I got up late today for 3 reasons: 1, it’s Saturday and I don’t have to be up for work; 2, it was a late night and I ached when I got home so I just wanted a little longer to rest; and 3, I wasn’t looking forward to breakfast or getting through the whole day without a cup of tea or any snacks (aside from carrot sticks…) and so I wanted to delay the inevitable (the later I have breakfast, the later I can have lunch, etc).
Breakfast
I decided to put a teaspoon or so of blackcurrant squash to my porridge and it made a massive difference to the flavour and it was much nicer to eat. It made it a weird grey colour, but the taste was so much nicer so that will definitely be happening again tomorrow.
The post arrived and I was faced with my Graze box (total luxury I know) which taunted me by declaring ‘You’re so close to tasty snacks’ on the box… I am, only two days left.
Lunch
My last cuppa soup – the packet only had 4 in so it will be pasta for 2 meals tomorrow – and hot blackcurrant during the afternoon. I went out during the morning and wasn’t back til about 1pm which was helpful to delay lunch. I didn’t feel too hungry during the morning which was a surprise as it’s a different routine at the weekend, but the porridge has kept me full every morning which has been great.
I saved my carrot peelings from yesterday and put them on kitchen paper to dry, as I’d read ages ago that potato peelings can be saved, dried and baked to make crisps. And I thought all vegetable peelings must therefore work…! I was sort of right – they crisped up beautifully, but part of this meant they were burnt so the flavour was a little charred. Nice to have a different texture though and to try something with what is otherwise just put in the food bin.
Tea
I’ve almost run out of different combinations, so today was pasta with baked beans, tomatoes and sardines which I’m still enjoying generally (tasty and hot), other that the monotony of dinnertime.
We’re out for drinks with friends tonight which I had forgotten when planning the timeframe of this 5 day period, but I’m not going to totally ‘cheat’ on m £1. My plan is to have soda water all night which, if not free is certainly cheap and my reason is that I can’t buy my friends a drink so I’m not expecting them to buy me any. If I was being true to the Live on £1 a Day, I would forgo the evening out. My excuses for not doing that are that I’m the driver, but I’m also actually looking forward to going out and not being tempted by the food I have in my house. Not great excuses I know so it’s not as realistic as I hoped I could be. If I was invited out for lunch / a coffee / etc when I was on such a tight budget, I would of course have to refuse as I wouldn’t want to assume someone would pay for and I certainly couldn’t afford to pay for myself, let alone them as well.
People I meet at foodbank and those I hear about from volunteers, say that a big issue for those who live on a tight budget / limited income, is isolation. And it’s been reported in the last year at least that loneliness can be as bad for your health as smoking.
At Norwich foodbank, 3 of our 10 distribution centres offer a free hot meal at the same time as the foodbank session, with 1 of these being a free community meal, open to anyone to attend. People come for the food of course, but many for the company and FoodCycle, a national charity that uses food waste to create a free meal for the community, report similar findings that the food is sometimes secondary to being with others.
If you would like to get involved and support our work, especially with the community meals as extra help is needed at the moment, please do get in touch with the office by email: admin@norwich.foodbank.org.uk or call 01603 251733 and ask for Hannah.
Norwich foodbank blog 