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Sunday, January 29, 2017

#2poundchallenge with Zamcog and Voucherbox.


Zamcog is a charity that helps Zambia's most at risk children. At the Shitima School in Zambia the charity use the money raised to educate the children and provide them with food and water to improve their lives. Voucherbox.co.uk have teamed with Julie-Anne Uggla, founder of Zamcog to bring awareness about this charity. They are doing this by presenting the £2.00 challenge. It costs £2.00 to educate and feed one child per day in Zambia, as part of this challenge I had to feed a family of 4 for one day using a budget of £2.00 per head.


When I first thought about the challenge, it made me think that it would be impossible to serve a healthy meal within this budget. However with careful planning, I have managed to come up with a balanced meal plan for my family making sure the meals were filling and nutritious so that they did not feel hungry.
With my meal plan all set, I went shopping with my £8.00 and no other money, it was rather challenging to be strict with the ingredients and not to do impulse buys. I had to search the supermarket for the ingredients that offered best value with out compromising on taste. The budget of two pounds per head meant that there was no option to purchase any treats or fruits for snacks in between meals.

It was really difficult to change the way I shop by limiting my purchases and buying single items as normally I buy in bulk all my fruits and vegetables in packs.Taking part in this challenge has certainly opened my eyes and reminded me of how much surplus foods we buy and incidentally waste. Next time I go to the supermarket I will most certainly put more thought into what goes in my shopping basket.

Our meal plan for the day was:

Breakfast 
Tea, toast with sunflower spread and a choice of either boiled /scrambled eggs or french toast (eggy bread).

Lunch 
Greek Feta Salad  made with cucumber, peppers, tomatoes, carrots, onion, lettuce and feta cheese tossed with a dash of olive oil, lemon juice, salt, pepper and oregano. To make the lunch more filling I served it with slices of bread and sunflower spread and a couple of boiled eggs left over from breakfast.


Dinner 

Arabbiatta  pasta  with a side salad. I made the Arabbiatta  sauce with the onion, peppers, passata, salt, chilli flakes, oregano and a dash of olive oil. I stirred the sauce into cooked penne pasta  and served it with a side salad of grated carrots, cucumber, lettuce and peppers which were left over from making the salad at lunch time. 


Our total shopping bill came to £7.97. I did make use staple store cupboard ingredients such as olive oil, chilli flakes,salt and black pepper as I only needed a tiny bit of each.The challenge was very difficult and it really opened our eyes, making us realise how difficult it can be to live on a budget and do away with indulgent treats and luxuries that we all take for granted.

10 Teabags
 £       0.20
6 Free range eggs
 £       0.89
1 Pint Milk 
 £       0.45
Sunflower Spread
 £       1.00
1 loaf Wholemeal Bread
 £       0.50
Feta cheese
 £       1.20
1 Iceberg Lettuce
 £       0.50
1 Cucumber
 £       0.28
Cherry tomatoes
 £       0.53
Mixed Peppers pack of 3
 £       0.89
1 pack of Carrots 
 £       0.45
Penne pasta 500g
 £       0.30
Passata 500g
 £       0.35
2 Onions 
 £       0.28
1emon  £       0.15
Total
 £       7.97

I am happy to say Voucherbox.co.uk will donate £50 to Zamcog to help the charity continue their goal for each person that takes on this challenge. If you too would like to take part in this challenge you can read more about it here

I am going to nominate my friend Mina Joshi who blogs at Give me some spice to rise to the challenge.

**This post is in collaboration with voucherbox.co.uk

45 comments:

  1. I've seen this challenge before, it looks good. The cause it raises money for is great x

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  2. I would definitely be willing to try this challenge... Except I'm not sure if my daughter would count. She is only 18 months and her baby food is £1.50 per meal... And she needs 3 meals a day...

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  3. I have seen several bloggers post about this challenge now and I am so pleased to see the money being raised for Zambia. I think you did a fantastic job with your three meals on the budget for the day, it is a very tough budget to stick to and very eye opening as well x

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    1. I totally agree with you Sarah it was an eye opener.

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  4. I had not heard of this before and it does look very interesting, and difficult! I'll have to start having a good think about it! Pasta is alwaks a good place to start, especially as it can be eaten cold...

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  5. I'm taking part in this challenge, need to go shopping for it tomorrow x

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    1. Good luck and try and get value ingredients to save money rather than branded.

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  6. I would love to take part in this challenge and raise money for charity. I think it is so great that so many bloggers are parktaking in this challenge x

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    1. Ana any one can take part , chevk the info link in the post to see how.

