Living on £1 a Day

I think I have possibly used up all my money! I had 29p to spend on Tuesday. I went to Asda and spent £1.66. I was out of salt, and that was a priority for me. I could have got cheap table salt, but I never get that because it contains cyanide. Maybe an overreaction, but it’s at any rate a quirk of mine that I always buy seasalt, which is 89p. There were more half swedes for 5p each, so I figured I’d resign myself to eating swede chips for the rest of the challenge! I was happy to find another mixed grain salad - they add good protein to salad, and extra taste. And the Mexican chicken and flatbread salad was a nice meal I could take to work the next day, so I wouldn’t have to prepare anything. And 2p chives are always worth it - a nice addition to salads. So then I was in arrears by 1.37.

Wednesday I was in arrears by 37p. I went to Asda again, and bought the following.

16p veg that can be eaten as either salad or cooked. A 10p loaf of ‘half and half bread’. Two 10p packs of maple pancakes. And a 6p aubergine. (And some elderflower that I picked on the way home!) 52p altogether. So now I was in arrears by 89p.

So today, Thursday, I had 11p to spend. Today I met with a friend for coffee - I hadn’t told her about the £1 a day thing, because I hadn’t wanted her to feel obliged to pay for me. However, she did pay for me, and I accepted - next time I will pay for her. 

Well, when I went to Asda today, I felt kind of rich, as I was expecting to be a further £2.25 in arrears, and I wasn’t! I had 11p to spend today, but counting all the days of the rest of the challenge, I knew I had £6.11 (or £5.11 - not sure if the last day is Tuesday or Wednesday!). I could potentially spend it all today and not go shopping again. 

I was fortunate to arrive as fruit and veg were being reduced and got lots of bargains, including a whole pineapple for 10p. I was especially happy to get sharon fruits, which I love and haven’t had for ages, and beetroot, which I haven’t had in a while. Then meat and chilled food were being reduced. We could select what we wanted and give them to the guy doing the reducing, so I selected some steak, some prawns and some smoked salmon. They weren’t reduced as much as I’d have liked, and I was in two minds as whether to buy them (especially as you can buy odds and ends of reduced salmon for cheaper - I even looked round Asda to find them, but couldn’t). But I figured I had the money, I was £2.25 richer than I’d expected, and it would come to around £4 altogether, and they were nice things to buy, and I felt like having something a bit luxurious, and so I bought them.

It came to £4.24. Now I can see this as me being £4.13 in arrears, or as me having 87p (or £1.87 - depending when I finish) left to spend. I think I’m probably safest to say I won’t go food shopping at all until next week. And then I will go either on Monday or Tuesday to spend 87p. 

It’s three days since I last updated. I haven’t been shopping - I’ve thought about it, as my fridge is getting a lot emptier, but I’ve had enough so far. I’ll probably go this evening.

I’ve simply been eating what I have - which is pretty much what I’ve always been doing, but with less choice this time, so it’s more obvious. I’ve got quite a bit of bread, so I’ve been using it as my carbs. It’s simple and makes sense - there’s been no need for potatoes. My meals have been simple and nice.

I haven’t taken pics of all my meals, but I took a few.

With my last two eggs, I made an omelette, which I ate with bread.

With my baguette, I made a sandwich with goats cheese, tomato and samphire. I’ve never put samphire in a sandwich before, but it was nice.

This morning I fried my venison steak - the one I’d got reduced from £3.75 to £1 and put in my freezer. I fried it with onion, mushroom, garlic, pear and nectarine (well, grilled nectarine was lovely, so I thought I’d try frying it!), and ate it with bread.

As I reflect on the food I’ve bought during the challenge and put in the freezer, and the food I’ve used that was already in my freezer, I imagine they easily even out. I have a lot of food in my freezer that I’ve bought during this challenge and not eaten yet. I’m also defrosting my prawn curry that I got for 20p, to eat later.

On Friday I was in arrears by  £4.71. So on Saturday I was in arrears by £3.71, and on Sunday £2.71, and today £1.71. I already worked this out in my last post, I see - and that if I spend nothing today, I will have 29p to spend tomorrow. I may go shopping today though, and then not go tomorrow. It will even out.

But when I think about it, although my fridge is emptier than it was, I don’t really need to go shopping today or tomorrow. I have enough - I have three salads that I made today. I have all sorts in my freezer - fish, minced lamb (my 5p minced lamb, that I can make several meals with, together with my 40p bag of rice, and my remaining onions, mushrooms, green peppers and red cabbage), and bread. I also have the four bagels I bought on Friday, which are not in my freezer, and are still good to eat. I have some cheddar cheese, and some goats cheese. I have the bag of peanuts I bought. I have two grapefruits, and three bags of pears. And of course lots of bean sprouts sprouting! And I have plenty of yogurt. I could easily live on what I have for this coming week. And then this would reduce waste - because as I wrote about before, there has been waste. I’ve had too much food and thrown out stuff. This shouldn’t be happening. 

