The Eat for £3.50 a Week Challenge - The Why and the History

You might be wondering why I decided to do something that seems to be almost impossible, to be honest perhaps I am too!!  

But I am in a Facebook Group called 'Food - Surviving on 50p a Day' ... I think a few of my readers are on this  too ... so I thought that in this time of hugely increasing food bills, and with energy prices going through the roof causing so many people to really panic and worry about the simple job of feeding themselves it could be a useful challenge to generate some ideas for absolute rock bottom price eating, and to test out if eating for 50p a day is possible ... and could it even be more than just surviving?

The simple task of keeping body and soul together, on a budget that seems barely enough to feed your goldfish can get to be just too much for most people, and sometimes seeing something written down that inspires you to make more out of what you already have can be a little glimmer of hope in an otherwise ever darkening struggle.

I am going to be completely open and upfront, these days this is a Challenge to me and not something that I have to do, but I HAVE been there in the past so I do not do this out of a sense of fun but rather as a way of hopefully helping.  Back in the day I was feeding a family of four, two of them growing boys and one an outdoor working husband on a budget that varied from week to week but that never topped £20 and sometimes sank as low as emptying out the penny jar*.  

We survived, perhaps in some ways more by luck than management, as like many I had to learn on the job.  You don't get taught household money management at school and years ago there was no internet with ideas to Google, no Facebook chums to help out with ideas or even encouragement, we were just young Mums keeping our children fed and clothed on tiny amounts of money and doing the very best we could.

What I do now when I decide to do a Challenge like this is use the money that I would normally spend on my own food shopping ... my average per week for just myself including a bottle of Aldi Pinot Grigio is around £25 ... to buy food for the local Foodbank trolley in the supermarket.  So it's a bit winner, winner, winner as I get to learn something and push myself in the kitchen, I hopefully get to pass on a few ideas that might help someone and the Foodbank gets some much needed extra supplies.

Anyway enough of the waffling, it's time to go get the food and begin the Challenge.

*How do you shop when using coppers from the penny jar?  I scrabbled together all the 1p, 2p and the odd 5p coins from our huge whisky bottle and went around the indoor market in Barrow in Furness which had a lot of fruit and vegetable stalls and asked if they minded some small change.  Four bananas on one, half a dozen potatoes on another, carrots on another ... you get the picture, with the money being counted out from a handful of coins pulled from my coat pocket.  A couple of dented cans of beans or peas for 10p each from the basket on the floor of the grocery stall and if I could, a small bag of penny sweets for each of my boys.  I came away with a carrier bag of food and a much, much lighter pocket with all that loose change gone ... and most importantly of all we survived another week.

Sue xx  🥫

Ration Challenge - Trials

Over the course of the next two weeks, every couple of days I am going to have a go at recipes that I could potentially make with my ration Challenge ingredients when I start this challenge on 13th September.  It's a real luxury to have this time ahead of me, as last year I signed up right at the last minute and pretty much winged it.  This year I should be able to make a good menu plan and know that barring any mishaps everything on it should work out!!

One thing I was keen to try first after not being able to make it last year ... due to me running out of flour after going mad making flatbreads when I finally got the recipe just right ... was pastry.

Blogging buddy Lesley Negus perfected a technique a couple of years ago and posted about it on her blog HERE.  Now I didn't have the recipe in front of me when I set to with my 100g of flour, 50g of oil and a jug of water.  But I thought if I treat the oil as though it were a solid fat, use the same ratio of half fat to flour and then gradually add the water it should work out.

And it did, but I think I added a touch too much water as it was a very soft dough.  I rested it in the fridge for a while wrapped in flour sprinkled clingfilm to help it firm up enough to use.

And using two sheets of floured clingfilm to help me roll it I then dropped the filling on top of it ... this was some leftover potato, onion and spinach mixture, also a bit sloppy ... I wasn't helping myself much here was I!!  I managed to pull the sides of the pastry up and around the filling and plop it unceremoniously over and into a non-stick pie dish.

It came out of the oven after 25 minutes at Gas 6 looking like this, now my only choice was eat it out of the tin or try and get it out of the pie dish.

You can see which option I chose 😄

Now it might not look brilliant, but the taste of that pastry is amazing.  The shortest, crumbliest and yet still shortcrust pastry that I have had in a long time.  Whether it will appear on the Ration Challenge menu is still to be decided, as I have just learnt of another method of making something that is short and delicious out of exactly the same ingredients.

I feel a comparison bake off coming on.

