Preparations

Boldly Going

Been rushing around trying to finish my shopping to start the challenge tomorrow. The first big shock- so called cheap food stores and value brands a'int cheap when you are poor. I had to drive all around Blackpool looking for cheap brands and bargains which seemed to be few and far between. This is not about living on what is cheapest, but trying to get as many balanced meals in a day on that amount, so nutritional considerations have also been taken into account. I have decided to go for bulk foods, as I think that would be the most sensible, so I have gone for grains, legumes and beans.

My food shopping for the week

Assumptions

I have also made a few assumptions if I were living on the brink, as it were, I would also have to take into account things like fuel costs, and anything that needs long slow cooking is out, as is anything frozen. So I have stuck mainly to non perishable foods, and though I normally cook my kidney beans from scratch, and in the long run it works out cheaper, it also takes about 2 hours cooking; so I decided in this instance to use tinned. Tea was my little piece of luxury (24p. for 80 bags), besides I can't function without my cups of tea. I looked in my purse and found I only had 27p left, so decided to leave that for fruit and veg. That meant I have to live without salt or any form of seasoning , sugar, oil and no butter or any form of spread i.e dry toast or bread. I bought one onion and a carrot, which came to 29p. (I had obviously fallen at the first hurdle!) However they only had very large onions, so I decided I could redress the balance by swapping it for one of the smaller ones at home. When I got home and totaled my bills my shopping had come to 5.73, so I had another pound somewhere: I hunted in my purse and found it tucked in the corner, so I swapped the onions back and now have the glorious sum of 98p, and hopefully I shall use it wisely. I have since spent 67p. on more veg and have bought some cumin and chilli from the house supplies. I normally would argue that this was cheating, but, since I normally buy quite a lot of my herbs and spices loose I thought it could be justified as long as I took the money out of my budget. So I now have a grand total of 9p. between me and destitution.

Transport costs were another hidden cost in my quest for 'cheapness' which I hadn't thought about. I just jumped in the car and drove around Blackpool, but the cost of petrol or bus fares would make this uneconomical to someone on the breadline, so I shan't be repeating that again. This has been a novel experience for me, usually I just walk around the store putting things into the trolley trying to be economical, while Eric  fills it with 'goodies' for the grandkids, we then go to the checkouts pay and walk out without too much thought about the cost. The philosophy being "we need to eat, so what's the point of moaning about prices?" 

http://www.charitygiving.co.uk/donate/donate_b.asp?charityid=7146 

There are more details on the subject, if anyone is interested at
http://www.trusselltrust.org/foodbank-projects