Day 3 – Live Below the Line – 94p

Disaster! I gave hubby the last of the oats for his breakfast so no porridge for me this morning. I was planning egg for lunch, so egg for breakfast did not sound like a good idea.  What about beans on toast?  No beans! So I had to resort to two small slices of toast from the bread that was reduced at Coop, working out at 4p a slice, with a slither of peanut butter. I’m told that a teaspoon of peanut butter is approximately 5g. So guess I had 10g costing 13p (£1.34 for 100g). So my tiny portion of peanut butter on toast cost a whopping 21p.

And what is more Buddy looked up at me with longing eyes when I was eating it so I had to sacrifice some!

Bad planning meant the most expensive breakfast so far this week and the least substantial.  Oats are on the shopping list today!  Lunch was better planned. With a delicious Egg Bhujia with chapatti (29p) on the menu…..

2 eggs, beaten (12p)

1/2 a tomato, chopped (6p)

1/2 an onion, chopped (3p)

1 chilli, chopped (1p)

Mustard oil (3p)

Salt to taste

Method:

Head the oil, add the chopped chilli and onion, fry for two minutes then add the tomato and salt, then cook until soft.

Add the beaten eggs and cook (as you would scrambled eggs) until eggs are firm.

Serve with 2 warm chapatti (2p each) (See Day 1 blog for recipe)

That left me 50p for dinner. Hubby was on dinner duty and made a cheaper adaptation of our normal Rajma Curry with Rice/chapatti (45p) (well rice was the plan but we only had one portion in the house so we had to share the rice and add a few chapattis).  Rice is also on the shopping list for tomorrow! I’ll be off to the Asian shops where it is cheaper!  We had to reduce the normal number of onions and tomatoes we would used in the recipe, normally we would use three times the amount with the same amount of beans. So here is the adapted ‘below the line’ recipe.

50g dried Kidney beans (dried but soaked overnight) (500g for 99p, so 10p) – much cheaper than the tinned!

1 tsp of mustard oil (3p)

1 cm of ginger (5p)

1 clove of garlic (2p)

1/2 an onion (3p)

1/2 of a tomato (6p)

1 chilli (1p)

1 tsp cumin seeds, pinch of turmeric, 1 tsp coriander powder, 1 tsp of red chilli powder, 1 tsp gram masala and salt to taste (5p)

Method:

Soak the dried kidney beans overnight.

Make a paste of ginger, garlic, onion, tomato and chill (in the liquidiser/grinder)

Heat the oil, add one tsp of cumin seed until it crackles and then add the ginger, garlic, onion, tomato and chill paste.

Fry it for 2 minutes, stirring to stop it sticking.

Add a pinch of turmeric, 1tsp of chill powder, 1 tsp coriander powder, 1 tsp gram masala and salt to taste.

Cook for at least 2 mins (add a little water if it is sticking).

Add the kidney beans and add 2 cups of water.

Cook in a pressure cooker for 15 whistles (approximately 40 mins) so the kidney beans are soft.

Serve with boiled rice (11p) or chapatti (2p each) – we actually had half a portion of rice (6p) and 2 chapatti (4p) due to lack of rice!

 

Day 2 – Live Below the Line – 96p

Today has been really hard for me.  It started well with a tasty Banana Smoothie for breakfast. I used a brown overripe banana (reduced to just 5p) with 200ml of milk (10p) and whizzed it in the blender.  A great start to the day for just 15p.

However, by 11am I was really hungry and by 11:30am was tucking into my lunch, finishing off the potato, carrot and lentil soup from yesterday (37p) (see the previous blog).  That made for a really long afternoon. During my visit to London my eyes and nose were drawn to all the food outlets I passed – temptation on every corner.

I had to decline the offer of lunch out with ‘All We Can’ staff and trustees (much to my disappointment). As the afternoon board meeting continued my stomach began to rumble.  Watching the ‘All We Can’ video clip  was a good reminder about why I am doing this challenge. All We Can is a small international development agency that works with small partners overseas in hard to reach communities to build their capacity so they can support local development initiatives. It tries to do All It Can to address poverty and enable people to fulfill their potential.  Poverty is Personal!  So is the Solution! And just like ChildHope, who will benefit from the funds I am raising, All We Can is ensuring children below the poverty line have opportunities for development.