Here is my Ration Challenge Fundraising Page

And as you can see if you nip over for a quick peek or to make a donation, we are doing so well.  Already we have raised enough to feed FOUR refugees for an entire year and we are on our way to being able to feed FIVE.   How fantastic is that. 

Thank you so much for all your donations and encouragement up to now 💓

Sue xx

Let's Do a Bit of a Poll

After an email I received this morning I thought I'd do a little poll.  

Here in the UK we'll all be voting again soon, so I thought I could get a different sort of vote up and running before you all go elsewhere to put your little X in the box.

Basically the email asked if I would consider doing a second run at Challenge Six  'For the Price of a Coffee'.  This time doing all the shopping in one go at the start of the week, buying different foods and making different meals.  So instead of £2.75 a day each and every day, a one off amount of £19.25 to spend on the first day.

I was informed I could start with the same 'storecupboard'.  You are generous Emily  😊

Is there any interest in this?  It would seem a bit strange to do it for my own entertainment if there wasn't … although I guess I would be making Emily happy!!

You can vote by commenting either YES or NO, or if you want a bit of a waffle about anything feel free 😃

Sue xx

And So I'm Back ...

'And so I'm back, from outer space.

I just walked in and found you here with that sad look upon your face.'

To slightly misquote Gloria ... I'm back  :-)

I pulled up the photos I had gotten lined up on the computer for my next Challenge and then decided I'm not ready for this Challenge yet.  But here they are anyway and my reason for taking them was shock and surprise, so it would be a shame not to share them and chat briefly about them. 

I photographed the Ecover refill station in Booths at Garstang as I was so pleased to see it there.  I immediately bought myself a bottle of liquid clothes washing stuff for use at the van and a small bottle of conditioner, with the idea that now I could just fill them up whenever I needed to and no longer have to worry at the lack of local recycling facilities.

Then literally along the next aisle, I came across this.

WTF!!!

Crisps in a plastic bucket.

Bloody ridiculous.

Do people actually buy these ... and why?

My eyes were also drawn to this 'Natural Multi Cleaner' in a cardboard bottle and I thought what a brilliant idea ... then I saw the price!  

My first reaction was total astonishment, then I saw the little bottle in the bottom left-hand corner of the label that states '25 spray bottles' and I realised that this was a super-concentrated formula and therefore yes, a brilliant idea.  One bottle of this and you have enough product for 25 refills of your empty spray bottle and no need for an extra 24 plastic bottles needing recycling or going to landfill, and sooo much cheaper as well.  But I do think they need this information to be a lot bigger and a lot clearer at first glance.  How many just like me, have disregarded product this just because of cost and moved off before reading the label properly.

I Googled the company this morning and I am now of the opinion that yes, this is a good product and a really good idea ... they even say you can split the recyclable packaging when you have finished using the product and use the cardboard as a little planter.

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Anyway, this is all by the by as for now this is not my next Challenge, to be totally honest I'm not entirely sure what is, as we are still working our way through simplifying the cupboards, which was if I remember correctly Challenge Four - Down to Basics, the Challenge that was never really finished off properly on here as I jumped feet first into the Ration Challenge.  We have continued and done well, albeit rather slowly at this and although we have been shopping numerous times since I left the blog back in June, we have slowly but surely either eaten or gotten rid of lots of the foods that were in the cupboards and freezers both at home in Wales and here at the Van.

That we still had some foods remaining after such a long time ... and after so many similar Challenges ... was an indication that we were just not eating some things that we had in store.  It made me think that I really needed to do an assessment of what we do actually eat and therefore what we do actually need to buy on a regular basis.

Which gives me a glimmer of an idea of what could be my next Challenge.  I'll be back again when I've figured it out ... or a bit sooner if you would like to see the current state of the cupboards.

Sue xx

Down to Basics - Still Not Shopping and it Feels ....

We're still not shopping and it feels ... GOOD!!.

The stores of food in the fridge, freezer and cupboards are going down a bit quicker with both of us being in this use it up mindset.  We no longer ask 'What do you fancy for tea?'  first we have a rummage through the freezer or open the cupboard and peruse the shelves and then we decide what we're going to be eating.

I am running short on some things, I think I have four Weetabix left, although there is a large box at the Van so I could bring back some after filling the jar there, so I do have options.  But in the meantime there is always porridge for breakfast.

Today I'm having two Weetabix, but yesterday's breakfast before the car boot sale was a Nutriblast using fruit from the freezer and some Spinach from the polytunnel, along with a dash of Almond Milk and some water.

It made a tasty and nutritious sludge 😉

Talking of car boot sales, I've posted about it on my other blog over here.  We did well, and oh the relief to be coming home with all that space in the back of the truck.  We are both really in the mindset of Down to Basics now and it really is feeling good.

