Fifteen meals from a fiver...? Frugal top tips from celebrity food campaigner who's got the supermarket shop down to £1 a DAY



Many people find it hard to spend less than £5 for their work-day lunch - let alone on nearly a week's worth of food.



But super-mum and celebrity food campaigner Jack Monroe has shown that, with a few tricks, supermarket shopping can be minimally expensive - to say the least.



Having gained a significant following via her blog, A Girl Called Jack, which lays out easy ways to create balanced meals on a serious shoestring, the 26-year-old's latest challenge is to fork out less than £5 for five days' worth of food to raise money for charity.



JACK MONROE: 'MY CHALLENGE: HOW TO MAKE £5 STRETCH TO 15 MEALS'

Frugal: Jack Monroe's five-day shop My £5 bought me:

1kg long grain white rice (40p)



500g oats (68p), 411g lemon curd (22p)



10 vegetable stock cubes (20p)



75g chicken paste (25p)



200g tomato puree (40p), 1.3kg mixed frozen vegetables (£1), 6 free range eggs (£1), 500g natural yoghurt (45p) and 400g tinned chickpeas (39p).

From this list, I split my frozen veg up into type, so I have a bag each of carrots, brocolli, cauliflower and peas, to give me more variety across the week. I also smashed up the stock cubes and put them in a jar to use as a seasoning, to make them go further. Savvy: Jack divides up frozen veg I've had to be creative with recipes, to say the least! Ideas I've had, and I'm only halfway through the challenge so I've not made them all yet, are:

Breakfast/snacks:

Porridge, made with water. I'm mildly lactose intolerant so usually use dried milk powder or LactoFree, but both were too expensive on my budget so I've gone without.

Bircher, made with oats, yoghurt and a little lemon curd.

Plain yoghurt

Oat pancakes with lemon curd, oats and an egg

Congee, made with rice Lunches/dinners:

Carrot soup (handful of carrots, stock and a little natural yoghurt).

Pea soup (peas, stock, yoghurt).

Brocolli soup (brocolli, stock and a little natural yoghurt).

Roasted cauliflower and chickpeas with the stock cube seasoning, rice and peas.

Falafels with the chickpeas, carrots, stock cube seasoning, rice and veg.

Sweet and sour veg made with the lemon curd and tomato puree, with rice.

Avgolemono, made with the chicken paste, stock, rice, egg and a little lemon curd.

Sticky lemon rice with peas, made with rice, peas, and lemon curd.

Egg fried rice with vegetables.

Chicken and vegetable rice, made with the chicken paste, rice and mixed vegetables.

The challenge has been organised by Live Below The Line, an anti-poverty awareness group which has generated £336,000 so far this week in donations, and ends on May 2.



Participants raise money by eating for less than £1 a day, with proceeds given to a charity of their choice - Jack has picked Oxfam.



'I am taking part in this year's Live Below The Line challenge because I know what it's like to go to bed hungry,' she explained.

'I was unemployed for over a year and frequently missed meals to feed my young son. And although my circumstances have changed now that I'm working again, I wanted to do something for the campaign.



'Last year I raised £3,500 by doing the challenge - I'm hoping to match it again this year.'

But while Jack, who lives in London with her partner and their children, is one of many from the UK taking part in the challenge, she is better placed than most to make it a success.

At one time a single mum on benefits, Jack is now an online and media sensation, author and Oxfam campaigner, thanks to her blog, which documented her efforts to feed herself and her child on £10 a week - which is all she had spare after rent and bills.

She posted recipes for delicious, nutritious meals within the strict budget in an effort to help other people in similar situations. It now attracts around 1 million readers every week.



Food challenge: Jack Monroe

'For my Live Below the Line challenge I've calculated the calories, fat, carbs and protein and surprisingly came in at an average of 1,800 calories a day, which isn't perfect, but is manageable for a woman of my height and weight,' she said.



Jack points out that although households are constantly being reminded to switch their energy suppliers, bank providers or mortgage deals to stay on top of bills, the weekly shopping list is less often scrutinised.

While Jack's challenge is an extreme version, it does show that, with careful planning, there are simple steps households can take to cut back on supermarket bills - while still maintaining a healthy, balanced diet.



She points out: 'When I was living on a very tight, sometimes non-existent budget, the first thing I cut back on was meat, replacing it with other cheaper sources of protein like tinned sardines, kidney beans, chickpeas and yoghurt.



'All of the supermarkets have good, and similar, basic and value ranges. I used to live near a big Sainsbury's, and now my nearest store is Tesco, and although there are differences in the products, the prices are fairly closely matched.



'Things like value range kidney beans, tinned tomatoes, pasta, rice, stock cubes and mixed frozen vegetables are staples in my food shop, whether I'm doing Live Below The Line or not!'

Popular recipes from Jack's website include Super Kale Pesto (15p per person), Mumma Jack's Best Ever Chilli (30p), Courgette, Tomato and Brie Gratin (26p), Moroccan Not-A-Tagine (24p) and Oh My God dinner (28p) - all of which can be found in her book, A Girl Called Jack.



COULD YOU COMPLETE THE CHALLENGE?

While the official Live Below the Line campaign week is currently underway, participants can take on the challenge until 30 June. All money raised will support the work of 33 charities including Oxfam and Global Poverty Project.

For more information visit www.livebelowtheline.com/uk.

She said: 'I don't buy organic food, it just isn't on my radar, I've been shopping from the value ranges at the supermarket for so long now that it would be too much of a jump to go from 31p tins of tomatoes to £1.99 ones!



'But I do buy free range eggs and meat, and MSC certified fish. All of the fish in Sainsburys Basics range is MSC certified, so cheaper doesn't have to mean harmful to the environment.



'Free range eggs are six for £1 from most supermarkets. But these are personal decisions for myself and my family, and in the worst periods of unemployment when I was relying on a food bank for help, I ate anything I was given.



'When you're hungry and missing meals and your neighbour gives you their buy-one-get-one-free packet of chicken, you don't give it back because it isn't free range. You say "thank you".'

