annabel Posted April 26, 2013 Share Posted April 26, 2013 The BBC article I read about this http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22065978 heavily quotes a professor of nutrition, who pretty much said you'd have to cut out meat to live on this sort of budget. (For anyone not in the UK, there have been recent changes to the benefits system and thus a lot of talk about how much money people on benefits should be getting) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ragbaby Posted April 26, 2013 Author Share Posted April 26, 2013 Keep the sardines but Spend the soy milk money and butter money on the bacon and more veges? I'm using the hormones in the soya milk to regulate my mad menopausal ones, its pretty tough for me without soya, I've tried it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ragbaby Posted April 26, 2013 Author Share Posted April 26, 2013 The BBC article I read about this http://www.bbc.co.uk...gazine-22065978 heavily quotes a professor of nutrition, who pretty much said you'd have to cut out meat to live on this sort of budget. (For anyone not in the UK, there have been recent changes to the benefits system and thus a lot of talk about how much money people on benefits should be getting) interesting link, thank you - it reminded me that they stopped teaching kids how to cook in school about 20 years ago so there is almost a whole generation who don't know how to do much more than heat up a pizza, unless they cooked in the family. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
melbournegirl Posted April 26, 2013 Share Posted April 26, 2013 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..... Woo hoo just looked up the Aussie challenge, $2 a day so I could buy a bag of lettuce or spinach and be happy! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ragbaby Posted April 26, 2013 Author Share Posted April 26, 2013 Just checked the garden, I've got loads of dandylions for salad and mint and lemon balm for tea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
notacommittee Posted April 27, 2013 Share Posted April 27, 2013 Man, that's intense! I think I could do that Paleo, but not W30. I'd probably buy two dozen eggs (1.50 each = $3 total), 5lbs of potatoes (.60/lb = $3), and maybe a package of chicken feet (cheapest animal product I can find) with my last $1.50, but that still only gives me approximately 2 meals/day and white potatoes aren't W30 approved anyway. (edit: this is the US $1.50/day version obviously) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ragbaby Posted April 27, 2013 Author Share Posted April 27, 2013 I was tempted by white potatos but I think sweet potatos fill me up more, might swap the butter for creamed coconut though, at least it has some taste! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ragbaby Posted April 28, 2013 Author Share Posted April 28, 2013 Ok, I'm sort of ready! Any tips on using coconut cream much appreciated, it always seems to have 2 textures in a box and I'm not sure which is what. http://www.ragbaby.co.uk/living-below-the-line-paleo-style-shopping-list-and-menu-plan/ Sweet potatos x 3 – 50p Squash 1/2 50p Soya milk -(not pictured) 59p Coconut cream 59p Eggs 89p – I decided to save 11p and go for sad battery eggs instead of freerange. Mince £1.48 Random veg bought from my fridge 45p I can make kefir from the soya milk too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ragbaby Posted April 28, 2013 Author Share Posted April 28, 2013 if any of you are considering this, here is my team - I'm not asking for any donations, it just wouldn't let me sign up unless I chose someone to live below the line for https://www.livebelowtheline.com/team/wheat-and-grain-free-paleo-diet?lang=en Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bethann67 Posted April 28, 2013 Share Posted April 28, 2013 I'm fairly certain the goal of this challenge is failure. To highlight the fact that many,many people ( in large part children) are hungry all day, everyday, and dying because $1.50 of "sustenance" is their daily reality... Their ONLY experience with food.,and $1.50 per day is NOT enough. So... I hope you fail 😄 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ragbaby Posted April 28, 2013 Author Share Posted April 28, 2013 I'm fairly certain the goal of this challenge is failure. To highlight the fact that many,many people ( in large part children) are hungry all day, everyday, and dying because $1.50 of "sustenance" is their daily reality... Their ONLY experience with food.,and $1.50 per day is NOT enough. So... I hope you fail í ½í¸„ I don't know what the í ½í¸„ means. I agree with you but I also think people spend thousands on food that is just junk, when they could be spending less on better food. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bethann67 Posted April 28, 2013 Share Posted April 28, 2013 The squares are an iPhone emoticon ... ( smiley face) I believe Having enough food should be a human right and not dependent on ability to pay. That being said i spend a lot of money on good wholesome food And I am unsure how my grocery bill and choice to eat healthy impacts global hunger.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ragbaby Posted April 28, 2013 Author Share Posted April 28, 2013 I agree with everything you have said Bethann67. I'm not doing this to raise money, more as a sort of kick up the bum to get myself more focussed. I've started 4 Whole 30's now and never got past day 10, I'm spending a fortune on food and I need something radical like this to break some habits. I feel loads better eating paleo and my diet has improved loads this year, but I still have accidental pizzas, weekends with loads of beer, gacky chocolate.......... it's got to stop. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bethann67 Posted April 28, 2013 Share Posted April 28, 2013 I think taking on this challenge is admirable, and finding your focus/ purpose and breaking bad habits so you can do a whole 30 is wonderful! While I still hope you "fail "(that you are hungry, feel the effects of that hunger, and experience the anxiety that comes from food being scarce.) I also hope that you share your personal experience with the powers that be... And let them know £7 a week for food is not something that any human being should have to endure! I hope you are blessed enough to experience a successful whole 30... It is life changing! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ragbaby Posted April 29, 2013 Author Share Posted April 29, 2013 Thank you so much Bethann67, your words have made my day, what a lovely way to start the week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ragbaby Posted April 29, 2013 Author Share Posted April 29, 2013 Day one done. I've been hungry but not horribly so. I've gone for small portions in an attempt to shrink my stomach so it won't expect much for the next 4 days. The foraged greens and mince meat balls are nice! http://www.ragbaby.co.uk/living-below-the-line-no-grainspaleo-day-1/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ragbaby Posted April 30, 2013 Author Share Posted April 30, 2013 day 2 of eating paleo on £1 a day, apart from the soya kefir. It's not easy and I'm hungry but I haven't had dinner yet. http://www.ragbaby.co.uk/living-below-the-line-paleo-style-day-2/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ragbaby Posted May 1, 2013 Author Share Posted May 1, 2013 This is what I have left for the next 3 days. This is only possibly by foraging for wild food and begging for bones from the butcher. I'm hungry, too hungry to menu plan A tub of chicken and herb stock almost half a buttenut squash most of a leek 4 eggs 3 small red peppers, 1 small yellow, 1 large green 7 coconut and herb meatballs 8 meatballs with apple wild garlic tiny bits of celery half a block of coconut cream small portion of samphire one asparagus spear wild garlic chard spinach (boiled up and chopped) also I have one and a half sweet potatos. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ragbaby Posted May 1, 2013 Author Share Posted May 1, 2013 I give up on day 3. Enough. It can be done but only if you are prepared to forage for free veg, are happy eating someones leftover apples and don't mind being constantly hungry. I mind all of that. What have I gained? I'm proud that I managed to eat reasonably good food for 2 and a half days on £1 a day. Apart from feeling so hungry I can't think straight I feel healthy, not bloated or strung out on additives from cheap supermarket food. My skin is fantastic from drinking pints of lemon balm tea. I've learnt that you need a whole carrier bag of nettles to make a small portion as they boil down to nothing. I've missed avocado and spinach. I've not missed sugar or tea. I've proved to myself what I already know; people with money don't have to spend so much to live. People with money can buy bigger boxes and 3 for the price of 2 bargains to fill their cupboards with and eat next week or the week after. People with more money have big freezers they can pack with yellow ticketed bargains they get when they see them, because they have spare change on them. I didn't go into this to raise money so a charity can set up another retro shop selling overpriced Primark. And, as we have plenty of poverty in the UK it didn't seem right to me to raise money for overseas. Also, £1 a day in the Republic of Congo can buy you a whole lot more than £1 here, it's not a fair comparison. I just wanted to see if it was possible to live below the line and not eat supermarket crap, not bulk out on carbs and chemicals. I live on an insanely low income but we eat well, purely because I have a buffer of savings so I don't have to only spend £5 a week. I've spent most of yesterday and all of today fantasizing over what I will eat on Saturday (I've been dreaming of decent portion sizes), which makes a mockery of the whole thing. I've no sense of what it is to be actually so poor I'd have to eat on £1 a day on Saturday too. I can only imagine the lack of light at the end of the tunnel, with good luck I hope I'll never experience it. I'm worried that the government will see the Live Below the Line site and think it's actually possible, and reasonable to expect people to live like this, then cut benefits to the poorest of us who are the least able to fight back even more. On the whole I just feel angry about this, it feels like I've just played a little rich kid game of being poor. I'm Marie Antoinette playing in her mock farm. It feels patronising and somewhat insulting to those that have to live below the line in real life, in this country, right this minute. An avocado is calling to me, must go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kirsteen Posted May 6, 2013 Share Posted May 6, 2013 The BBC published an article by Brian Milligan claiming he did this challenge and lived well on it. Here's a fascinating article tearing that claim apart. I think it'll resonate with you. http://aethelreadtheunread.wordpress.com/2013/04/27/from-the-bbc-how-not-to-eat-healthily-for-1-a-day/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
notacommittee Posted May 6, 2013 Share Posted May 6, 2013 I've proved to myself what I already know; people with money don't have to spend so much to live. People with money can buy bigger boxes and 3 for the price of 2 bargains to fill their cupboards with and eat next week or the week after. People with more money have big freezers they can pack with yellow ticketed bargains they get when they see them, because they have spare change on them. ... On the whole I just feel angry about this, it feels like I've just played a little rich kid game of being poor. I'm Marie Antoinette playing in her mock farm. It feels patronising and somewhat insulting to those that have to live below the line in real life, in this country, right this minute. Thank you for sharing this - to me, it really drives home what I already knew about poverty being a self-fulfilling cycle where you're poor because you're poor. On the other hand, it means there's tremendous potential to do so much good, just by giving people that one little boost (giving someone $50 for food up front, so they can do a "big shop" and then use all that money they saved to build up for another "big shop"). One thing I did a while ago that you might like better is to give myself a more realistic food budget (mine I think was $40 for 2 weeks?) and then donate everything else I would have otherwise spent to a local charity. You don't get the group encouragement/enthusiasm, but I liked it better because (a) it was more realistic, and (, I knew the money was actually doing some good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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