[RUSTYME]

Just looked at my money situation , it is dire lol .
I have just less than £40 a week to live on per week all year .
I have 3 horses and 3 dogs to feed , already bought 12 bales of haylage at £25 each since november . The dogs cost about £8 per week .
Over the year i reckon it works out i live on about £15 per week max , £3 of that is delivery charges on food .
The £40
per week also has to cover , stamps , mobile credit , internet over the mobile , bus fares , wellingtons and any clothes i need !
Some people talk the talk , others , walk the walk , all year , every year lol .
Oh yeah , also had to buy all the barley for the horses this year too !

[Victorian Farmer]

i would give you a bag off spuds a tray off eggs and some sprouts for 5 pound see Whit you could do with that       ..

[Lesley Silvester]

Lentils, chick peas, etc bought as dried beans, not tinned.  Soak overnight and then cook.  If you have a pressure cooker, they don't take long.  You can do loads of different meals with them.

[honeyend]

A bag of texturised soya protein costs about £1.60 and makes up to approxiametly 4lb mince 'meat' Do not buy frozen soya mince or quorn as you are paying for water. It is already cooked so there is no need to soak.
If you use this in any mince receipes you can think of with veg ,garlic onions, spice,pasta you could just about live on this. Recontitute with a tin of chopped tomatoes and and water and simmer with what ever flavours you are using or veg for a least 45mins as the flavour has to seep in. Its a complete protein so you do not have to balance it. Also red lentils with different veg make very filling soups.
 If my husband as not a confrimed carnivore we could probabely live on this diet with added eggs, cheese, milk, and potatoes.
 

[renee]

A bag of texturised soya protein costs about £1.60 and makes up to approxiametly 4lb mince 'meat'

Please, where does one buy that? At That price it is definitely on my shopping list next time I am in England.

[tizaala]

Now if Anthony Worrell Thompson had used this £5 challenge as his excuse for shoplifting the cheese & wine.......
 
Ok steal a pig, half a dozen chickens , raid a spud field , nick a net of horse carrots , ....

[plumseverywhere]

Freegans have a good idea I reckon...if only the supermarkets didn't squirt washing up liquid over all the 'wonky carrots' or tinned beans that are one day out of sell by....

[bloomer]

in fairness the supermarkets are getting better, with the number of food banks now operating to support those in desperate need... a lot of damaged stock that would otherwise have been skipped but is perfectly edible is finding its way to those in need!


unfortunately the laws on out of date are very strict and harder to overcome!!!

[plumseverywhere]

That's why I buy from approved food online. Brilliant way to use the 'out of date' stuff up.   Unfortunately I'm a bit rubbish with quantities and currently have 17 tins of mandarin oranges, 4kg of decaf (which I thought was real caf) and the hugest tin of green curry sauce in my cupboard (!)

[happygolucky]

Plumbs I am bad at size and quantity unless I see things, I used to end up with the wrong quantities all the time , however, now I am too poor to shop on line, we just buy the basic stuff and stock up on reduced stuff, I now have to eat things I am not fond of and its definitely having an effect on my system, and my weight, myself and my daughters need a meat and veg diet and low carb and dairy, I can go into a very sick state after a glass of milk but up to that amount daily is fine.
I also want to know where you get that soya protein, when I last ate soya mince, i had very bad indigestion for ages....
With all the current cuts and down turns, I think we all need the opportunity to buy cheap food, otherwise, people will be stealing more, from shops, each other and allotments!!
I have never had a mega budget, we have run this big house on a tiny income now for 5 years and got buy, the business does very well, hardly ever empty but the costs are far too high and my husbands jobs come and go, so we never can have a big spend up unless we have a tax rebate or something, in fact, the very last bit of our savings has now paid for repair work and the fuel bill, just grateful my children are doing very well and all we have to look after are the dogs and 4 hens
I always managed to cook good meals but I am not enjoying my high carb cheap diet at all!!!! For breakfast Steve has porridge, the cheap oats etc, I usually have toast as porridge upsets me for the day too!!

[ellied]

I reckon my diet could easily be under £5 for 4-5 days, even if I went and bought the eggs which I'd never do now I've had my own hens.  There's a local shop sells free range for £1.05 for half a dozen, a few spuds to bake or make into wedges, a bag of rice, some dried beans or lentils, a pint of milk..  The only thing I reckon I'd have to give up the daily coffee and that would be hard even for 4 days, but if you could cost things like tea and coffee pro rata rather than have to buy the whole bag it shouldn't be impossible..

[the great composto]

surely there must be some limitations which mean you have to acheive a certain amount of calories per day and a certain proportion of protein?
Otherwise it would be simple - rice for every meal - you may expire from boredom after a few days 

[sabrina]

This will be an eye opener I think 

[happygolucky]

I just saw this in a local paper!! http://www.falkirkherald.co.uk/news/local-headlines/bins-raided-in-search-of-food-1-2823885
and its not me, I would never get back out!!

[Womble]

Yes Sandy, I saw that in the paper too. However, did you see the opening line?
 

A store has been forced to lock its refuse bins to stop hungry people stealing discarded food.

Why shouldn't hungry people be allowed to "steal" the discarded food?  If people are down on their luck enough to be bin raking to feed themselves, why on earth lock it?    I did see that the article goes on to talk about a local food bank, which is a great idea of course.
 
There are more details on the Unicef "live below the line" challenge on their website by the way. I have to say, having looked at the recipe ideas, I'm not desperate to take part myself, so good luck Rispainfarm!!