Live Below the Line Day 1

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I had thought I could wing my way through this week Masterchef invention test- style,  but as Sunday was awesomely hot and as I noticed the use by dates of some of the food I had bought were a bit close,  I rethought what I had planned to do when,  and how I was going to store stuff.

The liver went in the freezer for defrosting Wednesday night for Thursday's tea. Half the milk went in the freezer too. Taking a tip from Kath Kelly,  I also froze the bread. There's only just enough for 2 slices each per day,  and I knew I would be heartbroken if I came to use it and found it was mouldy. Separate slices can be prised off the loaf, and sandwiches made by spreading the frozen bread (if you're using any, mine have to be dry this week). In weather like this they are defrosted by the time you've finished making the sandwich. By lunchtime, that's a certainty.

Day 1 menu was:

Breakfast: 40g porridge cooked in water and whole milk. I took this to work a) so I could use my work benefit sugar  allocation,  and so that there would be less of the day to feel hungry.  This involved military tactics of careful transportation and judiciously careful microwaving. I'm well-renowned for explodey porridge at work...


Lunch: ham sandwich. 2 slices of bread,  1 of ham. Plus lettuce and cucumber sticks.  I also took a pear but managed not to need to eat it so that's a treat for today.  The air conditioning was broken at work,  so a very hot office probably helped to kill my appetite.

Dinner: spicy salmon fishcakes with salad, potato crisps and mixed veg.

I cooked the potatoes (175g per portion) in their skins so as not to waste any through peeling.  I'd not done that before,  and when I was peeling off the skins it occurred to me that I could use those too. I put them on a tray and popped in a 175 degree oven for half an hour or thereabouts while I got on with the rest of the dish.

1 and a half onions were fried and mixed with the potatoes, salmon (a pack of trimmings), 2 teaspoons of cumin and these shaped into patties and returned to the pan. I used a nonstick pan, no oil, so ended up with something akin to fishy bubble and squeak.

Some lettuce leaves and the rest of the second onion sliced made up the salad.

This was served with 80g frozen mixed veg per portion cooked in a little boiling water.

 I must admit, it doesn't look much, but it was tasty, and very filling. OH declared me a genius for using the potato skins as I did. It added a nice bit of crunch and flavour to the salad. I'll do that again!

Let's see how that stacked up as nutrition for the day. I built these charts using Weight Watchers and My Fitness Pal, before I decided not to eat the pear. My Fitness Pal tends to be a bit anti-sugar, so I don't let the red alarm me too much (important to watch if you need a low sugar diet). I can see it's broadly nutritional, but lacking in healthy oils - and, crucially, calories. There's not enough of anything there. Not even for a diet! I'm sure that will be rectified on day 2. Bigger helping of porridge for a start...

And yes, OH had his cakes yesterday too.

Doing this has made me mindful of my garden's potential to feed me and how I should be making the most of it. Unfortunately, the sage and parsley I planted out on Sunday in our very heavy Belfast sink planter looked cat-attacked today. I tried to save them as best I could, but I think only the chives, mint and possibly thyme stand a chance. The sink is now covered with the grill from our old broken barbecue to keep the cats off. I used the rest of the brick barbecue to make a Jenga-style cold frame and planted out some more basil, lambs lettuce and oak leaf salad. Tonight I want to weed and net the strawberry patch, to give some of the very tiny strawberry flowers a chance to grow into fruit. Life's good.

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Hope you've had lovely weather, wherever you are.  

Most of the weekend has been spent trying to sort out the garden. Most people do their tidying in February/March and then sow stuff and about now they're enjoying lovely salads and  things they have grown themselves. Trouble for me is that late winter/early spring is my busiest time (job no.2). So my garden has to look after itself. And it grows brambles and gnarly-rooted weeds and very tall meadow grass.

Well, I'm attacking it, better stuff is growing. Progress picture one shows the garden yesterday. It's a bit better since then.

Whilst tidying the, admittedly invisible here, patio I bumped an old burner and was alarmed when about twenty bumblebees flew out.

Okay, this is just one bee. But there were more, honest!

We moved the burner to another location, which worked for a bit and I was able to get on. However, some of the bees didn't realize their house was not there anymore, and they started coming back and buzzing round me. Good excuse to stop the gardening for a bit and go for a nice walk.

Our excursion took us by the riverside, where the sea cadets were practising.

We then wound our way to beautiful Delapre. People were cooling off in the lake (not sure they're supposed to, but still) and someone was water-skiing. We veered off into the verdant woods, spotting bunnies scrambling away into the brambles. The floor was carpeted with harebells, buttercups and forget-me-nots. Very pretty.

We cut through  to the house. A bawling toddler was being made to stand against one of the handsome trees that skirt the lawns for a photo. He was having none of it! Heading right, we found the ornamental gardens and tea rooms. He, we decided to share a cream tea.

Hooray, just enough change!

On the way home, we foolishly decided to stop for a pint at the pub. It's never one, is it?! And with that, our care was somewhat abandoned. Call it sunstroke... oh well, back on the path to frugaldom now.

