Day 28 - The Last Waltz

R-O-I-D-G-R-E-P

Well we got there. The last day of our £1 a day challenge and breakfast wouldn't be breakfast without a bowl of porridge.

Porridge + cuppa -11p

I had work to finish off before we headed through to see Mary's gran so I headed off to the studio for a few hours after breakfast.

We had our favourite (substitute *standard*) lunch of Tomato, lentil and spaghetti soup before we headed off.

Tomato, lentil and spaghetti soup - 11p

We were pretty hungry when we got back from Mary's gran's and I had a few more hours to do at the studio so we had a couple of slices of toast. Mary had the last of the butter and I had some groundnut oil, salt & pepper then I dried it with a splash of vinegar. Bizarrely it tasted ok!!!

Toast + cuppa - 6p

A few more hours of work then on to our final £1 a day dinner. Chilli and rice!! We kept one of the better meals from the freezer for our last night.

Chilli + rice - 45p

After dinner we made our donation using the money we didn't spend on food this month. We also pulled everything together that we hadn't used to see what was left. This is a photo of what we didn't use this month.

The frozen fish is still there, some frozen veg, a portion of porridge, 4 stock cubes, 2 portions of lentil soup made from the chicken stock cubes, a roll, a few slices of bread, some herbs, some teabags and about 2 teaspoons of sugar. Think we done quite well to use almost everything up apart from the fish. The final amount we spent was £55.90 which is 10p under the £56 we had set ourself for the month.

As our treat tonight we had left ourselves a small tin of mandarins to share with our cuppa.

1/2 tin mandarins + cuppa + peanuts - 21p

Total for the day 94p each.

Please use this link if you'd like to donate to Fairshare Just Giving Page.

Total raised so far £1406. 

This has surpassed all our expectations. We thought the £1000 target was a bit ambitious but everyone's generosity has blown us away.  Everyone has been so supportive during the month which has helped to keep us motivated.

A few people want to know what we'll be eating tomorrow so we'll do a final post tomorrow to capture that and give an update on the total raised.

Thanks again for taking the time to read the blog and for supporting us. We're very aware that we are lucky and can return to eating a more normal diet while there are still people less fortunate that won't have that luxury. Our thoughts are with those less fortunate than us.

Paul & Mary

Day 27 - Chocolate Box and Doughnut Smiles

P-o-r-r-i-d-g-e ......

Porridge + cuppa - 11p

This morning I had a shoot at Cafe St Honore with Neil Forbes. I'm normally fortunate and get to sample some of the dishes we shoot but not today. Sadly they all looked delicious as ever.  It was a bad idea as well to go to the kitchen as I could smell everything that was being made and could see the guys prepping for lunch.

I forgot to get a shot for the blog while I was there so went for a selfie back at the studio while I was processing the shots.

3 guesses what soup we had today. Nope, nope..... yip Lentil, tomato and spaghetti with a wee chaser of peanuts with tea!!!

Lentil, tomato and spaghetti soup + peanuts + cuppa - 16p

Mary was being teased at work today with a gift from a work colleague for us to have on Sunday night. A bottle of Chocolate Box wine which is a favourite of ours for special occasions. Thanks Alistair!!

Dinner was another mix of things tonight we had left over from the last few weeks. Few strips of bacon, kidney beans, tomato sauce, rice and baguette. Felt like an episode of Ready Steady Cook!!!

Bacony, beany, ricey thing with baguette - 41p

After dinner we went for our nightly walk with Bails to work off dinner. When we got back we halved our last doughnut with a cuppa.

1/2 Doughnut + cuppa - 3p

Total for the day 71p each.

Please use this link if you'd like to donate to Fairshare Just Giving Page.

Total raised so far £1162.18. Thanks again for all the support.

Paul & Mary

Day 26 - Off the Eaten Track with Lea Harris

Back to the porridge again today. Just another couple of portions left. This bag has served us well.

Porridge + cuppa - 11p

Lunch was a return to the lentil, tomato and spaghetti soup after the pea over load from yesterday.

Lentil, tomato and spaghetti soup + peanuts + cuppa - 16p

Tonight's dinner was again a mix of things we had left .... sausage, veg and rice with a splash of vinegar and a dusting of chilli powder.

