Living Below the Line - Taking Stock

One and a half slices of toast with sunflower spread and a cup of tea for breakfast and Day 5 of the Living Below the Line Challenge has now been completed and I must admit that I am relieved that this challenge is over.  The last day was more bearable than I thought it would be, but once again I felt hungry and found myself thinking about food for most of the day.  Toast and tea for breakfast again, I had another cup of tea after walking the dog, but no food was available to snack on today.  I could have  made some plain cooked spaghetti, as I still had half the pack left, but after eating it for the last two days and not having anything to put on it, I didn't feel inclined to do so.

I managed to suffer the mild feelings of hunger until 11.45am and then gave in and had an early lunch.  I  enjoyed my last ham/beef paste sandwich with the last slice of red onion.  I was going to slather whatever was left of the meat paste onto the bread, because I knew I wouldn't be needing it again tomorrow, but then I had a brainwave. (More later).   After my sandwich I put the remainder of the rice pudding into a bowl, there wasn't a lot of it, and added a heaped tablespoon of rhubarb jam.  This gave me a welcome blast of fruitiness which was divine.  I treated myself by heating it up in the microwave for 30 seconds.  I normally eat it cold. 

My brainwave was to  cook up a portion of the spaghetti and stir the last spoonful of ham/beef paste into it once it was cooked, so that it was slightly more flavoursome, and I then had something to snack on in the afternoon.  This solution really helped as I struggled with hunger pangs and as I was heading out to a Zumba class in the evening, I was able to have a carb boost to get me through the class.

Supper for the last night I pre-cooked later in the afternoon.  The reason for his was my experience with the sausage meat earlier in the week, when it had stuck badly to the frying pan and had been my worst meal of the week.

To make the sausage, kidney bean and vegetable burgers I used the two remaining sausages (meat squeezed out of the skins), the last few slices of carrot grated, half a slice of bread blended into breadcrumbs, the remainder of the tin of kidney beans, pepper and oregano. I had used the last of the onions in my sandwich, but remembered that I had some homegrown shallots hanging in the shed so used 4 of these small shallots which were chopped up fine and added to the mix.  I'm hoping this is allowed.

Anyway, the mix made two rather large sausage burgers which I set about frying with the left over fat from cooking the sausages the day before.  Once again the sausage meat didn't fry well so after a while I took them out and put them under the grill.  The grill caught fire, so I had to then put them in the oven.  I left them in for 15 minutes, by which time they looked pretty much cooked, put them on the side and covered them with foil.

 

Later when I got in from my class I was really hungry.  I put the burgers in the oven to heat up for 10-15 minutes, put the remaining peas and new potatoes in a pan and heated through.  I sliced the potatoes to make them look a bit more appetising, added a dollop of sunflower spread and a pinch of pepper and the final meal as eaten by me looked like this.

 

It was a surprisingly palatable meal which was also quite filling. I followed it with my last yoghurt.

The cost of the food eaten on Day 5 was £1.13 which is the most this week, but I realised whilst calculating this that I had missed off certain things from other daily totals, so I added them into this one.  So for the whole week I was still within budget overall.  And what is  left of the food?  Just a quarter of a pack of spagetti, 50 or so teabags, three quarters of a tub of sunflower spread and approximately half a pot of pepper .

So, after what I would call a very challenging 5 days, my Living Below the Line Challenge has finally ended.  I managed to get to the end without too many disasters or doing anything too desperate.  It is, however, not particularly enjoyable and actually quite stressful not to have much food to feed yourself for the week and if this challenge has raised awareness in myself and anyone reading this how it feels and has made us think about how we may perhaps take our relative wealth and good fortune for granted, then I think it will not have been a wasted effort.

Speaking for myself, it has definitely made me think alot about my eating habits and how I overeat daily, without giving it a second thought.  To be honest, I  think I will be changing my eating habits as a result of this challenge and not continuing to overindulge in the same way.   I have lost a couple of pounds in weight this week, but this was excess weight really that I didn't need to be carrying around with me and I probably have quite a few more excess pounds that being more restrained in my eating habits could shift without too much effort.

The smallest things are the things I missed most,  such as having an occasional biscuit or piece of chocolate, a glass of squash, fresh salad or fresh fruit, particularly oranges, which I couldn't afford during this challenge without fear of not having enough food for the week.  It made me appreciate what a treat these things and things such as a bit of meat might be for some people out there struggling on a very tight budget.

I did find out quite a lot about myself during the week.  Namely, that I can manage without snacking between meals and eating treats every day.  I can, when I need to, get a little creative to make a small amount of food go a long way and be a bit more tasty.  It has made me appreciate the importance of herbs, which I haven't actually been using in my cooking for quite a while now, but which can make a lot of difference to a dish. 

But overwhelmingly, it has made me realise how hard it must be for people forced to live like this week after week, with few treats to look forward to and the stress and worry of making everything stretch as far as it possibly can.  Not to mention those times when unexpected emergencies might divert funds from food, making it even more difficult.  I have every respect for them in managing to survive and bring up their families in such circumstances. 

Although I have joined in with this challenge I wasn't officially signed up with Oxfam to so do and as such I have not been raising money but I will definitely be making a donation to another blogger who is taking part, Jack Monroe from A Girl Called Jack, who is continuing to eake out her £5 food shop for as long as she can in an attempt to raise as  much money as possible for the cause.

Thank you for taking time to read my blog this week.