OK, let’s get the confession over with – all my life I have been greedy. I love food, not just quality, but quantity. It’s a question of second-helpings and snacks (even if healthy ones) and also, dare I say it, portion-size. As a result, I have always tended to be bit a bit overweight. Well, here’s the side-effect: doing this challenge, living on  £21 per week, has caused me to lose four lbs – and I wasn’t even trying! I just found that I had to reduce the portion-sizes of certain things, particularly meat and butter, in order to keep within the cost-limit. Continue reading →

Teale and I whipped up a delicious soup last week. Soups are one of my favourite ways to quickly make a few meals and get lots of veggies at the same time, which we’ve seen can be very cost-effective when you buy them locally! This week’s soup had some carrots, onions, potatoes, all from the market square, as well as delicious jerusalem artichokes, gifted to me by my co-worker Mary. Continue reading →

My partner picked up a few tricks while serving on board the all-vegan Sea Shepherd ship the Bob Barker last year, and one of them was fried leeks on toast. I brought home some leeks from the farmer’s market this Sunday along with all my other goodies (more produce than we could eat in a week for less than 5 pounds), and this is a delicious way to eat a winter vegetable. Continue reading →

local bean stew

While this challenge hasn’t been as difficult as I has anticipated, it does require quite a bit of thought. I have worked out the following costs:

Overall cost for week one £20.35: I had animal protein for five meals during week one, costing me £5.91 – I did find myself eating smaller portions than usual Continue reading →

All for £9.15

Well, I’ve been eating local food on a budget for just over two weeks now and I’m finding it easier than I thought! Finding enough seasonal vegetables is remarkably simple – Simon of Mayflower Organics Continue reading →

Like Bev, I visited the Sunday farmer’s market for some produce, getting a week’s worth of

A week's haul from the Farmer's Market, costing only around £7 much of which lasted more than one week.

potatoes, apples, carrots, onions, garlic and broccoli for just £6.60. Last week we made making fried potatoes (hashbrowns), applesauce and a nut roast I got from Arjuna last week (which costs around £2.50 and feeds us both quite well). I made enough potatoes for lunch the next day, and the applesauce too made it to dinner the following night as well.

Continue reading →

I met someone at a conference who farms in Suffolk and grows field beans, so I arranged to buy a whole load from him! Continue reading →

Look how well they clean up!

One thing that really amazes (and infuriates) me is the way supermarkets reject all fruit and veg that isn’t a standard size or shape and this results in enormous amounts of waste. When you buy from the farmer’s market, you get good veg as it comes out of the soil Continue reading →

One lunch item I just can’t seem to get enough of is carrot and corriander soup. It’s really delicious, and, at approx. 25p per portion, it’s perfect for anyone looking to feed hungry mouths on a budget! Continue reading →

It sounds a bit odd to have lentil soup with baked potato, but it was a fairly thick soup, so I suppose it was a bit like Indian dhal. Anyway, it tasted delicious that way. Here’s the recipe for the soup Continue reading →

I did a big vegetable shop at the Sunday Farmer’s Market – I hope the veg will last me all week. It had better, as my share of it came to around £7, which is one third of my weekly allowance! Simon’s veg is really lovely and fresh and I stocked up with potatoes, carrots (the very dirty and misshapen ones, as they are much cheaper and taste just as good!), Continue reading →

Following two disasterous attempts at making bread, I have now discovered a foolproof way to make delicious, hearty homemade bread using local ingredients for under £1 per loaf! Continue reading →

The Eating Well on a Budget project kicks off on Sunday and I have already begun eating into my Week 1 budget! Not literally of course (I have cleared out a cupboard in which i am stashing today’s purchases in preparation for the start of the challenge), but I have spent more than a quarter (£13.65) of my £42 budget on some wholesome British staples, purchased from Arjuna Wholefoods Cambridge. Here’s an overview of what I bought and what I plan to do with them:  Continue reading →