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Week 2, Day 5 - Freddo Friday

The end is in sight, and I cannot wait. Safe to say that the weekend did not start particularly well. Due to my chronic lack of organisation, I was unable to do a £5 shop on Sunday, meaning that I had no food at all when the challenge commenced. I managed to struggle through work on Monday, and eventually was able to gorge upon Morrisons own brand chicken noodles in the evening, before setting off to purchase my haul for the week.

 I was initially pretty happy with what I got. Cornflakes with long-life milk was an unexpected luxury available to me, and I thought bread and spaghetti hoops/soup would be a bearable dinner. The mix of pasta, chopped tomatoes and mixed vegetables for lunch didn’t excite me, but I did not anticipate how much I would resent it by the end of the week. I’d go as far as to say at this point in time, it’s my least favourite thing in the world. If I ever see it again I think I’d break into a cold sweat.

Other than Monday, I was out of the office for the whole week, at a training course for my latest module as part of an accountancy qualification, Principles of Taxation (as exciting as it sounds). For the purposes of this challenge, I feel that this was able to provide with an interesting perspective on what it might be like the live like this all the time.

As has been mentioned in many of the previous blog posts on this page, there are currently 3.9 million children in the UK living in poverty, and one area of life where this can really have a detrimental effect is on a child’s studies. Hunger can reduce concentration and focus, which in turn can mean that vital aspects of the curriculum are not picked up, leading to poor performance.

I’m now 23 years old, so (unfortunately) all my growing is done, meaning that going through a day in classroom hungry wouldn’t necessarily have the same detrimental effects as it would on a child. Despite this, I definitely noticed it over the course of the week. Towards the end of long sessions, I found myself really struggling to pay attention to anything that was being said. I even started daydreaming about food, and pretty sure I caught myself humming the tune of “Food Glorious Food”, which was a pretty low point.

Added to this, there was also the awkward stigma of having my own rubbish lunch. Everyone else at the course would head out for a coffee break in the morning, and then come lunchtime they would all migrate happily en masse to the various food outlets nearby, and return to the class with their haul of goodies and snacks for the afternoon. One person in particular was a fan of Doritos, which, for anyone who knows me well, is my absolute Kryptonite. This was all going on whilst I sat in the corner, plunging penne into my mouth and wondering whether I would have been accepted into their merry band if I wasn’t restricted by my lunch option (unlikely). This is a horrible situation for a child to be in, feeling like they’ve been left out, because of circumstances that are completely out of their hands.

My week is now drawing to a close. As you may have noticed from the photo of my food for the week, I managed to find room in my budget for some decadence - a Freddo (26p). I’m off to go and have the best 60 seconds of my life, but before I do I’ll plug our Justgiving page one more time. 

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Building-Blocks

We have exceeded our own expectations in terms of how generous everyone has been in donating towards our cause, but if there is anyone reading this who could spare anything, it would be hugely appreciated. Any amount of money would go a long way to ensuring that less children are exposed to this misfortune. I’m off to go enjoy Freddo Friday.

Thank you all,

Fred

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Thursday - nearly done!

Most of my colleagues carrying out this task have done a weekly shop, planning meals and spending just £5 for 5 days worth of food and drink. This got me thinking, what if people living below the poverty line do not have that money on day one? What if they just scraped enough together for one meal once a day? On this basis I have decided to do the challenge slightly differently. Rather than spending this £5 in bulk, I will spend only £1 on food and drink but I will spend it each day. If I have food leftover from the day before, I will thankfully still be able to eat this the next day! I am also planning to cut out paying for transport where possible. Although this is mostly impossible for people living in London, being based in Sheffield makes walking an option for me – one I should probably have considered before this challenge!  

So in preparation for the week ahead I went on a supermarket research trip. The first thing I noticed was the amount of planning that must go into buying food and eating on a tight budget. With £1, it’s almost an impossible puzzle to plan 3 meals, never mind the dream of making them even remotely healthy. There does seem to be some truth to the idea that it’s tough to eat healthy on a tight budget. And forget the free range or the organic. It’s cruelty and pesticides this week – through no fault of my own!

Not one to be defeated, I prepared my shopping list. This is what it looked like...

Day 1:

Vegetable Soup 21p

Baked Beans – 24p

Mini wholemeal loaf – 16p (reduced from over £1. This find saved my week!!)

