Daily Mail article - £1 a day to live - But not according to the photo

A Daily Mail article claims that a 'cash-strapped' teacher managed to live on £1 a day.

But the food on the table in front of the teacher, in the photo, looked like one day's worth of food to me.

I wondered how much the items would cost, so I added up the price of the groceries on the table, using Sainsbury's price list:


Sainsbury's Basics Curry Sauce 26p
Sainsbury's Basics Tomato Ketchup 28p
Sainsbury's Basics Toilet Rolls £1.96
Sainsbury's Basics Toothpaste 25p
Sainsbury's Basics Scouring sponges 19p
Sainsbury's Basics instant chicken noodles 13p
Sainsbury's Basics baked beans 28p
Sainsbury's Basics tomato soup 24p
Sainsbury's Basics tortilla chips 50p
Sainsbury's Paracetamol 24p
Brocoli 50p
1 Apple 28p
1 carrot 20p
1 tomato 20p

Total = £5.51 for one small shop, with one day's worth of food.



But that's only for one days' worth of food, and it doesn't include all the items needed for a week's living, such as shower gel, toilet bleach, laundry detergent, washing up liquid, cling film, etc etc etc.

I estimate it would cost at least £40 for a week's worth of groceries, including all necessary basic household items, for one person, using similar budget items for a week's worth of very basic groceries.

And that doesn't include occasional one-off items that it is always necessary to purchase in order to run a household.