This week, from Monday to Friday I was living below the line, with just £1 a day for all food and drink consumed. I did this to try and understand what food poverty is really like and help raise awareness for the great work The Hunger Project do.
As you’ll see from my previous blog post about the live below the line challenge, I had a rough shopping list in mind when I headed to Aldi last week. As it turns out, I stuck mostly to the list but did make a few changes. I was lucky to find a cabbage and small bag of carrots both half price so they went into my basket but at the expense of a tin of tomatoes. I also saw spaghetti hoops on special at 13p and super noodles half price so they went in rather than apples as I thought the carbs would help fill me up. It took over an hour with calculator in hand before I was finished and I spent £4.83 in total, a little under my £5 budget.
A few additions…
A friend of mine told me about a spot for collecting windfall apples so I also have a few of those, checked carefully for slugs. And, living in Bristol means I’m also able to take advantage of the Edible Bristol food planters around the city and although there isn’t much left this late into the season, I did also manage to pick some kale and a handful of green tomatoes to add to my food stocks. I also allowed myself salt and pepper.
If you can spare £1 or perhaps a little more, I’d love your donation over on my fundraising!
A week of living below the line:
Monday
I started by making the soup for the next two day’s lunches. It was essentially water, green and tinned tomatoes, cabbage and carrots. Cooked down and blitzed to give a chunky consistency. Seasoned with salt and pepper and actually, not too bad but very plain.
With no carbs before dinner time, by around 3pm I was starving and my tummy was rumbling in a way I’ve not heard for quite some time. I was glad for my rice and a sachet of sample Nando’s sauce I found in the cupboard. At the time I remember taking it from the sales girl and wondering what I’d do with it. Turns out, it was just what I needed to jazz up my dinner.
- Breakfast: Yoghurt & banana
- Lunch: Vegetable soup
- Snack: Apple
- Dinner: Egg, rice & frozen veg with Nando’s sauce sachet for seasoning
Tuesday
My food intake was identical to Mondays. I felt quite miserable about that and honestly, I did not enjoy my soup. In the afternoon we went to see Dave’s grandparents and I relished the opportunity to have a cup of tea and a couple of biscuits. His grandma also gave me three teabags so that I could have my morning cuppas for the last few days of the challenge (albeit without milk). She also gave me two bananas which were destined for the bin. I went to bed looking forward to a change in food for the following day because already at this point it was clear that living below the line equals repetition of food.
- Breakfast: Yoghurt & banana
- Lunch: Vegetable soup
- Snack: Cup of tea and two ginger biscuits at Dave’s Grandma’s house
- Dinner: Egg, rice & frozen veg with Nando’s sauce sachet for seasoning
Wednesday
At this point, I was excited to have finished that soup and moving onto something different for lunch. My spaghetti hoops were comparatively delicious (very sweet) and I wolfed the whole tin despite planning to have half one day and half the next. During the evening I went to a blog event and drank a cocktail and ate some ice cream chocolates. I ummed about this but in the end I decided to go as you can see in the insta post below. When I got home, I ate my planned meal of kidney beans and rice and went back to the challenge.
- Breakfast: Yoghurt & banana
- Lunch: Spaghetti hoops
- Dinner: Rice with 1/2 kidney beans & frozen veg
- Snack: Boiled egg
Thursday
This was definitely the toughest day. For some reason I was starving all day long, maybe because I’d had some alcohol the night before? And, if I’m honest, I didn’t enjoy the sardines at lunch. I got them because at 34p they were a great source omega 3 and protein but not for enjoyment. Food shopping for me is usually about what I fancy, and ideas for experimentation so this was very different experience. It was cold and wet out too, so I was craving tea all day long and although I drank hot water, it wasn’t quite the same you know?
- Breakfast: Yoghurt
- Lunch: Rice with frozen veg & sardines
- Snack: Apple
- Dinner: Rice with 1/2 kidney beans & soft boiled egg
Friday
The final day. I drank a lot of hot water and was well and truly sick of rice and frozen vegetables. Now, having eaten my final meal, I’m so thankful that the challenge ends tomorrow morning. I’ve had headaches most days and wonder if that is because of the lack of carbs or perhaps just not enough fruit and vegetables? I mainly drink decaf tea, for which I’m thankful as caffeine withdrawal would have made this whole process ten times harder. Never in my life did I look forward to chicken super noodles like I did last night.