Hot chocolate sachet – 32p

Day 2:

Peanut Butter  - 65p

Chicken Noodles – 20p

Day 3:

Pasta – 20p

Tomato Sauce – 79p

Day 4:

Bread – 34p

Soup – 21p

Soup – 45p

Day 5:

Apple -35p

Chicken Noodles – 20p

Chocolate digestives – 44p

I’m currently coming to the end of day 4. Day 4 has not been ideal. I had a fresh loaf to start so I was happy (when I say fresh, I mean it was reduced and went out of date yesterday...)! Come lunchtime, I opened my soup and it was inedible. Either gone off, or just disgusting (tesco value chicken. Never again.) So after considering not eating at all, I went and bought some tomato soup. Whilst this was surprisingly ok, it left me no budget for the evening. Luckily I have some peanut butter and bread leftover. I am not starving but I have had a headache for 3 days and I never want to see another peanut butter sandwich in my life. I definitely can’t concentrate as well as normal and I’m so tired. It makes me wonder how people living on such little money and food can ever function at work.

My initial meal plan included eggs. Although I wouldn’t have ever been able to afford free-range, I had researched and thought I could get Tesco value eggs for 79p on day four. When I realised my local supermarket did not stock them, I had to change plans. Spending no money on transport where possible meant that rather than getting a bus to a different supermarket, when I could not afford what was in the local shop, I simply could not buy it. It is this lack of choice that has been one of the most frustrating parts of the challenge. I’m not used to not having the option of a morning coffee or being able to change my meal plan because I had a craving for something I saw in a video on Facebook that afternoon.

I am fortunate that this will only last a few more days. Most people living below the poverty line spend years of their lives trapped in this vicious circle with seemingly few options. We have raised an amazing amount of money so far and as we are coming toward the end of the challenge I want to thank everyone that has sponsored us. We have just a few days left though and it would be great to meet our target. If you would like to donate to this worthy cause and provide us with a last little bit of motivation the link is copied below. Thank you!

Rach

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Building-Blocks

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Week 2, Day 3:

I went about this challenge rather lazily, sticking to instant noodles and rationed tuna flakes for all three meals and instant coffee to get me going in the morning. The idea was to reduce cooking time as much as possible because my commute can be anywhere between an hour and a half to two hours and fifteen minutes.

The first day wasn’t too bad, making my way through some chicken flavoured noodles and soggy tuna. I decided to go through one flavour at a time but this wore me down by day 2. I couldn’t handle the bland taste so I decided to switch to curry flavour which has so far brought me some relief. Changing when I add the tuna also helped to make it less soggy (after draining the noodles!) so the taste is now more bearable. While I had anticipated the pangs of hunger I underestimated how it can affect you mentally, I can feel my mood dropping and finding it increasingly difficult to concentrate.

In all honesty, I thought this challenge would be easy. Having fasted most of my life I figured the experiences would be similar; having already gone through a tough Ramadan in the last year, fasting for twenty hours in the Summer heat, I felt that this would be a cakewalk. That has been far from the case. It could be that during Ramadan you tend to stuff your face before and after opening the fast and so the hunger is tough but the thought of eating when opening your fast keeps you going. Whereas, for LBTL, the effect of hunger feels prolonged, the thought of food after a few hours does not provide much comfort. The thought of eating has lost its appeal and food is reduced to sustenance with any semblance of pleasure long gone (around Monday night). But all this is a reminder, a mere flavour of what people must go through every day and it feels almost childish to be complaining about food not tasting great. We are lucky to have food on our plates and all the amenities of a developed country, something that we all take for granted. Having said all that, I can’t help but wait for Friday in anticipation of a feast at midnight!

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Adventures in the land of soup

OK, so I've got a confession to make: I've always had a soft spot for food challenges. You know the sort of thing; ridiculous, over-sized man-vs-food monstrosities like this:

or this:

My food challenge, on the other hand, looks more like this:

So, what's the strategy for surviving for five days on five pounds?

 First things first, cut out all the non-essentials.

That means, no snacks, no nibbles, no little luxuries. There's no money spare for condiments, dressings or sauces. We're talking bare-bones, no-frills basics.

 I can take or leave breakfast and lunch, so those are going completely. Hot drinks, too. A tiny box of tea bags costs almost a pound, and that's without milk.

I know myself well enough to know that if I go all day without eating, then can't eat anything when I get home and only have something tiny for tea I'm not going to make it. What I need is a basket of goods that lets me dip in and eat something when I get hungry, without having to worry about not having enough later on.

