£5 for food for 5 days :S

Original post by phill232

Oh no you wernt rude at all (pos rep to prove it) I felt silly for getting the thread wrong. I quite naive to poverty probably because I come from a rural backgroun, poverty is less common. £5 is extreme, I realise that OAPs are likely to fall into this bracket, but where I live it's common for families to cook for elderly neighbours, and the local supermarket which is family run provides roast dinners for £1.50 to customers over 85.

Thats a good idea.

Reply 23

Locke54

16

Original post by thru sun and rain

no this really is not the whole point of this thread. Basically in the uk many people face extreme poverty, and basically need to live off £5 for 5 days (not just students but a lot of people) and there is an awareness week where they are inviting people to live off £5 for 5 days To understand the trials those suffering extreme poverty have to face

I have no clue how any can get themselves into that state, even benefits give you well more than £1 a day for food. A single person can live quite well on £30 worth of food a week and that's eminently possible on benefit 'wages.'

Reply 24

Original post by ajp100688

I have no clue how any can get themselves into that state, even benefits give you well more than £1 a day for food. A single person can live quite well on £30 worth of food a week and that's eminently possible on benefit 'wages.'

yes but there are cases where the job centre won't actually give jsa, or any benefits. for example a homeless person tends not to be able to apply on jsa, they get their money through selling the big issue (which if they don't meet their quota isn't enough to live on or rent a room etc) Local councils have very little facilities to accomodate those who have very little or no income and therefore the poverty trap sinks in. I knew a person who had gotten into a situation such as this through no fault of his own. Suffered a severe accident a work 20-30 years ago, couldn't claim compensation had no source of income from benefits and became homeless. His financial stability declined and ended up selling the big issue on the street to get his few bob for food. Before his accident he was a hard working reliable individual that did what he had to do at work. But when he needed it no one offered him help.
However there are a lot of people who do abuse the system and waste what they get and then live on what ever is left.

Reply 25

noodles!

Breakfasts:
Value Cornflakes (31p)
2x Value UHT milk (98p)

Lunches:
Value loaf, freeze it (47p, chance of cheaper loaves if go shopping late)
Value ham (55p)

Dinners:
Value pasta (18p)
Value pasta sauce (27p)
Value beans x2 (56p)
Value fish fingers (56p)
Value oven chips (72p)
Value custard creams as "desserts" (30p)

Total = £4.90

Boring as sin but definitely do-able.

Reply 26

Original post by noodles!

Breakfasts:
Value Cornflakes (31p)
2x Value UHT milk (98p)

Lunches:
Value loaf, freeze it (47p, chance of cheaper loaves if go shopping late)
Value ham (55p)

Dinners:
Value pasta (18p)
Value pasta sauce (27p)
Value beans x2 (56p)
Value fish fingers (56p)
Value oven chips (72p)
Value custard creams as "desserts" (30p)

Total = £4.90

Boring as sin but definitely do-able.

Original post by noodles!

Breakfasts:
Value Cornflakes (31p)
2x Value UHT milk (98p)

Lunches:
Value loaf, freeze it (47p, chance of cheaper loaves if go shopping late)
Value ham (55p)

Dinners:
Value pasta (18p)
Value pasta sauce (27p)
Value beans x2 (56p)
Value fish fingers (56p)
Value oven chips (72p)
Value custard creams as "desserts" (30p)

Total = £4.90

Boring as sin but definitely do-able.

op is vegetarian. so ham and fish fingers wouldn't be in there.

Reply 27

noodles!

Original post by thru sun and rain

op is vegetarian. so ham and fish fingers wouldn't be in there.

I forgot OP had said vegetarian, oops

swap ham for value cheese spread at 40p and maybe swap the whole "something and chips" for soups? makes it even cheaper I guess.

Reply 28

Wenger

10

Original post by f00ddude

scrap the idea of full meals though, scrap the idea of lunch
buy a big bag of pasta and live off that, you can mix in some tomato puree for a sauce

Do you know how many calories (kcal) is in 100g of pasta? Around 400

Eat pasta all day for a week, and you will gain ALOT of weight. Your diet will not balanced at all, you're consuming way over the necessary carbohydrates needed, and not doing exercise. (I am assuming the OP won't be doing exercise, as that will increase your daily food requirements.)

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 29

lolololol

17

Some great advice on this thread, I don't have much more to add!

Actually there are some good deals at Morrisons at the moment. They have 4 pears for 30p, 4 plums for 30p and 4 eggs for 30p (although they had sold out in my store :frown:

). But definitely shop as late as you can if you want to find bargains, even in my local Waitrose their long life bread goes down to 9p and it lasts about another week and you could put it in the freezer if you want it to go further.

Reply 30

f00ddude

Original post by Wenger

Do you know how many calories (kcal) is in 100g of pasta? Around 400

Eat pasta all day for a week, and you will gain ALOT of weight. Your diet will not balanced at all, you're consuming way over the necessary carbohydrates needed, and not doing exercise. (I am assuming the OP won't be doing exercise, as that will increase your daily food requirements.)

tbh, when your a student with 4.80 for 9 days you dont care about health
i also didnt have any fruit or veg so i knew it was pretty dam unhalthy already

Reply 31

noobynoo

Tell you what's nice on plain pasta. Extra virgin olive oil. Mmmm. And salt and pepper.

Reply 32

oh you could also make slop. Slop is awesome, pasta beans and cheese, or pasta beans and tuna. they both yummy but tuna is high priced nowadays :frown:

you cook the pasta and the beans then mix it all together with some spices or herbs. best low budget meal ever :biggrin:

Reply 33

*Corinna*

16

THe problem with this challenge is that poor countries don't have things like Iceland where you get 4 chicken breasts for one pound, or noodles for 10p. If we really wanted to see how these people live, it should be something like 20p per day! Everyone can do 5pounds for 5 days if they buy the huge pasta packs from tescos and Iceland meat.

Edit: oh, that's for poor people in England only then? I thought it was for poor people in general.

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 34

clo-clo1

10

I really wanna do this too but considering all my work is due around then and I'm final year I just know I'll break it with buying coffee or something. Good luck to you. I was thinking of doing hummus and pitta for lunch as over the 5 days that wouldn't cost a lot.

Reply 35

iainthegreat

You can buy a 1kg bag of scottish oats for £1 in tesco, that would be easily enough food for 5 days, pretty bland but it's an idea.

Or buy a smaller bag for about 50p and that will sort your breakfast out the 5 days.

Reply 36

tibbles209

ach youre grand, i spend less than that all the time. at the moment I have no money until Monday and i have pretty much no food in the house, i've been eating jam on toast for every meal since yesterday. Not really bothered though, my own fault for not budgeting properly :smile:

Reply 37

Fjarskafinn

I'd suggest attempting to live off simpler food for five days, to get a better experience of what it's like to live off £1 a day.

Forget planning a breakfast, lunch and dinner - that would be silly to attempt on £1 a day. Buy simple, staple foods and live off those, day in, day out for 5 days.

You may feel hungry.. but isn't that the point?

Reply 38

sleekchic

18

Original post by thru sun and rain

no this really is not the whole point of this thread. Basically in the uk many people face extreme poverty, and basically need to live off £5 for 5 days (not just students but a lot of people) and there is an awareness week where they are inviting people to live off £5 for 5 days To understand the trials those suffering extreme poverty have to face

So how exactly does a bunch of students living off £5 for 5 days help those living in extreme poverty? Will you be donating money to them or is this just an 'experiment'?

Reply 39