Wednesday 4 May 2011

Below the Line - Day 4 - Spending a Penny

Firstly a welcome to those of you who have found me via the Networked Blogs or the 'Live Below the Line' Facebook page. I must point out that this is a day to day Blog charting our progress on our farm, it is also the mad ramblings of an ex-townie turned country-girl who gets way too attached to her chickens and animals (and I refuse to believe that there is anything wrong with that). I am a vegetarian pig farmer and free range chicken keeper. I love life, although to be totally honest am not sure that this is the one for me....I keep having epiphanys!!
~
Secondly, welcome back to all my 'usual' readers and I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for sticking with me and to apologise for any mis-spelling (spell-check is working overtime at the moment) and unusual use of the English language, yes it is my first, and indeed only language (except animal speak), but my brain is slowly turning to mush (haha......before spell check that said BRIAN!!). I think it is lack of vitamins or minerals or maybe chocholate that's doing it.
~
Yesterdays Spend
Porridge - 10p
Coffee 32p
2 Egg Buns with Mayo and chives for Lunch - 18p
100g Rice with half a jar of Curry Sauce and a third of a carrot and onion for Tea - 11p
Total Spend - 71p
Above is my lunch from yesterday, twice as much as on Sunday, my first day, why? Well I had an extra bun, I got six buns for 10p, so although I classed that as one a day for five days, I knew I had one in reserve for hungry days, yesterday was one such day. I had to deep clean the henhouse, it was hot and I was light-headed, I didn't want Lovely Hubby to come home and find me face down in the henhouse with eggs and hungry chickens all around me, so I went mad and had double dinner.....yummy!!
~
Last nights tea was the same as the night before, but because of my general 'scattiness' I though I should increase my vegetable intake, so I added a third of a carrot sliced and a third of an onion also sliced, it definitely improved the 5p Curry Sauce . ~

This morning I desperately wanted a change from porridge, so I made up 100g of my Scone Mix and used a tiny bit of my milk to brush the top so I could sprinkle some of the porridge oats on top...it worked a treat.

~

They were yummy with a smear of my Baking Butter and a good teaspoon of Homemade Bramble Jam......I'm desperate for fruit and this is the nearest thing I have.....I don't think there's much actual fruit in the Lemon Curd (I've just looked at the label there's 'Lemon Oil') and I've just noticed something rather disturbing there's no 'V' to prove it's okay for vegetarians, although what could be in Lemon Curd that's non-vegetarian? Now I'm baffled!!

~

The reason for the title of todays post.....well I spent a penny....a whole penny out of my remaining 3p to buy (off myself) 5 more sweeteners so I could have 5 more cups of coffee over the course of the last three days. Now I know that you are only 'supposed' to be buying whole packs of things but lots of people have been buying 5 teabags for 5p etc and indeed I 'bought' off myself the last of my Scone Mix and my initial 25 sweeteners (did you know they are 0.02p each) so I decided as I was being so good at making my milk last that I could stretch it out to 5 more cups of coffee. Well it will if Lovely Hubby stops giving some of MY milk to the cats!! As I had puchased a WHOLE jar of coffee, (47p Smartprice - Asda...not bad either) that side of things was already covered. So I 'Spent a Penny'.

~

I'll be back later with a picture of what's left in my 'larder', but for now Blogger won't let upload a photo!!

~

Sue xx

8 comments:

  1. Hi Sue, I have been reading, but very slack on commenting anywhere at the mo. Really enjoying your frugal food fest - we live like this a lot of the time and I don't notice the difference, although there is something dire about not having plenty of veggies isn't there? x

    ReplyDelete
  2. I would love to hear a nutritionist's take on the poverty diets. If you are wanting fruit it means your body is missing the nutrients fruit provides. What does this do to people's overall health and the health care system long term?
    Jane x

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sue, you are doing so well at sticking to this, and highlighting the cause, good for you.
    Sorry to read about the passing of 'Lovely', but she clearly had a very good life once she had joined you.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Yes, I think I would miss fruit.

    Sft x

    ReplyDelete
  5. This isn't a critiscism at all, but just an observation. Someone who was really poor wouldn't be able to put the oven on for just a few scones. So it shows poverty isn't just about the cost of food. Fuel, shoe wear versus buying a weekly bus ticket etc etc. Not being able to afford a new cooker or even a reconditioned one, so baking at all might be out. Sometimes, poor people are critiscised (not meaning by you!) for the choices they make, (e.g. sending the kids for bags of chips)but it's not a simple life. Having enough money means we can live well on less.
    This comment IS for you directly; well done on this challenge; it's like looking at my past and I hope not my future! I do enjoy your posts.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Whoops! I can see I need a spell checker too!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Attila - I wouldn't dream of putting the oven on for a few scones!! The only reason I can cook such a small amount at minimal cost is that I cook on an Aga. This is an oven that is at full heat ALL the time. So to cook something I just put it in the oven. The only thing that lowers the temperature is leaving the lids open for long periods. If I have to do that I make sure I always have multiple pans on each hotplate. This type of cooker cannot BE turned off, so the more I use it the better value it is.

    I agree with your comment completely that 'having enough money means we can live well on less', because we have cookers, fridges, storage,clean tap water to drink etc makes it easy to live on less, but the idea behind this challenge is to raise awareness of the 1.4 billion folk all around the world who do 'live below the poverty line', for those of us who have indeed lived at this level this is a stark reminder of how things were, and this has been the hardest thing for me.

    Believe me I realise the luxury of an Aga for cooking and warming my house and would never want to go back to how things were in my past.

    Thanks for your thought provoking comment.

    Sue xx

    ReplyDelete
  8. Thank you for understanding I wasn't having a go at you. I did wonder if you have an aga, but forgot to ask. Best wishes

    ReplyDelete

Comments are now turned off for this old blog of mine. Thank you for reading the posts, I hope you enjoyed them. xx

Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.