I last went shopping on Monday. On Tuesday I went out with friends for a cream tea, and it cost more than I expected (I ended up getting a high tea instead of a cream tea, because I was late and got confused!) - it was £7.50. On Monday I was in arrears by 55p, which meant I had 45p to spend on Tuesday. So on Tuesday, after my high tea, I was in arrears by £7.05. Wednesday - £6.05. Thursday - £5.05. So today, on Friday, I was in arrears by £4.05. 

I still have plenty of food though - I cleaned and tidied my fridge, and while I had quite a bit of food that I had to throw out (one red cabbage was covered in large amounts of white fluffy mould!), I also realised I had more food than I’d thought I had.

Today, for brunch, I had a small plate of sprouting mung beans, then three grilled bananas, and then two fried eggs, with some fried pepper, tomato, onion and marrow. And a hunk of bread with butter.

It was lovely. I have two eggs left, so can make the same tomorrow.

For my evening meal, I cut up swede, carrot, pear and onion, to make these lovely chips:

I use the 10p dips I’d got on Monday to dip them in.

I also grilled some nectarine and grapefruit - I’d been reading about grilling fruit and various friends on Facebook recommended it - and really liked them.

I decided I’d soak some more mung beans, and some chickpeas too, because sprouted beans are a good, nutritious, fresh food. I put mung beans and chickpeas in glasses of water, and will leave them overnight.

I decided to go to Asda. I figure if I go every few days, I can stock up with a few cheap extras, and I’ll still eventually get back to not being in arrears. I went at 8:00pm and got the following:

Tiger baguette for 5p, bagels for 10p, mushrooms for 26p, chicory for 15p, and two segments of pineapple for 5p each (I want to try grilled pineapple).

On Friday I was in arrears by £2.55. That means I was in arrears by £1.55 on Saturday, and 55p on Sunday. So today, I had 45p to spend.

Now I’d planned not to go shopping for another week. And I really didn’t need to. I made myself a salad today, and ended up also making two more salads for the next couple of days. I was quite surprised to realise how much salad food I had. I was thinking I just had a bag of salad leaves, some tomatoes, and my mixed grain salad, but as I looked through my fridge, I realised I also had spring onions, radishes, fennel, red cabbage, mini carrots, broccoli, chives, dill, samphire. So the salads were huge and full of different things. I could also have added my sprouted mung beans, but I’d already had a couple of handfuls of them earlier.

Despite realising how much food I had, I decided I’d go to Asda, because I haven’t been out for a couple of days (by my own choice - I was enjoying staying home reading!) and it would be good to go for a walk, regardless of whether there was anything in the reduced aisle. But I had a feeling there’d probably be some good bargains if I went at around 7:00pm, as today is a bank holiday, so Asda closes at 8:00pm. So there is a deadline for reducing food, before it gets thrown away!

And yes, it turned out I was right, and there were some good bargains - I was especially pleased to find an avocado.

I was also glad to get a couple more bags of salad leaves, as I’ve used mine up. I thought the dips would be nice for when I make chips out of pear, swede and carrots - I’ve used the pulled pork mix over the last couple of days, and it was lovely, and I want to continue having something to dip chips into. There was also a spreadable goat’s cheese for 20p - that will be good in sandwiches. I think it isn’t out of date - it was just reduced because it had got a bit squished. And there were some rather battered jam donuts for 10p and a papaya for 5p. 60p altogether.

Now, when I got home, it was about 7:25, and I realised I could go back to Asda, and there might be some more bargains. I had a bit of an inner debate about it - I told myself I didn’t need to, that I had plenty of food. But I also told myself it would be interesting to be in Asda right before closing to see what is reduced, and it would be a shame if stuff isn’t selling and getting chucked out. And I might as well go now, and then I can simply not go for the rest of the week, as I wasn’t going to anyway, but I’ll have some extra things - maybe some bread.

So I went back and got the following:

A 5p chicken pasta salad, a 5p tuna pasta salad, and two 5p prawn pasta salads. Because why not - they’d only get chucked out, and they’re great for a ready made snack. And some 5p tzatziki - another dip! And bread - this was the last loaf on the reduced bakery trolley and it didn’t have a reduced sticker on it, but the date was today so I brought it to customer service and they reduced it for me to 10p. This lot came to 35p.