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  7. What a fab challenge and I'm impressed with the meals you've pulled together on that budget x

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  8. I'm going to try this later in the week. Thanks for the ideas. I totally forgot about stuff like tea bags!!! I will have to make sure I can include them in my budget!

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    1. It was an eye opener, and I can't say it was easy as we did miss our snacks betweenmeals and fruit.

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  9. I have heard of this before and i think its a fantastic thing. Really makes us think as well and appreciate what we actually have. The meals you created look fabulous x

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    1. It certainly has made me realise how fortunate we are with all the treats and luxuries we buy each week.

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  10. This is a very tough challenge, I don't know if I would manage. You also have had some really good deals on the vegetables. A lemon costs £0.25 when I live for example.

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    1. I bought the veg in the market stall, so it was cheaper than buying from the supermarket.

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  11. What an interesting challenge! My folks would love to try this as well. You did really well to keep it just under £8. highlighting great cause x

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  12. This is such a great challenge and just goes to show how cheaply you can eat.

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    1. It really was hard though to stretch the ingredients to three meals, I don't think I could do it everyday unless we stick to the same meal plan!!!

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  13. I have loved these posts and always been amazed at just how much variety there is in sticking to a £2 budget. I would sit there for hours trying to work it out

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  14. You did a great job there and there is a nice mix of food to make sure no one went hungry. It's lovely to see you took the challenge to try and promote awareness of this great cause.

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  15. WoW! This is a tough challenge, but you did so well with your meals.

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  16. You did such a good job coming up with that meal plan for £8.00. It's great you raised awareness for such an important project. I tell my children every day how lucky they are to not have to worry about food, but doing that makes it so real X

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  17. It is crazy to think how much money we spend on food, but seeing other people take on the challenge yours seems the most exciting to eat x

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  18. What an absolutely fabulous post, recipe AND cause! I am going to have a look into taking part in this as I would love the challenge x

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  19. As a student you'd think I would have learnt to live off £2 a day but I much more the sort of person who bulk buys and freezes things for the next two weeks or so! This would be an interesting challenge to try out! I may give it a go!

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  20. Well done! It's quite a tough challenge isn't it. Those little things we take for granted, like coffee and jam, just don't fit into a £2 a day budget!

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  21. £8 roughly comes to Ksh 1044/- for a family of 4. Where a casual labourer or worker earns about Ksh 530/- per day, he or she would need to spend even less than £8 per day as with the Ksh 530/- they have to pay for transport, rent, school books and uniforms and other basic amenities. Having said that fresh food, basic maizemeal is not cheap. I was doing a rough calculation just for breakfast of bread, tea and a banana. That would cost a family of 4 Ksh 150/-. Its a tough challenge. Its amazing how so many charities in UK do so much for schools and orphanages in Africa. I've come across many orphanages that we help out as Lions that also get aid from UK and yet there's so much more that needs to be done.

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  22. Your menu looks really realistic and doable for anyone who wants to eat well on a budget!

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  23. I really need to give myself a challenge like this. We spend far too much on everything in our house xxx

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  24. I haven't heard about this challenge before but it seems like a great way to raise awareness of poverty in other countries. It also shows just how much we spend without thinking about it when we can just put it on plastic.

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  25. What a noble thing..keep it up Nayna. All of us should do our bit for the underprivileged as much as possible.

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  26. I have read a few other posts about this challenge and I found it so amazing. I love participating in anything that will help a great cause.

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  27. It's a tough challenge and I hope that I can achieve it like you have managed by producing some lovely dishes from £2.00 per head.

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  28. I can imagine that this challenge must be so hard. A really effective way to raise awareness and raise some money though, well done!

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  29. Sounds like a very good challenge, not heard of it before. Sounds like a good help to a good cause

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  30. Wow what a great cause! I can't imagine how difficult this challenge must have been you did so well!! L x

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  31. So good to hear they are donating towards this great charity and really liked hearing about how you managed on this challenge

    Laura x

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  32. I think you did so well, making the food interesting and nourishing and still healthy.

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  33. This challenge is an eyeopener and it's great to hear you'll be donating as well. I think you did really well!

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  34. Oh wow!! You id such a great job! I wouldn't even know where to begin. Since this us for such a great cause, I'll have to take the challenge with my family.

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  35. Thank you for your post! We will be donating £50 to Zamcog which will feed, educate and clothe an at-risk child in Zambia for 1 month.

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  36. What a great idea. Well done for passing the challenge!

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