Having spent most of yesterday in bed with yesterday’s migraine, today has become Day Four of my second basg at the Live Below The Line challenge…
Here’s my ‘Leaning tower of toast’ this morning, at 7p. Washed down with a large glass of water, a fistful of paracetamol and co-codamol, and a generous lashing of self pity, and hi ho hi ho, it was off to work I…… went.
Lunch was a thrown together cold rice salad, of lemon curd and white rice and a grilled courgette. I was extraordinarily hungry, having not eaten brilliantly yesterday, so had the last of my two apples, and a glass of water – taking my total for lunch to 38p.
Dinner: sausage and bean casserole, with stuffing mash and mixed vegetables. This consisted of 1 of my now-strictly-rationed sausages, half a can of kidney beans, half the carton of chopped tomatoes, 1 beef stock cube and a teaspoon of stuffing to thicken the sauce and add flavour. I added some leftover pre-cooked stuffing from Sunday’s sausage sandwich to the potato, and had half for tonight’s dinner and left half in the fridge for tomorrow. Total cost for dinner: 40p…
So I’m over halfway through now, although the fridge looks terrifyingly empty…
I spy half a can of chopped tomatoes, some wrapped-over pre-cooked sausages, less than half a loaf of bread left, some mashed potato in a bowl and a rather small looking portion of sausage and bean casserole. Three days left and counting, and hopefully no more illness to throw me off kilter!
One observation is that I haven’t really felt very hungry this time around. I’m getting wholemeal bread, and fruit, and yoghurt, and admittedly a limited amount of questionable meat, and at least 100g of mixed vegetables every day – not counting the chopped tomatoes and courgette. It’s not perfect by a long shot, but as far as a fiver over seven days goes, it’s not been too bad, if a bit toasty and ricey for my liking…
However, I’ll see how enthusiastic I am by the end of tomorrow, because there’s still two ‘sausage surprises’ left in the fridge. I don’t recommend them. Even me, who can make fabulous food out of nothing, struggled with that stodgy combination of rice, stuffing and squeezed-out-sausagemeat. Blergh. If I did it again, I’d make it into meatballs with extra beef stock mixed up as a gravy, or in a tomato sauce… But anyway, I might slice it in a sandwich and see how that works instead…
I’m counting the meals down now, nine more to go. I’ve raised over £3,000 for Oxfam with the help of some of my wonderful and generous readers – now – where can this take us now?
Thankyou to everyone who has sponsored me so far – and to new readers, I just want to make it clear that this is not my normal diet, it’s a challenge to raise money for Oxfam!
To sponsor me or donate, all funds raised going to Oxfam and to tackle food poverty in the UK, click here: https://www.livebelowtheline.com/me/agirlcalledjack
Jack Monroe. Follow me on Twitter: @MsJackMonroe