On the way out, I saw someone had left behind 4p change in one of the self service checkouts. This has happened once before - if it’s the checkout I’m using, I don’t think twice about taking it, but if it’s not the checkout I’m using, I’m never sure what the protocol is. In theory, if someone leaves behind change, it shouldn’t make any difference whether it’s the checkout I’m using or not - they’ve left it behind, and the norm is for another customer to take it (unless it’s a note, in which case I hand it in because they might come back for it). But I worry it makes me look like a thief if I take it from another self-service checkout. I was the only customer there, in the little self service area. There were quite a few staff members standing nearby around the customer service desk. They could probably see me. I was curious - would they stop me? For taking 4p that another customer had left behind? I took it, and as I walked towards the door, there was a big bouncer guy who kind of looked at me in an intimidating way, and I wondered if he was going to ask me to give him the 4p. He didn’t - I left the store and nothing happened. And I’ve got 4p, which could potentially pay for two 2p reductions!

So, I had 19p to spend today. I didn’t need to go to Asda, and had been planning not to, but I thought it would be good to check out the reduced fruit and veg. I was hoping for potatoes, carrots, and some green veg. I went earlier than normal - at around 6:45pm - because last time I went on a Friday, the final reductions happened at 6:45pm. Today they hadn’t happened though - but in the reduced chilled section, I found a red Thai king prawn curry and noodles meal reduced to 43p, which was such a great deal that I thought I’d get it! Then in the reduced meat section, I found two sausages for 30p, and I’ve wanted sausages for ages, so I can have an egg and sausage breakfast! I was aware these two items came to 73p and I only had 19p today, and I also need to put aside several pounds for a cream tea next week, but still, I found I didn’t really care - I wasn’t being as careful as I have been. I think partly I’ve got tired of being careful, and partly I’ve found that once you start getting ‘in arrears’, it’s easier to continue - you no longer have a ‘streak’ to continue and encourage you! And also, today I’m tired in general, which makes it harder to make wise choices.

I kept returning to the reduced fruit and veg, but nothing was being reduced to final reductions. I took a bag of organic carrots for 56p, because I had wanted carrots and it was the only bag of carrots. I also went to look for popcorn - most days, they’ve sold out, but today there was lots in stock, so I took a bag of popcorn for £1. I kept hanging round waiting for the fruit and veg to be reduced further but no luck - I went around the shop selecting non-food stuff that I needed. I really haven’t bought much of anything while doing this live below the line challenge, but of course I can spend money on non-food stuff, and there was stuff I needed, so I selected it, and eventually, when after an hour there was still no sign of the fruit and veg being reduced, I paid for everything and was about to go home when I noticed bags of pears at the front of the store being reduced to 5p, so I took one of those and bought it too.

This lot came to £2.34.

Once I’d taken them home, I then returned to Asda, figuring fruit and veg would be reduced to 5p when I returned, and hoping to get a celeriac I’d seen. However, someone had taken the celeriac. I did, however, get four red grapefruits at 5p each (I could have got more, as there were loads - I kind of wish I had, as grapefruits last for ages), two more bags of pears (again, there were loads, and it occurred to me that pears can be a kind of potato substitute), a bag of broccoli and a pack fo two passion fruits. This came to 40p altogether.

So today’s total spent is £2.74. I’m now in arrears by £2.55. I am incredibly tired, as it’s been a really busy week, and I’m aware that when I’m tired, the easiest thing to do is to keep doing what I have been doing - I get stuck in momentum - and so going to Asda each evening comes naturally and it’s hard to stop. However, I really need to stop now, if I want to complete this living on £1 a day challenge successfully! I have worked out that I could (and need to) refrain from going to Asda for the next ten days, and live off what I have. 

I have lots of pancakes, for instance - I had two this morning, and now have ten left. I have lots and lots of bananas, and a couple of pomegranates, and plenty of yogurt - today’s delicious breakfast can easily be replicated for the next few days:

I have lots of chicken - I made some lovely chicken noodle soup today and have leftovers for tomorrow too. And plenty more chicken to make all kinds of other meals. Here’s today’s soup (it is rather orangey because I went to put some turmeric and coriander in, and ended up accidentally pouring in a huge amount!).

I put in spring veg and red cabbage, and have plenty of those left.

I have my half swedes, which, together with my carrots and my pears, can make some fun chips. I made some this evening, to eat with some of my pulled pork:

And of course I have the salad I bought yesterday, my king prawn meal, my sausages, and various things I’ve bought and put in the freezer since doing Live Below the Line, including lots of bread - I don’t even need to use anything that I already had before Live Below the Line.

And I’m sprouting some more mung beans, since I finally used up the last lot. They will provide me with daily salad - and of course I have my tomatoes for daily salad too, or to add to cooked meals, and samphire and chives.