Today, OH was taking part in a 100 mile cycle ride as he did the 3 Counties 100 Cyclosportive. A gruelling epic cycle ride that takes in Beautiful Rutland Water. This is one of the awesome sights he will have seen:

the Welland Viaduct

He says it was brilliant. He's very sore now though.

 So, while he was out, I decided to get the shopping in for the Live Below the Line Challenge (link takes you through to my donation  page). OH is supporting me in this challenge, so he will be eating the same meals as me. But he is not taking part himself. So he'll be eating cake at the office tomorrow, and drinking a pint in the pub when I won't be at my next Northampton Science Fiction Writers Group meeting.

 

On OH's advice, I am including some things I already had, but costed them out, so as not to waste food. This included 1kg of potatoes, which cost 66p. Unfortunately, I went bust, so have had to reduce the number of potatoes I was going to have to 700g. 2 meals maybe? Two small meals...The rest of my pears from a multi-pack, which have only just started to ripen came to 37p's worth. OH says we should also include the bananas he won today at the end of his race. Mmm... freebies not allowed! That said, I'm having all the tea and stuff I can at work as that's one of my work benefits. Not birthday cake, though. Boo.

We can include stuff from the garden, so long as production costs are taken into consideration. I'm taking basil as 0p, as that cost me nothing, and if we can work out how to use it, rhubarb. Though, I think that would need sugar! All the nettles and dandelion we want, though. Nom!

So here's the week at £1 per person per day.

 

bread (reduced)	£0.34
cucumber	£0.39
cumin	£0.49
frozen mixed veg	£0.89
gravy	£0.20
ham	£0.61
lamb's liver	£0.74
lettuce (reduced)	£0.20
onions	£0.69
passata	£0.35
pears	£0.37
porridge	£0.75
potatoes	£0.46
rice	£0.40
salmon	£1.49
spaghetti	£0.20
whole milk	£0.85
yellow split peas	£0.55
Total	£9.97

Okay, 3p left over... I think an old chilli and garlic clove from the market can take that up.

Wow, that was hard. And to think, if I hadn't got hold of reduced items it would have been even worse. I think to have been comfortable, another £2 would have been awesome. But of course, what this is about is to raise money for people who really do have £1 - or less -  to live on per day. My charity is Send a Cow.

I'll let you know how I get on each day. Every day an invention test!

Giant Steps Are What You Take

Frugal fun

I am still chockablock with work,  and have only a few minutes to get my words down while on the bus. But I did take a break to do a couple of nice things in the last week.

The Moon Field

Last Thursday I went to a lovely free book reading for the launch of local author Judith Allnat's new book The Moon Field.
We learned about how family stories had inspired this tale of two working class lads who ended up volunteering to fight in the First World War. It is set against the picturesque and tranquil surroundings of Keswick, contrasted with the horror and destruction of Flanders. Can't wait to read it. There was wine and nibbles too.

Why not subscribe to your local library blog to see what interesting things they are putting on?

Not Now,  Chewie

It being the Chinese New Year (horse!), of course I spent a little bit of time with my family for story readings with my nephew and munching of new year cake (yum,  thanks,  Annie! )

However,  on Friday I went to a New Year party at my friend Zoe's house.  Her boyfriend is Mexican but lives in China so it seemed appropriate to celebrate... with a science fiction theme??? Yes. So OH and I dressed as rough interpretations of the Tom Baker Doctor Who and Bennie Summerfield (using our actual clothes) and joined Fliss, a couple of Neos, stormtroopers,  dragons, Alien, Predator, a Dalek, Arthur Dent a character from City of Bones,  Poison Ivy and Jon Pertwee. We played pass the parcel and Death Star piñata. They made that. Isn't it brilliant!

Scratting

Last week's 'found money' 10p. Diminishing returns methinks...

Things that make you go grr

Other bloggers have mentioned stuff that's not terribly helpful for those looking for the frugal way. I cite the BBC's Food and Drink.  Their 'budget' show had a great piece by Arabella Weir on how families might well choose biscuits over apples if down to their last 30p, but lovely Tom Kerridge and lovely Michel Roux junior were just a tad out of touch. Tom's recipe for lamb with mash and salsa  verde might well have costed down to £2 per portion but I suspect that capers, anchovies and fresh herbs are not store cupboard staples for the majority.  And where can you buy just 2 shallots? MRJ's recipe for souffle was even more badly thought out than that... costing a pudding at £2 per head hardly makes it budget.  And he used  vanilla pod... pod!

Yummy food for sure,  but could have done better.  I mean,  if you can buy a frozen gateau for £2, why spend hours making a pudding for £8?

Still love the show.  And OH tickled me by saying,  "I married Tom Kerridge.  Only the smaller version." Yeah,  never mind that he's also bald and a man. There's a compliment in there somewhere.

Oh, and I got quoted in The Guardian last week announcing the BSFA Award nominations.  Which was nice.