24p
• 454g Mixed fruit jam - 29p
• 1kg Porridge oats - 75p
• 120g Packet mash (serves 3) - 20p
• 80 teabags - 27p
• 1kg frozen peas - 99p
• 800g Wholemeal thick slice bread - 50p
• 500ml Mayonnaise - 40p
• 1.5kg Carrots - 69p

TOTAL SHOP = £11.11 << weird amount!!!! Number fairies.

Now I know the shopping list total is more than £5 and the object of the game is to do 5 days at £5 but once broken down into their serving sizes, I can not only have 3 meals a day with a brew and 2 biscuits for supper, but I can have them all for LESS than £1 a day - except for Friday when I spend £1.01.

For each blog post, I will break down exactly what I had and how much a portion cost me. Exciting.

£1.00 a Day Meal Challenge

Hey folks. Ok so I am not doing it all official like by signing up and getting sponsors, simply because I can't ask all my friends to sponsor me for something else when they have already given so generously to my Three Peaks Challenge (click here for more info on that). But I am going to give this a go!

The premise of the idea is that over 5 days you have £5.00 to spend on food for the whole day. That's £1.00 a day (maths genius). Baring in mind that a single red bell pepper from Tesco is 80p, and baring in mind that thousands of people do live on around £1.00 a day, this exercise is going to be both challenging and eye opening.

I am starting the challenge on Monday through to Friday and will post my findings and what I had to eat daily, with pictures so you can see portion sizes and that I'm not lying! I will also try and do calorie counts as that will be very interesting too. I will also try and get stuff for free and on the cheap! This means foraging for nettles to make a nettle soup, finding berries to maybe make a jam and nipping up to Tesco which is my local supermarket on an evening to try and get the cheapest cuts of meat or going off veggies. It takes me 45 minutes to walk up to the supermarket by the way and to save on the money, I will be walking to and from it rather than get the bus.

I'm looking forward to it!! Keep coming back and seeing how I get on :D And if you would like to know more and/or donate to this challenge, please visit Live Below the Line

Wish me luck!!