Preparing for penury

Every weekend for at least a dozen years I've been meeting Sally for breakfast at one of the many cafes in the area, and I realised this morning that while I am 'on the bread-line' in October/November, it will have to stop.  I was talking about my planned challenge to her this morning and she gamely volunteered to buy me breakfast for four weeks, a lovely and typically 'Sally' gesture.  But it would be cheating.  This morning my breakfast of two poached eggs on brown toast and two lattes came to £8.75 - 29% of my food budget for my challenge, so I obviously couldn't afford this if I wanted to eat for the rest of each week.  And if I were in the situation of having no salary, savings or pension, would I take advantage of my well-off and well-meaning friends? No.  If I couldn't afford to pay my way (or know that I would be able to return the favour in a reasonable timescale) then I wouldn't go.

This has made me realise that I need to make some 'rules' for myself for the duration of this challenge, as it would be too easy to find ways around the £30 budget.  So here they are:

1. Food in the store cupboard, fridge and freezer can be used as part of the challenge (if I was suddenly thrust into penury it probably wouldn't be with an entirely empty house - unless I was in a war zone, which, thankfully, I'm not).  BUT there must be no artificial stocking-up of the cupboard, fridge or freezer in advance of the 11th October.  I would normally do a shop after the pension arrives on the 1st of the month, so that is what I shall do, although this month I'll also be shopping in order to cater for my house guest who arrives on the 4th for a week.
2. Any items that need to be replaced from the cupboards must be purchased from the £30 and all additional food too.
3. Invitations from well-meaning friends to supply me with food, meals or money during the month will be refused on the basis that I can't reciprocate or 'go Dutch' (and it would go against the spirit of the challenge).
4. Offers of free food from people's gardens - apples, spuds etc will be accepted if these are 'glut' items.
5. Activities which I currently engage in that normally involve me making a contribution for coffee/cake etc will only take place IF I can fund it from the £30.  So the SWI meetings on the 17th and 23rd of October will be in, as I've already paid my subs for the year, but the Needle and Natter meetings on Tuesday of each week are out, as I pay £1 for coffee when I attend.
6. The whole £30 will be available to me to spend from day 1, but when it's gone, it's gone!
7. I can ask a friend for advice and ideas - and seek recipes for frugal food from the raft of books I have available.
8. I'm going to give myself three 'lives' - opportunities to borrow items of food from neighbours - within reason!  So not the entire ingredients for a day's meals, but an egg, an onion or a cup of milk.
9. This challenge applies only to food and drink.  I can't adequately stage all of the issues that would affect me if I were in a state of penury - or adjust all of the things I normally pay for, like utilities, council tax, insurances and car maintenance and petrol.  But a £30 budget for food and drink will give me an understanding of what it is like to live on the breadline, if not totally realistic to living in poverty.
10. I will donate the difference between £30 and my normal food and alcohol expenditure based on an average month, and be grateful that living on the breadline is a choice that I make and not a necessity.

I think a bit planning is going to be needed.

If you'd like to sponsor me for this challenge and support  'Start-Up Stirling' you can do so here!

A change of perspective.....

Here I am on the edge of Autumn with a busy summer behind me. No time for blogging, bullet-journaling or other writing activities as I've been much engrossed in thinning, sorting, tidying, decorating, and otherwise reinventing the house to a configuration better suited to my retirement status. This week the final piece of furniture was moved into place in the reading room which only requires a perfect rug to finish it off; the sewing room (my "room of requirement") is complete and only needs the sorting and ordering of books to make it the most perfect space, and huge amounts of 'stuff' has been donated to charity shops all around the district. It was during one of these donation visits that I experienced one of those moments that change one's perspective for ever.

I was dropping off some paper-board at 'Remake Scotland' in Crief - a great charity that specialises in craft materials, recyclable furniture, commercial waste (like fabric off-cuts and paper products) that works with youth groups and others to teach 'up-cycling', 're-purposing' and 're-using' of things that would otherwise go to landfill.  While I was there one of the volunteers told me that they were sharing cash donations with the local food bank because they were so desperate.

One charity sharing precious and limited resources with another. A food bank in CRIEF.

I was stunned. There are food banks all over Scotkand and the U.K., but I wouldn't have thought that there were many places in the central belt that were deprived, or that food banks were under such pressure that they needed to beg funds from other charities. And yet, (I have since discovered) there are 12,000 people in the district of Stirling alone that are living on the poverty line.

I have always worked hard and there has always been paid employment when I've wanted and because I've had a good education that employment has usually been lucrative. But I know I've also been lucky. No major illnesses or catastrophes or disasters. No redundancies or dismissals. I've never worked for an organisation that has gone bust, and I've never had to live on the minimum wage. I've also not had to support children or elderly parents, I've not been cursed with addictions and I've not been the victim of crime. I have been a comfortably-off, middle class, white-collar worker that has managed to save a bit, contribute to a pension and live (mostly) within my means. I expect my retirement to be equally comfortable (but not affluent - I didn't contribute THAT much to a pension). I certainly don't expect to be worrying whether I can pay the heating bill or where my next meal is coming from. And yet there are pensioners,  single parents and others who, through no fault of their own are worrying about just these things. Which is why I've decided that for four weeks from the 11th October I am going to join the breadline. I'm going to restrict my food budget to £30 (just over £1 per day) and the difference between this amount and what I would normally spend in a month on food (and alcohol) will be donated to 'Start-up Stirling' a charity that runs a food bank and a service providing essentials for those living on the poverty line moving into  new accommodation (perhaps for the first time). I'm setting up an on-line donation page and will be transferring the month's savings to the charity via this means. I hope some of my pals and family will sponsor me too! I'll record my experiences on this page.