Dawn Lent 2021 – Shop

We decided we would make it vegan for the week – we are vegetarians but do mostly eat vegan food as my daughter is allergic to dairy. This means I had to have a serious think about what we could afford… If I buy vegetables, there is almost no protein and nothing that would really fill us up, so I’m prioritising rice and lentils – and vegetables depending on what we have left over. I realise that this is going to get really boring really quickly… and, contrary to popular myth, vegetables are NOT cheap. I’m starting to feel a bit desperate already and it all starts to look pretty bleak.

I have tried to chivvy my daughter along, but she is already grumbling about not being allowed to have beer or pizza on Friday night. I feel pretty miserable. How bloody awful this is for people who have to live like this all the time – and especially in lockdown.

I am going to cheat a bit and use the ½ cauliflower we have in fridge and spices I have in the drawer and homemade lemon pickle that I make with left over lemon peel last week.

END

Norwich foodbank often receives bulk donations of items such as 5kg of pasta, 5l of oil and catering packs of teabags and the cahrity aren’t able to split them down. However, support is available through community kitchens who make mass meals such as FoodCycle and some churhces – not all are open due to current restricitons – but it’s great to be able to support them with donations and use the items that are far too big for most of the households we serve.

What can be tricky sometimes is the lack of knowledge or confidence in ‘cooking’ and so lentils and pulses and other items are sometimes just not known or understood by those we serve, so it’s a joy to hear from people who say ‘I love to cook’ or ‘do you have…’ and if we can say ‘yes’ it’s lovely to know these items will be used and appreciated and enjoyed alongside the food parcel.

Live on £1 a Day: Emma’s Shop

Years of meal planning and budgeting with a young family (two grown ups, a 7 year old and a toddler) have left me feeling well-equipped for this challenge. Although £4 per day for a family is a smaller budget than I’ve had in the past, I am interested to see what is achievable with some thought and planning.

I confess that after half an hour browsing online grocery shopping my enthusiasm was waning a little. I don’t know what sort of food to prioritise – pasta, bread and porridge to keep us full, but we need fruit, veg and protein too and I’m surprised at how expensive this is. We definitely can’t afford tea, coffee or chocolate, puddings or yogurts. I realise we will also miss stock cubes, herbs, salt and cooking oil a lot this week.

I find room in the shopping basket for a packet of biscuits, and think about how much money we spend on food we like rather than the food we actually need. I can’t find a way for us all to have enough veg and a piece of fruit every day, and I’m not sure whether the kids will eat some of the dishes I have planned. (What if they don’t? They’ll be hungry without snacks to keep them going. I realise what a privilege it is to have options and how awful the pressure to feed your kids must be if you don’t). Its stressful trying to balance all these priorities and I don’t know what the right answer is. Feeling like a bad mother I pack the shopping basket with tinned tomatoes and pasta, and hope it will all fall into place somehow.

I thought about ‘click and collect’ but this would cost £2 – I never really thought about the hidden costs around our weekly shop! I spent £18.74, leaving £1.26 to spare.

END

We are so grateful to all those who support us with donations. This blog reminded me that we have really incredible donors and some of them will do a food shop and have it delivered directly to the foodbank warehouse! Sometimes this is done anonymously and sometimes we have the donor’s details so we can thank them which is great and we’ve had deliveries from all the major supermarkets. Just remember to switch the address back to your home address for the next shop… we received someone’s shopping once because of this! If you are thinking of donating, check with your local foodbank as to what they need most – Norwich foodbank currently needs long life sponge puddings and pasta sauce please.

Live on £1 a Day: Imelda Day 2

Yesterday’s experience has resulted in much discussion around the wider issues of coping on low income amongst not only ourselves but also friends and family reading our blog. It has been so interesting to hear wider perspectives and to dwell on them. Our daughter raised some thoughts around the social issues and the knock on effect this has on wellbeing.

Today we have an actual example of that. We have our granddaughter here for the day and my friend and her granddaughter coming over to play and share lunch. How do we host them on our budget? In the ‘real world’ this would indeed be an issue. However, we have the luxury to decide not to involve them in our challenge. We have plenty of eggs & cheese in the ‘house’ fridge (we have set aside the other fridge as our Lent fridge… goodness, I feel so guilty having two fridges now!). We can offer them scrambled eggs on toast with grated cheese on top. Oh how I longed for grated cheese on top of my beans and jacket potato last night! We are however using our Lent loaf for their toast!

As my mind is focused on this topic, I had a discussion with my friend this afternoon about buying goods cheaper in bulk and the fact that those on a tight weekly budget can’t afford the initial outlay. For example, I talked about buying 4 tins of tuna to get a cheaper cost per can, but with my budget, I could not afford the multipack and would have to opt for the much dearer single can. My friend said she used to wonder why people on reduced income bought small packets of washing powder as it is so much cheaper to buy the larger sizes. Now she knows.

During the last two days we have learnt that keeping busy seems to be the best way to distract from the need for food. We were well ready for our evening meal today! Burgers in buns, made with crushed kidney beans, grated carrot, onion and cumin. Surprisingly yummy! See photo.

END

Another good point made about quantities and prices here. Due to the labelling and related health and safety / food safety issues around splitting big quantities (all the information needs to be recreated from the original and for most foodstuffs, being airtight would be a requirement), the majority of foodbanks ask for smaller items to be donated – 500g of sugar instead of 1kg, smaller packs of washing powder rather than ‘family size’ ones – because two 500g bags can help support two families, one 1kg bag can only help one family, albeit for a longer period of time. We are genuinely grateful for all donations and we do understand that smaller quantities can cost the donor more, but hopefully this explains why we are sometimes so specific in what is needed!