As my personal page for live below the line 2014 is now locked and will be deleted later on this year to create space for 2015's campaign, I thought I'd share the Diary of it in here for anybody who is thinking of taking part in 2015!
Gearing Up!
12th May 2014
So here I am! This is my first time taking the live below the live challenge, it will be interesting to see if there are any other outcomes besides me reducing my shopping budget to less than half of what I usually spend on mon-fri foods, and also as a vegan, my recipes won't be the same as the suggested ones! I predict I will be starving most of the time as I am a big eater and make very generous portions usually.
I am planning to do my 5 days at the start of June, so that I may use this time now to get support and sponsors to cheer me on.
Wish me luck!
Looking for sponsors
12th May 2014
well, I have now posted on my twitter (@vegankitten) on my facebook page, in four groups that I am a member of on facebook, of which so far, two people have asked to donate towards my sponsorship (eg give a whole amount rather than an amount for each day I complete without cheating on) which is a great start!
I also keep a blog, http://project52ayear.blogspot.co.uk and a facebook page to accompany it, https://www.facebook.com/project52ayear if anyone would like to see what else I have been up to prior to this challenge, and what I'll be doing from now on.
As I am vegan, some of the suggested recipes will have to be tweaked for me as I don't eat eggs or cheese or dairy yogurt, some vegan yougurt and cheese costs more than the dairy counterparts... but as a frozen banana then blended makes a great ice cream subsitute, I could always do that instead :)
I already have a well stocked herb and spice rack and oils in the house, which means I can use those at cost per portion, which would keep the overall cost down as I wouldn't need to buy any to get me started.
I'm hoping that I will be able to use this experience to show that you can be vegan on a budget as well :)
Gathering supporters pt1
15th May 2014
I've now mentioned this to a few people at work, who have said they will sponsor me next week...we get paid on friday so if I know it's the best time to ask them. I am hoping that my work place will let me put up a sign on the notice board and keep a collection tin in the cash office as we're not allowed to carry money during shift. I don't have access to a printer until the weekend so I can't do sponsor forms until then anyways.
No new online donations yet, but I am still grateful to Clare for donating that first £20 to get me started. I'm on minimum wage, so £20 is a lot of money to me as I earn roughly £25 a day before tax & pension takes their 4%. One thing about this challenge is that I can afford to take part as the £5 budget will make me think about my food shopping habits and to save money too (a bonus)
I've gathered a few people via twitter who I can go to for advice/recipe suggestions... Chickpea curry seems to be popular! I've also started hunting in the shops for the cheapest but sensible options, I found a bag of oats for 49p yesterday, that you can mix with water and microwave. the bag claims to have 12 portions in it, so even if i eat double it's still 10p a time for breakfast, so I will be going back to buy it soon. still not found rice for less than £1 but will keep looking. One thing I haven't seen yet is people using reduced to clear foods. I got a pummet of plums earlier this week for 77p... it had more than 10 in it, which makes those around 8p each. If I can get a similar deal on 2nd June, I can have fresh(ish) fruit instead of biscuit or dry cracker for snacks.
Another tip I did pick up was to check out Jack Monroe. Her recipes are budget friendly, and she also took part in the live below the line challenge. Her guardian article on it is here: http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2014/may/01/jack-monroe-one-pound-a-day-below-the-line and she also recently posted a potato curry recipe that is quite cheap as a whole: http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/may/14/jack-monroe-potato-courgette-curry-recipe If I take out the courgette and corriander, I can make it at 50p a portion which will be quite filling too, that will cover two dinners or a dinner then lunch. Quite tempted to buy her book actually but wary as there will be meat or fish based recipes in it, as I wont need those. might suggest on her site that she could do a vegetarian cook book as so many of them out there are full of delicious but expensive meals. and I should know...I have 12+ vegetarian or vegan cookbooks at last count Including Rose Elliot and two Linda McCartney's :) Going to go through them all soon to see if they give me any ideas beyond chilli - curry with veg, lentil or chickpea. xx
Started shopping! spent £1.79 so far....
15th May 2014
More shopping and sponsors
17th May 2014
Between Friday and today, I've brought a bag of breakfast oats for 49p, it's a 500g bag and each portion is 40grams, giving me 12.5 portions at 4p a portion (rounded to nearest penny) ... besides typos on my last update, the 1kg of rice, cost me 40p, is 70grams per portion and 14 portions out of it, making it 3p a portion (again to nearest penny) ...which is even better than I first thought! I've also brought some food bags so i can split food up into portions before I begin so that I do not get tempted to put more in than what the packaging states.
