Category Archives: Live Below the Line

Live Below the Line success!

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For the past 40 days I have been living below the line for Lent – spending just £1 a day on food and drink.

It has been an incredibly tough challenge, but I’ve done it…and as it’s Easter, I’m celebrating with an Easter cupcake (or two) that I have made!

Why do Live Below the Line for Lent?

  • I wanted to raise awareness of the 1.4 billion people living in extreme poverty – living on just £1 a day. But unlike my challenge, this £1 has to cover a lot more than food and drink. It has to cover healthcare, housing, transport, education…
  • I also wanted to raise money for Practical Action, a charity that helps some of the poorest people in the world out of poverty.

What has been the toughest part of the challenge?

  • Not being able to eat meat, much fruit of vegetables and many other foods that I take for granted.
  • Eating the same thing every day as it’s cheaper to buy in bulk, cook one dish and then portion it out for the week.
  • I’ve struggled watching people eat nice foods while I tucked into rice and beans, and smelling nice foods too.
  • It has been tough to go to bed feeling hungry – but that’s the reality for an incredibly large number of people

I’ve lost over a stone in weight, I’ve struggled with the hunger and lack of energy and I’ve broken down in tears several times because it was just so hard.

But it has been worth it. I’ve been on several radio stations, newspapers and I’ve even appeared on the TV – on the news! So I’ve raised awareness of the 1.4 billion people living in extreme poverty and I’ve also raised £600 for a charity dedicated to helping them.

Read about my challenge, watch my videos and check out my Live Below the Line recipes.

If you’re inspired by my challenge and want to do your bit to help, you can:

Live Below the Line tips

If you’re going to take part in the Live Below the Line challenge here are some tips for success:

  1. Do the challenge as a team. It’s so much more fun. You can take it in turns to prepare the team lunch – you get a lot more for your money when you shop as a bigger group.
  2. Plan your menu for the week and then shop around at different markets, stores and supermarkets to get the best deals on your ingredients. Here’s a great video with tips for shopping for the Live Below the Line challenge.
  3. Get discounts. You can get some great bargains by bartering at the markets or doing your food shopping at the end of the day when supermarkets have big discounts on their items.
  4. Grow your own. You can grow your own food as long as you account for the costs of production in your budget.
  5. Get creative with fundraising. You could host a Live Below the Line lunch or a ‘Come Dine with Me Below the Line’ evening and ask guests for a donation.

Live Below the Line tip: do it with a team

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Teamwork has provided bountiful lunches during my Live Below the Line challenge.

For the past couple of weeks, members of the communications team at Practical Action have paid 50p each to a member of the team who has then made a Live Below the Line lunch for all of us.

Here is what Amanda Ross, campaigns assistant, made:

And this is what it cost per portion:

  • Soup – 21p
  • Bread – 5p
  • Houmous – 10p
  • Muffins – 12p

Total = 48p

Dhal – the best Live Below the Line dinner

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Dhal curry: a quick, easy and cheap recipe

Who knew that you could make a delicious curry for next to nothing?! Lentil dhal is one of the cheapest meals I have learned to make.

It may not look very appetising but this lentil dhal tastes amazing! It’s a recipe one of my colleagues gave me and I love it so much that I’ve had it for dinner every day for two weeks.

The following recipe should make 5 generous portions.

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup lentils (red split peas/moong/mung dhal)
  • 4 cups water
  • ½ tin of tomatoes
  • 1 clove garlic (mashed up to puree) or 1 tsp
  • ½ inch ginger (mashed up to puree) or 1 tsp
  • ½ tsp turmeric *
  • ½ tsp chilli powder *
  • 2tbs oil*
  • 1 onion, sliced*

*All optional. Spices bring flavour but it should be perfectly edible without them.  If you don’t do spices, definitely do the onion bit, it adds loads of flavour and makes it more interesting.