Sue xx

Down to Basics - Getting into the Mindset

I discovered YouTube in a big way this year, it's inspiring me, making me think and helping to keep me on the straight and narrow ... as well as finding the most amazing little things that have completed my life ...

... yes I watched Bella's mum Hetti's pregnancy develop and saw Bella's actual birth on YouTube after following Life in the Cottage and getting to know Georgina through this medium and on Facebook.

Somethings just come into your life at the right time and for the right reasons ... and little Bella has been one of them.

But how does all this relate to this Challenge you might ask ... well since being motivated to finally get our shit together sort out our stuff and clutter completely I looked around YouTube for others of the same mindset and watched some clips to help keep me on the straight and narrow and to motivate me to continue, and then I found Madeleine Olivia.  First I watched her Minimilism playlist (well some of it) and now after a delivery that arrived yesterday while I was out and has really opened my eyes to packaging, I'm watching her Sustainability series.

  

This is one of her inspiring clips above, but be aware it can get very addictive watching.  Ten minute clips don't seem like much time to be sat at the computer but when you watch four or five you lose quite a bit of time  ;-)

So now it's time to turn off the computer and get some sorting done ... yes Sue step away from the computer!!

Sue xx

Is It All White and Black?

To keep me inspired and on the right track, just recently I've been watching lots of YouTube clips and reading minimalism posts from other folk in this wonderful Webby World.  Now most of them seem to be totally up-front and show you their journey towards minimalism warts and all, but with some of them you wonder if it's all camera angles and them wanting to be on a bandwagon just for the ride rather than the journey.

I can show you what I mean here.  

A couple of years ago we moved towards having mostly all white crockery with a bit of an embossed stripe, it keeps life simple, looks neat enough to make me happy when I go into the cupboards and means that if there's a breakage I can easily fill any gaps with another purchase of any white item that has embossed  line of any sort in it.  So we have white for crockery, plain glass for glassware and stainless steel for our cutlery ... SO if I was showing you my cupboards on a minimalism post I could show you the photo above and you would all go ... ahhh, hasn't she done well  :-)

Or I could show you the original photo I took, and how it looked before editing... and you could see that I am still on a bit of a journey,and there's absolutely nothing wrong in that ... I love honesty.

I'll be sorting through the top shelf later ... I can see a couple of things straight away that are supposed to be in the touring caravan!!

Unless you want to see my knickers ... look away now!!

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And the 'black' part of this post ... underwear.

For the last few years I have always worn black underwear, nothing slinky or glamorous ... I don't live that sort of lifestyle ... just Sloggi pants, M&S ankle socks and good supportive bras.  Keeping it black, except for a couple of skin-tone or pink colour bras for under pale T shirts in Summer and a single pair of skin-tone knickers for under my one pair of light shorts, means that they can all get lobbed in the wash together, take minimal sorting out, socks that get holes can be thrown away and it's other half can wait for another lone sock to appear and they can once again be a pair.

It keeps life nice and simple and we both used to do this ...

... until just recently.

Now my lovely hubby has thrown a stripey stick into the works and I find myself having to match up socks on the washing line ... yes, I'm totally OCD about them having to hang in pairs.

I bet you never thought I'd share my knickers on a post  😄

The food in the cupboards is going down slowly at the moment, well it will if I keep having a round of toast with peanut butter and black coffee for breakfast won't it!!

Must do better ... must eat more ... haha, I never thought I'd hear myself say that!!

Sue xx

Down to Basics - In So Many Ways

A slightly different post today, because although the interiors of my cupboards must be fascinating and the contents are going down slowly but surely ... we have broadened the whole Challenge concept.  

We are now on a bit more of a push to get Down to Basics in more areas of our lives.  And I say 'our lives' as we are both totally of the mind that we need to simplify things and get our lives on a slower, easier path.

The first big thing to go was listed on Facebook Marketplace on Saturday night and by 6pm last night it was gone.  The big thing was Alan's treadmill, a large ungainly running machine that although used at first had long since been abandoned and had sat in the conservatory looking at us reproachfully every time we passed by.  It was that big and heavy that I couldn't even move it to clean underneath, so this morning has been a brilliant morning of Spring cleaning the whole room one side at a time.

So now we have sparkling windows ...

... and clean floors, skirting boards and every nook and cranny has been hoovered, wiped down and mopped.  

(The mark you see under the mirror seemingly on the wall ... is in fact on my camera lens and will not come off, but I love my current camera so I put up with it!!)