I've received another online donation, this time from a member of swap-bot.com, which is a giant online crafts and trading community website, and also £30 in cash donations from 4 of the ladies from Manchester Vegan Society, which is awesome!
This puts me half way towards my goal, and my spending at £2.28, leaving me with £2.72 to spend on more supplies to get me through the 5 days :)
Nearly finished shopping....
19th May 2014
Since Sunday, I've brought soup - 25p, sweetcorn - 21p, chickpeas tin - 50p, and soya milk, at 59p, but as a bottle normally lasts me 7 days, it means my tea will cost less than 10p a day no matter how many of cups of it I drink. which brings me to £3.83....I've checked out my options for frozen veg and snacks, the cheapest I can find is 75p for frozen veg, and a pack of biscuits... wanted to get fruit but that seems to cost much more! As I already have flour & yeast I could make the flatbreads suggested in the recipe pdfs, at cost per piece or buy a loaf of bread, which seems to be around 50p for the cheapest around here.... I've also received another £7 in online donation and a colleague at work has said she will sponsor me £5, which I will get off her once I have done the challenge! Just two weeks to go now!
Nearly there....
22nd May 2014
I found a packet of rich tea biscuits for 23p, so these will cover my snacks as I can have them with tea... this takes me up to £4.04 though, just enough to buy a bag of frozen veg and then make do with as little spice as possble! which that will be harder for me as I love chillis and hot sauces. so much so I was once bet a tenner that I couldn't eat a whole jar of haberneros chillis (aka jalapenos) ... 5 mins later there was an empty jar, the smell of pickling vinegar and ... well they welched on the bet and brought me a drink instead. ah well. I'll be missing the scotch bonets and bottle of blazing saddles from the fridge.
A dear cousin also donated £10, (awesome Terri!) which brings my total up... now I just hope that one of you reading this will find it in your hearts (or wallets) to donate some spare change to help get my total up. I am really hoping I will reach my £100 target before I start my challenge week on June 2nd. Please make me going without my favourite food addition worth it!
Hey, if I manage to raise even more than my target goal, I will accept any chilli challenge that can be thrown at me (not in the eyes!) providing I do not have to eat meat/fish/animal by-product to do it!
Starting Monday!
31st May 2014
Just need to collect the £5 from my work colleague who sponsored me and I will have passed my initial £100 target that I set when I signed up to take part this year. Hurrah!
I've still not brought my bag of frozen veg, but have since found a reduced to clear bottle of UHT organic sweetened soya milk for 46p, (use by July) making my daily cups of tea even cheaper! and better soya milk to go in it. :D my bf brought the 59p bottle off me so that I could have the money back to my £5 budget. It brings my £4.04 current spend down by 13p to £3.91 YAY! This means I can still have 75p for frozen veg and use more herbs/spices in my cooking! All I need to do now is split my portions up and I'm raring to go!
In my free time, I have also taken up Rainbow Loom ® but unfortunately I'm stuck with other loom brand to use as nowhere sells or has in stock the official loom or bands near me, at £1 a bag of bands. It's keeping me busy and I have started using it to make various objects. I am hoping it will make a good hunger pains distraction! Apart from a few snapped bands, so far so good!
The Night Before
1st June 2014
Just had my last regular meal so to speak, using up what was left of the fresh veg and other stuff that would cost too much to use during this week as I'll be starting my challenge in the morning.
Have measured out 5 x 40g bags of oats ready for breakfast each day, and 10 x 70g bags of rice incase I decide to have rice for both lunch and dinner or add it to something like the vegetable soup to make more of it. the rich tea maths works out at 0.8p a biscuit, so I can have at least 3 a time! 23p for the packet with 29 in it.
I've also had a another larger donation from my friend Kes, which truely takes me over my pre-set target. Woo! Looking at other people's blog posts and twitter feeds, it seems that quite a few also lost a pound or two in weight from doing this, so to see if that is the case, I will weigh myself now and again after the last meal on friday night. I am currently 13 stone and 2.8 Ibs .... fingers crossed I'll lose a couple.
See you all in the morning!
Pamela xx
Day 1 - Breakfast!
2nd June 2014
Day 1 - Breakfast!
2nd June 2014
Day 1 - Lunch, snack & Dinner
2nd June 2014
Day 1 so far....2nd June 2014
This first day has been harder than I expected. My breakfast oats, which work out at 4p a portion tasted ok without added sugar or anything, so I will keep them as they are. I had this with a large cup of tea, but didnt drink it all. The soup I had for my lunch was a little disapointing. I would normally eat a whole tin to myself and have bread or crackers with it, whereas I only had half and nothing with it. I took a bottle of water with me to work and put 3 rich tea biscuits in my bag in case i needed a snack.
