What's it got to do with Easter? Part 3: Chocolate

 

Which came first, the chocolate or the egg?

 Well in this case definitely the egg! Eggs had been used for hundreds of years as a symbol of Easter, starting out as real eggs, then being a paper mache shell in which you could hide a gift, and finally a confection.

 The first chocolate eggs appeared in France and Germany in the 19th Century, but they were bitter and hard. Cadbury’s first chocolate egg was made in1875 and they very quickly became popular and remain a favourite tradition with chocolate-lovers today. But over the last 50 years we weren’t content with just having chocolate eggs, and so all sorts of chocolate shapes are now given at Easter time. You can get a chocolate bunny, dinosaur, sloth or unicorn, chocolates of every size and design. 10% of the chocolate produced each year is given at Easter. But what has this got to do with Jesus?

For those who choose to fast during Lent chocolate is often one of the rich indulgent dairy items that is off limits, meaning that when Easter Sunday arrives people are excited to once again treat themselves.

For those who don’t fast during Lent, Easter Sunday is still a feast day in celebration of Christ’s resurrection, and the giving of celebratory chocolate is one way of marking this. 

What's it got to do with Easter? Part 2 -Eggs

 

What's it got to do with Easter? Part 2: Eggs

A lot of us may associate eggs with Easter. Chocolate eggs, or decorated eggs, but where does the link between eggs and Easter originally come from?

There are a couple of different theories depending on who you ask. Some will say eggs are the pagan symbol of fertility, and so in spring time, which falls around the same time as Easter, eggs were celebrated. Then others will say that the tradition of eggs at Easter is due to them traditionally being forbidden during lent (along with all meat and dairy). Obviously, hens don’t adhere to lent and will keep laying eggs, so some would be nested and little chicks be born, and then later in lent the eggs would be hard boiled and decorated ready to break the Lenten fast on Easter Sunday. Some were dyed with natural dyes and intricate patterns added, others more simply dyed red to symbolise Jesus’ blood, some with the words ‘Christ is Risen’. Chocolate eggs have only been around for around 150 years, but for hundreds of years eggs (the real kind, not chocolate) were a symbol of easter Sunday.

Wherever this tradition did originate, how can we use it to focus on Jesus?

Well, eggs represent new life, and new life for us is secured in the death of Jesus on Good Friday. The shell is like the tomb where Jesus’ body was laid for 3 days, or even perhaps the egg can represent the stone, which was rolled away to allow Jesus, in his resurrected body to re-emerge into the world. Let’s celebrate this Easter, eat an egg or two (chocolate or otherwise!) and remember all that Jesus has done for us.

What's it got to do with Easter? Part 1: Bunnies

 I haven't posted here for such a long time, but I have thought a number of times I should come over. Not that I think anyone is particularly interested in what I have to say about anything, but on the off chance anyone is, I've decided to try and start posting again. My life has very few card making projects recently. In fact, most of my craft supplies are boxed up and in storage as we had hoped to move house in 2020. Alas, COVID 19 put paid to that idea! 

Baking has also been on a very sporadic basis, but I will try and do some posts on that theme soon!

I'm here today to start a series of posts about Easter!

I am super picky about Christian celebrations, and don't like to have them derailed by insignificant, or incorrect activities. So when I was approached by a lovely presenter at UCB 2 who I have done some previous segments for on the Nativity, I was excited to research the themes that are often highlighted at Easter. Bunnies, eggs, chocolate and the like!

So we start today with bunnies!

The story of the Easter Bunny is thought to have become common in the 19th Century, but writings from the mid 1600’s in Germany describe the tradition of a Hare (not a rabbit) who judged the children’s behaviour, bringing eggs to good children, like an Easter version of Santa. But why did he bring eggs? Rabbits don’t lay eggs after all, so it’s a good question!
It’s unclear if pagan traditions of celebrating fertility in the spring months led to this unlikely duo, or if the tradition of giving eggs linking back to the Lenten fasts overlapped.
Did you know in some parts of Switzerland Easter eggs are delivered by a cuckoo, and in parts of Germany by a fox?