And talking of cleaning ... there were a couple of comments on the last post about how clean everything looked, and then last night I got an email asking me what products do I use and how do I keep everywhere so clean and tidy.  I think our house just photographs very well because virtually all our walls are white and all the floors are pale-ish.  But while they were out I took a photo of the things I use.

A Dyson, a floor mop with a squirty bottle on it ... you push the trigger and it squirts out a dilute mix of your favourite floor cleaning product and refill as and when it runs dry ... Flash Lemon Scented Multi-purpose cleaner that we buy in large bottles from the wholesaler and decant into an old Flash trigger bottle or the other bottle that is kept under the sink.  My guilty secret, and one of the things that I am using slightly too many of at the moment with a tiny puppy in the house, are throwaway floor and anti-bacterial wipes. 

But these and a dash of bleach for the toilets are the only products I use for ALL surfaces.  We do have to be careful not to use too much bleach or too many strong cleaning products as we run on a septic tank and not into mains drainage.  We have to keep our good bacteria alive!!

My best ever buy and most used cleaning thing are a set of Clean and Gleam Window Cloths from Lakeland which I use along with a spritz of the Flash to clean all sorts of surfaces not just the glass that they are advertised for.  It seemed a large outlay at the time for two cloths but I have been using my current pair (one is used damp and the other dry) for the last two years, so the investment was well worth it!

Another comment on yesterdays post was how tidy my cupboards are and yes, I agree.  I think I am getting a little OCD about the neatness of the cupboards as they empty and become more streamlined.  The tins of tuna for Ginger are a case in point, recently I've noticed when I'm putting them away ... the labels all have to face front even though I know they are all tins of tuna  😁 

Sue xx

Down to Basics - Using Things Up

So ... how's this going?

Well because I just jumped in with both feet, no dithering, no thinking of rules, no planning, no menus ... it's going casually.  But, and this is the main thing we are off and running immediately.

I'm trying to photograph ingredients as I use them up, relishing throwing empty packs in the bin after prepping each meal and positively loving every little bit of space that I make in the cupboard, fridge or freezer.

I even let Alan have a whole pack of bacon on his two breakfast bacon buns ... they were small slices and it the only time he's eating bacon this week so I'm not trying to kill him ... honest!!

While he tucked into bacon buns with good old HP sauce I had a couple of egg buns with mayo ... so between us an egg and bacon breakfast that kept us going for hours. 

  Later on all we needed as a late lunch was the coffee and cake we tucked into at  the local garden centre.  Our tea was therefore much more like a supper so we decided to share a homemade pizza.

Keeping it simple I managed to use up half a tub of Dolmio pasta sauce from the cupboard, along with some leftover roasted vegetables from the fridge, some slices of red onion and the last of one of my packs of ready grated cheese.  For Alan's half, as I had no cheese I could grate I finely chopped up a cheese slice.  Of course it worked well, it always does, cheese is cheese is cheese ... whatever its starting shape.

Not a bad day of using things up ... a full pack of buns, leftovers from the fridge, cheese and of course a full pack of bacon.  What it does highlight to me straight away though is that while I am so thrilled to use things up, most of what we eat seems to come in excessive and mostly unrecyclable packaging.  Both the bacon slices and the Dolmio sauce for instance had cardboard sleeves over the plastic tray and tub that they came in, very decorative and full of information but mostly unnecessary.  

 At home we can compost and burn things, here at the Van it's a different thing altogether.  ALL rubbish goes into the big shared rubbish bins, if it's recycled at its destination I'm not sure.  The only reason for this is that the local recycling vans don't fit under the railway bridge that leads into the caravan park.

My answer to this dilemma I have decided is that once this Challenge I might try a 'packaging free', or at the very least 'much less packaging' challenge, especially here at the Van.  Back home in Wales, Conwy Council is leading the way in recycling and it's not quite so much of a worry.  

Back tomorrow with some more chatter/waffle/photos ... well that's what my blog has always been full of  🙂

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Down to Basics - Challenge Triggered

This is my food cupboard at the Van.

I hadn't realised how full it already was until I got back from a mooch around the shops.  It was the type of shopping trip done a bit here, a bit there, going back to the car with bags between various shops.  Crossing things off my list and then for some reason still shopping for more.

As I unpacked the bags when I got home my heart sank ... I'd only gone and done it again.  Backed myself into a corner piled high with foodstuffs that mostly weren't even needed immediately. 

I laid everything out and took photos.  They were things we needed yes, but not immediately.   The cereals for instance, yes I had just eaten the last two Weetabix for breakfast but there were still oats in the cupboard for porridge or bread in the freezer for toast, I could easily have managed for a week or two before buying anything else.  Also I didn't have to buy Alan a different sort of cereal, he would have been just as happy sharing the Weetabix, or porridge or toast.