My answer to the problem is bread. Lots and lots of bread. Enough that I can have something when I get home from work, use it to bulk out my rubbish dinners, and have an emergency breakfast if I really feel the need. Bread is versatile!

Next priority, something to put on the bread. Butter or spread of some kind. Normally these are pretty expensive, so this could be the tricky bit.

Finally, something to add variety at evening meal times. I've gone with cans of soup. They're cheap, probably taste better than whatever soggy mess of rice I could throw together for a quid, and just about big enough to get some nutrition from.

 Off to Morrison's, and here's my haul:

I'm pretty pleased with it! You're looking at two loaves of brown bread (36p each), Morrison's own brand sunflower spread (£1.00), and five tins of soup. The tins of soup are 45p each... or at least I thought they were. It turns out the chicken and chunky veg is actually 72p. I didn't realise that until I got to the checkout, so I had to give up the cheese I'd also picked up. It'd better be worth it.

 On the whole though, I'm pretty pleased. There's 48 slices of bread in the two loaves, which translates to basically as much toast as I want, all the time. I also only spent £4.24, so I've got 76p left over in case of emergencies. If I really crash, I figure that should be enough to get a chocolate bar (probably not a Mars, but maybe some off brand equivalent), or, if I really need maximum calories for minimum dosh, some oven chips.

 Overall, I was surprised what you can get for under a pound if you crawl round the shop slowly and look at all the out of the way shelves (they hide the cheap stuff at the top and bottom of the shelves so you don't see it and get the expensive version instead) - you can get a pack of sausages or bacon for under a quid, rice or noodles, fresh veg. With a bit of effort you could probably put together something quite presentable for that.

Anyway, enough waffle. Here's meal one:

How's it going after day one? Not too bad, to be honest. I'm usually fine without breakfast or lunch anyway, and I'm generally pretty good at not snacking, so I wasn't actually that hungry at work. When I got home I got straight to work on the toast, and was pleasantly surprised how edible it was. The Morrison's spread isn't bad either, and - it spreads straight out of the fridge! Lurpak, take note. The canned soup is what it is. It's not the most exciting, but it's got a bit of flavour and it helps add some variety to the endless parade of toast. I've deliberately gone for soups with plenty of 'bits' in, and with curried or spicy flavours where possible. So far, it seems to be working.

The one thing that I'm really struggling with is the lack of tea. I normally drink quite a bit, and I'm getting serious withdrawal symptoms. By 3:00PM I was really struggling to stay focused at work and by home time I was seriously exhausted. By the time I'd driven home I had a ringing headache and was just about ready for bed. Trying to give up the tea cold turkey was a mistake. 76p isn't going to be enough to get any though, so I'm just going to have to grin and bear it.

 I have found a substitute though. Check it out!

My mug's never looked so clean.

 Day two has been a bit easier than day one. I'm feeling a bit more alert than yesterday so I think the tea withdrawal is starting to wear off. I fell on the toast again as soon as I got home, but I've not been feeling excessively hungry, on the whole. I think I've definitely made the right choice with my pile of bread. Something I have discovered is just how much people talk about food. Maybe this is just the people I work with, but we must have had half a dozen different conversations today about different foods, restaurants and special offers (it's 40% off at Domino's this week, if anyone's interested).

 A final note before I wrap it up: I've added up all the numbers from the nutrition labels, and if I eat all the food I've bought, including all the spread, it'll average out at about 1200 calories a day. To put that in perspective, the amount someone my height and weight needs to not simply wither away is around 2000. I suspect that most of the other options (rice and veg, etc.) probably have even fewer calories. To put it another way, the sort of food you can buy for a pound a day basically isn't compatible with long term survival.

 Makes you think, eh?

 Overall, it's been an interesting experience. I don't think I'll have any issues getting through the week, but the prospect of eating like this indefinitely is horrific. It's also incredibly time consuming crawling through the supermarket checking the prices on everything to make sure it's not going to push you over budget. I should imagine it's a social life killer as well - no prospect of eating out or going for a drink after work when a pint costs most of your budget for the week. It's been an eye-opener for sure.

