FelicityKnill

Who knew I had the willpower to resist food temptation for a whole week?!

As this challenge draws to an end, I can honestly say that it has been a worthwhile and rewarding experience. In a 'yes-that-was-good-but-i-wouldn't-really-want-to-repeat-it' kind of way. From a personal perspective it has made me re-evaluate my own actions, and count my blessings, which are considerably more than I had previously suspected. I find that when I do something really pro-active with oxfam, it really refreshes my ideals and reminds me of the principles that I sometimes leave guiltily at the wayside. That's exactly what has happened here. Hopefully in the future I will continue to value the luxuries and advantages that are a part of my everyday life, and treat money with the respect I have given it this week, rather than fritter it away in materialistic binges and general wastefullness.

My ability to feel sorry for myself and focus so completely on food has hopefully served a useful purpose in raising awareness of the everyday decisions that people living in poverty have to make; quantity OR quality, comfort and safety OR work, dinner OR the bus. Living in faux poverty for a week really is nothing in comparison to the hardships that people all over the world face with a lot more cheer and resiliance than I have managed, but my challenge has given me a much better understanding of what poverty really means.

I also want to say how impressed I am with everyones challenges, I'm super proud of us all :D and I've really enjoyed reading everyones fantastic blogs everyday!

  I hope we've raised lots of awareness and lots of money!

x x x x x

That was supposed to be Herefordian for ''it's good to be back in the country''. Why? because unlike in the city, the County with the highest number of apple orchards is prime countryside for foraging. I've got a bag full of baking apples that were completely freeeeeee. so I've been watching fireworks in my back garden, playing with sparklers, and eating baked apple. and drinking lemon squash. you cant win them all :D

in the mean time i'm desperately calculating what parts of my remaining groceries I dont need and I could legitimately exchange for sausages... My beans, my last tins of tomatoes, 3 packets of instant noodles, my hair, my dignity, my right leg... bonfire night hot dogs would make me very very happy. And my mum bought 50 posh sausages. 50.

if i sell my one and a half tins of beans  (25 + 12.5p)

two tins of tomatoes (50p)

3 packets of instant noodles (30p)

thats £1.17.... + 3p from my remaining pennies then I can buy 4 chipolata sausages at 30p a sausage.

It feels like cheating, but i figure that if I lived on less than a dollar a day, some bartering would probably be going on. And I obviously went a bit overboard on the carbs and bought too much food and actually have more left for the next 24 hours than I would eat. (who knew that was even possible on £1 a day!?)

it'll mean I'll be eating bread and potatoes and some peas tomorrow, but right now it definately feels like it'd be worth it. plus, i still have free cooking apples to eat.

In the meantime i'm planning free things to spend my last day of poverty challenge doing. A walk in the woods, a window shop in the town, an ogle at the bit of the high street that burned down the other week. maybe some dissertation work. Eyeing up the food i'm going to eat at midnight. d'you think midnight is too late to drink tea?

Had a slightly stressful trip home today. Finally managed to get up at a reasonable hour, but was dozily reading a book and didnt notice I'd got to my changeover point until I saw everybody else get off and started to wonder where they were all going. coupled with the now tiresome battle between a suitcase full of cans  and puddles and curbs, I was getting pretty narked off by the time I got into town. My loaf of bread is looking a little the worse for wear. Luckily seeing my family has offset this grumpiness and I'm feeling good (even though i've come home to find we dont have central heating or hot water. Thank god it's an electric shower).

Arriving home has made my challenge at least doubly difficult. So far I've turned down lunch out, chocolate, and cake baked especially because I was home. My parents dont seem to have quite got the idea of my challenge, and keep saying things like 'if we buy four sausage rolls then we'll never eat them all so we'd have to throw it out and then you can eat it'. The same formula seems to apply to nearly anything that can be bought in large quantities; curry, risotto, bags of chips, buy one get one free malteasers bags. I'm telling you, if this continues all weekend it'll take the dedication of a tibetan monk to resist. It's too wet for fireworks here tonight, so luckily I can put off my hot chocolate torment until tomorrow. May save my second tea bag for then so that i'm at least having a treat when everybody else is and I can FINALLY ditch this curdly squash.

Have finally decided what to spend my last 26p on- milk and oil, which might not be as exciting as strawberry jelly, but means that I can have milk in my cup of tea, and fried egg, chips and beans for dinner tonight. Yummy. I've worked out that my current vegetable oil costs 1.47p per tablespoon, so I will still be able to work out exactly how much I'm spending. Looking at my supplies I think I might even have food left at the end of the week! maybe I overdid the carbohydrates a little. I'm considering bartering some of my remaining goods with my mother for some aldi 'super six' leeks so that I can make leek and potato soup, and finally eat something that feels wholesome. Budget food seems to tend towards quantity much more than quality.

