Luxury Living on £2 a day – #2poundchallenge with Zamcog and VoucherBox

OK, it’s not luxury as you may think, but dinner with asparagus tips for under £2 certainly isn’t slumming it.

There is a challenge being run at the moment to see if you can live on £2 a day for food, per person. The point of the challenge is to make people stop and think about how much they eat and to encourage us all to cut down on food waste, even if it is just for a day.
Voucherbox are running this campaign to support a charity in Zambia called Zamcog. It costs £2 a day to both feed and educate a child in Zambia. For every post published, Voucherbox will be donating £50 to Zamcog to help the charity continue its’ support Zambia’s most at risk and vulnerable children.

So entering into the spirit of the competition I decided to see how much I spent for a day. I live alone, don’t cook, and find it easy to buy meals that last for two days. Where I can get to save money and hit the #2poundchallenge is buying the end of day discounts from the supermarkets. I have a small local Tesco near me and there are always offers to be had.
Many items you buy last for more than one day, like butter or coffee, so it is only fair that you work out the equivalent spend per day on these items. Well, I think it’s fair.

So how did I do with the #2poundchallenge and a discount forage at Tesco?

Loaf of Hovis (30 slices) 14p (was £0.95)
6 Ham slices 28p (was £1.80)
Asparagus tips 18p (was £1.80)
Beef Stew & Dumplings ready meal 38p (was £2.50)
Baby potatoes in butter 15p (was £1.00)
Bag of 6 Apples 28p (was £1.50)

Total cost for the #2poundchallenge = £1.41 (+59p spare)
Total saving off retail price = £8.14

(and I still have some bread, apples and potatoes for another day)

I took pictures of what I bought today, totalling £1.41  To round out the daily meal you would have breakfast and lunch, and maybe coffee too.  Breakfast was toast with butter and marmalade, lunch consisted of ham sandwiches (yes the ham was discounted) and drink was water or coffee.  The extras like butter and jam you are unlikely to find discounted, but last a long time so come in as pennies on the day.  My largest outside expense was coffee, but I could cut down, honest!

Finding healthy food for £2 per day is difficult, especially as vegetables need to be eaten within the next few days. But if you only find one or two deals every day the savings mount up and the spending drops down.iscounted

Why not find out more about the #2poundchallenge on the Voucherbox website? The challenge runs from today until the end of February. Also, if you have a blog you could help Zamcog receive a £50 donation by writing your own post.

Some people spend more than £2 on a coffee and blow an entire days food spend on a single drink. It’s worth a stop and think.