Sausage, Veg and Rice + diluting juice - 26p

This evening I had the pleasure of appearing on Castle FM talking to Lea Harris on her show "Off the Eaten Track". As with so many people we've met over the month the first thing Lea did was offer to buy me a tea or coffee which I had to politely decline. It was good fun and hopefully I didn't sound too much of an arse!! Mary said Bailey was confused hearing me on the radio and kept running to the front door and bedroom looking for me.

Back home and tonight's treat. A slice of toast and 1/2 a banana.

Toast and banana + cuppa - 10p

Total for the day 63p each.

Please use this link if you'd like to donate to Fairshare Just Giving Page.

Total raised so far £1114.18. Thanks again for all the support.

Paul & Mary

Day 25 - Breaking our target

We had a break away (not the biscuit) from porridge this morning and had a couple of slices of toast. The better bread is a big improvement on the skinny stuff. The scrapping sound the knife makes as you spread butter on toast is a wonderful thing!!!

2 slices of toast + butter - 7p

We both had our rations of peanuts mid morning.

Peanuts - 4p

Lunch was a less successful affair. It was the pea and ham soup. Mary was all pea-d out after last night's omelette which was a bit pea heavy. She didn't manage to eat it all. I on the other hand was happy to eat mine but my flask stopped working today and it was cold when I opened it. It is one of the metal ones and I was kind of half expecting it to be cold as the outside of the flask was warm to touch.

Pea and ham soup - 23p

After the soup not quite hitting the mark for lunch we were both keen to have something good for dinner. Tonight we used up 1/2 a curry sauce we had frozen from last week plus 1/2 a tin of kidney beans. It was  a bit of Indian-Mexican fusion!! We also used the last of the flour to make a couple of flatbreads. It was pretty good and better than when we added the frozen veg to the curry sauce. We have 399grams of rice left which is to go between the next 4 meals so we had 99g of that tonight. The scales have been essential this month. We've been weighing everything.

Curry and rice + flatbread - 31p

Mary is out at pilates and I'm just about to take Bails for a little walk. When we get back though we're having a whole doughnut each with custard then a wee cuppa.

Doughnut, custard + cuppa - 10p

Total for the day 75p each.

A little reminder that I'll be on Castle FM 98.8 tomorrow night (Thursday) between 7-8pm talking about our challenge and food photography.

Total raised so far £1038.18. 

What a brilliant day surpassing our target of £1000 and we've still got a few days left to go. The support from everyone has been brilliant and totally helped to drive us on and keep us focused.

Please use this link if you'd like to donate to Fairshare Just Giving Page.

Paul & Mary

Day 24 - As cheap as chips

Purrage again.

Porridge + cuppa - 11p

Mary was working out at the Gyle today so an early start. I dropped her off and took Bails out to see my dad armed with my 2 flasks. One with tea so we could have a cuppa and the other with my tomato, lentil and spaghetti soup. Its a good soup and tastes great but I might not make it for a while after this week.

Tomato, Lentil and Spag Soup - 11p

After a long walk at Calendar park which is one of Bails favourite places I got home and realised I had my day's ration of peanuts waiting for me. 2 at a time. With this small amount you don't what to rush things. I have found that I'm eating slower since we started this. I think you appreciate everything so much more and you want to savour what you are eating.

Peanuts - 4p

This week we are using up what we have left and since we've gone off the fish we're having a few veggie options. Tonight's veggie option is an omelette with chips. The Orangutan killing fries will be gone after tonight never to return. Thinking of proper chips I could murder proper Fish n Chips right now. We both love the chippy in Blair Atholl which is strange considering its probably one of the furthest places from the sea in the whole of Scotland. It is a great chippy and always cooks to order. I'm dreaming of that right now. MMmmmmmmm!!!


Good bye fries.

Would like egg with your peas??

Anyway, here's the omelette and chips.

Pea & Onion Omelette + chips - 28p

After our walk with Bails tonight we will be treating ourselves to a cuppa and half a doughnut. We do look forward to these wee treats at the moment but not sure I want to keep this going once we finish. Too much sugar which is replacing the fruit we are missing.

