In this fundraising blog series, I will attempt the FoodCycle Breadline Challenge: living off less than £2.10 each day for food and drink while raising awareness of UK food poverty.
What is FoodCycle?
Food Cycle is a UK charity that combines volunteers, surplus food and spare kitchen spaces to create tasty, nutritious meals for people at risk of food poverty and social isolation.
£50 will help them serve healthy, nutritious three-course meals for 100 people. Follow @FoodCycle on Twitter using the hashtag #BreadlineChallenge to keep up to date.
What is the FoodCycle Breadline Challenge?
This week I am taking the FoodCycle Breadline Challenge: living off less than £2.10 per day for food and drink to help raise awareness of UK food poverty and to raise money for FoodCycle’s food hubs located around the country.
Today… I suffered from caffeine withdrawal.
The Breadline Challenge – Day 1
7:30 am: Wake up. The first thought that goes through my head (after pondering the really weird dreams I was just having – I was pouring caustic materials down the sink drain trying to get rid of the little demon monster living down there ??!!) was….. no coffee! For the first time in at least 12 years, I am not starting my morning with 1 to 3 cups of coffee. I admit, I’m a little apprehensive of the symptoms of caffeine withdrawal, but, there was no money in the budget for coffee. I chose to get fresh garlic and ginger to flavour my dishes instead.
8:10 am: Packing the children’s lunchboxes and feeling grateful that I am not doing this with the food I’ve bought for this challenge this week.
8:34 am: The hot water isn’t that bad, to be honest! Claire over at Foodie Quine just suggested I put in a little sliver of my fresh ginger. A fab idea!
9:00 am: Just back from the school run and made a loaf of brown bread with no salt and no sugar (none in the budget). We’ll see how it turns out. Used the flour I sprinkled on the table to knead the bread to flour the baking tray (usually I throw it out and use fresh flour to sprinkle on the tray).
10:30 am: Breakfast after morning exercise program (I’m trying to lose some extra weight). Porridge made with skimmed milk and water with defrosted fruit salad and sultanas on top. Feeling filled up after this nice tasty breakfast which came in at just under 35p. Yep, I can do this.
Porridge with fruit salad and sultanas
Ingredients
- 50 grams porridge oats 3.75p
- 200 ml skimmed UHT milk 13.2p
- 100 ml water
- 64 grams frozen fruit salad, defrosted 12.8p
- 30 grams sultanas 5p
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Instructions
- Combine oats with milk and water in a medium saucepan. Cook over a medium heat for 5-7 minutes until thick, and serve with the fruit and raisins.
Notes
Nutrition
11:50 am: I desperately want a cup of hot coffee.
12:15 pm: The most gorgeously risen brown bread loaf has just come out of the oven. How will it taste?
1:00 pm: Testing out Jack Monroe’s budget minestrone soup recipe with a few adaptations: I’m using vegetable stock instead of chicken, and 40 grams of fresh kale instead of frozen spinach. No mixed herbs (not in the budget) so I threw in a handful of parsley from the garden.
The soup is fantastic! A proper hearty bowlful too. I was sceptical at using rinsed budget baked beans like Jack suggests and initially sought to replace them with tinned cannellini, but the budget baked beans were half the price of the other beans. It works really well! My ingredients priced up a penny less per portion than Jack’s, 18p per bowl. The remaining three portions will be frozen for later in the week. [Edit – I froze one portion for myself and my husband scoffed the other two when he came home from work – he loved it!]
How can I be frugal with food?
Tip – keep an eye out in the fresh herb section of the supermarket – sometimes you can get them for super cheap when they’re out of date. I bought a parsley plant in a pot several years ago, used up all the parsley off the top and plonked the roots in my garden and it keeps growing back every year. It’s a massive plant now and even in late November, I can still pick it fresh. I bought 7 bags of coriander reduced to 1p earlier this year, washed them and stored them in the freezer. When I need some for a recipe I open the plastic tub in the freezer and grab a handful.
Caffeine withdrawal symptoms
13:45 pm: I am really, really tired. I had enough sleep last night so I think it might be the lack of caffeine. Struggling to concentrate on my work as well.. but I must plod on instead of taking a nap!
15:10 pm: Pounding headache starting despite drinking plenty of water. Hot water with a slice of fresh ginger root alleviated it somewhat.
16:30 pm: Really struggling to concentrate on my work. Desperately need a coffee. Can’t I just have one cup of that really lovely filter blend I was sent to review? Also – very hungry.
17:00 pm: Dinner – A generous helping of smoked peppered mackerel fried rice with veg. I wanted to put more veg in it and realized that if I did I wouldn’t have enough vegetables to last me the week. I made a double batch so I can reheat the leftovers for lunch tomorrow. It’s not the prettiest meal in the world but it tasted fine and certainly filled a gap. You know, it’s not nice enough to share the recipe for but I priced it up at £1.04 per portion.
