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  🥫

The £3 a Day Challenge - Using Up the Leftovers

 

Having such a small amount of storage space it has been important to me to quickly make good use of the foods I bought last week during the Challenge, especially the already cooked leftovers and the fresh salady stuff.  One of my first use it up meals was a lettuce and coleslaw bun, a nice filling lunch which simply added a brown sub roll to my Challenge leftovers.

Then I made use of the cooked potato/carrot/onion mix ...

... and made myself a pasty.  

Which also neatly used up a third of a roll of shortcrust pastry that I had in the freezer.  I am in the process trying to use up the contents of the freezer which seems to be lots of bitty stuff, half a pack of this, half a pack of that.  When you have such a tiny freezer space it's like playing freezer Tetris every time you go in there when there's a lot of stuff, especially when most of it is singly wrapped to save space.

Lunch the next day was a bit similar to the top photo, but this time some sliced cheese and cucumber   was added to the lettuce, and it was served with some of the tortilla chips as a crunchy nibble.

The flour has been tipped into my large flour jar, the oats into the oats jar, the spaghetti is in the spaghetti jar and the garlic cloves and baby spinach have been added to the bags of both in the freezer so there is no immediate rush to use them before they go off.  We are both using the marmalade when we have toast in the mornings and the peach slices have been added to the other tinned fruit in the cupboard to be served with some ice-cream one evening when we fancy a treat.

Lunch today is going to be the last of the lettuce and cucumber with the remaining sausage rolls, so as you can see nothing will be wasted ... which makes me very happy 😀

Sue xx

The £3 a Day Challenge - End of Challenge Round Up

 

One Challenge, one week and boy did that go fast!!

Just look at what I have over ... so much food, there's at least another two days worth of good eating there.  I knew £21 would be a luxury budget for one person, it was just the Challenge of knowing what to buy with each £1 coin as it became available for each meal that kept me on my toes.

Not in the photo because I ate them for my breakfast were the last two crumpets.  This time eaten with lashings of spread instead of the 27p marmalade.

Also not in the photo ... because I forgot about it ... was the orange juice!!  Look, it was sat on my desk looking reproachfully at me as I downloaded the other photos ... don't forget me it shouted as I slurped.

So what's left over:

1/3 of a tub of Coleslaw

2 Sausage Rolls

2/3 pack of Tortilla Chips

1100g SR Flour

most of a jar of Marmalade

2 Garlic cloves

400g of Spaghetti

370g Oats

a tin of Peach Slices

1/2 a Cucumber

1/2 a Lettuce

1/3 bag of French Fries

1/2 bag of Spinach

2 Lemon slices

enough vegetable filling for another pasty

a small portion of Pasta Sauce

.. and a wad of receipts and a 5p coin.

Quite a lot to show for a week of Challenging Myself.

Every Challenge I do teaches me something, so what did this teach me?

That £1 per meal is doable and can be very tasty.  

That I am quick to react to what my body tells me I need.  I switched buying a few things around at the last minute and enjoyed what I made with what I had purchased all the more for it.

  

That the self- weigh and self-checkout facilities in Sainsbury's definitely give it the edge when you are doing a Challenge of this nature.  It takes all the embarrassment out of buying one carrot, one potato, one onion and one banana  😳

That my little fridge and freezer cannot cope with me doing Challenges whilst we are both living here in my little flat.  Oh, I am looking forward to my Smeg even more now!!

That just because some own brands are cheap does not make them worse taste-wise in any way.  The Tortilla Chips at just 45p a bag (although the shelf edge label said they were 55p they scanned at 45p 😀) were just as tasty, if not better, than the branded ones I have had before.

That my 35p Pitta Breads were a brilliant buy and stayed fresh all week.

Thank you for all of you that stuck with me for the whole week, thank you for the comments and the encouragement, it made it all seem all the more worthwhile and kept me on the straight and narrow.

Now all I have to do is to use up my leftovers over the next couple of days, nothing will be wasted.

Thank you.

Sue xx

The £3 a Day Challenge - Day Seven

The first two meals on this my final day of this Challenge both came in two parts.  

My first breakfast was a couple more of yesterdays crumpets spread with the tangy orange marmalade and a glass of orange juice,  and then because the shops don't open until 10am on a Sunday I couldn't go shopping until after the doggy walk.

It was a glorious morning so we took the longer way round the river first down one side and then up the other, which rather handily brings me out just near Sainsbury's, which by that time had just about opened.  So I was one of the first customers, and I bet the only one armed with only £1.57 😄

Breakfast Shopping

Spinach - 1.00

Gala Apple - 30p

Total £1.30

2nd Breakfast

A nice green smoothie for us both, using the apple, my last banana and a good handful of the spinach.

