At the end of day one, or, at least, near its end, I am exhausted, hungry, resentful of people, strangers, whose Live Below the Line budget somehow stretched to eggs or peanut butter (most of those people are pooling resources, I imagine), and finally eating supper.

This was not an easy day.

On top of whining here, I am posting photos of my meals on Instagram. In case you forgot what porridge or lentil soup looks like.

Here’s what I ate today. Amounts are approximate because my kitchen scale is basically useless for small amounts of things. Also, math is hard, especially when one’s brain can think of nothing but more nourishment:

Breakfast
30g (?) quick oats (11¢)
Pinch of dried coconut (2¢)
Pinch of brown sugar (2¢)
A few raisins (5¢)

TOTAL 20¢.

Lunch
It’s not particularly worth going over recipes much, since it’s doubtful any will be ‘keepers’, but the 1.25L of soup pictured below contains the following. :

1 Tbsp coconut (5¢ – I soaked this first in a failed attempt to bring creaminess to the soup)
2 cloves garlic (10¢ – the head of garlic I bought had about 10 cloves)
1/4 of an onion (11¢)
1 tsp crushed chilis (4¢)
1 Tbsp curry powder (5¢)
pinch of cumin (2¢)
pinch of ginger (2¢)
100g red lentils (30¢)
125mL of crushed tomatoes (16¢)

TOTAL 85¢

or 17¢ per serving.

I had this for lunch. I thinned it out with hot water to make it last longer. I will be doing this pretty well every day this week.

Supper
I made two suppers at once (though it is taking everything in me not to eat the second portion now). Here’s the breakdown:

100g brown rice (21¢)
60g chickpeas (18¢)
80g (?) potato (22¢)
25g (?) carrot) (6¢)
1 clove of garlic (5¢)
10g (?) onion (4¢)
pinch of chilis (2¢)
pinch of veggie stock (2¢)

TOTAL 80¢

or 40¢ per portion.

I also had two cups of 4¢ not-tea.

So I’ve only spent 75¢ on food today. I wonder if I can cobble together a snack from what I have. Hrm.

Edited to say that I just made about half a cup of oatmeal with raisins and brown sugar. Let’s call that 15¢.