1/2 Doughnut + cuppa - 3p

Total for the day 57p each (this is the lowest we've spent in a day so far and I can't quite get my head round it myself)

Please use this link if you'd like to donate to Fairshare Just Giving Page.

Total raised so far £915.18. Thanks again for all the support.

Paul & Mary

Day 23 - Finally going bananas ....

Porridge again for breakfast.

Porridge + cuppa - 11p

Mary was working from home so I nipped back for our soup alternative .... boiled egg and toast. The toast was from the bread we got reduced yesterday and was loads better than the 45p skinny slices we'd had for the rest of the month.

Egg and Toast - 8p

We were also able to finish off the pancakes from yesterday with a wee cuppa.

Pancake + cuppa - 3p

Tonight's dinner was the turkey (pork?) and penne pasta.

Turkey and pasta + diluting juice - 47p

After dinner we had our first banana since January. It's amazing the things you take for granted like a banana.  We tend to think nothing about sharing a bunch between 2 people over a week. Tonight we shared one banana and half a packet of custard between us. I cooked it with some butter and butter as it was till a bit hard. Was nice but I can't wait to be able to enjoy a whole banana to myself next week. We've totally missed the fresh fruit. Such a simple thing and something a lot of us take for granted every week.

With the custard.

Banana + custard - 13p

We did feel a bit peckish later and although we probably didn't need it we had the portion of nuts we had allocated ourselves for tonight.

Peanuts - 4p (actually 3.4p)

Total for the day 86p each.

Please use this link if you'd like to donate to Fairshare Just Giving Page.

Total raised so far £915.18. Thanks again for all the support.

Paul & Mary

Day 22 - Doughnuts and Peanuts

This diet is effecting my dreams. Last night's included me having a pint with David Cameron. He was getting a hard time from a group of people and I ushered him away to a quieter bit of the bar to avoid the hassle. More of a nightmare than a dream I guess!!!

Had my week 3 weigh-in and have lost 16 lbs since we started. Happy with the weigh lose but would not recommend the diet as a good approach to weight lose. Mary and I decided not to go with the woman's magazine agent and her offer to place our story in a number of woman's magazines as we were worried it might have become a fad diet!!

Back to porridge for breakfast.

Porridge + cuppa - 11p

After breakfast we met friends and their new puppy and went for a walk round Arthur's Seat.

Lunch was sausage baguette.

Sausage Baguette, pancake + cuppa - 14p

Afternoon, again was catching up with some work while Mary read her book with Bails keeping her warm on the sofa. Once I got work out of the way we checked our budget and planned what to spend the remainder of our monthly budget on. We had a total of £2.52 to spend!!!

We wanted to get some fresh fruit and a few other things we hadn't had yet. We visited Lidl and Tesco. There were a few fruit options at around a £1 but that's a full day's budget. Interestingly you can get a whole bag or pears from Lidl for 99p and for 1p more a little plastic container of mixed fruit for £1. Also, I've no idea what a "fun size" pear is.

So here is our last shop. We did the vulture thing in Tesco when we saw they guy marking things down. We don't normally eat doughnuts but 6 for 23p was too good a deal to pass on.

We also bought some peanuts as we just got a craving for them as soon as we saw them. Once we got home we weighed the nuts and gave ourselves a 14th of the bag each so we can have a wee portion each day over the remainder of the week. Here is the portion we had each. I'd say it was equivalent to a handful you might eat in one go then have a swig of a beer. I had them 2 at a time and licked the salt of them. I was genuinely excited having these.

Peanuts - 4p (actually 3.4p)

Dinner was pizza with mozzarella this time.

Pizza - 44p

While having dinner we watched Countryfile where they covered a story about milk prices and how it's now cheaper than mineral water in most supermarkets. How can that happen and what is the impact on dairy farmers. Supermarkets are constantly squeezing farmers margins to the point we will force them down a battery style approach to farming. None of the supermarket chains seem to be paying a reasonable price to farmers but the following are probably the best - Tesco, Marks & Spencer, Sainsbury’s and Waitrose. On the other hand Lidl, Asda, Aldi and Iceland have recently dropped prices further so please try and use one of the better suppliers if you can.

