Tuesday, 3 April 2012

The Beginning

So - here we are in Edinburgh on Day 2 of the Live Below the Line challenge. Unfortunately, Day 1 was lost in a haze of egg-fried rice and essay misery - and a near-miss with a crispy cake - but never fear, I've survived and I'm here to update you with my progress so far...

My minimal planning and preparation and distinct lack of culinary imagination and expertise has already started to show, although - as you'll see from the picture - the ingredients I've chosen aren't exactly inspiring. In fact, if anyone knows how to combine pasta, rice, beans (carb overload, anyone?) and eggs into a meal then please do share your wisdom. What was I thinking?


My Live Below the Line shopping basket includes:
  • Rice (0.40)
  • Pasta (0.55)
  • 2 tins kidney beans (2 @ 0.18). Yuck.
  • 5 red onions (0.17)
  • 2 cartons of passata (2 @ 0.29)
  • 10 eggs (1.19). While we're on it, I should probably share with you the untold anguish of being assured by multiple sources that a certain German retailer is the cheapest around, only to find that you can buy 15 (yes, one five) eggs for £1.25 in the Tescos that you usually shop in.
  • 2 bananas (2 @ 0.11)
  • Peas (0.25)
  • Teabags (80 @ 0.29 - I'm budgeting 0.04 to use 10 altogether. I feel 80 teabags in 5 days might be somewhat excessive, even for a Northern lass) 
I spent yesterday cooking up a veritable tornado in the kitchen, producing an assortment of culinary classics including 'pasta and tomato puree' and 'rice, eggs and peas'. Unbelievably, I think this actually still looks better than it tasted:


My clever plan to save my leftover pennies for later in the week has already gone down the pan after I went wild this afternoon and purchased a bottle of orange squash (0.29) and a packet of custard creams (0.31), ostensibly in celebration of my essay hand-in but really because I was a little bit starving and didn't want rice. I've already managed to eat about 100 but fortunately there are still a few left. 

Anyway, I am off to put beans and tomatoes in a pan and stir them - this is Live Below the Line haute cuisine.

Total spend: £4.32

Visit my Live Below the Line fundraising page at https://www.livebelowtheline.com/me/pipcrockett

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