A more healthy menu from a MSE poster

One of the posters on the £7 per day thread was very concerned that I was peddling unhealthy stodge as a long-term diet.  Of course if you read the other posts you'll see I'm recomending it as a temporary short-term emergency menu only.
Anyway this menu was kindly suggested as an alternative.
In summary:
drinks: tap water
breakfast x 7 :banana omelette
lunch x 7: chicken and quinoa soup
dinner x 7 : spaghetti and cheese


and the costings for food items given as per the Tescos website.

£7 per person with no storecupboard week 2

£7 budget for week 2 plus 15 p carried over from week 1 = £7.15 to spend 2% increase on last week!

Drinks

teabags carried over from week 1  - 0 p spent

sugar carried over from week 1 - 0 p spent

milk - 1 pint whole milk -49p by buying whole milk I could water this down half and half and end up with 2 pints semi-skimmed for the price of 1

49 p spent £6.66 remaining

breakfast

cornflakes carried over from last week 0p spent

sugar carried over from last week 0p spent

milk - from above 0 p spent

49 p spent £6.66 remaining

lunch

margarine carried over from week 1 - 0p spent

Tescos Everyday value garlic sausage 12 slices - 55p

Bread Tescos own label medium sliced loaf 69p about 22 slices

everyday value baked beans in tomato sauce 420 g i.e 2 servings 26p

gives

2 rounds garlic sausage sarnies

2 rounds garlic sausage sarnies

2 rounds garlic sausage sarnies

2 rounds garlic sausage sarnies

2 rounds garlic sausage sarnies

beans on toast

beans on toast

2 slices garlic sausage over

£1.99 spent £5.16 remaining

dinner

3 portions spaghetti carried over from week 1 - 0 p spent

2 slices garlic sausage from above

4 sausages from week 1 - 0 p spent

1/2 head of garlic from week 1 carried over - 0 p spent

Tesco Sieved Tomatoes Passata 500G 29p (3 servings)

tescos everyday gravy garnules 20p

Tesco Everyday Value White Potatoes 2.5Kg Tray 89p - assume 250g per serving  (tessco uses this as its serving size for nutritional information) -gives 10 servings

tescos everyday value mushy peas 4p!!!!!!!!x 2

Onions - tescos everyday value onion pack 69p - contains about 12 small onions, better than buying 1 large and having to cut it in half

tescos everyday value vegetable oil - 1 litre (so should last the remainder of the month easy) £1.29

everyday value stock cubes 10p for pack of 10

Tesco Everyday Value 12 White Rolls 35p - use 1 freeze remainder

2 carrots loose 16p

Tesco Everyday Value Cooking Bacon 500G -74p use 50g a time gives 10 servings

3 bananas 36p (just cos we can now!)

pea and garlic sausage soup - for 1-2

chop 1 small onion and brown in 1 tsp oil.  Add 1 tin of mushy peas (drained) plus 1/2 stock cube and enough water to cover peas, bring to the boil and simmer 

for a few minutes until heated through.  Blend until smooth (or mash with a potato masher). Add 1 slice garlic sausage chopped fine.  Serve with a bread roll.

bacon hash serves 1

Peel 250 g potatoes and boil until tender and allow to cool.  Cut into chunks (alternatively if you have left over mashed potato use this instead) Peel and chop 1 small onion and fry along with 50g bacon (diced).  Add potatoes and fry until heated through.

gives

pasta with tomato and garlic (use 1 75 g portion of the spaghetti plus 1/3 passata and 1 crushed clove garlic)

pasta with tomato and garlic (use 1 75 g portion of the spaghetti plus 1/3 passata and 1 crushed clove garlic)

pasta with tomato and garlic sausage (use 1 75 g portion of the spaghetti plus 1/3 passata and 1 slice garlic sausage chopped)

pea and garlic sausage soup with roll (see recipe above)

sausage and mash with carrots and gravy (2 sausages from week 1, 250 g spuds 2 carrots)

sausage and mash with mushy peas and gravy (2 sausages from week 1, 250 g spuds 1/2 a tin of mushy peas)

bacon hash with mushy peas (see recipe below and 1/2 a tin mushy peas)

spent £7.10 remaining 5p

carried over to following week:

