back to article Marauding quid-a-day nosh hack menaces teepee hippie villages

It's day two of the El Reg Quid-a-Day Nosh Posse's Live Below the Line challenge, so let's see how our intrepid members are getting along on just £1 per day for food. First up, we haven't had a chance yet to consider Chris Winpenny's complete cornucopious stockpile, some of which we've already seen... Chris's initial stash of …

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  1. JDX Gold badge

    celebratory full English breakfast with extra black pudding

    Costing more than the entire week's budget!

    1. Lester Haines (Written by Reg staff) Gold badge

      Re: celebratory full English breakfast with extra black pudding

      Yes. Exactly.

      1. Dom 3

        Re: celebratory full English breakfast with extra black pudding

        And where do you get proper bacon from, south of the Pyrenees?

  2. nsld
    Coat

    Does he

    Keep the lapsang in his manbag?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Does he

      I don't know. But he ought to treasure them, because a quick and possibly careless analysis suggests that the milk & tea bags consumed 18% of his budget but delivered only 6% of the energy content, so that's an expensive luxury that's cost him the thick end of an additional 2,500 kcal. Tomatoes are another expensive luxury, using 5% of the budget for 1% of the energy content, or another 1,500 kcal.

      If he'd swapped the milky tea and the toms for extra rice, oats, pasta or pulses then he'd be looking at around 2,000 kcal per day rather than the 1,500 he's committed to.

      1. JDX Gold badge

        Re: Does he

        It's not all about calories. Nutrients and minerals and vitamins and so on are important. And 1500 calories is hardly a starvation diet, assuming you leave a fairly sedentary life.

        1. phil dude
          Coat

          Re: Does he

          IT workers and PhD students writing up.....?

          P.

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Does he

          "It's not all about calories. "

          It is when the challenge is to eat for a week on a fiver.

          In a comment on a related article I suggested next year's challenge could be the cheapest nutritionally balanced diet that somebody could subsist on, I suspect that involves quite a lot more planning.

  3. Scott Broukell
    Thumb Up

    Seasoning

    That's what it all needs I feel, a little dash of cracked pepper, pinch of salt, rosemary and perhaps some basil to bring out the best in those tomatoes.

    Hats off to the folk embarking on this, they must be a wee bit embarking mad, but tis a splendid example and inspiration to us all. I for one will be foregoing Harrods Food Hall for a while and have already curtailed my orders with Fortnum & Mason.

  4. Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse

    I know I'll get downvoted but...

    All that springs to mind when reading these updates is the intent and lyrics to Common People by Pulp.

    1. Lester Haines (Written by Reg staff) Gold badge

      Re: I know I'll get downvoted but...

      Very clever. A bowl of rice and chick pea stew to the reader who correctly identifies the song which best sums up the attitude of this post.

      1. Pisartis
        Mushroom

        Re: I know I'll get downvoted but...

        He rode a blazing saddle?

      2. Irony Deficient

        Re: I know I’ll get downvoted but …

        Lester, could the song be Scott Joplin’s Rosebud March?

  5. Neil Barnes Silver badge

    What to do with leftovers?

    Drop an egg in it and fry it without mercy!

    C'mon Lester, surely you knew that?

    p.s. @Scott: It's just not the same since Jackson's of Piccadilly closed. One has to slum it now in Fortnum's...

    p.p.s @nsld: no, it's in a jar.

    1. Lester Haines (Written by Reg staff) Gold badge

      Re: What to do with leftovers?

      Spookily, that's exactly what's going to happen this lunchtime. Sorted.

    2. Colin Miller

      Re: What to do with leftovers?

      @Neil,

      I take it you don't extremely slum it at Whittards of Chelsea?

      1. Neil Barnes Silver badge

        Re: What to do with leftovers?

        :)

        My comment was a genuine quote from a bloke doorstepped by a news crew when Jackson's closed down...

  6. Bill Fresher

    Drinks

    What are you chaps doing for drinks? Is it water and tea all week? I notice no one has included squash in their shop.

    1. Lester Haines (Written by Reg staff) Gold badge

      Re: Drinks

      I'm on tea and water. Don't think anyone else has an additional beverage.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Drinks

        "Don't think anyone else has an additional beverage."

        http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/urine-the-bodys-own-health-drink-467303.html

        Bottoms up!

  7. ukgnome

    Is it foraging still if......

    you re-purpose little salts and peppers in there sachets from popular fast food places?

    whilst foraging for salt and pepper you eat fries from the floor?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Is it foraging still if......

      Yes. Raiding bins and skips is also legitimate, and stealing pet and bird food also qualify. Insects (and all other wildlife) would count so long as there's no marginal cost of production eg bullets used in shooting and eating a dog have a marginal cost, whereas if you already own an axe and use that then there's no additional expense (ignoring fines or compensation to dog owners).