It's nice to share 💖

Lunchtime Shopping

Sausage Rolls - £1.19

First Lunch

While the sausage rolls were cooking I had two mugs of the 'free soup' that I made yesterday with the trimmings and peeling, gosh that was tasty

Second Lunch

Two of the sausage rolls, these really are the best vegan sausage rolls on the market in my humble opinion and are at their best eaten when they have cooled down for about 10 minutes after coming out of the oven.  I was really full after two mugs of soup and two sausage rolls!!

Teatime Shopping  ... and the final shopping trip of the Challenge.

Baking Potato - 39p

Bitter Lemon Drink - 60p

Total = 99p

I couldn't afford any alcohol to celebrate the end of the Challenge, although believe me the thought of saving up for some had crossed my mind 😊 ... but I could afford 60p for a bottle of diet Bitter Lemon which is one of the few fizzy drinks I like.

Vegetable pasties, the filling made with the potato, the carrot from yesterday and half an onion from day five, all simmered together in stock and then slightly mashed up with lots of salt and pepper.

Tea

Pasty and Chips ... for two, it's still nice to share 😀

We were going to share the tin of peaches for pudding but we were both far too full.

Cash Carried Forward

5p

I have the feeling that's not quite right!!   I'm sure I should have 9p but it's the only money left in my coat pocket!!

Food Carried Forward

 - lots, I'll be back tomorrow with a photo.

And that's it final day over and done with, it's been a good week and it has absolutely flown by.  I'll be back tomorrow with a bit of a round up.  Thanks for following along everyone, there have been a lot of views every day, even if most of you have been too shy to comment.

Sue xx

The £3 a Day Challenge - Day Six

 

Breakfast Shopping

Orange Marmalade - 27p

Crumpets - 25p for 6

Tin of Peach Slices - 31p

Total - 83p

Again I went to Aldi for my breakfast, and quite unintentionally it turned into an orange coloured extravaganza.

So much so that I decided to have a black coffee with my breakfast rather than the glass of orange juice I was going to have 🧡

After a long doggy walk I walked over to Sainsbury's to pick up my lunch, Alan took the dogs home with him clutching a locally bought bacon bun for himself and a couple of sausages as a weekend treat for Suky and Mavis ... for some reason they followed him willingly barely noticing me slipping away  😄🐕🐕

Lunchtime Shopping

Tortilla Chips - 45p

Carrot - 6p

Iceberg Lettuce - 43p

Total = 94p

Lunch

   A pitta bread stuffed with coleslaw wrapped in lettuce, which is a good tip for not getting the filling everywhere when eating a salad sandwich of any description.  I had to eat a few more of the lettuce leaves on the side and start cooking my 'free soup' with the outer leaves as this was the only way the lettuce was going to fit into the fridge!!

This was a lovely fresh tasting meal.  A really good discovery this week has been these pitta breads,  bought on Monday for just 35p for 6 they have stayed nice and fresh all week, with this the last of the pack tasting just as fresh as the very first one I had. Also well worth mentioning are these tortilla chips, at just 45p a bag they are really tasty and would be brilliant with a dip ... or just on their own with a nice cold cider 😃

Free Soup

All the trimmings and peelings from this week's meals that have been in a bag in the freezer were simmered along with the outer leaves of todays lettuce and a couple of teaspoons of my stock powder, and after half an hour were whizzed up in the blender and then strained through a sieve. 

 This has given me over a pint of free soup, possibly for lunch tomorrow if I buy something to go with it.

Teatime Shopping

Garlic Bread - 32p

Spaghetti - 39p

Total - 71p

I could have made a garlic bread, I could have made some more pasta, but it was Saturday night and an easy option just cried out to be had.

Teatime

And it was lovely, thirteen minutes from start to finish and my meal was in my dish.

Cash Carried Forward

57p

Food Carried Forward

oats

flour

2 cloves of garlic

1 banana

1/2 onion

1 carrot

3/4 cucumber

1/2 a carton  orange juice

4 crumpets

most of a jar of orange marmalade

3/4 bag of tortilla chips

1/3 tub of coleslaw

400g spaghetti

iceberg lettuce

a tin of peaches

two portions of 'free' soup

small portion of pasta sauce

It's the final day tomorrow ... just how did this week pass so quickly?

Sue xx

The £3 a Day Challenge - Day Five

Today for a change I went to Aldi to pick up my breakfast, and as I needed a banana I remembered my own blog post of the other day and found the biggest one I could.  It would have been interesting to take it to Sainsbury's to see how much it weighed there and thus how much it would have cost me.  I'm guessing at least the 13p I paid for it if not a penny or two more more.  I also bought a mixed pack of fruit, it would most likely have been cheaper to buy a single apple, but I really fancied a bit of a selection for a change.