By the time I got on the train home I was famished and was being challenged to think about my food consumption. It was sobering to be reminded that over 200 million children will go to bed hungry tonight.  Organisations like ChildHope, All We Can and The Leprosy Mission work among the poorest of the poor to try to stop this happening.

So many people in the carriage on the train home seemed to be eating and drinking; not only did I not have any food but my water I had taken with me had also run out and I could not even buy a drink.  I was so pleased when I arrived home at 8pm to find that my dearest hubby had cooked me dinner.

Never have I so appreciated a simple meal of Aloo Bhujia with chapatti (34p), with a few grapes for pudding (10p)!

So I’m sure you folks want to know the recipe:

2 potatoes (16p)

1 onion (6p)

1 chilli (1p)

Mustard Oil (3p)

Pinch of Turmeric, 1 tsp panch phoran, 1/2 tsp of coriander powder, salt to taste (2p)

Method:

Thinly slice the potatoes, chop the onion and chilli.

Head the mustard oil, add the panch phoran, onion and chilli.  Fry for a minute and then add the potatoes, salt, a pinch of turmeric, 1/2 tsp of coriander powder.

Add 1/2 cup of water, cover with the lid and cook for 8mins, stirring occasionally (gently) until the potatoes are soft.

This was served with 3 warm chapatti (6p) – see the previous blog for the recipe. With a handful of grapes for pudding! (10p)

So if you are feeling sympathy with the cause, what can you do to help?

• If you want to know more about my experiences and the recipes I am using then follow this blog.
• If you want to have a brief glimpse about what poverty is like then join me in the challenge and sign up to the ‘Live below the line’ challenge at https://www.livebelowtheline.com/uk/challenge
• If you want to help children in poverty then sponsor me at http://www.justgiving.com/Sian-Arulanantham1 to raise funds for the work of ChildHope or
• Donate to another charity that works with the poorest of the poor, such as All We Can www.allwecan.org.uk or The Leprosy Mission www.leprosymission.org.uk

 

Day 1 Live Below the Line – 96p

Well yesterday was the first day today of trying to live on less than £1 a day to raise money for ChildHope and show empathy for those living below the poverty line.  I had to avoid going into the kitchen in the office as cakes and fruit were available and temptation nearly got the better of me at 10pm when I was still working on a proposal for DFID funding and needed a can of coke for an energy boost.  But I resisted temptation……  the good news is that I lost 1lb……

…… this was my food consumption yesterday – only drinks were glasses of tap water:

Breakfast – Porridge (16p)

50g of Asda Oats– (1kg = 75p , so 4p)

200ml of milk (99p for two litres – so 10p)

2 Teaspoons of sugar – 2p

Method: Place the oats, sugar and milk in a bowl, mix and microwave for 4 mins, stirring half way through. If it’s too thick, add some boiling water.

Lunch – Large bowl of Potato, Carrot and Lentil soup (37p)

1 potato (8p)

1 carrot (6p)

1/2 onion (3p)

50g portion of lentils (£3 for 2kg – so 8p)

Stock cube (Asda’s own 12 for 40p so 3p)

2 cloves of garlic (23p per bulb, so 2p per clove =4p)

Tablespoon of Oil (3p)

Green Chilli, salt and pepper (2p)

350ml of boiling water

Method:

Chop potato, carrot, onion and garlic into small pieces

Dissolve stock cube in 350ml of boiling water to make the stock

Fry onion, garlic and green chilli, until the onion and garlic turn pale brown

Add chopped potato and carrot

Stir in lentils

Add the stock, season with salt and pepper, and boil for 30 minutes or until lentils are cooked and vegetables are tender (alternatively use the pressure cooker for 5mins).

It looks a bit like baby food, but was tasty 🙂  I made double the quantity so will have the rest for lunch today.

 

Dinner – Egg curry with 2 chapattis (43p)

2 Eggs (£1.75 for 30 eggs – so 12p)

1cm of Ginger (5p)

1 clove of garlic (23p per bulb, so 2p per clove = 2p)

1/2 Tomato (6p)

1 Onion (6p)

Oil (3p)

Green chilli (1p)

½ teaspoon Turmeric, ½ teaspoon chilli powder, 2 teaspoon coriander powder, 1 teaspoon cumin seeds  and salt to taste (4p)

2 tablespoons of wholemeal flour (2 x 2p =4p)

Water

Method – Egg curry:

Boil the eggs, leave to cool and peel off the shell.