      Eating grass is also on the foraging agenda, If it's not too parched, Lester should eat the lawn. A quick google suggests grass has 4.5 kcal per gram, so a kilo of wet grass would sustain him for a couple of days - although allowing for the less efficient human digestion of grass (cf ruminants) he'd either have to eat his own tods (like rabbits do) to get the full energy content out, or accept a lower metabolised gain, in which case he might be looking at a couple of kilos of fresh grass to give him one day's worth of energy. A quick google warns that the silica in grass will wear teeth down, so he'd need to stew the grass and swallow it without chewing.

      1. Lester Haines (Written by Reg staff) Gold badge

        Re: Re: Is it foraging still if......

        Although my experimental instincts tell me that I should indeed eat the grass (and god alone knows, it needs cutting), I'm actually going to pass on this one and let the donkeys do it.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Is it foraging still if......

          " I'm actually going to pass on this one and let the donkeys do it."

          I can understand that. Of course, if you didn't pay for the donkey, and don't pay to have it killed, it too might count as foraging?

          http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donkey_Burger

          That photo looks quite enticing, but I suppose I shouldn't be surprised given that nobody seemed to complain when Findus were serving horse meat lasagne all across Blighty.

        2. FlatSpot
          Angel

          Re: Is it foraging still if......

          Maybe not the grass but if you are near the countryside there is Wild Garlic in flower at the moment and also Ground Elder (eat the young shoots) which you can eat.

          1. Lester Haines (Written by Reg staff) Gold badge

            Re: Re: Is it foraging still if......

            No wild garlic hereabouts at the moment, but ground elder yes. I will investigate tomorrow.

        3. Phil O'Sophical Silver badge
          Coat

          Re: Is it foraging still if......

          and let the donkeys do it.

          I'd recommend sheep instead. You can then eat them later, not sure I'd want to eat donkey.

      2. Colin Miller

        Re: Is it foraging still if......

        Dandelions (when young) and clover are good on salads…

  8. Cubical Drone

    Too many bananas?

    You can freeze bananas for later use in banana bread or smoothies.

  9. Evil Auditor Silver badge

    Surplus of rice

    Lester, what about rice cakes? If you have, by any chance, some egg(s) left over mix that with the boiled rice, form some sort of flat cake and fry in your pan. Should also work with the rice only. I looks like you're living quite a good life on 1£/day :-)

    Btw, I like lentils. But I'm hardly friends with one of your friends. Probably not even know a person who is.

    1. Lester Haines (Written by Reg staff) Gold badge

      Re: Surplus of rice

      Good call on the rice cakes. I should have one egg surplus by Friday, so I'll give that a go.

      I'm not suffering much hunger, due to the rice glut, but it's a tad monotonous.

      I don't really have anything against lentils. Well, not much anyway.

  10. Dom 3

    Tarka dhal

    That is all.

    1. Neil Barnes Silver badge

      Re: Tarka dhal

      Is that made from otters?

  11. JCitizen
    Flame

    Excellent article!

    You guys would make great "Doomsday Preppers"!! Looking at the list of ingredients shows most of the produce would store nicely in plastic sealed containers for years.

    You could quit you job and become a consultant to nervous rich kids on how to survive the coming apocalypse! :D

    1. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge
      Happy

      Re: Excellent article!

      Either that, or astronauts on a trip to Mars.

      The food stores in bags, as part of the radiation shield. Then once you've eaten, you poo in the bag, and back it goes into the outer skin of the spacecraft - to keep blocking the Sun's nasty mobile phone radiations.

      As an extra bonus, you can harvest the methane from the capsule's atmosphere, and that gies you the fuel to power your return trip.

      1. Neil Barnes Silver badge

        Re: Excellent article!

        In Brian Aldiss' 'Hothouse World' the protagonists carve their way into an enormous caterpillar (?) which is slowly travelling from the earth to the moon. They basically expect to eat their way through their spaceship...

        Oddly enough, very little SF deals with the problem of the poo...

        1. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge

          Re: Excellent article!

          'The Problem of the Poo' would make quite a good title for a short story I think.

          All I need now is the address of Amazing Magazine and the ability to write.

        2. cray74

          Re: Excellent article!

          The recent scifi novel, "The Martian" by Andy Weir does address poo, and is an amusing read besides. Actually, the first part of this "cast away" story is rather like this Register article: how to survive with very limited resources and dealing with the resulting monotonous diet. (Which consists of potatoes from poo-fertilized Martian soils.) It also contains useful tips on surviving in isolation when your primary form of entertainment is a collection of 1970s music and sitcoms.

  12. Arachnoid

    Chickens

    Have you thought about keeping the fowl animals or even ducks or rabbits as they will eat your left overs quite merrily [or not if you a bad cook] and at a predetermined time get to join you at the dining table providing your wind laden diet with much needed nutrition

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