- Breakfast: Yoghurt & banana
- Lunch: Rice with frozen veg
- Snack: Apple
- Dinner: Super noodles & a boiled egg
So there you have it. It’s now Saturday and I’m sat here drinking my second tea (with milk) as I type. For more of an insight into how the five days went, take a look at my instagram stories (saved as LiveBelow) but I think it’s safe to say that I now have an incredible appreciation for the food I have available at my fingertips, for the warmth and relative luxury around me. I will try not to moan when I’m hungry. I will try not to complain when my dinner is nothing more exciting than pesto pasta or cheese on toast.
Although I can never comprehend what it’s like to live in real food poverty, I do have a new found respect for everything I have in my fridge, cupboards and freezer and am even more determined to avoid food waste. It’s just ignorant. I can see how, when money is tight, supermarkets do not make it easy for shoppers on the breadline. Boxes of things like tea bags and bags of sugar are big and expensive. Multipacks and bigger bags = discounts and better price per kilo. These are things which allow those who can afford it to make savings but not those who can’t. It feels counterintuitive.
When you’re challenged to feed yourself on a shoe string, you’ll likely pay more for fewer items because you don’t have spare cash to buy the kilo bag of this or bigger box of that. The cheaper supermarkets too, have a long way to go when it comes to their fruit and vegetables – Aldi for example sell very few items loose meaning you’re forced into a whole bag of onions, potatoes, apples. Sure, I can get an onion or a potato loose at Waitrose but that’s not helpful if Aldi is my closest and cheapest place to shop and I can’t afford the bus fare is it? And don’t even get me started on the plastic waste. Food for thought perhaps.
However tough it gets over the next few months as we continue to job hunt, it’s unlikely to get as bad as those living below the line have it. £1 is nothing – a bag of crisps, a chocolate bar, a quarter of a pint of beer or some other snack. For most of us it’s a throwaway amount and yet, somehow, I’ve managed to feed myself for a whole day on that amount, five times. I’m proud of what I’ve done – incredible but also pretty scary. I hope that I never have to experience living below the line again.
You should be really proud! You’re right about the repetition point – I think when you’re on a budget food almost immediately stops being about enjoyment and variety and its just about fuelling yourself. I’ve donated 🙂 Good luck with the job hunt!!!
Well done for managing that. I don’t think I could although I’ve been trying to spend a lot less and shopping more in Aldi. I’ve cut my monthly food spending down in half, but I think I can still do better. I am grateful I can pay the bills and can feed my family without the struggle some people have.
This is a really hard challenge, even for one week. But it really brings home how difficult and unending it is for those living below the line. Food becomes fuel, and little more, and a constant stress factor of what you can afford, must be incredibly hard. Thanks for highlighting it.
Humbled by your challenge, and really admire your perseverance. It’s an eye opener to see what this amount of money gives you for food. I agree about the buying in bulk dilemma that most supermarkets offer – unaffordable for many or just encouraging food waste.
Kudos to you for undertaking this challenge! It is difficult to live like this – eat like this – for a week, leave alone a lifetime. Thank you for bringing to light the woes of those who live hand to mouth.
Wow this was a great read. You made a good point with the way supermarkets bring costs down when buying more, but that is still a high price to begin with. It’s true. Buying items on offer, unless one thinks of stocking up, is not always actually good for the consumer. You end up spending more and sometimes half of the product gets unused/old/forgotten. So it’s more waste but in the end you did spend more the time you purchased those items. It’s good for cleaning products, or canned food, but not always great with other stuff.
Anyway, I was also quite impressed with the amount of groceries you were able to buy with that low budget. Compared, exactly, with one snack that alone would cost as much. I live in Sweden and it would be much harder for me to buy this much on the same budget.
Truly a great read, and really made me think about food poverty.
I too am gonna do a week for me and my family beginning of January to high light how lucky we are and to be thankful for all we have I will also be now donating finger cross to your link too.