I ate breakfast around 9.30 am, had the soup around 12.15pm and by 2.30pm I felt dizzy, a little sick and my stomach was growling. As I couldnt eat in work, I saved my biscuits for the bus ride back to where I am currently staying. I was really glad I'd had the foresight to put them in my bag as they gave me the energy I needed to get back.
For dinner I made chickpea + mushroom curry using half a tin of chickpeas, 1/4 a jar of curry sauce, 4 mushrooms and some water. I also cooked my 70g of rice in a little too much water! This meal tasted nice enough to me and is very similar to what I would normally go for. I had a 2nd cup of tea, but smaller this time.
I've decided to avoid watching tv lest I see anything that I know will make me crave foods, and to use a shallow bowl for my meals instead of the larger plates I normally use. I had heard that using smaller plates or bowls is a good diet trick as it makes you think you are getting a bigger portion than you are, as there is no space left on the plate, whereas on a bigger plate, the same portion would leave gaps. So, tonight's viewing for dinner was episode 1 of the 2003 anime series, "Bottle Fairy" as an animation is not going to make me want to eat what is on screen.
Cost Breakdown for Today:
- oats 4p
- tea 3p
- soup 12.5p
- biscuitsx3 0.8x3 =2.4p
- curry sauce 5p
- chickpeas 25p
- mushrooms 5.5p
- rice 2.8p
- small tea 2.5p
equals = 62.7 pence ...enough for a few more biscuits later :)
Day 2 so far....3rd June 2014
After my last post yesterday, I had another cup of tea at 2.5p and 3 more biscuits at 0.8p each, making this extra drink / snack cost 4.9 p , and making the final day's total when I fell asleep come to 67.6 pence over all!
So far today I've had...
A small cup of tea at 2.5p, bowl of breakfast oats at 4p, and for lunch, chickpea & mushroom curry with rice, at 25p for chickpeas, curry sauce at 5p (added water to it) mushrooms at 9p and rice at 2.8p = 48.3 pence for my day up until now.
I have also now purchased a 1kg bag of mixed frozen vegetables from Asda for 75p for adding to meals. This brings my physical spend for the week up to £4.66 :D
For dinner I am planning to eat the remainder of yesterday's soup, with frozen veggies added to it and rice on the side. I estimate this will be 12.5p + (100g of veg) 7.5p + 2.8p making my meal cost 22.8 pence. Entire day would then be 71.1 pence!! I can have more tea and biscuits later if I want to :D
Not sure if it would be cheating to take what I did not use of Monday' £1 to carry over into the week as there's 32.4p left there, but as this is my first year, I better not unless I get really tired / sluggish and need a glass of coke, as my sig. other found a bottle of it for 17p (1.5 litre) so that I could have a glass if I got sick of tea or tap water. Covering all bases.
Promise I'll post pictures later xx
Day 2 - breakfast, lunch & dinner3rd June 2014
Day 3 ... getting easier4th June 2014
Hello all!
Update on yesterday, I added approximately 2p worth of pepper + mixed herbs to my evening meal, and had 2 biscuits as a snack later on, bringing yesterday's total up from 71.1p to 73.11pence by bed time.
I was hoping that I would gain another sponsor or two but nobody has done so. Ah well.
Today... well it's getting a little easier now I'm getting more used to it, I've been whipping out the scales for every meal so I know exactly how much is going into it, and my boyfriend made me a price breakdown spreadsheet, which holds the name of everything i have, the price per full unit, the full weight, and the clever bit is if i enter in how many grams i have used it tells me the cost per use, to 3 decimal points! This has made the maths much more exact. On the last day, in the interests of full disclosure, I am happy to provide a screen shot of the spreadsheet in case others want to see what I paid and where for items. It also turns out that what he said was a 1.5L bottle of cola was in fact a 17pence 2 litre bottle! So I had a 400ml glass with my dinner.
I'm still feeling hungry practically most of the day, but the best thing to do is to try to ignore that grumble and get on with things. No real sponsored task is easy, so why would this be? A friend got me a bag of posh dairy free chocolate buttons as a thank you for looking after their cat while they are moving house, so I have those as my treat on saturday when this is over. It's quite sad really as there are so many people for whom the grumbly tummy will never go away, so it makes me more determined and grateful that while I may not have what I wanted in life, at least I have a roof over my head, a safe place to sleep and a full tummy at night.
