Monday

Borrowed from Google Images, with thanks.

. . . and back to work for three days after which I have a much welcomed visitor so won't be able to finish the week at school.

Regular readers might remember that a while ago I ate according to the 'Breadline Challenge' which meant that all my food and drink came to a maximum of £2.20 per day which, for simplicity's sake, I reduced to £2.00 with herbs and spices thrown in for free.  It was organised as a fund raiser by FreeCycle although I did it out of time, longer term and did not seek sponsors in any way.

I had a great time accounting for every penny, making, costing, freezing when necessary and making it all work for me although after a while I lost enthusiasm and it died a death.  Lessons learned did not though, I am glad to say.

The Breadline Challenge has come around again with a few changes, the most important of which is that they now say one is allowed to spend £2.86 a day, nearly £3.00 which is a huge increase and very telling about how food has increased in price.  It also contrasts significantly and sharply with Live Below The Line which, as far as I know, remains at £1.00 a day although I'm not sure that is achievable now in the way it was two years ago.

On the other hand, I'm not sure how challenging a bit over £20 a week or £85.80 for a thirty day month actually is.  I know I could eat well on that AND afford coffee!  Yes, I would need to look for the specials and the yellow stickers but I do that a fair bit now.  I use Aldi flour to make my own bread.  I look at the Savers/Value options before making decisions.  On Saturday I got a very decent looking leg of pork from Aldi that was one of their specials for the week and which would provide me with meat for several days, perhaps following some of Jack Monroe's recipes which appeared in the mirror last week.  A chicken would certainly do me several days finishing with a great stock for lunchtime home made (and therefore cheap)soups.  I can make a large loaf or two small loaves and a few rolls for a maximum of 35p.  I have home made jams and chutneys,

The FAQ document can be found here.  I can't follow it right now as I have three weeks of visitors (on and off) followed by a variety of Christmas based stuff but come the New Year I think I might follow it for a while, if only to get the eating back on track.  The challenge will be to provide myself with a varied and interesting diet that stops me from getting bored!

Moving on - yesterday was a day when I felt myself getting better and better.  I made the bread.  I made the chutney.  I ate too much but stayed awake for most of the day, ensuring a very good night's sleep.  Today, as I said, is back to school but I won't be doing the whole week and after that things should get back to normal.

It's still very mild outside but the word is out on Facebook (however reliable that is!) that it's going to get a whole lot colder by Friday and, possibly, some snow on low ground.  Not here thought, I bet!  It never does.

Time for coffee . . .