I treated myself to some flowers to brighten up the Van for the Bank Holiday weekend along with my annual purchase of Gardeners' World magazine.  It's the issue with the two for one entry into various gardens around the UK.  This particular one came with gardening gloves and seeds as well.  Hopefully we will be able to make use of the offer card a few times this year, we didn't get round to it last year ... or the year before.

Another silly purchase?

Time will tell.

I also bought these ...

Three pretty notebooks.  I never regret buying stationery

But it was after photographing all these additional purchases that I spotted I still had one more bag to finish unpacking.

More food!!

So ... a Challenge has been triggered in a very natural way.  It's not the one I had in mind to do but it's a very needed one, and one if I do it properly and completely will lead neatly into the one I had in mind anyway.

It's starts NOW.

I'll be back tomorrow with more information, but long term and regular readers will have a bloody good idea what I'm going to do 😀


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Back Soon ... I Promise

I've not vanished completely  - honest!!

My only Challenge recently has been keeping a secret.

All will be revealed in just over a week on my other blog.

In the meantime here are some puppy dog eyes ...

... and this mornings cuddles.



Not Challenging in the least but totally adorable.


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Shopping Hauls - End of Challenge

So, I shopped until I dropped ... well not really ... I've thoroughly enjoyed this week .  

Having seventy pounds to spend in seven shops, on whatever I wanted to spend it on was something totally unusual for me.  I don't think I have ever gone into a shop thinking 'I must spend £10 here'.

But I really enjoyed each and every shopping expedition.

I think as a round-up I'll say what my favourite purchase was from each shopping trip.

From Asda, my first port of call, I think my favourite purchase just has to be the large Spiced Berries tealights.  

At just 30p for a pack of twelve, and five packs purchased for less than the cost of one bag of ten unscented ones, I really do think they were my bargain of the week. 

My favourite buy from my first Poundland visit on Day Two has to be my 32 black pens ... don't ask me why but lots of pens in a jar on my desk make me happy.   

And 32 for just £1 makes me even happier  :-)

My best buy from The Works on Day Three in my opinion is the Weekly Planner that you can colour in.

I'll have to keep it handy for when I'm on the phone chatting to people, I have a tendency to doodle away on the margins of magazines, shopping lists ... anything that's to hand really.  So this might help me doodle in a decorative way on something that's also useful.

I loved mooching around the charity shops on Day Four.  You never know what you are going to find on any given day in a charity shop and I think I did really well with my mostly wooden themed collection of finds.

My favourite out of the four items I bought just has to be the little egg crate.  Useful, beautiful and it really was something I needed.

I don't know what I would pick as my favourite item out of the things I bought from Home Bargains on Day Five, most of them were actually needed.  The Christmas outfits for the dogs were a bit of silliness ...

... but I think for the adorableness of the pom pom and the little cactus label on the pencil case that has to be my pick from this little haul.

My favourite buy from my second visit of the week to Poundland on Day Six has to be the bottle openers, with the two packs of vanilla scented votive candles a very close runner up.

We've been searching for some of these, not attached to an expensive thing for a while, and to find them at just 25p each in Poundland was a revelation.

There's no favourite item for my final shop of the week ... Sainsbury's on Day Seven.  

 I enjoyed the whole experience, choosing what to put in my trolley, keeping tabs on what I was spending, dropping all the food off in the Foodbank collection box and walking out of the supermarket with just my handbag over my shoulder ... and then the getting home with no shopping to put away was just the icing on the cake.

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So all in all the last seven days have been a brilliant break from my normal sort of Challenge, and they have set me up nicely for a week off from blogging as I settle into a new sort of life, in a new place.  None of my purchases have been just for the sake of spending money, if you know me at all you know I wouldn't do that.  Some have been a bit of fun ... the dog outfits for 49p each, the squeezy strawberry stress ball and the little make-up bag/pencil case spring to mind.  A lot of the purchases I have made over the course of this week have been with half a mind on my new 'here and there' lifestyle.  There will be more information about all that over on my other blog if you would like to follow along with what I'm up to next ... yes I'm always up to something as all my long term readers from my old blog Our New Life in the Country know.  

This blog will be picked up again when I start out on some new Challenges based from my new weekday home, which although still quite rural, is in a different country, as  I'm crossing the border back into England and a completely different setting.  Where I'll be going from having five acres of growing space to having five square yards ... now there's a Challenge in itself  ;-)

Thanks for reading along and commenting.  It's always nice to hear from you.

Sue xx