Ok, today's breakfast was porridge oats, as per usual with a cup of tea, for lunch I cooked 60g of kidney beans with 70g of sweetcorn and mixed it with 70g cooked rice. While small and very light, it was also reasonably filling, and probably one of the easiest things to make in a rush. For dinner, I made a vegetable chilli with 200g chopped tomatoes, 64g of sweetcorn, 60g kidney beans, 100g frozen veg, way too much water added to make the sauce.... and a pinch of mixed herbs and a heaped tea spoon of chilli powder (I'd call it 5p on herbs n spices combined) with 400ml of cheap cheap cola.
Breakfast tea & oats = 0.064p lunch = 0.178p Dinner = 0.484 making today's total = 0.726p ....rounded up 73p!
Day 3 Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner plus 2 drinks4th June 2014
Day 4... hmmm....5th June 2014
Update on day 3, I had a second glass of cola after writing my post, at a cost of 3.4p, making day 3's total up to ... 77p rounded up! :)
Today started off well enough, I had a small cup of tea and breakfast oats as I have done all week, had kidney beans, sweetcorn and rice for lunch and set off to travel to work. Along that journey I was not feeling myself at all. My boyfriend who was driving happens to have diabetes, said the feelings I was describing sounded exactly like when he has a low blood sugar level (he takes insulin for his) so I used his testing kit (it has disposable pins so nothing is ever used twice) and my level came up at 4.6 which is low for me, I am generally in the higher 5's or lower 6's which is the healthy range, so I had to dip into his sweet supply (what he takes when he needs sugar) and ate a mini pack of love heart sweets.(the kind you see in party bags) Based on what he paid for a 3 kg bag of them, they work out at 6 pence each, however I am aware that somebody genuinely living below the line would not have access to these. I did feel much better after I had eaten them... and in an emergency you have to have something. I think the dip in my levels is because of what I have been eating this week as all my fruits and sweet treats have been eliminated from my diet during the challenge.
I got through work ok, and made vegetable chilli with rice for dinner with a large mug of tea and feel a bit more like myself again after eating. I did go a bit nuts with the spices and so I am hoping there is enough of the day's budget left to have a small cup of tea with some biscuits later on tonight.
Today's breakdown....
- 40g breakfast oats + small tea = 3.9 + 2.5 = 6.4
- 70g rice, 68g kidney beans + 28g sweetcorn = 2.8 + 6.5 + 3.7 = 13
- emergency mini love hearts = 6p
- 70g rice, 100g frozen veg, 200g tomatoes, 70g kidney beans + chilli powder = 2.8 + 7.5 + 1.55 + 6.7 + 6 = 24.55
- large mug of tea = 3.5
today's total = 53.45 pence rounded up becomes 54p!!
Day 4 Breakfast, lunch & dinner plus drinks5th June 2014
Day 5 ... almost over now!6th June 2014
Update on day 4, I did have that small cup of tea plus 4 biscuits I mentioned I was thinking about in yesterday's post, which takes that total up from 53.45 to 59.15 (53.45p + 2.5 + 3.2) which rounds up to 60p by the time my head hit the pillow. no wonder I've been miserable, not even eating to my full allowance!
Day 5 is finally here! This morning I had breakfast oats [40g] and a cup of tea (3.9 + 2.5 = 6.4p ) Potato [176g] & mushroom [22g] curry [110g] with rice [70g] and a 400ml glass of cheap cheap cola for lunch ( 7.7+ 6.1 + 5.0 + 2.8 + 3.4 = 25p ) and finally for dinner I had potato [170g] and mixed veg [100g] Curry [110g] with rice [70g] ( 7.3 +7.5 +5.0 +2.8 = 22.6p)
and finally as an evening treat, a small cup of tea with 3 rich tea biscuits (2.5 + 2.4 = 4.9p )
full total is.... 58.9p or 59p! woo!
To be honest I have been pretty miserable not being able to eat what I want, which is another aspect of being in poverty, you can't eat what you want and will be hungry until the point of shrinking the stomach is reached.... which I doubt could ever happen to me! On the flip side if my maths has not failed I have lost just over 4lbs in weight this week, and went to the supermarket before I made my evening meal without impulse buying! So I now have some fresh peppers and hash browns for tomorrow's breakfast :) My friend Terry has also donated, which helps to raise my end total even more!
How I have felt this week has not put me off taking apart again in the future should the opportunity arise, however I would not recommend what I have been eating as a diet as I know it was lacking in particular vitamins and minerals, which is very bad despite how low in fat / calories it all would have been. As I never ate the baked beans I had brought either, I can have those tomorrow instead.
