What would you buy for £1?

ladysue

ladysue

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Next month I will be spending 5 days living on £1 per day for all my food and drink for "living below the line" a challenge to raise money and awareness of the plight of 1.4 billion people who survive on less than £1 per day.

I have been looking at what I can afford and am looking for ideas. So what would you buy to feed yourself for £1 for a day? And what would you miss- or not be able to live without?
 
Would have to be some bread. It might take most of a days money but a loaf will last a few days
 
I'd be looking at the reduced cabinet in the supermarket. Either that or a bag of chips a day.
 
Own brand noodles, beans and the like from the major supermarkets at under 10p per packet/tin
 
Don't know because I can't eat bread or pasta very often because it makes me ill!

I'd live on baked beans :D
 
Pound of Waitrose essential Sausages for 99p, surprisingly nice as I found out when I picked them up by mistake
 
i would buy a sainsburys trolly, because thats how much they cost, and if i do a big weekly shop, its the only way to transport it around
 
£1 a day is in a country where everything else is proportionally cheaper though! It's probably like £3 a day here.

Sausage casserole is a good cheap staple. Dried beans /lentils etc are cheap sources of protein and fill you up. Pasta with any kind of sauce is fairly cheap but makes your blood sugar go up and down like mad so isn't great.

Potatoes are probably better as you can also do jacket potato and veg shepherd's pie with your beans/lentilly things with mash on top. If you stretch to a bit of cheese then jacket potato with cheese and beans is good and filling. Pasta isn't as versatile really. If you have flour and eggs you can make potato cakes. Eggs are another reasonably cheap source of good protein and vitamins.

Stock up with staples before you do it then you can allocate a proportional cost otherwise it will much harder as you'd have to go out and buy the whole thing and potentially not eat it all within the 5 days.

If you are successful you'll have a new diet craze to sell :)
 
Pasta is cheap and filling.
Dried beans.
Rice.
Loads of stuff from Iceland for £1 (but it's crap).

It's been a while since my student days and prices have gone up alot since then ;)
I used to have a can of meatballs on spagetti, loads of food for the money, but you could still do better than that.
 
£1 isn't much a day here, but is loads in a lot of sub sharan countries or India etc.
 
I know its not the spirit but I'd cook loads of meals now and freeze them so I can eat them during the challenge for free!! :D

Seriously though, I'd look at the reduced items for stuff. Things like veg that they are about to throw out and you can make soups with etc.

If I remember rightly with this challenge you can't even have free food off friends can you as you have to include what it would have cost you to make/buy in your expenditure?
 
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dont forget to drink lotsa water with all the high fibre suggestions



and it's free.................:lol:
 
Soup is a good idea. Squishy tomatoes work well and so do mushrooms that have gone past their best.
 
The supermarket discount mash potato packets can do two to four meals*. If you mix them with a large dollop of pasta sauce** and a tin of drained discount veg*** you can make quite a tasty, filling meal for not much money.

*Depending on the packet size.

**Look for offers, or the fresh stuff on the reduced shelf.

***Generally peas, carrots, sweetcorn, and sometimes mushrooms and green beans.
 
I would go down the market for fruit and veg, and the butchers for meat.

How are you doing it? will you have a £5 budget for the week, or £1 per day? If £1 per day, then large packets of anything are out, so a bag of pasta will wipe out half a days money, but be good for the week.

A bag of strong flour is 50p from tesco, and you can do loads with flour and water.

Buying discounted items from a supermarket is kinda missing the point isn't it?
 
I have lived on less than a pound before.....Just ate dry toast and drank lots of tea.....they were the days NOT!


good luck on your quest!
 
Fruit, vegetables and bread.

Tesco value brown bread loaf is 47p for a full size loaf.

Tomatoes are cheap, onions are cheap, cucumber etc...

And a bag of fusili pasta from Tesco, the cook in 5 minutes variety, is 79p.

Easily doable, not that comfortable or pleasant, but I'm sure you won't go malnourished
 
You're going to struggle. If you don't end up malnutritioned, I will be very surprised.
 
squizza said:
Don't know because I can't eat bread or pasta very often because it makes me ill!

I'd live on baked beans :D
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I did a bread making course the other week, and often people are ok if they eat proper bread - made with rye flour for example.
 
a 50p bag of tesco's strong bread flour
30p for some fresh yeast fromthe bakery, Make your own bread for 80p that is 3 large loaves. since feb i have only bought one bread product. and half of that is back in freezer.

Pasta
noodles
value tined toatoes, onions.

and remember your local shops co-op spar ect they often have redued items too, lived near my shop and it freaky friday when evreyone rushes me when i get the gun out to reduce stuff..

what would i miss fizzy pop.
 
Rice/Pasta/Noodles - Whatever is cheapest.
Baked Beans
A loaf of bread.
Liver is another great food for next to nothing. Sainsbury's do 500g for something like £1.30.

Skip the unnecessary things like tea/coffee/butter etc.

I'd avoid the sales sections too as that seems to be cheating somehow.
 
Mashed potato and tomato sauce sandwiches, just like the good 'ole days.
 
Might be worth checking this out:

http://freegan.info/

Might tell you how to get free spuds out of the supermarket skip :D

Or go to your local pound shop buy some dusters and flog them door to door for a tenner?
 
I think I have decided that I am going to make pancakes and scones. It is 69p for 6 eggs ( or I can sometmes get them at the farm shop for 64p) and flour for 52p and a pint of milk for 48p. I can then use the left over pancake mix to make yorkshire puds to go with my potatoes and carrots.Will see if the market man will let me have some cheap bananas too. I wont starve.Tesco value digestive biscuits re nice and cheap at 23p

I'm vegetarian so wont be going for the roadkill!!
 
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Can you ask at the shop/market to just buy eggs singly? I would also by things individually from the the greengrocers too.

I like your pancake idea, but is that not 1 1/2 days budget gone?
 
lawrie29 said:
Can you ask at the shop/market to just buy eggs singly? I would also by things individually from the the greengrocers too.

I like your pancake idea, but is that not 1 1/2 days budget gone?
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The milk, flour and eggs will make enough pancakes and yorkshire puds for the 5 days so it doesnt matter that it uses 1 1/2 days budget. I will try to haggle with the market man for fruit and veg. He often throws out the outside leaves of greens and celery as well and bruised fruit. I used to ask for them for my guinea pigs but I might be taking them for myself.I have thought about buying eggs singly but if I am going to have pancakes every day and one omelette I will be able to use 6.
 
Assuming £1 a day does not include energy usage then £5 for 5 days strikes me as being rather easy.

Bag of bread flour + yeast (as above, = 3 loaves), bag of cheap potatoes (£2-£2.50 all in although Tesco were recently selling bread flour @ 50p a bag!) and that will keep you full for 5 days easy peasy. 2 lots of veg from Aldi (whatever's on offer @ 60p a go) + a little imagination + the herb/spice cupboard and you've got yourself some flavour. You'll then have £1.30 left over for luxuries, I'd probably get some cream (high calorific value and goes great with veg+pasta) and some garlic (ditto).
 
Spuff said:
Might be worth checking this out:

http://freegan.info/

Might tell you how to get free spuds out of the supermarket skip :D

Or go to your local pound shop buy some dusters and flog them door to door for a tenner?
Click to expand...

Thanks Paul for that link. It makes interesting reading. I am a keen recycler and have used Freecycle to pass on stuff I dont want.I have also shopped at jumble sales and charity shops, especially when I was hard up when the kids were little.
 
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