Read more about it here: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jan/13/milk-cheaper-than-water-what-happens-cows

Tonight we treated ourselves to one of the doughnuts each and we froze the rest for later in  the week.

Doughnut + cuppa - 5p

Total for the day 78p each.

Please use this link if you'd like to donate to Fairshare Just Giving Page.

Total raised so far £895.18. Thanks again for all the support.

Paul & Mary

Day 21 - The death of the hunter gatherer

Our clever clogs friend Colin Cadden came up with a solution for the lack of fingers which has made me redundant. Mary has moved to countdown mode this morning when she woke and presented me with 8 fingers to represent 8 days left.

Being the weekend we had a break from the porridge.

Bacon, beans & toast - 29p

After breakfast Mary made some more pancakes to do us for treats over the weekend.

I was working today while Mary took Bailey for a haircut. Lunch was the tomato, lentil and spaghetti soup (made with the cheaper chicken stock cubes from a few weeks back).

Tomato, lentil and spaghetti soup - 11p

... and a wee afternoon treat.

Pancakes + cuppa - 4p

Some domestic chores in the afternoon then a walk at Newhails with Bails. The walk did involve a discussion about what we felt we had taken from doing this so far and how we are going to rethink our eating and drinking habits. It certainly makes you realise how fortunate most of us are to eat when we like to but has left us wondering how much we really enjoy our food as it's no longer something that involves the effort it used to for our forefathers. Hunting and gathering is a thing of the past but for a lot of people these days the gathering bit has gone and its now online and then a person turns up and chucks it in the fridge for them.

Dinner was the last of the bolognese I made a few weeks ago. We have loads of pepper left so I went a wee bit mad on mine.

Penne bolognese - 51p

I had thought I might be hankering after a wee cheeky beer after a long week but to be honest the though of a cuppa with a pancake seems just as rewarding.

Pancake + cuppa - 4p

Total for the day 99p each.

Please use this link if you'd like to donate to Fairshare Just Giving Page.

Total raised so far £895.18. Thanks again for all the support.

Paul & Mary

Day 20 - A tale of two curries

Every morning since we started Mary has woken up and pushed her hand(s) out of the duvet with the number of fingers held up that represent the number of days in we are. I obviously joined in after day 10. Today we ran out of fingers having reached the 20 day point. Either Bailey is going to join in or one of us is going to have to pull a yoga move off and use a foot.

Anyway, early start today as Mary was out at the Gyle. Porridge was done by 07:30am.

Porridge + cuppa - 11p

Another morning of sifting through more food photos from a shoot from last week with a cup of hot water. In my mind I had about 10 courses!!!

11:46am  I got the "I'm craving wine already ...." text from Mary.

Lunch was the tomato, lentil and spaghetti soup again.

Tomato, lentil and spaghetti soup - 18p

The afternoon was again sifting through more food photos from the shoot on Wednesday. 13 courses this time with 2 cocktails thrown in for good measure.

While arranging to pick Mary up I got the following text "Okidoki beer?". She seems to have developed alcohol related tourettes in the last 24 hours.

Dinner was curry minus the fish (it's been banned for the next week) with veg to replace it. Here's the frozen veg.

And the finished dish.

Veg Curry and Rice - 29p

We had been invited to the opening of VDeep the new Indian Street Food and Graft Beer bar in what used to be The Vintage. Indian food is probably my favourite food. Luckily or unluckily depending how you look at it I still had work to finish off so couldn't go. This is a photo taken by me at VDeep of what we could have been eating washed down by a cold beer (sigh....).

More photo editing and uploading for the rest of the evening for me while Mary takes Bails for his evening walk.

Tonight's treat later will be this wee beauty halved between us and a cuppa.

1/8 apple pie + cuppa - 8p


Total for the day 77p each.

Please use this link if you'd like to donate to Fairshare Just Giving Page.

Total raised so far £850.18. Thanks again for all the support.

Paul & Mary

Day 19 - Throwing your ethics out the window

Porridge ... porridge... porridge... porridge!!!

