Live Below the Line: Day 3

And it's Day 3 of Live Below the Line!

Breakfast:

• 1 Linda McCartney veggie sausage [16p]
• 1 slice of garlic toast [3p]
• 1 cup of tea [2p]

As usual, this is pretty much my breakfast every morning.  21p spent and 79p for the rest of the day.

Today was going to be tricky, though, because I had half a bag of fresh spinach in the refrigerator and I knew my share of that would be close to 20p.  Yikes!  I could opt for frozen spinach, which is much cheaper, but I don't want any food to go to waste just because I am doing this challenge and trying to count pennies.  I decided to make some spicy tomato rice with leeks (we had 2 in the refrigerator and I didn't want them to go bad) and kidney beans (33p for a box from http://www.approvedfood.co.uk/ -- in general, it would probably be cheaper to use dried kidney beans, but I haven't found them cheap lately) and lemon juice (my husband must have bought the most expensive lemon in Scotland, it was 31p and the shop was out of lemon juice).  I threw the spinach in, too, because it was getting wilty and didn't look like it would be much fun fresh. Here's the breakdown for lunch:

• 250g rice [10p]
• 1 tin of chopped tomatoes [31p]
• 1 leek [38p]
• 1 box of kidney beans [33p]
• 1/2 bag of fresh spinach [45p]
• Spices & oil [5p]
• Juice of 1/2 lemon [15p]

So a whopping total of £1.77 for a big pot of spicy tomato rice stew.   I had about a third of it, so the cost of my portion was 59p.

Ouch.  It was only just after lunch and I was already up to 80p!  My husband accidentally threw a teabag I was going to re-use into the compost bin, so my mid-afternoon drink was the other packet of free instant coffee that came in the post on Day 2.

• 1 cup instant coffee [1p for the soymilk]

I decided to have PBJ for dinner.  I've already discussed the prices of bread and peanut butter in other posts, but my jam is a bit pricey because I buy unsweetened jam that costs £1.68 per jar.

• 2 slices of bread [4p]
• Peanut butter [6p]
• Strawberry jam [10p]

I usually like a lot of jam, but I am on a tight budget today.  But even this is way over my budget, so I give 1/4 of the sandwich to one of my sons, so it only cost me 15p.  I have 4p leftover and am still hungry, so I make popcorn.

• 1 big bowl popcorn [2p]

I really wanted another hot drink later in the evening because it was so chilly and was still silently cursing my husband for throwing out my bag earlier in the day, so I kind of 'saved' the last 2p for a cup of tea.  But then I fell asleep getting the kids to sleep (doh!) and never had my last cup!

So there you have it.  98p.  The biggest difference between today and the previous 2 days is I didn't have the urge to snack!