End of day 1

we ate ¼ of a cauliflower for dinner 

So it's the end of day one and whilst the boyfriend has come in perfectly on budget (and will point out that I ate more than my half so really he's under-budget), I have massively blown mine- £1.44 and I'm still hungry.  The good news (sort of) is that I'm always hungry and right now I'm no more hungry than normal.  I could make excuses like us having own brand rice crispies rather than cheaper ones, or that the expensive fancy bread that I ate up would have gone stale and wasting it would be worst and the baby ate some anyway but I'm not going to (anymore than I just have at least).  Tomorrow is another day, one that comes with a working lunch provided!

I've quite enjoyed figuring out the relative prices of difference drinks for example.  I now know that the decaf tea I drink costs twice as much as regular tea.  It's been good for me to think a bit more about what I'm eating/ drinking; there are lots of things that I enjoy almost equally but have drastically different costs e.g. hot water with a slice of lemon/ a cup of smoky tea. 

So today I ate cereal for breakfast, we both had lentil soup (me with bread) and for dinner was a curried cauliflower dish with chips.  I rather fear I'm going to end up epitomising that poor people eat badly as I felt far too much glee when I discovered that Tescos sell 1.5kg for 84p! To sum up: spices are practically free- a penny a gram, porridge made with water is a lot cheaper than cereal (with good reason since it's disgusting), where possible buy in bulk and think carefully about the value of branded food.  I think as the month progresses and we buy our food more carefully we'll be eating more luxuriously (and finish the day with a cup of fancy tea).