I only had 17p to spend today, but I figured I’d go to Asda and then wouldn’t go over the weekend. I got there at 7:45pm, hoping to get some reduced fruit and veg, and was disappointed that most of it had gone - the final reductions had clearly happened earlier. I got some spring greens, some fennel and some chives, each for 5p. Then I searched around the fruit and veg aisles in general, hoping to find something that goes out of date today but which the staff had missed. And I found samphire. I went in search of a staff member - I found the surly guy, and he said he didn’t know who could reduce it. I asked where I could find someone who could, and he just shrugged and said he couldn’t help me. He is seriously rubbish at his job! So I went to customer service, and spoke to the woman there, and she saw the surly guy and said I could ask him, and I said he said he couldn’t help me! So she found someone else to help me, and they put a 5p sticker on the samphire.

The reduced chilled food hadn’t been reduced to final reductions, but was still reduced quite a bit. I dithered about whether to buy anything from there - if I just bought the veg, that would be only 3p over the 17p I had left today, so I’d have 97p tomorrow. But I eventually decided to select a mixed grain salad for 33p and some pulled pork in barbecue sauce for 35p. And then I went to the reduced bakery shelves and found some maple white chocolate pancakes for 10p. 

After my stir fry yesterday, I decided that I’d rather have the swede roasted separately, in chip shapes, so it is crispy. So I made two separate meals - a guinea fowl stir fry (with onion, green pepper, red cabbage, marrow, and one of the pak chois I bought yesterday), and roasted swede chips with melted cheese on.

They were delicious. It was the last of my guinea fowl - it had lasted me for 8 days, so that works out to about 40p per day. 

I also ate my last half-tomato today - in a sandwich with cheese for lunch.

So I was quite pleased to find a bag of tomatoes in the reduced aisle in Asda. I arrived at Asda at around 7:45pm today, and most of the reduced fruit and veg was gone. But there was a bag of squishy looking tomatoes. These bags always look awful - that’s why they don’t sell! A couple of tomatoes will have squished right open, and there will be bits of tomato seeds all over the inside of the bag, so it looks like you’re buying a bag of squish! But I know from experience that there are always some good tomatoes in these bags - that there are only a couple of squished ones, and even those can be eaten, if you cut out the squished bit! The tomatoes were 31p when I took them - nothing had been reduced to final reductions yet, and there was nothing else I wanted enough to pay more than 5p for - but later on, I went back to the reduced fruit and veg, and a guy was reducing stuff to 5p, so I took a bag of nectarines, and a pack of beans and mini carrots, and also asked if he would reduce my tomatoes further. He said I’d have to put them back on the shelf, so I did, and he reduced them for me! 

I was also pleased to find lamb hearts reduced to 30p. I knew I needed a new meat now I’ve finished my guinea fowl, and of course I can take some out of my freezer, but it’s always nice to find some in the reduced aisle. I always have a little look around the regular shelves too, just in case I happen to find something reduced that isn’t in the reduced shelf, or something that has reached its sell-by date, but the Asda staff haven’t noticed. I often find stuff too - today, to my delight, I found a free-range, corn-fed chicken. It was originally £7.47, and had been reduced to £5.38, but was due for another reduction, as everything in the reduced aisle had been reduced twice. I then noticed it had tomorrow’s date, so I figured I might not have much luck trying to get it reduced a second time - but then I noticed that my lamb hearts also had tomorrow’s date, and everything in the reduced meat and fish section tomorrow’s date, so the staff must have made an error!

Well, I decided I’d ask an Asda person, as nothing ventured, nothing gained. I found a young woman who was stocking shelves and asked her if it was going to be reduced again. She said she didn’t know, and that I’d have to find someone who has one of the machines that makes reduction stickers. I asked her where I could find someone who could reduce it - as it always seems a bit unhelpful to send me off on my own to find someone, when I have no idea where the staff are hiding, and which machines are reducing machines, and which just regular labelling machines. So she took the chicken and started going to look for someone, and then noticed the date and pointed out that it had tomorrow’s date on it, so it could be sold tomorrow. 

I said ‘Yes, but everything in the reduced section has tomorrow’s date on it.’ 

She was confused by that, and carried on going to find someone. She soon found a guy to ask, and asked if the chicken was going to be reduced further. 

He said with a shrug, ‘Yes, at some point this evening.’ 

I said ‘But everything else has been reduced again already, and this was in the wrong place, so it hasn’t been.’ So then he took the chicken and said he’d see what he could do. 

Often I’m waiting ages when I ask someone. I waited, not very hopeful - I had a feeling he’d probably ask someone and they’d say it was tomorrow’s date so it couldn’t be reduced. However, he soon returned, put his finger to his lips and said ‘Don’t tell anyone!’ and handed me the chicken - he’d reduced it to £2.10. I thanked him and put it in my basket. 