18:30 pm: Feeling really foggy-brained and nearly caved in and swapped a garlic clove for one of my husband’s tea bags, but realised that would be cheating and opted for another cup of hot water with a slice of ginger in it. I can’t emphasize how much I am struggling with this caffeine withdrawal. Why oh why didn’t I buy that 50p Tesco instant coffee?! Ate 30 grams of raisins instead (5p).
Do you know where I could have been tonight?
Dublin.
I could have been being wined and dined among Dublin’s finest restaurateurs. I was invited to attend an all-expenses-paid foodie event in Ireland tonight. I’m Canadian. I need my passport to get to Ireland, my UK driving license just wouldn’t do. My passport expired a week before we got married this year and I let it, as I was planning to renew it in my new married name. Canadian passports are expensive (around £300 if I recall correctly) so after the expense of the wedding, I just left it for now, as we weren’t planning on leaving the country any time soon. Kicking myself about that much?
Ach well. If I’d made it to Dublin I wouldn’t be doing this Breadline Challenge with Food Cycle and raising money for their vital work. £80 already guys, thank you so very much!!
So, today I spent £1.68 in total on food and drink for myself. I felt full enough and was no more hungry than I normally am just before dinner. The caffeine withdrawal, on the other hand… eek. I struggled not to tuck into my daughter’s leftover chocolate birthday cake from her big party on Saturday past, and the fresh fruit in the fridge looked really, really tempting.
Lack of coffee was by far the biggest thing for me today. I really struggled with that and after I hit publish on this blog post I’m going to curl up on the couch in my PJs and watch tv. I’m mentally and physically drained.
PLEASE SPONSOR ME ON THE #BREADLINECHALLENGE VIA VIRGIN MONEY GIVING
Elizabeth’s Kitchen Diary with match, pound for pound, up to £200 the amount raised for Food Cycle via my Virgin Money Giving Page to donate to the Shetland Food Bank for their Christmas Food Parcels. Around 60 Shetland families will be supported by these food parcels this festive season.
The FoodCycle Breadline Challenge Results
- The FoodCycle Breadline Challenge: Menu Plan
- The Breadline Challenge Day 2: 4 Frugal Recipes for Under £2.10
- The Breadline Challenge Day 3: Getting Creative
- Breadline Challenge Day 4: 25p Hummus Recipe
- Breadline Challenge Day 5: 47p Garlic & Kale Pizza Recipe
- Breadline Challenge Days 6 & 7: Running Out of Food
- Breadline Challenge – The Results
Banana Nut Protein Smoothie
Oh my goodness, this looks delicious! I’m definitely making this! thanks for sharing! A healthier option for a family favorite.
Thank you 🙂
I know it is no fun doing this challenge but it is so good of you to completely re-jig your life this week to not only raise money but raise awareness for this worthwhile (but shouldn’t be necessary in this day and age) cause. Hopefully by now you’re caffeine withdrawals have subsided. I cannot have caffeine I feel exhausted and grumpy most of time as my default setting! Best of luck with the remaining days. I can’t believe you were able to resist the cake!
Thank you Kellie – it was hard but worth it. I reached my fundraising goal so I feel I’ve done something useful with my blog!
Well done – impressive. All these little things we don’t even think about the cost of – a spoonful of instant coffee or a shake of salt. Looking forward to the rest of the posts (and hope the caffeine cravings abate!)
Thank you Jeanne for your support, I really appreciate it. I had no idea the value a single shake of salt could be until this week either. An eye opener, for sure!
All your food looks amazing. Not budget at all – in fact very healthy and inviting. Such a shame about Ireland – I thought that renewing a British Passport was expensive enough.
Thanks Sally – not only is getting the passport expensive but I had to fork out over £30 to get my doctor to sign it and my photo! Eek!
Well done Elizabeth, you’re doing incredibly well – this is a tough challenge. Don’t worry too much about Dublin…a few of us who wanted to go didn’t get to go even without passport issues!
Aw, so sorry to hear some others didn’t get to make it either – I bet it would have been a fab event!
I have a lot of respect for anyone doing this challenge. I tried it last year, but I just couldn’t be healthy (mentally or physically) whilst doing it.
It really does make you think how other people are living though.
Thanks Danni – it wasn’t easy but I made it and reached my fundraising goal too. Delighted!
Well done so far. Glad my ginger in boiling water idea was of use but now worrying you won’t have enough ginger to see you through the week! Your Minestrone Soup and Homemade Bread look lovely. Make sure you drink plenty water to help with the caffeine withdrawal.
It was a life saver, thank you Claire! 🙂
Oh Elizabeth you’re amazing. Not only for committing to doing this, but bravely doing it so publicly too. Well done and I hope it raises awareness at a time where we all tend to be totally focused on over-indulgence.
Thanks Sarah, it wasn’t easy but I made it to the end and reached my fundraising goal too, so I feel I’ve done something useful. 🙂
You are doing well with your budget and creating some delicious meals.
Thank you Nanya 🙂
Well done on getting through the first day of the challenge. I’ve not heard of this before, such a good idea. I;m not sure I could do it, especially for a whole week! Hopefully it will get easier?! Soup looks delicious!
Thank you – it was not easy without coffee!