Live Below The Line-Prep

This weekend saw us shopping in preparation for our 5 days Living Below the Line.

This meant we had £20 (four people, on a £1 a day, for five days) to spend.

In my last Live Below The Line post, I had done a basic meal plan, and a shopping list of sorts. Hubby had spent Friday evening visiting the various supermarkets in our local town and doing a bit of a price comparison (we know how to have fun…) so armed with this knowledge, and our shopping list clutched in our slightly sweaty anxious paws, we set off.

First stop was Lidl:

• Bag of frozen mixed veg-£0.89
• 2L semi-skimmed milk-£1.00
• 2L whole milk-£1
• 2x250g British butter-£1.96
• 500g pot natural yoghurt-#0.55
• 1.5kg white bread flour £0.79
• 10 medium eggs-£0.89 NB. hubby was berated at this point as he failed to buy free-range eggs…
• 2x400g tins red kidney beans-£0.42
• 1x400g tin chickpeas-£0.69
• 1x400g tin chopped tomatoes-£0.31
  Total spend in Lidl £8.50

Next we popped into Morrisons:

• 500g pack Morrisons Savers pasta-£0.30
• 1kg Morrisons Savers porridge oats-£0.75
• 425g tin Morrisons Savers pineapple chunks
• 1 bag Morrisons Savers apples (7 apples)-£0.82
• 500g bag Morrisons Savers raisins-£1.19
• 350g Morrisons Irish Cheddar-£1.70
• 1 bag Morrisons Savers onions (10 onions)-£0.50
• 12 Morrisons chicken stock cubs £0.99
• 1kg caster sugar-£1.09
  Total spend in Morriosns £7.54

Then on to the local greengrocers:

• Bowl of bananas (13 bananas)-£0.50
  
• Bowl of carrots (25 carrots)-£0.50
• Bowl of potatoes-£0.50
  Total spend in greengrocers £1.50

Total spend: £17.54

Phew! In under budget, and a bit of wriggle room for the rest of the week…

This afternoon, I did a bit of prep:

• Made a bread mix using 1kg flour (53p) 20g salt (1p), 10g yeast (9p) (both from stock) and water. Total cost 63p. From this, I will hopefully make 12 rolls, and 1 loaf of bread.
  So rolls should work out at 3.5p each, and the loaf of bread is 21p
• I am a bit worried about snacks for the Smalls, as I usually have a stash of cheesy feet and hot cross buns in the freezer to grab when we are going out. I found this great recipe for ‘Sunshine Buns’ on the fantabulous blog A Girl Called Jack, so promptly made some. They worked out at 4p each.
• I made a batch of 24 Hobnobs-they worked out at 6p each
• And I have a bowl of porridge oats soaking in some milk in the fridge to try and mean that making the porridge in the morning is a bit quicker (we are always in a rush…!) I used 150g porridge oats, 350ml milk, 350ml water and 50g raisins, and I am hoping this will do the 4 of us (maybe with a chopped up banana or 2). This should work out at about 10p/serving
• We went to visit my mum and dad today, and my Dad had been down to do a bit of work at their allotment, and came back bearing a bagful of rhubarb. It seemed churlish to turn it down, so we bought it home and I have stewed it with a bit of sugar, and will add it to the natural yoghurt for puddings in the week.

So, I think we are as ready as we will ever be…

Wish us luck!