Pretty damn amazing! Living on one pound is theoretically the equivalent of two American dollars, but really the numerical prices are just about the same in the UK as they are here. That is to say, a sandwich here might cost $5 -- but in the UK it would cost £5 (or $10, at the exchange rate). So £1 is not a lot of money. But she did it. Here's the Daily Mail:
Anyone finding it hard to cope with the credit crunch will find little sympathy from teacher Kath Kelly.
The cash-strapped teacher had an alcohol-induced wager with friends that she could beat the credit crunch by living on just £1 a day for a whole year - and won.
Miss Kelly, 47, ate at free buffets, shopped at jumble sales and scavenged food discarded by grocery stores and restaurants.
[snip]
She picked fruit from bushes and trees and collected £117 in loose change dropped in the street - a third of her annual budget.
She even managed a free trip to France by hitchhiking through the Channel Tunnel.
And to cap it all, she found love while working as a volunteer on an organic farm during the holidays.
Miss Kelly was sharing a house in Hotwells, Bristol, when she complained to her friends over a few glasses of wine that she could not afford a wedding present for her brother Danny.
She boldly announced that she would survive on £1 a day for the 12 months up to the wedding.
Kath Kelly
'I woke up the following morning and instantly regretted it but it was too late - I'd told my friends and now I had to go through with it.'
With her rent and utility bills already paid for the year, her budget had to cover transport, food, clothes and socialising.
She soon learned to spot a bargain and after working at the English Language Centre in Clifton, where she teaches for 20 hours a week, she regularly visited super-markets and butchers at closing time to buy reduced food.
She added: 'I had a freezer full of stuff. I was out all the time with a bag on my back and if I saw bread for 10p at the end of the day, or reduced vegetables - anything - I bought it.'
Miss Kelly would hunt down market researchers in the street as they often have samples to give away.