Lawyer Alice Biggar shows how to eat for just $2 a day

British lawyer Alice Biggar took on a challenge to spend $2 a day or less on food. Picture: Challenge Alice. Source: Supplied

IT WOULDN’T get you a coffee in most cafes across Australia.

However, one lawyer has set out to prove she can survive on a food budget of less than $2 a day.

While it may sound like most the definition of hell to most foodies, Brit Alice Biggar wanted to see if she could live below the poverty line this January as part of a charity challenge.

“I wanted to see if it was possible to live on £1, if I had the will power to do it and what I would be able to eat,” she told the Daily Echo.

Ms Biggar began her social experiment on New Year’s Day after seeing the Junior Chamber International’s challenge for people to spend a pound a day on food for week.

So she went one better but decided to make it last for a month.

How does she do it?

Ms Biggar, of Upper Shirley, Hampshire, scours the supermarkets at the end of the day for reduced bargains, buys a lot of tinned food, and even asks check-out staff the best time of day to buy things.

She also makes her own food by getting things for free where she can, including chicken bones from her butcher, which she then uses to make soup or stock.

In case you’re thinking it’s still not possible, here’s an example of her daily diet.

Breakfast: porridge + office milk

Lunch: warburton thins + Florida salad (15p)

Dinner: pasta chicken and bacon (33p) + some more of the cucumber (7p)

Treat: free pear + melon + four grapes (fruit Wednesday)

The lawyer reveals just one of the ways she saves money. Picture: Challenge Alice Source: Supplied

Here’s how she enjoyed the meals:

“I’ve reverted back to the porridge, I haven’t found a better item of breakfast filler for my bunce (money) and I have a cunning plan for the leftover cornflakes this week …

“Lunchtime and I’ve got the last of my nine-for-10p Warburton thins (frozen for freshness) this time combi’d up with a tropical medley from the reduced section. Florida salad — a unique combination of cabbage, peach, pineapple, apple, mandarin and cream in a mayonnaise dressing.”

Ms Biggar has recorded the results of her experiment in her daily blog, Challenge Alice, where she has received great support from her followers.

Ms Biggar’s Twitter profile reads “I’m living below the poverty line on £1 a day for a month. Follow me for a large helping of suffering, a meagre portion of food and a dollop of banter”. She is also raising money for charity while she’s at it.

“The objective has been a challenge for me, but also to raise awareness of how much we spend on food,” she said.

“People often say to me, ‘You must be starving’, but I’m not. Hunger hasn’t been the problem.”

Rather, she said the issue was getting a nutritional balance.

The 26-year-old is donating the money she would normally spend on groceries to charities including The Trussell Trust and Save The Children.

So, for anyone thinking it can’t be done, her advice is it can. And at least there is an end to her challenge in sight, compared to those forced to live on this amount of food money for much longer.

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