 And I could bloody murder a cup of tea.

 https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Building-Blocks

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Week 2: Day 1 - Bryony

With Izzy, Leonie & Marcus doing so well last week, I was keen to get started & see how I fared in comparison. I did some research beforehand of prices in my local supermarkets and carefully planned out what I would be buying to make sure I was getting the most for my money. I’ve always thought I was fairly price aware and careful when shopping, but it really was eye opening to see just how little £5 got you, particularly in terms of fresh fruit/veg and any treat items. I got a few strange stares when marking off the prices on my shopping list as I went round, and felt very self conscious as I was actively hunting out all of the ‘value’ items. Overall, I felt quite smug with my haul and, I’ll be honest, thought I’d set myself up for a week of plain sailing. It’s day 1, and I already know that I was very wrong!

My haul:

Porridge = breakfast (mistake 1: Chose a food you can actually tolerate!)

Hot chocolate powder to make the porridge more bearable (mistake number 2: don’t try to be clever & inventive-I should have stuck with sugar!)

Rice, Frozen veg + soy sauce = lunch (mistake number 3: frozen carrots & cauliflower are disgusting!)

5 apples & 1kg carrots as snacks (in terms of flavour, these are a winner, although they are disappointing on the calorie front)

Tinned tomatoes, frozen veg + pasta= dinner x 3

Kidney beans in chilli sauce + frozen veg + rice = dinner x 2

My total came to £4.97, across 3 shops (Aldi, Morrisons & Asda). I realise I was very fortunate in having a choice of shops, as being unable to shop around makes it much more difficult. Price breakdown was:

Porridge 500g: 59p

Hot Choc powder: 69p

1kg frozen veg: 77p

1kg rice: 42p

150ml soy sauce: 45p

5 apples: 55p

1kg wonky carrots: 35p

2 x tinned tomatoes: 50p

1 x Chilli beans: 45p

500g spaghetti: 20p

Total: £4.97

 My first meal of the day was hugely disappointing. I’m not a huge porridge lover at the best of times, but turns out value hot chocolate really is awful (who’d have guessed), so I ended up eating a bowl of tasteless dog food.

This put me in a bad mood for the rest of the day, and a bowl of overcooked rice and ‘veg’ at lunch didn’t help things at all. It was really hard to get it down, and tasted of nothing. It felt purely like a refuelling exercise, which is not how I’m used to feeling about food at all. My mind wandered all day, and I can really see how living on this kind of budget long term, particularly with the lack of fresh veg and good sources of protein could really affect your school/work life.

I struggled a lot more emotionally than I was expecting to- particularly considering I was only a few hours in! I definitely consider myself a food lover, but the rate that I cracked at is frankly embarrassing. The thing that struck me most, is how claustrophobic the lack of choice is. Your mind wanders to something you fancy/you walk past a shop and see something tasty/you look in the fridge and see something you want and you can’t afford to eat any of it.  I thought I’d done a decent job of making my meals nutritious, but I did not expect to miss the treats so early on. It’s made me realize how much snacking as a habit is built into our lives. Snacks are such small pleasures, that most people use to boost their energy and reward themselves, but they’re pretty much impossible on this budget.

(My dinner looks quite nice, but was unfortunately rather tasteless!)

Time definitely goes much slower when you’re constantly watching the clock, waiting for your next mealtime! I’ve been surprised with how hungry I’ve felt. It sounds stupid, but I hadn’t really expected the hunger to kick in on the first day. By the time it got to dinner, I was starving. There’s an old English proverb that says ‘Hunger is the best sauce’ and I’m appreciating that already! I suspect after this week, I won’t want to eat porridge or frozen veg again.. And yet, if this was my life, I’d have no choice. I’ve always felt that, as it’s something we do so often, eating should be one of life’s pleasures, but when you’re living on this kind of budget it’s just something you do to survive.

I’m aware that for the first day I sound very dramatic, but I have honestly been amazed at how much I underestimated this challenge, and how much I take the small things, like adding a pinch of stock or having a biscuit, for granted. 

Wish me luck for the next 4 days!

Bryony xo

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Noodles, Curry, and Irish Stew. Pretty sure that makes me a connoisseur of world foods. Remember me when I’m a restaurant critic.

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Week 1 Day 5: Marcus

Disgusting. Absolutely disgusting.

Not the food- Leonie has just accused me of creating the most disgusting looking meal of the week (noodles and mash) - I’ll let you decide when I post the photos of days 3,4 and 5 in a moment, but my opinion is I’m working with uneducated animals.