Overall I'm feeling pretty happy about my challenge, particularly because the end is in sight and I can look forward to eating normal food and probably gorging ridiculously on monday. I should just be greatful really that there IS an end in sight, whereas people actually living in poverty probably dont have a cup of coffee with a friend and a slap-up meal to look forward to on monday!

Also, something I came across-

http://onedollardietproject.wordpress.com/

these guys lived on a dollar a day for a whole month! made me feel like my challenge was just a bit more achievable!

p.s.  I guess I should explain if i havent already that my mum had already booked my train tickets home before I signed up for the challenge, so I've not included their cost in my weekly budget

Walking to work with a suitcase (and a rucksack. and a handbag) last night was very unpleasant. I'd forgotten how heavy a suitcase is, particularly when its full of all the food you'll be eating, along with the usual rubbish you dont really need but take anyway. because I hadnt allowed much extra time for the giant case I was lugging around with me, walking in felt like a sprint and by the time I got into work my calves and shoulders were aching, I was sweating, AND I was four minutes late. damn.

Today hasnt been that much better. I slept like the dead this morning, through my multiple alarms, and lied to my boyfriend who was conscientiously trying to get me to work on time by telling him that I was already out of bed. So, I got to my 11-5 shift without having eaten or brought food. Normally I would have begged, borrowed or stolen myself some lunch, but today I couldnt, and I spent my day eagerly eyeing up the food I was serving to people. My extra hungry stomach made me notice how much food people waste more than usual: a whole bowl of chicken goujons and half a bowl of curly fries, half a burger, a bowl of chips. Adages about finshing your dinner because you're lucky to have it have never felt as true to me as they did today.

I was going to wait until dinner to eat, but I dont think I can. There's a 17p can of chicken soup thats calling to me!

Today I Ate All At Pretty Much The Same Time:

1 can of chicken soup

2 potatoes made into wedges

2 poached eggs

1 tin tomatoes

1 bag maize snacks

I'm writing in a much more cheerful mood today. My headache is finally fading into the background, I'm cooking my dinner, which i'm actually excited about for the first time this week, and, i'm sipping on a cup of oolong tea. This is because I recieved a card today from a friend with two twinings tea bag samples. ^____^

When I started this challenge i said to myself that I wouldnt eat or drink and free stuff that wasnt available to everyone. But, you know what? Twinings tea bag samples ARE available to everyone. you can sign up on their website and get two free tea bags of your choice. So, it makes it fine for me to be drinking these samples that my friend sent me. And that, along with the fact that she was thinking about my struggles (she's a fellow avid tea drinker) has really made my day. also, the card is awesome.

Today, I have had the task of organising how i'm going to transport myself over the next couple of days. I'm working 7-close tonight, so I will be walking to work, in the dark, with a giant suitcase. Luckily my boyfriend lives close to where I work, so when I finish work tonight, any time between about 11:30 and 2:30, I can go and stay at his house. At first I couldnt work out how i'd get in, though, because he has to get up early and so will probably be asleep when I finish work. I dont have a key, and i cant ring the bell without waking up his flatmate and possibly his neighbours. I've run out of phone credit. He reminded me that I have free 3 to 3 calls (you can tell I dont use my phone much, cant you?!), so I can ring him and hopefully he will be able to let me in.

The next couple of days are similarly nightmarish in terms of logistics. I'm in work the next day from eleven until five, so wont really have time to go home before I'm in work again, and was planning to see my boyfriend on thursday evening anyway... I also have a train to catch at 9am Friday morning. Again staying at my boyfriends is a life-saver, because walking to the train station from my house, with a suitcase, would take over an hour, and as anybody who knows me could tell you I'm not a morning person. I'd never make it.

This logistical mess has shown me again how much easier life is when you can call a taxi, or get a bus. Or know that you've always got phone credit, a mobile phone. Even the ipod I'll be listening to in order to give me a false sense of security on the 40 minute walk to work this evening (with a massive suitcase) is a luxury I wouldnt be able to afford if i really lived in poverty.

Love and special thanks for the teabags!

What I Ate Today

Breakfast- none. i've not been very good at getting up this week

Lunch- Instant noodles, a bag of maize snacks

Dinner- Two potatoes made into wedges, cooked without fat, A poached egg, beans and some leftover passata. Yummy!

Also- A CUP OF TEAAAA