10 small onions

9 1/2 stock cubes

gravy granules

7 servings potatoes

2 servings cornflakes

11 bread rolls

38 teabags

oil

9 servings bacon

5p

Day 1

3 cups of tea throughout the day – otherwise tap water

breakfast -Cornflakes with milk and sugar

lunch -garlic sausage sarnies

dinner -pasta with tomato and garlic 

Day 2

3 cups of tea throughout the day – otherwise tap water

breakfast- Cornflakes with milk and sugar

lunch-garlic sausage sarnies 

dinner -pea and garlic sausage soup with roll 

Day 3

3 cups of tea throughout the day – otherwise tap water

breakfast-Cornflakes with milk and sugar

lunch-beans on toast

dinner -pasta with tomato and garlic sausage 

Day 4

3 cups of tea throughout the day – otherwise tap water

breakfast-Cornflakes with milk and sugar

lunch -garlic sausage sarnies

dinner -bacon hash with mushy peas

Day 5

3 cups of tea throughout the day – otherwise tap water

breakfast-Cornflakes with milk and sugar

lunch-garlic sausage sarnies

dinner-pasta with tomato and garlic 

Day 6

3 cups of tea throughout the day – otherwise tap water

breakfast- Cornflakes with milk and sugar

lunch -beans on toast

dinner -sausage and mash with carrots and gravy

Day 7

3 cups of tea throughout the day – otherwise tap water

breakfast-Cornflakes with milk and sugar

lunch-garlic sausage sarnies

dinner-sausage and mash with mushy peas and gravy 

£7 per person week1

Assumptions

• £7 only for the whole week; precludes buying cheaper (larger) value packs at the beginning of the challenge
• 3 meals a day plus drinks for 1 person
• No offers sought
• No vouchers/coupons redeemed or reduced (e.g. for quick sale) items included
• No free food or swaps from family and friends
• no storecupboard; we have actually had this happen when we moved back from Germany, but had budgeted for it so that we could restock the first supermarket shop - v. expensive though!
• Prices are from Tescos for ease of use and may or may not be cheaper elsewhere for particular items; were this for real I would be using a price book and comparison sites such as mysupermarket.co.uk for the best deals
• If you haven't got a storecupboard you probably haven't got a freezer or food processor and other such fancy stuff so minimum of expensive equipment used

If I can keep within the budget with these limitations then anyone doing it for real would be able to snap up deals and do it for even cheaper or add more variety.

Drinks
Unfortunately I cannot function without a cup of tea in the morning and at the start of week 1 that means teabags, milk and sugar and a big hit on the purse just for the wet hot stuff. I am assuming I could limit myself to 3 cups a day and this would use 1 pint of milk and 1/2 a small bag of sugar (just a guess as I don't use it myself but we are going for worst-case finances here), the rest of the time I would make do with tap water. 
Tesco everyday value teabags (80 bags) - 27p - assuming 3 cups a day about 26 days worth
1 pint whole milk -49p by buying whole milk I could water this down half and half and end up with 2 pints semi-skimmed for the price of 1
granulated sugar -(500 g) 79p
£1.55 spent £5.45 remaining

Breakfast
Using my other pint of milk cunning scavenged from above along with the sugar I could have breakfast cereal.
Tescos everyday value cornflakes (500g ) 31p - Tescos own figures give a serving size of 30 g so this is 16 days worth of cereal.
£1.86 spent £5.14 remaining

Lunches
Bread Tescos own label medium sliced loaf 69p about 22 slices
Margarine - everyday value sunflower spread 500g 75p
everyday value baked beans in tomato sauce 420 g i.e 2 servings 26p
everyday value cooked ham - 10 slices 61p

