Day 3: Eating well, spending less

“I hate people who are not serious about meals. It is so shallow of them.”  Oscar Wilde

As I reach the half way of my challenge I find myself a little more tired than usual, not as keen to socialise and reaching the upper levels of how much rice I can eat I can eat in one day.

This week I have intentionally tried not to meet up with too many friends as the usual custom would be to meet with them over a meal or consume a beverage together. In our culture we often meet socially with food and drink and therefore certain coffee shops, pubs and restaurants and the food and drink function primarily as a meeting point rather than a place to satisfy hunger and thirst.

This week I have found that every time I sit down to eat one of my meals I am actually hungry, when I have a glass of water it is because I am thirsty and when I have an emergency toffee or an uninviting cup of black tea it is to give me energy. My whole reason for eating has shifted from routine to necessity. I often don't need the copious number of biscuits/cake I eat on a daily basis or numerous cups of coffee, I just eat and drink as it is there and is part and parcel of my daily routine. People in extreme poverty eat to survive, survival is often all the actually have to show for their lives.

I have been reading 'The life you can save' by Peter Singer recently and one thing that has struck me is his challenge to be more aware of how we spend our own money and in particular on things that we don't need (i.e. on bottled water when we could fill up a bottle from our tap or on buying lunch out regularly rather than having a packed lunch). In this country we spend a lot of money on food and I have become more conscious than ever about how we live in a culture of plenty and that actually stripping things back a little and being either better organised, not being afraid to change a well accustomed routine or simply using up left over food in the fridge rather than chucking it out and getting a take-away can make a big difference.

Being a student for the three years previous and now and intern on basic subsistence I have not ever really bought lavish food anyway but I have really learnt that if there is a point where I actually have some income then the amount I spend on food doesn't need to necessarily change too much. There is no need to assimilate to what society tells you (more money = more expensive food and products). Stick it to the man and live in contentment rather than constant want, greed and desire. I'm not saying buy the cheapest thing each time as there are ethical concerns around food, it is more a challenge to consider and evaluate what you are buying and why.

On a lighter note, I had my rice pudding today with jam; so quite a rice overload. It was great though but my other meals were the same as before and therefore there is nothing really interesting to say about them. My porridge tasted like porridge, my tomato soup left me feeling whelmed (a mid-point between over and under whelmed) and my dinner of rice, kidney beans, mixed veg and curry sauce filled a gap.


Fancy doing this challenge yourself? Find out more here

2 days to go...