Seriously though, man am I sick of mash. And I’m sooo elated that my challenge is nearly over (midnight tonight if you must know), and yet for so many people the circle continues. As I think we’ve made clear, we know how good we’ve got it, but I can honestly say it has taught me a few hard truths. I can’t promise I will stick to this new viewpoint for life, but I certainly won’t forget this in a hurry.

So often I binge eat, eating far more than necessary and wasting food - and money -for no good reason. I’m not Bill Gates, so why on earth am I doing that? I gave not been eating very healthily this week (I know the pictures suggest otherwise), but I actually have a choice, and should realise how lucky I am and take that into account.

But neither of those “revelations” support the reason why we are doing this. I wonder how many children suffer in silence because they are too ashamed to admit they are hungry? What a horrendous thought. This is not just a microscopic issue- poverty is still a huge problem, not just worldwide - but in this country too. Yes that’s right, us with our KFC and Maccy Ds, us with our Finest Meal for Two, 2-4-1 and all-you-can-eat buffets.

I would really like to thank everyone who has supported me and the rest of the team this week (maybe not Leonie until she comes to her senses). We have another group doing the challenge next week, so there is still plenty of time to donate on our JustGiving page. And please keep tweeting and sharing and talking about us too, we love the attention.

Yours, 4 hours and counting, Some Hot Chocolate still left, King of the Beige meal,

Marcus (73% potato)

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Week 1 Day 4: Izzy

The end is in sight! I am now counting down the hours - no, minutes - until I can eat and drink whatever I want again. I feel pretty rubbish. I have a light but constant headache from caffeine withdrawal and not much energy as I’m consuming fewer than half of the recommended daily calories. I can’t concentrate - losing track of my point mid-sentence as colleagues look at me, bewildered. I usually enjoy reading on the commute and before I go to bed but now I struggle to get through a page or two before my mind wanders and I’m not interested any more. Most of the time, I just can’t be bothered. I feel meh.

Went a bit more adventurous yesterday: rice, baked beans and frozen veg.

It feels a bit like I’m half a person, not really there. The physical effect is made worse by the mental effect of not being able to buy food. When colleagues take some time out at 11am to get a coffee, I can’t join them. When a school friend comes down to London for a night and my housemates go out to dinner with her, there’s no point in me going. When I’m waiting to meet my Dad, who’s half an hour away, and want to wait inside somewhere warm I realise I can’t because I can’t afford to buy a coffee which allows me to sit. So I stand on the concourse of the tube station - it’s either that or the freezing street. That got me thinking, what public, communal areas could I enjoy without buying food, drink or a ticket? The office? The park... but in January? I realised that living in poverty you not only feel like half a person because of the physical effects of a poor diet, but because there��s nowhere for you to go. As Leonie said yesterday, you are isolated.

As a child in a family suffering from poverty the isolation must be awful. The child often won’t understand why they’re in the position they’re in; why their home life is different from that of their friends. The stigma around collecting free school meals, the embarrassment of not having the right uniform or the newest toys, these things must lead to a child feeling alone. In an inquiry carried out by a group of young people, commissioned by The Children’s Society, it was reported that 27% of children asked said they had been bullied because it was clear their parents struggled with the costs associated with sending them to school. Children don’t choose the situations they are born into, and often aren’t able to do anything to change them until they’re older. Even then, their hard start in life can sometimes make changing things difficult.

These are just some of the reasons why the work that The Children’s Society does is very important. They support families - not just the children themselves but their parents and guardians - because they understand that people don’t intend to bring up their children in poverty. 

This five day challenge has already changed my attitude towards food by giving me a taste of what the poorest and most helpless people in our society are forced to live with. It’s made me appreciate every bite.

You can read more from The Children’s Commission on Poverty here: http://www.childrenssociety.org.uk/what-we-do/resources-and-publications/the-childrens-commission-on-poverty

Please donate to The Children’s Society via our JustGiving page here: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Building-Blocks

Thanks for reading! Izzy

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Day 3- Leonie

I have to agree with Marcus’ reflections from yesterday, although I think looking at his meals I am going to be the only one of us not finishing this week with rickets.

Concerned about my food lasting the week, I decided to store it all in the fridge. When I came downstairs, full of anticipation on Monday morning, I found that all of my bananas had turned black. Usually I would have thrown these away and replaced them, but this week I didn’t have that option. This served as a reminder of how precarious situation is for those living below the poverty and the impact a minor mistake can have.

Here is my meal plan for the week:

Breakfast: Peanut butter sandwich

Lunch: Peanut butter sandwich and a banana

Dinner: Rice with veg.

