Living below the line and Whole 30

[ragbaby]

I'm really keen to do the Live below the line challenge. - https://www.livebelowtheline.com/, not to raise money but just as a personal challenge, so this post isn't asking for sponsorship.

the idea is that you can only spend £1 a day on food for 5 days. (I think it's $2 a day in America).

The meal plans they suggest are pretty much junk food, cheap spagetti, value white bread, budget jam... and I'm sure this can be done with good food, and whole 30 style.

I am not a strict whole 30 er, my family are vegans and I just can't eat meat 3 times a day so I do a sort of mixed vegi and normal whole 30 regime. Not ideal I know but better than I was eating before.

I can forage for wild garlic and nettles so greens are free, herbs are also free because there is a free herb garden in a local park.

I've bought 6 sweet potatos for £1, 200g minced pork and beef for £1.48, sardines in tomato sauce for 24p and some free range eggs (2p extra) for £1. I drink soya milk (I'm menopausal and it works for me) and a litre of that is 69p. I'm going halves on a block of butter with a friend for 50p, I'm going to get veg from the 50p bags outside the veg shop and hope there are carrots and tomatos. It's a tight budget.

So I'm short of protien. I'm going to ask the butcher if he has bones he would normally throw away and I can make soup. but any other ideas about how I can do the challenge and proove that it is possible in a Whole 30 type way would be appreciated.

Here are the guidelines from the site.

• From the 29th April – 3rd May you can spend no more than £1 a day on food and drink.
  
• This means you have a total of £5 with which to buy all ingredients for your meals.
  
• The full cost of all the items you consume must be included in your budget. This means budgeting for whole packets of food items such as rice, pasta, noodles and eggs etc.
  
• For items such as salt, pepper, herbs and spices, simply work out the cost of each item per gram and budget your shopping proportionally. Separate your items before the challenge so there's no need to be digging around in your cupboards.
  
• You can share the cost of ingredients amongst a team, as long as no participant spends more than £1 a day or their total £5 budget. Working as a team will allow you to pool together funds and do more with your cooking.
  
• You can't grab a cheeky snack from the cupboard unless you include the cost of buying the item new in your budget.
  
• You can use food sourced from your garden as long as you can account for the price of production!
  
• No combination of meals on any given day can exceed the £1 spending limit. Remember this is a challenge to eat creatively and be enjoyed – don't at any point deprive yourself of three meals a day.
  
• You cannot accept ‘donated' food from family or friends, but monetary donations towards your fundraising goals are acceptable, and encouraged!
  
• You are allowed to drink tap water – remember you should try and drink at least 6-8 glasses of water each day.
  - See more at: https://www.livebelo...h.lZcYq21d.dpuf
  

[Kirsteen]

I've seen this challenge on TV and been horrified at the food they were eating. As you say, they usually rely on cheap pasta and bread, since I can't eat gluten that's not an option anyway. I'm absolutely sure it would be possible to do it in a healthier manner but I'm not sure I could actually do a W30 on it. Obviously I wouldn't be having the butter or soya milk and I'd be wary of the sardines, the ones I've seen in tomato sauce have all had non-compliant ingredients.

I can do a W30 fairly cheaply but not quite that cheap Turkey mince is usually the cheapest meat I've ever found and yes, eggs and sardines are other cheapish protein sources. BTW it would be $1.50 in America. Good luck, it's an interesting challenge and certainly highlights the poverty issue.

[ragbaby]

Ohh, turkey mince, I didn't think of that, thanks, I'l check it out. And I'll check the sardines too. If I included lentils (which I am trying to avoid doing) I think it would be pretty easy.

The butter is because I need some fat and I thought it was a better option than vegetable oil, but I'd appreciate any opinions. They are the same price.

[ragbaby]

I wonder if I could make kefir from soya milk for a week

[Kirsteen]

The butter is because I need some fat

If you can get decent bones from a butcher, (I usually get a beef knuckle and shin bone) you might be able to get enough fat from that. I know I get loads and it's absolutely delicious. It *spits* a bit if you're using it to fry eggs etc but well worth it. Vegetable oil would be my absolute worst case scenario.

I wonder if I could make kefir from soya milk for a week

I've absolutely no idea. even when I was a vegan, I avoided soy milk like the plague sorry.

[annabel]

I read the BBC article this morning and was a bit horrified by their healthy meal suggestions.

I can buy 15 eggs for a £1.50, I think it's about £1.79 for 500g of the cheapest beef mince at the supermarket.

But the cheapest grains are 250g bag of pasta/ 500g bag of rice costs about 40p.

I've gotten my weekly shop down to about £25 for the last few weeks, but I had a well stocked pantry when I started and my husband isn't doing the whole30 with me, and vegetables are just as expensive as meat if you want anything more than potatoes, carrots, cucumbers and celery.

[ragbaby]

If you can get decent bones from a butcher, (I usually get a beef knuckle and shin bone) you might be able to get enough fat from that. I know I get loads and it's absolutely delicious. It *spits* a bit if you're using it to fry eggs etc but well worth it. Vegetable oil would be my absolute worst case scenario.

I didn't know you can get fat from bones, thanks - do I just boil them down and put the liquid in the fridge to get it off the top like a stock?

[ragbaby]

I read the BBC article this morning and was a bit horrified by their healthy meal suggestions.

I can buy 15 eggs for a £1.50, I think it's about £1.79 for 500g of the cheapest beef mince at the supermarket.

But the cheapest grains are 250g bag of pasta/ 500g bag of rice costs about 40p.

