What have I learned from Living Below the Line?

Well it’s been a few days since the Live Below the Line challenge ended, but because I’ve been so busy with coursework I haven’t had the time to post on here.

We managed to stay within our budgets and tried to be as imaginative as possible, but sometimes it was hard. Because carbohydrates and processed foods are so cheap to buy in bulk, we ate a lot of bread for breakfast and lunch. You never really know how much bread you eat until you have to pay attention to it and I think it’s suffice to say that I’ve gone a bit off eating floppy cheap bread now. One of the biggest problems that we found were the highs and lows, with all the cheap carbs we went up soon after eating them and then we came crashing down when the sugar wore off – not good when you’re trying to write 1500 word features!

But, we have learned from this challenge. We’ve learned that it’s easier to eat on a strict budget in a group, because more can be bought and more can be made for a lower individual price. I was lucky that I had two housemates going through the same want to raid the cupboards or even just drink some fruit juice, but I lived off water for 5 days whilst they made do with the odd cup of tea or cheap coffee (I don’t drink either). We’ve learned that we are capable of super budgeting, and we can see now just how much we spend on food (such delicious, varied food!) in a normal week in comparison.

We’ve also come across a great recipe that we’ll be making again, budgeting or not. It’s by Jack Monroe (aka A Girl Called Jack), and the recipe is for carrot, cumin and kidney bean burgers, which were super delicious with a couple of potatoes cut into chips and wrapped in a lettuce leaf instead of a bun. The recipe can be found here.