Porridge + cuppa - 11p

Lunch was another standard from the soup we made a few weeks ago. Lentil soup with the funny chicken stock cubes. Interestingly we're not taking anything in to work apart from the soup  these days and we're coping a lot better and not feel so hungry. Our bodies must be adjusting to the lack of calories during the day.

Lentil Soup - 14p

Less tortuous day today for me doing headshots of young actors and not food related although I did have to do a bit of processing of some food shots late afternoon which got me thinking of dinner by 3pm. Tonight's plan was to use the frozen fish for a curry as we still have a jar of curry sauce left which will do 2 meals. Mary wasn't keen on the idea of fish curry and to be honest neither was I. We've both kind of put ourselves off the fish.  Even when I suggested veg curry I could tell she had gone off the idea of a curry. Plan B was to swap tonight's and tomorrow night's dinner.

So tonight's dinner was fried eggs, beans and chips.

... and the finished dish with another cameo from my thumb.

Interestingly the chips are pretty cook and even more so when you give them a sprinkle of chilli powder which I think I have used in every dinner since we started. The consideration with the chips is a bit like a lot of the other food we've bought in terms of the impact on the environment, the welfare of the animals before they were slaughtered and is the supplier been screwed over by the big supermarkets. The chips for example had palm oil in them. The supply of palm oil in a lot of cases comes from deforested areas which have caused the displacement of endangered species like Orangutan.

Some links on Orangutan and palm oil
http://www.orangutan.org.uk/
http://www.saynotopalmoil.com/

Eggs, beans and chips - 29p (plus a dead Orangutan on our conscious)

And standing down off my environmentalist's "sustainable wooden box" we're now about to head off for our nightly walk with Bails so we can get back in for "Eat Well for Less" and see if this week's family can outdo the ridiculous £300 a week shop of last week's family of four.

Our treat tonight though is a real treat .... toasted cheese with the wee big cheddar we have left.

Toast n cheese + cuppa - 21p 

Total for the day 75p each ... one of our cheapest days yet!!!

Please use this link if you'd like to donate to Fairshare Just Giving Page.

Total raised so far £850.18. Thanks again for all the support.

Paul & Mary

Day 18 - Boozy cravings

Both of us were pretty tired when we got up today. It might have been due to getting up 1/2 an hour earlier and it still being dark when went out for our walk with Bails. Back for a surprise breakfast. Unfortunately not .... Porridge again for breakfast.

Porridge + cuppa - 11p

Today I had another day long food shoot with magical aromas wafting around me all day long. I also didn't feel great at one point. I suspect it was my sugar levels!!! I had one of the pancakes from last night and a water and felt better half an hour later. Today's lunch could have been anything from the 15 dishes I had to shoot but was instead pea and ham soup from 2 weeks ago.

Here's a quick shot of the view I had for most of the day.

 

Pea and ham soup + a pancake - 26p

I had to work on at the studio after the shoot to catchup on some work and Mary was at a pilates class so we didn't get dinner until 8:20pm. Both felt very hungry by this point. Dinner was chilli and rice.

Chilli + rice - 45p

Feels like a long day. Both Mary and I could have had a wee glass of wine or a beer tonight. It's long days like this that I miss a drink to relax with.

Finally sitting down with a cuppa and our last pancake.

Cuppa + pancake - 4p


Total for the day 86p each.

Please use this link if you'd like to donate to Fairshare Just Giving Page.

Total raised so far £840.18. Thanks again for all the support.

Paul & Mary

Day 17 - Mary Queen of Pancakes

Sorry folks standard breakfast again today.

Porridge + cuppa - 11p

Another standard for lunch. Tomato, lentil & spaghetti soup. We've made 2 pots of this so it's going to figure heavily for lunch over the remainder of the month. It's made me realise that our diet is revolving round a lot of tinned tomatoes, lentils, beans and pasta. I do love a tomato sauce but we're getting pretty tried of the sight of it now and tinned tomatoes figure in most of the remaining meals.

Tomato, lentil and spaghetti soup - 18p

You've seen what it looks like a few times now so didn't take a photo of the soup. Here's a photo of some water instead. Between no booze and the amount of water we are drinking I'm hoping our livers are in the best state they've probably been since we were in our teens.

The afternoon brought confirmation that I'll be appearing on Castle FM 98.8's Off the Eaten Track on Thursday 26th February between 7-8pm. I was contacted by Lea Harris the presenter of the show after she had seen a post on about this challenge. I'll be talking about the challenge itself and food photography.

Dinner was a return to an old favourite. Turkey Milanese and more of those pesky tinned tomatoes and pasta again.

The finished dish with a bit too much pasta. We were hungry tonight and don't need the rest of the spaghetti  for the rest of the month so we decided to use it all. This time the turkey was turkey!!!

Turkey, tomato sauce and pasta + glass of diluting juice - 54p

Shrove Tuesday so Mary was back in the kitchen knocking out these wee beauties.

We didn't eat all of these and kept some back for tomorrow and Thursday ... hopefully!!!

3 pancakes + cuppa - 11p

Total for the day 94p each.

Please use this link if you'd like to donate to Fairshare Just Giving Page.

Total raised so far £840.18. Thanks again for all the support.

Paul & Mary

Day 16 - A sense of deja vu

**Repetition alert**

Regular readers are about to experience a sense of deja vu.

Breakfast was surprise surprise porridge + cuppa.

Porridge + cuppa - 11p

Mary was working from home so I popped into Farmfoods to get another load of eggs for lunch. They'll also need to last us the next 2 weeks. Our contingency budget is now down to £3.72 and most of that is allocated. It is going to be very tight!!! Some tough choices to make and suspect it will go to essentials and not digestives which are now finished.

We're both finding a real love for egg and toast. Simple but tasty!!! We were a bit hungry and had wolfed down most of lunch before I thought to take a photo.

1.5 Eggs and toast + cuppa - 14p

Afternoon flew by. We are becoming less hungry after lunch these days and finding a few glasses of water is normally enough to stave off any hunger pangs.

Dinner tonight was back to another meal I think we've both tried to avoid.  Fish, tomato sauce with peas and boiled rice. It's fair to say we're not too keen on the frozen fish. I think the remaining fish will go with the curry sauce we have left.

Fish, tomato sauce, peas + rice - 52p

Walk with Bails is done. We're waiting on Broadchurch starting, listening to a bit music and trying to work out what to have with our cuppa at 9pm. Toast or porridge seems the only options!! Think that will be a slice of toast between us then.

Cuppa + 1/2 slice of toast - 2p

Total for the day 79p each.

Please use this link if you'd like to donate to Fairshare Just Giving Page.

Total raised so far £800.18. Thanks again for all the support.

Paul & Mary

Day 15 - "Let's pop the sausage in"

Two weeks under our belt and we're both going down a couple of notches. I had another weight-in this morning and I've now lost 11Ibs since we started.

Before breakfast we took Bails for a walk to Holyrood park. For breakfast we finished off the 2nd half of the beans from yesterday with a slice of toast.

Toast and beans + Cuppa - 9p

After breakfast I did a quick stock check on what we still had left since we were at the half way point. I then made another batch of soup and pasta sauce. 

I also broke up the spare spaghetti we had left after I measure how much we needed for later in the week.

Tomato, lentil and spaghetti soup - 18p

Bailey eyeing up the soup!!

We were heading out to see friends and their new baby so we finished off the tinned peaches from the other day and made ourselves a flask of tea to take to theirs.

Peaches - 5p

Cuppa - 1p

After our "stock take" this morning we worked out we had some spare sausages so we decided to use one in the pasta for a bit of protein.

Pasta, tomato sauce and sausage - 45p

We're just about to head out for a quick walk with Bailey but we have a wee treat when we get back. A cuppa and an 1/8 of the apple pie from last Sunday. A bargain at 25p for the whole thing so this little slice only cost us 3.1p each.

We're both glad to be past the 1/2 way point as we're getting bored with the repetitiveness of what we have available to eat and drink although we're still grateful that we have food to eat as so many people in the UK and across the world may not have eaten a tall today.

Cuppa + apple pie slice - 5p

Total for the day 83p each. 

Please use this link if you'd like to donate to Fairshare Just Giving Page.

Total raised so far £787.18. Thanks again for all the support.

Paul & Mary