Other things I got were organic milk for 17p (I don’t usually buy cow’s milk, as it makes me feel a bit sick, but it was so cheap, and organic, and milk is full of nutrients, and I am generally okay with it if it’s cooked as part of a meal, so I figured I’d put it in omelette or something!), organic butter for 38p, and lemon and sultana pancakes for 10p and white chocolate pancakes for 10p.

The cost of everything was £3.29. I had £2.46 to spend today, so this has gone into tomorrow’s £1 too. I now only have 17p for tomorrow. But that is fine - when there is a reduced chicken, then you need to get it then and there, because they are quite rare!

Yesterday, I’d put my rainbow trout and venison steak in the freezer. I’d been thinking of defrosting one this morning, but I didn’t, and it occurred to me I didn’t really have much for my evening meal. I’d had beansprouts for breakfast, cheese and cucumber bagel and a banana for lunch, and was suddenly worried I had nothing much for my evening meal.

Then I actually thought about what I had in my fridge and realised I had plenty. I still had quite a bit of my guinea fowl left, and it occurred to me I’d quite like a stir fry with guinea fowl. I was thinking I didn’t have much veg, but remembered I had green peppers, onions, broccoli, some marrow, a couple of exotic mushrooms, a tomato, and lots of swede. And a 5p thai selection of lemongrass, chili peppers, galangai and garlic, which would add a nice flavour to the stir fry. So I made a stir fry from all those ingredients, and it was lovely. I had some of my baguette too, and a mug of chocolate tea.

I still have enough guinea fowl left for another stir fry tomorrow, plus lots and lots of swede, several green peppers and onions, some broccoli and cauliflower, plenty of marrow, half a tomato, and my Thai mix. The only thing I won’t have tomorrow is exotic mushrooms. 

Later I went to Asda. It’s strange how every evening I feel the urge to go to Asda, even when I’ve decided I don’t want to or need to. This evening I felt I had the energy to go, and I wanted to see what bargains they had. I remembered that I’d decided not to go for a few days, and I knew how sensible that idea was, but still, I wanted to go. I decided I’d buy some peanut butter, rather than rely on the reduced aisles (but of course I would look at the reduced aisles too!). There’d be bound to be some peanut butter on special offer for £1.

Turned out there wasn’t. So I didn’t buy peanut butter. I went to Asda at 8:30pm, and practically everything was gone from the reduced fruit and veg aisle. Except some pak choi for 10p, so I bought it, to use in my next stir fry. As there was no peanut butter for £1 or less, and I didn’t want to spend more than £1 (I know I can go again and there will be peanut butter reduced to £1 at some point), I bought Smart Price peanuts for 48p.

I hung around for a bit, hoping that the reduced chilled food and reduced meat and fish would soon be reduced again (it hadn’t been reduced by very much), but there was still no sign of it being reduced by 9:00pm, so I bought my peanuts and pak choi (a total of 58p - leaving £1.46, so £2.46 tomorrow) and went home.

I would have had £5.50 today, but yesterday I went back to the shop to buy sweets - Midget Gems for £1. So I had £4.50 today.

I saw in Asda that there was good wine reduced to £4, and I was tempted, but decided it’s probably not the most sensible use of money when one’s only living on £1 a day! So I bought food bargains instead. 

There was a variety of stuff today, and a variety of prices. This is what I got from the reduced fruit and veg aisle:

The half swedes were 5p each - there were quite a lot of them on the shelf, and also quite a lot of bags of chopped swede, but I prefer to buy whole veg when possible, as it lasts longer. The bananas were also 5p - 5p for a bunch of big bananas and 5p for a bunch of mini bananas. There were lots of bunches of big bananas - I wonder if many got thrown out. The pears were 17p. Not quite sure why they were 17p rather than 5p, but hey, I wanted pears, so took two bags. And the dill was 2p.

And here’s what I got from the reduced bread trolley, the reduced meat and fish aisle, and the reduced chilled food aisle.

The bagels were 2p each. The baguette was 10, the ‘half and half’ loaf was 24p, and the ‘oak smoke tear and share’ was 5p. I have no idea what the ‘oak smoke tear and share’ will be like - there were quite a few of them, and they were only reduced to 54p when I was putting the other bread in my basket - I just happened to see on the way out of Asda, after paying for everything else, that these were now 5p, so I bought one. The half and half loaf doesn’t go out of date for another 6 days - it is reduced purely because it’s a bit squashed. I will use it for toast.

I really like rainbow trout, so although 80p isn’t an extreme bargain, it’s still pretty good, considering it’s a favourite food of mine, and normally costs £3.75. Same with the venison steak, which was reduced from £3.75 to £1. 

