As per popular demand by my wonderful subscribers on YouTube, I’d been given the task of trying to survive on £7 for 7 days in 7 cities! Insane, I know, but more often than not, outside of the drive to live up to my follower’s expectations, I’m always curious to know if a crazy idea like this is actually possible.
It’s unlikely that £1 will give you access to transportation, accommodation, and food, so for the sake of practicality, I figured it would be best to see if it was at least possible to sustain myself on that amount – i.e. food and drink.
I decided to start in Brighton, a city currently considered to be a very desirable place to live, as is evident by the myriad of famous people who reside there. But is this dream destination kind to both kings and peasants alike? Let’s start with breakfast.
[0:45]
Bigger is better!
A nice rule of thumb, where food is concerned, is to keep in mind that, generally, the bigger the supermarket, the cheaper the food is, and Morrisons fits that bill to a tee.
The first thing I looked for was bread, which I managed to find for 32p. Bread is always great on a budget since it’s usually fairly cheap no matter where you go, and does a pretty good job of filling you up.
Now I just needed something to eat it with, because bread by itself is relatively depressing.
I would have loved to buy some avocado and tomatoes but that would have put me at £1.06, and I only had £1 to last me the day. Instead, I bought jam for 28p and some oats for 40p, totalling 80p.
This was actually more than enough to keep me going through the day, and I still had 20p left over! But we could do better.
[1:33]
The internet is your friend
It might seem overly simplistic to try your luck with something along the lines of “free food in [insert name of city]” in a Google search, but you’d be surprised what you’d find.
For example, I discovered that Costa, the British coffeehouse, gives out free drinks just for downloading their app! After grabbing my free cup of coffee, I also asked for a cup of hot water which I used to put in my oats. The oats would be more than enough for breakfast, which meant I could save my jam sandwiches for later.
[2:26]
Free food initiatives
If you’ve followed my blog or YouTube channel for a bit then you probably know I’m really big on food-waste initiatives; efforts made on the part of organisations who try to repurpose foods that are scheduled to be thrown out despite the fact that they’re perfectly fine to eat.
These are also great to look for on the web because there are so many great organisations like them spread throughout the world that sooner or later you’re bound to be in a city that has one.
Realjunkfoodbrighton.co.uk is one that I discovered in Brighton. They rescue food and offer it back to the public on a pay as you feel basis. Some initiatives like these even let you trade food for food, so I figured I’d try to trade my loaf of bread in from something even more filling, but the staff there was actually kind enough to let me keep my bread and still take what I wanted, which was amazing. Not wanting to be too stingy, I grabbed a can of baked beans and found a quiet place to enjoy the spoils of the day.
[3:18]
£1 took me a long way in Brighton. I feel like I shouldn’t be surprised at this point, since I do spend a lot of time doing this, but when you think about it it’s really quite amazing. The world seems to be getting more and more expensive to live in every day, and in many cases it’s true, but sometimes all it takes is a little creativity to get you through.
What tips, tricks, and hacks have you found to put food on the table? Let me know in the comments below!