(repeat 4x)

Here’s a pic of my delicious dinner. It actually isn’t that bad, but by day 3 I am pretty sick of it. 

The worst part is probably giving up coffee (I’ve been drinking cups of hot water and trying to trick my brain into thinking its coffee). I’ve had a headache all day which has led me to the realisation that I’m more of a caffeine addict than I thought.

Yes, the food is very monotonous (and bland)- my housemate’s cheese toasty couldn’t have smelled more amazing last night- but thing that’s really struck me is the lack of choice. I am missing having the freedom to nip out and grab a coffee, or to meet up with some friends after work for a drink. It’s really isolating.

Here is a picture of my housemate callously throwing away her nice dinner in front of me.

This challenge isn’t the worst thing in the world. Eating peanut butter sandwiches every day and giving up coffee isn’t the worst thing that could happen. But for me this challenge is more a test of self-control, a test of my ability to turn down my friends’ and colleagues’ nice offers of sharing food and drink.

In this way I can never begin the replicate the sense of hopelessness and a lack of control which can be accompanied with extreme poverty. But I can at least hope to raise awareness of it and raise money for important work to raise people out of poverty in the UK.

Please donate! https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Building-Blocks

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Boring lunch: MDF- sorry- bread with cheese (ish) spread and a dinner fit for kings (4 of those little beauties- count ‘em)

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Week 1 Day 2: Marcus

Hello 👋 everyone! I must admit I woke this morning and thought "Oh no is it only Tuesday?", realising I had 4 more "shifts" to go. In general though, my emotions are mixed. The actual food itself is OK, in fact my choice of evening meal- tinned hotdog sausages and mash- is the stuff of legend and worthy of a film, but the amount is somewhat disappointing. Some of the mash dropped off my fork and onto my shoe earlier and I almost considered putting it back on the plate. It's not just the food amounts - I've dieted before; not a fan, but I have- it's the fact that it's sooo restrictive. Even if I want a biscuit, or a glass of squash, a sweet I CAN'T. And it's really important to keep that in mind during these 5 days. OK, refusing the chocolate box doing the rounds at work is perhaps a false situation, but the parts of society we are raising awareness for don't have that privilege, so for one week (and boy am I pleased it is only that), neither can I. This is one of the really big things that hit home this week- when food is scarce you make sure you look after it- I nearly tipped over half my meal tonight and the alternative wasn't take something else out of the freezer, it was wait until tomorrow. And speaking of freezers, I had to use the freezer to make sure my bread stays in date for the whole week. I can see how people who are struggling for money have to be a bit more clever, resourceful, and, frankly, sensible. Another hard truth: poverty is embarrassing: I felt a real stigma scanning through the cheap tins of food "I must look like I'm poor, if people who know me see me they'll think I've lost my job, let's hurry up and get this done". Then factor in a miscalculation or a mistake at the till and you don't have enough money and you can see how this could really break someone. Poverty is also really anti-social: "Do you wanna go for a drink?" "Nah, better get home." "You never come out with us" When I finished eating last night, do you know what I did? I went to bed. At 7.45. Because I was hungry and fed up. What a sad state of affairs. Now, I'm not going to pretend it's been horrendous - it hasn't, it's just not much fun. But it's done me no harm whatsoever to take a rain-check on my attitudes and blasé behaviour with food and has reminded me of some sensible practices ( I say "reminded"; I've never been a victim of poverty or worried where the next meal was coming from, but growing up, food and money wasn't something you messed about with, and I've no shame with that). Another thing is my friends, family and workmates have all been really intrigued, interested and supportive with my ordeal (apart from the one who brought the chocolates in), and I've had lots of people sponsor me too, which is fab. Did I say sponsor me? https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Building-Blocks There's a good lad. Ta-ra. Marcus

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Week 1 Day 1: Izzy

Hi, Izzy here. The end of my first day doing the Live Below the Line challenge is fast approaching so I thought I’d give you an update on my progress so far.

I’m going to start by saying that I love food. I spend so much time thinking about, talking about and mentally lusting after food that I was less concerned about being hungry during the challenge than I was about having nothing to occupy myself with for five days. But you only have to look at the horrifying figures on food poverty around the world to realise how lucky we are to have enough food to fill our tummies in the first place, let alone the luxury of choosing and enjoying what we eat.

