A new beginning

I have neglected blogging. (not writing, just blogging... I have notebooks full of scrawl....)

But I'm back to start a new project. Just a month long this time. This blog is its best fit (and is in theme and allsorts!).

So - what is it?

Well last week in M&S I was given a leaflet containing 4 vouchers for £5 off a food/flowers/plant spend of £25 or more, one for each week in January. And this got me to thinking about how our food budget over the last few months has gotten just a tad (cough) out of hand.

So could I feed us all on this £25 each week.

Sadly, initial research suggests not. (lots of time trawling the web, of which http://www.cheap-family-recipes.org.uk was possibly the most useful, but is shockingly low in greens (although I suppose you could repurpose the 10p per person per day for fruit into greens instead), and I'd actively fear for our long term health on this meal plan. Greens are important people!)

But I do believe that 6 people (two adults, a near adult, two children and a small small in our case) could do it on not a huge amount more.

We're looking for a diet that is:

rich in green foods - I am much healthier on at least 2 servings a day. Drop below that and illness levels in the house definitely go up as well.
rich in other fruit and vegetables - including sea veg sometimes, just because they are vital and yummy.
mainly vegan - with the ability to let the omnivores (1 adult + 1 near adult) have some meat each week, plus some dairy or eggs for the vegetarians (2 children) occasionally

And doable with a £25 M&S spend plus a veg box (medium at £13.49 inc 99p delivery, or possibly medium fruit/veg at £17.74 ditto) or equivalent cost in other vegetables/fruit from Abel and Cole and a carton or two of Soya (£3), likewise. Which will give me a budget of around £45 with an actual spend of £40. Which does seem slightly on the high side, but will mean we can stay as organic as possible which is important to us.

In many ways I'm not starting from an entirely fair point, as I have dry stores and things 'left over' from Christmas spending that will mean that I shouldn't be buying much flour, pulses, seasonings, chocolate, tea etc - in other words all the little things that smooth the diet and make it interesting - in the month. I still intend to try though :-)

Voucher number one goes 'live' between the 1st and 9th of January 2011, with the others following on 10th-16th, 17th-23rd and 24th-31st. The first veg box will arrive on 7th January as we have fresh vegetables and fruit to use up from the Christmas veg box until then.

Hmm maybe this won't be a good budget test after all :-s