Breakfast Shopping

Banana - 13p

Classic Fruit Salad Mix - 85p

Total = 98p

Leaving me with 4p change from my £1.02

Breakfast

With most of the banana, a couple of spoonfuls of flour and some water I made a nice thick batter and made myself two pancakes.  I chopped half of the apples and the pineapple pieces out of the fruit salad up and simmered them in a little touch of water.  Once they were soft I whizzed them in my Nutribullet to make a sort of thick hot puree to have instead of syrup, it work really well and was delicious.  

Gosh that was a filling breakfast!!

Lunchtime Shopping

I can't find my receipt, but I do know the orange juice was 55p and the cucumber 43p.  I got these from Aldi as the  cheapest orange juice  in Sainsbury's was almost a pound, so by walking for ten minutes I got a 'free' cucumber  ... yes my brain does work in mysterious ways 😃😄

Lunch

A nice picky, dippy plate with hummus, celery, cucumber slices and a toasted pitta bread.  Very tasty and all washed down with a half glass of my new orange juice, which is remarkably good for the price.

Teatime Shopping

Bag of French Fries - 59p

1 tomato - 16p

1 onion - 16p

1 carrot - 4p

 1 banana - 8p

Total = £1.03

Isn't it a joy when you are doing a Challenge like this one and you can shop in a supermarket with a weigh your own produce and print your own labels machine.  It takes away all the guesswork and means you can shop right up to your limit without worrying that you won't have enough money when you get to the checkout.  I sure appreciated this facility for this shop!!

Tea

Pizza and Chips

I made a nice rich tomato sauce with my half tin of leftover tomatoes, half of my new onion, the grated carrot, a bit of salt, a little curry powder, some of the fresh tomato and lots of pepper.  I was going to use it for my planned Pitta Pizza, but right at the last minute I changed my mind and used most of the leftover hummus instead, topped with the rest of the fresh tomato and a slice of onion.

It made for a simple but delicious tea, which was really good to sit down to at the end of a long day ... and now I have some pasta sauce maturing nicely in the fridge ready for tomorrow 😀

Cash Carried Forward

2p

Food Carried Forward

oats

flour

2 cloves of garlic

3 lemon slices

a spoonful of hummus

1 pitta bread

1 banana

1/2 an onion

3/4 of a cucumber

3/4 carton of orange juice

Sue xx

The £3 a Day Challenge - Day Four

 

Day Four of my £1 a Meal Challenge dawned beautifully with the sun shining once again and highlighting on the worktop just how quickly my little stash of leftovers was building.  A cup of coffee and a few thoughts later and I knew exactly what I would do ... live for the day on my leftovers and use the overage from Day Three and todays £3 to buy some food for the local Foodbank instead.

Breakfast

So using my apple, the banana that I had popped into the freezer last night and picking out the spinach leaves from my bag of mixed leaves and then adding two spoonfuls of the oats I quickly whizzed up a breakfast smoothie.  It was delicious.

Then armed with my £4.06 I headed to Sainsbury's.

I forgot to take a photo of the food in my basket as I was concentrating on adding the prices up in my head, and then I got so excited to hit £3.06 exactly that I completely forgot I had £4.06 to spend.  Dropping the first lot of food into the Foodbank's box, I then went back around the store determined to buy something useful with the remaining pound.  Two kilos of pasta seemed a very good buy for just 98p.

In case you can't read the receipt here is what I bought:

1 jar of coffee

2 jars of jam

2 jars of marmalade

2 packets of biscuits

and 

1kg of pasta shapes 

1kg of spaghetti

I'll be nice to myself and add the 2p change to my breakfast pound in the morning.

Lunch

I finished off the last of the beans and used one of the pitta breads.  I honestly thought a pitta bread once toasted would go crisp like bread does, not in my toaster it doesn't it stays soft and floppy.  So it was more like beans on hot bread but hey-ho it was tasty and filling so I'm not grumbling ... much  😉

Tea

This was bloody gorgeous.  The curry sauce I made last night was whizzed up in the Nutribullet and then slowly reheated, the flavour was amazing.  I will definitely be making this again and definitely on the day before I want to eat it, as the flavours developed so well in 24 hours.  It was poured over my last potato which was par-boiled in wedge shapes and then finished off in the oven, and the last of the mixed leaves.  I added a couple of my half-sticks of celery so I had a bit of crunch to the dish.

Very filling and very, very tasty ... and I have at last made a bit of dent in the pile of leftovers that were building up.

Cash Carried Forward

2p

Food Carried Forward

oats

SR flour

3 cloves of garlic

1 stick of celery

1/2 tin of tomatoes

4 lemon slices

hummus

coleslaw

3 pitta breads

Back to normal tomorrow, when I will be going out armed with my £1.02 to buy my breakfast.  I hope it's a lovely sunny morning again, it's very nice going out first thing when the sun is shining and the shop is empty.

Sue xx