How easy is it to live on £1 a day for food?

I wish I could say that all this extra time in isolation has been put to good use; that I now wake up every day at 6am to fit in an hour of yoga before tucking into a picture-perfect avocado toast for breakfast. Unfortunately, I think if you calculated my average wake up time for these past two months, I doubt the time would be anywhere before noon. Though my lack of productivity has somewhat saved my dwindling bank account, I have also quickly realised that I suddenly have little to no source of income. In fact, I would even go to say that I miss the spam of ‘Indeed’ and ‘Total Jobs’ hounding my email’s inbox.

On such a tight budget, I was relieved and blessed to have my parents incorporate me back into their shopping lists. Sadly, I know that some students can’t say the same, or have chosen to live independently during the lockdown. With jobs being lost and potential means of income lacking, I thought this would be an interesting time to test how far £1 can take me. I decided to set myself a challenge: for the next five days, I would live off a £1 a day food budget. First, I had to set myself some rules…

Rules:

1). I can only spend £1 per 24 hours on food.

2). Any leftover money cannot be included in the budget the next day.

3). I can use leftover food the next day without taking it out of the next day’s budget, though I would have to take out the whole cost from the first day I used it (for example, if I use half a baguette on day 1 then ate the other half on day 2, I would take out the whole price of the baguette on day 1 but nothing on day 2 as it is already been paid for).

4). If my family tried to buy me food, I could not accept it.

Day One:

This morning I felt good. I had an unshakeable level of confidence rooting from that time in second year when I survived the last two weeks of term with only £2 left in my overdraft.

Breakfast: Mini chocolate croissant (Lidl – 22p). Absolutely awful idea. Literally tiny. I felt hungrier after I’d eaten it! At this point, I worked out that each meal should average around 33p to fit within my £1 budget. I think the pastry was too small to be worth 22% of my daily budget.

Lunch: Half a mini baguette (Lidl – 22p) and a whole can of baked beans (Lidl – 22p). This was a big meal and a little bit too dry for my liking. I can’t believe how much I underestimated butter until it became a luxury I couldn’t afford.

Dinner: Instant curry flavoured noodles (Lidl – 22p). I have decided that noodles are an absolute scam. I felt like I was eating them forever but at the same time, I felt like I had eaten nothing. Nice flavour though.

Total Spend: 88p.

Day Two:

Last night I kept waking up in hunger but by morning I wasn’t feeling too bad. Determined not to make the same breakfast mistake as yesterday, I went for something a bit heavier.

Breakfast: Half a can of spaghetti hoops (Lidl – 13p) and the leftover baguette from yesterday’s lunch. What a bargain on those spaghetti hoops! I am still in shock at how cheap they are – highly recommend.

Lunch: Can of vegetable soup (Lidl – 35p). My first big spend of the challenge! And one of my five a day – I have never been happier to see a vegetable.

Dinner: Small cheese and tomato pizza (Lidl – 49p) and the rest of the spaghetti hoops. When I say small it’s no bigger than the palm of a hand. And when I say hand, I mean a very small hand. All in all, today was a very beige day, and by 8pm I was the hungriest I’ve felt in a long time. In between chugging pints of water to help fill me up, I ran what I’d eaten today through a calorie counter and discovered that I had only eaten 540 calories. Yikes.

Total Spend: 97p.

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Day Three:

Seeing as I almost cracked last night, I felt surprisingly ok when I woke up. Usually in the morning, I make a smoothie using 4 fruits and vegetables, so my sudden exposure to carbs had my body feeling bloated and tired. I suppose the bloating could also have something to do with the fact that I have a wheat intolerance but hey, if you could name me one thing in the free from section I’ll give you all the money I saved from this challenge! Anyways, I digress…

Breakfast: Half a mini baguette (Lidl – 22p). After scanning the isles of Lidl, I was sad to have to return to my most frequented place during this challenge: Lidl’s bakery. Though the baguettes are a decent size and pretty cheap, I felt bored of eating them. But, in situations where you really do have a £1 a day budget for food, meal diversity is extremely limited.

Lunch: The other half of the baguette and half a can of baked beans (Lidl – 22p). Yawn. Please Aldi, I am begging you to have more fruit for under 20p.

Dinner: Tomato soup (Lidl – 35p) and a banana (Aldi – 11p). A piece of fruit at last! I was very happy. Some of my Instagram followers had suggested taking the free fruit that Tesco leave out for children. I felt too guilty taking it myself so naturally I asked my dad to take it for me, sadly he felt too bad to do it too. Clear conscious but with an equally clear (borderline empty) stomach.

Total Spend: 90p.

Day Four:

At this point, it was getting easier to go to bed whilst hungry. My water intake was definitely increasing too, and I think my body was getting used to the decreased calorie intake. I was easily agitated (or should I say more than I usually am), I felt heavy despite the lack of food, I was tired all the time, and all I could think about was food. As someone who is not a foodie at all, I was annoying myself.

Breakfast: A banana (Tesco – 11p) and the other half of the baked beans from yesterday’s lunch. A weird combination that most certainly did not work.

Lunch: Spaghetti hoops (Lidl – 13p) and half a mini baguette (Lidl – 22p). I miss butter so much. I can’t tell if all my meals resemble children’s food because of the £1 budget or because of my lack of cooking skills. Either way, I am sad, bored and bloated.

Dinner: Other half of the baguette and a can of vegetable soup (Lidl – 35p). I am so hungry. It’s currently 10:30pm and I’ve confined myself to my bedroom to down water and prevent myself from breaking the challenge on the penultimate day.

Total Spend: 81p.

Day Five:

Finally, it’s the last day! I am miserable. I think I actually hate food at this point (at least anything canned or from Lidl’s bakery section). This challenged has cemented in me the reality of poverty that isn’t funny or cool or trendy. I will definitely be donating to food banks once this challenge is over.

Breakfast: Half a mini baguette (Lidl – 22p) and half a can of baked beans (22p). A lovely plate of beige-ness. Is it possible for something to be both mushy and dry at the same time?

Lunch: The same as above (but the other half). Can you tell I’ve given up at this point?

Dinner: Another one of those small palm sized cheese and tomato pizzas (Lidl – 49p). Thought I’d go out on a bang with a pizza that costs nearly half my budget! I think my brain is struggling from the lack of food or vitamins. I’m trying to write this, but I can’t stop thinking about why Lidl call it a cheese and tomato pizza instead of a margherita pizza. Hm.

Total Spend: 93p.

Overall, this challenge was a lot harder than I thought it would be. My family ordered takeaway on the second day of the challenge and I felt absolutely betrayed. I spent a total of £4.49 over the 5 days, and though I was amazed I had only spent that much, it was heart breaking to know that many people have to live this way in order to survive. There’s not only a lack of vitamins in the foods available, but even with three meals a day I was still well below the healthy calorie intake guidelines. The challenge has opened my eyes to something I thought I knew about, but really, I had only ever touched the service. Following this challenge, I highly recommend that people review how much they spend on food shopping and realise how this money could be used to benefit others who are not as fortunate by donating non-perishable items or money to foodbanks.

I hope you enjoyed the challenge! I’m now off to stuff my face.

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By Keelin Brooks

I love creative writing and write written poetry as a passion project! I’m a final year Loughborough English student and I’m excited to be starting a masters at Newcastle University this September in Media and Journalism. As an aspiring journalist, I have published pieces in music magazines, online student blogs, and most recently, I have co-founded a new online magazine The Angel Archives to pass the time in quarantine!