So if the Easter bunny isn’t at all part of the true Easter story should Christians encourage it? With over a quarter of 8-15 year old children surveyed believing the bunny is part of the Easter story, it’s important what we teach our children, and be clear that the Easter bunny isn’t part of the true Easter story. That doesn’t mean we have to shun it completely, but, as with Christmas, we must keep the main thing the main thing. Chocolate, eggs and bunnies are fun, but nothing should take the place of Jesus, and the sacrifice he made.

Do let me know in the comments what your thoughts are about Easter bunnies, or what you choose to do to celebrate Easter!

Bible Journaling Colossians 3v12-14 with Free Traceable Template!

So this week I've been inspired by my quiet times to do an entry for Colossians 3v12-13. 

12 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselveswith compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13 Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 

 If I have a verse that stands out during my quiet time I write in my diary the verse and any images that come to mind.

I've already got an image in my head for the Armour of God like this but on a soldier, so I thought I'd adapt it and make it for me instead. (Yes the character is supposed to look a little bit like me!). To make the character like me I chose hair and clothes that reflect me (I'm rarely seen out of jeans and a hoodie!) and set about creating something.

My first step in the process was to google some images, and I wanted to find some simple faceless characters. Looking down through Google images I spotted one I liked the look of and I saved it for later. -As an aside, looking for images on Google is like looking for something in TKMaxx, you know there is bound to be something there that you're looking for, but it takes a bit of perseverance to find it!

Next I wanted some help in getting the proportions of a person right, so I Googled that too.

Next was how to draw a hoodie and jeans.

Just to be clear, I have no intrinsic ability to see something and then just put it down on paper. If I have an idea I Google it and then copy elements of lots of different things down until I get something I like. I trace things sometimes too. 

Once I'd got the things I needed I started to sketch out onto my grid paper the size of my margin so I knew the size I was working in. A simple HB pencil and a decent rubber are all you need. I fiddled with it until I was happy with it and then went over the design with a fine liner to make it easier to trace in my Bible. At this stage I decided I didn't like the feet and had to google cartoon trainers!

Deciding what to use to colour the image was my next dilemma. Would I use watercolours, or my newly discovered Caran Dache Neoart crayons, or maybe even some Promarkers. Had I been doing this on card I think I would have gone straight for the Promarkers, but I haven't tested my pro markers extensively yet. I've discovered they don't bleed if applied in a single layer over Matt Gel Medium, but to colour properly with them they need layering, and I'm not 100% sure if the Bible Paper can take that yet. The alternative is to trace onto some thin cardstock or paper and stick it in the margin instead. 
I decided to do a test sheet to check which of my fineliners and pens would smudge when I used alcohol markers or water colours and water based markers.
This is what I found

For the alcohol based pens (Promarkers for me) the best choice was the cheapest pen I own (you can get 5 fineliners for 79p at Home Bargains) followed by a sharpie, but for the water colours and water based pens (Mozart brush pens here) the best choice was either Sharpies or Tombow Calligraphy pen. As I'd decided to do watercolour I chose the Tombow to use in my bible.

I used my white Sakura gelly pen to add highlights and some interest to the background.

I decided when I was doing this that it would make a good template to use at my upcoming Bible Journaling event, so did a neat version to scan and print off. I thought you might like the option to use it too, so here's the Free Download!

Download Image

And once I'd done this I tried out my Promarkers too and made a bookmark!

I hope you like it, please leave a comment if you use it and link in a picture :)

Testing Supplies in My Journaling Bible

As I said in my last post I've been Bible Journaling every Sunday night since January, and wanted to start blogging about it too. I've given up Facebook for Lent, so have found myself with a little bit more time and am hoping to get some of my pages up on here soon, along with the process I used to create them. I'm hoping I can show people that it really isn't that daunting to get started, and point people in the direction of my favourite supplies, youtube channels, and top tips!

