AvaNiviTava: June 2012

our 10DayChallenge

I don't remember how it started but me and my friend, @k8tattersall decided to try and live on £10 for 10 days. Not spending more than £10 on food in the UK in 2012 seemed an impossible mission at first but as we had a little bit of research into it, we found that there are others who either, due to lack of money, forced to live like this, or in luckier cases, volunteer to try similar challenges in order to raise money for charities.

Kate, the main researcher in our 2-member team found this interesting article about facts and figures, plus more information about these charities.

Although we chose not to raise money with our challenge, we are hoping to raise awareness about the incredible poverty some people live in and maybe/hopefully encourage others to try themselves in similar experience. Yes, I use the word experience, not only because I can't find other alternative to 'challenge' but also because we both really felt it will be an interesting experience. We will learn about planning out meals, learn about portions and how to use up leftovers. We looked for cheap brands and what is cheaper where, found some jolly good bargains in Aldi and ASDA. We knew that we can only do it if we are creative and smart... Well, we are...so on 10th June we started our 10 days.

This blogpost documents our good efforts and hopefully gives some ideas for those who are interested in saving some money on food. I will update it daily until 19th June which will be our 10th day.

19 June
WE ARE ON DAY 10!

Here is a record of my daily meals:

Day 1.
breakfast: somehow I forgot to have breakfast
lunch: vegetable soup with mint and rice
dinner: roast potato and carrot, fried egg

Day 2.
breakfast: good old corn groats cooked in soya milk, banana
lunch: kidney bean and broccoli chilli, rice
dinner: potato and vegetable mix mashed then grilled

Day 3.
breakfast: same as on Day 2. Still a favourite!
lunch: curried carrot and beans soup with thyme and basil
dinner: baked and mashed and baked again potato with lots of herbs

Day 4.
breakfast: omelette from 1 egg, broccoli, onion
lunch: rice with steamed carrot and broccoli, hidden bean sauce, fried garlic
dinner: only a banana because I wasn't hungry

Day 5.
breakfast: cornflakes, soya milk, half banana and tempted to eat the skin of the banana
lunch: layered and baked potato, mix vegetables, boiled egg in tomato and herb sauce
dinner: potato wedges, bean sauce and lots of lettuce

Day 6.
breakfast: corn groats cooked in soya milk, half banana
lunch: broccoli soup and rice that taste like thyme
dinner: huge pile of egg fried eggs, mixed vegetable

Day 7.
breakfast: corn groats cooked in soya milk, half banana
lunch: leftover broccoli soup from Day 6. Also rice with bean puree (phone died, not pictured)
dinner: nothing. I wasn't hungry

Day 8.
breakfast: cornflakes, soya milk, half banana
lunch: rice cooked with sage, kidney beans, broccoli, tomato sauce
dinner: roasted potato and carrot with basil and tomato dip, lots of lettuce

Day 9.
breakfast: roast potato, 1 fried egg, half grapefruit
lunch: carrot soup with mixed vegetable filling
dinner: rice with mixed vegetables and fried onion

Day 10.
breakfast: omlette with broccoli, half grapefruit
lunch: no time for lunch
dinner: rice with mixed vegetables / leftover from day 9

Kate's meals:

Day 1.

breakfast: her first ever 40g portion of porridge!

lunch: kidney bean and carrot soup

dinner: vegetable chilli and rice

Day 2.

breakfast: she must love porridge!

lunch: kidney bean and carrot pasta bake

dinner: hotpot - aka Day 1s chilli layered with potato

Day 3.

breakfast: simply porridge

lunch: pasta salad with carrot and peas

dinner: spicy bean burgers with potato wedges

Day 4.

breakfast: she skipped the breakfast porridge. I'm not surprised!

lunch: spicy 'meat'balls with tomato pasta

dinner: herb baked potatoes and salad

Day 5.

breakfast: porridge

lunch: vegetable pilaf

dinner: roast garlic and pea pasta

Day 6.

breakfast: porridge

lunch: pea and mint soup

dinner: Friday night is curry night and with extra rice!

Day 7.

breakfast: porridge with lots of milk

lunch: savoury rice

dinner: pasta with roast garlic and tomato sauce

Day 8.

breakfast: porridge

lunch: pasta salad with garlic and peas

dinner: herby potato cakes

Day 9.

breakfast: i bet it was be porridge!

lunch: chilli and rice - tasted better than it looked!

dinner: shepherds pie - kind of

Day 10.

breakfast: hallelujah! the last portion of porridge

lunch: minestrone soup

dinner: tomato and garlic baked potato

Here's what we have left after our 10 days challenge, I think it is funny to look at the before and after photos:

Miraculously I had a whole bag of rice left even though I had rice many times over the 10 days. Originally I had 2 bags; clearly I didn't expect rice to be so plenty after cooking it but it was. Of course we both had much smaller portions than usual so that must be another reason for ending up any leftover at all. My 'life saver' was the bag of cornflakes which meant to be for breakfast but I mainly used it as nibble between meals. Needless to mention that I finished it....ermmm. Maybe not the healthiest options but come on, I had nothing healthier and it was cheap with its 46p! Mind, carrots should have been a better choice and I even have 5 left. Another big help was the herbs we used! They really made a difference when after a while every meal tend to taste the same. I always loved but never used fresh garden herbs this intensely before. Using up leftover was a biggie too! It was actually very enjoyable thinking and planning meals based on what I had left from the previous day.

I missed a wider variety vegetables and fruits the most. The best thing the whole challenge taught and surprised me was the control of portion sizes. I was astonished about how much I don't mind having 1 egg instead of the usual 3, using up 2 potatoes for a meal instead of 5 and all the rest of it. I was really hungry a couple of times but mainly at the beginning. Naturally my body has got used to the whole idea and I never felt it was a torture or anything bad for us. In fact I consider our 10 days one of the best silly things we've done so far!

So, after my rambles on here are Kate's more organised thoughts about our challenge:

Food is precious and should not be wasted. I will never waste food again.

After feeling hungry for the first 5 days I have now become used to the correct portion sizes. I will continue to control my portions but increase the variety in my diet.

It is possible to have a variety of fresh healthy meals on a very low budget but it does involve extra time in the kitchen. However it is worth spending the extra time on preparation for healthy tasty meals!

Tips for healthy eating on the cheap:

When shopping avoid the multi-buys. They may seem like a good bargain at the time but will you really eat that much?
Plan your meals before you go to the shops and only buy what you think you'll need.
I was surprised how good the value brands are. A 40p bag of rice and 35p bag of pasta (ASDA) go a long way!
Budget for herbs and spices. These can add a lot of flavour to otherwise bland food. Many herbs are easy to grow on a window sill and they grow back year after year.
When serving out your food control your portion sizes. Only cook what you need of make plans for using the leftovers they next day.
Drink water - it's great for your and it's (almost) free.

Kate's favourite meal was her Carrot and Kidney Bean Pasta Sauce and I loved the potato meals, especially the Baked, Mashed and Baked again Potato.

I'm in a real rush right now when I'm writing these lines so I'm going to stop here but I will review this blog later to add or take some more ideas and I will correct my usual and possible grammar mistakes.

All in all it was great and we both enjoyed it even we are happy it is over. We are lucky, it was only 10 strict days and we did remember this and people live like this every day. I'm not sure about Kate's first meal today but mine will be melon, apricot and banana. I just love my luxurious fruits!

Love

K&A