See you all again soon!
Day 5 - Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner, plus a snack!6th June 2014
The Plug
I'm Living Below the Line for The Hunger Project
Total raised so far
£154
My Goal
£100
Pamela Berry
WHY I'M TAKING THE CHALLENGE
In today's world, extreme poverty and inequality are unjustifiable and unfair. Live Below the Line demonstrates the problem in a concrete way, while raising money to address the problem. Support me as I live below the line by donating now – your generous support will go towards fighting extreme poverty. I feel that many causes and problems in the world have become invisible. I am taking part to shine some light on what can be done to help.
Online Donations Shout Out!
- Terry King donated
- very proud of you xxx
£10
Kes Samuelson donated
Hey Pamela, I like food too much to the challenge myself. Well done! :-)
£40
Sarah H donated
£10
Amy Cox donated
Good luck! x
£10
TERRI-ANN KAVANAGH donated
You go girl, love me, Paul and Blue x
£10
Laura Aust donated
I don't think I could ever do this unless I had to - I'm looking forward to your updates as to how it goes!
£7
Terry Franks donated
Best of luck! (";)
£7
Zoe Richardson donated
zoev1975 on swap-bot. Sorry it isn't more. You are doing a truly wonderful thing, best lof luck!
£5
Clare Garrad donated
Well done! I am planning to do this myself in the summer. Just need to block out a week to do it in.
- £20
Started shopping! sent £1.79 so far....
15th May 2014
- See more at: https://www.livebelowtheline.com/me/2014/vegankitten#sthash.A4SQJqxr.dpuf
So
here I am! This is my first time taking the live below the live
challenge, it will be interesting to see if there are any other outcomes
besides me reducing my shopping budget to less than half of what I
usually spend on mon-fri foods, and also as a vegan, my recipes won't be
the same as the suggested ones! I predict I will be starving most of
the time as I am a big eater and make very generous portions usually.
I am planning to do my 5 days at the start of June, so that I may use this time now to get support and sponsors to cheer me on.
Wish me luck!
- See more at: https://www.livebelowtheline.com/me/2014/vegankitten#sthash.A4SQJqxr.dpuf
!
Gearing up!
12th May 2014
So here I am! This is my first time taking the live below the
live challenge, it will be interesting to see if there are any other
outcomes besides me reducing my shopping budget to less than half of
what I usually spend on mon-fri foods, and also as a vegan, my recipes
won't be the same as the suggested ones! I predict I will be starving
most of the time as I am a big eater and make very generous portions
usually.
I am planning to do my 5 days at the start of June, so that I may use this time now to get support and sponsors to cheer me on.
Wish me luck!
- See more at: https://www.livebelowtheline.com/me/2014/vegankitten#sthash.A4SQJqxr.dpuf
Gearing up!
12th May 2014
So here I am! This is my first time taking the live below the
live challenge, it will be interesting to see if there are any other
outcomes besides me reducing my shopping budget to less than half of
what I usually spend on mon-fri foods, and also as a vegan, my recipes
won't be the same as the suggested ones! I predict I will be starving
most of the time as I am a big eater and make very generous portions
usually.
I am planning to do my 5 days at the start of June, so that I may use this time now to get support and sponsors to cheer me on.
Wish me luck!
- See more at: https://www.livebelowtheline.com/me/2014/vegankitten#sthash.A4SQJqxr.dpuf
Gearing up!
12th May 2014
So here I am! This is my first time taking the live below the
live challenge, it will be interesting to see if there are any other
outcomes besides me reducing my shopping budget to less than half of
what I usually spend on mon-fri foods, and also as a vegan, my recipes
won't be the same as the suggested ones! I predict I will be starving
most of the time as I am a big eater and make very generous portions
usually.
I am planning to do my 5 days at the start of June, so that I may use this time now to get support and sponsors to cheer me on.
Wish me luck!
- See more at: https://www.livebelowtheline.com/me/2014/vegankitten#sthash.A4SQJqxr.dpuf
Gearing up!
12th May 2014
So here I am! This is my first time taking the live below the
live challenge, it will be interesting to see if there are any other
outcomes besides me reducing my shopping budget to less than half of
what I usually spend on mon-fri foods, and also as a vegan, my recipes
won't be the same as the suggested ones! I predict I will be starving
most of the time as I am a big eater and make very generous portions
usually.
I am planning to do my 5 days at the start of June, so that I may use this time now to get support and sponsors to cheer me on.
Wish me luck!
- See more at: https://www.livebelowtheline.com/me/2014/vegankitten#sthash.A4SQJqxr.dpuf
