Live Below the Line - Version Three

Coffee 50p

 

This is the version I call my 'Fruit and Veg' Live Below the Line.  It is possible, just, to be able to incorporate more fruit and veg into your Challenge if you shop wisely.  The supermarkets with the 'weigh and sticker' your own veggies are the easiest ones to shop at for this.  Although now it is possible, if they are quiet, to weigh and definitely price your loose fruit and veggies on the self service tills, that most supermarkets have.

 

Of course you could also go to a local market, late in the day would be good when they are about to pack up, and explain what you are doing to the greengrocer and see what bargains there might be to be had.

 

Brown Bread 50p

Peanut Butter 62p

But anyway using one supermarket (again the big orange one) this is what I found I could do with my basic £5 shopping money to keep myself fed for the week.  In fact this little lot comes to just £4.12, leaving a whole 88p left to play with to buy some more fruit or veg, or  maybe some yogurts to have with your lunch time fruit, the choice is yours.

 

2 Apples for 40p

 

3 Bananas for 30p

 

So the basic menu is :

 

Breakfast - Coffee, and Toast with Peanut Butter

 

Lunch - A piece of fruit (alternate each day)

 

Tea - Vegetable Curry and Rice

(The curry could be made with all the ingredients at the start of the week to save time and then frozen in individual portions for each evening.)

 

 

 

2 x 26p Jars of Curry Sauce = 52p

1kg Mixed Vegetables 75p

1 Onion 13p

1 kg Rice 40p

 

Just another set of ideas to see if I can tempt you to take part in this years Challenge.

 

To find out more about this Challenge have a look at the Live Below the Line website.

 

Or to donate to my fundraising page go HERE.

(I can't get my photo to download, but this is my page.)

 

Thank you.

 

Sue xx

 



Live Below the Line - Version Two

Lemon Curd 22p

 

Brown Bread 50p

 

100g Coffee 50p

 

Breakfast - Brown Toast with Lemon Curd washed down with a couple of cups of coffee.

 

 

Sausage Rolls 6 for £1

 

2 tins of Baked Beans 25p each = 50p

 

Lunch - One Sausage Roll with just under half a tin of Baked Beans each day.  With a bonus Sausage Roll for the day you are the hungriest. :-)

 

2 Frozen Pizzas 60p each - £1.20

 

900g Frozen Chips 60p

 

Tea - Cut each Pizza into five wedges and then you can have two per day with a nice handful of chips for your tea.

 

 

Custard Creams 35p

 

 

If you're feeling peckish between meals, you could have a custard cream to dunk in your coffee.  But don't drink the sludge at the bottom of the cup ...... unless you're very hungry!!

 

I call this one my 'Junk Food Menu'.  Easy to cook, easy to eat and not a piece of fruit or veg in sight!!  The total cost of todays options is £4.87, so you have 13p over, which means you could have a sprinkle of salt on your chips and ....  maybe even stretch to buying yourself a banana.

 

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Are you feeling inspired to have a go yourself yet.  If not why not nip over to my fundraising page to inspire me to give it a go on your behalf.

 

https://www.livebelowtheline.com/me/ournewlifeinthecountry

 

Thank you.

 

And can I just say a massive THANK YOU to each and every one of you who donated after yesterdays post.  You are ALL amazing.

 

Sue xx

 

 

 

 

 



Living Below the Line - Version One

Cornflakes 31p

 

There are many variations on doing Live Below the Line, and over the course of the next few days I am hoping to inspire you and show some different menus that would keep you fed if you decide to give it a go for yourself this year. 

 

Some people go for as much food as they can possibly buy with their money.  Some try to buy all fresh ingredients, some all convenience foods.  Some simply turn up at a supermarket and see what's available, while others sit and plan and go armed with a list of essentials and a back up list in case some of them aren't available. 

 

There's no wrong way or right way, each and everyone that signs up to do this challenging Challenge does it because they want to highlight the terrible poverty that is still rife in the world today.  Both in other countries and right here on our own doorstep.