Peel 1cm of ginger and clove of garlic; chop the green chilli, tomato and onion; mix with the ginger and garlic and liquidise to make a paste.

Heat the oil and add the cumin seeds when they crackle add the tomato, onion, ginger, chilli and garlic paste; add the salt and cook for 5-6 minutes

Add the spices and cook for a further 3-4 minutes, stirring regularly until the oil starts to separate from the masala.

Add 1 cup of warm water and bring to boil on a medium heat.

Add the egg and cook until the gravy thickens.

Method – Chapattis:

Mix the flour and water to make soft dough, divide into small balls, roll flat and cook on a dry tawa. Wrap in a clean tea towel to keep soft.

So it is possible!  But means no treats……

So what can you do to help?

• If you want to know more about my experiences and the recipes I am using then follow this blog.
• If you want to have a brief glimpse about what poverty is like then join me in the challenge and sign up to the ‘Live below the line’ challenge at https://www.livebelowtheline.com/uk/challenge
• If you want to help children in poverty then sponsor me at http://www.justgiving.com/Sian-Arulanantham1 to raise funds for the work of ChildHope or
• Donate to another charity that works with the poorest of the poor, such as The Leprosy Mission www.leprosymission.org.uk

 

How do you define ‘rich’ and ‘poor’?

A philosophical discussion might rest on the premise that this should be viewed from the perspective that wealth is not just about materialism; you can have a poverty of spirit, a poverty of opportunity and a poverty of loneliness. As Mother Theresa said, “We think sometimes that poverty is only being hungry, naked and homeless. The poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty. We must start in our own homes to remedy this kind of poverty.”   Likewise you can be rich by being blessed with love, companionship, freedom, closeness to God, etc.

However, recognising this, let’s just consider it for a moment from a purely financial perspective. Sitting with my husband in our three bedroom ex-council semi, I read on my laptop (because we have the luxury of not only the technology but also the electricity and the internet connection to use it) that the Global Poverty Project is challenging people to raise money for those in need from 28^th April – 2^nd May by living on less than £1 a day. It got me thinking about the cost of living and how much I spend a day in comparison to the international poverty line of $1.25 a day. Although I might not be regarded as rich from a UK perspective (I’d welcome your thoughts on the definition of rich – by material standards) I don’t have to worry about where my next meal is coming from.

I spend my working days trying to develop programmes to support people in extreme poverty, such as this couple affected by leprosy living under a flyover in Mumbai, India.

But could I survive as they do on less than £1 a day? Well, if you take into account what I would regard as my share of the essential bills per day (£1.58 council tax, £13.33 mortgage, £1.67 gas/electricity/water) the answer is clearly no! And that’s without my phone, TV, internet, toiletries, laundry, car, insurance and petrol costs, luxuries that I have come to regard as necessities (after all it would be a 28 mile round trip bike ride to work and the bus would be £8 a day return!). So what if I just look at food and drink? Could I survive?

This week I will be blogging on my attempt to do just that, to spend less than £1 a day on all the food and drink that I consume. It’s been quite a task costing every ingredient, but the whole process has been an eye-opener as to what it might be like for someone living on the poverty line, where every penny makes the difference between eating and going hungry. It’s a shock to realise that I can’t just eat what I fancy, but have to plan every meal to see if I can afford it and adapt my recipes to save costs.

Going round the supermarket it was a sad to see how many individual items cost more than £1, how expensive the healthy food is and how difficult it will be to incorporate meat, fruit and vegetables into my diet, or any drinks other than tap water. Chocolate is certainly a no-no! I came to realise that if I am going to eat anything like a balanced diet, and not go hungry, I will have to fore-go my ethics of buying free range, organic and Fairtrade in favour of the cheapest brands. I got excited at seeing things reduced or discounted, and when I managed to buy 30 eggs for £1.75 (that’s 6p an egg!!) I was so relieved that at least I would get some protein, since meat was out of the question.

So what can you do to help?

• If you want to know more about my experiences and the recipes I am using then follow me on this blog.
• If you want to have a brief glimpse about what poverty is like then join me in the challenge and sign up to the ‘Live below the line’ challenge at https://www.livebelowtheline.com/uk/challenge
• If you want to help children in poverty then sponsor me at http://www.justgiving.com/Sian-Arulanantham1 to raise funds for the work of ChildHope or
• Donate to another charity that works with the poorest of the poor, such as The Leprosy Mission www.leprosymission.org.uk