The 10 Euro Challenge – Poverty Awareness
Intro
Many people live in poverty…
Therefore, this week’s challenge is to do my weekly grocery
shop for under 10 Euros. Yes, that’s right 10 Euros to spend on food and drink
for 7 days.
The rules:
- Apart from four stock cupboard
ingredients; salt, pepper, sugar
and oil. I am not allowed to
add or include in my meals/drinks, anything else that's not on the receipt.
- I must eat three meals a
day, for 7 days using only the items purchased on the list including
drinks.
- Everything must be
purchased from one supermarket (as many people living in poverty do not
have the availability of time or transport).
The ‘Big’ Shop
I have seen many people attempt this challenge, but I’m not
based in the UK or countries that you can pick up a loaf of bread for under 50
pence, I am in Milan and with the exception of tinned food (we are talking
tomatoes and chickpeas here) you struggle to find anything under a Euro.
In one article that I read, the person doing the challenge
was able to purchase avocados, the average cost of avocados in Italy is 3.98
Euros per kg. As much as I love Avocado’s, yes, they are a luxury even when I
have my full wage in Italy.
The supermarket I have chosen is said to be one of the
cheapest in my area and still have quality produce. Armed with my phone
calculator, a make shift shopping list, some tips and a patient yet curious friend, we
entered Eurospin. I love visiting new supermarkets so I was all geared up and
really excited to discover what I was going to be able to purchase with my 10
Euros.
On entering the supermarket my heart sank as I saw all the
fruit and vegetables were wildly expensive for my budget. Normally, I would
have been ecstatic to find bell pepper under 2 Euros a kilo, today 2 euros a kilo
meant that adding fruit and vegetables to my diet this week was unlikely.
The first tip I was given was to purchase flour and yeast
and make my own bread, you only need to add salt and water (you can add oil) and you can make 3 to 4 loaves
with a kilo of flour! I purchased a bag of flour for 35 cents and 50g of fresh
yeast for a further 22 cents.
Next, I thought about breakfast, I need cheap black tea,
milk and either cereal or jam/marmalade. I managed to find a great deal on tea
at 59 cents and semi-skimmed milk 1 litre for 65 cents. The cheapest jam I
could find was over a euro so I decided to abort that and picked up muesli for the
same price.
After much picking up and putting things back (almost 2
hours of decision making and my inability to move fast on crutches), I purchased 14 items for 9.92 Euros and not one of
them was green (apart from the fresh pesto).
 |
| 9.92 Euros for 14 items |
Item Euro
Museli 1.00 (0.25)
Semi-skimmed Milk 1L 0.65 (0.09)
Gnocchi 1kg 0.99 (0.25)
Yeast 2x25g 0.22 (0.11)
Dried pasta 1kg 0.59 (0.12)
6 Large Eggs 1.19 (0.20)
Plain yogurt 500g 0.65 (0.13)
2 x Can tomatoes @ 0.35 0.70 (0.12)
Grated Pecorino Cheese 1.00 (0.14)
1kg Flour 0.35 (0.18)
Classic black tea 0.59 (0.02)
Fresh Pesto 1.00 (0.20)
10 Fish fingers 0.99 (0.10)
(brackets are costs divided daily/per serving)
Day 1
Last night, I cleverly devised an eating plan for the week (after
eating homemade beef wellington and green bean potato salad, drinking half a
bottle of Fragolino and eating apple cream cake with ice cream with my friend for fear of living on pesto and pasta for a week).
The thing is I know this is going to be difficult for me because of two
major issues. I love good food and I won’t be able to go out for a meal, which
has been my only pleasure recently since my freak accident (I never knew
something could be damaged so badly so easily).
This morning was my first budget breakfast, my mug of muesli (with
semi-skimmed milk) and a cup of tea (one sugar
and a splash of milk).
The only complain is the colour of the tea wasn’t so strong against the
milk (usually I don’t have cows milk but my normal soya/rice/coco/almond milk
breaks the budget). The cereal on the other hand was great! Full of dried fruit
and very tasty. Feeling like I've made a good choice here (I read in other blogs where they purchased oats or something tasteless).
For lunch I stuck with a glass of water and an omelette made with two
eggs, a splash of milk, a teaspoon (tsp) of grated cheese and a pinch of pepper. I warmed the pan with a tsp
full of oil and entered my mixture.
Actually, it was pretty good. I have to admit I am slightly blessed in the
cooking department, so maybe I have an unfair advantage.
Then it was time to make the bread, I have noticed many recipes online
do not work and it’s very frustrating. Luckily, I know what dough looks like so I improvised.
By 18:30 I became hungry. I started to cook the pasta and the bag split
pouring a lot more pasta than I expected into my boiling water. Once cooked, I
added two teaspoons of fresh pesto and a pinch of cheese. It was delicious, one
of the best pesto I have encountered (that's not homemade). Then when my first batch of bread was cooked, I cut a
small slice and used it to mop the last bit of pesto from my plate.
I also took a second cup of tea. I missed my daily coffee and also
having a piece of fruit. However, as for the food. Today was pretty good for
day one.
Total cost of produce used: 1 Euro 24 cents
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