Method:

  1. Soak the dhal for 30 minutes and then rinse in a sieve.
  2. Bring the water to the boil and add the ginger, garlic, turmeric, chilli powder, tomatoes and soaked lentils.
  3. Turn down the heat to a simmer, cook until the consistency looks how you want it. It should take about an hour. I like it is bit thinner, like very thick soup, but if you keep cooking it will thicken up. it should be a bit velvety in texture.
  4. In a separate frying pan, fry the onions in a little oil until they are the colour of tea – this should take about 20 minutes for the best flavour.
  5. Pour the onions on top and stir through the dhal.

Enjoy!

 

You can afford fruit and veg on Live Below the Line!

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What is the cheapest way to get your five a day? Go to a market!

When I started the Live Below the Line challenge I was gutted to find that I couldn’t afford fresh fruit and vegetables at the supermarket.

Some weeks I managed to buy onions, a couple of carrots and a few potatoes. One week I could even afford four bananas – half a day! But unless I bought tinned (sometimes I could stretch to frozen veg), fruit and vegetables were beyond my budget…

That was until I went to the market. Wow, there were so many different varieties of fruit and veg and lots that I’d never seen before. And it was so much cheaper than the supermarket. I was like a kid in a sweet shop!

This was the biggest shocker:

A punnet of blueberries for 80p an a punnet of raspberries for 50p?! Bargain! They cost at least £2 for the same weight in supermarkets.

A cheap fruit recipe

I then bought myself a bunch of bananas for 50p and 2 pints of milk for 69p. This made up my breakfast every day…35p a day for an amazing smoothie. You could add a handful of oats without adding much extra in terms of cost. Sure, this was more expensive that porridge with water, but I made up for that with a cheap lunch and dinner.

A cheap vegetable recipe

Lunch was soup, made out of the vegetables that I bought at the market (£1.87 for a massive swede, several parsnips, a bag of carrots and a bag of onions) plus vegetable stock (32p per portion in total). I wanted a piece of ginger to give it more flavour and the market trader gave it to me for free! Dinner was a couple of packs of really cheap noodles (22p per portion). Sure, this isn’t the healthiest dinner in the world but considering I had managed to get so much fruit and veg into my diet for the week this seemed like a good trade off.

Supermarket fruit and veg is pricier

Supermarkets dominate the sale of fruit and vegetables. Last year shoppers spent £81m a week on fruit – with £69m (85%) of that went through the supermarket check outs while independent outlets took the remaining £12m.

However, a recent Channel 4 Dispatches programme found that fruit and vegetables from supermarkets are 12% more expensive than from independent sellers.

So why are we willing to spend more in the supermarkets, especially during such tough economic times?

Well, with more people living and working longer hours and, and living in a different way, and eating out of the home more, it seems that convenience wins the day.

Get behind your local market traders

I feel disgusted with myself that I’ve been one of these convenience shoppers. Going to Coventry market has opened my eyes. Why would you trudge around another identikit superstore when you could enjoy a better shopping experience at a market? They offer a vibrancy that the supermarkets just can’t match. They offer surprise and delight and much better food and customer service (in my opinion). They are places where genuine, honest food lives, free of the lifestyle packaging and dodgy pricing techniques.

Cheap foods to eat: oats

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Porridge

Porridge is a cheap, filling and healthy breakfast and that’s why I’ve been eating it practically every day of my Live Below the Line challenge.

A 1kg bag of oats costs as little as 75p and lasts several weeks.

I haven’t been able to afford milk with my porridge so I’ve been cooking it with water and then I’ve been adding cheap jam to it. One serving costs around 6 pence which has meant I’ve had more money to cover my lunch and dinner.

Flapjacks

You appreciate treats so much more when you have less of them and I advise anyone taking on the Live Below the Line challenge to budget for something that you enjoy and can look forward to when you need a boost during the day.

These flapjacks have really helped me through the Live Below the Line challenge because they seem like a treat and are cheap at just 8 pence each.

Ingredients:

  • 150g butter, plus extra for greasing
  • 50g golden caster sugar
  • 4 tbsp golden syrup
  • 275g rolled oats

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 190°C/fan170°C/gas 5. Grease and line a shallow 20cm-square tin with baking paper.

2. Put the butter, sugar and syrup into a small pan over a low heat and stir until the butter has melted. Stir in the oats. Press the mixture into the tin and bake for 20 minutes, or until just golden at the edges.