I've gotten my weekly shop down to about £25 for the last few weeks, but I had a well stocked pantry when I started and my husband isn't doing the whole30 with me, and vegetables are just as expensive as meat if you want anything more than potatoes, carrots, cucumbers and celery.

That is why lentils are tempting, they are so cheap. but they would be a very last resort. I'm hoping I can do this without.

[melbournegirl]

Good luck! What about coconut milk. It is fairly cheap here compared to butter I think, not sure about in the uk though. And could you split a raw chook with someone and make soup from the bones with celery and carrot and spread the meat over three days?

[Kirsteen]

I didn't know you can get fat from bones, thanks - do I just boil them down and put the liquid in the fridge to get it off the top like a stock?

Yes, basically that's exactly what I do, mind you I simmer them for about 3 days . If I'm in a hurry once they're done I pour them through the gravy fat separator bit at a time and pour the fat into a separate container.

[ragbaby]

Good luck! What about coconut milk. It is fairly cheap here compared to butter I think, not sure about in the uk though. And could you split a raw chook with someone and make soup from the bones with celery and carrot and spread the meat over three days?

The cheapest coconut milk I can find is 89p for a tin, the cheapest chicken I can find is £3, and that would be one sorry, sad battery farmed creature stuffed full of chemicals. I'd rather avoid that.

[melbournegirl]

Wow, that's tough!

If I had to do that here ($7.50 in 5 days) I would probably buy

10 Carrots $1

Pumpkin $1

Jar tomato paste $1.50

6 eggs $1.50

4 pieces of bacon $1

Can of salmon $1.50

I would make soup with the tomato paste and half the carrots and pumpkin.

For breakfast I would have soup and bacon, lunch soup and egg and dinner salmon with baked carrot and pumpkin. I would hopefully have established herbs and gone wild silver beet for free greens.. I could just about manage with that then.

Makes me kinda interested in trying.....

[Derval]

Imo - I don't see the point in depriving your body of the best food you can afford, for the sake of experiment, unless you are giving the defference in $'s to charity.

[ragbaby]

I also bought a huge butternut squash for £1 so I could have 3 sweet potatos and half a squash for £1 :-)

My problem is getting enough protein 3 times a day.

I checked the sardines and they have tomato paste and salt, so I'm hoping that's ok

Makes me kinda interested in trying.....

dare you :-)

[ragbaby]

Imo - I don't see the point in depriving your body of the best food you can afford, for the sake of experiment, unless you are giving the defference in $'s to charity.

just to prove that it can be done. and I don't want to do it for charity because I am not convinced that much of the money actually gets to the people who need it.

[ragbaby]

tinned salmon sounds great but it's £1.40 for a small tin, I don't think it could be stretched enough to make it worth the money

[ragbaby]

what are your thoughts on cashews? 45p for a bag of salted and roasted?

[melbournegirl]

Ha, I was eating cashews when I wrote my post thinking can't have many of them at $13 a kilo! They leave me wanting more, better to have eggs! I have seen some good deals on salmon at aldi can't quite recall the price but they do have a nice tin of tuna slices in olive oil for similar price, small but satisfying due to the oil. Pumpkin and sweet potato is often 3-4 $/kg but my Chinese grocer has them for $1 often. They also have cheap bags of mixed fruit veg end of life but I'm with Derval, can't see the point in eating substandard food... Pay less now, pay more later.... In poor health, medical bills, less energy etc.

[melbournegirl]

dare you :-)

Tempted but the garden is bare and I couldn't go 5 days without green veges

[ragbaby]

this is tough sweet potatos 50p squash 50p sardines 34p eggs £1 butter 50p mince £1.48 soya milk 68p

and that is £5 gone

Protein so far from my shopping list is: egg baked egg poached egg boiled egg mixed into egg scrambled egg mixed into mince patties mince patties mince patties mince patties sardines sardines mince patties mince patties ?

If I can't get free bones I'm going to have to make the mince stretch to 7 meals, or the sardines to 3. and make kefir from the soya milk.

there is no money left for any other veg so I hope that the garden has lots of dandylions. I'm ok for nettles and wild garlic.

I wonder if I could do it with 1/4 packet of butter instead. Or find some cheap hard coconut blocks

[ragbaby]

Ha, I was eating cashews when I wrote my post thinking can't have many of them at $13 a kilo! They leave me wanting more, better to have eggs! I have seen some good deals on salmon at aldi can't quite recall the price but they do have a nice tin of tuna slices in olive oil for similar price, small but satisfying due to the oil. Pumpkin and sweet potato is often 3-4 $/kg but my Chinese grocer has them for $1 often. They also have cheap bags of mixed fruit veg end of life but I'm with Derval, can't see the point in eating substandard food... Pay less now, pay more later.... In poor health, medical bills, less energy etc.

I need to check out Aldi, thanks. It's only for 5days so it's unlikely to leave me with any lasting medical problems, less so than the way I was eating before anway :-)

[melbournegirl]

How much bacon could you get for 50p? Can you split a bulk pack or buy from a butcher? My bacon price was based on splitting a 1kg pack, that might be hard to do.

[melbournegirl]

Yeah and way better than eating 2 minute noodles

[ragbaby]

How much bacon could you get for 50p? Can you split a bulk pack or buy from a butcher? My bacon price was based on splitting a 1kg pack, that might be hard to do.

about 2 slices, and most of that would be water and chemicals. Though Asda do Cooking Bacon Pieces (500g)

for 81p, I wonder if I could ditch the butter and sardines and get this instead.

[melbournegirl]

Keep the sardines but Spend the soy milk money and butter money on the bacon and more veges?