In a typical week I probably spend around £30 on food. I cook at home in the evening and try to take lunch to work every day to save money. I eat lots of fresh fruit and veg, hummus, spicy foods (lentil daal is one of my fave meals to cook) and sushi when I eat out. And I adore chocolate.

I went to our nearby Lidl on Saturday to spend my £5 allowance. I was in a bit of a hurry and trying to navigate the weekend shopping mayhem so I’m not sure I bought as wisely as I could have (I didn’t go near the fresh fruit and veg aisle, which I am now majorly regretting).

This is my haul: 

It breaks down, from left to right, like so: jar of honey 99p, 500g porridge oats 39p, 1kg rice 89p, 1kg frozen veg 79p, four tins of baked beans £1, 18g of coffee (taken from a larger jar I already owned) 54p, six chicken stock cubes 39p. Total spend: £4.99.

My method was to go for repetitive, fail-safe options so my meals will look largely the same every day. When it’s Marcus’ turn to blog tomorrow you will see some more exotic combinations.

Breakfast: porridge made with water, honey on top

Lunch: rice and vegetables cooked with a chicken stock cube

Tea: a tin of baked beans with 1/4 of a chicken stock cube

It was a busy day at work so I didn’t notice being any more hungry than usual, although I am conscious it’s only day one. The main thing I struggled with was having no cups of tea - I wish I’d budgeted for some caffeine!

I hope that I come out of this challenge with a fresh perspective on food and eating. I am conscious that I am not always as grateful as I should be for the luxury of never going hungry and being able to afford to enjoy food and cooking. I also want to raise awareness and as much money as possible for The Children’s Society. I can’t imagine what it must be like as a parent to have to choose between feeding myself or my child. And that happens - here in the UK and in London, where I live. It’s truly shocking. I’m proud to be supporting The Children’s Society who work to help families in poverty and protect the country’s most deprived children.

Hope you enjoyed reading - I’ll be back on Thursday!

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Not a penny less; look at that continental breakfast. It's like being abroad.

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It's all about the mash-ups

I cannot begin to tell you how I felt when I realised I hadn't checked if you needed any other ingredients, bar water to make my instant mash. Actually, I can. Cold, raw, naked fear. And with good reason - my evening meal plan is as follows : Monday: 4 Tinned hotdog sausages with instant mash Tuesday: Tinned Irish Stew with instant mash Wednesday: 4 Tinned (there's a theme here) hotdog sausages with instant mash (there's the other one) Thursday: Tinned Chicken Curry with instant mash. Not sure about this one. Although in theory quite nice, it reminds me of the time I cooked some potato waffles and curiously wondered if they would be nice with butter and Marmite a la toast (A: no, they weren't) Friday: Chicken noodles and instant mash- this took me back to my teenage "beer-money" days. Spend all my money on payday and live frugally for 27 days - this was my remaining 30p purchase. However, this frugal behaviour means I will be living like a king 7-5 with a loaf of bread (albeit with a worrying BBE date which suggests I'll be freezing it) and some cheese (ish) spread. I'll also be toasting my success throughout the day with hot chocolate (I figured coffee without milk and sugar is a bit like drinking diesel oil). At the minute, I'll be honest, I'm quite pleased with myself, but let's see how chirpy I feel at 5.30am when my 3 hour drive to work is rewarded with a crust of dry bread and no caffeine..... Marcus

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Live Below the Line: what it’s all about

Over the next two weeks, seven of my colleagues and I will be teaming up to take part in the Live Below the Line challenge to raise money for the Children’s Society. Next week will be the turn of Marcus, Izzy and I (Leonie).

The Children’s Society is an amazing charity which does work to help improve the lives of vulnerable and disadvantaged children across the country. If you would like to learn more about the great work the Children’s Society does, check out our previous post from 6th January!

For those of you that don’t know the rules of the Live Below the Line challenge, they are quite simple:

Feed yourself with £1 a day for 5 days

The aim is to increase awareness of the 1.2 billion people globally living below the poverty line and to raise money to help alleviate worldwide poverty. Over the last 5 years, the campaign has grown in popularity, raising an amazing $16 million to support extreme poverty projects. In recent years, celebrities including Bonnie Wright (Ginny Weasley), Ben Affleck, Sophia Bush, Nick Lachey and Josh Groban having taken part.

Of course, we will never truly replicate the situation of people in this situation; we all have roofs over our heads and will go back to our ordinary lives at the end of the week. But the goal is to draw attention to the situation and do something to help lift people out of poverty.