I was really happy with getting organic eggs for 50p - I’d seen the eggs before they were reduced this much, and there were only two boxes of eggs, so I didn’t feel very hopeful! Lots of people were crowding round the reduced chilled food aisle when the Asda guy started reducing stuff. They were taking stuff as he reduced it, but all I wanted was eggs, so I was waiting for him to reduce the eggs, unsure whether others would grab out before I could get one. But actually, the customers today were all quite polite (especially compared with Pushy Sunday Lady!) - we were all a bit hesitant, and kind of looking out for each other, and letting each other through, and when some young people came along and couldn’t get through the crowd, I asked if I could pass them anything. I don’t like the feeling of being in a crowd, but this was still a lot nicer than being in a crowd with Pushy Sunday Lady!

Yesterday I was craving snacks. I didn’t go shopping, but tried to make my own. I sliced carrots, parsnips and swede into peelings, and added asafoetida and cumin for flavourings to create these:

They were very nice. Later I craved a sweet snack, so used the rest of my 5p bread and added marshmallow fluff that I already had, and some hot chocolate powder.

This was pretty good too, but I found I was craving shop-bought crisps.

Anyway, I didn’t go shopping yesterday, so I had £5.80 to spend today. Today I didn’t go to Asda, because I didn’t feel up to wrangling with Pushy Sunday Lady, but I did go to the little shop up the road, thinking I might buy some wine with the savings I’d accrued! However, there was no good wine under £5 - there was quite a lot of good wine reduced to £5, but I also wanted to buy crisps, and they were £1, and they also had reduced yogurt for 30p, which I wanted, so couldn’t quite justify spending £5 on wine, and breaking into tomorrow’s £1! Maybe another day. Here are my crisps:

Living below the line makes you a lot more conscious of how much food is wasted and how awful that is, when so many people are starving. But I’ve found it hasn’t actually stopped me wasting food. As I said in my previous post, I had to throw away a large portion of my 5p cauliflower yesterday, because it had gone mouldy. And today, when I decided to make myself some salads, I realised some of the bags of salad leaves needed to be thrown out.

I didn’t mind very much about the waste though - when I thought about it, I realised it was actually a pretty tiny percentage of everything I’d bought. And there was nothing I’d thrown away without using at all. I’d still managed to eat quite a bit of the cauliflower, for instance, and as it was only 5p, it didn’t seem so bad that part of it had to be thrown away. And as it had been in the reduced aisle, if it hadn’t been bought, it would have been thrown out, which is even worse waste. Of course, it could have been bought by someone else, who could have eaten all of it, and that would be less wasteful, but I don’t know.

I do find, when I’m buying bargains, I’m aware that waste might happen. While I am careful not to buy way more than I would ever be able to use, I sometimes buy more than I know for certain I will use - it is a sort of gamble, when there is lots of reduced food available, I’d rather buy too much than too little, because I don’t know when I will get those sorts of bargains again. Some days I can go to Asda, and there’s barely anything in the reduced aisle. When I’d bought those four 1p creme fraiche tubs, for instance, I thought it might be too much, but it might not be. In retrospect now, I know I could have bought more, and I really wish I had, as there were lots that must have been thrown out. With the six 2p salads, I also know I might not eat them all, but then I might, and as with the creme fraiche, there were so many, I knew that some would be sure to be thrown out. Better something is in my fridge with the possibility that I might eat some of it, than in the trash with no possibility of being eaten!

Anyway, today, after I’d thrown out a couple of half-used salad bags, I made three salads.

The one in the white bowl was the  one I wanted to eat today, so I put bean sprouts on top - I will add bean sprouts to the others when I eat them.

I also then took one of my 5p cheese pasta salads, and put some of that on top of today’s salad, and then added some of my guinea fowl.

Yesterday I saw the 50p raspberries in my fridge and wanted to eat them soon, while they were good, because I love raspberries and would be very disappointed if they went mouldy and I had to throw them out. I took one of the fruit salads I’d made previously (can’t remember if I wrote about it - I’d used some fruit from the little 5p fruit boxes, and also cut up various fruit I had, such as papaya and bananas, to make some fruit salads, and added yogurt) and added some raspberries to it, and also chopped up one of my mini bananas. It was delicious.

Later I made myself the macaroni cheese I’d been thinking of making. I put a variety of veg in, after seeing what I had in my fridge - some red cabbage (I had three and half red cabbages, 5p each, so I figured I needed to be using red cabbage!), a leek (from a bag of organic leeks I bought at some point during this challenge, but now too long ago for me to remember when!), and some of my 5p cauliflower. I’d bought the cauliflower a while ago too, and had only used about a quarter of it so far, but when I took it from the fridge, I realised it had a huge mouldy patch on it! But there were also some good parts, protected by the leaves they were covered by, so I cut the good parts off to put in my macaroni cheese and threw away the rest. I used some of my 5p exotic mushrooms too.

