£1.00 a Day Eating Challenge Update

Last week and out of the blue, I set myself a challenge to spend no more than £1.00 a day on food for as long as I could.  The rules were simple: £1.00 is the absolutely daily maximum, any less than that spent can be carried over into the next day, no advances allowed.  So spending 50p on day one allows for a maximum spend of £1.50 on day two, and so on.  Eating food already in stock, or otherwise acquired, is permissible.  It was to be an exercise in restraint, frugality, and non-wastefulness.

Discussing it online received some interest, and some criticism, all welcome, but more interesting was the feeling that challenging myself in this simple way re-awakened in me.  Pretentious though it undoubtedly is, you could call it "the joy of doing without".  The pleasure of poverty?  And, yes yes, I am of course very well aware that conventional "poverty" is not, and should not be described as, a pleasure, but I'm talking about something else here.  "Voluntary poverty" is one term, apparently Roman Catholic in origin.  "Aestheticism", similarly religious and therefore maybe off-putting for many, is another.  Neither is quite what I'm on about.  Nothing so all-encompassing.

"Anti-consumption" is another term we might use.  Eating is the most literal form of consumption humans practice, but of course "consume" is a verb used more readily in different context.  We consume stuff.  We are consumers. There are so, so many reasons to rebel against and resist this identification, that I won't go into here (maybe later) but suffice to say if you're not already of a similar mindset, you're not going to find much on this blog to sympathise with.  

Never mind about all that.  What you're here to read is that the initial challenge lasted on 7 days.  On day 8, with a balanced budget for that day of £1.00 precisely, I caved and spent £1.70 at the chippy, on chips.  So that was that.  Game over.  I lapsed back into old habits, but with the alternative joy still at the back of mind.

I'm certain I could have kept it up for longer, and resolved to try again.  Here's a link to a far superior blogger who by coincidence just happens to be challenging themself in a similar way, that I've been looking to for inspiration and encouragement.  But enough words.  Round two begins tomorrow.

Related posts

£1.00 a Day Eating Challenge
Waste Not
******
Please consider disabling your adblockers when reading this site.  I make every effort to ensure no inappropriate, rubbish or offensive advertising appears here, and nothing that is contrary to the spirit of this blog.  So it's really nothing to be afraid of.  Cheers.