Support the Children’s Society

I live in London and today, 592,000 children – 37% of all children in the capital – live below the poverty line. The Children’s Society does a huge amount both in the capital and nationally to support children in this situation.

If you would like to support us by sponsoring our challenge, here is the link to our Just Giving page. Any donation is appreciated and even if it is only a couple of pounds, we would be really grateful.

Getting Ready for the Challenge: Sunday 

I am beginning my challenge on Monday, so this Sunday I went shopping for ingredients to see what I could get for £5.

Usually I would pick something up from a local supermarket on the way home from work, but this time it took some careful planning to ensure my £5 would get me enough food to last me the week. 

I headed to Asda in order to make the most of my £5 and it turned out to be a stressful experience. I hadn’t weighed the vegetables before bringing them to the till and it turned out I had picked up about half a kilo of mushrooms accidentally. This meant having to call over the attendant three times to ask him to cancel various items, which was embarrassing, particularly when there was a long queue of customers waiting behind me. 

I also had to take a second trip to Sainsbury’s as they had run out of the Smart Price peanut butter, which was going to ruin my dreams of pb sandwiches. This meant that the best part of my Sunday was spent traipsing around supermarkets.

I was surprised by how much food I had managed to get my money, although I am preparing myself for a week of carbicide. What was more striking was the fact that I also bought myself an ordinary dinner for that night (gnocchi, pesto, veg, a smoothie) and it came to more than I had just spent on an entire week’s shop.

Here is my haul.

I will check in again during the week, leaving you in suspense about what I am going to cook up with this lot. In the meantime, please donate and help us raise money to improve the lives of children living in poverty. All of your donations will really help support us through the week.

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Building-Blocks

Leonie x :)

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Our Charity: The Children’s Society

The Children’s Society was started in 1881 by a Sunday school teacher and civil servant called Edward Rudolf.  Rudolf was moved to action when he witnessed firsthand the terrible effect of poverty on children’s lives. Two of his Sunday school pupils had failed to turn up to class and when he want to look for them he was appalled to find them begging on the street. It transpired that their father had died, leaving their mother struggling to support seven children under 11 years old.

Rudolf collaborated with the Church of England and worked tirelessly to get children out of workhouses. He set up small family groups in houses and cottages, which housed up to ten children aged five to fourteen. These were the first care homes for children in the UK. The care homes took in children suffering the plight of poverty in all forms: family breakdown and dysfunction but also child runaways and children in trouble with the law.

Today, The Children’s Society continues to help the most deprived children across the country. They provide aid for children suffering abuse or neglect; whose parents or guardians have issues with addiction; who struggle with mental health problems; who need someone to advocate on their behalf in custody batltes; who run away and have nowhere else to go; who are refugees and migrants; who just need someone to talk to. The charity provides this aid through initiatives such as: local centres for parents and children; volunteers who act as Independent Visitors for young people in care; helplines for children suffering at home and considering running away. Alongside this, The Children’s Society lobbies the UK Government to ensure that the wellbeing of children is at the heart of government policy.

We chose this charity because we were shocked at the numbers around child poverty in Britain, a modern and liberal country: 

- 3.9 million children in the UK live under the poverty line (in families that live on less than 60% of the UK’s average income). 

- 592, 000 of those live in London, so that’s 37% of all children in the capital.

Find out more about the amazing work the charity does here: http://www.childrenssociety.org.uk/

If you would like to support us in our Live Below the Line challenge and donate to the charity, please do so here: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Building-Blocks

Izzy

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Getting Ready....

Hi, Marcus here! Thanks for checking out our blog. We are busy filling up on every food source we can find and creating some recipes for our LBTL challenge. Me, personally- I am starting next Monday and will be posting some of my experiences throughout the week, along with my other team members-nay- let’s call them comrades!

On a serious note (I was attempting humour before- you’ll recognise this common theme), we are well aware that surviving off £5 for 5 days is nothing compared to the people around the world living off this (or less!), and the fact is we are doing this through choice. We also have jobs, homes to live in and many other positive facets of our lives that those less fortunate than us have.

Many of the 1.2 billion people living in extreme poverty around the world will also have children, so I think it’s especially appropriate that our charity of choice is the Children’s Society.

Please support ourselves in our quest and rid yourselves of some of that pesky left-over Christmas money on https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Building-Blocks (say Marcus sent you.)

Regards

Marcus