£4.17 spent £2.83 remaining

Dinner
Spaghetti - everyday value spaghetti 500g 24p assuming a 75 g serving this is 6-7 servings
Tesco Sieved Tomatoes Passata 500G 29p (3 servings)
head of garlic 30p (assume 6 cloves garlic)
jacket potatoes (4 in packet) 75p - serve as jacket potatoes or as mash
everyday value coleslaw
tescos everyday value pork sausages 8 in packet 56p
4 (loose) carrots 34p
spent £6.91 9p remaining

carried over to next week:
3 portions of pasta 
4 sausages
19 days worth of teabags
9 days worth of cornflakes
half a head of garlic
half a tub of sunflower spread
half a bag of sugar
plus 9p 

shopping list
Tesco everyday value teabags (80 bags)
1 pint whole milk granulated sugar -(500 g)
Tescos everyday value cornflakes (500g )
Tescos own label medium sliced loaf
everyday value sunflower spread 500g
everyday value baked beans in tomato sauce 
everyday value coleslaw
everyday value cooked ham
everyday value spaghetti 500g
Tesco Sieved Tomatoes Passata
head of garlic
jacket potatoes (4 in packet) 
tescos everyday value pork sausages
4 loose carrots



Day 1
3 cups of tea throughout the day – otherwise tap water
breakfast -Cornflakes with milk and sugar
lunch -2 rounds ham sandwiches
dinner -Jacket potato with coleslaw
Day 2
3 cups of tea throughout the day – otherwise tap water
breakfast- Cornflakes with milk and sugar
lunch- 2 rounds ham sandwiches
dinner -Pasta with garlic and tomato
Day 3
3 cups of tea throughout the day – otherwise tap water
breakfast-Cornflakes with milk and sugar
lunch- Beans on toast
dinner -Sausage carrots and mash
Day 4
3 cups of tea throughout the day – otherwise tap water
breakfast-Cornflakes with milk and sugar
lunch -2 rounds ham sandwiches
dinner -Jacket potato with coleslaw
Day 5
3 cups of tea throughout the day – otherwise tap water
breakfast-Cornflakes with milk and sugar
lunch-2 rounds ham sandwiches
dinner-Pasta with garlic and tomato
Day 6
3 cups of tea throughout the day – otherwise tap water
breakfast- Cornflakes with milk and sugar
lunch -Beans on toast
dinner -Sausage carrots and mash
Day 7
3 cups of tea throughout the day – otherwise tap water
breakfast-Cornflakes with milk and sugar
lunch-2 rounds ham sandwiches
dinner-Pasta with garlic and tomato

As a first attempt it has the right number of meals (so it can be done) but is a tad repetitive and you would have to like baked beans and tomatoes an awful lot!

£1 a day menus with no inital storecupboard

One of the forums I regularly lurk on - if not contribute to now and again is the Old Style Forum on Money Saving Expert.com. This is a wealth of information and support for the usual household expenses that everybody has and the recipes are ones that I am not ashamed to say I copy in my own weekly menus.  The generous and supportive folks there have got me out of many a pickle and it is nice to know when the pay cheque is late that you are not on your own!

One of the threads that surfaced recently was linked to a annual global charity event where you had to survive on £1 a day (or roughly equivalent currency) and the excess that you normally spent was donated to a certain charity (if I find the link I'll post it).  This sparked a second thread about living on a pound a day which despite a rocky start (experience has taught us that posters are not always what they seem) is turning into a mine of information for when things really hit the fan.  You would not want to follow this kind of lifestyle for any length of time of course as you would be unhealthy and bored of the monotonous food but for a temporary crisis I hope it helps others when the chips are down.

Anyway it got me thinking.  Could I manage everything (including drinks) on £1 per person a day? I'm lucky in that I have a good storecupboard and a stocked freezer so a temporary crisis would not be so bad for me as for someone who did not have any backup stores.  Also I have a family of 5 and so can buy larger packs which work out cheaper per 100 g than smaller ones.
So, here is what is for me (lucky person that I am) a pencil and paper exercise.  Several weeks menus for three meals a day for 1 person starting from absolutely nothing.  If this was real life (and unfortunately for some poor souls it may be close) you would be able to carry over stuff like oil and spices to the next week but the first week is the toughest and most monotonous food-wise.  Prices will taken from Tescos website (simply for ease), this may or may not be the best prices around; if you really are in this situation use a price book or an on-line supermarket price comparison site like mysupermarket.co.uk to see if you can get a few pennies off the total.  This is a situation in which every penny really can make the difference if you have a choice of supermarkets near you.  It goes without saying that if you have to spend more than the price difference getting there (in fuel or bus tickets for example) it if not worth it.  Also if you have all your money at the beginning of the month you may be able to do one big shop then 3 little ones and take advantage of bigger packs this way - not everyone has this luxury so I'm sticking to £7 each week (although any pennies, like the food, can be carried over to subsequent weeks).  This is a worst case scenerio starting point and any thing else like stuff already in store, discount supermarkets, money off coupons, and being able to buy larger packs will bring the overall price for the week down to below the £7 ceiling (I hope)!

