The $2 a day challenge

How on earth can you live for a week on just $2 a day?
Easy-peasy: with good wholesome home cooking. Cheap basic foods like rice, pasta, noodles, eggs and potatoes can provide a surprising variety of food and nutrition for very little cash. This is NOT a fast or a see-how-little-you-can-eat exercise, the aim of the game is to provide proper, tasty, cheap meals. You can spend your money anyway you like, cook for yourself, cook with friends, get signed up on the kitchen buddy list if you don't have a kitchen in your hall, or even just live off pot noodles all week if you want! We will provide you with tried and tested recipies, advice and sources of cheap food to stretch your money as far as it will go. And $14(£9) dollars will go a long way!
Some basic arithmetic
Choose carefully where you buy your food, and you can make it go a long way. Local shops are often really expencive but buying in bulk saves a lot of money. Netto baked beans: 9p a can Netto tinned tomatoes: 19p a can Somerfield pasta: £1.20 for 2 kg Netto sliced bread: 20p a loaf Beanies VegeMince: 80p for 4 portions McDonalds Hamburger: 69p And you can snack cheap too! Multipacks of crisps from the Co-op work out at 10p a bag, and if you make popcorn yourself in a pan (fun!) you can make a huge bowl for just 10p. We will give you all the advice and help you need to plan and make cheap recipes and buy food in bulk for everyone so it works out cheaper. Not only will we have cooking classes, every participant will also a recipie book full of scrummy, tested and costed foods that even tell you what student cheifs really want to know - how much washing up you have to do!
How it Works
At the start of the week, 6pm Friday 25th of February until 6pm 4th of March, you will have just £9.10 to spend. You can buy whatever you like, but we reccommend you spend it all on food, and buy that Avril Lavigne album another week. You are not allowed to buy tonnes of caviar and frozen pizzas the week before and eat it during the challenge, you can only eat what you buy that week! Bear in mind the challenege doesn't take into account the costs of your housing, tuition fees, clothes etc. The focus of the challenge is on the day to day eating costs, to give you an idea what it is like having to make the most of every penny you have. If you live in halls and don't have access to a proper kitchen, you may be able to get a 'kitchen buddy', someone who lives nearby with a proper kitchen you can cook together in, sharing the costs of the food. However most halls have at least a hob and kettle in their kitchen, and you would be surprised how many things you can cook on with just that... Participants will be encouraged to fill in a diary of what they ate during the week, and how much it cost, as well as to confess to any lapses in frugality! It's your challenge, and we don't mind how you do it, but we are interested to know how found the experiance, especially what you ate. During the event there will be events such as speakers, a talk on poverty, and a video night so there will be plenty of chance to mingle with your fellow challengers and swap stories. On the last Friday there will be a big party to celebrate the end of the week, with lots of food (and chocolate). First and formost though, this should be a fun challenge. We want you to enjoy being involved, and feeling good about yourself. Come join us! back to index info@2dollars.org