3. Remove from the oven and cool for 10 minutes. Cut into bars in the tin. Cool completely before turning out and cutting again with a sharp knife.

The cheapest food to eat: bread

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Bread has become a staple of my Live Below the Line challenge…real bread that is crusty and tastes wonderful!

This picture above is of a loaf of bread baked for me, which I paid for – a lot cheaper than supermarket bread! I should have been making my own to be fair, but it seems that I’m not cut out to make bread.

I’ve also found that by doing my food shop late at night there are usually loaves of bread produced by the bakery that have been put in the ‘reduced to clear’ section…for just 10p!

Despite it going stale within a day or two I’ve found lots of uses for stale bread:

1) Toast with toppings

I’ve been putting sliced bread in the freezer and then taking it out and toasting them when needed. I’ve found lots of cheap toppings, like jam or lemon curd (25-29p a jar), cinnamon sugar or baked beans (25p a tin). I haven’t eaten baked beans on toast for a long time and it has filled me with joy eating this for several days. Funny how simple things can make you so happy!

2) Breadcrumbs

Breadcrumbs are so handy – great for a topping for pasta dishes or to bind bean burgers.

3) Souffle

This amazing cheese, onion and bread souffle recipe is easy to make and really delicious.

4) Croutons

It’s so easy to turn stale bread into delicious gourmet croutons for soup. Simply toss the bread in a mixture of olive oil, dried herbs, and salt and toast until golden brown.

5) Bread and butter pudding

A small white loaf is all you need to make a cheap bread and butter pudding. Cut off all the crusts, spread butter on each slice, arrange one layer of buttered bread at the bottom of a pudding dish and sprinkle a teaspoon of caster sugar plus a few raisins over the bread. Repeat the process until all the bread is used. Add 1 pint of milk and 1 beaten egg to a measuring jug, pour over the bread and leave for half an hour and bake at the bottom of the oven on a medium heat for about an hour.

If you fancy having a go at baking your own bread, here are some cheap bread recipes.

Pizza for less than £1!

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I love pizza, so when I found a recipe for a pizza I could make for less than £1, I was deliriously happy!

Last week my evening meal every day was rice and beans and it made me incredibly depressed. Food controls my moods. When I have a bad meal I’m really down.

I never dreamed I could have pizza on the Live Below the Line challenge but the Live Below the Line cookbook has a recipe that costs only 47p. So, here’s how

Ingredients:
Pizza base
100g value flour 6p
Sauce
1/3 tin value plum tomatoes 13p
1/4 small value onion 3p
Seasoning 1p (salt, pepper, oregano)
Toppings
50g value mushrooms 12p
2 slices of basic ham 12p

Total cost: 47p

Mine was cheaper than this. My flour was just 3p, my ham was just 7p and my tinned tomatoes were just 10p.

Instructions:
Pizza base
Add water to the flour and knead until the dough becomes smooth and elastic. Roll it into a flat circle with rolling pin.
Sauce
Fry the onions in a tablespoon of oil until soft. Add the tomatoes and seasoning. Simmer until the sauce reduces and has a paste-like texture.
Toppings
Slice your toppings and layer on top.
Cooking
Cook in the oven at 180 degrees C for around 15 minutes, or until cooked.

So here it is folks. Not the most amazing pizza ever, but it’s pizza! Enough said. You can play around with the toppings too. I had a fresh tomato left over from last week so I used that too.

Our team Live Below The Line lunch

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My colleagues joined me for a Live Below the Line lunch today – spending no more than 50p on their lunch.

This is what they brought to eat. If you’re taking part in the #livebelowtheline challenge in April, this might give you a few ideas.

Our poor Climate Change campaigner Nick went to the supermarket this morning to get his food and ended up with just a yogurt and an apple.

How to lose half a stone in a week

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I’ve just completed day 7 of my 40 day #livebelowtheline for Lent challenge and I’ve lost half a stone in a week.

I was in shock when I got off the scales. But really, it’s not that surprising – I’m not eating any junk food, I’m not snacking and my portions are a lot smaller.

Here’s my video about how my first week has been: