life, by me

Friday, October 04, 2013 | Posted by Hazel

Today was my last day 'living below the line'.

My menu for today:

Breakfast - Porridge with water and a brown sugar - 7p

Snack - a Banana - 13p

Lunch - Baked beans on a toasted brown roll - 20.5p

Snack - an Apple - 5p

Dinner - Spanish Risotto - 41p

Total spend = 86.5p 

My cheapest day!  I had a friend coming round for dinner this evening and anticipated I might need more of my budget to cater for that, so I decided to find a cheaper option for my lunch than the soup.   I had half a tin of baked beans left over from Tuesday's dinner so had those for lunch instead, saving me just over 10p, winner. 

This week I've discovered it's much cheaper to cook for more than one person - it takes the same amount of time to prepare the food, uses the same amount of pots, and gas, and is somehow cheaper.  Making meals for one just seem to cost more.  You can add cheap ingredients to a meal to make it go further and serve more people.  This evening the Spanish Risotto I made would have served 4, so I have another 2 portions which I can freeze for future meals!

Living below the line has taught me that living on a tight budget is possible, but you have to be very disciplined.  I've learnt there are lots of things I take for granted, and just assume that everyone can do/afford, when really that is not the case.  Going out for coffee with my friends was a no go - my favourite coffee in Starbucks costs £2.95, that's the equivalent of 3 days worth of food.  I couldn't just eat when I felt the slightest twinge of hunger or even boredom - every snack I ate meant my meal later on in the day would have to be cheaper.  I've learnt that it's possible to live on much less than I do and to save money by cooking in bulk and planning ahead - things I will try and do in the future.

People all over the world (1.4 billion to be a little more precise) go to bed hungry every day, that is more than 20 times the UK population.  This week has really challenged me about what I take for granted in my life and how easy I actually have it. 

Thank you for supporting me in my week of 'living below the line'.

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Thursday, October 03, 2013 | Posted by Hazel

Today, like the rest of this week, has started with porridge.  This morning I mixed in a little brown sugar, another of my more pricier toppings this week but it was worth it.

Instead of soup today, I splashed out, spending a little extra on having yesterdays dinner leftovers of the tuna kedgeree, which tasted just as good heated up this afternoon.

This evening I went out for dinner...yes I did.  I was invited round to my friends for dinner and after explaining to her that I was eating on a budget this week she challenged herself to cook on a budget for her whole family, and they did!  Joy cooked us up a treat of pasta with tinned tomatoes, red pepper, and some spices alongside some garlic bread and a smattering of grated cheese for the pricey sum of 32p each - winner!  Thank you Joy!

Today has felt pretty normal - no headaches, I didn't feel hungry too much and not really feeling tempted by food I have passed today.

Breakfast - Porridge and brown sugar = 7p
Snack - a banana = 13p
Lunch - leftover Tuna Kedgeree = 42p
Snack - an apple = 5p
Dinner - Pasta, tomato sauce, garlic bed and a sprinkle of cheese = 32p

Total spend = 99p

Before I attempted to 'live below the line' I wouldn't think twice about buying myself a chocolate bar for a snack, priced at anything between 50p and 80p, and that would just be in addition to the rest of my daily consumption.  I'm not saying that I'm not going to eat chocolate again, but this week has made me realise how I often take my wealth for granted and the things that I would have had every day feel like a luxury right now.

1 billion children all over the world live below the poverty line and it is not their choice.

Thank you for following my live below the line challenge so far, last day tomorrow...

www.justgiving.com/hazel-swan4

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Wednesday, October 02, 2013 | Posted by Hazel

Over half way in my 'live below the line' challenge now.  It's been a good day all round, not felt too hungry, although getting some peas out the freezer earlier I spied some Ben and Jerry's ice cream, and then it started waving at me.  Luckily I managed to peel myself away from the freezer pretty quickly.

Todays menu...

Breakfast - Porridge with water and a spoon of sugar - 6p

(Vast improvement on the sultanas and the sweetener)

Snack - Banana - 15p

Lunch - Spicy butternut squash soup - 31p

(Luckily I'm not bored of this yet)

Snack - an apple - 5p

Dinner - Tuna Kedgeree - 42p

This was probably my best dinner this week so far and I'm feeling full up from it too.  It made 2 portions, so I have another portion for tomorrow, although I did have to stop myself from demolishing both portions at the time.

It was really simple to make and didn't use many ingredients - this is how I made it:

Ingredients (for 2 portions)

1/2 an onion - 5p

125g rice - 5p

240ml water

Sprinkle of stock powder (optional)

1 tin of tuna - 49p

1 egg (hardboiled) - 15p

100g frozen peas - 10p

1 - Chop up the onion (I used a red onion) and fry until it goes soft.  

2 - Add the rice, stir in with the onion and then add the water.

3 - Bring to the boil and then turn the heat down, put the lid on and leave to cook for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally so it doesn't stick.  I also added a bit more water (about another 200ml as it dried out, but it's up to you what consistency you want your rice).

4 - I added a sprinkle of stock powder just to add to the taste and some seasoning.

5 - Add the peas and cook for another couple of minutes, until the rice has soaked up all the water.

6 - Chop up the boiled egg and add this and the drained tin of tuna and mix in.

Total spend = 99p

So far, this week has shown me just how frivolous I can be with food; how I waste so much that I don't deem to be edible and throw things out that I haven't eaten before they've gone bad.  I can't believe how little I have spent this week and how I have still managed to feed myself 3 decent meals a day.  I am not normally this organised.  Living below the line you have to plan ahead what you are going to eat, and make use of every item of food you have in the cupboards and fridge.  You can't afford to waste food.

My ethics have also been highlighted this week.  Some of my purchasing choices are not based on cost - for example, I could have saved money on eggs if I'd have bought caged hen eggs, but I only wanted to buy free range, meaning I had to pay more.  In everyday life I try and buy Fairtrade products when I can, but living below the line you don't always have the luxury of choice.

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Tuesday, October 01, 2013 | Posted by Hazel

I decided pretty early on that it would be better to buy in bulk and price up a portion of food, rather than go shopping with £5 and see what I could buy.  Buying in bulk enables a more varied diet but still within a budget.  You do need to have the ability to make large purchases up front though, outlaying more than £5 initially in order to have food in the house and ingredients to use.  I am lucky that I was able to do that, and haven't actually bought anything (other than a butternut squash) from the shops so far this week.

So, menu of the day consisted of:

Breakfast - Porridge, made with water and a drizzle of sultanas - 6p

This was alright, but I think I preferred it with the sweetener, it was, er, sweeter and less gloopy.  Might revert back to that or try something else, ooh excitement, watch this space.

Snack - a nectarine - 15p

Lunch - Spicy butternut squash soup - 31p

A few people have asked me for the recipe, so here it is:

Ingredients (for 6 portions)

1 x butternut squash - 75p

a sprinkle of nutmeg

2 x potatoes - 31p

2 x carrots - 15p

1 x onion - 18p

1 x chilli - 10p

1 pint veg stock - 7p 

a handful fresh coriander - 10p

200ml milk (optional) - 20p 

1 - Peel the butternut squash and cut it in half.  Put it in a baking tray with a small amount of water in the bottom to stop it from sticking to the pan.  Sprinkle some nutmeg on it and then put it in the oven and roast until soft.

2 - Put an onion, a chilli, 2 carrots and 2 potatoes, all chopped up into a pan and fry with a small amount of butter for about 10 minutes.

3 - Add a pint of stock and cook for a further 20 minutes.

4 - Remove the squash from the oven when cooked and cut into small pieces, then add to the stock mixture and cook for a further couple of minutes.

5 - You may want to add a little more stock at this point to bulk it out a bit and make it go further.  Blend with a hand blender until smooth.

6 - Add your milk to give it a smooth texture and blend/stir again.  

7 - Serve yourself a portion and put the rest in to plastic containers suitable for the freezer and freeze for another day!

Although I had this yesterday I still enjoyed it today.  I usually have the same thing for lunch everyday anyway as it's easy to prepare and I don't have to think about it before work!  It would maybe be a nice idea to make a few different soups and freeze them in portions so you can have a variety of flavours throughout the week.

Ok, my menu continued....

Snack - an apple - 5p

Dinner - a Jacket Potato with beans and a splattering of cheese - 43p

Total spend = £1

No headaches today so my body must be getting used to the lack of sugar/caffeine!  I've managed to resist a lot of cake and biscuits again today that were in the staff room at work so my self control is also getting a testing this week.

Thanks again to everyone who has already sponsored me and donated to Raleigh International!

Day 2 = complete.

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Monday, September 30, 2013 | Posted by Hazel

Day one of 'living below the line'.  In conclusion, it hasn't been as hard as I had expected, and the main problem seems to be a sugar low headache that has been pretty persistent all evening.

Firstly, I already had food in the fridge and cupboards before I began this challenge and I didn't want to waste that food as that would kind of defeat the aim of trying to live below the poverty line, food waste is not an option to people who can't afford to put meals on the table (or floor if you live in India...).  So everything I have eaten today (except a butternut squash) has been using items I already had and what they cost me to buy.

Breakfast - Porridge made with water and a sprinkling of sweetener

Porridge oats - 3p for a 35g portion

Water - Free

Sweetner - 1p for a 'sprinkle'

Snack - a banana - 15p

Lunch - Home made spicy roasted butternut squash soup

I have made enough soup to last all week and it works out at 31p per portion.

Snack - an apple - 5p (from a friends orchard)

Dinner - Pasta and red pesto with a dash of cheddar

Pasta - 10p

Pesto - 20p

20g cheese - 15p (I had 15p left of my £1 budget so the cheese was a total luxury, I worked out what I could eat for 15p and it was 20g, it was totally worth it)

Total spend = £1

All in all, it's been a pretty good day.  I've felt hungry at points but I think that's probably more down to the fact that I have known that my food intake has been limited by cost and therefore I couldn't just eat every time I felt a little bit hungry - or not hungry at all but just bored and wanting food!  I've even tested my self control, holding back on 2 times today when I have been faced with a lot of cakes and sweet stuff offered to me.  I know I probably could accept 'freebies' but I have decided not to as if I wanted I could probably get a lot of food for free from the kindness of my friends and the people around me, but people living below the poverty can not always rely on others' kindness to put food on their table.

You definitely have to be a lot more organised and plan ahead when living on a tight budget and find creative ways to use every ingredient you have to make your food go as far as you can.

I've had a lot of food in bowls today for some reason - just noticed that.  Breakfast and lunch are going to look pretty similar for the week and I'll have to see how creative I can get with dinners.

By the way, the soup was really nice, I freestyled a bit but hopefully I can cope with having that every lunch this week.

Thanks to everyone who has already donated to Raleigh International!

www.justgiving.com/hazel-swan4

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Sunday, September 29, 2013 | Posted by Hazel

So having recently returned from India, I'm feeling passionate about some of the things I saw and experienced whilst I was out there.

One of the big things that touched me whilst I was living in Kokkal was how they survive on much little that us.  I'm not talking about the relation between the British Pound and the Indian Rupee, but about the fact that many of us live lifestyles with comfort and an abundance of food and facilities that other people could never imagine.  They are forced to live a much more basic lifestyle, living under the poverty line.

"The poverty threshold, or poverty line, is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a given country. In practice, like the definition of poverty, the official or common understanding of the poverty line is significantly higher in developed countries than in developing countries." [wikipedia]

This week I am challenging myself to live below the line, spending a maximum of £1 per day on all the food and drink that I consume.  I won't be accepting freebies and any food I already have in the cupboards will be costed and accounted for in my daily budget.

I'm definitely going to have less variety in my diet than I usually would and choices are going to be more limited.  I'm going to have to be a lot more organised than normal and think a lot more about what I am purchasing and spending my money on.

When I was in India we ate rice for pretty much every meal and when the supplies were low there wasn't much else to the meal.  It was very humbling when in the last week in Kokkal the locals in the village all clubbed together, donating 50 rupees each (a third of their daily wage) to buy us some chicken - which they then cooked for us.

One of the amazing meals the generous people of Kokkal cooked us

Raleigh International is working with ICS (the International Citizen Service) supporting a diverse range of UK young people and volunteers from developing countries to fight poverty, gain skills and change their own communities for the better.  I went out to India with Raleigh and would like to raise funds to help support the work that Raleigh International does to help build and develop communities all over the world.

Tomorrow it begins... www.justgiving.com/Hazel-Swan4

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Tuesday, September 03, 2013 | Posted by Hazel

We basically hit the ground running this phase completing all the following in the last 3 weeks: a health camp, a vet camp, the Mense House construction, building a wall around the Kindergarten, constructing some washing stones and lots of health awareness.  It has been really busy, and feels as though it went really quickly as well.

So, the Mense House - we finished it!  It was hard work and took longer than we expected but the whole team worked really hard to get it completed on time ready for the women in the village to use.

Building the walls

The local ladies watching us work (a regular occurrence)

Outside complete!

Plastering the outside

Ta da!

In the last couple of weeks the weather really picked up, with torrential rain and wind an almost distant memory.  We all spent a lot more time with the villagers and I now feel as though I know some of them really well.

We were given a small budget to use within the village and reach another need.  We decided to use this money to buy the materials to build a wall around the kindergarten to stop children from running in to the cars.  This was again another big project but we managed to get it done and the volunteers painted educational murals along the side of it, it looked really good and the staff at the kindergarten were all really pleased with it!

Our accidental blue wall which we grew to love

Leaving our mark in the village on the new wall

Some educational painting on the wall

The song we taught the children to encourage them to brush their teeth everyday with toothpaste

Painting health awareness about washing your hands on the children's toilet

We spent the rest of the money on constructing some washing stones for the people in the village to wash their clothes on, digging a kitchen garden by the kindergarten, painting murals on the children's toilet and training some of the ladies in the village to knit scarves so they could earn some additional income for the upkeep of the new Mense House.

We were in the village in Independence Day, awkwardly celebrating the day India became Independent from the British, although it wasn't awkward at all and they held an event to celebrate just because we were in the village, complete with dancing and flag themed outfits.

Independence Day celebrations

In our last week all the local people invited us round for dinner to say thanks for the work we had done within their village during our stay.  One meal in particular stands out - I ate so much I felt physically ill afterwards, just around the time they dressed me in their traditional clothing and got me to practice their traditional Kota dance in the street.


The amazing feast we had in our last week - consisting of rice, egg, fish, potatoes, carrots, fruit and other stuff

All tucking in

Trying on the Kota dress

Learning some new moves

Rocking the outfit

On our last night in the village, the local people all threw us an amazing surprise party.  They had been planning a function for a few weeks for us but then the day before sadly someone died in the village, and due to their culture, they are not allowed to have any celebrations for 3 days.  The ladies in the village were so sad about not being able to have the leaving party for us they spoke to the village leader who agreed they could do something small scale in the evening.  This 'small scale' event included dressing us all in traditional Kota dress, rigging up some speakers and lights and doing some dancing for us, followed by speeches and then making us dance for them.  It was great fun and an amazing end to our time in the village.

Charlie 5 looking the cleanest we did all project in our Kota clothing

We only left the village 3 days ago, but already it all seems a bit surreal.  The volunteers arrived back in the UK on Sunday evening and we have a few more days here before we fly home at the weekend. 

A rock that sounds like a bell when you hit it

The local chai shop man preparing my final chai in the village

I snuck in to the Mense House on the last night to check out the new loo like a local lady...

Goodbye Charlie 5!

 

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Sunday, August 11, 2013 | Posted by Hazel

So we're back at field base again for a couple of days before we head out to our village again for the third and final phase of the project.

 

My summary of phase 2 (the last 3 weeks) would be wet, windy, busy and tiring...but also very productive.  Our construction has started, and so far it has been hard work, but pretty rewarding when we look at what we have done.  The masons only arrived this week, so we have done the majority of the work ourselves, with a bit of help from the villagers, when it's not raining of course - the locals are definitely fair weather labourers!

Getting ready to pick up the poo from outside the Mense House before we start demolishing it

Saving all the existing materials to use again on the new Mense House

Smashing down the walls and moving all the rubble for future use

 

Levelling the land ready for the new build

Digging the foundations

The masons arrived and we have now started to lay stones and cement the foundations of the new house!

All in all, the 12 girls and 2 boys on our team have done a great job, battling against the elements to get to this stage.  We now have 2 masons who have come to stay in the village for the duration of the build and are leading us each day to get the house built.  Luckily the rain has also started to ease off a bit which is making it easier, although the heat is now a new challenge!

 

During the last couple of weeks we have also been to visit the Tribal Research Centre in Ooty, a nearby town.  It was really good to learn some more about the Kota tribe and we were also given some books about the tribe and saw photos of some of our friends in the village which was a little surreal. It was a weird feeling to be reading about the Kota tribe from people who had studied them and to know that we are currently living and making friends with them.  It was also strange to think that I now see them as people, where as reading about them in the museum they seem like distant people who are studied.  Either way it made me feel privileged to have this current opportunity to be working with them!

 

Last week we held an eye camp for the local villages.  Despite the horrendous weather on the day we had a really good turn out of 100 people, 7 of whom had cataract operations, so we are all pleased with the success of the day.

Cataract patients waiting for their operations

We also held a sports day for the local children where over 50 children came and played a variety of games which they all seemed to enjoy!

This phase we have also organised home stays.  All the volunteers have spent a night in a local's home and learnt some more about their culture.  This week I spent the night at the Postmans home with his family.  We had dinner with them, learnt about some of their festivals and then in the morning they taught me how to make mint chutney, which we had with idly (rice powder flat things) for breakfast! It was really good and another example of how welcoming and friendly the people in Kokkal are.

The Postman and his family outside his home

Amrutha (one of the volunteers) and I enjoying our meal at our home stay

We hit our 'storming' stage this phase within the group - living 24/7 started to take it's toll on some of the volunteers, but nothing that we haven't now overcome. You have to be multi-skilled to manage all these strong willed volunteers!

We've all managed to stay relatively healthy although there has been a few cases of D and a few less of V, plus a concussion and a fractured finger.  All in all, everyone is still alive and well.  My sympathetic side and patience has definitely been improving/tested.

 

Things I have learnt...although not everyone in India uses a Mense House, having a celebration when a girl first comes on her period is quite a common thing.  When trying to work out why children within the village are malnourished and so small I found out that new born babies are given rich tea biscuits and milk as their only food for the first year of their life - I'm no nutritionist, but I'm pretty sure that doesn't count as a healthy diet.  I'm learning lots about the culture here and am really interested in the different role women have.  My last 'did you know' for you...it is illegal to find out the sex of your baby in India when you are pregnant, because it is common practice for girl first borns to be aborted due to having to pay a dowry when they get married and families being unable to afford it.

Tomorrow we head back to the village for our final 3 weeks! I really hope that we get the Mense House finished before we leave, I am sure we will now we have the masons help and hopefully some village help if the weather stays dry for long enough! We have health and vet camps to run and a few other projects within the village. still to complete, as well as our regular clubs and meetings.  It's going to be busy and I am sure it is also going to go fast with so much to do!

Some more pictures from the last couple of weeks...

Monkeys at a Temple we visited - they stole one of the volunteers' drink and crisps!

Our day trip out to a Temple and the Palace in Mysore

Teaching the kids to wash their hands with soap!

A 'Tippy Tap' we built for the kindergarten so the children can wash their hands after they have been to the toilet and before they eat their lunch

We started a toothbrush club to encourage the local children to brush their teeth

One of the villagers giving me a rendition of a traditional Kota song on a traditional instrument he had made

Local tea farmers hard at work

 

 

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