Day one of the £1 challenge. I’ve decided to document my Live Below the Line recipes (and occasional lack of recipes!) to help you have some ideas, if you fancy taking the challenge too.

I’m feeling a bit sick today, to be honest, so a shake-up of the normal routine hasn’t helped! Being good so far, and even taking the free tea and coffee at work into account within my £1 budget…thus only one cup of coffee so far. I reckon a cup of granulated coffee with some milk costs about 5p.

Please help me support a great cause, but donating anything you’ve got to Farm Africa, through

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/TheEdibleWoman

Monday:

• breakfast: 10p

So easy and filling, porridge oats are a firm favourite. But usually I’d add some dried fruits and nuts! Not this week…

Porridge

porridge oats cooked with water & a splash of milk, and a splash of rosehip syrup. Just hydrate the oats a little with a splash of milk and the rosehip, then they’ll fluff up a little.  You can do this the night before or the morning of. Perfect if you add a little water (and or more milk) later, and microwave.

oats: 45p bag from Lidl – 4.5p per portion

splash milk: 5p

rosehip syrup (homemade, rosehips boiled up with water and sugar: <1p per tsp portion)

• lunch: 19.3p

Coming in at 19.3p per portion, leek and potato soup is a great filling (and healthy) cheap option. Here’s my pricings and the recipe:

leek and potato soup recipe

Recipe to make enough for 6 portions:

3 leeks for £1  the market, used 2: 66p

1 large potato: 20p

stick cube: 10p

tbsp oil & slither  of butter: 20p

=116p / 6 = 19.3p

Chop and fry your leeks in your tbsp of olive oil and nob of butter. Wilt them down slowly until they’re soft and translucent. Chop your potato into small cubes and add to the mix, pushing them around the mix. Then add 1 litre of boiling water to your stock cube, and add it to your leek mix. Simmer your stock until the potato is really soft, and then whizz it up and season with salt and pepper.

• supper: 49.25p

Popped into M&S on Sunday and found a reduced bag of still fresh vegetables to stirfry, including beansprouts and broccoli. What a massive cheat. It’ll fill us nicely (and healthily) for tonight, though.

Vegetable stir fry

stirfry veg: 0.75p for 4 portions, so 37.5p for two for tea, with 2 portions saved for something else this week.

2 small portions of noodles: 50p

splash of vegetable oil: 1p

tsps of Chinese sauces: 10p

I’ll lightly steam the veg, and boil the noodles (slightly less than a portion each, portion being 28g and we have 25g each here). I’ll add a little chilli sauce, some soy sauce and perhaps some fish sauce.

98.5 / 2 = 49.25

Monday  = 78.55p

Might fit in a clementine (10 for £1 from the market!) for pudding, and maybe have room for a tea or coffee before bed? This is pretty hard.