1 litre UHT Milk 57p

100g Coffee 50p

 

6 Pitta Breads 22p

Mixed Salad 90p

 

400g Mayo

2 x Pasta Shapes 35p each = 70p

2 x Pasta Sauce 50p each = £1

6 Chocolate Mousses 40p

 

I call this one my 'Standard Day Menu'.  Cereal and milk for breakfast with a couple of cups of coffee.  A Pitta bread 'sandwich' with salad and mayo for lunch and then Pasta and Sauce for tea with a Mousse for dessert, or for a snack if you are feeling peckish at some other time in the day.

 

These food items come to exactly £5.

 

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It's so much easier if you decide to eat the same meals for breakfast each day, for lunch and for tea.  I'm sure the people who we are trying to raise money for would love to eat three times a day as often as we do.

 

I'm posting about Live Below the Line just over a week before it officially starts to try and encourage some of you to join me and give it a go this year when it starts properly on Monday 28th April until Friday 2nd June.  If you don't fancy having a go at this Challenge yourself and Blogging about it, please can you spare a few minutes to nip over to my fundraising page and donate a little bit of cash.  Lovely Hubby has started me off with a magnificent amount. Thank you :-)

 

It's easy to donate via the PayPal button  and I really don't expect you to give much.  If everyone who reads the Blog just donated 50p we would raise a wonderful amount.  This year I am raising money for a smaller charity 'Send a Cow', they literally send cows, chickens, tools and seeds to families that desperately need them to turn their lives around.  It starts a chain of help too as the first born female calf of their cow gets passed to another family and so on.

 

https://www.livebelowtheline.com/me/ournewlifeinthecountry

 

And another brilliant thing for every pound raised by 'Send a Cow between 1st April and 30th June  the UK government will match it pound for pound, thereby doubling our efforts.

 

Are you already planning to take part in this years Live Below the Line challenge?

 

Back tomorrow with an alternative menu.

 

Sue xx



 

 

 

It Doesn't Matter If It's Small, It's How You Use it That Counts ....

 

Remember our lush green paddock, well it's been undergoing some massive changes over the last few days.  We are the talk of the Gardening Club, and yesterday at the gym I was answering lots of questions about what was going on.

 

It all started last weekend when the 'boy with the big toy' arrived.  He wasn't really a boy, he was a really nice friendly chap and his toy wasn't that big really but .... it doesn't matter if it's small it's how you use it that counts!! 

 

And boy oh boy did he know how to handle his little digger thingy. 

 

His first job was to scrape off all the grass in the area we had marked out, then with that neatly piled up to the side he went down a level and piled all the good top soil on top of the grass so that as it sits waiting for the raised vegetable beds to be built it will compost away the grass and roots, and hopefully we will have some more top soil.  This is really good soil, after all it has only ever been a paddock for sheep to graze on and they have manured it wonderfully over the years.

 

When everything had been scraped up that needed to be scraped up he changed the end thingy on his digger (sorry I'm getting so technical here .... haha) and then proceeded to get really good defined levels.  The top level will be for the raised beds, the next step down will be the net tunnel, which will be used for delicate and salady crops (to foil the rabbits hopefully) and the lowest stage will be for the polytunnel. 

 

Any objections for the polytunnel have to be in by this Friday ready for the planning meeting next week, so hopefully we will hear very soon if we can go ahead with it.

 

He had just enough room for his soil mountain next to where we had put the fruit trees the other week.  You'd almost think we'd planned it  ;-)

 

After Suky had inspected the work and found it to her satisfaction ....

 

.. we all trudged to the top of the hill, sat on the edge of the grass and surveyed our new soily kingdom.

 

Now we're itching to get started.  The first raised bed to go in should be done tomorrow, if the weather is on our side ... and it's a very special one.

 

Sue xx

 

 

 

 

 

A Race to the Egg

 

Angel has taken to laying her egg in a nest of her own making on the edge of the woods. 

