The breadline challenge, to start at the beginning of April

My thoughts . . .

‘Rules’

I will use a maximum of £2.00 per day on food and drink.  It doesn’t have to be exactly £2 per day. It can be more some days and less on others.  The ‘official’ amount is £2.10 so the 10p will count in lieu of salt, pepper, herbs and spices so I don’t need to fuss about them.  Therefore, over the full 30 days I intend to spend no more than £60 on food and drink.

I will continue to use meals from the freezer because they are still there and I have to use them up.  Main dishes £1, lunches (which tend to be home made soups 50p.  Vegetables on the side, etc, will be priced.  From now on I will price up everything I make to freeze and record that on the container.

I will take advantage of ‘free’ food, such as playtime fruit, staffroom coffee, etc, in term time.  After all - why not?

Some things will be priced out pro rata.  Others will be priced at purchase.  I will decide which to do, because it’s going to work for me, not for anyone else.  It may not be consistent but, one way or another, it will be accurate!  If stuff goes bad the cost will be included.

I WILL have coffee.  Decaf coffee.  Nice decaf coffee!  So there!  Fortunately I don’t do fancy coffee from places like Starbucks and Costa so that’s no problem.  I’m not fussed about tea but might buy some nice tea bags if I can and share them with Beth who is also doing the challenge with Alex (thanks, Beth and Alex).

The occasional meal out will not count.  After all, they really are just occasional, less than once a month.  I’ll avoid takeaways and go for fakeaways instead.

Plan, plan, plan!    And remember to plan!

I’m hoping that this will be a longer term thing, not just for a month but with some built in flexibility when needed.

I believe the official date for this year’s breadline challenge is the first week in November but I’m not totally sure.  Whenever it is, I will do the sponsored thing for that week.

My expectations are that . . . 

• I will eat well and more healthily from produce that is fresh (or frozen/tinned) 
• most meals will be cooked from scratch
• I will plan 'simple' meals carefully but flexibly
• there will be less waste
• I will lose some weight (a side effect)
• it will be reasonably achievable

Fingers crossed, eh?