In order to avoid a massive post I'm going to split each week into a different post and edit the links in later.

Week 1 - no storecupboard!
Week 2 -
Week 3
Week 4

Third Purse Budgeting

Like a lot of people I struggle to see if the moneysaving tips etc that I am using make a material difference.  The trouble is everything gets taken out of the black hole that is my bank account and more often than not the balance at the end of the month does not reflect the time and effort that I have put in.  Of course that's when it  is all too easy to wobble and fall off the wagon.  The other day though I came across the Third Purse concept for household budgeting.  This shows you clearly what you have left in your monthly budget, the value of what assets you have stockpiled, and the combined savings you have made and can therefore put towards your wish list.
The system is one devised (as far as I know) by a forum user called Mothership over at moneysavingexpert.com here is the challenge post which explains it all in detail and includes many tips and ideas - although the offers mentioned are UK based the method would work anywhere.


The idea is that you have three purses (virtual or real depending on how you run your finances)

Purse 1 contains your monthly budget.  In my case this is for food, pet food, and household stuff and is £500 a month.

Purse 2 contains a float of extra money for you to dip into if you want to buy items (on offer) to stockpile.  So if I buy extra boxes of teabags say because they are £3 rather than £5 this is the purse that I take the money from. This float is replenished when you use something from your stockpile as you then transfer some money for that item only from purse 1; in effect you are buying it from yourself rather than the supermarket.  You can choose to give purse 2 the full (pre-offer) value, the offer value (for those things you wouldn't ever consider buying unless they are on offer) or (if purse 1 is empty near the end of the month) nothing. Obviously the float will increase fastest if you stick to paying purse 2 the full price. The money in purse 2 increases until a maximum value is reached - for ease of use most people on the forum pick a round number like £100; as a beginner though I am going to use £20 as my start point and the stockpile I already have as my own "shop stock" so this should go up fairly quickly.  In the beginning I also plan to transfer £10 a month to top up purse 2 at the beginning of the month until £100 is reached.

Purse 3 contains the savings you have made.  Whenever purse 2 goes over your maximum value then transfer the overflow to purse 3.  This is the money available for your wish list.

In order to keep abreast of which pot has what I plan to use a spreadsheet although a pad and pen would also work.  If you hate paperwork then using real cash and 2 separate real purses could be the way to go.

So here is my summary statement for my household budget for the start of July
Purse 1 - £500
Purse 2- £20
Purse 3 - £0

Hopefully by August purse 3 should be filling up too.  We'll see.

Hair Accessories for sale

Our school has a summer fair where people can sell things they have made for a fee of £10 per stall.  Over the last month I have been building up a steady supply of these

Hair bands/ slides/ elastics for a stall for myself and my daughter (10yo) to run together.  

I have tried to use materials from my stash at home so outlay (including the fee for the stall) runs to just below £20.  

Here's hoping 1) we get good weather so lots of people turn up! and 2) people like the designs I have made - so far with a week to go I have about 50 to sell with an average price of £1 (these things sell in the shops for £2-2.50).  I'm just hoping to get any profit but lots of valuable feedback I hope:)

(For anyone tempted to make some of these for themselves I used this crochet tutorial for the flower decoration)

Update:The fair itself was cancelled - not due to the weather but due to lack of parental support, not enough parents came forward to help with manning the stalls (we volunteered to have a school activity alongside our hair-clips but only 2 other parents volunteered!) Luckily some of the parents already intended to buy some hair-clips so they have approached me separately and so far I have sold £20 worth.  Combined with the return of my stall fee I'm in profit!

Savings to date:£512.32 +10.30 (from hair-clips)=£522.62  (0.75% of total)