I didn’t take a picture, because it didn’t look very good! It tasted nice, but not attractive! I made enough for three meals, and ate one yesterday.

Later I made some more guinea fowl noodle soup. Last time I made it, I added a stir fry pack, but that had detracted from the taste, making it taste a bit chemically (I’m pretty sure more chemicals are added to pre-cut veg than to whole veg), so this time I didn’t. I added red cabbage, exotic mushroom, sugar snap peas, and some of the 5p marrow I bought ages ago and which is still good.

It was very nice. I had lots in the pan, so saved some for the next day.

Sprouting mung beans was a really good idea - they are refreshing and nutritious and quite filling, so they’re a great, easy snack (or breakfast if you don’t want to prepare anything) to grab on the go.  Also, they keep growing. So when I take a couple of handfuls from a saucer, and it seems there isn’t much left, by the following day, the remaining beansprouts have grown, so there is more left than before!

I’ve been missing cheese. I have the 500g block of cheddar cheese that I bought for £3 on day 8 of this two-month challenge, but I hadn’t opened it. During the five days of 50p a day, it wouldn’t have fit in the budget. And since then, I’ve had plenty of other food that needed eating sooner, whereas a block of cheddar cheese will last ages. But yesterday I was craving cheese on toast, and decided I might as well open my cheese. So I did. And today I felt like more cheese on toast, so I made some more, adding cucumber, tomato and dill.

I hadn’t been shopping since Sunday, so by today I’d accrued £4.36. I’ve been eating what’s in my fridge - lots of salad and fruit and yogurt - plus I defrosted a half-price (reduced from £6.50 to £3.25) guinea fowl (bought before I’d started living below the line) from my freezer, and roasted it yesterday. Yesterday I ate the skin and the wings. Today I made soup from some of the breast meat and some of the juices, a 19p Smart Price pack of noodles, and the veg from one of the stir fry packs I bought for 5p on Sunday. I’ve also been toasting the bread I got for 5p on Sunday, and eating it with the 5p salmon pate. 

I decided I’d go to Asda today. I didn’t really need to, but I figure it’s good to go at least twice a week, so I keep topping up my food supplies. I went at 8:30pm and found there was a lot of fruit and veg reduced to its final reductions, and no one was looking at it. I’m always surprised when that happens - so often, when food is reduced to final reductions, it’s grabbed immediately.

I got a good selection. I am pretty sure I have more fruit than I need now - I already had lots in my fridge. When I got to the checkout, I even decided against buying a 20p back of nectarines I’d put in my basket - I figured that was a bit expensive, really, considering all the 5p stuff, and considering the nectarines were quite hard. I didn’t put back the 50p raspberries though, because I do love raspberries. I did consider finding a staff member and asking if they were supposed to be reduced more (there was a bit of a hodgepodge of prices in the reduced fruit and veg aisle - most were reduced to final reductions, but not all were), but I couldn’t be bothered with the hassle. Doing that adds quite a bit of time and energy to the shopping trip, and I figured I had enough to afford 50p raspberries.

Here is what I bought:

A couple of days ago, I decided to sprout some mung beans - I have a big 2kg bag of mung beans in my cupboard, which I got cheap from the international section of Tesco last year, so it makes sense to use them while living below the line.  Sprouting them seems to be better value for money than cooking them - they have more nutrients that way, and are bigger.

I filled half a small glass with mung beans and filled it to the top with water. After 24 hours, the mung beans had doubled in size and filled the whole glass. Then I spread them out over saucers. I would take a saucer, spread mung beans over it, and then fill it with water, put another saucer on top of it, to hold in the mung beans while pouring out the water. Then I put the saucer of mung beans on my table, with the other saucer ajar on the top, keeping the mung beans dark but also letting in air. 

I spread the mung beans over four saucers. I used to sprout mung beans in a sprouter thing, but I’ve found it’s a lot less fiddly with saucers - and those sprouter things are hard to wash. Much simpler to just fill the saucers with water every morning and evening and drain it out.

In the past I have sometimes waited till the bean sprouts get to a big size - but I’ve found then they tend to go mouldy before I eat them all. So this time, as soon as I saw the beans were starting to sprout, I started eating them. I ate a couple of handfuls this morning for breakfast, and another couple of handfuls when I got home from work. I could add them to salad, but I quite like having them as a convenient, healthy snack to eat in handfuls.

When I don’t go to Asda, I find myself worrying about what bargains I may have missed! I seem to have developed an impulse to go every evening, but I resisted the impulse tonight, as my fridge and freezer are both very full.

