The cupboards were almost bare, her purse was empty and Jade Quarrell had to provide her husband with a filling meal.

So the 28-year-old solicitor, who has been living for six weeks on the minimum wage, rustled up a not-so-tasty pasta with peanut butter.

"We had to do a few experiments and I did a rather interesting spaghetti and peanut butter meal," Jade laughed.

"It was from a recipe and I thought I'd give it a try, but it was not a success - it was so disgusting."

Jade and 26-year-old Paul Tickner, from Melbourne Street, Saltaire, are looking forward to ditching a diet which is far from their usual fresh fruit and vegetable regime, following the end of their Lent challenge, set by Church Action on Poverty to highlight the problems some families face living on the minimum wage.

Jade said: "We've been eating a lot more toast than usual and a lot more carbohydrates like bread, pasta and potato. Although they are normally part of our diet, it has seemed a higher percentage because they are cheaper foods."

And they also can't wait to get a social life back because each phone call from friends asking them for a night out results in them totting up their cash and concluding they don't have the funds.

"You just have to think about money all the time," said Jade. "We've just been staying in watching television and going out for walks."

"My family live in Manchester and we will usually go over once a week for a meal, but petrol is around £8 for the trip so we've only been once in the last six weeks."

Paul, a signalling engineer who works for Corus Rail Consultancy in York, said: "It has been hard going at times.

"There is a lack of impulsiveness and I work on cars as a hobby but the budget doesn't really allow for hobbies." When Jade was asked to go to the cinema by a work colleague she not only concluded that the weekly budget wouldn't stretch, but also that, if she was living on the minimum wage, her friends wouldn't be able to afford to go anyway.

During the challenge they were set a real life scenario by organisers Church Action on Poverty of the boiler breaking down and had to "borrow" £500 to have it fixed.

"The debt repayments made our income even lower - at first £5 a week seemed hardly anything but you really feel it on the minimum wage," said Paul.

But the couple, who have a joint income of £35,000 a year, stuck to their penny pinching and saved an estimated £1,000 from which they will make a donation to a homeless charity.

And they have found the experience both eye-opening and worthwhile by showing solidarity with people who live on low incomes.