 

Now that we have made the fencing more secure around Chicken World she has obviously found a way over the fence at the back, and each day she makes her way there and lays her egg.

 

Angel with Caldwell II.

 

Not bad for our oldest hen an egg virtually every day, she's a hard working little thing.

 

I really didn't mind a stroll round the back of the sheds and reaching through the wire fencing to pick it up each day, she very kindly lays it just within reach, the only drawback is that Rosy wanders through the woods numerous times each day and she has just discovered this source of free food. 

 

 It's handy when you find a mid morning snack laid especially for you.

 

Now it's a race to the egg each day to see who wins me or Rosy ... and I have to admit that I have lost every single day this week :-(

 

Sue xx

'Our' Sheep

Yesterday in the comments, Sue from Frugal in Suffolk (simplesuffolksmallholder) asked if we still had our sheep.

 

As you can see from these pictures taken yesterday we do!!

 

She's a brilliant Mum and I'm glad she has her lamb for company, but our neighbour has yet to come and pick them up.  I guess he thinks that with free almost secure grazing he's on to a winner.  I'm tempted to make out an invoice for looking after the sheep and for the grazing costs on one of our company letterheads and stick it in the post to him :-)

 



 

So cute.

 

The dogs both go down to the fence to say hello to their woolly friends, but Mummy sheep is not impressed and usually takes her little one to the far side of the field until we have gone.

 

Yes, I did say both dogs. 

 

Although we still have the sheep, Mavis, our little rescue Jack Russell has 'done a runner'.  Last Friday Lovely Hubby decided he could trust her in the paddock while we were working, without putting her on her long staked lead ... BIG MISTAKE.  After lulling us into a false sense of security she suddenly made a beeline as if for the house but instead went up and around it and vanished over the top of the hill.

 

LH trudged the fields and roads looking for her and we drove in both directions but there was no sight of her anywhere.  We have messages on local Facebook pages and all the neighbours have been asked to look out for her but we in fact are holding little hope of seeing her again.

 

Her one mission since being here has been to make off, no matter what we did and what bribes we offered, although she was happy indoors with us and on walks, she just wanted to bolt when ever she was not on a short lead. 

 

It feels strange here at the moment but life is so much easier, the other two dogs have settled back into their grumbly, sisterly relationship and the doors and windows can once again be left open.  I can open the door to the postman without first having to catch and pick up a struggling dog and when we go out to the car I do not have to put one dog onto a lead for the 20 yards or so to get to it.

 

I just really, really hope that if someone has picked her up to keep for themselves, and we think this is the case as there has been no reported accidents and no phone call, (she is both micro-chipped and has a tag with my phone number) they look after her and love her ..... as we briefly did.

 

Sue xx



Planting Again

 

The fruit trees we planted last weekend are doing well.  As you can see the Cherry trees are in full blossom and it's been lovely to see the odd bee buzzing around them.

 

This Friday saw us planning the hedge planting.

 

 

We had decided that Laurel hedging would be the best, interspersed every now and then with an Olearia, for a splash of colour.  This gets tiny white daisy like flowers in June and July so should look lovely and fresh.  We laid the plants on the ground to get an even spacing .....

 

... and then went along digging holes, filling them first with water and then with the Laurels.

 

There are a couple of gaps as we are waiting for two more Olearias to be delivered.

 

Behind the Laurel hedging we planted five more trees, three Whitebeam, which have white flowers in May and then fiery orange berries in Autumn, and two Rowan or Mountain Ash, which have dark green leaves which then turn purple, and then have deep rose coloured berries in the Autumn.

 

So hopefully we should head into Winter with a blaze of colour along the fence.

 

All these have been planted with the intention of slightly hiding the polytunnel from view or at the very least masking it in a lovely display of leaves, flowers and berries.

 

Then we planted four more Laurels on the near side of the fence just to balance things out.

 

And then a few more were placed in gaps in the hedge that is near Chicken World.

 

And then on Saturday we called in the big boys!!

 

Sue xx