I'm also in the process of helping plan an Introduction to Bible Journaling event over at 10ofthose in Leyland, which will give people a chance to look at the journaling bibles in the flesh and also have some work stations for people to give it a go. It's exciting, but a little intimidating too as I've only been doing this a short time myself!

Back to my first steps into Bible Journaling!

I'm a control freak. There, I said it. I am an information junkie too. When I start a new project I like to get AS MUCH information as I possibly can. Whether its planning a holiday and trawling Trip Advisor for ideas on where to stay, and what 'must see' attractions there are, or planning a lesson and googling the life out of the topic, I just like knowing stuff.
So when it came to starting Bible Journaling I wanted to get clued up as much as possible. I read as many Bible Journaling 101s as I could, watched Youtube Bible flip throughs, and decided the first essential thing I wanted to do was test out all my craft supplies. Over the years I've accumulated a wide variety of craft supplies relating to card making and paper crafting, and just general craftiness, so I wanted to see what would be okay to use in my Bible.

Things I wanted to test:

Pens

Pencils

Paints

Stamping inks

So I set about systematically testing these at the back of my new journaling bible in the Bible Reading Plan pages. I would be looking for ghosting, or bleeding through the pages.

Now bibles are not your everyday book pages. They are very thin, mainly to reduce the thickness of the bibles we carry around. The paper used in Bibles weighs around 40-50 gsm, compared to photocopier paper which is 80gsm, or lightweight card being 160gsm, so you can see its very thin! This does mean that the bible text, or indeed anything your put on the paper, may show through to the other side. I'll refer to this as ghosting, where you can see a faint image through the page.
This is inevitable when the paper is so thin, and is accepted throughout the world for Bibles. As long as it does not distract from the words being read it is fine.
So we will consider ghosting an acceptable outcome of Bible Journaling.

What I consider to be unacceptable is bleeding. This is when the ink/paint actually soaks through the paper to the other side, and is unsightly and distracting. I wanted to whittle out any of my supplies which would bleed through, as this was a definite no-no for me.

This is what I found.

Results

Pens

This is the front of the page I was testing on

And this is what you can see on the back of the same page.


Letraset Promarkers - These bleed straight through the page, do not use unless page prepared
Letraset Aqua Markers - With a single layer they ghost, but a second or third layer will bleed
Mozart Brush Pens - These bleed through
CalliCreative Italic Pens - These bleed through
Sharpies- Fine Line and standard - These bleed through
Calli Metalic Pens - Ghost through
Derwent Graphic Fine Line pens 0.05-0.8 - Finer points ghost through, thicker tips bleed in places
Tombow Brush Pen - Ghost through
White Calli Italic - Not visible
Highlighters - Bleed through on the edges


So does that mean I have to throw out all my lovely pens??? NO! You just need to spend a little time (and money!) preparing your pages if you're going to use them. I've been using Windsor & Newton Acrylic Matt Gel Medium, but a lot of people like to use Clear Gesso (I already had the matt gel medium, so I thought I'd try that first!).
Here's what the back of the page looks like when you prep it first!!

When Acrylic Matt Gel Medium is used all the pens that bled through (including the pro markers!) didn't bleed through at all, although they do still ghost. One thing to consider though is that any ink you place on top of the medium will not soak into the page (which is good!) but that means they sit on the surface and take longer to dry, meaning if you're not careful you might smudge them (which is bad!). The colours are also a little less vibrant too.

Pencils

Stabilo Chalk Pastel Colouring Pencils - Light ghosting, more obvious if activated with water
Derwent Studio Pencils - Not visible unless activated with water, and then they ghost through
Standard Childrens Pencils - Not visible

What you might notice is the difference in pigmentation between the cheap basic children colouring pencils and the Derwent Studio artists pencils. The Stabile CarbOthello chalk pastel water soluble pencils are even more strongly pigmented. So although you can use any pencils in your bible, you do in some respects get what you pay for.

Paints

Watercolour paints - Ghost through
Acrylic Paints - Ghost through

The acrylics go on really well with a credit card or old store card, and if you put it on in this way you can still read through the paint. However, the green and blue colours I have were a bit grainy, and too dark for my liking, as they make it quite hard to read the text, so personally I would definitely limit the use of these colours to the margins. What is brilliant though is how vibrant the colours are, and they don't bleed through, although as you can see they do ghost through. Also if you write or stamp over the acrylic it doesn't show through either!

Inks

Memento Inks - Tuxedo black, Lady Bug red, - Bleed through
Tim Holtz Distress inks - Cracked Sapphire, Barn Door, Bundled Sage, Peacock Feathers
If stamped they bleed, if used on a sponge then they are a thin enough layer to just ghost
Archival Ink - Jet Black - Bleeds
Whispers Archival - Starry Night - Bleeds
Adirondack - Denim - Bleeds

This is the back and front of the same page when I was testing out the stamps.

Most of these inks do not bleed if you stamp off excess ink before then doing your second stamp on the page, but ideally prep your page. They also won't bleed through if you use a medium to prepare your page first or stamp over acrylic paint, but they will still ghost.

This is what I've found so far, I'll update when I try new supplies or new techniques!

Next time I want to talk about Faux-ligraphy and fonts!

Long time...

Wow, time really flies. I really can't believe its been almost two years since my last post! Rest assured I've not stopped crafting, but the time and inclination to blog just wasn't there. So what, may you ask, has changed?

Well for Christmas I got my first journalling bible, and I'm trying to do one page a week in it.
Here's the cover of my lovely Crossway journaling bible. Its a double column with 2" ruled margins.

Ultimately its to help encourage me to spend more time studying the bible, as following the birth of #3 I was just finding it really hard to find time. But then again, I managed to find time for Netflix and other stuff, I just wasn't prioritising my bible :( I'd begun to see Journaling bibles at 10ofthose and wondered what it was all about. A couple of friends had them and occasionally posted pictures of what they'd created. I quickly set up a Pinterest for inspiration and decided that this Christmas and Birthday would be all about the bible journaling! I ordered my gorgeous Bible and a few extra crafting bits (you can never have too many pens, right?!).
I'm studying Warren Weirsbe's Pause for Power in my quiet times

 and either choose a verse that has stood out to me, or one from our Sunday service, and since January have been setting aside Sunday evening to journal. I read lots of helpful blogs and youtube videos about getting started (you can see these on my Pinterest board) and the main thing I know I will battle against is not trying to make them perfect or let it be about showing off what I've done. I'm going to try and post a blog every week showing how I've created my pages. Journaling shouldn't be daunting, and don't be put off if you aren't artistic. I want to share some of the things I've learned (and I'm sure some disasters I'll have along the way!) and the way I approach journaling a verse or phrase. I hope you enjoy it and find inspiration. I may even get inspired to post some of the other projects I've done over the past 2 years!

The day after the week before

So we made it. We lived for £1 each a day for 5 days. James has said he found it much easier this year because he didn't have a caffeine headache all week. We did have some food left over, which will not go to waste.

700g flour - 21p
approx 40 tea bags - 17p
4 packs of crisps - 22p
1 portion of pancake batter - 8p
2 Custard creams - 2p
3 slices of bread - 9p
1/3 of the squash - 14p
1/3 jar of jam - 10p
1 banana (which I missed off the picture) - 10p
2 small portions of special fried rice - 36p

So we had £1.49 worth of food left. That might sounds impressive, but Joey had school dinners this week (I gave him the option of doing LBTL for his lunch, and initially he said he would because that's what poor people would do, but as school dinners in this country are free for KS1 pupils I told him even poor people would get a free lunch in his class, so he said he would keep having school dinners. He is only 5) so, most of this food would have been in Monkeys lunch, and we would have had the fried rice earlier in the week and had the leftovers for lunch one day, freeing up some bread for monkeys jam sandwiches!

So what did we eat the day after living below the line?
Well we didn't splurge and go mad. We had cereal and toast for breakfast (my toast was dripping in butter though, the one thing I've really missed all week!), then we did go to McDonalds for lunch, but that was because Monkey won Star of the Week at school, and I've been promising him a treat when that happened. Dinner was steak and chips, the steak was from the reduced section in Asda though ;)

Living Below the Line does have an effect on the way you shop. When I went to Aldi to do my normal shop I did keep thinking "we couldn't afford this last week", but was struck by how fortunate we are that, although I am careful and watch what we spend, I never have to keep tally as I go round to make sure I can afford what's in the trolley like last week, unlike many.

If you've been inspired by our week Living Below the Line perhaps you could do it next year? Could you go without a coffee or snack this week and donate the money to help those in poverty? We'll be donating the money we saved from our usual shopping, but more than that we've come away from this week with a renewed sense of compassion for those living in poverty, wherever they are in the world.
Donations can be made through the website below.
https://www.livebelowtheline.com/me/lycettsbelowtheline

Live Below the Line 2015 - Day 5!

So as I write this I've just eaten my last bit of food for the day and will shortly be off to bed, and will wake up to many more options and choice in the food department. Today has been a great food day (we tend to keep the best until last in case morale is low!). Monkey started the day with Cocoa rice. He's been getting involved this week and helping weigh out the cereal and milk, which is not only important in keeping tabs on the price per day, but also so we didn't run out of things that we were having every day. Here's a picture of him weighing it out! (I'm teaching him some good maths skills too!)

For me, breakfast was a sausage and egg sandwich. Ideally this would have had butter and a dash of brown sauce, but it still tasted lovely!

Today was the day of the value sausages, here are 9 saver sausages, sizzling in a pan. Me and James had 2 each in our sandwich, and the other 5 were to be chopped into our special fried rice for tea.

Lunch was soup as usual, which I've enjoyed each day, but I think James was pretty bored with it, so didn't have his today.

For tea, as I've mentioned we had special fried rice. This has to be one of my favourite low cost meals, which we do actually have quite regularly even when not living below the line, but with left over chicken.

Special Fried Rice - Serves 4 - 25p a portion
500g rice - cooked and cooled
1 chopped onion
2 mushrooms
2 stock cubes (ours were beef, but any will do)
1 tsp curry powder
250g frozen vegetables
5 cooked sausages, sliced.
2 eggs, whisked

1. Use 1 tsp oil (or I used the sausage fat) and fry the onion for 2-3 minutes, then add the chopped mushroom and cook for 2-3 more minutes.
2. Add the frozen veg and the stock cubes and cook for 4 minutes until everything is warm and sizzling.
3. Push to the side of the pan to make room to cook the eggs in the centre, whisking to make like scrambled eggs.
4. Add the rice and mix all the other ingredients together.
5. Sprinkle the curry powder over the rice mix and then season with salt and pepper.
6. Leave the rice to almost catch on the pan to give it a lovely crunchy texture.
7. When it's almost done add the sausages to warm through.
8. Serve!


So the total for today...drum roll...

Breakfast - Sausage and egg sandwich - 30p
Lunch - Soup and 2 slices toast - 16p
Tea - Fried Rice - 25p
Snacks - 3 custard creams, pack of crisps and banana - 18p

Total - 89p

James and Joey had pancakes for pudding, and I had enough money in my £1 to have them, but I was so full from the fried rice I didn't have any.

I'm going to post again tomorrow with what we had left at the end of the week, and any final thoughts, but for today I'll say good night!

Live Below the Line 2015 - Day 4

So Day 4, we're in the final stages of the challenge. Today I found it easier than yesterday. I didn't feel hungry this morning, but I was definitely ready when it was time for tea!

After school on Thursday I have my year 11s for revision, and always have lots of biscuits for them. I was telling them all about living below the line, and they were amazed that you could live on just £1 and were asking all about what I'd eaten. When I think about doing LBTL, part of it is personal and making a personal sacrifice to try and understand just a tiny bit of what it is like to actually be hungry and have so little choice in what to eat. Another reason is to raise money for charities like Tearfund who are trying hard to help those living in poverty around the world. The thing I've found most amazing this year is all the conversations I've had with family, friends, colleagues, pupils etc and raising awareness of poverty, at home and overseas.

Tonight in our bible study we prayed for Yemen due to the persecution that Christians face there, but we also read that approximately 45% of people there live below the poverty line. Almost 1 in 2 people are in poverty. That's something that is quite hard to comprehend. I went looking for some statistics about it and found this interesting website showing world poverty.

Some of the shocking statistics include

• More than 800 million people go to bed hungry every day, including 300 million children
• Every 3.6 seconds a person dies of starvation, and most of those who die are children under age of 5
• Every year 6 million children die from malnutrition before their fifth birthday

When was the last time you went to bed hungry? (and I'm not talking about being on a diet!) How would you feel about your children going to bed hungry? or dying from starvation.
If nothing else, I want after this week to have highlighted to people how fortunate we are, and how much we take for granted the variety/access and availability of food we have in our country. If you'd like to sponsor us check out our webpage.

Over to todays menu.

Breakfast - Cocoa Pops & cup of tea - 13p

Lunch - Soup, 2 slices of bread and pack of crisps - 21p

Dinner - Spaghetti bolognese and pancakes for pudding - 49p

Snacks - 2 custard creams - 2p

Total - 85p

The hit today was pancakes for pudding!
125g flour, 250ml liquid (half milk, half water) and 1 egg made 9 pancakes.
Joey even helped me make the pancakes and flip them which he enjoyed. Unfortunately I forget to take a picture until we only had this sorry looking one left, plus the camera lens was obviously misty! A splash of lemon and a sprinkle of sugar, and they were delicious!

Tomorrow I'm looking forward to a very special breakfast! See you tomorrow!

Live Below the Line 2015 - Day 3

Sorry for the short and photo free post.

Today I've been busy at work, hardly having time to notice being hungry. I enjoyed my soup and bread for lunch and my crisps too. I didn't take my custard creams with me, so come 3 o'clock I was needing a cup of tea and a biscuit, neither of which I could have (I'd only brought one tea bag with me).

Tonight we were having the curry left from Monday, and also the tortillas I'd made too. Here is one thing I learned today: 2 day old homemade tortillas don't taste good! Unfortunately I didn't have time when I got in to be able to cook them fresh, but I'll bear that in mind in the future!

So how did we do today?

Breakfast - 
Cocoa rice, 1 slice toast with jam and cup of tea - 14p

Lunch -
Soup, 2 slices of bread, crisps - 21p

Dinner - 
Quorn Curry and rice, stale tortillas - 59p

Snacks - 
Custard creams and half a jam sandwich - 5p

Total - 99p

I'm coming to the conclusion that either my hunger is psychological or because we're not eating a lot of protein, but I'm definitely feeling more hungry than usual.

Tomorrow I'm looking forward to having pancakes for pudding!!

Live Below the Line 2015 -Day 2

Good Evening, I'll keep this short and sweet as I need to go to bed as I've had parents evening tonight, then marked books and I'm working tomorrow, so much sleep needed!

Today has been interesting. I've found it really hard resisting food we have in the house that isn't part of LBTL, so not allowed. I may have to hide completely all these things that are taunting me (ironically most stuff has been there for at least a week or two since Easter, and until now I had no interest in it, which shows you always want what you can't have!).