Breakfast was a 1p banana and a 5p egg.

Lunch was a 20p sandwich.

Evening meal was 15p worth of a 29p baguette, 3p worth of a 5p salmon pate, 5p worth of a 49p cucumber, and a huge salad, including about 10p worth of various 2p and 5p salad packs, 3p worth of a 20p coleslaw, 2p worth of 5p of rice, and 1p worth of 5p cottage cheese. So the salad was 16p, and the salmon baguette was 23p. Add that to the 6p breakfast and the 20p lunch, and the whole day’s food comes to 65p. Add 10p for two 5p teabags, and that makes 75p. 

I didn’t go to Asda yesterday, so today I had £3.23 available to spend.

I’ve been eating my curry meals I made ahead of time, and my salads, and pancakes with fruit and yogurt. Plus some toast from my 10p loaf of bread.

I was unsure whether to go to Asda today. You can get some good bargains on a Sunday. But there’s also the Pushy Sunday Lady, working in tandem with her husband, deviously grabbing and hiding as many bargains as she can! But then, although she annoys me, I was kind of curious to watch how she operates, to see if I could catch her hiding stuff! 

Asda was manic today - it wasn’t just Pushy Sunday Lady, but crowds of people grabbing bargains. Pushy Sunday Lady was holding out for final bargains, though, as was I. When the fruit and veg were being reduced to their final prices, she was right in there, right at the front, grabbing bargains for the guy to reduce, and then handing them to her husband so he could put them in his trolley. No one else could get in, but I was determined - I simply got right behind her and reached over her to get what I wanted. She didn’t like that. ‘You’re very ... ruthless!’ she said, with a disapproving tone! I thought that was funny, coming from her, and I pointed out that she was standing right in front, in everyone’s way, and so the only way to get bargains was to reach over her. She told me, all sweet and innocent, that I could just ask her to pass them over to me. But she had her hands full of her own bargains, so I continued to reach over her.

We sometimes had a bit of a conversation - I did eventually ask her to pass me a salad, when her hands weren’t full. She said ‘Did you know it was a stir fry?’ I said ‘No, but I’ll probably just eat it as a salad.’ And then she took one for herself, and said she didn’t know whether to take it, because grated carrot goes mushy in a stir fry. I said she could eat it as a salad, and we talked a bit about salads, and the fact that her husband doesn’t like them but she does. It’s interesting - she’s quite friendly and charming to talk to, but she’s totally ruthless when it comes to getting what she wants. I’d seen her earlier take some items from the fruit and veg aisle, before they were reduced to final reductions, and later, when the chilled food was being reduced to final reductions, she suddenly brought out these things she’d taken.

I acted all innocent: ‘Gosh, are you allowed to do that? To take something, put it in your basket, and then ask for it to be reduced later?’

‘Oh, no,’ she said, sounding shocked. ‘I just found these over there.’

‘Do you hide stuff to take later?’ I asked. I was really curious what she’d say.

‘Nooo!’ she laughed. 

‘Yes, you do!’ said an older guy, also bargain hunting, in a teasing way!

‘I don’t!’ she said. And then she added, in a confiding tone, ‘Although I have been known to do it sometimes, with pasties.’

The final reductions happened very slowly. It got to closing time and the guy was still fiddling around with the machine for reducing. Pushy Sunday Lady had wormed her way to the front, with lots of items (mostly the ones she’d hidden from before) and was shoving them in the face of the Asda guy. He was trying to ignore her and reduce stuff on the shelves - but that was pointless, as Asda was closing and no one else would come and get them. Eventually he started reducing Pushy Sunday Lady’s stuff for her, and other people waiting started walking off, because Pushy Sunday Lady was saying that maybe the checkouts would close and we wouldn’t be allowed to buy our stuff, and that this has happened to her before, and it’s terrible! I wonder if that is true, or if she was trying to get everyone to go away so she could take everything. Everyone else did go away, but I didn’t. I persisted - I had found some lamb mince I wanted reducing to 5p, and there were some other items I wanted. 

I said to Pushy Sunday Lady, ‘Look, you should let other people get a chance to get reduced stuff too.’

‘Oh, sorry,’ she said, all innocent again. ‘Here,’ she said to the guy. ‘Reduce her food.’

He said he would reduce Pushy Sunday Lady’s first, as she was there first. She actually wasn’t there first - we were there together, but she had just pushed her way to the front! She kept panicking (fake panicking, I think) that she wouldn’t be able to buy her food, because the store would close. I pointed out to her that she’d already sent her husband to the checkout, so that wasn’t likely to happen! When I finally got my food reduced, I had no problem finding a self-service checkout!

Here is all my stuff: