Lessons in mindful consumption from a tough challenge !

Spoiler alert to start – blog details an epic fail with highly recommended side-effects for individuals, businesses, in fact for anyone who consumes anything!

There are challenges one rises to, those achieved with struggle or panache and there are those which just flop, flounder and fail. For two of us the challenge of living on £20 a week between us came in the latter category. 

The fail may well have resulted from my total dislike of mathematical documentation, or a complete failure on my part of following the principles of careful meal planning advocated and demonstrated so successfully by both my mother-in-law and my elder daughter. Even with delicious edible gifts from Christmas to call on from family and friends (thank you Alice, Freya and the Day family) as well as the gin fairy (aka the inestimable Lesley) – I failed the challenge. Maybe my philosophy was at fault… 

There are relevant lessons from this experience for those running any business, office or industry as we emerge from lockdown. We can all so easily become accepting of regular outgoings in a way that often means we lose sight of their accumulated totals and the impact that can have. It will also be interesting to see how many people returning to work away from home become suddenly aware of the accumulating costs of not working from home, and how much businesses face increased costs of reduced  digital dependence. The last year has been hard and we need businesses and individuals to remain in existence for our collective recovery from this destructive pandemic.

We did have some fun trying the £20 challenge and discovered some fascinating meals we’d never have encountered otherwise. The eternally inventive Jack Monroe saved our digestion and purse on several occasions as normal. Plus no food was thrown away apart from potato peelings too green to be made into crisps, and the skins of onions and garlic.

So to the details…

I can manage a week of breakfast monotony in a good cause so every day began with porridge. I added 2 chunks of cheap Co-Op milk chocolate to my bowl whilst Steve had sultanas and more porridge. Outcome 12p each daily.

Steve, it appears, would also be happy to eat the same lunch every day. I gritted my teeth and followed suit for most of the week once I realised how much easier it made the maths!

On two days we enjoyed homemade vegetable mulligatawny soup with a slice of bread, some spread and a yoghurt. 50p each in total with the yoghurts eating up a whopping 35p of that bill.

The remaining five days of lunches were cheese, bread and delicious Christmas gifted homemade caramelised onion chutney. Two days included a yoghurt taking lunches to 58p each. Three days saw yoghurts replaced with 15.5p apples etaking the total to 36.5p each.

Evenings brought inventive fun plus indulgence. Pre-dinner Scrabble matches were held over a treat of a gin and tonic and nibbles. Nibbles not homemade this week so 18p a time, and the gin courtesy of the inestimable gin fairy with tonic from the monthly shop. Such treats have been essential this lockdown!

The monthly shop additions I divided in 4 (£2.04) for the purpose of the challenge:

• Butter spread 500g @ 79p
• Slimline tonic water 4 bottles at 30p a bottle 
• 2 Milk 4ltr @ £1.09 (usually buy one a fortnight)
• Coffee 200g @ £2.00
• Cheese cheddar block @ £2 – made lunches and two suppers
• I also added in £1 to cover herbs, spices and Pomegranate tea used this week from the store shelf

Day 1 Smoky vegetable jambalaya (Dr Rudy Aujla -) 30p a portion plus tinned rhubarb and custard = total 72p each. Gave a spicy fragrance to the boat which was lovely.

Day 2 Cauliflower cheese (30p bargain cauli!)  – each portion 40p.  Fruit compote of a left over satsuma, pear and tinned pineapple 23p each.

Day 3 Remainer of jambalaya with cauliflower leaves and veggie quarter pounders (87p each portion) plus remaining rhubarb with vanilla yoghurt (cheaper version) total £1.18 each. Daily costs are rising, just wait until you see tomorrow…

Day 4 Steve’s divine mmmushroom risotto – sadly our homegrown mushrooms have all been eaten and foraging season hasn’t yet begun so I bought chestnut mushrooms locally for £1. Adding in white wine, Arborio rice and Parmesan brought the cost to £1.23 each . Bananas at 15p each finished the meal.

Day 5 A highly experimental dish courtesy of Jack Monroe – beetroot pasta.  Absolutely delicious despite being made with well out of date beetroot at 10p for 250g. Ours came out not the vibrant pink of her recipe but sludge brown! I never knew that over-stored beetroot lost its colour! This is down as a Must-Try-Again with fresh beetroot which I imagine will be deliveranother taste sensation. Total cost 65p including a yoghurt.

Day 6 Every vegetable left in the veg rack curried with some red lentils creating a spicy scented boat and a satisfying, warming dish. Served with rice and another of those d*#@ expensive yoghurts for a pud! Total 61p each.

Day 7 Pasta with homemade creamy tomato and herb sauce plus an apricot oat crumble with the last of the creme fraiche. 77p each in total. 

The weekly total? £27.43 for two of us… didn’t seem too bad! Then I remembered the two packs of hot cross buns that found their way into my basket – another £1 to add – they were on a deal and can freeze… oh, and the packet of giant chocolate buttons which somehow fell in – another 99p! And then there was the support for the cafe boat with coffee and biscuits at a remarkable £2.30 (thanks to a loyalty card) – still an additional outgoing ! Thus the challenge of £20 a week was well and truly blown out of the water. Still £31.72 for two people in the winter in a lockdown when food seems such a highlight of the day, doesn’t seem too bad. We have eaten healthily, certainly not starved and I have lost some weight which is a good thing. It’s also nothing short of remarkable considering I also consumed a present of salted caramel and chocolate hot cross buns!

One issue I spotted was the amount we spend on yoghurt when there are no offers in the local supermarket. I shall now experiment with making my own. It will either be highly successful or a disaster. In the winter it should ferment in a towel-wrapped pot near the stove overnight and once charity shops open I can enjoy trawling for a wide mouth thermos for summer yoghurt making. Our current flask is in daily use for boiled water as boiling the kettle time and time again wastes gas.

This week has been a fascinating challenge with multiple positives:

• We achieved zero food waste using every leftover
• I am now mindful of previously unrecognised expenses in indulgences like daily snacks and also in staples like yoghurts
• Making our own (snacks, yoghurts, veggie burgers) may turn out to be more fun and just as tasty (if not tastier) whilst reducing costs.

Any comments or recipes would be very gratefully received!

The wider issue of conscious consuming is something we all employ do to cut costs particularly when returning to work with commuting costs and increased business overheads. It’s all too easy to slip back into habits like unnecessary photocopying or printing without recognising the cost; those frothy coffees or snatched lunches which can lead to us wondering where the pennies have gone. The return to work is going to be tough for individuals and businesses both psychologically but also economically. Every penny will count going forward so mindful consumption could contribute to keeping jobs and savings. We have learned the hard way that so much can be done exclusively online, minutes of meetings, agendas, learning materials, reports – let’s keep those lessons into post-lockdown to save resources, costs and cut waste. 

Mindful consumption isn’t over for me though the challenge week is done. It has made me more aware. I want to see the economic impacts of meal planning (yes, I concede in outline!) and home production of snacks, burgers, yoghurts etc. We currently have the car (electric) with us so had I not walked to a local supermarket would the bill have been cheaper after factoring in electricity and other running costs? Better still, I should cycle to the cheaper store to save fuel and money as well as getting some extra exercise – one for the next supermarket shop! Roll on too the warmer weather and a chance to get our rooftop veg patch producing.

Next week: What’s in a name – pearls and pitfalls.

#zerowaste #consciousconsumption #mindfulconsumers #liveon£10aweek #jackmonroe #drrupyaujla #makingendsmeet #savingmoney #boatlife #boatsthattweet #cuttingcosts #usingresourceswell