So today I was off work with the little man, and had to resist everyone eating toast and biscuits at toddler group as I had a glass of water. I couldn't wait to get home and eat my soup for lunch.

The vegetable soup was 10 times better today, in my opinion, as I blended it. Initially I had left the soup like a broth with vegetables in it, as my husband said he would prefer it like that, but I most definitely didn't. So now we have 2 separate containers of soup in the fridge, one blended, one not! I also got a treat for lunch of cheese on toast with my soup! This is the first year we have managed to afford cheese, and only because we bought a pack of sliced cheddar. The good thing about buying it sliced is that it is automatically portioned up, so no wastage and no arguing over who got more!

Tonight's spaghetti bolognese turned out...interesting!
It definitely wasn't bolognese, but it was tasty according to me and my husband (Monkey wasn't quite so convinced!), so gets the thumbs up.

Recipe - Serves 5
Cost - 33p a portion

10 raw sausages - meat removed from skins
2 onions
150g frozen carrots (I separated these out from the mixed veg bag)
500g carton of passata
Tin of chopped tomatoes
2 stock cubes (I used beef, but any would do) made into 400ml stock.
500g spaghetti

1. Fry the onions in the pan for 2-3 minutes
2. Add the sausage meat and fry for a further few minutes to brown the meat
3. Add the frozen carrot, tomatoes, passata and stock, bring to simmer and leave for 20 minutes.
4. Boil water and cook spaghetti as per packet instructions.
5. Enjoy!

So todays money looks like this
Breakfast - Cocoa pops, milk, tea and 2 slices toast with jam - 19p
Lunch - Soup, 2 slices toast with 2 slices of cheese - 39p
Dinner - Spaghetti bolognese (?) - 33p
Snacks - Crisps and 2 custard creams and tea - 9p
Total £1.00

Live Below the Line 2015 - Day 1

Welcome to my posts about Live Below the Line 2015.

This is our 3rd year taking part, and just to change it up a bit we've altered the menu that we had the last 2 years. I took the obligatory photo of all our food and set about planning a menu for the 5 days.

Aldi
Mixed Veg 1kg	0.89
Quorn Pieces	1.48
Sausages x 20	0.99
Onions x8	0.59
Rice 1kg	0.40
Spaghetti 500g	0.20
Eggs x6	0.79
1.5kg flour	0.45
Custard Cream	0.26
Stock Cubes x 12	0.39
White Bread x 20 slices	0.55
Squash	0.42
Jam	0.29
Tinned potatoes	0.15
Asda
Mushrooms 500g	0.50
Passata	0.35
Chopped Tomatoes - 2 tins	0.68
Coco Rice	0.83
Teabags x 80	0.34
Ice cream	0.89
Bananasx4	0.39
Crisps x 12	0.66
Cheese slices	0.94
Milk	0.75
Bread	0.55
Total	14.73

After both Monkey and my husband decided last year to dismiss the smart price cornflakes we had to find a better alternative this year. Although not particularly cheap we settled on Asda smart price Cocoa rice, which I have to say got the thumbs up this morning. Last year we also didn't have tea or coffee, but after my husband had terrible headaches all week we decided caffeine had to be on the list this time, even if it had to be tea (my husband is a coffee drinker, but we couldn't afford a jar of coffee!)

Todays Menu looked like this:

Breakfast - Cocoa Rice, slice of toast with jam, cup of tea. 14p

Lunch - Vegetable soup, 2 slices of bread with 2 custard creams. 18p

Dinner - Quorn Curry with rice and homemade tortillas, icecream. 67p

Total 99p

I made homemade tortillas, which turned out a bit more crispy than normal tortillas, but everyone really enjoyed them!I made 16, we had 8 tonight and will have 8 with the left over curry on Wednesday, and they are just flour and water, super frugal. I'll hopefully have time to post the recipe for the curry tomorrow, because its really yummy!

To find out more about Live Below the line go have a look at the website.https://www.livebelowtheline.com/